Donald Kagan

Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)

24 episodes indexed · 28 hours

Presented by Donald Kagan

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Periods · Archaic Greece, The Persian Wars, Classical Greece

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Minoans and Mycenaeans c. 3000 - 1100 BC · 1

1h 08mCLCV 205 - Lecture 2 - The Dark Ages Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan traces Greek civilization from small farming settlements into Bronze Age cities of power on Minoan Crete and in Mycenaean Greece, linked to the monarchies of the Near East, ending in collapse.

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Dark Age and Archaic Greece 1100 - 480 BC · 10

1h 19mCLCV 205 - Lecture 12 - The Persian Wars Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan credits the tyranny of the Peisistratids with seeding self-government, which Cleisthenes used to push Athens toward democracy by restructuring the tribes and empowering the assembly, then explains ostracism's role.

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1h 15mCLCV 205 - Lecture 8 - Sparta Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan weighs the tyrannies of the Greek polis, crediting them with economic, commercial and artistic advances even as they ruled absolutely, and argues they broke the aristocracy's grip and raised the hoplite farmer.

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1h 13mCLCV 205 - Lecture 9 - Sparta (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan traces Sparta's distinct military culture to the subjugation of Messenia, whose people farmed while Spartans trained for war, then examines the education of the Spartan citizen and the Spartan constitution.

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1h 13mCLCV 205 - Lecture 11 - The Rise of Athens (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan follows Athens through Cylon's failed coup and the Law of Draco to Solon's moderate reforms as sole archon, and on to the tyranny of Peisistratus, who still upheld Solon's laws.

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1h 12mCLCV 205 - Lecture 3 - The Dark Ages (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan takes up the Homeric question, arguing Homer's poems blend memories from the Mycenaean world through the Dark Ages and can be read for historical evidence, then outlines the heroic ethic.

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1h 12mCLCV 205 - Lecture 10 - The Rise of Athens Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan finishes the Spartan constitution, arguing Sparta had a mixed constitution and gained great power through alliances with its neighbors, then turns to Athens and its own constitution, ending with the hoplite class and Cylon's failed bid for tyranny.

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1h 10mCLCV 205 - Lecture 7 - The Greek "Renaissance" - Colonization and Tyranny (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan traces the rise of Greek colonies mainly to the need for new farmland, describes where the Greeks settled, and ties the founding of each colony to the dynamics of a polis.

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1h 09mCLCV 205 - Lecture 6 - The Greek "Renaissance" - Colonization and Tyranny Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan describes the hoplite phalanx, the Greeks' new style of warfare, detailing the soldier's panoply and fighting method, and argues the formation was almost invincible on the battlefield.

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1h 08mCLCV 205 - Lecture 4 - The Rise of the Polis Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan sketches the Greek heroic code, where arete and honor are worth dying for, as Achilles shows, and traces how that world produced the rise of the polis.

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1h 07mCLCV 205 - Lecture 5 - The Rise of the Polis (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan traces the polis emerging from the Dark Ages, present already by the poet Hesiod's time as a community of justice, law and shared values, credited to the rise of the hoplite farmer.

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The Persian Wars 499 - 449 BC · 2

1h 21mCLCV 205 - Lecture 13 - The Athenian Empire Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan traces the rise of the Persian empire into conflict with Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor, sparking the Persian Wars, and closes with the battle of Marathon, where the Athenians defeated the Persians.

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1h 15mCLCV 205 - Lecture 14 - The Athenian Empire (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan follows the fear of Persian revenge after the Greek victory of 479 BC, as island poleis turned to Athens to lead the league that became the Delian League, while Sparta held back.

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Classical Athens and Sparta 479 - 386 BC · 9

1h 20mCLCV 205 - Lecture 18 - The Peloponnesian War, Part I (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan describes Athens sending peace signals such as the Panhellenic venture to found Thurii, until Corinth and Corcyra clash over Epidamnus and Athens, risking Sparta's anger, settles on a defensive alliance with Corcyra.

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1h 15mCLCV 205 - Lecture 19 - The Peloponnesian War, Part II Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan argues the Peloponnesian War was not inevitable, crediting Pericles with a policy of deterrence aimed at peace, and calls Thucydides a revisionist historian pursuing the case that Athens was a democracy in name only.

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1h 15mCLCV 205 - Lecture 22 - The Struggle for Hegemony in Fourth-Century Greece (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan traces Thebes, Argos, Corinth and Athens joining to check Sparta in the Corinthian War, a stalemate after which Persia, fearing Athenian naval power, allied with Sparta to bring about the King's Peace, breaking every alliance except the Peloponnesian League.

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1h 14mCLCV 205 - Lecture 17 - The Peloponnesian War, Part I Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan traces the lead-up to the Peloponnesian War, arguing that rising Athenian power challenged Spartan dominance without making war inevitable, and credits the arbitration clause of the Thirty Years Peace as the key to avoiding it.

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1h 13mCLCV 205 - Lecture 16 - Athenian Democracy (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan examines the Athenian judicial system built to limit tampering while maximizing citizen participation, then turns to the role of women in Athens through two kinds of sources, and finally to slaves.

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1h 11mCLCV 205 - Lecture 21 - The Struggle for Hegemony in Fourth-Century Greece Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan follows Sparta's turn to domination after the Peloponnesian War, as Lysander installs pro-Spartan oligarchic governments, until Thrasybulus resists at Phyle and, with other poleis, restores democracy to Athens.

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1h 11mCLCV 205 - Lecture 23 - Twilight of the Polis Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan traces Thebes rising under Epaminondas and Pelopidas until it routs the Spartans in a standard hoplite battle at Leuctra, and argues years of war then opened the door to Philip of Macedon.

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1h 10mCLCV 205 - Lecture 15 - Athenian Democracy Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan describes the Delian League's transformation into the Athenian empire, which let Athens rival Sparta in power, credits Cimon with driving that shift, and opens his comparison of Athenian and American democracy.

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1h 10mCLCV 205 - Lecture 20 - The Peloponnesian War, Part II (cont.) Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan evaluates Pericles as a general, calling his strategy defensive because Athens avoided a land battle behind its walls and navy, and rational in expecting Sparta to quit, yet faulting it for lacking an offensive plan.

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Philip and Alexander 359 - 323 BC · 1

1h 16mCLCV 205 - Lecture 24 - Twilight of the Polis (cont.) and Conclusion Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Kagan follows Philip unifying Macedon, defeating barbarian armies and building a professional national army, then using diplomacy and Greek infighting to advance until Athens and Demosthenes face him at Chaeronea, a battle Philip wins.

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Greek Life, Thought and the Wider World across the centuries · 1

33mCLCV 205 - Lecture 1 - Introduction Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)Lecture

Donald Kagan opens by arguing that, to the Greeks, man was capable of the greatest achievements and the worst crimes, a tragic and powerful yet limited figure whose tension has shaped the West.

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