Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Paul McKechnie
Contact via paul.mckechnie@mq.edu.au
W6A500
Open door policy
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Credit points |
Credit points
4
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
Admission to MA in (Ancient History or Coptic Studies or ECJS or Egyptology or History or Late Antiquity or Ancient Art and Architecture) or PGDipArts in (Ancient History or ECJS) or PGCertArts in (Ancient History or Coptic Studies)
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit provides an in-depth study of Athens and its empire in the fifth century BCE, commencing with Cleisthenes' reforms. Athens' role in the Persian wars will be examined, and the evidence (documentary and literary) for the Delian League will be studied from the foundation of the League until its dissolution with the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Due |
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Minor essay | 20% | 4 April 2014 |
Major essay | 40% | 23 May 2014 |
Take-home exam | 40% | 20 June 2014 |
Due: 4 April 2014
Weighting: 20%
Write an essay (word-limit 1500 words including footnotes but not including bibliography list) on one of the four titles given below.
1. ‘Herodotus’ emphasis is on demonstrating the inadequacy of simple slogans to do justice to the reality of a complex piece of history and complex motivations’, writes Emily Baragwanath. How helpful, or otherwise, for historical purposes is Herodotus’ account of the end of the Athenian tyranny?
2. ‘Cleisthenes knew that there could be no turning back to rule by aristocratic faction―or at least he saw that any attempt to turn back the clock would bring on a bloodbath and make effective resistance to Sparta impossible’, writes Josiah Ober. Is he right to make a connection between Cleisthenes’ changes at Athens and ‘resistance to Sparta’?
3. ‘[The battle of Lade],’ writes Rosaria Vignolo Munson, ‘from the point of view of the text [of Herodotus], is both analogous and antithetical to the battle of Salamis, just as the entire Ionian Revolt comes across as a sort of botched-up preliminary of the PersianWars’. Is this a perceptive comment on Herodotus’ historical treatment of the Ionian Revolt?
4. Was Ephialtes (as T.E. Rihll phrases it) ‘the man who finished what Solon began and Kleisthenes pushed forward’?
Whichever title you choose, use the Department of Ancient History Style Guide, and see the assessment section in the iLearn site for further hints. Submit your essay by 5 p.m. on Friday of Week 5 (4 April 2014) through the online submission system or in hard copy, and make sure you do the cover sheet right.
Due: 23 May 2014
Weighting: 40%
Write an essay (word-limit 3000 words including footnotes but not including bibliography list) on one of the four titles given below.
1. How important were the Megarian decrees as compared with other causes of the Peloponnesian War?
2. M.H.B. Marshall writes that ‘Thucydides’ dislike of Cleon, contrasting with his favour for Pericles, is despite considerable similarity in their actual policies.’ Is this fair comment?
3. ‘Our author may not be a great thinker and he is certainly not a stylist. But he gives us a unique view on the Athenian democracy from the period not long before it faced its crisis and was temporarily overthrown. The brief rule of the Four Hundred and the early transition from a compromise government to full democracy curiously and impressively confirms the main thesis of the anonymous work’ H.B. Mattingly
How strong is Mattingly’s case for a late dating of pseudo-Xenophon’s Constitution of the Athenians?
4. About the Melian Dialogue, A.B. Bosworth writes, ‘For the Athenians the Melian position is the ultimate triumph of hope over expediency, and the appeals to justice are simply an evasion of reality. … For many scholars this exemplifies the degeneration of moral terminology …; in their opinion the Athenians rewrite the language of moral discourse to serve their immediate interests. On the contrary I would argue that the Athenians use highly traditional arguments and it is the Melian position which is sophistical.’
Has Bosworth taken his provocative argument so far that it fails to make sense?
Whichever title you choose, use the Department of Ancient History Style Guide, and see the assessment section in the iLearn site for further hints. Submit your essay by 5 p.m. on Friday of Week 10 (23 May 2014) through the online submission system or in hard copy, and make sure you do the cover sheet right.
Due: 20 June 2014
Weighting: 40%
A take-home examination will be set. Four questions must be answered. The word-length for answers to the exam as a whole is 2,500 words, so that each answer should be approximately 625 words long. Some leeway is allowed on length, but there will be no extra marks for long answers.
The take-home examination is not another essay. Footnoting should not be used, and bibliographies should not be given. What is required is a set of well thought out but relatively brief answers to analytical questions drawn from across the ideas and events dealt with in the unit. The idea is that is should be possible to do the take-home exam in three hours, although there is no way of checking that a student does not spend four or five hours writing the answers: note again that there will be no credit for extra length.
The questions for the take-home examination will be made available in the iLearn unit during Week 13 of the Study Period.
Submit your answers by 5 p.m. on Friday of Week 14 (20 June 2014) through the online submission system, and make sure you do the cover sheet right.
Delivery mode
External and internal
This unit will use
iLearn and Echo 360
Handing in work
Written work must be submitted by internal students through the Arts Student Centre (via the AHIS assignment box) on Level 1, W6A. External students submit work through the Centre for Open Education. Students must print and attach a completed coversheet to all submitted work. A personalized assignment coversheet is generated from the student section of the Faculty of Arts website at:
http://www.arts.mq.edu.au/current_students/undergraduate/admin_central/coversheet
Please provide your student details and click the Get my assignment coversheet button to generate your personalized assignment cover sheet.
Lecture times and locations
No face to face lectures in the external version of this unit.
Internal: Wednesdays 4.00-5.00, X5B 134; Thursdays 4.00-5.00 E5A 150.
For current updates, lecture times and classrooms please consult the MQ Timetables website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au
Required and recommended resources
Online units can be accessed at: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/
PC and Internet access are required. Basic computer skills (e.g., internet browsing) and skills in word processing are also a requirement. Any problem, contact onehelp@mq.edu.au (9850 4357) and not the course convener.
Please contact onehelp@mq.edu.au (9850 4357) for any further, more specific IT requirements:
Face-to-Face IT help: Building C5C Room 244, Macquarie University Online: OneHelp Phone: (02) 9850 HELP, (02) 9850 4357 (in Sydney) or 1800 MQ HELP (outside Sydney) Email: help@mq.edu.au
Week |
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Lecture |
Assessment |
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1 |
3 March |
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2 |
10 March |
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3 |
17 March |
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4 |
24 March |
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5 |
31 March |
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Hand in minor essay |
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6 |
7 April |
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7 |
28 April |
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8 |
5 May |
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9 |
12 May |
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10 |
19 May |
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Hand in major essay |
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11 |
26 May |
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12 |
2 June |
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13 |
9 June |
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Do take-home exam |
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Criteria and standards for grading against which individual pieces of work will be judged
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Extensions and Penalties
Without documentation (medical or counselling certificates) or prior staff approval, a penalty of 2% a day, including weekends, will be applied.
If you need an extension ask for it before hand-in time. Unless of minimal duration, extensions can only be granted for documented medical reasons or on documented compassionate grounds.
Returning assignments
Marked work will be returned to external students via Australia Post. Internal students will receive their work back in class.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
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