The Fundamentals of Ancient Greece: Athens in the 5th Century BC

This set of four lectures examines one of the great civilizations of antiquity. We will be examining the rise and fall of the Athenian empire with special focus on its conflicts with Persia and Sparta as well as the first great experiment in democratic government. We will also explore the extraordinary cultural efflorescence of the Greeks in the 5th century BC. From philosophy to history to drama, Greek thinkers altered the course of western intellectual thought. These thinkers included Plato, Socrates, Aristotle as well as Herodotus, Thucydides, Euripides, Aeschylus and many others. This will be a rich dive into ancient politics, culture and history of a society that is at once both strikingly familiar and dramatically foreign.