Please note that the usual requirement that academic honesty be observed will apply. I.e., kindly do not cheat. (Also, please use pen.)
When, Where
Thursday, 14-Mar 2023, during regular class meeting, in our regular classroom, LN 2405.
What (coverage)
Material studied 17-Jan (introduction to course) through (and only through) 23-Feb (citizen-sponsored public works). It will be closed-book; students will need to all that relates academic honesty
- The midterm will target material covered in lectures, journals (with my comments), class discussions, and assigned images and readings, though not pages not read from those readings.
- So, for instance, we've read about Polemon and other sophists. They matter. Philostratus' Life of Aelius Aristides, though important, we did not read. Not on the test.
- I won't ask for specific dates, but a broader sense of chronology is essential
- Antiphon is one of Philostratus' "first" or "older" sophists. He was active in later 400s BCE democratic Athens. Philostratus composed his Lives in the 200s CE, when Greece had been under Roman rule for centuries and democracy was largely a memory. That kind of thing matters
- How deep "into the weeds" will we dive?
- You'll need to exercise your judgment when studying. But you won't be asked to list all the victories won by Marcus Aurelius Asclepiades, also known as Hermodorus (ca. 200 CE)
- On the other hand, be ready to discuss larger issues pertaining to his career
- Perhaps obviously, you won't be examined on fable presentations, 14-21 Feb
- Likewise for the 7-Feb, in-class fable practice, except that the recap presented that day (slides on spin, argument by analogy, envy attribution, constructive/dysfunctional agōn) does deal with key matters. Those slides have been added to the 2-Feb Fables readings Powerpoint
Your Preparation
Review. . .
- Assigned texts, including Study Guides
- Images assigned for the Public Works class
- Your Journal Responses, and my comments on same
- Your classroom notes
- The Terms page (see below)
- PowerPoints
Shape of Test
It will be in two parts:
- Short answer
- Longish essay.
For the short answer, I'll be giving you a list of terms, from which you'll select a specified number to address. Write two to three sentences indicating what each refers to and how each relates to issues, concepts, and/or texts addressed by the course. For this section, maybe figure on forty minutes.
Here follow those terms, which you can study via the terms page:
- a fortiori argument
- agōn, agonism
- cultural capital
- enargeia
- enthymeme
- epichireme
- ēthopoiia
- euergetism
- grammatikos
- gumnasion
- liturgies
- meletē
- paideia
- periodos, periodonikēs
- phthonos
- progumnasma
- prosōpopoiia
- rhētōr
- rhetorical question
- sociality
- sophist
- khrōma
- xustos
- zēlos
- zero-sum game
For the longer essay (maybe thirty minutes, maybe five pages single spaced), please respond to the question that follows. Introduce an adequate number of texts and course-related issues and concepts to make your point. Use your judgment.
From what you have seen, how, if at all, does competition in the Roman Imperial East resemble a "zero-sum game"? Are there feelings associated with possible zero-sum aspects of competition? Does it relate to identity in any way?
Please review the "Citizen-Sponsored Public Works" Study Guide for more on this question.