AMST 26101 - Athens, Sparta, and Rome At War

Course Credit: 1
(CLST)
ATHENS, SPARTA, & ROME AT WAR Athens, Sparta, and Rome fought wars during nearly every year of their existence. This fact drew the focused attention of (for instance) the founders of the United States, who aimed to prevent a repetition of such cycles of violence in their new nation. Before the 18th century, theorists such as Grotius, Machiavelli, and Montesquieu tangled with the example set by ancient Greek and Roman warfare. This course reexamines the wars of ancient Greek city states and the Roman republic. It interrogates the origins and processes of both aggressive and defensive warfare in each case, together with the long-term consequences: for Athens and Sparta, defeat, for Rome, victory, followed by horrendous civil wars. Throughout, the course compares ancient representations of the character, causes, and consequences of warfare to modern scholarly reconstructions of how ancient wars were fought. [AH]