Humanities II: The Later Classical & Early Medieval World
Starr, Ancient History, Chapters 21-26
Hadas History of Rome
Plato Symposium (selections)
Euthyphro
Apology
Crito
Phaedo
Aeschulus The Persians
Sophocles Antigone
Euripedes The Bacchae
Medaea
Aristophanes Lysistrata
The Birds
Menander Dyskolos
Plautus Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Polybius Roman History
Cicero Letter to Atticus
1st Catalinarian
Conta Verres
Somnium Scipionis
Hadas Hist/Roman Lit (ch. 7, "Cicero")
Virgil 1st & 4th Eclogues
Aeneid (complete)
Livy History of Early Rome
Bk I, Preface - XXI, XLIX - LX
Bk II, I - XIII
Mattingly The Man in the Roman Street
Petronius “Trimalchio's Dinner” -- Satyricon
Suetonius Lives of the Caesars
St. Paul Epistles
Apuleius The Golden Ass
Bk I, II, XII, + Cupid & Psyche
Rutilius Namatianus Journey Home
Acts of the Apostles
According to the copy that I have, Year III then made it from Augustine to Boccaccio and Year IV did Machiavelli to the present.
Generally speaking it seems like things would be worked back so that Year I includes all of the Greek and Hellenistic periods; Year II covers Rome and through Charlemagne; Year III cover 800-1600 and the final year does 1600 to the present. (After all, we cheated on the length of the 1600 to present list a bit by counting stuff that we'd read anyway like Dickens and Austen and Trollope, etc.)
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Okay, there were obviously some changes by the time I went through this bit, 'cause I never read Lysistrata, just The Birds.
I don't think I did Persians either, which I would suggest dropping in favor of at least one of the Oresteia. Persians does relate back to the contemporary historical situation, but to my English-major eyes, the Oresteia are a lot more important to the Western Tradition. Plus, they relate back to the Troy narrative, which I think ties in nicely to the Iliad/Odyssey and general mythological awareness.
Antigone is a good one--I guess it's really a toss-up between it and Oedipus Rex, if we have to make a choice. Though again, Oedipus is the one with the more famous story.
Euripedes could probably be cut down to Medea or the Bacchae, if need be.
For Aristophanes, an alternate play might be The Frogs, since it involves the classic Greek playwrights. That might be nice for students who had just gotten through Aeschylus et al. And do we really need more than one by him?
Also, Greek plays are *fast* to read. I think. Though I read them for fun, so I might be biased.
It's a pity we can't get any Aristotle on the list, but I don't think any of it would really be comprehensible to a HS freshman.
A lot of the Roman stuff I don't remember so well, so I can't really comment on it. Though I *know* I didn't read Suetonius until college, and he could probably be cut down to selections. (HS freshmen probably don't have a burning need to hear all about Tiberius anyway.)
What's in the Letter to Atticus? Could we cut Cicero down to the 1st Catalinarian?
What's Hadas? Does that overlap with anything?
Should we try to squeeze in some lyrics? One could get through a few bits of Horace, Catullus, and Ovid pretty quickly.
Oh my goodness. What high school student doesn't have a burning need to read Suetonius. Such fun.
. . .
Right.
Then again, you are the one who read Apuleius the whole way through, aren't you?
(Though even reading selections proved to be quite, um, educational for me.)
Oh come one. How about when Nero has the boat built to collapse and break in two in order to kill his mother "by accident", but instead everyone on the boat is killed except her and so Nero has to hold a banquet to celebrate her escape so that no one will suspect?
Commedy classic, that's all I can say.
Oh, Nero is fine. I loved reading about Nero and the boat. All hail Nero, and we should definitely include that bit on the list. (We should also write it into the stories for little children.) It's just that the section on Tiberius goes into rather more detail than one might wish about his affection for little boys.
On the other hand, it does allow me to laugh mockingly at people who tell me I am a sheltered little Catholic girl, so I suppose I can't complain.
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