AP LATIN: Caesar Book Four Essay
First Quarter Essay on Caesar’s First Invasion of Britain: Crisis and Leadership
Essay on De Bello Gallico, Book IV, Chapters 24 to 36.
Britain, the final frontier. These are the voyages of Caesar and the Roman army. Their mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no (Ro)man has gone before.
Remember that epic journeys are a traditional theme of Greco-Roman history. Xenophon’s Anabasis or Alexander’s trek through the Persian Empire with his army to banks of the Indus river are famous examples. In book IV of De Bello Gallico Caesar crosses both the Rhine and Oceanus.
Caesar’s first expedition to Britain (55 BC) confronts him and his army with a number of crises that threaten disaster and require heroic leadership to solve. What crises does Caesar face and how does he present these crisis? This episode in which Caesar leads the Roman army in terram incognitam may be read as a series of challenges that test and prove Caesar’s heroic leadership and unique ability as imperator or dux. Analyze Caesar’s Latin to show how he manipulates the language to create an atmosphere of intermittent crisis that heightens the drama of his narrative and gives Caesar multiple opportunities to show his leadership. What is the nature of these crises which Caesar and his army face and how does he use or manipulate the Latin language in their presentation? Read and analyze the Latin text very closely and carefully with awareness of figures of speech/rhetorical devices, diction, phonetics and word order. Remember figures of speech are not important in themselves but are employed by the author to give greater nuance to the content. You must both recognize them and show what meaning, emphasis or nuance that they bring to the content of the text. Stylistic analysis of Caesar’s Latin should be fundamental part of this paper.
I am especially looking for:
- Concise and carefully crafted introduction and conclusion
- Clear and coherent organization of ideas
- Precise analysis of Latin words, phrases and use of figures of speech
- Appropriate citation of Latin
- A very detailed reading and comprehension of Caesar’s Latin
I invite you to discuss your ideas, analysis, and organization with me prior to writing.
Value 200 Points.
Due date: October 14, 2013.
Late papers will not be accepted.
Submit hard copies only with a staple.
7.5-8.5 pages.
Mikey Morris, avoid long quotations. Work with individual words and phrases.