Prof.
N. Rosenstein
236
Dulles Hall
Office
Hours M&W
Office
telephone: 292-7645
e-mail: Rosenstein.1@osu.edu
History 504.01:
WAR IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WORLD
Spring,
2004
Required
Books:
Arrian
The Campaigns of Alexander, Penguin
Caesar The Conquest of
Caesar, The Civil Wars,
Campbell, B. The
Roman Army, 31 BC-AD 337, Routledge
Herodotus The Persian Wars,
Modern Library
Livy The War With
Polybius
The Rise of the
Raaflaub
and Rosenstein, War and Society in the
Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Harvard
Sage, M. Warfare
in Ancient
Thucydides The Peloponnesian War, Modern Library
Note that the texts of several of these ancient
authors are available online at
http://classics.mit.edu/index.html or at
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/perscoll?collection=Greco-Roman
I
have no objection to students reading the assignments there or to using
translations other than those listed above.
Recommended
Books:
Engles,
D. Alexander the Great and the Logistics
of the Macedonian Army,
Hansen, V. The
Luttwak, E. The
Grand Strategy of the
Course Website: http://people.history.ohio-state.edu/rosenstein/
Objectives
This course offers an advanced
survey of military history from the Bronze Age in Greece (ca. 1200 B.C.) to the
fall of the Roman Empire in the West (A.D. 476) and focuses on six
interconnected themes: tactical and technological developments in warfare;
military strategy and interstate diplomacy; the reciprocal effects of war and
political systems upon one another; the social and economic bases of military
activity; conversely, the impact of war on society, particularly its role in
the economy and its effect upon the lives of both participants and
non-combatants; finally, the ideological dimensions of war. In addition, students will be introduced to
some of the basic problems which historians of the period are currently
attempting to solve as well as to some of the most important hypotheses their
work has produced. In the process,
students will become acquainted with certain of the principal research tools
and techniques which ancient historians have developed to aid them in their
investigations.
Requirements
Undergraduate students
in this course will be required to take two mid-term and one final
examinations, each of which must be completed in order to pass the class. A
student’s grade will be determined as follows: each mid-term exam will count
for thirty percent of the final grade, and the final exam will count for the
remaining forty percent. Graduate
students’ exams will be graded on a standard more appropriate to their status,
and they will also be expected to write a lengthy term paper (in the twenty to
twenty-five page range) on a topic to be developed
individually in consultation with the instructor. The weighting of the various components for
graduate students will be as follows: each mid-term, 20 percent; final, 30
percent; term paper 30 percent. Students should be aware that the required
readings for this course are heavy, about 260 pages per week. Students interested in an easy course should
look elsewhere.
All students must be
officially enrolled in the course by the end of the second full week of the
quarter. No requests to add the course
will be approved by the department chair after that time. Enrolling officially and on time is solely
the responsibility of each student.
Accommodation
Any student who feels
he or she may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should
contact me to arrange an appointment as soon as possible. At the appointment we can discuss the course
format, anticipate your needs and explore potential accommodations. I rely on the Office For
Disability Services for assistance in verifying the need for accommodations and
developing appropriate accommodation strategies. If you have not previously contacted the
Office for Disability Services, I encourage you to do so.
Statement on Academic Misconduct
Students are reminded
that all work for the course must be their own.
Passing someone else’s work off as your own constitutes plagiarism. This or any other form of academic
misconduct, such as cheating on exams, will be dealt through the procedures
established by the Committee on Academic Misconduct.
Schedule of Lectures
and
First Week