FLIT 150: Reading List

SUGGESTED READINGS

(revised: 01/15/2014)

It is expected, with the exception of the first class meeting, that the student will read the material under a particular week-day before that day/class. There are many outlines and various helps and analyses in the Handouts section of this website (click on the blue button at the left). Material assigned may be tested on quizzes or exams, whether treated in detail in class or not; this especially includes the material in Chambers, The Western Experience I!

Gochberg, D.S. (ed.) Classics of Western Thought: The Ancient World 7th ed (HBJ) paper
Chambers, Mortimer et al. (ed.) The Western Experience: Vol 1 (of the 3 volume paperback ed.) 10th edition (2012)

NOTE: If you purchased the older 9th edition, that is OK, but you should use the old reading list
which you can access at: 9th edition reading list.

WEEK 1

    INTRODUCTION. Course Materials. "Psalm 23"

    THE MIDDLE EASTERN BACKGROUND:
          -"Sumerian King List"

    THE BEGINNING OF THE EPIC. Flood Stories
          -"Epic of Gilgamesh" (Gochberg, Ch. 24)
          -Chambers, pp. 6-13.

WEEK 2

     THE HEBREW CREATION STORY

          -"Book of Genesis" (Gochberg, pp. 543-552)
          -Chambers, pp. 21-25.

WEEK 3

    EPIC: WARFARE AND VALUES. THE HOMERIC VIEW OF HUMANITY.

          -Homer, The Iliad (Gochberg, Ch. 1)
          -Text: `Homer and the Military' in the Handouts section
          -Chambers, pp. 37-43 (Mycenaean Greek Civilization; The Greek Renaissance); 44-45 (Archaic Literature: Homer).

WEEK 4

     POLIS VALUES IN SOCIETY. DRAMATIC AND PHILOSOPHIC VIEWS.

          -Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (Oidipous Tyrannos) (Gochberg, Ch. 3.).
          -Outline on the Handouts list.
          -Chambers, pp. 70-71.

          -Aristotle, The Poetics (Gochberg, Ch. 13)

    POLIS VALUES. ARISTOTLE and the Invention of Political Science

          -Aristotle, The Politics (Gochberg, Ch. 12)
          -Chambers, pp. 46-49 (The Greek Renaissance; The Polis).

WEEK 5

     SPARTA: One kind of real polis: Lycurgus

          -Xenophon, Constitution of the Spartans, (Gochberg, Ch. 5)
          -Handout: Xenophon, "Some Spartan Stories"

    The SPARTAN GOVERNMENT: Ephors, Krypteia
          -Handout: "Spartan Stories"

    SPARTA: Working with Greece. (Persian Wars, 490 and 480/79)
          -Herodotus, pp. 148-159.
          -Handouts on Sparta [in Adams, Course Materials]
          -Chambers, p. 49 (Sparta).

WEEK 6

     HERODOTUS and the historical tradition. Solon the Athenian.

          -Chambers, pp. 50-57; 73 (Early Athens).
          -Outline in Handouts section
          -Herodotus, The Histories (Gochberg, pp. 148-159)

     HERODOTUS. THE PERSIAN WARS (499-479 B.C.)

          -Herodotus, The Histories (Gochberg, pp. 131-148)

WEEK 7

     THUCYDIDES: The Virtues of a Statesman (Pericles, d. 429 B.C.)

          -Handout: "The Roman Concept of FIDES'"[list of virtues]
          -"Thucydides" Handout
          -Chambers, pp. 61-66; 73-74.

WEEK 8

      THUCYDIDES AND THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR (432-404). SCIENTIFIC HISTORY.

          -Gochberg, pp. 173-195 (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War).
          -Chambers, pp. 84-85.



     MIDTERM EXAM. The essay questions will be sent out by email one week before the exam date.

WEEK 9

    In-class Midterm exam.

    ROME, I. THE ROYAL PERIOD (753-510 B.C.). CIVIC VIRTUE.

          -Gochberg, pp. 384-392 (Livy and the Early Kings of Rome)
          -Chambers, pp. 90-97.

    ROME, The Kings: Myth and History. Law and Society

          -Handout: "The Twelve Tables"
          -Handout Fides
          -Gochberg, pp. 384-392 (Livy and the Early Kings of Rome) -Chambers, pp. 109-112.

    THE ROMAN REPUBLIC: Civic Virtue, Military Discipline

          -Gochberg, pp. 392-402

WEEK 10

     CATO. War With Carthage

          -Gochberg, pp. 403-416 (Plutarch, Cato the Elder)
          -Chambers, pp. 99-101.

    EPICUREANISM: An Alternative to public duty.

          -Gochberg, pp. 450-469 (Lucretius, On the Nature of Things)
          -Chambers p. 85-86 (Epicurus; Zeno and Stoics). pp. 102-110 (end of the Republic).

WEEK 11

      ZENO and the Stoic Universe

          -"Some Stoic Texts"

     STOICISM: Cicero's version of Stoic LAW (Imperialism)

          -Gochberg, pp. 430-439.

     CHRISTIANITY: Jesus and his message.

          -Gochberg, Chapter 26.
          -Chambers, pp. 137-151.

WEEK 12

     PAUL and his message. Founding the Church.

          -Handout: "Early Christian Organization"
          -Chambers, pp. 142-143.

WEEK 13

    EMPERORS AND PHILOSOPHY: Marcus Aurelius (161-180), Stoic and Christian persecutor.

          -Marcus Aurelius, Thoughts (Gochberg, Ch. 22)
          -Chambers, 118-130 (Good Emperors).

WEEK 14

SATIRE the Collapse of Ideals.

-Petronius, Satyricon (Gochberg, pp. 470-496)

January 15, 2014 8:52 PM

John Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu