The Ancient Greeks

A sweeping tour of Greek history, Bronze Age to Socrates

Wesleyan University's survey course covers ancient Greek civilization from the Bronze Age all the way through the death of Socrates in 399 BCE — a long enough span to trace how Greek society, politics, and thought actually evolved rather than treating ancient Greece as one flat era.

What the course draws on

• Political history and the emergence of early forms of governance
• Art history and material culture alongside political events
• Connections to anthropology and international relations, for readers interested in how Greek ideas echoed forward

With nearly 118,000 learners, it's clearly built as a genuine liberal-arts survey — the kind of course that works whether you're brushing up on classical history for its own sake or building context for later reading in political science, philosophy, or art history. No prior background in classics is assumed going in.