"Between the fall of the Roman Empire and the brief, brilliant cultural phenomenon we call the Renaissance lay the Middle Ages - fully 1,000 years of artistic, philosophical, political, and religious turmoil and treasures. This course offers an interdisciplinary look at medieval society and culture, with an emphasis on literature, the arts, and the tumultuous historical forces at work from A.D. 500 through A.D. 1500. Medieval Europe was the world...

Classical archaeology, the excavation and analysis of ancient Greek and Roman sites, has been one of the leading branches of archaeology, pioneering its basic methods and major innovations. In these 36 half-hour lectures, Dr. John R. Hale of the University of Louisville guides the listener through 18th-century excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, tours many important archaeological sites or discoveries, from the Bronze Age to late antiquity, and...

"From the late stages of the Agricultural Revolution to the doorstep of the Scientific Revolution, this course covers western history from roughly 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1600, when the "foundations" of the modern West come into view. Beginning in the ancient Near East, moving to Greece and Rome, the course explores the shape and impact of large ancient empires, including those of Persia and Alexander the Great. It then considers Western Europe as it expands...

From the ancient battlefields of Thermopylae, Marathon, and Gaugamela, to the imperial halls of Persepolis, to the bustling marketplace of Athens, survey the conflicts between the Greeks and the Persians, as well as its impact on the world at large.

In twenty-four lectures (each 30 minutes in length), J. Rufus Fears presents an examination of the lives, achievements, and influence of seminal figures in the history of ancient Greece.