Midterm Examination

READ THIS FIRST!:  Once you start this exam, you should take no more than two (2) hours to complete it -- it is designed to take 50 minutes (times indicated are merely suggestions).  You may start the exam at any point -- it will be available to you from 12:30 PM, Thursday, February 2 to 5:00 PM, Tuesday, February 7 (Pacific Time) -- but you must start and complete it within this time frame.  Although Canvas will record how long you took to complete the exam, there is no way for me to time your 2 hours with this format, but I trust you to take no more than that...plus, you really don't want to be spending more than that (writing more does not mean you're necessarily giving a better answer).

This is an OPEN BOOK exam...feel free to consult your texts/coursepack/notes (but no other resources, please). 

To BEGIN the test, choose the START ASSIGNMENT button in the upper right -- this will then give you the options of entering your answers as text or uploading a file with your answers.

THE MIDTERM EXAM:

The exam is provided below; and here is a pdf of the exam Download a pdf of the exam if that's easier for you (i.e., you'd like to print it out to refer to or view it in another window as you compose your answers).  You may enter your responses either as text or upload them as a single, separate document, but either way, your exam is to be submitted here, via Canvas.  

• PLEASE CLEARLY NUMBER YOUR RESPONSES.
• Note that there are 3 Parts to the exam.
• Answer/respond to ONLY as many questions as you are asked to.  Answers beyond the required number will NOT earn you extra credit or be graded.

PART I (10 mins. suggested, 24%) Identify and comment briefly on the significance of any FOUR (4) of the following:

1. maius imperium

2. Gaius and Lucius Caesar

3. proscription

4. Actium

5. M. Agrippa

6. 27 BC

7. Philippi

8. tributum capitis

9. Sextus Pompey

10. tribunicia potestas (tribunician power)

11. Octavia

12. aerarium militare

PART II (15 mins. suggested, 36%) Comment briefly (about 5-8 sentences suggested – a paragraph, in other words) on one or more points of historical, political, etc. interest raised by any THREE (3) of the following passages. If you can, identify the source of the quotation.

1. “‘In my 6th and 7th consulships, after I had put an end to the civil wars, having by universal consent acquired control of all affairs, I transferred government from my own authority to the discretion of the Senate and people of Rome.’“

2. “‘Let us therefore give [him] the command, without which no military affairs can be administered, no army held together, no war waged; let him be pro-praetor with the fullest power of a regular appointment. That honour is a great one at his age, but it serves to assist the measures necessary to be taken, not merely to enhance his dignity.’“

3. “23 BC (Augustus’ tribunician year 1) Imperator Caesar Augustus, son of the divine (Julius), grandson of Gaius, consul for the eleventh time, resigned the consulship. In his place [Lucius Sestius, son of Publius, grandson of Lucius], Quirin(alis) [Albinus?] was made consul.”

4. “’In honour of Quintus Varius Geminus, son of Quintus, legate of the divine Augustus on two occasions, proconsul, praetor, tribune of the people, quaestor, quaesitor (judicial examiner), prefect for distribution of corn in Rome, member of the tribunal for deciding cases of citizenship and liberty, superintendent for maintenance of public temples and sacred monuments of Rome....The people of Superaequum (set this up) to their patron at public expense.’”

5. “‘Now, seeing that the malice of those who have conspired against us and by whose hand Gaius [Julius] Caesar perished cannot be mollified by kindness, we prefer to anticipate our enemies rather than suffer at their hands. Let no one who sees what both Caesar and we ourselves have suffered consider our actions unjust, cruel, or immoderate. …We shall not deal harshly with any multitude of men, nor shall we count as enemies all who have opposed or plotted against us, or those distinguished for their riches merely, their abundance or their high position, or as many as another man slew who held the supreme power before us when he too was regulating the commonwealth in civil convulsions and whom you name the ‘Fortunate’ on account of his success; and yet necessarily three persons will have more enemies than one.’”

6. “But now, the provinces having been allotted, some to the people and the senate, some to the leader of the Romans, Baetica belongs to the people, and a praetor is sent to it with a quaestor and a legate; they have fixed its boundary to the east near Castulo. The rest is Caesar’s, and he sends out two legates, a praetorian and a consular.”

7. “The Romans, therefore, reduced to dire straits by disease and famine, thought that this had happened to them for no other reason than they did not have Augustus for consul at this time. They accordingly wished to elect him as dictator, and shutting the senate up in its hall they forced it to vote this measure by threatening to burn down the building. Next they [begged Augustus] both to be named dictator and to become commissioner of grain…  He accepted the latter duty under compulsion…  As for the dictatorship, however, he would not hear of it….”

8. “The Emperor Caesar Augustus, pontifex maximus, in his seventeenth tribunician power, acclaimed imperator fourteen times, declares:

            ‘Since I find that there are all told in the provincial territory of Cyrene 215 Romans of all ages with a census rating of 2500 denarii or more, from whom the jurors are chosen....and since I myself have ascertained that some innocent people have in this way been oppressed and carried off to the supreme penalty, it is my view that, until the senate makes a decision on this matter or I myself find some better solution, it will be the right and proper procedure for those governing the province of Crete and Cyrene to impanel in the provincial territory of Cyrene the same number of Greek jurors from the highest census rating as of Romans....’“

9. “After the second and decisive [victory] he showed no clemency to his beaten enemies, but sent Brutus’ head to Rome for throwing at the feet of Caesar’s divine image; and insulted the more distinguished of his prisoners. When one these humbly asked for the right of decent burial, he got the cold answer: ‘That must be settled with the carrion-birds.’ And when a father and son pleaded for their lives, [he]…told them to decide which of the two should be spared, by casting lots. The father sacrificed his life for the son, and was executed; the son then committed suicide; [he] watched them both die.”

10. “’[He] also aroused great resentment because of the division of his inheritance which he carried out in Alexandria in favor of his children. People regarded this as an arrogant and theatrical gesture which seemed to indicate a hatred for his own country. Nevertheless, he assembled a great multitude in the athletic arena there, and had two thrones of gold, one for himself and one for Cleopatra, placed on a dais of silver, with smaller thrones for his children.  First, he proclaimed Cleopatra Queen of Egypt, Cyprus, Libya, and Coele Syria and named Caesarion as her consort.  …Next he proclaimed his own sons by Cleopatra to be Kings of Kings.’”

11. “‘The quarrelsome behavior of the people during his absence did not accord at all with their conduct, influenced by fear, when he was present; he was accordingly invited and elected to be commissioner of morals for five years, and to hold the authority of the censors for the same length of time and that of the consuls for life, being allowed to use the twelve rods always and everywhere and to sit in the chair of office between the consuls of each year. After voting these measure they begged him to set right all these matters and to enact what laws he liked.’”

12. “...each left his three hundred in charge of friends on the bridges and advanced to the middle of the island in plain sight, and there the three sat together in council... They were in conference from morning till night for two days, and came to these decisions...”

PART III (25 mins. suggested, 40%) Essay (that is: several paragraphs, not a few sentences!).  Answer ONE of the following:

1. In the course of his regime Augustus instituted or encouraged a number of reforms in three important areas: the provinces, the magistracies, and the army. Write an essay in which you summarize the principal features of the reforms made in ONE of these three areas. The best answers will be supported by specific references to the relevant primary texts we have read.

2. One of the fundamental features of the Augustan period was the gradual defining of the “princeps” or emperor. Discuss the powers that were granted to Augustus in the course of his career, including roughly when they were granted and most importantly what they allowed him to do. Again, insofar as you are able support your answer by references to relevant primary texts.