HI 222: midterm paper

1a.  Describe the principal Roman magistrates, assemblies and courts in the late Republic.

1b.  This government is often referred to as oligarchic.  Show how and why this is true: how was a relatively small group of men able virtually to monopolize the machinery of government in their own interests?

2. Imagine you are a Roman father writing a letter to your son sometime between 65 and 55 bc.  The letter begins as follows:

“I am sorry that I cannot be in Roman today, your sixteenth birthday, when you receive the toga of manhood, but I will be unable to leave my post as governor of Macedonia until the end of the year.  All the same, there are some things that you should know about the world you are about to enter and what will be expected of you in it, how you should behave, and what you should value.  I know I have told you much of this before, but I hope on this occasion that you will have the patience to hear me one more time.”

    In one or two pages complete this letter.

3.  Write a narrative history of what you consider the important steps in the collapse of the Roman Republic.  In the course of your narrative show how (a) the peculiarities of the Roman constitution, (b) the social relations of Rome’s elite, and (c) the value system and general world view of that elite affected the flow of events and led Roman history to evolve as it did during this period.

All three questions are clearly related to each other.  The first two questions should be considered preliminary essays that will allow you to work out a general framework to which you can relate the specific events in the narrative of your third essay.

The entire exam (all three questions) should be ten pages in length, and must be no less that eight and no more than twelve, written in Times Roman 12 pt. or equivalent type, with standard margins.  The exam is to be sent to me as a Word document attached to an e-mail addressed to rosivach@mail.fairfield.edu.  It is your responsibility to see to it that the paper reaches me on time and in the proper form.  I will acknowledge receipt of all papers.  Be sure to keep a back-up of your paper in case something gets lost in transmission.

Due date for the exam is 11:59 pm on November 22.  Except for illness or other similar emergency there will be no extensions.  Your exam will be returned to you by e-mail as soon as it is corrected.

Please include the following statement with your paper:

Any ideas or language that I have gotten from another source have been indicated with appropriate bibliographical citations.  Any ideas or language not so indicated are my own.

Papers without this statement will be returned as incomplete.  Incomplete papers must be completed by the due date to receive credit.

If you have any questions about this exam, please e-mail me and I will answer as quickly as I can.