I. Description

War, slaughter, order, peace.  This course will examine empire building, empire-maintaining and empire-collapsing in the cultures of Classical Greece and Rome.  The rise of empire will cover the Delian League, the Macedonia success of Alexander the Great, Rome's expansion through the Punic Wars, and so many more.  The maintenance of empire will review issues of commerce, justice, citizenship, taxation, and cultural conflict.  The fall of empires will include the the Peloponnesian Wars, and the crises and collapse of the Western half of the Roman Empire.  Readings will be drawn from the historians and humanists of antiquity.

II. Purpose

This is a History Major, European Sequence course.

Objectives for the student:

1. To identify the major events, persons and ideas of the history of classical antiquity.
2. Read critically about the ancient West.
3. Research scholarly literature and primary sources.
4. Communicate clearly in class discussion, presentations, and essays.
5. Practice "Historical Mindedness:"  being able to identify and analyze significant problems and situations from the past as they relate to the current issues and the investigation of history.
6. Develop the historical skills necessary for success in life after graduation.

General Learning Outcomes for the student:

1. To manage information, which involves sorting data, ranking data for significance, synthesizing facts, concepts and principles.
2. To understand and use organizing principles or key concepts against which miscellaneous data can be evaluated.
3. To differentiate between facts, opinions and inferences.
4. To frame questions in order to more clearly clarify a problem, topic or issue.
5. To compare and contrast the relative merits of opposing arguments and interpretations, moving between the main points of each position.
6. To organize your thoughts and communicate them clearly and concisely in a written form and oral presentations.
7. To obtain practice in selecting and presenting information and arguments within a restricted environment, especially the limitations of time in exams.

III. General Requirements

A. Academic Honesty (click here for more information).

Be aware of the academic honesty policy concerning cheating and plagiarism, and your moral, ethical and legal obligation only to submit work completed by you yourself.  For more information see <Help stop Plagiarism!>.  

B. Readings:

• Bailkey, Nels M. and Richard Lim. Readings in Ancient History. 7th Edition. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning: 2011; ISBN-13: 978-0495913030.
• Caesar, Julius. The Conquest of Gaul. Edited by Jane P. Gardner. Translated by S. A. Handford. London: Penguin Classics, 1983; ISBN-13: 978-0140444339.
• The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. Edited by Robert B. Strassler. Translated by Richard Crawley. NY: Free Press, 1998; ISBN-13: 978-0684827902.
• various handouts

The required readings are intended both to provide you with important factual and background information before class and to be used as review and reference works afterwards. Before class, you will read the selections in the Bailkey & Lim reader and the two main assigned texts according to the class schedule.   Handouts, used intermittantly to expand upon class material, should be read as assigned. 

In all of your classes, you should prudently mark up, underline, highlight, and otherwise annotate your texts as you study.  For this class, you are required to do so.  You must make notes in the margins or a notebook, underline key statements, highlight important passages, and/or annotate essential details in order to be better prepared for classroom discussion and later review and study. 
You are to turn in your textbooks at each exam when the instructor will evaluate how well you have marked them up (15 points each time).  If you have a used textbook that has already been marked up, see the instructor within the first two weeks of classes so that your use of the book can be determined.

Bring the Bailkey & Lim textbook to each class, the Thucydides and Caesar books on the days scheduled to discuss them, and the handouts as assigned.  All topics might not be covered in class, but you are responsible for them on the exams.  Each class the instructor may select at random one student to present a day's reading and show how it integrates with the other material.  
If necessary, the instructor may give quizzes to test your reading and comprehension of the texts.

B. Class Participation & Attendance:

Participation and attendance are necessary because lecture and discussion provide the essentials for achieving class goals and objectives. Thus a portion of your grade (about 15%) will depend on your in-class performance and presence, aside from graded quizzes, exams, and papers.  You are required to attend each class, arrive on time, remain attentive, maintain proper classroom decorum, respond to questions, and participate in discussion and small-group activities. You are encouraged to take notes and ask questions.

You will have several in-class discussion/projects, intermittently through the semester. You also may be evaluated by short quizzes or written reports done in-class or after class, either individually or in groups, worth between 5 and 20 points each.

Any student who has a learning disability, physical handicap, and/or any other possible impediment to class participation and requirements should meet with the instructor within the first two weeks of classes to establish available accommodations.  Only with the instructor's permission may class be recorded, only to be used for your own study, and the recordings must be erased after the final exam.

If at some point during the semester you must discontinue the course, whether due to poor performance, illness, or some other cause, be sure to follow proper procedures for withdrawal. 

If you miss a major exam, contact the instructor as soon as possible. You may take a missed exam only at the discretion of the instructor.  If you miss any quizzes and/or class projects due to an excused absence, yu may make them up with the explicit permission of the instructor, who may require any equivalent assignment. 

If you arrive at class late, after attendance is taken, you must personally request that the absence be turned into a tardy mark; otherwise an Absentee Assignment may be required.  Students who need to leave a class early, except for an emergency, should notify the instructor before class begins.

C. Absentee Assignment:

Since participation and class attendance are necessary, if you miss a class you must complete an Absentee Assignment in order for the instructor to know that some learning has taken place.  For an Absentee Assignment, you are to write a one-to-one-and-a-half page essay (in proper presentation format) describing how that day's reading adds to our knowledge of ancient empire-building.  These papers are ungraded, without points, and not returned; yet failure to complete Absentee Assignments will significantly lower your grade.  
Deadlines: The assignment(s) should be turned in to the instructor at the beginning of the next class after you return.

After any absence, you are responsible for requesting from the professor hand-outs and already-returned assignments, or borrowing notes from other students. 

Excused absences due to college activities or extended illness must be authorized in writing by the appropriate college official. You should consult with the professor about making up/turning in missed work in advance or as soon as possible after your return. 
All other absences are unexcused and do not require any written documentation.  Quizzes or class projects done during an unexcused absence cannot be made up.  More than a few unexcused absences will start to lower the class participation portions of your grade, despite turning in the mandatory Absentee Assignments.  Whether absences are excused or not, you may not get a higher grade than the percentage of classes attended. 

A few absences will not significantly affect your grade.  Always, your health is your first priority.  If you are sick, stay home and recover. 

D. Major Sources:

You will read two major primary sources, The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides and The Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar.  The instructor will provide you with study guides (worth 15 points each) ahead of time to fill out and turn in at the beginning of discussion (so you should make for yourself and refer to a copy to follow during discussion).  In the relevant classes, we will discuss the books in detail. 

E. Exams

You will take two types of exams:

• in class, quizzes on your readings. Please write legibly, in blue/black ink.
• in class, two major exams as scheduled: one mid-term and one more during finals week.  The exams are comprehensive: each exam may cover material since the beginning of the course.   Both exams will consist of short identifications quizzing knowledge of detail and significance as well as short and long essays demanding your understanding of the course material through logical presentation of facts and explanation of historical trends.  Only paper from the instructor is to be used.  Please write legibly, in blue/black ink.  

To study for the exams you should regularly, at least once a week, review your class notes. You should also compare and contrast these notes with your textbook and with the issues and trends emphasized in the class description.  To avoid common exam errors, check the page on grading.  

F. Major Writing Assignment: Imperial Wars Paper

You are to write an eight-to-ten page essay (3000-3200 words), which analyzes the use of war in empire building. (25+100 points).

Purpose:
Wars have always been a significant part of building empires.  Examining various wars in themselves or as policies of particular rulers or commanders should provide you a better understanding the role of war in statecraft and politics, past and present. You will manage information, evaluate different historical opinions, analyze arguments, organize your thoughts and present them in a clear written form in order to better understand an historical process.  
Both for practice in following guidelines and to facilitate consistency in grading, papers should be uniform in appearance followin a standard format. For presentation guidelines, go to this page:  <http://staff.kings.edu/bapavlac/presentation.html>. Use the checklist at <http://staff.kings.edu/bapavlac/format.html> to review your formatting before you turn in your paper.

Procedure:
1. Choose a war or commander from the list on the instructor's door (HM 307), signing up before class on Monday, January 30.
Possibilities include: Epaminondas of Thebes' Wars; Phillip II of Macedon's Wars; Alexander's Campaigns; Wars of the Diadochi; Pyrrhus's Wars; Samnite Wars; First Punic War; Second Punic War; Third Punic War; Roman-Macedonian Wars; The Social War; Mithradatic Wars; Marius's Wars; Sulla's Wars; Pompey's Wars; Crassus's Wars; Civil War: Caesar vs. Pompey; Civil War: Antony & Cleopatra vs. Octavian; Boudicca's Revolt; Jewish Revolt; Trajan's Wars; Marcomannic Wars; Aurelian's Wars; Romans vs. Shapur I; Constantine's Wars; Alaric the Goth's Wars; Attila the Hun's Wars; another may be chosen with the instructor's permission. 

2. Research the topic.  In your research, find and use at least
a. one printed (not electronic from the internet or CD-ROM) tertiary source (encyclopedia, handbooks, dictionaries);
b. seven printed (not electronic from the internet or CD-ROM) secondary sources (scholarly, biographical, detailed works, books and/or journal articles written by professional historians and which closely examine the ruler or war). Journal articles may be full-text versions from an appropriate database;
c. two primary sources in addition to any found in the Bailkey & Lim text, published in whole or as part of any book or internet site.
If you have any doubts about the appropriateness of your sources, please see the professor early.

4.  You must turn in a Preliminary Assignment (worth 20 Points) on February 20 in proper presentation format:
after a cover page,
a. a one page desription of the topic. 
b. a page with a pre-bibliography listing each of your sources, in proper citation format, with the appropriate sources listed under the following subheadings:  "Tertiary Sources", "Secondary Sources", "Primary Sources".  For citation issues use Turabian/Chicago Manual of Style format (see Corgan Library <http://www.kings.edu/frames/tb_frames/library.html> and click on "Cite Sources", then use the list of various websites; or go to the Corgan Library Study Guide #11; or for bibliography and citations also see <http://staff.kings.edu/bapavlac/citation.html>.

5. Write a careful essay whose thesis argues how the particular wars helped build empire, or not.  Be sure to put the time period in proper context, providing background in order to understand the reasons for people undertaking warfare in specific times and places.  Descriptions of preparations, negotiations, battles, campaigns, and treaties should all contribute to a better understanding of how this particular topic explains war and empire. You should especially incorporate the opnions by named, specific historians (both ancient and modern).  The quality and use of your research from both your primary sources and secondary sources of historical books will substantially influence the evaluation of your essay; be sure to use them in the body of your paper.  Support all your assertions with proper reasoning and/or details drawn from your sources, properly cited.

For more on evaluation of your papers and avoiding common errors see the page on "Grading and Assessment,"  <http://staff.kings.edu/bapavlac/grading.html>.   

6. Rest, review, and revise repeatedly. You might use the Writing Center.  Include a revised bibliography as the last page.  Then write a final draft to be turned as listed in the schedule (100 points). 

G. Deadlines:

Completing assignments on time is an important aspect of your course work.  You yourself must hand in each written assignment at the beginning of class on the dates as listed in the schedule or as soon as possible after an absence.
The grade of any paper you turn in late will lose at least 10% after the beginning of the first class, 20% after the second, and 35% after the third. No late assignments will be accepted after the last day of classes. 

IV. Grades:

You earn your grade through work done for this course.  You are responsible to understand why you have achieved a certain grade and what you can do to maintain or improve your grade.  You are encouraged to consult with the professor during office hours or by appointment both before and after exams and written assignments. Click here for a Grading Policy with more information on the parameters of evaluation and grading.

Your final grade will be based on a percentage (above 90%=A, 80-89%=B, etc.) of the sum of the assignments. Different assignments will be worth certain point values.   The following is the weight given to your various learning tasks:

100 for the first exam; 150 for the final exam;
5-20 each for any in-class quizzes or class project statements;
15 points each for study guides of major primary sources;
15 points for each textbook evaluation at each exam (60 total);
100 for your Imperial Wars Paper;
200 for your class attendance & participation.

For your protection, in case of errors of recording, you should keep copies of all exams and assignments until you have received official notice of your final grade.  Any and all materials done for this course may become the property of the professor, who may use them for assessment, evaluative, scholarly, or research purposes.  Although the syllabus presents the basic content and requirements of the course, the professor reserves the right to change anything (e.g. assignments, point values, topics, due dates, grading policy, etc.), at any time, at his discretion.  

All topics and assignments on the schedule are tentative; the instructor may change them at his discretion.

Although the syllabus presents the basic content and requirements of the course, the professor reserves the right to change anything (e.g. assignments, point values, topics, due dates, grading policy, etc.), at any time, at his discretion.  

URL: http://staff.kings.edu/bapavlac/hist324.html Site built, maintained & Copyright © MMXII by Brian A. Pavlac Last Revision: 2012 March 14