Download File

Name________________________
Document-Based Question on Classical Greece
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a thesis
statement that integrates your interpretation of the documents.
To what extent has classical Greece influenced American civilization?
Document 1: The Lincoln Memorial
Your analysis of the document as it pertains to the question:
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________
Document 2: The Theater of Dionysus
Your analysis of the document as it pertains to the question:
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________
Document 3: Pericles, Funeral Oration in Athens - 429 B.C.
“Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. We
do not copy our neighbors but are an example to them. Our constitution is called a
democracy, because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.
When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the laws.
When it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public
responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the ability the man
possesses. ...
Our city is thrown open to the world and we never expel a foreigner or prevent him from
seeing or learning anything of which the secret if revealed to an enemy might profit him.
We rely not upon management or trickery, but upon our own hearts and hands.
And in the matter of education, whereas they (Sparta) from early youth are always
undergoing laborious exercises which are to make them brave, we live at ease and yet are
equally ready to face the perils which they face ... when the hour comes we can be as
brave as those who never allow themselves to rest...we are lovers of the beautiful, yet
with economy, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness ...
An Athenian citizen does not neglect the state because he takes care of his own
household ... We alone regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as a
harmless, but as a useless character... “
Your analysis of the document as it pertains to the question:
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________
Document 4: Plutarch: Life of Lycurgus-Spartan leader (ca. 600 B.C.)
Plutarch, an historian who lived in 1st A.D., describes Lycurgus, the Sparta leader who
was supposed to have given Spartans their constitution.
“Lycurgus excluded unprofitable and superfluous arts, even those who had great
possessions had no advantage from them, since they could not be displayed in public...
It was left to the father to rear what children he pleased, but he was obliged to take the
child to a place called Lesche, to be examined by the most ancient men of the tribe. If it
was strong and well proportioned, they gave orders for its education and assigned it one
of the 9,000 shares of land; but if it was weakly or deformed, they ordered it to be thrown
into the place called Apothetae, which is a deep cavern near Mount Taygetus; concluding
that its life could be of no use either to itself or to the public, since nature had not given it
any strength or fitness to begin with...
As for learning, they had only what was absolutely necessary. It was all calculated to
make them subject to command, to endure labor, and to fight and conquer.
The Spartan discipline continued after they had reached maturity. For no man was free to
live as he pleased. The city being like one great camp, where all had their stated
allowance and knew their public charge, each man concluded that he was born not for
himself but for his country.”
Your analysis of the document as it pertains to the question:
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________
Document 5: The Constitution of the United States
Preamble: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Article 1: Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of
the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every
second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have
the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state
legislature.
Your analysis of the document as it pertains to the question:
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________
Document 6: Statue of George Washington as Zeus
Your analysis of the document as it pertains to the question:
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________
Your thesis statement:
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
_____________________________________