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Check out this webinar taught by renowned classicist and historian, Barry Strauss, and learn more about his teaching style and the Undiscovered Greece tour.

This 13-day study tour takes you through the region of Epirus, home to some of the country's most dramatic scenery and rich in a multi-layered history that spans millennia.

Led by award-winning Cornell historian Barry Strauss, we will explore sites that tell the story of this fascinating region from prehistoric times to the present.

In addition to enriching your on-the-ground experience with scholarly insights throughout the tour, Professor Strauss will also share a set of lectures derived from his writings and delivered in his characteristic dynamic style.

Barry Strauss, the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies at Cornell University, is a classicist and a military and naval historian and consultant. In addition to teaching at Cornell, he is also the Corliss Page Dean Fellow at the Hoover Institution. The author of nine books, Strauss is a recognized authority on the subject of leadership and the lessons that can be learned from the experiences of the greatest political and military leaders of the ancient world. He holds fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the MacDowell Colony, and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, among others and is the recipient of Cornell’s Clark (now Russell) Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“If we want everything to stay the same, everything has to change."

―Barry Strauss, The Death of Caesar:
The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination

“Barry is a superb communicator. His style was honed by a long career as a star university teacher. His courses at Cornell are justly famous. In every talk he gives, Strauss combines deep thought and careful analysis with a highly accessible and dynamic speaking style.”

―Josiah Ober, Professor of Political Science and Classics, Stanford University

Athens, a city-state of 400,000 people, was the origination point for much of western civilization in the fifth century B.C.E. Democracy, classical architecture and sculpture, tragedy, comedy, and history-writing began here, and philosophy took off from its abstract origins and focused on politics. How and why did the foundations of democracy begin in ancient Athens? This lecture gives us a chance to dive into the questions and gain fresh perspective.

As pagans, the ancient Greeks were deeply religious. Few places illustrate this better than the spectacular sites of Delphi and Dodona. There, holy women delivered oracles –that is, messages from the gods– to pilgrims from all over the eastern Mediterranean. Religion offered ancient women an outlet and an entrée to power. Listen, and you might even hear their voices among the glorious ruins of two of Greece’s most spectacular sites.

The clash of East and West, the dawn of imperial Rome, 200,000 men in 600 warships fighting and dying off the northwest coast of Greece: that was the Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 B.C.E. It features three iconic leaders who risked everything that day: Octavian (the future Roman emperor Augustus), Mark Antony, and last, but definitely not least, Cleopatra. We will learn how these events unfolded and what it meant for the Roman empire –while standing in the footprints of these epic historical characters.

In August 480 B.C.E. three hundred Spartans led the most famous last stand in history, or at least in the history of the West. They spearheaded a small Greek army that stopped and savaged a much larger Persian force for three days. When the Spartans learned they were surrounded, the stayed, fought valiantly, and died. The Spartans lost the battle but won the hearts of all Greeks and of anyone who fights for freedom. But how much of this story is history and how much is legend? Everyone from Herodotus to Hollywood has spun their own tale. We'll find the truth at the place where it happened.

“There is an energetic attitude that infuses Barry’s presentations with a palpable sense of enthusiasm for his subjects – a sentiment that is instantly reciprocated by the audience. His ability to establish such rapport is truly extraordinary.”

―William B. Crawley, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Mary Washington

“No one presents the military history of the ancient world with greater insight and panache than Strauss.”

―Publishers Weekly

“Barry holds a wealth of information that he communicates in an understandable and enjoyable manner.”

―Carol Gilmour ’82 and Jim Gilmour ’80

May 23 - June 5, 2023
Exclusive to Cornell in partnership
with Odysseys Unlimited.
(Does not feature faculty.)
888-370-6765