Reed College
Reed College

Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Paper Topics | Spring 2013 | Paper 3

Due Saturday, April 27th, 5 p.m., in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Length: 6-8 pages (1500-2000 words), or to be determined by your conference leader.

Write an essay in response to one of the following prompts. Structure your essay around a strong, analytical claim, and provide specific, detailed evidence from the primary texts to support that claim. You will want to focus on specific characters, episodes, relations, themes, or claims in the texts, rather than provide general summaries.

  1. Many of Livy's stories revolve around rape (e.g. the rape of the Vestal Virgin, the Sabine women, and Lucretia). How and why does Livy use these stories in constructing The Rise of Rome, and how does this   particular example of violence compare to the many other acts of violence that Livy sees as part and parcel of the rise of Rome?

  2. Livy writes: "I shall find antiquity a rewarding study, if only because, while I am absorbed in it, I shall be able to turn my eyes from the troubles which for so long have tormented the modern world..." What do you see as the most important implications of this view of the historian's craft for the shape and tone that Livy's text takes?

  3. At the beginning of the Res Gestae, Augustus presents himself as the savior of Rome. How does this portrayal (both here and elsewhere in the Res Gestae) compare with:
    a) Livy's representation of Camillus OR
    b) Virgil's representation of Aeneas as the ideal Roman?

  4. Examine the ways in which the Ara Pacis's pictorial program tallies with Augustus's image of the Rome he "restored" in his Res Gestae.

  5. Analyze the role that women play in Virgil's account of Aeneas's foundation of Rome, and consider these females in comparison to the females in Book 1 of Livy's The Rise of Rome.

  6. Discuss one of the "secondary" characters in The Aeneid: e.g. Camilla, Pallas, Evander, Mezentius, Lavinia, Palinurus, Lausus, Amata, or a character of your choice. Offer a detailed analysis of the place of that character within the poem as a whole. What are the excellences or faults of this character; how does this character further the portrayal of the "primary" characters or the development of the general themes of the poem?

  7. Examine the various encounters that Aeneas has with figures from his past in Book 6. Why does Virgil recount these encounters and what do they tell us about his views concerning Rome's past and what role Rome's past is to have in its crafting of a new age; i.e., the Age of Augustus?

  8. From what you have read about Augustus, in what ways do you think Livy's first book of The Rise of Rome might be supporting or criticizing the new order?

  9. Fertility and death are both themes in the Ara Pacis. Discuss the relationship between the two with respect to specific examples. Be sure to address both formal and thematic elements.

  10. Very early in The Rise of Rome, Livy makes this comment on the purpose of his text: "I invite the reader's attention to...the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them. The study of history is the best remedy for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things rotten through and through to avoid" (1.1).

    Discuss this theory, or justification, of history, in reference to one or two major episodes in the text. How, if at all, is this concept of the historical text as, alternately, remedy, warning, or model, at work in the episode(s) you have chosen? You might consider, in addition, the extent to which Livy leaves these matters open for interpretation.

  11. Read closely VIII. 677-718 of  The Aeneid. Drawing from these and/or similar passages, analyze the role that divine intervention plays in Roman history, according to Virgil's epic poem. Does Virgil portray Aeneas as a free agent or as a puppet of the gods?

  12. In the Preface to his history, Livy says of Rome that "... there has never been any state grander, purer, or richer in good examples..." (4). But much of what Book One depicts strikes the contemporary reader as anything but grand, pure, and good. Provide an interpretation of Livy's claim in the Preface, and use your interpretation to explain how we ought to understand the "egregious" behavior in Book One.

  13. In The Aeneid, Virgil depicts two women who engage in typically masculine pursuits, the capable queen Dido in Book IV and the fearsome warrior Camilla in Book XI. What does Virgil's presentation of these exceptional women--perhaps in comparison with Lavinia-- express about the role of gender in The Aeneid, and more broadly about gender roles in Augustan Rome?

  14. In consultation with your conference leader, write an essay on a topic of your own devising.