PWAD/CMPL 489

Empire and Diplomacy

Spring 2024

This course surveys foundational texts of Western literature and focuses on the theme of imperium, “supreme power or absolute dominion; empire; something resembling a political empire; imperial sovereignty, rule, or dominion.” Through our readings, we attempt to define the concept of imperium in epic literature -- see, for example, Philip Hardie, Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium and David Quint, Epic and Empire. We will explore themes and topics broadly related to power and empire, war and peace, imperialism, heroism, colonialism, irredentism, nationalism, and the negotiation of power through diplomacy. The course seeks to understand how ancient texts impact, shape, and define our world today.

Distinguished scholars will join us during the semester to help introduce and explain texts that may be unfamiliar. Internationally recognized diplomats and global leaders will share their thoughts on the play of power on the world stage today. No course prerequisites are needed to enroll.

Our selected classical texts (read in modern English translations) represent the very foundations of Western literature, thought, and spirituality. Those texts include the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, the Homeric Greek epic known as the Iliad, selections from the Bible, Virgil's Latin epic, the Aeneid, as well as texts representing the Old English tradition, including the epic Beowulf.

As a CMPL course, with an interest in literature, we will attempt to define the epic genre and to gain a better understanding of the formal qualities of epic poetry.

As a PWAD course, with an interest in history, politics, and contemporary diplomacy, we will examine the influence exerted by these ancient epics in matters of war and peace, the rise and fall of empires, imperial ambition, and related issues of defense and diplomacy. Our readings will include texts dealing with contemporary diplomacy. 

Class discussions will focus on our weekly readings, usually with a question attached to our assigned readings: why, for example, did Alexander the Great, according to Plutarch, carry a copy of the Iliad on his military campaigns? And why (as some scholars have argued) did the ancient Romans look to the Aeneid as an argument for imperialism? Or, from a more modern perspective, what is the origin of fascism? Do ancient texts account for the rise of fascism in the 20th century?

The course briefly surveys highlights from the age of Early Empires (Akkadian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Assyrian), Classical Antiquity (Hellenistic and Roman empires), and the Middle Ages (Holy Roman Empire), with selected readings from each period. The course also looks briefly at the Renaissance and modern eras in order to explore the trajectory and expansion of the British Empire.

Using the rise of the British Empire as a case study in imperial power and politics, the course will trace the origin, development, and political implications of words such as ‘Britain’ and ‘England’ and will explore the political, cultural, and historical implications surrounding the origin and development of words such as ‘Anglo-Saxon’, ‘England,’ and ‘English’. From the standpoint of ‘words as instruments of power’, for example, does it matter which word first entered the English language: the word ‘England’ or the word ‘English’? We will explore these and similar questions as we try to understand the role of languages and sacred texts in shaping and creating empires.

Course readings includes brief selections from Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -- as we explore how the concept of empire was viewed in England in the eighteenth century and as we assess Gibbon’s thesis that Rome’s decline could be blamed on a loss of civic virtue.

In a similar vein, the course will probe other retrospective assessments of past empires, including Voltaire’s remark on the Holy Roman Empire that it “was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” Finally, the course will review special contributions made during the Middle Ages to the study of rhetoric, the development of a lingua franca, and the rise of litterae humaniores, ideas that form the basis of western education and that forged the creation of “Universities.”

Video by Nathan Dufour. Commissioned by the Transatlantic Forum for Education and Diplomacy.