1. Seneca's tragedies variously address such issues as the exercise of power, the relationship of rulers and ruled, the destructive pull of personal emotion, the role of thought in guiding human action, the pursuit of revenge, and the practice of compassion. If you were asked to personally advise a candidate (regardless of political party) running for President of the United States, what particular message that can be found in Seneca’s tragedies (Thyestes, Medea, Trojan Women) would you convey to this person, with a view to helping them become a good political leader? For purposes of the response, it is best to focus on one theme/idea from one Senecan play.
2. In your own interpersonal relationships, have you experienced something like autocracy? Though none of us (I hope!) has had to deal with the likes of a Caligula or Nero, have you found yourself in a relationship (e.g. professional, familial, romantic) in which you seemed to be powerless and subject to the will and whims of another person? Be sure to include some analysis of the structures of power that facilitated the relationship, as well as course materials for comparative purposes.
3. Seneca’s Trojan Women painfully focuses on the HTVT experienced by survivors of a devastating cultural catastrophe (i.e. war's non-combat victims). Write a comparative analysis of a modern work (for example, a poem, a film, a piece of music/song, a television series) that similarly treats an individual or group of people who suffer a culture-wide disaster. Explain how the work promotes—or fails to promote (?)—humane values toward the victims described.
4. The ancient Roman amphitheater combined capital punishment and visual entertainment, with a view to creating deterrents against future crimes. Would there be social value to holding public executions in the US, provided an execution could be conducted without violating the Eighth Amendment’s ban against “cruel and unusual punishment”, or is there no place at all for this style of punishment in modern democratic society? Be sure to incorporate some materials we studied in class in your analysis.
5. Write an imaginative monologue by Medea following Seneca’s tragedy (Medea), that is, after she has had time to reflect upon her very extreme actions in the play. What specific thoughts and emotions do you imagine her experiencing in this reflective moment?
6. As the World Justice Project's 2022 Rule of Law Index (https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/) and other studies have suggested, increasing numbers of people across the globe are embracing autocrats and autocratic models of rule. If you find this development disturbing, especially here in the United States—given our foundational history of representive democracy and tradition of the rule of law—what specific examples from our Roman course materials would you cite to help persuade your fellow citizens of the inadvisability and dangers of autocracy?
7. Explain and analyze how you think you would behave if you unexpectedly found yourself enveloped by a natural catastrophe where death seemed imminent. Be sure to explain whether or not your thoughts and reactions would resemble any of those reported and/or advocated by Pliny and/or Seneca (You may draw upon your own experience of course, if you have actually survived a deadly natural catastrophe.)