Assignment task:
This week we've been studying ancient Rome in its entirety, from the start of the early monarchical period in c. 1000 B.C.E. to the very end of the imperial era in c. 400 C.E. This is a very long period of time! However, your assigned readings from Worlds of History were all written within around 100 years of each other (60 B.C.E to c. 167 C.E.).
Now that we're really into the thick of the course material and you've had some practice thinking - and writing - like historians, this week's Writing Assignment is going to push you just a little bit farther into making a solid historical argument. So rather than asking you to analyze this week's Roman primary source texts alone, we're going to be looking back to the primary source excerpts about Confucianism and Legalism that you read in Week 4, and I want you to compare Marcus Aurelius' personal injunctions on how he should act with both Confucian ideas as expressed in the The Analects, and with Han Fei's Legalist views on government. What sort of commonalties, if any, do you detect among these three different philosophies?
Remember that you are making a historical argument in this essay! This means that you are expected to provide a thesis statement and a clear argument for each question, and you must draw evidence from the texts to support your ideas as you formulate your response.