For the past few weeks we have spent a substantial amount of time coming to terms with our second major case-study, the Greek city-state Sparta.  We have explored the social order, the politics, and the culture of a unique society, focusing particularly on how effective Sparta's system for training its citizens really was.  We have also had a chance to become acquainted with the views of Plutarch on Sparta and they are the focus for this paper.  Whereas in your first paper we analyzed a source without knowing exactly who produced it, in this case we know who produced our primary source: Plutarch, a Greek from the region of Beoetia.  As I have noted, Plutarch wrote his biographical sketches of Lycurgus, Agis IV, and Cleomenes III with particular reasons in mind and these reasons shaped what he said about Sparta.  In your paper I want you to choose one of the two pairings of sources indicated and then analyze them as the instructions below indicate:

Source Pairings:

 1) Plutarch's account of Lycurgus (Plutarch on Sparta, 8-46) and Xenophon's account of the Spartans (Plutarch on Sparta, 166-184) or Plutarch's account.


2) Plutarch's account of Agis IV (Plutarch on Sparta, 53-70) and Plutarch's account of Cleomenes III (Plutarch on Sparta, 70-105).

Instructions for the Source Analysis:

Section 1: Write a brief introductory paragraph in which you indicate the sources that you have selected and give a brief overview of your findings  from section 4 below.


Section 2: Identify for each of the selections an argument or interpretation that is made by the writer and compare and contrast them to one another (this should be no more than a brief paragraph).


Section 3: Locate and explicate two examples from each text that illustrate the way(s) in which the argument or interpretation you identified influenced what the source's creator wrote (this should require one to two paragraphs).  The best papers will relate the interpretations in this section with the comparison(s) drawn in Section 2.


Section 4: Conclude with a brief paragraph on the extent to which you could rely on the two sources to understand life in Sparta.  Here you need to give some indication as to how you would account for the biases that you have discussed in the previous two sections.

General Standards: First, you must type your paper using standard margins (1 inch all around), Times New Roman font and a 12-point type size. Next, you must properly document your use of other people's work in this essay. In plan terms, whenever you comment on or quote from the web-source linked below, I expect a proper footnote indicating what material in that book you are referencing (a 25% reduction on your paper will occur if you fail to document your work properly). For examples of how to footnote, click on the General Guidelines hypertext in the Formal Writings section of the web syllabus. You will also find hints on how to write well and on general guidelines as to what I look for in written work.  Finally, your essay must be two full pages in length, double-spaced.  

Additional Hints on Formatting Your Paper:

The first footnote entry for the "Plutarch on Sparta" paper should look like this: 

Plutarch, Plutarch on Sparta, translated with introduction and notes by Richard J. A. Talbert (London: Penguin Books, 1988),  page #.

All subsequent footnotes, which should come only from Plutarch on Sparta, should look like this:

Ibid., page # (if the page number cited is different from page number cited in the immediately preceeding footnote entry)

or

Ibid. (if you are citing the same page number that was cited in the immediately preceeding footnote entry).