A companion document to "Civics for Patriots and Homeschoolers Reading List" by Cyrellys. Gives recommendation of sections from the book "Readings in Ancient History From Gilgamesh to Diocletian" Edited and with Introductions by Nels M Bailkey useful in the study of American Civics and Civilization.

1. Particularly Useful Readings from the textbook: Readings
in Ancient History - From Gilgamesh to Diocletian, Edited
and with Introductions by Nels M. Bailkey
Note: The whole of the book is excellent for high school thru college but the following list is for
those focused on American Civics, looking for historical foundation and context.
SUBJECT: On Despotism and Early Forms of Governance
pg 16 The Reforms of Urukagina
SUBJECT: On Pessimism and the denial of all values
pg 23 The Dialogue of Pessimism - A Babylonian Text
SUBJECT: Early concept expression of JUSTICE and MORAL Religion
pg 25 The Shamash Hymn
SUBJECT: Laws. Welfare of the People.
pg 28 The Laws of Hammurabi: To further the welfare of the people.
1 Administration of Justice
2 Property
3 Irrigation
4 Loans and Interest
5 Regulation of Trade
6 Debt Slavery
7 Marriage and the Family
8 Adoption
9 Personal Injury and Manslaughter
10 Physicians Fees and Malpractice
11 Building Regulations
12 Wage Regulations
SUBJECT: Approaches to conceptualizing "right and wrong"; Maat, a term for justice but more
accurately viewed in the sense of "norm", "path," "tradition," "truth," and "correctness". Value
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2. Systems.
pg 36 The Instruction of Ptah-hotep: Early material values
1 Royal Approval
2 Title and Aim
3 Intellectual Snobbery
4 Leadership and "MAAT"
5 Conduct as a Guest at Table
6 Patience with Suppliants
7 Relations with Women
8 Greed
9 Marriage
10 Conduct in Council
11 Behavior in Changed Circumstances
12 Obedience to a Superior
13 Exhortation to Listen
SUBJECT: A first attempt at Emancipation of Thought From Myth. Earliest known scientific
document & first scientific observer known to us.
pg 39 The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus
SUBJECT: Times of Trouble and Messianism. Messianism nearly 1500 years among the
Egyptians before it appeared among the Hebrews.
pg 43 The Prophecy of Nefer-rohu
SUBJECT: Imperialsm and International Diplomacy. A treaty with provisions for nonaggression,
mutual aid against attack, and extradition of political fugitives.
pg 58 An Egyptian-Hittite Treaty
SUBJECT: The earliest Hebrew views on the relations between Man and God. Remember The
Laws of Nature (Nature = God).
pgs 60-107 Chapter 16 The Old Testament, thru The Wisdom of Solomon
NOTE: Whether you happily read the Bible or not, everyone in western civilization should have a
basic working knowledge of this much of its content for context because like it or not, this is
part of our roots contributing to our principles, morals, philosophy, operational approach to life
and liberty. Read it. It's not optional.
SUBJECT: Entering the age of Reason and Individualism - The Greeks
pg 111-112 Introduction to the Greek Civilization
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3. SUBJECT: Greek values of Life, aristocrats vs reviled common man, heroic ideals, king & council,
common man with rights as a member of the popular assembly, exercise of arbitrary power,
agricultural economy.
pg 113 Homer, the Iliad
SUBJECT: Oligarchy of nobles, oppression of lower classes, nature of a time of troubles,
mingling fable with fact in order to give meaning to the realities of ones time. Conceptualizing
"moderation".
pg 129 Hesiod, Works and Days: Changing Times bring on a moral order
SUBJECT: Expression of ultra-conservative view point on social and political change
pg 139 Theognis
SUBJECT: Great Statesman in time of crisis. Writing of unwritten customary laws. Bribes.
Crooked decisions. Economic and political reforms aimed at a compromise between two
parties in a politics grounded upon conflicting economic interests.
pg 143 Solon: The Athenian New Deal
SUBJECT: The invisible mean of judgment. privileged economic and political positions; debt-
cancellation no permanent solution for economic plight; political concessions; factional strife;
magistrates; dictatorial powers; land-hunger of oppressed peasantry. Failure to achieve
moderate reform.
pg 150 Pisistratus: The Rise of Tyranny in Athens
SUBJECT: Civilization as an Armed-Camp. Sparta. Effects of cultural and economic stagnation.
Individual completely subordinated to the power of the state.
pg 153 Lycurgus: The Spartan Totalitarian System
NOTE: This next piece from the book is optional. It speaks of the "Father of History", who was
focused on "causation". Today we have a focus on "causation" in our approach to society and
politics as a means to better understand the problems that beleagure us.
SUBJECT: Causation. Truth about Why.
pg 160 Herodutus, History of the Persian Wars - East vs West
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4. NOTE: This next piece is important reading. In the study of civilization(s) and governance we
have the reality of a peculiar development termed in modern times "myopia". This is not the
scientific version but rather a socio-political version found to afflict 'career' 'system-inhabitants'
such as those with life long careers in government and military. Think of myopia as something
like tunnel vision which makes addressing problems successfully, difficult to impossible.
SUBJECT: When a system of education and training, narrowly military and often brutalizing fails
to produce leaders capable of coping with problems in the larger world outside of a regimented
society.
pg 176 Thucydides: The Failure of Sparta
SUBJECT: The Ideals of Democracy. A Greek Gettysburg Address. Considered one of the
greatest speeches in literature. Appeals to patriotism of listeners. Description of superior
qualities and advantages of democracy worthy of any sacrifice to preserve. Harmonious
blending of opposite tendencies in politics, economics, and culture produced by democracy.
The mean between extremes.
pg 179 Pericles Funeral Oration
SUBJECT: The shortcomings of democracy and self-interested economic basis of imperialism;
the perils of playing to the emotions and cupidity of the masses. Writing criticism from the
lense of partisanship.
pg 184 The Old Oligarch: A realistic view of Athenian democraacy and imperialism (429 BC)
SUBJECT: Concept that war can represent a momentous crisis to which the political and
economic development of a world, nation, civiliation can lead or use to evolve. Cause followed
by effects. Knowledge for use by future statesmen. Events which have happened and will recur
according to human nature in much the same way. Practice of critical thinking by the Sophists,
a new viewpoint with emphasis on observed facts.
pg 189 Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
SUBJECT: Democracy stripped of idealism and statesmanship. Discouraging future rebellion.
The use of unmeasured language to achieve an effect. Fickle population. Thucydides question
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5. of "is democracy capable of running an empire?"; is democracy capable of world leadership?
pg 190 The Revolt of Mitylene
1 "Your Empire is a Despotism".
2 The persons to blame
3 Deliberate and Wanton Aggression
4 Three Failings Most Fatal to Empire
SUBJECT: When two rival ideologies of democracy and oligarchy clash. Smoldering class
hatreds. Alliances and Leagues. Psychology of class warfare.
pg 194 The Corcyrean Revolution
SUBJECT: Dialogues betwen envoys - what they tell us about a society and nations involved in a
conflict. Demands for submission and end results removed from idealism. Justifying empire
solely on the grounds of power. Power accepting no limitation. Drawing universal principles
from facts. The conflict of two irreconcilable principles of might and right.
pg 196 The Melian Dialogue
SUBJECT: The fall of empire - the historians narrative. Economic pressure used to bring other
nations and their allies to their knees. Targeting food supplies and markets. The blame game.
In the race for supremacy committing even state affairs to the whims of the multitude.
Treatment of prisoners.
pg 201 The Sicilian Expedition
SUBJECT: Philosophy shifts from Nature to Man. Socratic thinking. Nature, man, society, soul,
looking within, meaning, value of life. Dialectical Technique of question and answer to
demonstrate truths or inadequacy of beliefs.
pg 209 Socrates. Reversing the destructive trend of Greek thought and constructing the
foundation upon which Plato and Aristotle later built their philosophical systems.
SUBJECT: The socratic method. "The unexamined life is not worth living"; removing the "spirit
of conceit". Seeking regeneration of society.
pg 209- 216 The Socratic Method and Apology of Socrates
SUBJECT: That universal truths exist and can be found (Platonic Ideas). Theory of Ideas. The
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6. Dialogues of Plato raising fundamental problems in religion, ethics, and politics. Instrument of
Perception.
pg 216 thru pg 223 - Introduction to Plato, The Theory of Ideas (Allegory of the Cave), The
Spiritual Life: Dualism of Body and Soul
SUBJECT: Systemized scientifically and logically the material which Plato in his Dialogues delt
with only imaginatively and informally. Relationship between Universal Ideas and the transitory
world of appearances. Universal Truths = Forms. Object of inquiry. Concern with the world of
observed phenomena. Illuminating generalizations.
pg 223 Introduction to Aristotle
pg 224 The Nicomachean Ethics: The proper function of man
1 The Subject of the Ethics
2 The Definition of Happiness
3 Intellectual and Moral Virtue
4 Moral Virtue and the Doctrine of the Mean
5 Intellectual Virtue: the Ideal Life
6 The Need of Legislation: Transition to the Politics
pg 234 The Politics: A State exists for the sake of the good life
1 Nature, Origin, and Purpose of the State
2 A Criticism of Communism
3 Good and Bad Constitutions
4 The Ideal State: Its True Object
5 The Ideal State: Education
6 The Practicable State: The Best Constitution
7 The Practicable State: Causes of Revolutions
8 The Practicable State: Preserving Constitutions
SUBJECT: Nationalism vs Internationalism. Political anarchy. Peace conferences.
Interventions. Economic depression.
Pg 248 Demosthenes vs Isocrates
Pg 249 Demosthenes, First Philippic:
1 "Athenians, when will you act as becomes you!"
2 "Your affairs are amiss because you do nothing!"
3 "Be in Advance of Circumstances"
4 "The future depends on ourselves"
Pg 252 Isocrates Address to Philip: "A champion powerful in action"
1 "Speeches are ineffectual take the lead"
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7. 2 "Appear as a Benefactor"
3 "They will prefer the benefits of Union"
4 "You are being slandered"
5 "Concerning the expedition to Asia"
SUBJECT: Interests of the People. Policies of Collaboration. Suits against unconstitutional bills.
Justifying policy on the grounds of patriotism and devotion to the cause of freedom against
foreign tyranny of a less civilized people.
pg 257 Demosthenes, on the Crown
1 Philip started with a great advantage
2 What should Athens have done?
3 The only course that remained
4 A rather paradoxical assertion
5 Never can you have done wrong, men of Athens!
SUBJECT: Much of Roman culture was borrowed from the Hellenistic world. Citation of the
union of East and West being planned by Alexander supported by military and administrative
policies. Promotion of empire wide trade. Concept of conquest by settlement. Minting of
standar coinage. Concept practice of Reconciliation. Prayer for concord and partnership.
Concept of making all mankind one people.
pg 261 Alexander the Great
SUBJECT: Philosopher vs Moral Hero. Cynic school of philosophy. Frugality and Independence.
Asceticism. Epicureanism. Stoicism. Cynicism achieving self-sufficiency by rejection of the
values and conventions of society (insight into modern philosophy of anarchy?)
pg 266 Hellenistic Philosophy: The Cynic Counter-Culture
SUBJECT: End of Greek City-State, following conquests of Alexander the Great, now an age of
Empires. Hellenistic philosophy centered around Individualism. Benefits of large scale
civilization predominance asserts itself in effects on scholarship and literature.
pg 270-276 Hellenistic Literature: Theocritus
SUBJECT: Continued benefits of large scale civilization stability: Science and mathematics reach
their highest point of development in ancient times during the Hellenistic Age.
pg 277 Hellenistic Science: Archimedes
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8. SUBJECT: Continued...benefits and tragedies of large scale civilization reaches a peak in Roman
Civilization. Rome conquers the known world but loses its individual identity. When an empire
is enfeebled beyond the possibility of successful resistence (to invasion by barbarian forces) due
to internal collapse. Vergil. Aelius Aristides. Edward Gibbon.
Pg 283 ROMAN CIVILIZATION
SUBJECT: Greek view of Rome. Hostages as insurance for good behavior by conquered or
acquired nations. Expansion of empires as natural in character. Polybius. Qualities of roman
citizens.
pg 285 Polybius, The Histories: The constitution of the Roman Republic
1 Preface
2 Three Sovereign Elements
3 Checks and Balances
SUBJECT: When agreements for 'balance of power' against giant states results in equivalent of a
global war.
pg 291 Livy: The Foreign Policy of the Roman Republic
SUBJECT: Mos Majorum - attributing societal stability, military successes to ancestral way of life
that subordinates the individual to the religious and social traditions of family, state, and gods.
But crisis, military success, and expansion does much to destroy Mos Majorum. Issues afflicting
large civilizations and growth.
pg 296 Cato the Elder - Traditional Standards in a new age.
SUBJECT: Historical irony. The rise, deterioration, and fall of civilizations who thought
themselves prosperous and likely to remain so. Forces that destroy old ways come out of the
environment produced by expansion. The effects of event trends.
pg 301 Tiberius Gracchus: The Roman New Deal
1 The Land Problem
2 Tibeius's Land Law
3 Veto and Impeachment of Octavius
4 The Senate's Control of Foreign Policy Endangered
5 A Second Term and Other Proposals
6 The Senate Resorts to Force
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9. SUBJECT: A Tribune (President) ignores Senate (Congress) on his comprehensive program of
legislation. How failure of legitmate if unethical means to halt him contributed to the
precedent of force.
pg 309 Gaius Gracchus: The Roman New Deal Continued
1 Character and Popularity
2 Legislative Program
3 Tactics of the Senate
4 Last Days
SUBJECT: Seeing the political, social, and moral conditions in the decaying Roman Republic.
Effects of the taste for luxury among elites, enormous cost of campaigning for public office,
prevalence of bribery and corruption, cronic condition of debt and bankruptcy among patrician
families. Non-Roman freed-men equate democracy with governmetal handouts.
pg 316 The Conspiracy of Catiline - The Roman Republic in Decay
SUBJECT: The rise of military leaders strong enough to defy constitution, Senate, and assembly
alike. The sword upon which the Republic committed suicide. George Washington was offered
the route of Caesar but declined.
pg 323 Julius Caesar: The Man and the Statesman
pg 334 The Assassination of Julius Caesar
SUBJECT: Marginalized parties without political influence in govt turn to writing, eventually
opining in support of justification for the assassination of Caesar. The good of the community.
Expression of concern for freedom, order in society, and opposition to despotism. Is
assassination an act of despotism?
pg 339 Cicero: An eloquent man who loved his country well.
SUBJECT: The reactionary slant. Preserving property rights and the status quo. Slanting of
evidence in arguments. Value of philosophy in politics.
pg 340 Advocate of Property Rights and the Status Quo
1 In Defense of Sestius
2 On Duty - I advocate the study of philosophy
3 Undermining the Foundations of the Commonwealth
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10. SUBJECT: Aftermath of political upheaval that resulted in assassination. Military dictatorship:
The Second Triumvirate. Cicero against despotism.
pg 345 Champion of Liberty
SUBJECT: The Rule of Law. Roman Law (ius civile) and its lasting influence on Western
Civilization. Stoicism. The jurisprudentes of the early Empire. Applications of the
reestablishment of order. When law is regarded as universal principles of right which it the duty
of philosophy to teach. The Stoic Formula of one God, one reason, one commonwealth, and
one universal law. Platonic dialogue.
pg 350 The Laws by Cicero
SUBJECT: veneration of reason. A didactic pom expounding the belief that science could
destroy ignorance, from which came all the evil in the world and his new ideal was the
tranquility which men could achieve in their lives if they would only be guided by reason.
Source of this philosophy: the Hellenistic philosophy of Epicurus who taught that the happiness
sought after by man consisted simply of being free from pain in body and mind. Best
description of Epicurean philosophy. A philosophic approach that can be used in the bending of
principles.
pg360 Lucretius, on the Nature of Things
1 The Nature of Happiness
2 Praise of Epicurus
3 Superstition is the Mother of Sinful Deeds
4 First Principles
5 All Particles of Matter are on the Move
6 The Atoms Swerve
7 Spirit is Mortal
8 Nothing to Fear in Death
9 The Thing Called Love -- Be on Your Guard!
SUBJECT: How what a leader claims to be doing can result in something different. Autocratic
forces of orientalism vs the new Principate a partial restoration of traditional republicanism.
The "ideal constitution". Autocratic powers under republican forms.
pg 371 Augustus' Reconstruction of the Roman World - Contrasting estimates of the
Constitutional Settlement
1 Dio Cassius, Roman History
a. Put an end to the insolence of the populace
b. Our city -- a ship without ballast
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11. c. Accept the Leadership
d. Administer as I shall advise
e. A Summary
SUBJECT: What a fatally undermined republican liberty looks like. Tacitus.
pg 379 Tacitus, Annals - Tacitus reports two opposing estimates of Augustus.
SUBJECT: Both sides of the story of two centuries of peace where Rome in her methods of
Romanization and civilization of backwards peoples in Western Europe, by her spirit of practical
realism, wise compromise, generous grants of citizenship, and development of local, tribal, or
municipal autonomy, inspired a feeling of loyalty in the Western Provinces...two sides of the
story.
pg 382 The Pax Romana
1 Tacitus, Histories - "The secret of empire was now disclosed, that an emperor could be
made elsewhere than at Rome."
2 Tacitus, Agricola - "They create a desolation and call it peace."
SUBJECT: From free enterprise to state intervention. Capitalism as a dynamic economic system.
The role of a state in a capitalistic society. Laissez-faire. State intervention and control. Two
phased development.
Pg 386 Capitalism in the Early Empire
pg 387 Petronius, the Satyricon - A self made millionaire
SUBJECT: the power of economic conditions upon empire. Regulation.
pg 396 Emergency Measures to Deal with Depression
1 Apollonius of Tyana and the Grain Dealers
2 State Regulation of Grain Dealers and Bakers
SUBJECT: Providence. Our American Founders remarked often on Providence. One of the
greatest writers on the subject was both a Roman Emperor and a Roman Intellectual who wrote
on the values which sustained him in a world growing turbulent. Stoicism.
pg 402 Marcus Aurelius, To Himself (constitutes the last great expression of the classical
viewpoint, centered in Stoicism, that human reason is an adequate guide to the good life. His
basic view is that there is not to be found "in human life anything better than justice, truth,
temperance, fortitude, and in a word, anything better than your own mind's satisfaction in
the things which it enables you to do according to right reason."
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12. Epilogue. There is more in the final portions of the book which is well worth reading but for the
purposes of the study of civics, these are the portions of the highest value to understand the
foundation of what was built and left for us, in our care.
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