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CLST 277-WI The World of Late Antiquity
Fall Semester 2006
Dr. Jacqueline Long
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Study Guide for Exam I
Format
The exam will have three parts; you will be offered some choice
within each part:
- cut-and-dried identifications: basic factual information (small
credit per item, and a small component of the exam)
- primary-source selections: given a short passage from a late-antique
documentary or literary text we have studied, explain what knowledge and
understanding of late antique history and culture this passage helps you
to arrive at, and how - include pertinent facts about the source's
context and nature, but focus on the passage itself and how you can best
use it to pursue historical inquiry (each passage will yield a medium-sized
quantum of credit, but the passages together add up to a major component of
the exam)
- essay: explore a historical problem, setting forth relevant, specific,
concrete evidence from late antique sources, explaining how to derive knowledge
and understanding from the evidence, and showing how the knowledge and
understanding inform your answer to the problem (the largest single item of
credit; a major component of the exam)
Things to study
An effective approach to understanding what is important to focus on as
you review for an exam -in any course- is to think about how the different
elements of the course-work serve the course-design. Think about the
objectives highlighted in the syllabus and in
class discussions, and as you review the assigments
and your notes, think about how the things you have done each help realize
some of those goals. Ask yourself, "what was that about?" Your answers will
guide you in your studying. If you want to talk about some of the connections,
please come see me - I want us to be on the same page, working toward the same
outcome -your learning- not at cross-purposes. Having thought now, in review,
about how assigments and objectives fit together, keep thinking about
their relationship as we contine moving forward into new material.
Terms and items you should be able to identify, to comment upon, or to
refer to in a historical essay include, for example:
- geographical locations of important events and centers of significant
communities and activities: e.g., Rome, Carthage, the Danube frontier, Persia
- institutions of the Roman state and concepts and practices relating
to them: e.g., citizenship, state cults, the Senate, provincial governors, coinage
- different kinds of communities within the Roman state and distinctive concepts
and practices relating to them: e.g., the Roman army, cities, social classes,
religious and ethnic groups
- important titles, terms, and concepts connected with Roman emperors: e.g.,
Augustus, Caesar, dynasty, Tetrarchy, divus/divinization,
pontifex maximus, pius/pietas (religious and social
"devout/devoutness"), felix/felicitas ("fortune/fortunate")
- important buildings and monuments in Rome, and their types as important
in Roman cities generally: e.g., amphitheater, circus/hippodrome, palace,
forum/agora, temple, basilica, church, triumphal arch, honorific column, obelisk
- important religious terms: e.g., supplication (as a technical
term), libation, sacrifice, passion, martyr, confessor, deacon, catechumen, bishop
- literary texts we have used as sources and information that helps assess
them: e.g., The
Passion of Perpetua and Felicity and
Lactantius,
On the Manner in which the Persecutors Died
- documentary and material sources we have used and information that helps
assess them: e.g., the religious calendar from Dura-Europus, sacrifice-certificates
of the Decian Persecution, the
Preamble of the Edict
on Maximum Prices
- major historical forces and actors we have traced: e.g., war, inflation,
administrative reform, individual emperors, officials, and Christians (as you review
your notes from the readings and from class, make a list)
Note: don't
hang up on memorizing technical terms. It is convenient to be able to identify
items swiftly, by name, but it is far, far more important to be able to
recognize, understand, and EXPLAIN CLEARLY how historical ideas, events, and forces
functioned in the late antique world, and how we can use the evidence that exists
in order to understand them.
Recommended
strategy: when you are thinking of big historical trends and developments, think of
specific facts that illustrate them, and when you are thinking of specific facts
and figures and pieces of evidence, think where they fit in to big historical
developments. Be able to explain how the big picture and the particular item connect
to one another. Reflect on how you know what you know, so that you can always
explain your historical inquiry clearly. And do explain.
Moments
and developments to follow - see also daily Study
Questions relating to individual assignments):
- evolution of the Roman state, from origins to Republic to Principate and
later Roman empire
- geographical growth of Roman political dominance, including attention to
what peoples and cultures the Romans politically dominated
- capital cities of the Roman empire
- "Roman identity" and Roman cultural ideals
- forces tending to break down the functioning of the Roman state during the
third century
- endeavors to restore the functioning of the Roman state during the third
and early fourth centuries
- common forms of belief and ritual practice of traditional pagan
religions, including cults of the Roman state and of local communities,
private worship for practical and spiritual purposes, magic
- religious groups, identities, and practices divergent from traditional
pagan religions: e.g., Neoplatonic philosophy, Judaism, Christianity
- Roman efforts at religious enforcement or compulsion: policies, how the
policies were carried out, what responses the policies and actions met, what
consequences ensued
- economy and money in the Roman empire
- ideals and objectives for Roman emperors - their own and other people's
or groups'
- imperial monuments: practicalities and publicity-value of public works
