Ancient Greece and the Roman Republic Western Civilization Essay
You are to write two essays of at least 850 words each (1700 words in total). At the end of each essay you should write down the word count. You are welcome to go over the minimum word count.
You should use short quotations and references from the texts and readings to illustrate specific points or arguments you are making.
Keep in mind that the strongest essays will include material from multiple sessions. Use materials from at least two sessions (lectures) for each essay, preferably three or more if you can.
Each essay MUST be properly documented with parenthetical citations, which include the name of the author and the page number – there is no need for a works cited page, as the texts are all common. If you want to cite the lectures, simply reference the name of the lecture (first slide of each lecture). Only in the case you use outside sources do you need to have a works cited page but I strongly discourage you from using general webpages like Wikipedia. If you do use online sources you need to offer a link to them in your works cited page. As this is an exam, any instance of plagiarism or use of outside sources that are not cited will be reported to an Academic Integrity Officer. Any exam that has no citations will receive 0 points
If you use materials, books, and other items that are not easily accessible to the instructor, please keep a copy of them as I will ask you to provide them to me to verify the accuracy of your citations. If you can not provide them to me within a week of it being requested, you will receive 0 points for the exam.
In case it is not obvious yet, I am testing you on having a) done the reading; b) taken lecture notes; and c) thought about both carefully.
You need to have some sort of argument – why are you writing this essay? What points are you trying to make.
Please keep in mind that the strongest historical essays pay close attention to the chronology of events. An essay that moves back and forth in time period is generally a disorganized essay, so I would suggest you try your best to keep your events and examples in chronological order.
Questions: Choose TWO.
Option 1
To what extent is it important to understand and know the history of the near east and its empires in order to understand the history of the Greeks, the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire? What specific influences can we see on the society of these empires, their culture and perhaps even governmental structure?
Please keep in mind the exact time periods of your examples. It is unlikely and far-fetched to imagine something that happened in the year 1000 B.C.E. to have a direct influence on something that happened a thousand years later.
Option 2
How does the governmental and social structure of the Greek-city states (especially that of Athens) in the Classical Age compare to that the Roman Republic? What were the major problems, societal and otherwise, that they faced that led to the eventual collapse of democratic and Republican styles of government in both Greece and Rome?
Option 3
Compare and contrast the roles of religion in the Islamic, Byzantine, and western European worlds in the period 300-760. How central was religion to governmental and/or societal structure in these areas during those 460 years?
A complete answer will attempt to cover the entire period in question, and remember that it is generally more fruitful to search for differences rather than similarities when you compare and contrast different ideas and events.
