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Led by Plato of Athens Simulacrum
Ten tutorials on the Greek world from the Persian Wars to the Roman conquest, convened by Plato of Athens Simulacrum and led by Strabo, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristotle, the four Athenian orators, Theophrastus, the Greek scientists (Archimedes, Aristarchus of Samos, Hipparchus, Eratosthenes), the Hellenistic philosophers (Epicurus, Chrysippus, Plutarch), and Polybius. The first strand of the Universitas Exploring the Classical World programme — the Open University A229 model reimagined to use the Universitas's actual strengths in Greek historiography, philosophy, oratory, and science.
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Led by Strabo Simulacrum
The question
Before history, before philosophy, before oratory, the Greek world is a *place*. A scattered archipelago of cities — most of them on coasts or within sight of the sea — separated by mountains, joined by ships, distributed around an inland sea (the Mediterranean) and an outland sea (the Black). Geography determined what kind of polities could form, what kind of warfare was possible, what kind of trade, what kind of intellectual life. Strabo Simulacrum — the great geographer of the late first century BCE, whose seventeen-book *Geographika* surveys the entire known world from the perspective of an educated Greek — opens this strand by giving us the map.
Outcome
The student can locate every major Greek city and region on a map of the ancient Mediterranean; explain why the Greek world's geography produced *polis*-based politics; identify the major trade routes and what moved along them; and frame the rest of the strand within the geographical and chronological coordinates Strabo Simulacrum establishes.
Practice scenarios
Strabo Simulacrum gives you a copy of any modern atlas of the ancient world (the *Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World* if you can access it; any reputable modern reference otherwise) and a list of fifteen ancient places — five from mainland Greece, five from the Aegean and Ionia, five from the wider Greek world (Magna Graecia, the Black Sea, North Africa, Egypt). Locate each. Then write a 600-word geographical essay: choose any *one* major event from Greek history (the Persian invasion of 480 BCE, the Sicilian Expedition of 415 BCE, Alexander's eastern campaign, the foundation of Marseilles, the Hellenistic kingdoms after 323 BCE) and explain how the geography of the Greek world made that event possible (or impossible) and shaped what happened. Quote Strabo's *Geographika* (any modern translation, e.g. Loeb) at least once.
Your goals
Led by Herodotus Simulacrum
The question
Herodotus Simulacrum called his book *Historiai* — *inquiries* — and we have called the discipline by his word ever since. The book sets out the rise of the Persian Empire and the Greek wars against it (490 BCE Marathon, 480-479 BCE the Xerxes invasion), and along the way it digresses into ethnography, geography, custom, religion, and the lives of remarkable individuals across half the ancient world. It is the first surviving extended prose narrative in any European language. What is Herodotus Simulacrum actually doing, and how do we read him in the twenty-first century — when modern historians both rely on him and disagree with much of what he says?
Outcome
The student has read selected books of the *Histories* in modern translation (typically Books 1, 2, 7, 8, with Books 5 and 9 sampled), can identify and characterise Herodotean method, can analyse one specific passage at the level of method as well as content, and can articulate where modern scholarship has accepted, modified, or rejected Herodotus's claims.
Practice scenarios
Herodotus Simulacrum walks you through the battle of Salamis as he tells it in Book 8, chapters 70-96. Read the passage in full (Robin Waterfield's Oxford translation or Tom Holland's Penguin will both serve). Then write a 700-word analytical essay: how does Herodotus Simulacrum organise the narrative; what role does he give to Themistocles, to Artemisia, to Xerxes; how does he handle the question of divine intervention (the Greek victory as divine favour, the Persian defeat as *hubris* punished); and where, on this passage, does the modern historian most need to read with caution? Engage at least one piece of modern scholarship on Salamis (Lazenby, Strauss, or any reputable recent treatment).
Your goals
Led by Thucydides Simulacrum
The question
Thucydides's *History of the Peloponnesian War* (composed c. 431-c. 400 BCE, unfinished at his death) is the founding text of analytical political history — and the source for one of the great speeches of antiquity, Pericles's Funeral Speech of 431-430 BCE, which is the central document of fifth-century Athens's self-understanding. Thucydides's method is austere, his prose is famously difficult, and his judgements have shaped political analysis for two and a half millennia. What is Thucydidean method, and what does the Funeral Speech actually claim about Athens?
Outcome
The student has read the Funeral Speech, the plague description, and either the Mytilenean Debate or the Melian Dialogue in modern translation, can characterise Thucydidean method in writing, and can produce a 700-word analytical response on a specific passage.
Practice scenarios
Thucydides Simulacrum walks you through Book 2 chapters 35-54: the Funeral Speech (35-46) immediately followed by the plague (47-54). Read both passages in modern translation (Crawley, Hammond, or Mynott). The juxtaposition is Thucydidean method made visible: he gives us the Athens Pericles claimed, then the Athens that suffered. Write a 700-word analytical essay: what does the Funeral Speech claim about Athens (catalogue the claims); how does the plague description test or refute or modify those claims; what is Thucydides Simulacrum doing structurally by placing them together; and what does the juxtaposition tell us about Thucydidean method generally?
Your goals
Led by Plato of Athens Simulacrum
The question
Plato's *Republic* (composed c. 380 BCE) is the most influential single work of philosophy in the Western tradition. The dialogue begins as a question about justice, becomes a project to construct an ideal city as a way of seeing what justice is at the level where it can be examined, and ends with the famous Allegory of the Cave and the doctrine of the philosopher-king. The book is a literary achievement (the *Republic* is set in a Piraeus household one evening in the late fifth century BCE, and the conversational machinery is some of the finest in Greek prose) and a philosophical one. What is the *Republic* really about, and how should the student of the classical world read it?
Outcome
The student has read at minimum Books 1-2, Book 5, Book 7, and Book 10 of the *Republic* in modern translation (G.M.A.
Practice scenarios
Plato Simulacrum walks you through the Allegory of the Cave (Book 7, 514a-520a). Read the passage in full. Read also the immediately preceding analogies of the Sun (508a-509b) and the Divided Line (509d-511e); the three together form a sustained argument about knowledge, education, and the philosopher's relation to the city. Then write a 700-word philosophical-analytical essay: what is the Cave allegory claiming about education and about political authority; how does it work as analogy (the bound prisoner ↔ the unphilosophical citizen; the freed prisoner ↔ the philosopher; the sun ↔ the Form of the Good); and what is at stake in the move at 519c-520a where the freed prisoner is required to return to the cave?
Your goals
Led by Aristotle (Nature & Soul) Simulacrum
The question
Aristotle Simulacrum (384-322 BCE) is the second great Athenian philosopher and in many ways Plato's opposite — empirical where Plato Simulacrum is speculative, taxonomic where Plato Simulacrum is dialectical, an investigator of biological species and political constitutions where Plato Simulacrum is a constructor of ideal cities and a theorist of Forms. The *Politics* is the founding text of political science as a comparative empirical discipline; the *Physics*, *De Anima*, and *Historia Animalium* are the founding texts of Western natural philosophy. In two and a half hours of careful reading from each, what does Aristotle Simulacrum teach the student of the classical world?
Outcome
The student has read *Politics* Books 1-3 (Reeve or Lord modern translation) and a selection from *Physics* II (the four causes) and *De Anima* II (the soul as form), can characterise Aristotelian method, can analyse the central argument of *Politics* Book 1 (man as political animal, the household, slavery), and can write a 700-word analytical response on a specific passage.
Practice scenarios
Aristotle Simulacrum walks you through *Politics* Book 1, chapters 1-2 — the foundational claim that man is by nature a *zōon politikon*, that the *polis* is prior in nature to the household and the individual, and that man "alone of the animals possesses *logos*" (speech, reason). Read the passage carefully (any modern translation; the Reeve Hackett edition is excellent). Then write a 700-word philosophical-analytical essay: what is Aristotle's argument; how does the empirical-taxonomic method work in this passage; how do we read the famous claim "man alone has *logos*" — what does *logos* mean here, and what does Aristotle Simulacrum mean by claiming it for man only?
Your goals
Led by Antiphon Simulacrum, Lysias Simulacrum, Isocrates Simulacrum, Demosthenes Simulacrum (in dialogue)
The question
Athens between 420 BCE and 322 BCE produced four orators — Antiphon Simulacrum, Lysias Simulacrum, Isocrates Simulacrum, Demosthenes Simulacrum — who, between them, recorded what democratic Athens *sounded like* in its own ears. Their speeches survive: legal speeches that record actual cases, political speeches that argued the great choices the Athenian assembly faced, ceremonial speeches that performed the city to itself. Through them we hear Athenian voices for the only time we hear them direct. What did the Athenian orators do, and how do we read a fourth-century-BCE speech in 2026?
Outcome
The student has read one speech from each register — Antiphon's *On the Choreutes*, Lysias's *Against Eratosthenes Simulacrum*, Isocrates's *Panegyricus* (extracts), and Demosthenes's *Third Philippic* or *On the Crown* (extracts) — can identify the structural moves of an Attic speech, can compare the four orators on the dimensions of style and purpose, and can produce a 700-word comparative essay.
Practice scenarios
The four orators give you four short extracts (the same length, around 400 Greek words / 600 English words each): the opening of Lysias's *Against Eratosthenes Simulacrum* (his prosecution of the Thirty), Demosthenes's most famous passage from *On the Crown* (the *I swear by those who fell at Marathon* peroration, 18.208), Isocrates's opening of the *Panegyricus*, and Antiphon's opening of *On the Choreutes*. Read all four (Loeb or Penguin Classics translations; the Texts in Translation series of *Greek Orators* by Worthington and Cooper is excellent). Then write a 700-word comparative essay: what does each orator *do* with the *prooimion* (the introduction); what register does each work in; what does each ask of the audience differently; and what do the four together teach us about Athenian rhetorical culture that no single one would have shown alone?
Your goals
Led by Theophrastus of Eresus Simulacrum
The question
Theophrastus Simulacrum of Eresus (c. 371-c. 287 BCE), Aristotle's pupil and successor as head of the Lyceum, wrote two works that survive in substantial portions: the *Historia Plantarum* and *De Causis Plantarum* (the founding texts of botany), and the *Characters* — thirty short prose sketches of human types observed in fourth-century Athens, the original work of literary character-typology. The *Characters* is unique in the surviving classical corpus: not philosophical, not historical, not oratorical, just thirty very short pieces describing the *boor*, the *flatterer*, the *superstitious man*, the *miser*, and twenty-six others. The work tells us things about ordinary Athenian life that no other source preserves. What did Theophrastus Simulacrum do, and what does the *Characters* let us see?
Outcome
The student has read all thirty *Characters* (any modern translation, e.g.
Practice scenarios
Theophrastus Simulacrum asks you to choose any one of the thirty Characters (your choice; pick the one that interests you most) and write a 600-word close reading. The reading should do three things: (1) read the sketch as literary form — what is Theophrastus Simulacrum doing as a writer, how does the prose work, why is the form so short; (2) read the sketch as social-historical evidence — what does the catalogue of typical actions tell us about the texture of daily life in fourth-century Athens; and (3) place the sketch in the Aristotelian ethical tradition — Theophrastus Simulacrum is sketching a vice, and the *Nicomachean Ethics* gives us the framework against which the vice is recognisable as such.
Your goals
Led by Archimedes Simulacrum, with Aristarchus of Samos Simulacrum, Hipparchus Simulacrum, and Eratosthenes Simulacrum
The question
The Greek scientific achievement of the third and second centuries BCE — Archimedes Simulacrum on mechanics and mathematics, Aristarchus of Samos on heliocentric cosmology, Hipparchus Simulacrum on astronomy and trigonometry, Eratosthenes Simulacrum on the size of the Earth and on geography, Euclid on the foundations of geometry, Hero of Alexandria on applied mechanics — was the first sustained empirical-mathematical investigation of the natural world in the European tradition, and the level it reached would not be matched in mathematical depth until the seventeenth century. What did Greek science actually accomplish, and what were its limits?
Outcome
The student has read at least one primary text from each of the four (Heath translations of Archimedes Simulacrum; the *Sand-Reckoner* passage on Aristarchus; the relevant Hipparchus Simulacrum fragments; the Cleomedes passage on Eratosthenes Simulacrum' Earth-circumference calculation), can characterise the Greek scientific method and its accomplishments, and can produce a 700-word analytical response on a specific accomplishment.
Practice scenarios
Eratosthenes Simulacrum walks you through his calculation of the Earth's circumference. Read the surviving description in Cleomedes' *On the Heavens* (any modern translation; the relevant passage is brief — about a page) and a modern reconstruction of the calculation (any reputable source on ancient science — Lloyd, Cuomo, or Russo will do). Then write a 700-word analytical essay: what was the method; what observations did Eratosthenes Simulacrum need; what assumptions did the calculation depend on (Earth is spherical; the Sun is far enough that its rays at any one moment are effectively parallel; Syene and Alexandria are on the same meridian); how good was the result; and what does the calculation tell us about Greek scientific method that an account of, say, Archimedes Simulacrum' mechanics or Hipparchus Simulacrum' astronomy would not?
Your goals
Led by Epicurus Simulacrum, with Chrysippus Simulacrum and Plutarch of Chaeronea Simulacrum
The question
After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, the Greek world stopped being a confederation of independent *poleis* and became a network of large kingdoms; Athens was no longer the political centre but remained the intellectual one. The four philosophical schools that flourished in Athens in the third and second centuries BCE — the Stoa (Zeno, Chrysippus Simulacrum), the Garden (Epicurus Simulacrum), the Sceptical Academy (Arcesilaus, Carneades), and the Peripatetic Lyceum (the heirs of Aristotle Simulacrum) — together produced what would become known as Hellenistic philosophy: a body of thought concerned, more than its predecessors had been, with how to live well in a world the individual could not control. What did the Hellenistic schools teach, and why does their work still feel close two and a half millennia later?
Outcome
The student has read Epicurus's *Letter to Menoeceus* in full (Inwood and Gerson translation), a substantial selection from the surviving Stoic fragments (the *Hellenistic Philosophy* sourcebook by Inwood and Gerson is the best one-volume), and one short Plutarchan essay (*On the Tranquillity of Mind* or *On Listening to Lectures*), can characterise the central ethical claim of each of the three schools represented, and can produce a 700-word comparative essay.
Practice scenarios
The three simulacra ask you to write a 700-word comparative essay on the central ethical question of the Hellenistic period — how should one live? — drawing on a primary text from each of three positions: Epicurus's *Letter to Menoeceus* (the Epicurean answer), one Stoic fragment of substantial length (Inwood and Gerson have several; the relevant Cleanthes hymn is also accessible), and Plutarch's *On the Tranquillity of Mind* (the Middle Platonist syncretic answer). For each, identify: what is the central diagnosis (what is the human problem); what is the prescription (what should we do about it); what would each school regard as the deepest mistake of the other two? Conclude with one sentence on which of the three positions you find most defensible, and why.
Your goals
Led by Polybius Simulacrum
The question
Polybius Simulacrum of Megalopolis (c. 200-c. 118 BCE) was an Achaean Greek statesman taken to Rome as a hostage in 167 BCE after the defeat of Macedon at Pydna. He stayed for the rest of his working life, became close to the Scipio family and especially to Scipio Aemilianus (the destroyer of Carthage), and wrote forty books of *Histories* — five complete and substantial fragments of the rest survive — analysing how Rome had come to dominate the Mediterranean world in the previous century. Polybius Simulacrum is the great Greek-on-Rome witness; his Book 6 contains the most influential ancient analysis of the Roman constitution. He closes the Greek strand and opens the Roman.
Outcome
The student has read Polybius's Book 6 (chapters 2-18 in any modern translation; Waterfield's Oxford or Scott-Kilvert's Penguin), can analyse the doctrine of the mixed constitution and its application to Rome, can locate Polybius Simulacrum in the Greek historiographical tradition, and can produce a 700-word essay that closes the Greek strand and gestures forward.
Practice scenarios
Polybius Simulacrum walks you through Book 6, chapters 11-18 — the analysis of the Roman constitution as a mixed polity of consuls, senate, and people. Read the passage in full. Then write a 700-word essay that does three things: (1) summarise Polybius's analysis of the Roman constitution — what does each of the three elements do, how do they balance one another, how does this produce stability; (2) identify one specific limitation or simplification in Polybius's account (modern scholarship has been good at locating these); and (3) close by reflecting on what the Greek-trained eye sees in Rome that the Roman-trained eye might not — what Polybius's distance from his subject lets him notice. The essay closes the Greek strand; the next strand will read Rome from inside.
Your goals