Classical CivilisationQ&A by dot point

Democracy and the Athenians: the definition of Athenian citizenship and the citizenship law of 451 BC, the rights and duties of citizens, and the exclusion of women, metics and slaves, and the tension between democratic ideals and social reality.

Democracy and the Athenians: the contemporary criticisms of the democracy from the Old Oligarch, Thucydides, Plato and Aristophanes, the charges of mob rule, incompetence and instability, and the evaluation of these criticisms.

Democracy and the Athenians: the central role of rhetoric and persuasion in the Assembly and courts, the role of political leaders, the figure of the demagogue, and the debate over whether persuasion strengthened or endangered the democracy, seen in the Mytilene debate.

Democracy and the Athenians: the development of Athenian democracy, the reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes, the changes of Ephialtes and Pericles, and the key concepts of demokratia, isonomia and isegoria.

Democracy and the Athenians: the institutions of the democracy, including the Assembly (ekklesia), the Council of 500 (boule), the law courts (dikasteria), the magistracies, and the mechanisms of sortition (the lottery) and ostracism.

Greek Religion: Greek beliefs about death and the afterlife (the underworld, Hades, the shades), funerary ritual and the care of the dead, the importance of proper burial, and hero cult as a distinctive honouring of the dead.

Greek Religion: the nature and purpose of religious festivals, the great Athenian and Panhellenic festivals (the Panathenaia, the City Dionysia and the Olympic Games), their components (procession, sacrifice, competition), and their religious and civic functions.

Greek Religion: the means of communicating with the divine, including oracles (especially Delphi), other forms of divination (omens, dreams, seers), and the mystery cults (especially the Eleusinian Mysteries) and the more personal religion they offered.

Greek Religion: the concept of sacred space (temenos, altar, sanctuary), the form and function of the Greek temple, the great sanctuaries at Delphi and Olympia, and the religious meaning of temple architecture and sculpture such as the Parthenon.

Greek Religion: the central acts of worship, including animal sacrifice (thysia), libations, prayer and votive offerings, the procedures and meaning of these rituals, and religion in the home and the polis.

Greek Religion: the nature of the gods (Olympian and chthonic, anthropomorphic), their powers and spheres, the reciprocal relationship between gods and mortals, and the philosophical challenges to traditional belief from thinkers such as Xenophanes.

Greek Theatre: Aristophanes' Frogs as a study in Old Comedy, including its plot and structure, the conventions of comedy (the agon, parabasis, slapstick and obscenity), the satire of contemporary Athens, and the debate between Aeschylus and Euripides over the value of poetry.

Greek Theatre: Euripides' Bacchae as a study in tragedy, including the conflict between Dionysus and Pentheus, the themes of divine power and human resistance, order and ecstasy, the role of the chorus of maenads, and the staging of disguise and the sparagmos.

Greek Theatre: Sophocles' Oedipus the King as a study in tragedy, including its dramatic irony and structure, the themes of fate, knowledge and human responsibility, the role of the chorus, and the staging of the discovery and self-blinding.

Greek Theatre: the City Dionysia festival, its religious dimension in honour of Dionysus, its organisation (the dramatic competitions, the choregoi, the role of the polis), and the social and political functions of drama in democratic Athens.

Greek Theatre: the physical theatre space (theatron, orchestra, skene, parodoi), the conventions of masks, costumes and three actors, the stage machinery (mechane and ekkyklema), and the visual evidence for performance such as the Pronomos Vase.

The Imperial Image: the use of coinage to disseminate Augustus' image and titles, the messages carried by coin types (military success, peace, divine connection and dynasty), and the strengths and limits of coins as evidence.

The Imperial Image: the transformation of the young Octavian into Augustus, the settlement of 27 BC, the public image of the restored Republic and the modest princeps, and the contrast between that image and the reality of his accumulated power.

The Imperial Image: the Ara Pacis Augustae and its sculptural programme, the Forum of Augustus and the Temple of Mars Ultor, and how monumental architecture and reliefs conveyed peace, piety, dynastic continuity and a link to Rome's heroic past.

The Imperial Image: the role of the Augustan poets (Virgil, Horace, Propertius and Ovid) in shaping Augustus' image, the literary celebration of peace, piety and the golden age, and the question of how far the poets were propagandists or independent voices.

The Imperial Image: the sculptural portrayal of Augustus, including the Prima Porta statue and the Via Labicana (Pontifex Maximus) statue, the idealised and youthful portrait type, and how statuary projected military victory, piety and a link to the gods.

Homer's Iliad: the characterisation of Hector and the Trojan royal family (Priam, Hecabe, Andromache, Paris and Helen), the scenes within Troy, and how Homer dramatises the human and domestic cost of war.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: the heroic code and its values of glory (kleos), honour (time) and shame, the tension between honour and survival, and how different heroes (Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Ajax) embody or strain the code.

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: the role of the immortals (Zeus, Hera, Athene, Apollo, Aphrodite, Poseidon, Thetis), their interventions in human affairs, the relationship between divine will and fate (moira), and what this reveals about the Homeric worldview.

Homer's Odyssey: the themes of disguise and deception, the role of Athene as Odysseus' divine protector, the testing of loyalty on Ithaca, and the recognition scenes culminating in the reunion with Penelope.

Homer's Odyssey: the wanderings and the theme of hospitality (xenia), from the Phaeacians and the Cyclops to the suitors, and the structuring theme of homecoming (nostos), culminating in the return to Ithaca and the restoration of order.

Homer's Iliad: the wrath (menis) of Achilles as the organising theme of the poem, from the quarrel with Agamemnon in Book 1 to the return of Hector's body in Book 24, and what it reveals about heroism, honour and mortality.

Virgil's Aeneid: pietas (duty to gods, family and state) as the defining virtue of Aeneas, illustrated through the fall of Troy, the carrying of Anchises, and his submission to fate, and how it distinguishes the Roman hero from the Homeric hero.

Virgil's Aeneid: the war in Italy and the climactic duel with Turnus, the ambiguous ending in which Aeneas kills the suppliant Turnus in a moment of furor, and what it reveals about Aeneas, pietas and the meaning of the poem.

Virgil's Aeneid: the characterisation of Dido, the development and destruction of her love for Aeneas, the conflict between love and duty, and the tragedy of Book 4 culminating in her suicide and curse.

Virgil's Aeneid: the opposition of furor (destructive passion) and fatum (destiny), the role of the gods (especially Juno's anger and Jupiter's plan), and the human cost of founding Rome as a recurring theme.

Virgil's Aeneid: the descent to the underworld in Book 6, the meeting with Anchises, the parade of future Roman heroes, the prophecy of Rome's mission, and how the episode promotes Augustan ideology.