Greek Civilization in the Open

Extract

In an earlier article in this journal the decision of the Open University to offer two half-credit courses on classical civilization was noted.1 The first of these, ‘The Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity’, has been available since 1974. The matching halfcredit was to be on Greece. We readily decided to concentrate on Athens and on the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. This is not a history course: it is an attempt to look at the total culture of a period, and the period virtually selected itself. Aeschylus has not found a place in the drama course: we felt that the Oresteia must come in here. For philosophy Plato was essential, and, it was felt after discussion, Aristotle too, even if he seeped beyond our probable historical bounds. For it was plainly going to be impossible to treat the Persian Wars at one end or Alexander at the other, and do any justice to the events and movements which lay between.