Unit of Study HIST3002 Freedom and Tyranny in the Ancient Mediterranean World (2024)

Unit description

The unit aims to use representations of the past in popular culture as an entrée into the ancient Mediterranean world, specifically from the Persian Wars through to the Roman Empire (roughly 500 BCE to 200 CE). Students will interrogate a variety of ancient sources (including ancient texts in translation, but also material culture such as art, epigraphic and numismatic evidence), alongside modern cinematic representations, to interrogate various political, social and philosophical concepts, including freedom, citizenship, democracy, tyranny, colonialism, empire, slavery, class, and ‘the other’.

Unit content

Module 1: Introducing the Ancient Mediterranean World in Cinema: Key Concepts 

Module 2: “This is Sparta!”: Classical Greece and the Clash with Persia (Feature Film: 300, dir. Zack Snyder (2006))

Module 3: “He too is Alexander”: Conquest at the Dawn of the Hellenistic Age (Feature Film: Alexander, dir. Oliver Stone (2004))

Module 4: “I am Spartacus”: Trouble in the Roman Oligarchy (Feature Film: Spartacus, dir. Stanley Kubrick (1960))

Module 5: “What have the Romans ever done for us?”: Living in a Cosmopolitan Empire (Feature Film: Life of Brian, dir. Terry Jones (1979))

Module 6: “Are you not entertained?”: Playing for Ultimate Power in Rome (Feature Film: Gladiator, dir. Ridley Scott (2000))