a good class and Mellor is a great teacher

BUT DO NOT GET MAX AS YOUR TA HE IS THE HARSHEST GRADER AND MAKES A SIMPLE/INTERESTING HISTORY CLASS INTO ONE THAT WILL RUIN YOUR GPA

studying for the final of a class i thought would be a solid A and very interesting, i'm looking at a C or a B because Max is such an unfair grader and demands way more than what is required out of essay responses.

again: don't get max and you'll be fine

Took 114B with Mellor and 197A. Both awesome classes. A+ and A. didn't really do any of the readings for either class, but took really good notes and went to all lectures/seminars.

tells stories about his grandkids and tells dirty jokes. very funny and very good lecturer.

Mellor definitely knows his stuff, and his lectures are interesting if you have an interest in Rome. He assigns 3 short papers (500 words) which are relatively easy. Like some other reviewer said, don't be fooled by his lectures when it comes to exams. The material on exams is MUCH more indepth than the material he covers in his lectures. He gives you a study guide with a ridiculous amount of material to study ( for the midterm, you get 7 essay prompts, 2 of which will be on the final and you answer 1; and for the final you get 14 essay prompts of which 3 you'll answer ). Aside from the stressful exams, the class is relatively easy.

I couldn't agree more with the two posts below me! Professor Mellor is clearly an expert in Ancient Roman History, however, his lectures barley scratch the surface of the material needed for the exams. I was really looking forward to taking this class after having completed 114A, but sadly I felt that his tangents while amusing at times, were too much when one considered how much material we were expected to learn. I also agree with the posts below in that your grading depends soley on which TA you get. Some TA's were cool, others were horribly difficult, it's the luck of the draw I suppose. My advice to anyone who is thinking about taking a Roman History course for the first time is to take it with Professor Phillips who teaches 114A. While Phillips was not as buddy-buddy with his students, he gave in depth, quality lectures that made the students want to come to class. It also should be noted that while many will argue that Phillips grades harder than Mellor in reality its not true. All in all, Mellor was an extreamly nice guy, and an accomplished Historian, but sadly his lectures were not detailed enough to demand attendance from the students. If you take Mellor, you'll be better off reading the books on your own time and skipping most of the lectures, as they will be too vague to utilize when studying. If you can wait, take Phillips instead.

Here are some quick hits for this professor.

Born and raised in NY and has passion for Roman history.

Knows a lot about his subject.

Lectures are entertaining but do not contain a huge wealth of information. He does hit main points, he does not go further than skin deep on most subjects except Augustus, which he has a fascination with.

He gets side tracked in lecture, which is fun sometimes annoying other times.

Readings you will need to at least skim over to do well in the class.

You have a midterm (30%), final (40%), and two papers (2x15%)

Papers are 500-1000 words in which you must cite the readings.

Grading all depends on what TA you get, but dates must be known to the year.

Overall I thought this was a decent course, but I enjoy Phillips lectures much more which I would recommend if you are going to take a Roman course. While he seems like more of a hard-ass the grading is practically the same, but you get more out of the lectures than Mellor.

Professor Mellor is a nice enough guy but his lectures are completely pointless. All the information needed for the exams and papers came from the reading. I would recommend taking his class if you dont mind having to do a lot of reading. Be advised: the lectures lure you into a false sense of confidence. He is really laid back. As a result, you start to think the class is easy. However, the graders are really hard. On the first paper, hardly anyone got A's because we all thought they would be graded easily. However, if you keep in mind that the graders are tough you will do fine. I got A's on everything after the first paper. Also, keep in mind that the graders pay attention to writing style and grammar more so than other history graders do.

I took his course on imperial Roman history. To be honest, I'm not that big of a fan on ancient history and I prefer the Greeks to the Romans. In any case, he's enthusiastic, interesting, entertaining, and organized with his lectures. The problem is, he diverges a lot on topics and well, most of the information was already in the textbooks. There were a few particular lectures that were unique to his lectures. For example, in order to answer the question on the exam about the social, cultural, economic, and political life of Roman society with regard to Pompeii, you had to attend that particular lecture. Thankfully, I had written the lecture out verbatim. Otherwise, one wouldn't have been able to write cogently about the subject. In our 300+ person class, your grade was solely based on the TA of course. Mine was Mik Larsen and I think he graded harsher than the others. For the final exam, he gave us 13 or 14 essays two weeks prior. They weren't entirely difficult or impossible - most of the information could be derived from the textbook. Example: Rise and fall of Christianity? I came in with straight A-'s on the papers and on the midterm. Finally, I ended up with an A- in the class after cramming the night before, panicking, and screwing up on my last essay (he gave us three essays and 6 options... three sections so you omitted one essay per section). All in all, interesting character. Admittedly, I quit going to lecture after the midterm or so and went to a few sparingly... mostly out of guilt.

If you are looking for an easy A DONT take Mellor! Mellor is a TERRIBLE lecturer! His notes are NOT detailed enough for the FINAL EXAM, notes are good for midterm though. BREAKDOWN: midterm (essay and IDs) 25%, two short papers 35% Final (3 essays no IDs CUMULATIVE!!!) 40%

Midterm: Id's, one essay out of 2. Watch OUT! he gives you the essay questions in advance a list of 8 or so and he picks 2 and puts them on the test. I say watch out, b/c he picks the WEIRDEST and stupidest essay's out of the 8. Don't try to GUESS what he is thinking and gamble only prepping for a couple b/c you think he will pick this one or that one, he WONT and you will suffer! Trust me, I prepped all but 2, and and he picked one of the one's i didnt prep for. I still got a 95 on the exam, but i studied a lot for it, prepared OUTLINES for all the questions except 2. He is nice and if you ask him about the essay questions, he will explain them to you if you are confused.

FINAL: OMG WHAT A PAIN!!! He gave us a list of 16 possible essay questions and the material was CUMULATIVE. These questions took FOREVER to prepare for, and I had to get into a group and divide the essay's. Having said that, group work is NEVER as good as your own, and my group did a crummy job on the outlines.

He divided the final into 3 sections with 2 essays in each from which you HAD to choose ONE out of 2. While the essay questions on the studyguide were TOUGH!!! he picked one tough one, and two other easy ones. Two of the essay's you could do JUST from his notes. But one you HAD to prep straight from the book, he NEVER even discussed it in CLASS!!!! Not in any real useful detail anyway.

BOTTOM LINE: COME TO CLASS!!! Prepare outlines for the essay's, Take GOOD NOTES for the ID's Bold your notes with Names, and terms, I got 100% on the ID's and I worked off my notes only. the Final is TOUGH to prep for b/c of all the work, split up the questions, but make sure the people in your group are at YOUR level. Ask him questions about essay's before you prep for them, so many people wrote crap in the outlines in my group that did NOT pertain to the question, and they probably put the same crap on the final.

If you study your notes and leave 2 weeks to prepare the outlines for the final you should be fine, i studied my outlines for the WHOLE day before the final, and woke up 3 hours early b4 the final and read them again

I got an A in the class.

Also, some graders are good, some are tough and unfair, it is the luck of the draw, my grader was in the middle.