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Essay Instructions: An extra credit essay is available for the students. This extra credit essay is not mandatory but by choice. You will not be penalized if you do not participate in writing this essay.

Listed below are three topics. You are to choose one topic to write on. If you have questions regarding the essay examination, please refer to your syllabus. You may use the APA or MLA formatting. Please complete four full pages and a Works Cited page.


Requirements for your Works Cited page
(1) Your textbook
(2) Internet source


The examinations are due on or before Midnight, March 6, 2009. Papers may be turned in any time on or before March 6, 2009.


Listed below are three topics. You are to choose one topic to write on. If you have questions regarding the essay examination, please refer to your syllabus.


Topic #1. Some have found a note of arrogance and insensitivity in Socrates and argue that he deserved what he got. What did Socrates mean by the question: Is the unexamined truth worth living for? How did Socrates prove this point?


this is from plato`s trial of socrates my book is Philosophy the quest for truth Pojman oxford press

Essay Instructions: This research assistance order is for two entirely separate journal entries, with each journal entry comprised of two 150 word responses for a total of 300 words each, or 600 words total for this research assistance order. The first journal response/entry is based on selected (see below) text of the readily available (google books) Paul Woodruff version (Hackett Publishing, ISBN 13: 978-0-87220-168-2) of Thucydides. If for some reason the writer does not have access to the text, please contact me through SNR interface and I will scan the selected text and provide it asap. ;) The second journal response/entry is based on selected (see below) text on source documents outlined, with the "Doug Linder" provided, and remaining selected text (from ISBN 978-0-87220-554-3) will again be provided if not available to researcher.

Specific Instructions/Requirements for journal entry/response:

1) A paragraph of at least 150 words analyzing the text in response to the specific analysis
question posed on the syllabus for that day. Please use complete sentences and offer evidence
for your analysis.

2) A paragraph of at least 150 words of your own reflections on the text. This paragraph is your
opportunity to discuss anything you would like about the reading due for that day: what you find
interesting and why, what questions it raises for you, what still confuses you, the relevance of the
reading for your own life, and so forth. You may also use this paragraph to offer your evaluation
of the text in response to your analysis in the first paragraph. As the course proceeds, you should
try to relate the various texts to each other and to the course themes. Please note that the
reflection paragraph must move beyond analysis to express your own thoughts about the reading.
Please also keep in mind that the reflection paragraph must be a response to the assigned reading
for that day, not a response to class discussions about previous reading assignments.
Reading journals must be entirely your own work. NO external sources (including websites)
may be used in writing your reading journal. Any reading journal that makes use of external
sources without acknowledgment will have been plagiarized, leading to the penalties for
plagiarism discussed below. Quotations and paraphrases from the text should be properly cited
with page references, e.g. “(p.17)”. Any quotations from the text longer than a phrase will be
excluded from the required minimum word count of 150 words per paragraph. There is no
maximum length for your journal entries.

There are a number of purposes for the reading journal assignment. First, it encourages you to
read the texts closely and actively, so that you begin to analyze and form your own thoughts
about the text rather than waiting to “find out what it means” in class. The questions assigned
for the first paragraph are intended to guide you through the building blocks of how to analyze
political theory. Second, the assignment encourages you to keep up-to-date with the reading, so
that you will get the most benefit from class meetings. Third, it ensures that a reasonable
number of people will have done the reading on any given day, so that class discussions can be
meaningful and worthwhile. In order to serve these three purposes, journal entries must be done
before class, not afterwards. While your understanding of the reading may change once we have
discussed it in class (indeed, I hope it will, at least to some extent), any journal entry that
seriously attempts to engage with the reading fulfills the assignment.

Journal Reading One: (Thucydides, First 300 Word Entry/Response)
The Peloponnesian War
Chapter 6, b-c
Chapter 7, a-d, except paragraphs 42-59 (pp. 130-140)
Chapter 8
Woodruff’s Introduction, pp xxx-xxxii
Assignment Due:
Reading journal analysis: what is the author’s overall argument (in the book as
a whole)?

Journal Reading Two: (Various/Trial and Death of Socrates, Second 300 Word Entry/Response)
Doug Linder, “The Trial of Socrates”
Grube, “Introduction,” The Trial and Death of Socrates (pages iv-v)
Plato, Apology in The Trial and Death of Socrates
Assignment due:
Reading journal analysis: what is the primary (type of) evidence provided?
(Remember that reading journals must be written on the main text, which in
this case is the Apology.)
There are faxes for this order.

Essay Instructions: Before I give you the guideline, please lat me know as soon as possible if you can't find a writer for this. Because last time, it got me in trouble. Thank you.

This is a creative project, asking you to imagine yourself as an ancient person and therefore to write ?in character.? You are highly encouraged to draw upon the primary sources and imitate their writing style in order to find a distinctly ?ancient? voice. However, avoid excessive direct quotation from those texts. Use footnotes to indicate the sources of your ideas.

Unless otherwise specified, the characters involved may be of either sex; but keep it plausible within the limits imposed by the gender roles of the time.

Choose from one of the following situations. You are welcome to come up with a scenario of your own, but if so you must see me or your TA to discuss it at least a full week before the due date.



1. You have organized a panel discussion including some of the most famous ancient historians: Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Plutarch, Livy, Tacitus, etc. Imagine a debate between these historians along the following lines: what is the purpose of writing history? Should historians simply attempt to tell us what actually happened, or do they serve a larger moral purpose? To what extent is it appropriate to alter the facts, or even make stuff up, in order to make a point?



2. Pericles? Funeral Oration extolled the virtues of Athenian democracy as ?an education to the whole world.? Write a response to Pericles on behalf of the women of Athens.



3. Stage a debate between Socrates and Plato: do philosophers really know best? Can they be trusted to govern society?



4. Alexander the Great checks himself in to Megalomaniacs Anonymous, a 12-step program for recovering tyrants. Describe his conversation with the philosophers in charge of the program, as they attempt to help him overcome his character flaws.



5. Greek educators in the fourth century BC debate whether or not Homer should be taught in the schools. Does it teach the right kind of values to our children?



6. In the aftermath of the Ides of March, imagine that Brutus and Cassius are captured and put on trial for their role in the assassination of Julius Caesar. They hire Cicero as their defense attorney. Write speeches on behalf of the prosecution and the defense.



7. You are a young Roman from a wealthy and prominent senatorial family. Instead of pursuing a promising career in politics or imperial service, you have thrown it all away and instead entered the arena to fight alongside the gladiators. Write a letter to your family explaining this shocking decision.



8. Christians and Romans debate: can Christians be loyal to the Roman Empire? Or do their religious beliefs and customs preclude them from full assimilation into Roman society? Should we let Christians serve in the military?

Or: can Jews be loyal to the Roman Empire, or do their religious beliefs and customs preclude them from full assimilation? Can they be trusted not to revolt?



9. Re-write the trial of Socrates. Either: write a persuasive speech for the prosecution. Or: write a speech that you think Socrates ought to have given in his defense (it should be substantially different from the speech recorded in Plato?s Apology) that might have persuaded the Athenians to acquit him.



10. By the first century BC, the Roman Republic had plunged into political chaos and civil war. A group of prominent Romans gathers to discuss: ?What has gone wrong with our society, and what should we do about it?? Describe their discussion, and try to include different points of view as to the causes of the problem (whose fault is it?) and different suggestions as to solutions (can the republic be saved, or is monarchy inevitable?).



11. You are a Persian nobleman in the court of King Xerxes. You have heard that certain Greek historians are spreading false and misleading accounts of the recent war between the Greeks and Persians. Write an account of the war from the Persian point of view ? why Persia was justified in going to war, why its result was ?really? a victory for Persia. If the Great King Xerxes is pleased with your work, he will not behead you!