history quiz
You have two hours, until 4 pm today. Please read instructions carefully. Try to say more rather than less—but watch the clock. By 4 pm you must email your answer sheet to your assigned final-exam marking-instructor.
Answer three questions in all: 34% each. (The student keeps any extra points.) Typically you’re asked to write at least three or four substantial paragraphs; otherwise, please follow the question’s specific instructions. Since a normal paragraph would be at least 40 words, your answers might be 120–160 words, at the least. But that’s just the minimum: Always you are welcome to write longer: more words and/or more paragraphs.
If by chance you don’t have enough knowledge to write three paragraphs, then write two or one. Anything you write with good content will earn some credit.
Try always to give relevant historical dates. Giving a wrong date is no worse than giving no date.
This exam is closed book: No study aids allowed. During the exam, you are not allowed to look any study-material, such as the textbook, online sources, the lecture notes, other Brightspace postings, or etc. Any evidence of copied text in a student’s paper will be treated as academic fraud.
No penalties for grammar errors in your writing. However, misspelling a Greek name brings a penalty of ½ point.
You may write your exam in French if you wish.
If you have a question during the exam, email the prof: dsacks@uottawa.ca.
In answering, please address all the internal questions inside the exam question.
Do not answer more than three questions. Also, please note you’re asked not to answer Questions 4 and 9, both: If you choose one, then skip the other.
1) “Whenever the Greeks copy anything from foreigners, they invariably bring it to a higher perfection,” the philosopher Plato wrote, circa 370 B.C.
In at least three paragraphs, explain three different examples of Greek copycatting from non-Greek peoples during the Dark Age and Archaic Age, circa 1000–500 B.C. Each example must involve a different non-Greek people from the other two examples: so three different non-Greek sources in all: no doubling-up.
Also, no Bronze Age here: Don’t talk here about the Minoans. If you can’t think of three relevant post–Bronze Age peoples, then choose another question.
Choose the most important three examples. Give dates, locations, technical details, etc. Include the “higher perfection” aspect if you think it relevant; however, it is not required here.
You may of course write more than one paragraph for any of your examples, but don’t address more than three examples.
2) While ours was not a course on Greek religion, the names of a few gods and goddesses did come up, relevant to ancient Greek real-life society and events.
Write four paragraphs or more: Choose three different deities who were discussed in lectures starting in September, and describe their involvement in our course-material. Give two paragraphs to one deity, and give at least one paragraph each to the other two: = four paragraphs, minimum.
Limit your answer to three deities. Brief minor mention of other deities is allowed, but please focus on just three—whom you consider the three most prominent in our CLA/HIS 2101 course.
Don’t choose this question if you’re not sure what to say. This question is not an invitation to write any four paragraphs on Greek mythology. If you write off-topic here, you’ll just waste time, for zero credit.
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3) The most fundamental problem for the ancient Greek city-state was food supply (aside from water supply). How did Sparta and Athens, respectively, solve the food problem? And how did their two methods differ from the statistically-more-usual way for Greek cities to address the food problem in the era we’ve been studying?
Write at least four paragraphs, (a), (b), (c), and (d): two short and two long. Write (a) a brief introductory paragraph, two–three sentences, on why food supply was a worry in ancient Greece. Which one, staple food are we talking about? Also, was there any specific problem at Athens?
(b) Write a substantial paragraph on Sparta’s solution. Give relevant information including dates, names of regions or locales, and names of statesmen and/or events.
(c) A substantial paragraph on Athens’ solution. Again, give relevant dates, place-names, and names of statesmen and/or events.
(d) A brief paragraph, two–three sentences, on a 3rd method, which was the more-usual procedure by which city-states might address hunger. Name one Greek city (not Sparta or Athens) that chose this way. Include any dates and other relevant place-names.
4) Write six paragraphs. of at least three sentences each, to explain how each of these six items relates to hoplite warfare. You may use point-form if you wish. Include a date in your explanation. For the Greek words, begin by translating: (a) hoplon, (b) ōthismos, (c) sōphrosunē, (d) “Put your second-best troops in the rear,” (e) hippeis, (f) “Return with your shield or upon it.”
Each of these is worth the same. If you’re able to address only five, it might still be worth your while, for most-part credit.
5) Writing at least four paragraphs, (a), (b), and (c), describe the emergence of the ancient Greek government-form that we call hoplite franchise.
For (a), briefly describe the government-form throughout Greece that preceded hoplite franchise. Give a date range.
For (b), explain clearly what hoplite franchise was: How did it differ from the government described in your Paragraph (a)? What does “franchise” mean here?
For (c), name a city that might have been the earliest hoplite franchise. Briefly explain: Why do you choose this city? How did the new government-form first get established, do we think? Give a date or date range. [Note: There could be more than one correct answer here. Please just choose your best one.]
For (d): A different city—not your city at (c)—would become the ideal model for hoplite franchise. Name this city, give a date range, and explain why this city’s hoplite franchise was considered the ideal pattern.
6) Write at least three paragraphs, (a), (b), and (c), to explain the social norm of Greek male homosexuality as it overlapped with two other factors in Greece of the 500s B.C.: (i) the devaluation of women, in prevalent ancient Greek opinion, and (ii) the culture’s wider glorification of male beauty and “masculine” virtues.
For (a), write a paragraph or two on the social conventions (or “rules”) of ancient Greek male-male relations. Which social class typically was involved?
For (b) and (c), write one paragraph each, on subtopics (i) and (ii) above. Among males, why would other males conventionally be seen as the romantic ideal—but not so much females? Using facts, can you relate this to the Greek city-state’s patriotic atmosphere and the general limiting of women’s roles?
To answer, use what you’ve learned in CLA/HIS 2101 about women’s lives in ancient Athens and Sparta. You could refer also to ancient Greek art, sport, religion, etc.
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7) “The Spartans built a temple to Fear as a god, because they believed that its power held their society together”—scholar Thomas Martin, Ancient Greece, 1996.
Identify three things that the typical Spartan male citizen was afraid of. Do this in at least two long paragraphs and one short one, (a), (b), and (c). You may want to break-up your two long paragraphs into smaller component paragraphs: no problem.
For (a) and (b), identify and discuss two fears caused by internal aspects of Sparta’s unique society and education system.
For (c), identify one Spartan fear that was caused by a factor external to Sparta and its society. Include a brief explanation.
How did these fears shape Spartan society and (as Martin says) consolidate it? Throughout your answer, give any relevant dates or a date range, and mention any vital relevant events.
8) Writing at least four paragraphs, trace the rise of Athens as we’ve seen it in this course. Don’t stray into the wrong era. (The wrong era would be post–490 B.C.)
Throughout your answer, give relevant facts: dates or a date range, leaders’ names, events, etc. During this era, Athens rose from being a 2nd-tier power to being a 1st-tier one.
Write two paragraphs (or more), back-to-back, on Athens’ unique political evolution. Explain what happened.
Then write two paragraphs (or more), back-to-back, on Athens’ growth in terms of trade, industry, arts, infrastructure, and patriotic cohesion.
Don’t answer Question 9, below, if you’re also answering Question 4. Choose one or the other.
9) Why did Athens win the Battle of Marathon?
To answer, don’t write a narrative but instead analyze: Write at least three paragraphs, exploring at least three reasons (one per paragraph). You may offer more than three reasons if you want.
How did factors combine, to give victory to the outnumbered Athenians on enemy-cavalry-friendly terrain?
Along the way, include any relevant facts: a date, battlefield numbers, aspects of geography, etc.
Don’t forget the Greek historian who is our major source: What might have been his opinion on this question?
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