Courses / Module

This module aims to consider the impact of conflict and crisis on cities from the Classical past, but with a sustained focus on examples of regeneration and restoration. Although timeless tales of Classical myth and history are replete with stories of ‘great wars, cities stormed, and kings routed and captured’ (Tacitus,Annals4.32), what of the ancient response to disaster? While literary texts – epic and tragedy in particular – do ‘place pathos before the eyes’ and prompt pity for the defeated, the history of (and scholarship on) antiquity do not dwell long on considerations of misfortune and adversity. Consequently, a pessimistic narrative of conflict and decline has tended to dominate the discourse of early modern scholarship. However, those working on histories of resilience have recently challenged such fin-de-siècle readings of ancient history. And so the task in this module is to review a series of case studies (form Troy to Rome) and reconsider both the sufferingandthe perennial endurance of those caught up in traumatic events in antiquity. Although a sense of the instability of human affairs will inform this project, we shall cast fresh light on the fortitude of those who, like King Priam, endured sorrow ‘with an iron heart’ (Homer,Iliad24.521) and consider whether the familiar rhetoric of conquest and collapse fully reflects ancient realities.