A broad historical exploration of Roman civilization. Topics include: architecture, art, law, literature, philosophy, poetry, politics, religion, society, warfare, and the Romans? legacy to the modern world. Open to all students. No prior knowledge of the ancient world assumed; all readings are in English. Ideal background for students of English, philosophy, history, Latin, Greek, the arts, music, modern languages.

This course traces the historical development of ancient Greek and Roman religion from its antecedents in Near Eastern, Minoan, and Mycenaean culture to the rise of Christianity in Rome's early imperial period. This course also introduces students to the methods and materials of historians of religion. Topics covered in this course include: changing conceptions of divinity, animal sacrifice, sanctuaries, festivals, death and the afterlife, divination, magic, and mystery cults.

This course examines positive and negative impacts of ancient technological advances: engineering (fire, metallurgy), writing technology (scripts, including the alphabet, the emergence of papyrus and vellum), military technology (shipbuilding, defensive and offensive technologies, and navigation), artistic (invention of dyes, lost-wax methods of bronze casting), infrastructure (roads, bridges, and aqueducts), and monumentality (Stonehenge, Greek temples, and the Roman Colosseum). Focus on the ways in which societal and environmental factors influenced technological development and vice versa.

This course provides an introduction to ancient Greek and Roman conceptions of desire and sexuality, to how these conceptions developed and changed over time, and how they differ from modern ways of understanding sex, desire, and sexuality. Topics discussed include "romantic" love, attitudes towards homosexual practices, man-boy love, lesbianism, ancient views of "cross-dressing," and attitudes towards prostitution, among others.