The second exam will be Monday, November 16, 2005, and covers Chapters 5 through 8 of the McKay text. There will also be 40 multiple-choice questions from material covered in class and the readings; 1 point each—40 points total. There will be four essay questions selected from those below; you must answer two—20 points each.
If you are familiar with the terms below and can provide answer fully the study questions you will do well on the multiple-choice section of the exam. There are three questions that come directly from the lectures and are not mentioned in the McKay text.
Chapter 5 “Rise of Rome, ca. 1000 to 27 BCE”
Terms: Senate, consuls, tribunes, latifundia, plebeians, patricians, Punic Wars, “Struggle of the Orders”
Names: Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus, Lucius Cornelius SULLA, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra
Chapter 6 “Roman Empire, 27 BCE to 284 CE”
Terms: praetorians, Praetorian Guard, Aeneid, aqueducts, princeps civitatis, wergild, principate, imperator, pax romana,
Names: Octavian (Augustus), Virgil, Jesus of Nazareth, Paul of Tarsus, Vespasian, Nero, Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian
Chapter 7 “Late Antiquity: 250-600”
Terms: comitatus, Edict of Milan (313), Runes, Runic inscription, Rule of Saint Benedict, Council of Nicaea, Nicene Creed, Arianism, Petrine Doctrine, City of God
Names: Augustine of Hippo, Diocletian, Huns, Saint Peter, Benedict of Nursia
Chapter 8 “Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 600-1000”
Terms: Carolingian Renaissance, Carolingian Dynasty, Merovingian Dynasty, missi dominici, Sunni, Shia, Five Pillars of Islam, Qu’ran, caliph, al-Andalus, Córdoba, Treaty of Verdun (843)
Names: Clovis, Franks, Charles Martel, Theodora of Constantinople, Abd al-Rahman, Alcuin, Charlemagne, Abu Bakr
Part II: Essay Questions
You will be given four of the following nine questions and you must answer TWO as completely as possible.
Chapter 5 “Rise of Rome, ca. 1000 to 27 BCE”
1. Why did the Romans expand nearly continuously throughout the Mediterranean world until the first century B.C.E.? What factors enabled this expansion? Please detail the stages of Roman expansion in your response.
2. What explains the instability that characterized Roman politics in the century following the Punic Wars? Why did republican institutions fail to produce the kinds of reforms and compromises that had resolved earlier political conflicts? How did the Gracchus brothers and Gaius Marius try to remedy this situation?
Chapter 6 “Roman Empire, 27 BCE to 284 CE”
3. In what ways was the power of the Roman army both the empire’s greatest strength and one of its most important weaknesses?
4. What factors enabled Christianity to grow from a Jewish splinter group on the fringes of the Roman Empire to a significant religion with followers in most other regions of the Roman world by the year 300? Was this a sudden or a gradual transition?
Chapter 7 “Late Antiquity: 250-600”
5. Why did the Roman Empire in the East survive long after the empire in the West? Provide specific examples.
6. It is common to attribute the expansion of Christianity in the Roman Empire to the conversion of Constantine in 312. But in fact, this process was gradual rather than sudden. Why was this the case? Discuss the gradual Christianization of the Roman Empire from the reign of Constantine through the early sixth century.
Chapter 8 “Europe in the Early Middle Ages, 600-1000”
7. What contributions did Muslim scholars and thinkers make to the development of European civilization?
8. Why did the Carolingians enter into a partnership with the Christian church? What role did Charlemagne play in this alliance? What effect did this collaboration have on western Europe?
9. What impact did the Viking invasions have on the areas in which they occurred? How were the Vikings themselves changed by their military success?
