Due Wednesday December 14, in my office (313A Maxwell Hall) at 4pm.

Please take note:  I have given you the latest possible due date for this paper.  This means that we cannot accept late papers.

This is a creative project, asking you to imagine yourself as an ancient person and therefore to write “in character.”  You are highly encouraged to draw upon the primary sources and imitate their writing style in order to find a distinctly “ancient” voice.  However, avoid excessive direct quotation from those texts.  Use footnotes to indicate the sources of your ideas.  The project should be between 6 and 8 typed, double-spaced pages in length.

In incorporating ideas from different texts, or material from lectures, into your work, you may find it useful to have your character introduce it by phrases such as “My friends tell me that… [or] the great philosopher Plato once said that…”  You should handle these sources critically, when your own character might be expected to do so:  e.g. “I disagree with what he said, because…”  Note that some of the scenarios ask you to take on a single character and point of view, and others require you to stage a debate between two opposing positions.  In the latter case, you may choose to write in a dialogue format.

            Unless otherwise specified, the characters involved may be of either sex; but keep it plausible within the limits imposed by the gender roles of the time.

Choose from one of the following situations.  You are welcome to come up with a scenario of your own, but if so you must see me or your TA to discuss it at least a full week before the due date.

1.  You have organized a panel discussion including some of the most famous ancient historians:  Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Plutarch, Livy, Tacitus, etc.  Imagine a debate between these historians along the following lines:  what is the purpose of writing history?  Should historians simply attempt to tell us what actually happened, or do they serve a larger moral purpose?  To what extent is it appropriate to alter the facts, or even make stuff up, in order to make a point?

2.  Pericles’ Funeral Oration extolled the virtues of Athenian democracy as “an education to the whole world.”  Write a response to Pericles on behalf of the women of Athens.

3.  Stage a debate between Socrates and Plato:  do philosophers really know best?  Can they be trusted to govern society?

4.  Alexander the Great checks himself in to Megalomaniacs Anonymous, a 12-step program for recovering tyrants.  Describe his conversation with the philosophers in charge of the program, as they attempt to help him overcome his character flaws.

5.  Greek educators in the fourth century BC debate whether or not Homer should be taught in the schools.  Does it teach the right kind of values to our children?

6.  In the aftermath of the Ides of March, imagine that Brutus and Cassius are captured and put on trial for their role in the assassination of Julius Caesar.  They hire Cicero as their defense attorney.  Write speeches on behalf of the prosecution and the defense.

7.  You are a young Roman from a wealthy and prominent senatorial family.  Instead of pursuing a promising career in politics or imperial service, you have thrown it all away and instead entered the arena to fight alongside the gladiators.  Write a letter to your family explaining this shocking decision.

8.  Christians and Romans debate:  can Christians be loyal to the Roman Empire?  Or do their religious beliefs and customs preclude them from full assimilation into Roman society?  Should we let Christians serve in the military?

            Or:  can Jews be loyal to the Roman Empire, or do their religious beliefs and customs preclude them from full assimilation?  Can they be trusted not to revolt?

9. Re-write the trial of Socrates.  Either:  write a persuasive speech for the prosecution.  Or:  write a speech that you think Socrates ought to have given in his defense (it should be substantially different from the speech recorded in Plato’s Apology) that might have persuaded the Athenians to acquit him.

10.  By the first century BC, the Roman Republic had plunged into political chaos and civil war.  A group of prominent Romans gathers to discuss:  “What has gone wrong with our society, and what should we do about it?”  Describe their discussion, and try to include different points of view as to the causes of the problem (whose fault is it?) and different suggestions as to solutions (can the republic be saved, or is monarchy inevitable?).

11.  You are a Persian nobleman in the court of King Xerxes.  You have heard that certain Greek historians are spreading false and misleading accounts of the recent war between the Greeks and Persians.  Write an account of the war from the Persian point of view – why Persia was justified in going to war, why its result was “really” a victory for Persia.  If the Great King Xerxes is pleased with your work, he will not behead you!