Download For Week of April 2nd Reading Guide: History of Rome This week

For Week of April 2nd
Reading Guide: History of Rome
This week, we will cover the rise of Pompey the Great and Caesar as well as the massive civil
war that was fought between them.
(Because we won’t cover the entire time-period in one class, I broke up the reading of Plutarch’s
lives of these two men so that you read part of Pompey’s life, then Caesar’s, then the rest of
Pompey’s. Of course, you are free to read both straight through if you like.)
As described on the syllabus:
By Monday, please have read WARD 15 and Plut. Fall (Pompey) 160-227
By Wednesday, read Plut. Fall (Caesar) 254-287
By Friday, read WARD 16 and finish both lives of Pompey and Caesar: Fall (Caesar) 287-322
AND Fall (Pompey) 227-48.
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48) = Pompey the Great
Questions to consider while reading:
1) How do Pompey’s life and career mirror the changes and problems of the late
Republic?
2) According to Plutarch, what where Pompey’s aims? What were Pompey’s most
important accomplishments? Is Plutarch’s portrayal of Pompey too idealized?
3) What are the three most striking facts about Pompey that you learn from Plutarch?
4) How does Pompey deal with the stigma of his “Sullan past”?
5) How does Plutarch account for the break between Pompey and Caesar?
Julius Caesar (100-44 BC)
Questions to consider while reading:
1) What were Caesar's most important accomplishments?
2) Who is responsible for the civil war? Why did Caesar win it?
3) What were his aims? One modern historian writes:
“Outmaneuvered and baffled by his enemies, he showed no comprehension of Rome's
problems and no ability to solve them. Sheer political incompetence, which caused his murder
and another thirteen years of civil war, is the heaviest count ... against him. That he had no novel
solution to offer for Rome's difficulties is venial. What condemns him is his own perplexity, that
he did not know and did not care to learn what was possible in Roman politics.” True or false?