This is another interesting free course run via Coursera, created by The Wesleyan University and presented by Professor Andrew Szegedy-Maszak. It’s a good starting point with which to learn about some of the battles, significant persons, and events of Ancient Greece.
Over 7 weeks the course covers:
Prehistory to Homer
The Archaic Age (ca. 800-500 BCE)
Two City-States: Sparta and Athens
Democracy. The Persian Wars
“The Great 50 Years” (ca. 480-431 BCE)
The Peloponnesian War I
The End of the War, the End of the Century
We learn about Homer, Socrates, Thucydides, Critias, Herotodus, and the major players in the array of battles, laws, political systems and arrangements and shenanigans which went on during this important period in European history. There is one video on women in Greek society but other than fairly brief mentions women and the lower classes aren’t discussed in detail (to be fair this IS a short course and there is not a lot of info remaining about the common man and woman in Greek society).
The course comprises of informative videos and reading. I have to confess I didn’t do much of the reading (partly as I’ve done some in the past and partly because I didn’t have a lot of time) and I would have got more out of this had I done so – my bad.
I’d recommend doing at least some of the readings, and watching all the videos. There are quizzes to be completed at the end of each section – and these count as the grading for the course so MUST be completed.
The tutor was very engaging, easy to listen to and obviously is very well informed on this historical era. There were a couple of issues with sound quality – but I have found this an issue with Coursera before (but to be fair the course is free).
Coursera is a good way to pick up cheap or free ‘taster’ courses (One can pay for the course and gain a certificate – otherwise you can an acknowledgement of completion but no actual certificate. The cost of this is not much.)
Overall I enjoyed this and would certainly look out for more courses from this university and tutor.
4 stars.
Library of Erana 
Looks interesting. Always nice to hold history (and the mythology which surrounds it or is formed by it) close to heart.
Not just to avoid the same mistakes but also to be inspired, in more ways than one.
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It’s an interesting course. I’ve studied the area and history in the past but that was a while ago. This course is a good starting point.
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