Students within classics and religious studies courses primarily act as the Greek armies in the simulations, while members of the public participate as Persians. The full-scale reenactments are open to participation by the campus community and public. But, to get our hands on the different armies and manipulating variables to see exactly why strategies won or why we weren’t able to win in the same exact way was really valuable.” “It would be one thing to just watch videos of battle simulations or other reconstructions. Murray’s way of teaching this course is really excellent.
“The class does a really great job of covering a very broad range of these battles,” said Micah Zetocha, a classics and religious studies major. Battle of Plataea, which was the final fight during the second Persian invasion of Greece. The fall 2015 class culminated in the full-scale reenactment of the 479 B.C. “They offered real situations faced by these ancient generals and the students were challenged to determine if the battles were predetermined or if other outcomes could have happened.” “I created and picked games that would be entertaining but were grounded in ancient sources,” Murray said. Students also wrote weekly reflection papers about the battles and what they learned. Class sessions featured a battle briefing on the armies, landscape and important strategic concerns followed by students playing out the battlefield simulations. to the 400 A.D.Įach week featured one specific battle. Overall, the class covers 10 key battles between the 1200 B.C. To transport Nebraska students to the ancient battlefields, Murray created a series of custom board games, integrated a few select roleplaying video games, and launched the annual full-scale reenactment.
“I thought putting students into battlefield simulations, having them make decisions like a general and seeing the repercussions of those decisions, would be a more effective form of teaching.” “My first time through, it felt so dissatisfying, that I was just teaching ancient history, lecturing, making students write papers about the lectures and memorize facts. “Last year when I taught ancient warfare for the second time, I decided to find a way to make the class more engaging,” Murray said.
This transition from lectures to reenactments has been led by Sarah Murray, assistant professor of classics and religious studies, who started teaching Classics 245 - War in the Classical World when she came to Nebraska in 2012. The event, which will feature Greek armies taking on Persian invaders in a recreation of the 490 B.C. The study of ancient warfare at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is advancing from classroom lectures to full-scale outdoor reenactments.įor the second year, the Department of Classics and Religious Studies will present a simulated battle from the classical world on the green space north of the Nebraska Union.
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