ET CETERA ANTIQUA

📝 Classical Civilisation essay, Year 11. Mark: 6/8. Teacher feedback: “A largely good essay, but your analysis in your 2nd paragraph needs to be more closely linked to the question.”

Tyrtaeus describes the horrific physical injuries that are received by military victims of war, for example ‘bloody genitals.’ The graphic language creates a vivid image, highlighting the horrors of war for those fighting it. However, Tyrtaeus also glorifies a fallen soldier, with phrases such as ‘glorious bloom of lovely youth’, and describes them as ‘impressive’, showing that the military victims of war are honourable.

However, Horace shifts his focus to the civilian victims of war. The ‘tyrant’s wife’ and ‘daughter’ are helpless to stop their loved ones falling to war. This is emphasised by the metaphor of the Roman soldier as a ‘lion’ — it seems futile to try and change the other soldier’s fate. Unlike Source A, which celebrates combat, Source B highlights the emotional suffering of the civilians, who indirectly experience war. Horace suggests war is just as traumatic for the powerless citizens as for the soldiers, depicting victims of war as powerless and helpless.

Similarly, in Book 22 of the Iliad, Homer explores how war affects the civilians, with an example of Priam. He describes ‘my sons slaughtered’, ‘my daughters dishonoured’, ‘children hurled aside in anger.’ This shows how civilians are victims of war as well as the soldiers, as they are forced to live with their loved ones killed or harmed, but are powerless to do anything in retaliation.

Similarly to Tyrtaeus, Horace also shows that the fallen soldiers in war are honourable and noble. This is shown in ‘Virtue… opens the heavens for those undeserving of death… on ascending wings.’ This shows that the military victims of war can also be noble and virtuous, as the Romans believed only gods could ascend to the heavens after death; this shows soldiers who died in battle were seen as almost divine.