State of Siege!
Building, Attacking and Defending Walls
in the Greek and Roman World
ARCH 0405
Mo/We/Fr 2:00-2:50
Europos Dura (Syria)
Instructor: Sylvian Fachard
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Rhode Island Hall, 60 George Street, Room 214, Ph: 863-6935
Email:
Office hours: Mondays 3-5, and/or by appointment.
Teaching Assistant: Elizabeth Murphy
Email:
Ø Course wiki address: http://proteus.brown.edu/wallsandfortifications2013/Home
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From the Mycenaean citadels to the Roman walls of Doura Europos on the Euphrates, this course will examine the most spectacular fortifications of the Graeco-Roman world – dramatic features which stand as monumental symbols of power even today. We will learn how to build them, how to defend them, and how to breach them by studying some of the best walls and famous sieges of Antiquity.
Course description
Ancient inhabitants of the broader Mediterranean never questioned the usefulness of protective walls, as their erections of expensive and monumental defenses show. This course will examine the reasons for such large-scale fortifications. We will look at how stone and mud brick walls were built, and we will try to assess the economic burden of their construction on ancient populations. We will study walls from the points of view of both the besiegers and the defenders during the most famous sieges of Antiquity. We will also examine how walls were described by ancient authors and how they were represented in ancient art. Finally, we will see how Greek military architecture evolved and how some of its features were subsequently adopted and transformed by the Romans, the Byzantines and the Crusaders.
Course requirements:
This course is designed to be interactive and to give students opportunities to engage in class discussions and to present their own work, ask questions, and otherwise participate in a lively intellectual environment throughout the semester. All students are expected to attend class regularly, actively participate in class discussions, and complete all of the readings and assignments outlined in the syllabus by the date assigned.
Grade percentages:
Class participation and attendance (10%).
ØFour Quizzes (20%): Friday 2/8; Monday 2/25; Wednesday 3/20; Friday 4/22.
ØMidterm exam (25%): Friday 3/8.
ØFinal project and paper: 20%.
Presentation: Friday 4/12; Paper due Friday 4/19.
ØFinal exam (25%): due on Friday 5/8.
For the final project, several choices are possible: one can build a siege machine (Greek or Roman), draw the plan of a strong fortification, build a scale model of an ancient fortification, measure the impact of stone balls against a wall, draw some 3D views of fortresses, etc. Be creative! Class will be divided into small groups. Each group presents its project on Friday 4/12, but each member of the group has to submit a 5-page paper which accompanies the project.
Final projects must be submitted to the instructor and teaching assistant for approval.
Brown University is committed to full inclusion of all students.
Students who, by nature of a documented disability, require academic accommodations should contact the instructor during office hours. Students may also speak with Student and Employee Accessibility Services at 401-863-9588 to discuss the process for requesting accommodations.
All Brown students are responsible for understanding and following Brown's academic code, which can be downloaded below:
http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean_of_the_College/curriculum/documents/academic-code.pdf
Classroom decorum: Please maintain an appropriate decorum in class. Please ensure that your cell phone/pda/ipod/blackberry/etc. is turned off and silenced.
If you use your PC during class, please make sure you use it for class related purposes (i.e. note taking) and not for web surfing purposes or social media.
Please do not consume food prodigiously or noisily during class, and please clean up after yourself when you leave the classroom.
If problems arise, or you experience difficulties with the material, please see the instructor or the teaching assistant sooner rather than later.
Most importantly, enjoy the course and have a good semester!
Week 1. Introduction. Why Build Walls?
W 1/23 Introduction
F 1/25 The first walls
W. J. Hamblin. Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC (2006) 14-34.
[Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands in the Light of Archaeological Study (1963) 1-31].
Week 2. The Origins: The Near East.
M 1/28 Bronze Age fortifications in the Near East
W. J. Hamblin. Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC (2006)185-214.
W 1/30 Siege techniques
W. J. Hamblin. Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC (2006) 215-236.
F 2/1 Troy and Hattusa.
W. J. Hamblin. Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC (2006) 285-307.
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Week 3. Building Mycenaean Fortifications without the Cyclops.
M 2/4 Mycenaean fortifications: an overview
H. R. Simpson & D. K. Hagel, Mycenaean Fortifications, Highways, Dams and Canals (2006) 23- 30; 141-143.
S. E. Iakovidis, Late Helladic Citadels on Mainland Greece (1983) 23-43; 73-90.
W 2/6 The walls of the week: Tiryns and Midea
S. E. Iakovidis, Late Helladic Citadels on Mainland Greece (1983) 3-22.
*F 2/8 The discussion of the week: What happened to the citadels?
S. Deger-Jalkotzy, "Decline, Destruction, Aftermath", in C. W. Shelmerdine, The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age (2008) 387-407.
*Friday 8/2 Quiz 1 Early walls
Week 4. Geometric and Archaic Fortifications in the Greek World.
M 2/11 Overview
R. Frederiksen, Greek City Walls of the Archaic Period, 900-480 BC (2011) 8-40; 50-61.
W 2/13 The site of the week: Sardis (F. Rojas)
F. E. Winter, Greek Fortifications (1971) 289-302.
W 2/15 The debate of the week: did Homer see fortifications?
A. M. Snodgrass, "The Historical Significance of Fortification in Archaic Greece", in: P. Leriche H. Tréziny., La fortification dans l'histoire du monde grec, Actes, La fortification et sa place dans l'histoire politique, culturelle et sociale du monde grec, Valbonne, décembre 1982 (1986) 125-131.
R. Frederiksen, Greek City Walls of the Archaic Period, 900-480 BC (2011) 103-120.
Week 5. Bring money and stonecutters!
How to build a Greek city-wall in the 4th century BC.
M 2/18 no class
A. W. Lawrence, Greek Aims in Fortification (1979) 201-245.
W 2/20 The Building Experience
Ch. Ratté, Lydian Architecture. Ashlar Masonry Structures at Sardis (2011) 23-45.
[Further reading: R. Frederiksen, Greek City Walls of the Archaic Period, 900-480 BC (2011) 62- 69].
[Further reading: R. L. Scranton, Greek Walls (1941)].
F 2/22 Towers, gates and posterns
A. W. Lawrence, Greek Aims in Fortification (1979) 302-342.
[Further reading: F. E. Winter, Greek Fortifications (1971) 152-203]
Week 6. Siege Warfare during the Peloponnesian War.
*M 2/25 Overview
F. E. Winter, Greek Fortifications (1971) 303-310.
P. B. Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (1999) 89-97.
*Quiz 2 Masonry techniques and components.
[Further reading: Thucydides, Peloponnesian War].
[Further reading: Ph. De Souza, W. Heckel, & L. Llewellyn-Jones, The Greeks at War. From Athens to Alexander (2004) 101- 187].
W 2/27 The siege of the week: Plataea, 429-427 BC.
Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, II, 71-78; III 51-68.
P. B. Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (1999) 97-134.
F 2/29 The fate of the vanquished
P. B. Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (1999) 135-162.
Week 7. How to Survive under Siege in the 4th century BCE.
M 3/4 Greek cities in the 4th century: security issues and realities
P. B. Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (1999) 163-201.
W 3/6 Aeneas the Tactician
Aeneas the Tactician, How to Survive under Siege.
[Further reading: J. V. Tejada, "Warfare, History and Literature in the Archaic and Classical Periods: The Development of Greek Military Treatises" Historia 53 (2004), pp. 129-146].
**F 3/8 Midterm examination (on material through week 7)
Week 8. Siege Warfare in the Age of Alexander and his Successors.
M 3/11 Military revolution?
A. W. McNicoll, Hellenistic Fortifications from the Aegean to the Euphrates (1997) 46-74.
[Further reading: P. B. Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (1999) 201-236].
W 3/13 Hellenistic fortifications
Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, II 15-25.
Philo of Byzantium, translated by A. W. Lawrence, Greek Aims in Fortification (1979) 75-107. P. B. Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (1999) 237-248.
F 3/15 Discussion: Assessing the importance of artillery
S. Cuomo, Technology and Culture in Greek and Roman Antiquity (2007) 41-76.
J. Ober, "Towards a Typology of Greek Artillery Towers: The First and Second Generations (c. 375-275 B.C." in Fortificationes Antiquae (1992).
[Further reading: J. Ober, "Artillery Towers: Messenia, Boiotia, Attica, Megarid", AJA 91 (1987) 569-604]
[Further reading: T. E. Rihll, "On Artillery Towers and Catapult Sizes", BSA 101 (2006) 379-383].
[Further reading: D. B. Campbell, "Ancient Catapults: Some Hypotheses Reexamined", Hesperia 80 (2011) 677-700]
Week 9. Roman Siege Warfare.
M 3/18 Sieges of the Punic Wars
P. B. Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (1999) 251-298.
A. K. Goldsworthy, The Roman Army at War, 100 BC-AD 200 (1996) 12-33; 100-115.
W 3/20 The siege of the week: Alesia, 52 BC.
C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War, VII, 63-90 [text available here].
F 3/22 Treatment of captured cities
P. B. Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (1999) 310-351.
Week 10 spring recess
Week 11.Building Forts and Fortresses for the Roman Army
M 4/1 The Roman Fort
A Johnson, Roman Forts of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD in Britain and the German Provinces (1983) 17-95.
[Further reading: R. H. Jones, Roman Camps in Britain (2011)].
W 4/3 Life in the fort: Vindolanda
A. K. Bowman, Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier. Vindolanda and its People (1994) 13-19; 65-99.
[Further reading: R. Birley, Vindolanda, a Roman Frontier Fort on Hadrian's Walls (2009)].
*F 4/5 Legion fortresses
W. H. Manning, "The Fortresses of Legio XX", in: R. J. Brewer (ed.) Roman Fortresses and their Legions (2000) 69-81.
*Friday 3/22 Quiz 3 the Roman fort
Week 12. Fortifying the Frontiers of Britain.
M 4/8 Hadrian's Wall, 122 AD.
D. J. Breeze, The Frontiers of Imperial Rome (2011) 55-91.
R. Colins, Hadrian's Wall and the End of Empire. The Roman Frontier in the 4th and 5th Centuries (2012) 26-35; 154-169.
[Further reading: D. J. Breeze & B. Dobson, Hadrian's Wall (20004)]
W 4/10 Antonine's Wall
W. S. Hanson, "Scotland and the Northern Frontier: Second to Fourth Centuries AD" in: M. Todd (ed.) A Companion to Roman Britain (2004) 136-158.
[Further reading: D. J. Breeze, The Antonine Wall (2006)]
*F 4/12 Project presentations
Week 13. Fortifying the Desert
M 4/15 Roman fortifications in the East
R. Kennedy, The Roman Army in Jordan (2004) 44-54.
Thomas Parker, "Roman Legionary Fortresses in the East", in: R. J. Brewer (ed.) Roman Fortresses and their Legions (2000) 121-135.
W 4/17 The siege of the week: Dura Europos, 256 AD
S. James, "Stratagems, Combat, and “Chemical Warfare” in the Siege Mines of Dura-Europos", AJA 115 (2011) 69-101.
*F 4/19 Debate of the week: What is the best frontier defense?
D. J. Breeze, The Frontiers of Imperial Rome (2011) 177-212.
**Final papers due on Friday 4/19
Week 14. The Greco-Roman Heritage: from the Byzantines to the Crusaders.
M 4/22 Overview
A. W. Lawrence, "A Skeletal History of Byzantine Fortification", BSA 78 (1983) 171-227.
H. Kennedy, Crusader Castles (20014) 11-20.
[Further reading: T. E. Lawrence, Crusader Castles (19882) 6-33].
W 4/24 The site of the week: Krak des Chevaliers, 1271 AD
H. Kennedy, Crusader Castles (20014) 98-119.
F 4/26 The siege of the week: Constantinople 1453 AD (F. Kondyli)
H. Kennedy, Crusader Castles (20014) 180-189.
FINAL EXAM: 5/8
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