Greece, Rome And China (CLS-0047)

Fall 2025 · CLS 0047 · Tufts University · 3 credits · Undergraduate

Exploration of both the surprisingly strong parallels and equally telling differences between the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean-Greece and Rome- and ancient China, producing, in the long run, two quite different cultural and political legacies that have continued to shape the societies of Europe and East Asia into our times. Emphasis on early periods (Shang and Zhou China, Mycenaean, Archaic and Classical Greece) of political fragmentation and frequent warfare that were enormously productive culturally, indeed led to the formation of fundamental belief systems, social values, and literary and artistic genres; and on the undeniably strong parallels between the Han Chinese and Roman Empires, two imperial centers, roughly contemporary in time, that (essentially independently) discovered many similar solutions to the problems of governing vast and diverse territories. Close attention to ancient sources in translation, such as the Chinese Book of Odes, the Analects of Confucius, Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, Greek Lyric Poetry, the Socratic dialogues of Plato, and the histories of Herodotus and Tacitus. May be taken at the 100 level.

Course codes: CLS-0047, CLS 0047, CLS0047, CLS-47, CLS 47, CLS47, HIST-0105, HIST 0105, HIST0105, HIST-105, HIST 105, HIST105

Course Discovery