I learned SO much in this course! Mr. Lendon is an absolute blast, who knows a ton about ancient greece. He asks a lot of his students -- there's a lot of IDs, a good amount of writing, and a lot of reading -- so you shouldn't take this course as an easy A. If you have time, PLEASE put consistent effort into this course, DO NOT try and learn all the IDs right before the tests and quizzes. You will have two chances to write an essay -- take the first one if you have time. I didn't read all of Herodotus and Thuc but I still got a fairly good grade. Overall, I would definitely take this course again!

Take this course! Coming from a non-history major, Lendon made me look forward to every lecture and I can truly say I enjoyed each one. He's witty, eloquently spoken, and has a knack for storytelling in a way that kept my attention -- he changes his volume, expression, and pace often -- on topics that can be confusing and/or lengthy. It's a privilege to learn from him, and one I think every UVa student should take advantage of. Each lecture ended with a Lendon-signature cliffhanger that ties up in a neat little bow all that we learned that day while foreshadowing the next class. Unlike other classes, nobody packs up until he finishes his lectures. The readings were, admittedly, really tedious and I sometimes dreaded taking the time to do them. But if you allot the time needed (maybe ~2 hours/day if it's a lengthy assignment), they aren't that bad. The textbook is good for understanding the events in modern language, and although the historical texts can be difficult to digest, weekly discussion breaks them down. For discussion, Kevin Woram is a fantastic TA. He made me look forward to every discussion because he was funny, approachable, respectful, and genuinely helpful in organizing huge chunks of history in my mind. The midterm and final were, in my opinion, highly stressful beforehand but with enough studying, not too difficult-- that is to say, the course provides you with the necessary info so it's not blindsiding, but it requires work to memorize and understand. The essay(s) are a good way to improve your grade because you have a reasonably long timeframe to complete one or both ~7 page double spaced papers (depending on which option you choose). Memorizing dates is crucial to doing well in the class, and Lendon states early on that if this isn't your forte, it will be difficult. But, all in all, if you're willing to put in the work, the class is great!

Lendon is an amazing lecturer. I never wanted to miss a single class and truly enjoyed listening. The readings are numerous and lengthy but missing one here or there shouldn’t be a problem if you go to class. 10/10 recommend this class for anyone willing to put in the time.

Taking this class was probably the best decision of my life. To start, let me talk about Professor Lendon. He is a phenomenal lecturer and honestly one of the most fun people I've ever talked to. I started going to office hours every week just for fun because he's just absolutely fantastic. Every lecture is a story, and often times he'll leave off on a cliffhanger that'll leave you hungry for more. (i.e. "From there, Alcibiades vanished from Athens and reappeared in Sparta, where he was found sleeping with the queen. Next time, ladies and gentlemen.") His last lecture on Alexander the Great was truly beautiful and the way it ended was truly worthy of the applause he got. I know every semester ends with professors receiving applause, however Professor Lendon certainly had the loudest applause out of all of my instructors.

That being said, only take this class if you're prepared to do the work, because it has a lot. We'll get to the exams in a second, but let's begin with how much work is assigned for every week. You'll usually have about 30-60 pages of textbook reading assigned for every lecture. These do not need to be done. In fact, I think at some point he stated himself that the textbook is basically only there if a) you miss lecture and need to review and b) to study for the exam. I never missed a single lecture, but I used it a lot to study for the exam. It's actually a pretty horrible textbook, so it's only really good to study. In terms of other work, you can have up to 150-200 pages a week assigned of primary source material. This could range from Herodotus and Thucydides to the plays of Aristophanes to Plato's Apology to the Iliad (week 1) to the poems of Solon. However, you pretty much only have to read these primary sources for your once a week discussion section, so you have plenty of time to get through it. Because you only need to read for your discussion, the reading is actually pretty manageable.

Here's the grade distribution: Mid-Term—25%, Final—30%, One paper—25%, Discussion Participation—10%, Discussion Quizzes—10%.

Let me go through each of these. For both the mid-term and the final, you will have to do Term IDs, Passage IDs, and handwritten essays. The Term IDs are by far the most difficult. For every week's lectures (of which there are 2) you will be assigned between 15 and 30 terms and you will have to memorize not only the significance of each of them, but also the exact date (i.e. Solon's Archon Year was 594/3 BCE; the Battle of Cyzicus was fought in the year 410 BCE; construction on the Parthenon began in 447 BCE; etc.) for ALL of them (the super early stuff is a little easier because there aren't exact dates for a lot of things, but after the mid-term stuff for the final is HELL). The Passage IDs are a little easier as long as you're keeping up with your readings. The handwritten essays are also extremely easy if you attend and pay attention in discussion and if you've memorized all the terms. The best way to prep for the exams is to focus on memorizing the terms, because not only are those the meat of the grade, those are also a great way to review the overarching stuff since you end up going through the important points multiple times when learning various terms. For instance, how best to understand the Peace of Nicias? By understanding every little detailed event during the Peace of Nicias multiple times because there are basically multiple terms for every event (names, places, events, etc.). This is a hard class.

The paper is assigned based on the work of either Herodotus or Thucydides—you can choose which one to write. It is 7 pages long. You can also choose to write both Herodotus AND Thucydides, and the grade that is higher will be the one that is counted (and if the second one is better, you'll get a little bonus for improving). It's not an easy paper to write, and you need to expand your evidence beyond the assigned reading (which is hard, because there is a LOT of assigned reading on both of them), and so it takes a LOT of time to work through all the volumes of their works to be able to collect all your evidence and finally begin writing (took me two all nighters). This is a hard class.

Other than that, the class is mostly fun, just about 4-5 nights of seemingly insurmountable stress in the whole semester, and other than that you're golden. Discussion participation is easy even if you haven't done the reading, and the discussion quizzes are easy (also I think the lowest one is dropped, which is good because there aren't even that many to begin with). Never miss a lecture, because you don't want to read that god-awful textbook, and always attend discussion because it's mandatory. If you absolutely need to miss one (like for an exam, as I had to once), try to attend a different discussion section.

Overall, the professor is amazing, the textbook is garbage but you don't need it, there is a LOT of primary source reading, the paper can make your life hell but can actually also be incredibly fun (like it was for me, I LOVE Herodotus), the exams are incredibly difficult but only stress you out twice in one semester. If you're willing to put in the work and, come exam season, have the contents of your mind be completely overtaken by the world of Ancient Greece, I would highly recommend taking this course. Also, for TA, you want Lily van Diepen if you can get her. She is the best. I wrote a review for her too.

Take it, no questions asked. You learn a lot, and Lendon is easily the best professor I have ever had. Kevin Woram is great in discussion too and is very willing to help if you are finding the course difficult. Do not listen to London on the first day, he just wants to make sure the right students are taking the class.

I made the grave error of not attending about half of the lectures. As you can read from the reviews below it's necessary and extremely rewarding. I slacked on the readings and identifications before the midterm and test but had a pretty decent understanding of each definition. The grading is not terrible, I still managed a B+ with what I consider pretty bad effort. Definitely 1) don't be intimidated by Lendon or the amount of reading 2) GO TO LECTURE 3) Know the ID's frontward and backwards 4) READ and you will be more than fine in what is one of the better classes at UVa

Absolutely phenomenal class, and really not as difficult as it's made out to be. Lendon is probably the best lecturer at UVA - I didn't miss a single class, and only because I really didn't want to. The workload is ~medium. Go to class and pay attention and take notes. As far as the reading goes, he assigns a lot. Most of it is interesting. I did it all before the midterm and started being a LOT less religious about it afterwards - did fine on the first paper so I didn't have to write the 2nd one (he lets you just write 1 of the 2 papers, but write the first one so you can salvage things if you do poorly). Participate in your discussions. The most time intensive thing for me was memorizing the terms before the midterm and the final. I really recommend doing that fully and well. Know your dates, know your names, know how they relate - it really doesn't take that long. Ended up with an A in the class.

TAKE THIS FREAKING CLASS.

Professor Lendon is an outstanding lecturer. His lectures make the hours of reading and writing worth it. His lecturing ability is unmatched by other professors. However, if you don't do the readings, you will probably end up withdrawing from the class. If you stay on top of things and study hard an A is attainable

LENDON IS A GOD!!! He makes you WANT to go to lecture. a LOT of reading but so worth it. DO IT!