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An Approach to the Teaching of Roman Republican History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

T. F. Carney
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Extract

These notes are prompted by experience gained teaching Roman Republican history to a first-year Latin class over a period of a few years at Victoria University (then College), N.Z. The suggestions they contain arose largely from discussions with students and other teachers, university and otherwise, from all of whom I have learned a great deal. Basically, my problems were threefold. The course was very short, and tune limitations demanded the utmost selectiveness. The course was also voluntary, and so had to be interesting in itself and of immediate value and significance for students busied with Latin and generally with three other degree subiects, too.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 1961 , pp. 29 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1961

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References

page 30 note 1 The movement is away from questions such as:

Either (a) Write notes on any two of the following: P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus; Cato the Elder; Philip V of Macedon; Quintus Sertorius; Publius Clodius;

Or (b) explain any two of the following terms: civitas sine suffragio; senatus consultum ultimum; dictator; comitia centuriata; optimates (Entrance Schol., 1953);Google Scholar

and towards questions like:

What were the chief reasons for the agrarian discontent that is so obvious in the last century of the Republic?

Describe and criticize the system of provincial government under the Republic (Entrance Schol., 1954).

Discuss the factors which brought about the so-called First Triumvirate in 60 b.c. (Entrance Schol., 1955).

A brief examination of the papers set in the last seven years indicates the movement towards an overall preference for the more general type of question. After all, only such questions really test the thoroughness of the candidates' knowledge of the period.

page 30 note 2 As, for instance, Ti. Gracchus was primarily connected by the ancients with the attempt to solve the problem posed by the latifundia, and C. Marius with army reform. The representative of big business was Crassus the millionaire.

page 34 note 1 For example, on Marius there is Passerini, A.'s ‘Caius Marius come uomo politico’ (Athenaeum, xii [1934], 10–44, 109–43, 257–97, and 348–80)Google Scholar; on CarcopinoSulla, J. Sulla, J.'s Sylla ou la monarchie manguée (Paris, 1931)Google Scholar; and on FrischCicero, H. Cicero, H.'s Cicero's Fight for the Republic (Copenhagen, 1946).Google Scholar