Western Heritage Themes

The Hebrews: Creation

Omnipotent God; Creative and Caring

The Hebrews: Covenant and Law

Promise-Keeping God

The Hebrews: Kingship

Pros and Cons of Monarchy

The History - Herodotus

Three Forms of Government

Pericles' Funeral Oration - Thucydides

Dead man's honor not based on speech; man must take interest in politics in order to be present in society

Crito - Plato

Socrates in prison; suggestion of jailbreak; why do we care what others think?; laws must be followed so that society does not unravel

The Republic - Plato

The Appetites; The Allegory of the Cave (world of the forms, world of the senses); Socrates again, chiming in to say that democracy sucks

The Politics - Aristotle

Polis; Virtue; Constitution

The Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle

Reason is manifest in every man

Letter to Menoeceus - Epicurus

Epicureanism; echoes The Appetites; balance of indulgence; wisdom is primary of all virtue

The Discourses - Epictetus

Stoicism; Logos; God is an artificer (craftsman); reasonable creatures' duty is to praise God; natural law

The Histories - Polybius

Roman vs. Carthaginian constitutions; checks and balances in a three-class system of government

Marcus Cato - Plutarch

Qualities of a virtuous man

On Duties - Cicero

What it means to be a man and citizen; Two Classifications of Injustice; decorum

The Conspiracy of Catiline - Sallust

diagnosis of decline of Roman republic; Avarice and Excess vs. Moderation and Frugality

Res Gestae Divi Augusti - Augustus (Octavian)

Pax Romana era; way in which the emperor following Caesar revolutionized the state while retaining the loyalty of its people

The Annals - Tacitus

claims Augustus distracted his people with material goods while he gradually gained almost absolute power