CLAS 3794

The ancient Greeks belonged to a vibrantly populous, diverse, and well-connected Mediterranean world. The sea was a connector, facilitating the movement and interaction of people of different ethnicities for diplomacy, trade, work, war, migration, and even tourism. This course explores the interactions and exchanges between the Greeks and the other peoples around the Mediterranean Sea ca. 800-350 BCE. Where, when, and how did Greeks encounter other peoples? Who were they? How did the Greeks view and depict them? And how did they view and depict the Greeks? Who was moving where and why? What materials, ideas, and technologies were exchanged? How did people of different ethnicities live together? How were travellers, merchants, and immigrants received in Greek city-states? How free was movement? Students will examine these questions using multiple types of evidence: travel accounts, pottery and sculpture, ancient ethnographic writings, shipwrecks, cities and other settlements, stone inscriptions, and poetry. Major themes include cultural exchange, ancient economies, ethnicity and race, slavery, mobility, and immigration.