Last fall, Yale University introduced a second round of open courses that included Donald Kagan’s Introduction to Ancient Greek History. A major figure in the field, Kagan takes students from the Greek Dark Ages, through the rise of Sparta and Athens, The Peloponnesian War, and beyond. You’ll cover more than a millennium in 24 lectures. Above, we start with the first lecture, which talks about why the Ancient Greeks should still matter to us today. As I’ve noted elsewhere, Yale’s courses are well produced. And what’s particularly nice is that the course can be downloaded in one of many formats (text, audio, flash video, low bandwidth quicktime video, and high bandwidth quicktime video). Or you can grab it on YouTube (as above) and iTunes too. Simply choose the format that works for you, and you’re good to go. For more free courses on the Ancients, please see our page called: Learning Ancient History for Free.
I’ve listened to the first 4 or 5 lectures and they are very good. Kagan is one of the better professors I have heard. He keeps things interesting, avoids excessive technical jargon and stultifying minutiae, and presents the different views in the scholarship where there is controversy on a point.