NOTE: These particular essays will not be set as exam questions in the examination paper. Overlap should be avoided between your pre-submitted essays and the questions you answer in the exam.

ASSESSED ESSAY 1

Deadline: 12 noon Wednesday 1st December 2010

Write an essay of approximately 2,500 words on ONE of the following subjects and hand it in to the departmental office (Room 224) by the deadline. Make sure your essay is only identified by your university number from you library card, and that a cover sheet is attached. Ensure that your pages are numbered and that you state a word-count. See dept handbook for further advice about writing and presenting essays.

Consult the individual bibilographies handed out at lectures and the module bibliography for guidance in your reading.

1. Write a critical appreciation of i) Suetonius’ Life of Nero or ii) Tacitus Annals 15 or iii) Lucan De Bello Civili book 1 or iv) the Apocolocyntosis.
2. Tacitus is primarily a literary artist. Show this by discussion of any relevant passages or episodes you have studied.
3. Is the Apocolocyntosis amusing? Is it meant to be anything other than amusing?
4. What features of Lucan’s epic might most impress a modern reader?
5. How does Lucan sustain the attention of his audience in the first book of the Bellum Civile?

ASSESSED ESSAY 2

Deadline: 12 noon Monday 14th February 2011

Write an essay of approximately 2,500 words on ONE of the following subjects and hand it in to the departmental office (Room 224) by the deadline. Make sure your essay is only identified by your university number from you library card, and that a cover sheet is attached. Ensure that your pages are numbered and that you state a word-count. See dept handbook for further advice about writing and presenting essays.

Consult the individual bibilographies handed out at lectures and the module bibliography for guidance in your reading.

1. What does Petronius’ Satyricon tell us about the society and culture of the time in which it was written?

2. What does the Cena episode reveal about Petronius’ techniques of character-portrayal? (Your discussion should embrace more than one character.)

3. Does the Octavia work as a piece of theatre? If so, show why. If not, does it have any other merits?

4. How are women portrayed in the Octavia and/or in any other texts which depict Neronian culture?

5. Is the literature produced in the age of Nero inferior to the literature produced in the age of Augustus? (You should refer to at least two Neronian authors – so not Tacitus or Suetonius - in your answer.)