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Can you help me think over an Ancient History study plan - for me?


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I haven't studied ancient history since I was 11 years old and in the 6th grade. Pathetic, I know. But after discovering classical education I have felt compelled to give myself the education I wish I had received all those years ago. So I've started out by reading through SWB's History of the Ancient World (which is very readable for a novice like me, by the way), and I'm taking notes as I go. After I'm done, I want to start a very in-depth study of the time period.

 

So, I've been perusing these boards, reading lists, etc. and am trying to formulate a plan. Below is the list I have come up with. Has anyone gone through a course of study like this on their own? If so, how long did it take you? I would love to get through this over the next 2-3 years, but the list is very long and I'm not sure how realistic that would be. What do you think?

 

I have researched some of the translations for the ancient texts and if I have one in mind it's in parenthesis next to the title. If you think I've made a bad choice (or if I haven't made one yet) I would love to hear your opinions.

 

There are a few areas where I don't have much listed - I just don't know what else to read for those areas. And I know that some of the titles are really children's books, but thought I would include them since they are highly rated (and it would be nice to have something easy to read every once in a while ;)). I added historical fiction as well because I love the genre and I think it will help me tie everything together.

 

Suggestions? Advice? Have I left out anything very important? Is there something on the list you wouldn't bother with? General information to help with my ignorance? :bigear:

 

Here's my work-in-progress:

 

General Resources (covering multiple time periods):

Chronological Study Bible

Western Civilization – Spielvogel

 

Ancient Mesopotamia:

History/Biography/Political:

Herodotus – The Histories – Strassler’s The Landmark Herodotus

The Feasts of Adonai – Moody

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Lugalbanda

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Foster)

From Distant Days….(Foster)

Historical Fiction:

Gods and Kings series

 

Ancient Egypt:

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Literature (Foster)

Historical Fiction:

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

Cat of Bubastes

 

Ancient China:

History/Biography/Political:

The Art of War

Confucius – Analects (Yu)

 

Ancient Indus River Valley:

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Bhagavad-Gita (Mascaro)

Mahabharata

Ramayana

 

Ancient Americas:

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Need a good anthology of Ancient American Mythology

 

Ancient Scandinavia/Britain:

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

D’Aulaires Book of Norse Myths

Historical Fiction:

Hadrian’s Memoirs – Yourcenar

Warrior Scarlet - Sutcliff

 

Ancient Greece:

History/Biography/Political:

Thucydides – The Peloponnesian War – Strassler’s The Landmark Thucydides

Plato – Trial & Death of Socrates, The Republic, The Apology, Crito, Meno, Protagoras, Symposium (Cooper – The Complete Works)

Plutarch – Greek Lives (Waterfield)

Euclid – The Elements (Heath)

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

The Illiad and The Odyssey (Lattimore)

Greek Lyrics (Lattimore)

Aeschylus: The Oresteia, Agamemnon, Seven Against Thebes, The Libation Bearers, Eumenides, Prometheus Bound (Fagles or Lattimore)

Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Colonus, Antigone (Fitzgerald)

Euripides: Alcestis, The Medea, Electra, Bacchae, Iphigenia in Tauris (Lattimore)

Aristophanes: The Birds, The Clouds, The Frogs, Lysistrata, Peace (Arrowsmith, Lattimore)

Aristotle: Ethics, Poetics, Politics (Sachs)

Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days (West)

D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths

Mythology by Edith Hamilton

Black Ships Before Troy by Sutcliff

Wanderings of Odysseus – Sutcliff

Historical Fiction:

Till We Have Faces - Lewis

Archimedes and the Door of Science - Bendick

 

Ancient Rome:

History/Biography/Political:

Plutarch – Roman Lives (Waterfield)

Augustine – Confessions (Chadwick), City of God (Dods)

Athanasius – On the Incarnation (Intro by C.S. Lewis)

The Didache (Ancient Christian Writers Vol. 6)

Suetonius – The 12 Caesars (Graves)

I, Claudius – (Graves)

City – MacAulay

Cicero – The Republic (Powell)

The Jewish War (Smallwood)

Meditations (Hays)

The Apostolic Fathers (Holmes)

Augustus Caesar’s World (Foster)

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Catullus – various poems (Green)

Horace – Odes (Michie)

The Aeneid – Virgil (Fitzgerald)

Ovid – The Poems of Exile (Green), Metamorphoses (Martin)

In Search of a Homeland – Lively

Antony and Cleopatra - Shakespeare

Historical Fiction:

Flames of Rome – Maier

Mark of the Lion Series

Eagle of the Ninth Series – Sutcliff

The Silver Chalice

The Robe – Douglas

Quo Vadis

Ben Hur

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Argh! I'm feeling squashed by the weight of that list!

 

You could spend some time on lighter things by mooching around on re-enactment websites. I don't know if there are any for periods or places further back than Ancient Rome, but I know there is some good stuff there. I can recommend a good volume on Roman costume if you like. Remember, what to eat and what to wear are very high on everyone's lists of Important Things!

 

:)

Rosie

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Argh! I'm feeling squashed by the weight of that list!

 

You could spend some time on lighter things by mooching around on re-enactment websites. I don't know if there are any for periods or places further back than Ancient Rome, but I know there is some good stuff there. I can recommend a good volume on Roman costume if you like. Remember, what to eat and what to wear are very high on everyone's lists of Important Things!

 

:)

Rosie

 

Thanks Rosie! I would love to read about Roman costume and Roman eating habits. :D Please share any titles you think are worth looking into! That is part of the reason why I put the historical fiction on the list, the authors have a nice habit of giving details on those little (yet very important!) things that help you understand the feel of the era.

 

What exactly do you do on a re-enactment website? Is it like role-playing?

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Wow, that is some list. I admire your tenacity. Maybe think about throwing in some Teaching Company videos. Our library has several, so you might check there first. Maybe you had these listed and I didn't see them. Sorry if that's the case.

 

Take care!

Cornflower

 

Ah, yes, videos! I didn't get as far as researching videos, but looking at the Teaching Company videos is an excellent idea, thanks!

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Thanks Rosie! I would love to read about Roman costume and Roman eating habits. :D Please share any titles you think are worth looking into! That is part of the reason why I put the historical fiction on the list, the authors have a nice habit of giving details on those little (yet very important!) things that help you understand the feel of the era.

 

Try the yahoo groups too. You can learn lots from reading those. I know there is a Roman one, but I'm not on it, so I don't have the link handy.

This book was recommended to me by on an SCA garb list, I think it was: http://www.amazon.com/World-Costume-Wisconsin-Studies-Classics/dp/0299138542/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268716335&sr=1-1

I bought it for dh, since he has a Roman persona in the SCA and I'm the one who read it :glare: It helped me very much with making my Roman garb. (I wear Roman in summer.) There is also a book on Roman food: http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Apicius-Roman-Recipes-Today/dp/1903018447/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268717186&sr=8-2 A lady on one of the yahoo groups I lurk on (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scacooksitalian/) has done a critique of it and it is very worth reading. She used to have it up on geocities, but that closed down. It's probably on here somewhere: http://www.florilegium.org/ but I can't find it. If you ask on that yahoo group, she'll answer. She's very good like that :)

 

What exactly do you do on a re-enactment website? Is it like role-playing?

 

No, I meant that historical re-enactment groups have websites and they often have great photos and collections of links.

 

Rosie

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I like Fagle's translation of the Odyssey better than Lattimore. I think it's more readable for the novice.

 

Ducking--b/c this is one of those points people will argue for hours...really! lol

 

Good luck--and don't forget, you don't have to read everything before your child gets there--sometimes it's fun to walk beside instead of to lead.

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  • 1 month later...
I haven't studied ancient history since I was 11 years old and in the 6th grade. Pathetic, I know. But after discovering classical education I have felt compelled to give myself the education I wish I had received all those years ago. So I've started out by reading through SWB's History of the Ancient World (which is very readable for a novice like me, by the way), and I'm taking notes as I go. After I'm done, I want to start a very in-depth study of the time period.

 

So, I've been perusing these boards, reading lists, etc. and am trying to formulate a plan. Below is the list I have come up with. Has anyone gone through a course of study like this on their own? If so, how long did it take you? I would love to get through this over the next 2-3 years, but the list is very long and I'm not sure how realistic that would be. What do you think?

 

I have researched some of the translations for the ancient texts and if I have one in mind it's in parenthesis next to the title. If you think I've made a bad choice (or if I haven't made one yet) I would love to hear your opinions.

 

There are a few areas where I don't have much listed - I just don't know what else to read for those areas. And I know that some of the titles are really children's books, but thought I would include them since they are highly rated (and it would be nice to have something easy to read every once in a while ;)). I added historical fiction as well because I love the genre and I think it will help me tie everything together.

 

Suggestions? Advice? Have I left out anything very important? Is there something on the list you wouldn't bother with? General information to help with my ignorance? :bigear:

 

Here's my work-in-progress:

 

General Resources (covering multiple time periods):

Chronological Study Bible

Western Civilization – Spielvogel

 

Ancient Mesopotamia:

History/Biography/Political:

Herodotus – The Histories – Strassler’s The Landmark Herodotus

The Feasts of Adonai – Moody

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Lugalbanda

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Foster)

From Distant Days….(Foster)

Historical Fiction:

Gods and Kings series

 

Ancient Egypt:

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Literature (Foster)

Historical Fiction:

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

Cat of Bubastes

 

Ancient China:

History/Biography/Political:

The Art of War

Confucius – Analects (Yu)

 

Ancient Indus River Valley:

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Bhagavad-Gita (Mascaro)

Mahabharata

Ramayana

 

Ancient Americas:

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Need a good anthology of Ancient American Mythology

 

Ancient Scandinavia/Britain:

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

D’Aulaires Book of Norse Myths

Historical Fiction:

Hadrian’s Memoirs – Yourcenar

Warrior Scarlet - Sutcliff

 

Ancient Greece:

History/Biography/Political:

Thucydides – The Peloponnesian War – Strassler’s The Landmark Thucydides

Plato – Trial & Death of Socrates, The Republic, The Apology, Crito, Meno, Protagoras, Symposium (Cooper – The Complete Works)

Plutarch – Greek Lives (Waterfield)

Euclid – The Elements (Heath)

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

The Illiad and The Odyssey (Lattimore)

Greek Lyrics (Lattimore)

Aeschylus: The Oresteia, Agamemnon, Seven Against Thebes, The Libation Bearers, Eumenides, Prometheus Bound (Fagles or Lattimore)

Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Colonus, Antigone (Fitzgerald)

Euripides: Alcestis, The Medea, Electra, Bacchae, Iphigenia in Tauris (Lattimore)

Aristophanes: The Birds, The Clouds, The Frogs, Lysistrata, Peace (Arrowsmith, Lattimore)

Aristotle: Ethics, Poetics, Politics (Sachs)

Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days (West)

D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths

Mythology by Edith Hamilton

Black Ships Before Troy by Sutcliff

Wanderings of Odysseus – Sutcliff

Historical Fiction:

Till We Have Faces - Lewis

Archimedes and the Door of Science - Bendick

 

Ancient Rome:

History/Biography/Political:

Plutarch – Roman Lives (Waterfield)

Augustine – Confessions (Chadwick), City of God (Dods)

Athanasius – On the Incarnation (Intro by C.S. Lewis)

The Didache (Ancient Christian Writers Vol. 6)

Suetonius – The 12 Caesars (Graves)

I, Claudius – (Graves)

City – MacAulay

Cicero – The Republic (Powell)

The Jewish War (Smallwood)

Meditations (Hays)

The Apostolic Fathers (Holmes)

Augustus Caesar’s World (Foster)

Literature/Poetry/Drama:

Catullus – various poems (Green)

Horace – Odes (Michie)

The Aeneid – Virgil (Fitzgerald)

Ovid – The Poems of Exile (Green), Metamorphoses (Martin)

In Search of a Homeland – Lively

Antony and Cleopatra - Shakespeare

Historical Fiction:

Flames of Rome – Maier

Mark of the Lion Series

Eagle of the Ninth Series – Sutcliff

The Silver Chalice

The Robe – Douglas

Quo Vadis

Ben Hur

 

Great list! Thanks for sharing! I never studied ancient history in all my years in school, sad but true. I started my little guys on a ancient history journey. We alternate with geography so we don't cover as much ground as we would if we did history the whole time. This year we covered or are covering:

 

Fall of man

Prehistory - cave man time

Myths and legends before the flood

Noah's flood

Ice age

Ancient Mestopotamia

 

That took up an entire school year - about 80 minutes a week for about 20 weeks of our 40 week school year. We do some reading and a lot of hands on activities. I usually read aloud one to two books per time period.

 

Next year I hope to cover ancient civilizations up to ancient Rome. I don't think we will make it to ancient Rome. I hope to cover ancient Egypt, Greece, Africa, Israel, India, China, Mongolia, Americas, and Britain.

Edited by Wehomeschool
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