Primary Source Responses When I assign you to read one or more primary sources, you will respond to it by answering these six questions below. General instructions: • Answer each question separately. You should write at least one paragraph per question. If you have more than one source to respond to, you must answer each source separately. • Put all answers in one file and upload it onto Blackboard. Files must be in a .doc or .docx format. • Please do not copy-paste the questions/suggested responses below into your assignments. • You may use information from the textbook or lecture to help build your analysis. No sources from outside of the course may be used. One of the key skills history students must learn is how to use primary sources. A primary source can be a document, artwork, artifact, or oral-history interview, just so long as it tells us something about the past and is as close as we can get to the past. Primary sources are those sources created by people who participated in an event, witnessed it firsthand, or at least heard about it from a credible witness. Historians ask all manner of questions about primary sources. Here I have tried to group such questions into six larger categories, to suggest a means by which to approach an unfamiliar source. Six (6) Types of Questions to ask of every primary source: 1.What sort of document is it? (For example: a letter, a speech, a newspaper article, etc.) Who is the author? And who is the intended audience or reader? When and where was the document written? Sometimes the author will tell you explicitly. In other cases, the historian may need to make educated guesses. 2. Summarize the passage in your own words. What is the style? What are the main points of the passage? What keywords does the author use to convey his or her point of view? Is the language formal or informal? Does s/he use reasoned arguments or metaphors/imagery? (This should be two paragraphs: one that summarizes the passage and one that discusses the language of the text.) 3. Why was this document created/what purpose does this document serve? Consider why the author has decided to create this document. What has motivated them to write this? Does this source represent a group perspective or an individual perspective? 4. What is the historical context? History is premised, in part, on the notion that any document can tell us something about the time and place in which it was produced, and, conversely, that time and place can help us understand the document. What was going on when this document was created? Does the author represent a particular perspective from this era? How might these circumstances help us understand this document? Refer to your lecture notes and textbook for help on this one if needed. BE SPECIFIC!!!! 5. What is missing? What perspectives and information is not present in the source? How does this help us to better understand the perspecti ...

1. Primary Source Responses
When I assign you to read one or more primary sources, you
will respond to it by answering these six questions
below. General instructions:
• Answer each question separately. You should write at least
one paragraph per question. If you have
more than one source to respond to, you must answer each
source separately.
• Put all answers in one file and upload it onto Blackboard.
Files must be in a .doc or .docx format.
• Please do not copy-paste the questions/suggested responses
below into your assignments.
• You may use information from the textbook or lecture to help
build your analysis. No sources from
outside of the course may be used.
One of the key skills history students must learn is how to use
primary sources. A primary source can be a
document, artwork, artifact, or oral-history interview, just so
long as it tells us something about the past and is
as close as we can get to the past. Primary sources are those
sources created by people who participated in an
event, witnessed it firsthand, or at least heard about it from a
credible witness.
Historians ask all manner of questions about primary sources.
Here I have tried to group such questions into six
larger categories, to suggest a means by which to approach an

2. unfamiliar source.
Six (6) Types of Questions to ask of every primary source:
1.What sort of document is it? (For example: a letter, a speech,
a newspaper article, etc.) Who is the author?
And who is the intended audience or reader? When and where
was the document written? Sometimes the
author will tell you explicitly. In other cases, the historian may
need to make educated guesses.
2. Summarize the passage in your own words. What is the
style? What are the main points of the passage?
What keywords does the author use to convey his or her point of
view? Is the language formal or informal?
Does s/he use reasoned arguments or metaphors/imagery? (This
should be two paragraphs: one that
summarizes the passage and one that discusses the language of
the text.)
3. Why was this document created/what purpose does this
document serve? Consider why the author has
decided to create this document. What has motivated them to
write this? Does this source represent a group
perspective or an individual perspective?
4. What is the historical context? History is premised, in part,
on the notion that any document can tell us
something about the time and place in which it was produced,
and, conversely, that time and place can help us
understand the document. What was going on when this
document was created? Does the author represent a
particular perspective from this era? How might these
circumstances help us understand this document? Refer
to your lecture notes and textbook for help on this one if
needed. BE SPECIFIC!!!!

3. 5. What is missing? What perspectives and information is not
present in the source? How does this help us to
better understand the perspective put forth by this individual or
group? What is this document trying to hide,
either by not mentioning it at all, passing over it quickly, or
obscuring it in a footnote? Does the document
contradict itself? Please note: you will be reading excerpts of
larger primary sources – it is not an acceptable
answer to say in your response “what is missing the rest of the
document.”
6. How does this source help us to better understand the era we
are studying? Why is this source
significant? What does this source tell you about the past? What
unique perspective does the source offer?
Ultimately, in trying to answer this question, consider why this
source was selected for you to read in
connection with the course material. Please refrain from
discussing your personal opinions or modern events.
Focus on the document within its own historical context.
Remember, the past is a foreign country: they do
things differently there.
CHAPTER
The Creation of the
Roman Empire
44 B.C.E.-284 C.E.
he civil wars sparked by the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44
B.C.E. may
have marked the death of the Roman republic, but they also
signaled the birth

4. of the Roman Empire. Ihrough masterful political and military
maneuvering,
Caesar's heir Octavian (63 B.C.E.-14 C.E.) emerged from the
wars as Rome's undis-
puted leader. In recognition of this fact, in 27 C.E., the Senate
granted him special
powers and a new title, Augustus ("divinely favored"). He
thereupon forged a new
system of government that laid the foundations for two hundred
years of peace
and prosperity. The documents in this chapter bring the empire
to life from a vari-
ety of perspectives — from Virgil's epic poem praising the
glory of Rome to every-
day people living under Roman rule. The final two documents
cast light on the
Roman religious landscape; inevitably it, too, would be swept
up in currents of
change as a new religion, Christianity, emerged to compete with
traditional beliefs
and practices.
1.
An Empire Foretold
Virgil, The Aeneid (First Century B.C.E.)

5. When Augustus assumed power in 27 B.C.E., he did not cast
himself as an innovator.
Well aware of Romans' reverencefor tradition, he used
republican customs to cloak
his creation of a new political system anchored in the power of
its "first man," the
emperor. Despite the misgivings some Romans had with this
transformation, they
enjoyed a period of unrivaled prosperity and stability. During
Augustus's reign, art-
ists and writers celebrated Rome's glory and superiority. One of
the emperor'sfavor-
ites was the poet Virgil (70-19 B.C.E.), who regularly shared
his work with Augustus.
From Virgil, The Aeneid, trans. Robert Fagles (New York:
Penguin Group, 2006), 205-10•
124
AN EMPIRE FORETOLD / VIRGIL 125
Inspired by Homer,
Virgil composed an epic poem about the origins of Rome, Ihe
Aeneid. He died
before finishing it to his satisfaction and, in his will, requested

6. that
it be destroyed.
Augustus intervened, however, thereby preserving The Aeneid
for
posterity. The poem
recounts the story of the legendary founder of Rome, the Trojan
Aeneas. Thefirst six booksfocus
on his travels to Italyfrom Troy; as in The Odyssey,
the hero's voyage takes
longer than expected due to a variety of mishaps and diver-
sions along the way. These include
a visit to the Underworld, as described in the
excerpt below. Guided by the Sibyl,
here Aeneas meets his deadfather, Anchises, who
shows him a pageant of the spirits
of the great Romans to come, who will establish the
empire and peace
throughout the world.
Now father Anchises, deep
in a valley's green recess,
was passing among the souls secluded there, reviewing them,
eagerly, on their way to the world of light above. By chance
he was counting over his own people, all his cherished heirs,

7. their fame and their fates, their values, acts of valor.
When he saw Aeneas striding toward him over the fields,
he reached out both his hands as his spirit lifted,
tears ran down his cheeks, a cry broke from his lips:
"You've come at last? Has the love your father hoped for
mastered the hardship of the journey? Let me look at your face,
my son, exchange some words, and hear your familiar voice.
So I dreamed, I knew you'd come, I counted the moments —
my longing has not betrayed me.
Over what lands, what seas have you been driven,
buffeted by what perils into my open arms, my son?
How I feared the realm of Libya might well do you harm!"
"Your ghost, my father," he replied, "your grieving ghost,
so often it came and urged me to your threshold!
My ships are lying moored in the Tuscan sea.
Let me clasp your hand, my father, let me —
I beg you, don't withdraw from my embrace!"
So Aeneas pleaded, his face streaming tears.

8. Three times he tried to fling his arms around his neck,
three times he embraced — nothing ... the phantom
sifting through his fingers,
light as wind, quick as a dream in flight.
And now Aeneas sees in the valley's depths
a sheltered grove and rustling wooded brakes
and the Lethel flowing past the homes of peace.
ILethe: One of the major rivers in the Underworld. [Ed.]
126 6 / THE CREATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 44
B.C.E.-284
Around it hovered numberless races, nations of souls
like bees in meadowlands on a cloudless summer day
that settle on flowers, riots of color, swarming round
the lilies' lustrous sheen, and the whole field comes
alive
with a humming murmur. Struck by the sudden sight,
Aeneas, all unknowing, wonders aloud, and asks:
"What is the river over there? And who are they
who crowd the banks in such a growing throng?"

9. His father Anchises answers: "lhey are
the spirits
owed a second body by the Fates. Ibey drink
deep
of the river Lethe's currents there, long drafts
that will set them free of cares, oblivious forever.
How long I have yearned to tell you, show them to you,
face-to-face, yes, as I count the tally out
of all my children's children. So all the more
you can rejoice with me in Italy, found at last." .
Anchises, silent a moment, drawing his son and Sibyl
with him into the midst of the vast murmuring throng,
took his stand on a rise of ground where he could scan
the long column marching toward him, soul by soul,
and recognize their features as they neared.
"So come,
the glory that will follow the sons of Troy through time,
your children born of Italian stock who wait for life,
bright souls, future heirs of our name and our renown:

10. I will reveal them all and tell you of your fate
"Here,
a son of Mars, his grandsire Numitor's comrade Romulus,
bred from Assaracus' blood by his mother, Ilia.
See how the twin plumes stand joined on his helmet?
And the Father of Gods himself already marks him out
with his own bolts of honor. Under his auspices, watch,
my son, our brilliant Rome will extend her empire far
and wide as the earth, her spirit high as Olympus.
Within her single wall she will gird her seven hills,
blest in her breed of men: like the Berecynthian Mother
crowned with her turrets, riding her victor's chariot
through the Phrygian cities, glad in her brood of gods,
embracing a hundred grandsons. All dwell in the heavens,
all command the heights.
"Now turn your eyes this way
and behold these people, your own Roman people.
AN EMPIRE FORETOLD / VIRGIL 127
Here is Caesar
and all the line of lulus
soon to venture
under the sky's great arch.
Here is the man, he's
here! Time and again
you've heard his coming promised
— Caesar Augustus!

11. Son of a god, he will bring
back the Age of Gold
to the Latian fields
where Saturn once held sway,
expand his empire past the Garamants and the Indians
to a land beyond the stars, beyond the
wheel of the year,
the course of the sun itself, where Atlas bears the skies
and turns on his shoulder the heavens studded with flaming
stars.
Even now the Caspian and Maeotic kingdoms quake at his
coming,
oracles sound the alarm and the seven mouths of the Nile
churn with fear. Not even Hercules2 himself could cross
such a vast expanse of earth, though it's true he shot
the stag with its brazen hoofs, and brought peace
to the ravaged woods of Erymanthus, terrorized
the Hydra of Lerna with his bow. Not even Bacchus3
in all his glory, driving his team with vines for reins
and lashing his tigers down from Nysa's soaring ridge.

12. Do we still flinch from turning our valor into deeds?
Or fear to make our home on Western soil?
"Others, I have no doubt,
will forge the bronze to breathe with suppler lines,
draw from the block of marble features quick with life,
plead their cases better, chart with their rods the stars
that climb the sky and foretell the times they rise.
But you, Roman, remember, rule with all your power
the peoples of the earth — these will be your arts:
to put your stamp on the works and ways of peace,
to spare the defeated, break the proud in war."
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
l. What does the pageant of souls suggest about the values
Romans believed fueled
the empire's success?
2. How does Virgil describe Augustus? What does this
description reveal about his
understanding ofthe emperor's particular place in Roman
history?
3. In the final verses of this passage, Anchises distinguishes
between Roman "arts"
and those of "Others" — an implicit reference to the Greeks.

13. What are the differ-
ences? Do you think there is a broader message here about
Roman imperialism?
2
Hercules: The son of Zeus. [Ed.]
3
Bacchus: The god of wine, the vine, and ecstasy. [Ed.]
The Evolution of Roman Law
One of Rome’s chief gifts to the Mediterranean world of
its day and to succeeding generations of Western civili-
zation was its development of law. After the Twelve Tables
of 450 B.C.E., there was no complete codification of Roman
law until the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian in
the sixth century C.E. (see Chapter 7). The Twelve Tables,
though inappropriate for later times, were never officially
abrogated and were still memorized by schoolboys in the
first century B.C.E. Civil law, or ius civile (YOOSS see-VEE-
lay), derived from the Twelve Tables proved inadequate
for later Roman needs, however, and gave way to correc-
tions and additions by the praetors. On taking office, a
praetor issued an edict listing his guidelines for dealing
with different kinds of legal cases. The praetors were
knowledgeable in law, but they also relied on Roman
jurists—amateur law experts—for advice in preparing
their edicts. The interpretations of the jurists, often em-
bodied in the edicts of the praetors, created a body of legal
principles.
In 242 B.C.E., the Romans appointed a second praetor who

14. was responsible for examining suits between a Roman and a
non-Roman as well as between two non-Romans. The Ro-
mans found that although some of their rules of law could be
used in these cases, special rules were often needed. These
rules gave rise to a body of law known as the ius gentium
(YOOSS GEN-tee-um)—the law of nations—defined by the
Romans as ‘‘that part of the law which we apply both to
ourselves and to foreigners.’’ But the influence of Greek
philosophy, primarily Stoicism, led Romans in the late Re-
public to develop the idea of ius naturale (YOOSS nah-too-
RAH-lay)—natural law—or universal divine law derived
from right reason. The Romans came to view their law of
nations as derived from or identical to this natural law, thus
giving Roman jurists a philosophical justification for sys-
tematizing Roman law according to basic principles.
The Development of Literature and Art
The Romans produced little literature before the third
century B.C.E., and the Latin literature that emerged in
Cato the Elder on Women
During the Second Punic War, the Romans enacted the
Oppian law, which limited the amount of gold women
could possess and restricted their dress. In 195 B.C.E., an
attempt was made to repeal the law, and women demon-
strated in the streets on behalf of the effort. According to
the Roman historian Livy, the conservative Roman official
Cato the Elder spoke against repeal and against the
women favoring it. His words reflect a traditional male
Roman attitude toward women.
Livy, The History of Rome
‘‘If each of us, citizens, had determined to assert his
rights and dignity as a husband with respect to his own

15. spouse, we should have less trouble with the sex as a
whole; as it is, our liberty, destroyed at home by female
violence, even here in the Forum is crushed and trodden
underfoot, and because we have not kept them individu-
ally under control, we dread them collectively. . . . But
from no class is there not the greatest danger if you
permit them meetings and gatherings and secret
consultations. . . .
‘‘Our ancestors permitted no woman to conduct even
personal business without a guardian to intervene in her
behalf; they wished them to be under the control of
fathers, brothers, husbands; we (Heaven help us!) allow
them now even to interfere in public affairs, yes, and to
visit the Forum and our informal and formal sessions.
What else are they doing now on the streets and at the
corners except urging the bill of the tribunes and voting
for the repeal of the law? Give loose rein to their
uncontrollable nature and to this untamed creature and
expect that they will themselves set no bounds to their
license. Unless you act, this is the least of the things
enjoined upon women by custom or law and to which
they submit with a feeling of injustice. It is complete
liberty or rather, if we wish to speak the truth, complete
license that they desire.
‘‘If they win in this, what will they not attempt? Re-
view all the laws with which your forefathers restrained
their license and made them subject to their husbands;
even with all these bonds you can scarcely control them.
What of this? If you suffer them to seize these bonds
one by one and wrench themselves free and finally to be
placed on a parity with their husbands, do you think
you will be able to endure them? The moment they
begin to be your equals, they will be your superiors. . . .

16. ‘‘Now they publicly address other women’s husbands,
and, what is more serious, they beg for a law and votes,
and from various men they get what they ask. In mat-
ters affecting yourself, your property, your children, you,
Sir, can be importuned; once the law has ceased to set a
limit to your wife’s expenditures you will never set it
yourself. Do not think, citizens, that the situation which
existed before the law was passed will ever return.’’
Q What particular actions of the women protestingthis law have
angered Cato? What more general
concerns does he have about Roman women?
What was Cato’s attitude toward women? Compare
and contrast this selection with the one by Xeno-
phon in Chapter 3.
132 CHAPTER 5 The Roman Republic