The course focuses on the geographical knowledge and discoveries in the ancient world as attested in the surviving sources. Traditional, literary sources will be analysed, for example Herodotus, Pausanias along with less usual texts such as the accounts for coastal travels where new routes were described probably for commercial purpose, which often offer unexpected views of the visited territories. All together, these texts help to reconstruct not only the actual knowledge and how it was mapped, but also the spirit animating these expeditions and the reasons behind them. In short, the course aims to offer a glimpse of the spirit of a culture or better cultures that still fascinate us and keep posing new questions.

Students will: 

• become familiar with an important body of written and material evidence for the history of classical Greece and Rome
  
• come to better understand the development of geographical ideas and knowledge in antiquity; and gain insights into the practicalities and social attitudes governing travel and mobility in the ancient world
  
• become skilled in handling difficult, tendentious, and fragmentary evidence, and develop skills in close reading and analysis
  
• gain skill in working in groups and presenting material, ideas and arguments orally
  
• gain skill in analytical, argumentative and descriptive writing

Two 1500 word essays (2 x 20%)

Tutorial participation and presentation (10% + 10%)

One hour lecture per week for 13 weeks; two hours of tutorials/seminars per week for 12 weeks; expected out-of-class-time work is 7 hours per week