Format: the exam will consist of 2 Parts:
Part I: identifications – you'll be asked to provide a few sentences/short paragraph identifying an item in terms of its significance and relevance to our class. [ca. 40% of total exam points]
Part II: commentaries on passages selected from your assigned readings (these are likely to be passages we discussed in class: see the course Outlines). [ca. 60% of total exam points]
Part I – possible items for the identifications
Pseudolus
Ballio
Horace
Davus
Saturnalia
Seneca
Stoicism
Conspiracy of Piso (65 CE)
Lucretius
Epicurus
ataraxia
Sisyphus
simulacra
Bacchanalia/Bacchus
mystery religion
Hispala
orgia
Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus (186 BCE)
Apuleius
Lucius
Milesian Tales
Photis
Pamphile
Cupid & Psyche
Voluptas
Charite & Tlepolemus
Fortuna
aretalogy
Isis
Paul
Galatians
Part II – passages for commentary You will be given passages from the Roman literary works we have read since Examination #2* and asked to provide the following:
(1) identify the author;
(2) identify the title of the work from which the passage is taken;
(3) briefly describe the context in which the passage occurs;
(4) write a carefully organized paragraph or two commenting on the broader significance of the passage in light of our main course themes (slavery & freedom) and the specific topics we have covered so far [this is the most important part of your commentary and the majority of commentary points fall here].
*works we have read since Examination #2
Apuleius, The Golden Ass
Horace, Satires 1.6, 2.7; Epistles 1.10, 1.20
Livy 39.8-19 (“Cult of Bacchus”)
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things 1.1-148, 2.1-61, 3.1-93, 3.830-1094, 4.1037-1287
New Testament, Romans 1:1-8:39, Galatians 1:1-6:18
Plautus, Pseudolus
Seneca, Letters 8, 14, 31, 110