The essay must be accompanied by a completed essay cover sheet.
The essay should be 2500-3000 words in length.
All essays MUST be typed.
All essays MUST be double-spaced.
All essays MUST be accompanied by correctly formatted references and bibliography.

You
need to choose one of the texts listed in the pdf I attached to this and write an analysis of it as follows:
Who is the author of the text?•
On what occasion and in which circumstances was it delivered, and to whom?•
What is the main theme of the text?•
What particular argument is the author advancing?•
Does the author have some ideal concept of what a Roman emperor should be?•
Is the author putting a particular spin on events in order to make their argument more persuasive?•
How successful is the speech?•

SPEECHES TO CHOOSE FROM
1. The Emperor Julian
Claudius Mamertinus, Panegyric on Julian, delivered at Constantinople in January 362, barely
months after Julian had come to power.
Translation in S. N. C. Lieu (ed.), The Emperor Julian: Panegyric and Polemic (TTH 2: Liverpool,
1989), 3-38. (NB Available as an ebook via iFind.)
2. The emperor Theodosius and the Gothic crisis
Themistius, Oration 16, delivered in Constantinople on 1 January 383, only months after Theodosius
I’s treaty with the Goths of 3 October 382.
Translation in P. Heather and D. Moncur, Politics, Philosophy, and Empire in the Fourth Century:
Select Orations of Themistius (TTH 36: Liverpool, 2001), ch. 4. Pay special attention to the speech
itself, and to the introduction to it in Heather and Moncur. (NB Available as an ebook via iFind.)
3. Civil war: the victory of Theodosius I over Magnus Maximus
Pacatus, Panegyric on Theodosius, delivered at Rome in the summer of 389, a year after Theodosius
I had defeated the usurper Magnus Maximus.
Translation in C. E. V. Nixon, Pacatus: Panegyric to the Emperor Theodosius (TTH Latin Series II:
Liverpool, 1987). (NB Available as an ebook via iFind.)
4. Christian emperors and pagan temples: Libanius’ plea For the Temples
Libanius, Oration 30: delivered probably in 386, and addressed to the Christian emperor Theodosius
from the pagan Antiochene orator Libanius in which he pleads that the emperor should not allow
Christian extremists to assault pagan temples and shrines.
Translation in A. F. Norman, Libanius: Selected Orations, vol 2 (Loeb Classical Libarary: London,
1977), 91-151. Also available via the digital Loeb Classical Library.