Greek Life: Athens as a College Town Under the Roman Empire

This course focuses on the role of Athens as one of the most important educational centers of the Roman Empire to examine themes in the cultural history of the Eastern Mediterranean from the 2nd to the 6th century CE. Students traveled from all over the Roman world to study in Athens, celebrity professors competed to attract the biggest classes, and freshmen joining fraternities were subjected to bizarre hazing rituals. Course topics include the Second Sophistic, the educational curriculum, Paganism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, Neoplatonism, and the fate of Athens as an urban center. All readings in English translation.