War and Ethics in Ancient Mediterranean Society

Catalog description

This course studies the development of warfare in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. The primary focus is on the close reading and analysis of ancient texts to understand how the changing practices and narrative traditions of war reflect changing ethical ideas held by Greek and Roman societies towards warfare itself. Starting with the honor-based fighting and values reflected in the Homeric epics, the course explores the evolution of ancient thinking about the ethics of war in the Greek states, the Hellenistic kingdoms, the Roman Republic, and finally the Roman Empire, and in doing so enables student to reflect upon and discuss modern ideas about the ethics and morality of war.