Kevin Stilley

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Early Western Civilization classroom resources

EARLY WESTERN CIVILIZATION – HIS1103

Prolegomena

Class #1 – Introduction

Research Paper Preparation

Class #2 – What is History?

Class #3 – Pre-History

Class #4 – Mesopotamia – Sumer & Akkad

Class #5 – Egypt

Class #6 – The Patriarchal Period

Class #7 – The Hittites

Class #8 – Western Semitic Power Grabs / David, Solomon, & Rehoboam (The United and Divided Kingdom)

Class #9 – Assyria, Babylon, the Medes & The Persians

Class #10 – Examination #1

Class #11 – “Meanwhile in Greece…”

Class #12 – Greek Mythology & Religion

Class #13 – The Persian Wars

  • — Marathon, Thermopylae, Sparta

Class #14 – Birth of Democracy

Class #15 – The Peloponnesian Wars & Alexander the Great

Class #16 – Pre-Socratic Philosophy

Class #17 – Socrates, Sophists, Plato

Class #18 – Aristotle

Class #19 – Hellenistic & Early Roman Philosophy

Class #20 – Examination #2

Class #21 – Romulus to Hannibal

Class #22 – Roman Prosperity

Class #23 – Roman Empire

Class #24 – Six Flags Over Israel

Class #25 – Roman Provinces & Israel During The Intertestamental Period

Class #26 – The Jewish War With Rome & The Destruction of the Temple

Class #27 – Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Ancient Art, Science, Literature, etc.)

Class #28 – Western Civilization & The Kingdom of God

Class #29 – Final Examination

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Early Western Civilization Final Exam

The following is a final exam that I gave to my Early Western Civilization students back in 2007. How would you have performed on it?
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Final Exam – Early Western Philosophy

Match the following emperors with the events at right that occurred during their reign.

____ Nero A.     Destruction of Jerusalem
____ Diocletian B.      Edict of Milan
____ Titus C.      1st to spend time fighting barbarian invaders
____ Tiberius D.     Burning of Rome
____ Octavian (aka. Augustus Caesar) E.      Birth of Christ
____ Marcus Aurelius F.      Death of Christ
____ Constantine G.     “The Great Persecution” of Christians

 

Match the following places and entities with the best description or event  from the second column.

____ Rome A.     Located in North Africa
____ Jerusalem B.      Cradle of Western philosophy
____ Mesopotamia C.      Cradle of Western civilization
____ Miletus/Ionia D.     Destroyed in 70 A.D.
____ Carthage E.      Aristotle’s school
____ Hadrian’s Wall F.      Located in Britain
____ Bosphorus G.     City of seven hills
____ Lyceum H.     Plato’s school.
____ Academy I.       Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

 

Match the stories, statements, literary works, and cultural constructions below with the best correlate in the second  column.

____ Romulus & Remus A.     Plato
____ Agrarian Law B.      Aristotle
____ “Veni, vidi, vici” C.      Designed to provide plebians with land.
____ The Aeneid D.     Oracle at Delphi
____ “You can never step in the same river twice.” E.      Written by Julius Caesar in a letter to the Senate.
____ “Man is the measure of all things.” F.      Protagorus
____ No living man is wiser than Socrates G.     Babylonian creation epic
____ Nicomachean Ethics H.     Founding of Rome
____ Enuma Elis I.       Early collection of laws from ancient Babylon
____ Hammurabi Code J.       Heraclitus
____ Theaetetus K.      Publius Virgilius Maro (Virgil)

 

Fill in the blank.

“All western philosophy is a __________ to Plato.” (Alfred North Whitehead)

Match the people below with the best correlate from the second column.

____ Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus A.     Teacher of Alexander the Great
____ Hannibal B.      Roman general/dictator to whom George Washington is often compared.
____ Spartacus C.      Julius Caesar’s chief rival for power in Rome.
____ Pompey D.     Argued against the possibility of motion.
____ Xerxes E.      Carthaginian general in 2nd Punic War.
____ Thales F.      Leader in the Gladiatorial War
____ Zeno G.     King of Persia
____ Aristotle H.     Early western philosopher who predicted an eclipse.

 

From Student Presentations:  Select any ten of the following and in one sentence share with me a general description of each person selected.  (Nitocris, the Amazons, Helen & Paris, Leonidas, Lycurgus, Plutarch, Solon, Pericles, Themistocles, Parmenides, Zeno, Cimon, Nicias, Alcibiades, Agesilaus, Antisthenes, Diogenes, Democritus, Alexander, Cato the Elder, Aemilius Paullus, Tiberius & Gaius Grachus, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Antony, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, the Cynics, the Skeptics, Philo, Plotinus).

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

 

Short Answers

Name one conspirator in the death of Julius Caesar.

What school of early western philosophy is noteworthy for its interest in numbers?

What did Francis Schaeffer say was the main reason the Romans could not tolerate Christianity?

What is henotheism?

What is an oligarchy?

What is a polis?

What role did a Tribune play in Roman society?

 

Chronology

____  Select the correct order for the following births.

  1. Birth of Christ 2. Birth of Socrates    3.  Birth of Julius Caesar   4.  Birth of Daniel the prophet
  2. 1, 2, 3, 4
  3. 4, 3, 2, 1
  4. 3, 2, 4, 1
  5. 4, 2, 3, 1

____  Select the correct order for the following philosophers, earliest to latest.

  1. Thales 2. Socrates    3.  Plotinus   4.  Augustine
  2. 1, 2, 3, 4
  3. 1, 2, 4, 3
  4. 1, 3, 2, 4
  5. 1, 4, 2, 3

 

____  Select the correct order for the time in which the following kingdoms/empires were prominent.   1. Egyptian     2.  Babylonian      3.  Roman     4. Greek    5.  Medes & Persians

  1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
  2. 5, 1, 2, 3, 4
  3. 1, 5, 2, 4, 3
  4. 1, 2, 5, 4, 3

True/False (circle the correct answer)

True / False The sophists were more concerned about what is objectively true, than with what is useful or expedient .
True / False Socrates’ book “Escape From Reason” played an important role in leading Augustine to Christianity.
True / False When condemned to death, Socrates was given the chance to propose an alternative penalty and he suggested the he receive free meals in the Pryntaneum.
True / False Aristotle did not believe that politics was an appropriate subject for philosophy and that Plato was wrong to have inquired into the nature and practice of politics.

 

Essay Questions:

On separate sheets of paper, give comprehensive well-ordered treatments to the following topics.

  1. Either, (a) based upon our discussions in class, define history and explain its importance for those holding a Christian worldview, or (b) explore some Biblical texts which have been intertwined with our study of Early Western Civilization.

 

  1. (a) Julius Caesar’s rise to power, or (b) Daniel’s visions and the flow of human history.

 

  1. Compare and contrast Plato and Aristotle, their ideas, and their influence.

 

 

 

Grading for this exam:

Essay questions  – 10 points each

Short answer & chronology – 2 points each

All other questions – 1 point each

 

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Early Western Civilization midterm exam

The following is a midterm exam that I gave to my Early Western Civilization students several years ago.  How would you have performed on it?

1. What date does Susan Wise Bauer give as the approximate date for the origin of written history?

a.  300 AD
b.  300 BC
c.  3000 BC
d.  3300 BC
e.  8,000 BC

2. True or False: According to Bauer, when the Sumerian flood story was first translated, most historians assumed that the Genesis account was derived from it, but further study of the differences between the two stories suggests that they are far more likely to have arisen separately from the same source event.

3. True or False: Mesopotamia means the land “between the rivers.”

4. True or False:  Mesopotamia is the cradle of western civilization.

5. True or False: Ionia is the cradle of western philosophy.

6. Which of the following was NOT an Egyptian king?

A. Scorpion King
b. Raging Catfish
c. Noche

7. The Rosetta Stone played a role in (select one)

a. David slaying Goliath
b. Proving the large extent of the Hittite kingdom
c. God inscribing the Ten Commandments
d. Deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs
e. Preservation of the Epic of Gilgamesh

8. Place the following empires in the correct order

a. Greek
b. Medes & Persians
c. Babylon
d. Roman

9. Match the following with the most appropriate location of origin. Each answer will be used only once.

a. Epic of Gilgamesh
b. Code of Hammurabi
c. Homeric Poems

[possible answers: Babylon, Ionia, Sumer]

10. Match the definitions with the best choice of terms from the list below

a. The practice of a king assuming the identity of his predecessor
b. Refers to the name which God gives to himself
c. Using names familiar to contemporary readers rather than names in use during the historical past.
d. A human figure with the face of a bull and imprisoned in the Labyrinth
e. A foot soldier
f. Philosophy of the “living stuff”

[List of possible answers: 1. Positional succession, 2. Hoplite, 3. Anachronism, 4. Minotaur, 5. Hylozoism, 6. Tetragrammaton]

11. True of False: It would have been impossible for the Egyptians to have built the pyramids given their technological abilities. The only reasonable answer is that aliens came through a Stargate and used an energy coil called the “Caduceus Coil” to tap into the planetary energy grid in order to levitate the blocks into place.

12. Place the following in correct order, earliest to latest.

a. David
b. Sargon
c. Nebuchadnezzar

13. The birth story of which of the following is very similar to that of Moses’?

a. Sargon
b. Khufu
c. Herodotus
d. Horus
e. Terah

14. Place the following in the correct order

a. Adam
b. Eve
c. Seth
d. Noah
e. Tower of Babylon
f. Abraham
g. Period of the Judges
h. David
i. Divided Kingdom
j. Babylonian captivity

15. True of False: The Hyksos once ruled in Persia.

16. True or False: The legend of the Minotaur is an example of one of the Greek myths which has been proven to be a very precise description of an actual event.

17. True of False: The exodus of the Hebrews shows up nowhere in the Egyptian records.

18. True or false: The Egyptians did not write.

19. True or false: The Philistines kept the Israelites in a position of military inferiority by forbidding them to manufacture any sort of iron tools.

20. True or False: There was no country called Phoenicia.

21. True or False: Jeroboam was Solomon’s son.

22. True or False: Around 721 BC Sargon II wiped the political state of Israel off the map, and removed large numbers of Israelites from their homeland all the way over to the territory of the Medes. This resulted in the despised mix of peoples that the Jews later called Samaritans.

23. Match the following leaders with the location of their rule.

a. Sennacherib
b. Sheshonq
c. Rehoboam
d. Nebuchadnezzar
e. Cyrus the Great

[Possible answers: Babylon, Medes & Persians, Judah, Egypt, Assyria]

24. Match the following gods (God) with their followers.

a. Marduk
b. Horus
c. YHWH

[Possible answers: Egypt, Babylon, Hebrews]

25. True or False: The Great Pyramid of Giza and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are two of the Seven Wonders of the World.

26. True or False: The war between the Greeks and Persians was central to the life of the Greeks, but receives barely a mention in Persian histories.

27. True or False: The Delian League and the Peloponnesian League were manifestations of the rivalry between Athens and Sparta.

28. Which of the following are historians upon which Bauer relies for material. (Select all that apply)

a. Thucydides
b. Herodotus
c. Plutarch

29. True or false: One characteristic of Orphism is that by ritual purifications and an ascetic life they hoped to win release from the body and return to the company of the gods.

30. The logic of which philosopher was the starting-point for both Platonic dialectic and Aristotelian logic.

a. Parmenides
b. Heraclitus
c. Anaximander
d. Thales
e. Tyrannosaurus Rex

31. The Logos is most often associated with which of the following philosophers?

a. Parmenides
b. Heraclitus
c. Anaximander
d. Thales
e. Latissimus Dorsi

32. Complete the sentences by filling in the blank spaces with the correct answer from the list provided below.

a. __________ influenced Plato more than any other philosopher. Important elements passed into Plato’s thought from his predecessors which through him have influenced the later development of European philosophy.
b. From the __________ Plato derives much of his conception of the matter of the physical universe.
c. From the __________ comes the essence of Plato’s doctrine of the nature and destiny of the soul, his insistence on eternal form and order as the supremely important reality and proper object of the intellect, and the emphasis in his though on mathematics and astronomy.
d. From __________ he gits his vision of the transitorinesss of all sensible things and the flux of the material world.
e. __________ and the Eleatics leave him a clear though inadequate vision of eternal being, the beginnings of logical reasoning, and a logical problem to solve.

[Possible answers: 1.  Heraclitus, 2. Parmenides, 3. Pythagoreans, 4. Milesians, 5. Socrates]

33. Match the following statements about “pleasure” with the school it most accurately depicts.

a. “As a humanist agnostic I enjoy pleasure when it is practical as part of a successful civilized human life.”
b. “I can’t really know if pleasure is good or bad, but I have an opinion about it.
c. “I enjoy my pleasure in public and could care less what you think about it.”
d. “It is our feelings of pain and pleasure which are the test by which we determine what is bad and good for us.”
e. “Pleasure? I am utterly indifferent to all external things. I am free from all passion, emotion, and affections.”

[Possible answers: 1. Stoicism, 2. Cynicism, 3. Sophism, 4. Skepticism, 5. Hedonism]

34. True or False: Socrates believed that the first and foremost business of man was care of the soul.

35. True or False: Plato was not very systematic and it is often difficult to find out his solution to the problem he raises.

36. True or False: Plato founded the Lyceum.

37. True or False: Aristotle believed that there exists a world of eternal realities, “Forms” or “Ideas” that are entirely separate from the world our senses perceive, and knowable only by pure intellect.

38. True or False: Plato did not believe in the soul’s pre-existence, but did believe that it could not be extinguished.

39. Place the following in chronological order;

a. John the Baptist
b. Socrates
c. David, son of Jesse
d. Aristotle
e. Alexander the Great
f. Thales
g. Plato

40. True or False: Aristotle rejected Plato’s Theory of Forms.

41. True or False: Aristotle denied the existence of universals.

42. True or False: Socrates wrote no philosophic treatise himself.

44. Which of the following had a more family-friendly political philosophy.

a. Aristotle
b. Plato

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Textbooks for Spring 2012

It is pleasing that so many of my students for the coming semester have emailed me in advance inquiring about textbooks in order to get an early start on their reading.  Students, please get the exact editions that are listed.  You might have to pay a few extra dollars to get them, but you will be rewarded with both convenience and clarity.  Here they are …

Early Western Civilization Seminar (IDE 1103)

Author Textbook ISBN-13 ISBN-10
Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics 9780911589030 0911589031
Metaphysics

Rhetoric

 

Poetics

 9780140446197

9780140445107

 

9780140446364

 0140446192

0140445102

 

0140446362
Plato Republic

Timaeus and Critias

 9780872201361

9780140442618

 0872201368

0140442618
Sophocles (Greek Tragedies) Oediupus Rex, 2nd Ed. Antigone, Vol. 1 9780226307909 0226307905
Schall, James A Student’s Guide to Liberal Learning 9781882926534 1882926536
Troyka, Lynn, Quitman, & Douglas Hesse Handbook for Writers
(Simon & Schuster),9th Edition		 9780136028604 0136028608


Church & Empires Seminar (IDE 1203)

Author Textbook ISBN-13 ISBN-10
Athanasius On The Incarnation 9780913836408 0913836400
Augustine Confessions 9780800787240 0800787242
City of God 9780385029100 0385029101
Cicero On Duties 9780521348355 0521348358
Aquinas Summa Theologiae(A Shorter Summa) 9780898704389 0898704383
Troyka, Lynn, Quitman, & Douglas Hesse Handbook for Writers
(Simon & Schuster), 9th Edition		 9780136028604 0136028608

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