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The Etruscan Culture

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    This essay will look at the Etruscans. It will specifically focus on the different periods of Etruscan history, that Sinclair Bell and Alexandra A. Carpino divide into the “Transition from the Prehistoric”, the “ Villanovan Period”, the “Orientalizing Period”, “Archaic Period”, “The Classical Period.” in their book “A Companion to the Etruscans.” It will also look at the place of women in Etruscan society, the effect Greek influence had on Etruscan society and the difference between the funerary and the non-funerary context of the Etruscans. Most of the information we have about Etruscan culture is archaeological. As such this essay will look at archaeological evidence to examine each one of these categories.   In the “Transition from the Prehistoric” one can see that the quality of the goods found in tombs improved increasingly. This included pottery as well as metal works and ornaments. To demonstrate this, I would look at the evolution of metalwork throughou...

Poem: The Horse, The Mule, The Ass

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  The Horse, The Mule, The Ass Behold the horse the mule the ass standing there slowly masticating the long green grass The horse full of pride For tomorrow his master will take him for a ride To his master's love, they will go He will ask her to marry And he will carry away to fields greenest His white main shining in all its glory Pride growing in his magnificent chest With him in tow, he knows,   she simply can't say no The ass, lazy as always Tomorrow his master is going to move some firewood,  as   always And he is going to make himself a burden, as always His master will scream and curse Thereafter his master will resort to his cane As always he will make sure only to move after the hundredth blow The mule knows his master will need his help to move some bricks He will not fuss or try any tricks It is not pleasant work But it is what keeps him and his master fed And when it grows dark And in good conscience the land of dreams he can embark copyright reserved...

The Manipulative Cicero

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Cicero is viewed as a master of rhetoric. As Catherine Steel said, “Rhetoric was the object of profound meditation throughout Cicero’s life.” (2013) Arguably it is the one thing that made him successful as a politician. In this essay will be looking at Cicero’s second Oratio In Catilinem and the ways in which Cicero uses Rhetoric to persuade his audience to look beyond reason and simply believe everything he says. There is not a single conservable misdeed that Cicero does not accuse Catiline of. In fact, the only thing Cicero does not accuse Catiline of is of being a good man: For imagine every type of criminality and wickedness that you can think of; he has been behind them all. In the whole of Italy there not one single poisoner, gladiator, robber, assassin, parricide, will-forger, cheat, glutton, wastrel, adulterer, prostitute, corrupter of youth or youth who has been corrupted, indeed any nasty individual of any kind whatever, who would not be obliged to admit he has been Catili...

How Foreign Were the Cult of Isis and the Cult of Cybele in The Roman Context?

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It was commonplace in ancient Rome to accept foreign gods into the Romans pantheon and Rome was in fact home to many foreign gods, but just how foreign were these gods? This essay will be looking at Rome’s attitude towards foreign gods. In doing so it will particularly look at the cult of Cybele and the cult of Isis as examples of foreign cults in Rome. This essay will particularly be focusing on why these two cults would have been considered foreign context. It will also be looking at how these cults were viewed by the Romans because of their otherness. The cult of Cybele is a particularly strange foreign cult seeing as Cybele is an essential part of roman society, but at the same time its members are ridiculed and ostracized because of their strange practices. To understand the position Cybele has within Roman society one must look at the conditions under which she was brought into Rome. The Romans won a victory in 207 BCE, but Hannibal was still in Italy. In 205 BCE a p...