Some Questions That Need Answers! Whats Your Opinion

[ILoveHistory]

Hello all, Im new to the fourm and I want to start by saying that this is a great website and has offered me a alot of help in my studies. After reading a lot of different posts I can see that alot of the members really know their stuff. I have a BIG presentation coming up in my Western Civ class and I have been preparing for it extensivley but I wanted to seek some outside opinions (you). Ill try to put the topics that I am covering in Question form to make it easier to respond. They are as follows:

 

1.Compare the religious views of a couple of the following: Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks and of course the Romans.

 

2.Compare/Contrast the expansions of the Egyptian empire, Alexander the Great's empire and that of the Roman republic.

 

3.Compare the political institutions of Sparta, Atens, and Roman republic

 

4.Discuss the causes and course of the Persian Wars and examine the impact it had on the Peloponnesian war.

 

5.Discuss the on-going dispute between the plebeians and patricians in Republican Rome. Evaluate the success of the plebeians in increasing their political power and legal rights.

 

I dont expect full and complete awnsers but any insight would be greatly appriciated.

 

Thx Jason

[Nephele]

Sounds like you've got a lot of work cut out for you, Jason. You can probably get a lot of background to help you prepare for your Western Civ class presentation by just perusing this site -- and using the "Search" function for various subjects. Have you had a look around here yet?

 

I'm sure you'll find folks here willing to answer a question or two -- but the "comparing, contrasting, and evaluating" bit really sounds more like what your teacher would expect you to be doing, yourself -- don't you think?

 

-- Nephele

[M. Porcius Cato]

Each of these topics could be---and has been!--addressed in a page, a book, or a series of books.

Let me suggest a few leads to help you approach these topics so you're not floundering around just trying to find the right literature.

 

1.Compare the religious views of a couple of the following: Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks and of course the Romans.

 

Comparing the religious views of whole societies--especially vast empires like Persia and Rome--is bound to oversimplify matters greatly. Think about trying to compare the religious views of Americans (which encompasses widely differing sects of Christians, atheists, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists) and Iraqis (which spans the same gamut, albeit to a different degree of each element in the mix).

 

It's probably more interesting to focus on one or two common elements across the religions. For example, each of these cultures has left us a written record of their creation myths, i.e., how the world was started and how humans came to be. Comparing the stories found in the Hebrew myths in Genesis (Adam/Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah, and all that) to those found in the Mesopotamian epic Gilgamesh and the stories in the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphosis (about Pandora, Deucalion, etc) would help to illustrate some of the similarities and differences.

 

2.Compare/Contrast the expansions of the Egyptian empire, Alexander the Great's empire and that of the Roman republic.

On Rome versus Alexander, read Polybius. (Can't help with Egypt.)

 

3.Compare the political institutions of Sparta, Atens, and Roman republic

Read Perikles' funeral oration in Thucydides, parts of Aristotle's Politica and parts of Polybius. If you really want to understand the difference between Athens and Sparta, read "The Trial of Socrates" by I. F. Stone from cover-to-cover.

 

4.Discuss the causes and course of the Persian Wars and examine the impact it had on the Peloponnesian war.

Read all Herodotus and all Thucydides. "The Landmark Thucydides" is the best version IMO. Don't watch the 300; if you already have, pretend you didn't.

 

5.Discuss the on-going dispute between the plebeians and patricians in Republican Rome. Evaluate the success of the plebeians in increasing their political power and legal rights.

 

Two great places on this site for this topic: the history of Roman law and the men who wrote and fought for these laws. Also see the Cambride Companion to the Roman Republic and (even better) A Companion to the Roman Republic (Blackwell), which has a very good narrative history of the republic in just four sweet chapters.

 

These are the sources, but as Nephele says, the comparing/contrasting/THINKING is up to you. BTW, this looks like a whole course on Western Civ and not one class project.

Edited September 18, 2007 by M. Porcius Cato

[Kosmo]

1.Compare the religious views of a couple of the following: Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks and of course the Romans.

Pick romans and greeks, they are rather similar and well documented, including on this site.

 

2.Compare/Contrast the expansions of the Egyptian empire, Alexander the Great's empire and that of the Roman republic.

The Egyptian part it's the most difficult because it has many distinct stages over 2 millenia and we know little about institutions in the conquered lands.

 

3.Compare the political institutions of Sparta, Atens, and Roman republic

Athens had several types of institutions from tyrany to democracy. You need to pick a certain time frame for each of them (or a year for all of them)

 

4.Discuss the causes and course of the Persian Wars and examine the impact it had on the Peloponnesian war.

That should be easy.

 

5.Discuss the on-going dispute between the plebeians and patricians in Republican Rome. Evaluate the success of the plebeians in increasing their political power and legal rights.

This is tricky because you have to analize a lenghty procces. The list of laws of the Republic it's a must see. A good secundary source will save you time in interpreting the changes.

 

Good luck.

[Nephele]

MPC and Kosmo, great suggestions!

 

MPC, both of those links that you gave Jason lead to the same page: "Legal and Institutional Chronology of the Roman Republic". I think maybe you wanted that second link ("the men who wrote and fought for these laws") to go to this page?

 

-- Nephele