Final Review


FACTS:

Be ready to do fill-in-the-blank questions about the following facts:
The eras of Greek history

Chronology of Rome:


know the titles, authors, and main characters of the works we have read



SHORT ANSWER CONCEPTS:

Be ready to write very briefly the most important features of the following:

Aristotle:
Rome:
Passage Identification:

The best way to study for this is to have read the works assigned.
You will be given a passage and asked to identify the author and title of the work from which it is taken.
Three fourths of the passages will come from works from after the midterm.

For example (the following example was read aloud and discussed in class as well as posted prominently on the web site rather than being part of the works assigned on the syllabus: you should be familiar with such passages as well as those on the schedule of assignments) :

 Thus it appears certain to me, by a great variety of proofs,
 that Cambyses was raving mad; he would not else have set himself to
 make a mock of holy rites and long-established usages. For if one were
 to offer men to choose out of all the customs in the world such as
 seemed to them the best, they would examine the whole number, and
 end by preferring their own; so convinced are they that their own
 usages far surpass those of all others. Unless, therefore, a man was
 mad, it is not likely that he would make sport of such matters. That
 people have this feeling about their laws may be seen by very many
 proofs: among others, by the following. Darius, after he had got the
 kingdom, called into his presence certain Greeks who were at hand, and
 asked- "What he should pay them to eat the bodies of their fathers
 when they died?" To which they answered, that there was no sum that
 would tempt them to do such a thing. He then sent for certain Indians,
 of the race called Callatians, men who eat their fathers, and asked
 them, while the Greeks stood by, and knew by the help of an
 interpreter all that was said - "What he should give them to burn
 the bodies of their fathers at their decease?" The Indians exclaimed
 aloud, and bade him forbear such language. Such is men's wont
 herein; and Pindar was right, in my judgment, when he said, "Law is
 the king o'er all."

Author: __________________ Title: _____________________

How do you figure it out? the passage 1) tells a neat little story, 2) discusses comparative customs, 3) concerns Greeks and Persians. From those three facts, the best educated guess is "Herodotus" and "The Persian War," because Herodotus was history's first ethnographer (and the only one we have read in this class), wrote his history anecdotally, and wrote about Persians and Greeks. Herodotus' only work was "The Persian War."
I will try to choose passages like this one that do not absolutely require you to have a specific memory of the passage to identify them: knowing the characteristics of the author, his ideas, and his work should enable you to make a very good guess even if you do clearly recognize the passage.

Essay Questions

The concept of "nature" in Aristotle's political thought is found in three areas: human nature, the polis as natural, and the theory of natural slavery. Explain all of these as they relate to our class in one essay that explains how the three tie together via the concept of "nature" as well as explains each separately.

Discuss the de Officiis, its structure and content. In addition to what you can get by reading the de Officiis carefully and making your own notes, all the material at the end of my lecture notes on Cicero in general should be helpful. A good essay will identify:
In most cases, my notes should suffice as material from which to draw the material for your essays.