FIRST ASSIGNMENT

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INTRODUCTION . In your notes write 1) the name of what you consider to be a ‘great city’ (other than DC) and 2) ONE thing that makes this city truly ‘great’ in your opinion.

Two thousand years ago, a traveler on his way to Rome—one of the greatest cities of all time and the administrative center of one of history’s most significant civilizations—was greeted by its citizens long before reaching one of its famed gates. All along the highways leading into the capital, columned tombs, shrunken sarcophagi, and walled mausoleums lined the streets. Tombs of the dead addressed passersby like billboards from the beyond:

You are human. Stop and contemplate my tomb, young man, to know what you will be. I did no wrong. I performed many duties. Live well, for soon this will come to you. Goodbye, hope and fortune. There will be no more prayers from me, so have your sport with others.

These tombs greeted everyone seeking entrance to the great city and were situated there because Roman law prohibited burials within the walls (only Caesar was granted a dispensation to be buried within the city). Cities are for the living, and space within them is always at a premium. But the tombs outside Rome served as poignant reminders that the living participate in a much grander chain of existence, that the lives of individual men, however short, nasty, and brutish, exist within a much larger and more significant context.

This course will investigate the connections between the city and that “more significant something” that we term civilization. We will discover that ancient civilizations often organized themselves around specific cities rather than any modern notion of national identity. It was the city that reshaped nature itself, the city that provided a radically new way to live, the city that cultivated the genius of man and gave vibrancy to the commonalities of life. Throughout this semester, therefore, we will be looking at ancient history through the lens of the urban environment, i.e., the city.

At certain times throughout history, individual cities have been so instrumental in fostering major developments in religion, politics, art, and science that they achieved a status of greatness. What makes a particular city, at a particular time, suddenly become immensely creative, exceptionally innovative, and universally important to humanity? This is the overriding question we will address over the course of the semester as we study the civilizations of ancient Sumer, Greece, and Persia, and the cities that defined them.

For class, you will always need to bring a single notebook, a pen, and your “Cities” book. Almost all of the material for this course is in your book. If you forget your book at school, you can always access the content on the Internet Archive, a link to which is posted on the BULLETIN PAGE (be sure to use the most current 10th edition). I will usually post your homework on MySTA for an entire week under ANNOUNCEMENTS so you can manage your time accordingly. I try to post the upcoming week’s work Friday evening or Saturday morning.