Greece and Rome: An Integrated History of the Ancient Mediterranean

Integrated approaches to teaching Greek and Roman history are a rarity in academia. Most scholars are historians of either Greek or Roman history and perform research solely in that specific field, an approach that author and award-winning Professor Robert Garland considers questionable. In these 36 passionate lectures, he provides an impressive and rare opportunity to understand the two dominant cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world in relation to one another - a relationship that has virtually no parallel in world history. He shows you how these two very different cultures intersected, coincided, and at times, collided. You'll discover the extraordinary culture that we call Greco-Roman: a unique fusion of civilizations that encompasses statecraft, mythology, language, philosophy, fine arts, architecture, science, and much else. Who were the Greeks and the Romans? How did they organize their societies? How did they interact? In this unique integrated historical approach, you'll see how Greece and Rome's relationship resembled a marriage: two distinct personalities competing in some areas, sharing in others, and sometimes creating a new synthesis of the two civilizations. And you'll consider their more substantive cultural differences, including religion, their views of foreigners, and their ways of thinking. You'll delight in the variety of sources - literature, archaeology, the visual arts, coinage, inscriptions - that Professor Garland draws upon to assemble a fascinating and complex picture of these two great civilizations. And you'll appreciate how he keeps Greece and Rome focused on how this material affects us today.

All Lectures:
1. Who Were the Greeks? Who Were the Romans?
2. Trade and Travel in the Mediterranean
3. Democratic or Republican
4. Law and Order
5. Less than Fully Human
6. Close Encounters, 750 - 272 B.C.
7. The Velvet Glove, 272 - 190 B.C.
8. How the Two Polytheisms (Almost) Merged
9. The Iron Fist, 190 - 146 B.C.
10. The Last Hellenistic Dynasts, 146 - 31 B.C.
11. Why the Greeks Lost, Why the Romans Won
12. Philhellenism and Hellenophobia
13. The Two Languages
14. Leisure and Entertainment
15. Sex and Sexuality
16. Death and the Afterlife
17. From Mystery Religion to Ruler Cult
18. Greek Cities under Roman Rule
19. Greeks in Rome, Romans in Greece
20. The Hellenism of Augustus
21. Art, Looting, and Reproductions
22. Architecture, Sacred and Secular
23. Science and Technology
24. Disease, Medical Care, and Physicians
25. The Greek Epic and Its Roman Echo
26. Tragedy and Comedy
27. Love Poetry, Satire, History, the Novel
28. Greek Influences on Roman Education
29. Greek Philosophy and Its Roman Advocates
30. Hellenomania from Nero to Hadrian
31. Jews, Greeks, and Romans
32. Christianity's Debt to Greece and Rome
33. The Apotheosis of Athens
34. The Decline of the West
35. The Survival of the East
36. The Enduring Duo