HIST 304  ·  Stephenson

Reading List

A working list of secondary scholarship and primary texts, arranged to follow the same chronological arc as the course timeline. Period bands echo the timeline; the small week tags show where each reading is taken up. Most titles link to a library copy.

How to use this list. Readings are grouped by period, in the order the course moves through them, and cross-referenced to the overview timeline. The arrangement is provisional and will be reworked as the term goes on. Library links route through Towson and its partner libraries; you may be prompted to sign in. Primary marks a primary text in translation; Study marks a focused study of a single author.
Recommended narrative for the whole course
A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture
S. B. Pomeroy, S. M. Burstein, W. Donlan & J. T. Roberts. Oxford University Press.
A clear, continuous narrative of the whole story, useful for holding the connections together. It is not required, but students are encouraged to locate and purchase a print or electronic copy of the latest edition. The first edition (2004) can also be found online as a free PDF if you search for it.
Reference history for the whole course
The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World
J. Boardman, J. Griffin & O. Murray (eds.). Oxford University Press, 1991.
A multi-author illustrated history spanning the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic kingdoms; useful as a reference alongside the narrative above.
The Mediterranean World Framing

The older, connected world Greece belongs to — the methodological starting point for the whole course.

Rethinking the Mediterranean
W. V. Harris (ed.). Oxford University Press, 2005.
Weeks 1–2
A Companion to Mediterranean History
P. Horden & S. Kinoshita (eds.). John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
Weeks 1–2
Deep Ground c. 11000–3000 BCE

The deep prehistoric ground — foragers, the first farmers, and the Neolithic villages of Greece.

Communities, Landscapes, and Interaction in Neolithic Greece
A. Sarris et al. (eds.). Berghahn Books, 2018.
Week 1Week 2
Bronze Age c. 3000–1150 BCE

Palaces, long-distance trade, and the eastern Mediterranean world-system.

The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age
C. W. Shelmerdine (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Week 3
Dark Age & Geometric c. 1150–700 BCE

Collapse and recovery, the early Iron Age, the adoption of the alphabet, and the form out of which the polis grows.

The Cambridge Companion to the Greek Iron Age
J. B. Carter & C. M. Antonaccio (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2026.
Week 5Week 7
Archaic Period c. 700–490 BCE

When the Greek myths, the epics, and lyric poetry take written shape, and the polis takes form.

The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology
R. D. Woodard (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Week 4
The Poems of Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, and the Shield of Herakles
Hesiod, trans. B. B. Powell. University of California Press, 2017.
Week 4Primary
Greek Poems to the Gods: Hymns from Homer to Proclus
B. B. Powell (ed./trans.). University of California Press, 2021.
Week 4Week 13Primary
The Cambridge Companion to Homer
R. Fowler (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Week 6
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Epic
E. Greensmith (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Week 6
The Iliad
Homer, trans. B. B. Powell. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Week 6Primary
The Odyssey
Homer, trans. B. B. Powell. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Week 6Primary
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Political Thought
S. Salkever (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Week 7Week 10
The Cambridge Companion to Sappho
P. J. Finglass & A. Kelly (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Week 11
Sappho
Page DuBois. I.B. Tauris, 2015.
Week 11Study
Classical Period 490–323 BCE

The Persian Wars, the great age of Athens, the historians and sophists, religion and the city, and the classical economy.

Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State from the Early Iron Age to the End of Antiquity
John Ma. Princeton University Press, 2024.
Study
Herodotus
James Romm. Yale University Press, 1998.
Week 8Study
Herodotus
J. A. S. Evans. Twayne, 1982 (Twayne's World Authors Series 645).
Week 8Study
The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus
C. Dewald & J. Marincola (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Week 8
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science
L. Taub (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Week 8
Thucydides
J. S. Rusten (ed.). Oxford University Press, 2009.
Week 10
Thucydides
P. J. Rhodes. 1st ed. Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
Week 10Study
The Cambridge Companion to Thucydides
P. Low (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Week 10
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Athens
J. Neils & D. K. Rogers (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Week 10Week 13
The Cambridge Companion to the Sophists
J. Billings & C. Moore (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Week 10
The Cambridge Companion to the Ancient Greek Economy
S. von Reden (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Week 3Week 12
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Mediterranean Religions
B. S. Spaeth (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Week 13
Macedon & Hellenistic 359–30 BCE

Alexander and the world of the successor kingdoms.

The Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great
D. Ogden (ed.). Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Week 14
The Last Pharaohs: Egypt Under the Ptolemies, 305–30 BC
J. G. Manning. Princeton University Press, 2009.
Week 14Study