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Description

During this course in Athens, we will study the background and history of the Peloponnesian War, the reign of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens, and the Trial of Socrates. We will "react" in the historical moment of the meetings held by the Athenian Assembly in 403 BCE.

The Athens game will recreate the intellectual dynamics of this formative period in the human experience. After nearly three decades of war, Sparta crushed democratic Athens, destroyed its great walls and warships, occupied the city, and installed a brutal regime, "the Thirty Tyrants." The excesses of the tyrants resulted in civil war and, as the game begins, they have been expelled and the democracy restored. But doubts about democracy remain, expressed most ingeniously by Socrates and his young supporters. Will Athens retain a political system where all decisions are made by an Assembly of 6,000 or so citizens? Will leaders continue to be chosen by random lottery? Will citizenship be broadened to include slaves who fought for the democracy and foreign-born metics who paid taxes in its support? Will Athens rebuild its long walls and warships and again extract tribute from city-states throughout the eastern Mediterranean?

These and other issues will be sorted out by a city-state fractured into radical and moderate democrats, oligarchs, and Socratics, among others. The debates will be informed by Plato's Republic, as well as by excerpts from Thucydides, Xenophon, and other contemporary sources. By examining democracy at its threshold, the game provides the perspective to consider its subsequent evolution.

"Reacting" is an innovative way of learning through role-playing and elaborate games. In the Athens game, The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 BCE, by Mark C. Carnes and Josiah Ober, students will be assigned roles as historical figures meeting as members of the Athenian Assembly and jurors in the trial of Socrates with a "game objective." At the heart of the Athens game, is animated discussion and debating; you must persuade others that "your" views make more sense than those of your opponents. You will have two ways of expressing your views: orally and in writing, and both will be graded and contribute toward your final grade. Writing assignments will include journal notes and a final research project.

Required Reading:

Please purchase before we leave for Athens to bring along with you

Carnes, Mark C and Josiah Ober. The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C., Third Edition. Longman Publishers, 2005. "Reacting to the Past" Series. ISBN: 0321333039.

Plato. The Republic. Trans. Desmond Lee. Second Edition. London: Penguin Books, 2003. ISBN: 0140449140.

Pomeroy, Sarah, et al. A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN: 0195156811.

Course Requirements:

Participation: (30%)
The heart and soul of the Athens Game is persuasion so participation is a crucial component. In your assigned role, you will seek to achieve your "game objectives" by expressing your views in the classroom as a member of a particular team (faction) or alone as an indeterminate.

Journal/Notebook/Scrapbook: (20%)
The journal will consist of hand-written notes, thoughts, comments, strategies, arguments, postcards, museum receipts, etc. Think of it as a written record of all that you do, see, and learn about Ancient Athens when playing the Athens Game in Greece. The journal should also include your outlines and notes with arguments and counter arguments to each of the major questions concerning the Assembly in 403 BCE and the Trial of Socrates that will come up in the debates. You can and should refer to your outlines and arguments during the debates.

Special Project with Research Project: (30%)
This 10-page typed research project about Athenian society (with a component to be researched in Athens during the course) will be due a few weeks after we get back home from Greece. The assignment will be handed out before we leave.

Final Exam: (20%)
The final exam will be held on the last day of classes in Athens.