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    Course #

    Day

    Dates

    Time

    Room

    Fees

    Instructor
    Spring 2025
     
    History

    Register early for all classes.
    (Then you won't be disappointed if your class is full or canceled.)
     
    Registration starts 2/19 @ 8am 
     
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     Ancient Greece: Archaic Greece to the Peloponnesian Wars - 9 classes         

     

    This course will focus on Ancient Greek history, from the Archaic period (800-510 BCE) through the mid-Classic period (510-323 BCE). Guests will explore Athenian democracy's birth, Athenian culture's growth, and other notable Greek city-states, such as Sparta. The course will also examine the development of the city-state organization and the complex relationships, tensions, and alliances between them.

     

    Furthermore, the significant influence of Persia on Greek military actions and politics in the early Classical Period will be investigated, particularly how the Greco-Persian Wars and their aftermath shaped Greece. Through this conflict, Greece would briefly unite and then split into two empires of allied city-states led by Athens and Sparta, shaping Greek politics for much of the remaining Classical Period. This course will explore the formation of these empires and their influence on the early Classic Period.

     

    A deep exploration of Athenian and Spartan cultures will aid students in understanding the moral, ethical, and spiritual motivations behind these city-states' choices and chronicle their rise to power. Guests will explore this complex web of cultural exploration, political intrigue, and military actions through archaeology, primary and secondary sources, interactive lessons, and multimedia presentations. This method aims to provide students with a deep understanding of the historical events, their circumstances and consequences, and how cultural motivations and changes influenced these events and the people involved.

     
    223042  T 3/18-5/20 9-11am Room 108  Reg $90/Seniors $81 Doherty
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    The Roman Empire Part 2: Empire and Collapse

    In this course, Guests will study and explore the Roman Empire from its origins with Augustus, the first two hundred years of peace and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, and the turmoil of a series of volatile leaders and political regimes. The reigns of several emperors followed a tumultuous pattern of alternating periods of peace, political and economic stability, prosperity, and “mad” emperors and extremely socio-politically volatile times. These volatile times included civil wars, riots in the city of Rome, imperial assassinations, and military coups. Like its Republic, despite this chaotic pattern of times of peace and civil conflict, the Roman Empire thrived and survived for centuries. It grew significantly, stretching from Rome into most of Europe, North Africa, and a large section of the Near East, eventually splitting into two empires at the end of the third century CE. Both empires continued to thrive until the pressures of the migration era and economic and political instability led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE. Guests will explore how Rome grew a successful empire despite its continuing pattern of periods of peace and growth and great domestic turmoil and instability, and how the “Roman” cultural identity continued to shift and change based on the interactions and influences of the many cultures the empire encountered and, in some cases, absorbed through its growth. This course will examine the history of the Empire from its beginning in the first century CE, its growth peaked in the late third century, and the eventual collapse of the Western Empire nearly a century later.

    Guests will explore Rome's growth and collapse as an Empire through a cross-disciplinary study using conventional methods, multimedia elements such as videos, interactive and hands-on exercises, and experiential means such as investigating and handling recreations of Roman artifacts, demonstrations, board games, and other interactive means.

    Recommended Reading: Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard (ISBN-10:0871404222).

    Please NOTE: There will not be class held on Thursday, March 27, 2025.
    223044  Th 3/20-5/29 9-11am Room 108  Reg $90/Seniors $81 Doherty
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    Spring Holidays: 13/31-4/4, 5/26 
    Del Valle Education Center, 1963 Tice Valley Blvd, Walnut Creek