Setup: 2-5 Classes
The purpose of the “setup” session is not to “teach” the material but to provide students with an introduction to it--a roadmap they can consult when writing papers and strategizing. There are two obligatory setup sessions. The first introduces students to the historical context: the rise of Athenian democracy, the Peloponnesian war, and the reign of the Thirty Tyrants and the restoration of democracy. The second session provides an introduction to the major texts, especially the “Funeral Oration” by Pericles (Thucydides) and Plato’s Republic, an implicit criticism of democracy. A third session enables members of a faction to meet and to strategize for the first game session (and perhaps take a quiz). Students in history or classics classes who have already learned the historical context can skip the “historical context” session; and students in classics or philosophy who have already studied the Republic can omit the 2nd session. Some students may require extra sessions for further discussion of Plato's Republic or to figure out how Athenian democracy “works”.

Most students are assigned to one of four factions; and each factional student’s role sheet indicates two recommended writing assignments, one for the first half of the game, another for the second half. The remaining students are listed as “indeterminate,” and their assignments differ: Gorgias the Younger, a teacher of logic, will write a short paper after every session, indicating which speaker exhibited the best grasp of logic. Thucydides, by contrast, writes a “history” of what transpired during the game, to be submitted during the post-mortem. Diognetus may end up writing a scene from a play, while other indeterminates may be exercising substantial creativity in completing their writing assignments.