Essay Questions - Roman Civilization
| Plutarch | Tacitus |
| Plautus | Apuleius |
| Suetonius | General Questions for Final |
1. On the basis of Plutarch's portrayals, what personal characteristics would you take to be typically Roman? What problems seem to be inherent in being a Roman citizen? What benefits? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three different biographies to support your views.
2. On the basis of the Lives, what is the role of religion and/or the supernatural in Roman life during the Republic? What values are associated with Roman religion? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three different biographies to support your views.
3. As a Greek analyzing Roman life, what moral qualities does Plutarch note among the Romans and approve of? What qualities does he disapprove of? By what standards does Plutarch seem to judge his subjects? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three different biographies to support your views.
4. How does Plutarch portray women in these biographies? What can you infer from Plutarch about the social or political roles of women in the Roman Republic? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three different biographies to support your views.
5. The Lives were used for centuries in the West to supply moral exemplars for the young. What values do they, on the whole, teach? Which features of these men would you want your children to emulate? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three different biographies to support your views.
6. As evidenced by the men you have read about in Plutarch's work, what personal skills or qualities were most important for a man to have in order to distinguish himself in Rome during the Republic? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three different biographies to support your views.
1. What sort of jokes and situations did Plautus' audience find funny? How different are his jokes from the jokes of contemporary television sitcoms? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three different plays to support your views.
2. What are the values of Plautus' characters? What do they suggest about the overall moral views of ordinary folk in the Roman world? Do these values differ substantially from ordinary folk now? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three of the plays to support your views.
3. How does Plautus handle relations between men and women? How different are his men and women from modern Americans? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three different plays to support your views.
4. Prof. Segal, your translator, notes that Plautus was a contemporary of Cato the Censor and observes in Plautine comedy "a deliberate comic subversion of Roman gravitas." Do you agree with Segal that Plautus is setting out to overthrow the 'puritanical mores' that Cato prescribed for Romans? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples from at least three of the plays to support your views.
1. On the basis of Suetonius' biographies of the Caesars, what personal characteristics would you take to be typical of Rome's early emperors? What are the particular difficulties inherent in being the Princeps, Rome's leading citizen? What are the benefits? Discuss, citing at least four specific and detailed examples from at least four of the lives to support your views.
2. On the basis of Suetonius' Lives, what are the roles that religion and/or the supernatural in Roman life during the early Empire? Do you find any difference in religious attitudes between the years of the Republic and the period covered by Suetonius? Discuss, citing at least four specific and detailed examples from at least four of the lives to support your views.
3. As a Roman analyzing Roman leaders, what moral (or immoral) qualities does Suetonius note among the Caesars? Does Suetonius take any moral position with regard to his subjects? Discuss, citing at least four specific and detailed examples from at least four of the lives to support your views.
4. An Oxford U. Press website observes of Suetonius:
"... what he has to say about the eccentricities and achievements of emperors, their virtues and vices, gives us a valuable insight into ancient Roman debates about imperial power and how it should be exercised."
What have you learned about power and its effect on people from Suetonius' Lives? Are there any parallels for us today in the use of imperial power? Discuss, citing at least four specific and detailed examples from at least four of the lives to support your views.
5. What roles to the women of the imperial families play in Suetonius' biographies? Do they respond to power differently from their men? Discuss, citing at least four specific and detailed examples from at least four of the lives to support your views.
1. What did Roman rule contribute to the provinces of Britain and Germany? Were its effects more benign or malign? Discuss, citing at least three specific examples, drawing from both provinces, to support your views.
2. What sort of person (as administrator, family man, soldier) was Agricola? Does he seem to you to be typically Roman in his temperament and talents? Discuss, citing at least three specific examples drawn from both Agricola and from other class sources to support your views on typicality.
3. What aspects of the Briton and German cultures does Tacitus admire? How do his observations of these provinces reflect an especially Roman viewpoint? Discuss, citing at least three specific examples, drawing from both provinces, to support your views.
4. Based on class sources, what is your own view of ancient British and German cultures as compared with what you know of the Romans? Did Rome rightly rule them? Discuss, citing at least three specific examples, drawing from both provinces, to support your views.
5. What were the particular problems and demands made upon the Roman military in these two provinces? How did its presence benefit Rome? Discuss, citing at least three specific examples, drawing from both provinces, to support your views.
Apuleius 
”Asinus
Aureus”
'Although the matter therein seeme very light and merry, yet the effect thereof tendeth to a good and vertuous moral...under the wrap of this transformation is taxed the life of mortall men, when as we suffer our mindes so to bee drowned in the sensuall lusts of the flesh, and the beastly pleasure thereof...so can we never be restored to the right figure of ourselves except we taste and eat the sweet Rose of reason and vertue, which rather by the mediation of praier we may assuredly attaine'.”
Do you agree with Adlington? Please discuss, citing at least three specific examples from the text to support your view.
2. What picture is drawn in this book of the
conditions of the underclass, both man and beast, during the empire? Please
discuss, citing at least three specific
examples from the text to support your view.
3. Which Roman values are best illuminated
by the trials of Lucius ? Please discuss, citing at least three specific
examples from the text to support your
view (s).
4. In the novel, Lucius writes:
“I…gratefully recall to mind the times when I was an ass, because, hidden under
the ass’s skin, I experienced all life’s variety and
acquired much
knowledge, if little wisdom.” In your view, what are the most important things
that Lucius learns? Which of his experiences can you relate
to? Please
discuss, citing at least three specific examples from the text to support your
view(s).
5. How does the central tale of the novel,
the story of Cupid and Psyche, connect in theme or detail to the rest of the
narrative? Please discuss, citing at least
three specific examples from the text to support your view.
6. How is the presence of Rome felt in
Apuleius’ tales of provincial life? Please discuss, citing at least three
specific examples from the text to support your
views.
1. “Every generation has an innate sympathy with some epoch of the past wherein it seems to find itself foreshadowed.” -B. Berenson, Preface to the first edition of Venetian Painters, 1894
Consider how Berenson’s remark might be true for us reflecting upon Roman civilization. Specify and describe at least three specific aspects (i.e., events, people, institutions, attitudes, trends, etc.) of Roman culture which might be analogous to our own US history, past or present.
2. “The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind, for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings, fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid.” -Livy
What kinds of models for us does Rome provide? Discuss, citing at least three specific and detailed examples to support your views.
3. “”Others will forge the bronze to softer breath, no doubt, and bring the sculptured stone to life, show greater eloquence, and with their rule map out the skies and tell the rising stars; you, Roman, remember: Govern! Rule the world! These are your arts.” - Vergil
On what bases could the Romans claim an innate right to or talent for ruling the world? Explain, citing at least three specific facets of Roman civilization to support your view.
4. If you had to select a period of Roman history in which to live, which era would you pick? Why? Explain, citing in detail at least three specific facets of Roman civilization to support your choice.
5. Which of the Roman values do you think was the most prominent in Roman life over the centuries? Explain, citing in detail at least three specific facets of Roman civilization to support your choice.
