Format: the exam will consist of 3 sections:
(1) matching (names, terms);
(2) commentaries on passages selected from your reading;
(3) essay.
Part I, matching: you will be asked to match items listed with a brief description of them (know dates where relevant).
[ca. 35% of total exam points]
items for matching:
Vergil, Aeneid
Octavian/Augustus
Battle of Actium (31 BCE)
Antony & Cleopatra
Romulus & Remus
clementia
Jupiter
Priam
Pyrrhus
Anchises
Iulus/Ascanius
Buthrotum
Andromache
Astyanax
Dido
Sibyl
katabasis
Deiphobus
Marcellus
Gate of Ivory
Turnus
Pallas
Nisus & Euryalus
Danaids
Camilla
Juturna
Lucan, Civil War
Crassus
Julius Caesar (dies in 44 BCE)
Rubicon
Battle of Pharsalus
Magnus/Pompey
Thessaly
Erichtho
Troy
Septimius
principate
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Suetonius
Caligula (emperor 37-41 CE)
Praetorian Guard
"If only the Roman people had a single neck"
Part II, commentary: you will be asked to comment on selected passages from your reading in Vergil, Lucan, and Suetonius with a carefully organized short answer (1-2 paragraphs). You will be asked to do the following:
(1) identify the author;
(2) identify the work from which the passage is taken (i.e. Aeneid, Civil War, Caligula);
(3) identify the speaker(s) of the passage (i.e. character(s) or the work's narrator);
(4) briefly describe the context in which the passage occurs (i.e. what's happening at this point in the narrative?);
(5) write a carefully organized paragraph or two commenting on the broader significance of the passage in light of our course themes (horror, terror, violence, and trauma) and the work's particular treatment of these themes.
You may choose 4 of 6 passages [ca. 40% of total exam points]
Part III, essay: you will be asked to write a thoughful and coherent essay based on the following topics, i.e. you will be given one essay question to write on, based on either one or a combination of both of the following topics for preparation:
(1) The optimistic & sometimes propagandistic voice of the Aeneid presents Aeneas' story as a national epic for contemporary Romans still reeling from the effects of longstanding civil war and hoping to see civil society reconstructed in the reign of Augustus. The epic's more pessimistic voice seems to express doubt about this Augustan reconstruction project and the hope that the cultural traumas of the recent civil war can easily be erased from memory. In what parts of Vergil's poem does each of these voices seem loudest? Which voice, the optimistic or pessimistic one, seems to you to be most persuasive in the end? Be sure to cite specific passages from the Aeneid in your response.
(2)
In what general ways is Lucan's epic poem different from Vergil's Aeneid? Does Lucan's Civil War seem to have a goal of reconstructing civil society, relieving cultural traumas, or erasing the memory of civil discord? What are the effects, and what seems to be the thematic purpose of all the violence and gore described in Lucan? Does Lucan's poem offer any hope or therepeutic benefit for cultures and individuals who have suffered through the kinds of civil strife he describes? Be sure to cite specific passages from Civil War in your response.
[ca. 25% of total exam points]