Ancient History

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Offered 2023-2024

  • Time & Tuition:
    • 2023-2024 Academic Year
      • 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm, Mondays
      • Seminar with writing tutorial: $75 per month (10 months, August through May)
      • Seminar only: $60 per month (10 months, August through May)
  • Location: Signal Mountain, Tennessee
  • Grades: 9-12 AND 8th-grade strong readers
  • Prerequisites: Writing II or equivalent writing skills OR take Writing II in addition to this course
  • Pairing: You can pair this course with Ancient Literature!
  • Description: Students learn about the significance of the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. In addition to studying the histories, governments, economics, wars, arts, and customs of these two civilizations, the course examines how these cultures influenced Western Civilization – particularly how they shaped the United States and its Constitution.
  • Assessment:
    • All: Students must complete all readings and daily-work/commonplacing as well as oral exams.
    • Writing tutorial only: Each semester, students write two essays and complete two other written pieces and one semester project. (Students in both history and literature courses only create one project per semester.) At the conclusion of each semester, tutorial students participate in Defense Day by giving a brief presentation on one of their essays and responding to questions from the audience.
  • Books Needed: FINAL BOOK LIST WILL BE POSTED SHORTLY – PLEASE CHECK BACK. THANKS! Books will be the same as or similar to those below. (Hard copies are required; recommended editions/translations are listed below)
    • Gwynne’s Grammar (ISBN: 9781984897961)
    • Herodotus – Histories (Recommended: Strassler’s Landmark edition, ISBN: 9780375421099)
    • Thucydides – History of the Peloponnesian War (Recommended: Strassler’s Landmark edition, ISBN: 9780684827902)
    • Plato – Republic (Recommended: Bloom translation/Basic Books, ISBN: 9780465094080)
    • Plutarch – Lives, Volume 1 (Recommended: Dryden translation/Modern Library, ISBN: 9780375756764)
    • Plutarch – Lives, Volume 2 (Recommended: Dryden translation/Modern Library, ISBN: 9780375756771)
    • Livy – The Rise of Rome (Recommended: Luce translation/Oxford, ISBN: 9780199540044)
    • Polybius – The Rise of the Roman Empire (Recommended: Scott-Kilvert translation /Penguin classics, ASIN: B017YC9XCC)
    • Augustine – City of God (Recommended: Dods translation/Barnes and Noble [ISBN: 9780760779026] OR Modern Library [ISBN: 9780679600879])