CLASSIC 52Greco-Roman Technologies: Materials, Monuments, Machines
Classics · 5 units · Undergraduate lower division (0-99)
Introduction to technologies and technological innovation in the Greco-Roman world (circa 600 BCE to 400 CE) with an emphasis on large-scale systems: architecture, civic infrastructure, machines, and materials. Topics include monumental architecture like the Parthenon and the Colosseum; civic engineering in the form of roads and water supply systems; early machines of war like triremes and catapults; and materials like Roman concrete. Focus on proper explication of these innovations, using basic principles of physics and engineering, and situating them in a sociohistorical context, prompting consideration of how technology drives and is driven by cultural values and history. Special attention is given to the labor behind technological developments, with emphasis on skilled versus unskilled labor, the rise of professional guilds, and the development of sociological identities oriented around work.
P/NP or letter grading.
When it runs
- Winter 2026
- Winter 2027
Scheduled, not typical — from UCLA’s Schedule of Classes, which publishes Fall 2025 through Spring 2027 and nothing before it.
Requisites
UCLA lists no requisites for this course.
Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
Nothing — this is an entry point.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.