This isn't working out for me so well. I liked the same professor's Churchill lecture, but with just 1/2 hour for each person, the approach really grates.

Rufus Fears is sometimes quite bad, and sometimes quite good, in "Famous Greeks." For example, his portrayal of Alexander the Great includes a claim that his generals and men thought Alexander was a god; my understanding is that the generals perceived Alexander as first among equals and were distressed and confrontive when he behaved differently, such as when he wanted people to prostrate themselves to him after defeating Darius. Fears also uses estimates of the Persian army that are wildly inflated; we don't have good estimates of their strength, although it was certainly more than the Macedonian numbers.

Yet Fears provides a good survey of Greek history through his biographies, and often provides a good overview of their accomplishments and of what we know of their life.

And then there is Fear's delivery of the course: it's awful. Most annoying are his pauses, given for dramatic effect, that are overly long and actually detract from the content. His imagined dialogues between people, used as a dramatic device, sometimes also detract from his biographies.

Thus, I only give him two stars for the course. ( )

One of my all time favorite courses. It doesn't matter that Fears has a tendency to exaggerate a bit. What makes this (and Famous Romans) so great is that he puts you in the shoes of a Greek or Roman looking at history through their eyes, including the mythological beginnings. This course is a complete joy from beginning to end. ( )