I. Identifications. Write a brief factual paragraph about X of the following. The important questions to answer are: who or what? when? (don't forget the date) where? why? how? and so what? (i.e., describe important action(s), principle(s) or result(s) for each answer). SOME GOOD ADVICE: Please be very careful choosing items to answer; you will receive ZERO CREDIT even if you write an answer, correct in itself, about a person or thing not on this list. A minimal identification without discussion will receive very few points. [Items covered may be persons, places, events, or terms (emphasis on the first three; an example of the fourth would be Krypteia)]
Here is one example: Demosthenes (fifth century).
Barely adequate answer: Athenian general.
Marginally more adequate: Athenian general active in the Peloponnesian
war.
Better: Athenian general during Peloponnesian war, responsible for
Athenian capture of Pylos in first part of war, later involved in defeat
in Sicily and died there.
Best of all: add details about why the capture of Pylos was a turning
point in the war (because the Spartans were willing to make peace to get
it back, especially since Demosthenes [and Cleon] also captured a number
of Spartans at the same time) and explain that the Athenian disaster in
Sicily came about against Demosthenes' express advice and wishes. Add
dates.
II. Gobbets. Choose X passages and place them in their historical context: describe, with appropriate factual detail, the specific circumstance, problem, and/or person(s) involved, date, and what is especially important or interesting therein.Tabular or list form may be used where appropriate. Reformulation of the information in the passage does not constitute an adequate answer.
Example: Here is how the Plataeans became Athenian subjects. They were
being pressured by the Thebans, and Cleomenes the son of Anaxandridas
happened to be in the country with some Lacedaemonian troops. [Hdt 6.108]
A good answer will include these things: Plataea is a small city in
Boeotia unwilling to join the other cities and the influence of Thebes.
Cleomenes' response was to ask the Athenians instead of the Spartans, as
the latter were closer. He may have wanted to make trouble for the
Athenians as well. As a result of the alliance with Athens, the Plataeans
were the only other Greeks to fight at the battle of Marathon, and they
also helped during Xerxes' invasion ten years later. The alliance was in
place by 490, the date of the battle of Marathon. [Citation of the passage
quoted is given here but will not be given on the test.]
Example of how not to do a gobbet (written by a student):
The passage: When these peoples had been subdued and while Croesus was increasing the Lydian empire, Sardis was at the height of its prosperity and was visited on occasion by every learned Greek who was alive at the time, including Solon of Athens.
Answer: This passage from one of the books of Herodotus' histories describes the arrival of Solon to Sardis. Solon was a very learned Greek who lived at Athens at the time of Croesus' reign. Apparently Sardis, a notable city in the east, had gained much popularity throughout the Mediterranean world and the east. This prestige came about once Croesus had expanded his empire (the Lydian Empire) to a greater extent than it had been before. (Herodotus does not state the exact extent to which the empire reached at this time, though it most likely was once Croesus has conquered his immediate neighbors). As a direct result of this reputation Sardis played host to many different scholarly men from Greece during the archaic period, Solon being the most famous of them. Solon was most likely in Sardis as part of his journeys around east like most other scholarly Greeks in an attempt to expand his knowledge of the known world (in particular the east).
III. Extra credit. Short essays (or detailed lists). Be specific (this means citing examples from texts, using names, places, dates and other details) rather than general. Answer one (1). [two topics will be offered]