CLAS 355
Spring 2023
Examination #1 Key

I. Matching: 4 pts. each, 80 total

1. R
2. P
3. D
4. G
5. A
6. H
7. B
8. S
9. E
10. I
11. N
12. Q
13. C
14. F
15. T
16. J
17. K
18. L
19. M
20. O

II. Passages for Commentary: 22 pts. each, 88 total

For each commentary:
(1)-(4) 2 pts. each
(5) 14 pts. each

1. [Plautus, Casina 952ff.]

(1) Plautus
(2) Casina
(3) Lysidamus
(4) Lysidamus, frantic and ashamed, appears onstage after his offstage "honeymoon" with Chalinus-as-Casina
(5) some possible talking points for elaboration in your paragraph(s):

a) Cleostrata's scheme results in her husband's defeat and (temporary) loss of his traditional power; in Roman terms, the paterfamilias at the top of the hierarchy has figuratively swapped places with the runaway slave at the bottom (that is, after Lysidamus is beaten and nearly raped by Chalinus offstage); Lysidamus is (nearly) subjected to the horror of rape initially directed against the slave Casina;
b) Lysidamus's defeat here marks the culmination of the play’s act of creative resistance, in this case his wife's clever slave-like rebellion against, and humiliation of the slaveholding paterfamilias; we are urged to consider the commonalities between slavery and marriage and the prospects for rebellion within the institution;
c) Lysidamus is (thematically) revealed to be a “slave” to his lust and believes he rightfully faces physical punishment (i.e., whipping) for his misbehavior; this is a comedy, of course, not life, and the tortures Lysidamus imagines are only figurative – unlike for slaves, who must endure these every day in real life.

2. [Cato, On Agriculture 2]

(1) Cato
(2) On Agriculture
(3) Cato
(4) Cato gives economic advice to the farm-manager
(5) some possible talking points for elaboration in your paragraph(s):

a) Cato’s cold, callous, and vicious commodification of farm products, animals and enslaved persons; the overriding importance of economizing on the villa (for the master), including even his slave inventory;
b) the slaveholder’s idea of a slave as an instrument that exists only to serve his needs, here highlighted by the order to dispose of worn-out or useless “human tools”;
c) the layered hierarchy of violent power glimpsed here (villa owner/farm-manager/slave laborers), as also the especially harsh realities of laboring in rural slavery.

3. [Plautus, Pseudolus 767ff.]

(1) Plautus
(2) Pseudolus
(3) unnamed slave boy (in Ballio's brothel)
(4) the boy reminds of the audience of Ballio's order to celebrate his birthday (and its consequences for him)
(5) some possible talking points for elaboration in your paragraph(s):

a) the slave highlights the general violence & terror in Ballio's house, where the master's birthday must be celebrated properly (at the risk of corporal punishment);
b) the boy's pitiable sexual vulnerability and lack of bodily integrity as he contemplates having to prostitute himself (including very specific physical consequences);
c) the scene, dramatically unnecesary, is an example of Plautus presenting slavery from the perspective of a slave, not a slaveholder (a rarity in Roman literature).

4. [Plautus, Casina 81ff.]

(1) Plautus
(2) Casina
(3) prologue-speaker
(4) the prologist reveals Casina's future and gives a glimpse into actors' lived experience
(5) some possible talking points for elaboration in your paragraph(s):

a) the prologist is playing with the audience's expectations, as they don't yet know Casina won't appear in the play (he informs spectators that she will be discovered to be freeborn);
b) the prologist provides a picture of the grim realities of Roman actors (slaves or freedpersons), including prostitution (i.e. after the play), and so Plautus again is focalizing slavery from a slave's extremely vulnerable perspective;
c) beginning here, the play centrally thematizes sexual assault (who is vulnerable to it, who is protected from it, based on status, gender, etc.).

5. [Plautus, Pseudolus 1312ff.]

(1) Plautus
(2) Pseudolus
(3) Speaker A = Simo; Speaker B = Pseudolus
(4) master & slave settle their bet at the end of the play
(5) some possible talking points for elaboration in your paragraph(s):

a) Simo’s and Pseudolus’s exchange about “hurting” here highlights how for slaveholders pain and physical violence usually is only figurative and psychological, whereas if Pseudolus had lost the bet, he faced the very real tortures of the mill;
b) master and slave experience a comic reversal (of real life) when Pseudolus forces Simo to load the bag of money on his back, thus highlighting slaves’ daily forced (physical) labors;
c) Pseudolus’s claim that he has a “has a strong back” and so does not fear Simo’s threats of future violence suggests that he has learned to dissociate his physical and psychological selves – and so, conducting potentially dangerous schemes like the one he has in this play are a self-satisfying form of creative resistance to his enslaved condition (with a kind of agency).

6. [Plautus, Captivi 954ff.]

(1) Plautus
(2) Captivi
(3) Speaker #1 = Hegio; Speaker #2 = Stalagmus
(4) Hegio interrogates his returned slave near the play's end
(5) some possible talking points for elaboration:

a) the tense, understated nature of this dialogue between master and runaway slave/kidnapper of Hegio’s son (they have a long history);
b) Stalagmus’s bitter anger/affect and lack of remorse as unsurprising behavior of a brutalized and traumatized slave;
c) the probable nature of Hegio’s and Stalagmus’s previous relationship, i.e. the latter as the victim of his master’s sexual violence in childhood.

7. [Seneca, Letter 47.18f.]

(1) Seneca
(2) Letter 47
(3) Seneca
(4) near the end of the letter, Seneca denies that he is calling for the mass freeing of Roman slaves
(5) some possible talking points for elaboration in your paragraph(s):

a) Seneca’s surprising call for “humane” treatment within a system of brutality and dehumanization by at least acknowledging that slaveholders should not treat their slaves the same as their livestock;
b) in recommending verbal, not physical correction of slaves here, Seneca’s advice (as throughout the letter) clearly arises only from an attitude of benevolent paternalism and self-interest (i.e., he is focused on the master's self-improvement rather than slaves’ rights; cf. the US South's revisionist "Lost Cause");
c) in denying the manumission of slaves, Seneca fails to fully grasp the idea of universal human equality/human rights, to say nothing of the HTVT that permeates the institution.

III. Essay: 80 pts. total (essays were evaluated for their comprehensiveness and accuracy in responding to the two points of the question, their use of detailed evidence in formulating generalizations, and their overall presentation).

Some possible talking points for elaboration in your essay:

a) slavery’s roots in HTVT

• traumatic deracination of slaves from their natal cultures and families (sanctioned by the "right" of Roman imperial conquest and exploiting its spoils of war), stripped of citizenship and all legal rights
• slaveholders’ violent use, and terrifying/terrorizing threats of whipping and other physical tortures to enforce their control of slaves
• constant threats of sale/separation of slaves, i.e. further deracination of slaves, sexual exploitation, death, and other acts of instability (e.g., punishment in mills and mines, chain gangs, confinement/sale to brothels)
• constant dehumanizing treatment as chattel, i.e., as (human) property without basic bodily integrity

b) agency, humanity, and value of slaves’ lives:

• formation of collegial guilds (collegia) and burial societies (e.g., personalized columbaria inscriptions)
• informal marriages & families (contubernales)
• slaves’ acquisition of private property (peculium), possibility of social mobility through manumission (esp. in low status crafts such as fulling, baking); finding dignity in work
• everyday acts of resistance (e.g. creating one’s own walkways on farm, controlling pace of labor, stealing, withholding labor, committing suicide); urban slaves' use of "downtime" for personal pleasure and other acts of personal agency

Exam total 248 pts. (points and grading are based on a standard percentage scale)