Topic I : Near Eastern Origins of "Western" Civilization

• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Songs of the Birdcatcher's Daughter
• Harper's Songs

Topic II : Near Eastern Empires in the Second Millennium BCE

• Laws of Ancient Mesopotamia
• The Letters of Deir el-Medina

Topic III : The Hebrews, The Assyrians, and the Persians

• The Book of Ezekiel
• The Book of I Kings
• Herodotus, The Histories:  Customs of the Persians
• The Torah:  Laws

Topic IV : Greece to the Peloponnesian War

• Hesiod, Works and Days
• Spartan Society and Values
• Herodotus, The Histories:  The Second Persian Invasion of Greece
• Thucydides, The Peloponnesian Wars

Topic V : Hellenistic Culture and Society

• Plato, The Republic
• Aristotle, Politics
• Epictetus, The Manual: Stoicism
• Hellenistic Authors, Short Poems

Topic VI : When All Roads Led to Rome

• The Twelve Tables
• Cicero, On the Laws
• Columella, Management of a Large Estate
• Tacitus, Germania
• The Gospel of Matthew

Topic VII : The Roman Empire and Christianity

• The Theodosian Code:  Roman Law
• Igantius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans
• Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks
• St. Augustine, City of God

Topic VIII: In the Wake of Rome: Byzantium, Islam, and the Carolingians

• Muhammed, The Quran
• Monastic Clamors, Curses, and Excommunications

Topic IX : State and Society in the High Middle Ages

• The Statutes of Lorris
• The Charter of Liberties for St. Omer
• The Magna Carta
• Las Siete Partidas:  Castialian Law Code

Topic X: Religious and Intellectual Life in the High Middle Ages

• Pope Boniface VIII, Papal Bull Unam Sanctam
• Otto of Freising, The Deeds of Fredrick Barbarossa
• St. Francis, The Rule of 1223 and The Testament
• St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

Topic XI : The Waning of the Middle Ages

• Boccaccio, The Decameron
• Hus, The Church
• The Trial of Jeanne d'Arc
• The Distribution of Wealth in Tuscany in 1427

Topic XII : Europe Confronts the World

• William of Rubruck, On the Mongols
• Doukas, Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks
• Columbus, Letter on His First Voyage
• Manuel I, "The Letter Which the King...."

Topic XIII : The Renaissance

• Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography
• Vassari, The Lives of the Artists
• Leonardo Da Vinci, The Notebooks
• Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier

Be sure that you have started reading Machiavelli, The Prince!

Topic XIV : The Reformation  

• Calvin, Draft Ecclesiastical Ordinances
• Luther, Appeal to the Christian Nobility
• Statement of Grievances, the Diet of Worms, 1521
• Oath of Allegiance (Henry VIII)

Topic XV : For God and King: The Wars of Religion and State Building

• Bodin, On Sovereignty
• Hobbes, Leviathan