Assignment for Wednesday, January 28:

Read: Thucydides, Book 7 (Penguin pp. 478-537, Defeat of Athenians in Sicily)

P. Hutton, History as an art of memory (a copy of this is on our reserve shelf in Odegaard; and it was an optional text for you to purchase), pp. xi-xxv (the Introduction) and pp. 1-32. If you have time and are so inclined, you might also read pp. 154-68.

‘One hour or two-page paper’: Summarize why Hutton thinks ‘history’ is an ‘art of memory’. If time/space allows: agree or disagree with him. This may give you a chance to revisit what you said in your first paper (see if you still believe what you wrote a couple of weeks ago).

To think about:

Thucydides’ account of the Sicilian expedition – and specifically the defeat in the Great Harbor of Syracuse (which you’ll read in Book 7) – was one of his most famous and imitated passages. It became, in fact, something of a paradigm for how to write a battle scene. Consider how it differs from, say, the Battle of Marathon in Hdt. What does Thuc. think you need to know…what does he consider, that is, ‘memorable’? By the same token, be prepared to identify what you found to be the most striking (and therefore memorable) moments in Book 7.

If Hdt. is interested in the ‘klea andron’ (the renown of men’), what do you conclude (from reading Book 7) Thuc. is interested in?

NB: By this Friday you should have met with me to choose (even if only in a general way) a topic for your presentation/paper and a date. My office hr. is Wed. 11-12, and I should be available before then as well; and again on Friday morning – but please make an app’t. rather than just dropping in!