Andrew Wolpert
Associate Professor of Classics
Office: 125B Dauer Hall
Tel: 352-392-2075 ext. 266
Fax: 352-846-0297
wolpert@ufl.edu
Mailing Address
125 Dauer Hall
Department of Classics
University of Florida
Post Office Box 117435
Gainesville, FL 32611-7435
CLA 3433: The Athenian Democracy
FALL 2008
First Mid-Term Examination
October 7, 2008
In essay format, answer two (2) of the following three questions:
1) When did the Athenian democracy begin? In
your essay, be sure to analyze the various scholarly arguments for
dating the origins of the Athenian democracy and explain which you
prefer and why. Be sure to support your argument with primary
evidence and to refer to the scholarly literature when appropriate.
2) Where did political power rest in fourth-century
Athens? Which political institution had the most power? Did
the Athenian people rule Athens? To answer this question, be sure
to take into account the various powers of the political institutions
of Athens. While this essay concerns primarily the reading
assignment for September 16, you will also find it useful to consider
the readings for September 23 and 30.
3) Compare Ober’s Mass
and Elite with Cohen’s Law,
Violence, and Community in Classic Athens. How are their
studies similar? How are they different? To answer this
question, you will need to consider their approaches, conclusions, and
observations on the Athenian democracy.
All essays must be submitted by
email to wolpert@ufl.edu in MS Word .doc format no later than 8:00 PM
on October, 7, 2008. There will be no class that evening.
You have a word count limit of
1,500 words per essay, which includes footnotes and/or endnotes, but
not your bibliography.
Writing Guidelines have been posted on course reserves (Ares).
In addition, a discussion thread will be opened for 10/7/2008, where
you can post any questions that you may have on the format of the
exam. Please note that
this discussion thread is not intended for questions on the content of
the exam. Each student is expected to prepare their essays
on their own without discussion with other students.
The midterm is based on questions considered during our weekly
discussions. You may read through past discussion threads “as a
study guide” and to point you in useful directions. In you
essays, however, you should refer directly to the particular authors
rather than rely on summaries in the threads. For this reason,
information has not been provided in the Writing Guidelines on how to
cite discussion threads.
