The Greek World: A Study of History and Culture

The reasons to study the ancient Greeks; their iconic art and architecture, philosophy, religion and inventions of drama and democracy; the Greeks in cultural, historical and linguistic terms; the development and character of Greek civilization.

Human habitation on the mainland and islands of Greece; the Bronze Age cultures of the Cycladic islands; the Minoan civilization centered on Crete; the Mycenaean civilization and its monumental architecture; Mycenae's connection with the Trojan War.

Greece's Dark Age is an era of restricted trade and a breakdown of centralized power; the achievements of this epoch include iron technology, the Greek alphabet and the Olympic Games; Greece's geographical expansion; creation of city-states.

Greece's Classical Age is an astonishing period of human accomplishment; defining events of the period; the 479 B.C.E. defeat of the Persians; the period of the Peloponnesian War; the emergence of Macedonia as a great power; Alexander's exploits.

The conquests of Alexander the Great give birth to the Hellenistic world; Alexander's military expansionism bring a vast geographical area under the Greek civilization; Alexander's empire fragments after his death; Alexandria, a center of learning.

The conflicted relationship between the Greeks and their Roman conquerors; Greek culture's impact on Rome; the founding of the Byzantine Empire, its flourishing of scholarship and theology; the role of Islamic scholars in preserving Greek learning.