We tend to think of borders as hard lines on a map, yet in the ancient world things rarely operated so clearly. Borders instead formed regions of uncertain control, with their own authorities adept at playing both sides. This was especially true in the Classical and Late Antique Middle East, contested by the empires of Rome and Iran. This seminar explores the visual world of the ancient frontier (including sites such as Hatra, Palmyra, and Dura Europos) and examines the unique forms of cultural expression possible in these contested places, as well as their importance in forging an international visual language of prestige and sacrality.

The Greek experience from Alexander the Great through Cleopatra. An exploration of the dramatic expansion of the Greek world into Egypt and the Near East brought about by the conquests and achievements of Alexander. Study of the profound political, social, and intellectual changes that stemmed from the interaction of new cultures, and the entrance of Rome into the Greek world. Readings include history, biography, and inscriptions.

This course looks at the formation of a techne ("art" or "science") of medicine in fifth-century BCE Greece and debates about the theory and practice of healthcare in Greco-Roman antiquity. We look at early Greek medicine in relationship to established medical traditions in Egypt and Mesopotamia; medical discourses of human nature, gender, race, and the body; debates about the ethics of medical research; the relationship of the body to the mind; and the nature of "Greek" medicine as it travels to Alexandria, Rome and Baghdad. Readings drawn from primary sources as well as contemporary texts in medical humanities and bioethics.

This course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods for conceptualizing trauma in Ancient Greek and Roman texts. Using a range of theories about trauma and memory, we will consider how these concepts expand our interpretations of ancient texts. We will consider how ancient authors approached rhetorical, aesthetic, and ethical considerations involved in representing suffering, especially with the aim of making audiences "sympathetic," as well as social historical concerns with how trauma narratives shape group identity. Finally, we will look at how these texts have been used to address trauma therapeutically in contemporary contexts.

This discussion-based seminar will examine political, social, economic, and cultural factors that led to the collapse of a republican political system in Rome in the middle of the first century BCE. We will study the period from 146 BCE (the destruction of Carthage) to the assassination of Julius Caesar (44 BCE), which is the best documented time in all of antiquity, in light of primary sources of various kinds. This course will also consider why this historical era remained so fascinating for later generations, notably the American Founders. Students will be able to choose a topic to research for their oral report and final paper.

This course introduces the Indo-European languages (ancient and modern) from historical and comparative perspectives. Our emphasis will be on the earliest representatives (Ancient Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Old Iranian, Hittite, Old English, etc.) including chief linguistic characteristics, writing systems, mythology, and early texts; nature of the reconstructed Indo-European language and culture will be an important subfocus. One or more Indo-European languages will be investigated in detail.

In this class you will learn about Roman encounters with the histories and peoples of the Middle East. In the first weeks, you will think about the legacy of Alexander the Great and the Macedonians in the Middle East and Central Asia. Then you will examine the shape and the devastating effects of Roman imperialism in the Middle East, as described by the peoples who experienced it. In the third part of the course, you will consider the limits of Roman expansion that were imposed by Iran's Parthian horse-lords. Finally, you will analyze how the Roman, Parthian, and Han empires became entangled across the Silk Roads, before the system collapsed.

The ancient Greeks and Romans invented trial by jury. But their trials were much different than those in modern societies, including our own. The extant speeches tell us a great deal about Greek and Roman culture and society. We will do several things: consider the strengths and weaknesses of this system; examine the notions of relevance in the legal system; and investigate the values, attitudes, and beliefs that the speeches reveal. We will also appraise the strengths and weakness of the arguments and debate which side the jury would have decided in favor of. This will include occasional reenactments of the speeches that we will be reading.

This course offers an introduction to Akkadian, the language of ancient Babylon. The first half of the course introduces students to the basic concepts of Akkadian (old Babylonian) grammar and the cuneiform script. In the second half students consolidate their knowledge of the language by reading selections from classic Babylonian texts, such as the famous law code of King Hammurabi and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

This course studies Homer's Iliad, the single most important text of the Greek literary canon. The aim is to acquire fluency in Homeric Greek; to become familiar with the distinctive form and main themes of the Iliad; to gain a good grasp of Homeric scholarship; to place the Iliad within the wider context of early Greek poetry and Mediterranean storytelling more broadly; and to trace the more important stages of the poem's ancient reception.

Greek inscriptions provide especially valuable information on the political life, institutions and social structures of Greek society. The aim of the course is to give an introduction to the use of epigraphic documents in historical research. The sessions are devoted to the analysis of particular aspects of Greek society (e.g. relationships between city and country, king and city, Greeks and non-Greeks) on the basis of inscriptions from the Classical and Hellenistic periods.

A seminar that introduces graduate students to current methods and debates in Roman history and historiography. Provides a chronological overview of the history of Rome and her expanding empire from the early Republic (5th century BC) to Late Antiquity, accompanied by the study of a wide variety of ancient sources, including texts, inscriptions, coins, material culture, art, and archaeology, and the methods commonly used by modern historians to analyze them. Students acquire the basic tools needed to do research in Roman history.

We read The Odes of Horace, including the Carmen Saeculare. We also survey scholarly approaches to the corpus.

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis as well as a survey of pre-modern coinages. The Western coinage tradition is covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, Parthian and Sasanian issues, the coinage of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and medieval and renaissance Europe. Students research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of the instructor.

A collaborative workshop to practice scholarly writing at the dissertation level and beyond, providing guidance on planning and completing the dissertation and on other aspects of becoming a professional scholar and teacher, such as mastering the craft of the journal article (conceiving, writing and submitting), writing effective syllabi for different kinds of courses, and turning the dissertation into a book (with the opportunity to talk to an editor from a university press).

Can poetry supplement for the dead? Atone for the ravages of love lost? What is the relationship between mourning and eros? This course will focus on a single genre- the elegy from antiquity until today- in order to explore: lyric's love affair with absence; whether desire is directed toward the physical or the phantasmatic, sensuality or sublimation; the tensions between individual and collective mourning; and the politics of gender and sexuality in lyric address. Through careful attention to individual poems, students will learn the art of close reading and how the finer points of rhetoric and poetic form relate to broader social questions.

In this course we will read ten (mostly short) novels, originally written in Greek and translated into English, spanning nearly two millennia, with a view to exploring how fiction has served as a focal point for the exploration of Hellenism. The course is intended both for students seeking to fulfill the requirements for the Hellenic Studies Minor and those interested in cultural history and literature more broadly.

This team-taught interdisciplinary seminar has the double aim of exploring the themes of music, sound, and the voice in Ovid's epic poem and how later composers in turn gave voice to Metamorphoses through the musical, especially operatic works that it inspired. We will engage in the close study of Ovid's treatment of myths like Marsyas, Orpheus and Eurydice and Echo and Narcissus in relation to earlier versions and then consider the continuities and differences between the poem's soundworld and its musical realizations in works such as Monteverdi's Orfeo, Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice, and Strauss' Daphne.

This course discusses the ideas and arguments of major ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and thereby introduces students to the history and continued relevance of the ancient period of western philosophy. Topics include the rise of cosmological speculation, the beginnings of philosophical ethics, Plato's moral theory and epistemology, Aristotle's philosophy of nature, metaphysics and ethics. The course ends with a survey of philosophical activity in the Hellenistic and late ancient periods.

We read central passages of Plato's Republic, and students present their work on selected parts of the text. Topics expected to be covered include: Art and poetry, education, belief and knowledge, the myth of Er, Glaucon's division of goods.

Who was Jesus of Nazareth and how do we know about him? Why did certain interpretations of his message win out over others? How did the small, illicit Christian movement grow to attract numerous followers, reshaping the social, political, sexual, and religious landscape of the Roman Empire and cultures worldwide? To explore these questions, we will study the earliest gospels, letters, Jewish and Roman historical sources, prison writings, martyr narratives, and papyrus documents, as well as scholarly interpretations of these texts. No matter your religious background, you will gain valuable insights and be able to contribute to the discussion.

The historiography of ancient Mediterranean religion has often been bound with concepts such as the self, individuation, and privatization. These concepts have been used to explain developments in a broad range of areas, including Christian asceticism, Rabbinic Halakhah, literary authorship, the reconfiguration of rituals, and images of the afterlife. The very definition of this period has been tied to how it presented a "new care of the self" or an "interiorization" of religion. This seminar considers the opportunities and challenges these concepts pose by examining scholarship on the period and the evidence it seeks to explain.