POPULUS ROMANUS PROJECT

Phase 3: Your Figure Comes to Life

Remember once again the prime directive of the project: Keep your identity secret,
and base all work on the knowledge you have gained from historical research.

Overview: For the next phase of the project, your persona will begin to “live” online. Your
figure will be “alive” for ten days on the web, so to the extent possible, pace developments with
this schedule in mind. However, you will have to be flexible in the ways you think about the
passage of time: you likely will have to exist during different parts of your life at the same time!
The project will conclude on May 18.

Below are listed various actions that are required in Phase 3.

Actions Possible purposes Citations Tech Minimum

Considerations? Number of Posts
Posting To announce None needed. Provide title in 5
announcements developments; to “Subject” and
share revelations; announcement
to express in “Body.”
opinions
Posting on other To make friend Underneath your Place all or most 15 on at least
figures’ walls requests; to “act post, indicate the of post in three different
out” historical location of the “Subject”; place pages; 5 posts
events and information that citations in must derive from
relationships; to has led you to “Body.” ancient sources.
comment on make your Do not write on
“current” events; comment. your own wall.
to praise; to Follow the Do not delete
criticize guidelines any posts on
provided in this your wall.
document.

Posting on the To discuss issues Same as Reply to posts 2 substantive,

Forum pertaining to above. created by site well-considered
Roman administrator. posts that
civilization indicate earlier
posts have been
read.
FRIEND REQUESTS

For the purposes of this project, a “friend” is defined as a friend, relative, or an associate with
whom one might share common interests. Most “friends” will be contemporaries (people alive
at the same time), but it is conceivable that “friends” might come from different eras but share an
affection for the same ideas or interests. In the course of Phases 3, you will create a picture
library of these friends. Here’s how:

1) First, identify “friends.” You have already done this in Phase 1; however, you did not
know during Phase 1 who would be participating in the project. Now, you do. Peruse the
websites of the figures participating in the project and identify—based on historical
evidence-- those who might be “friends” with your figure. (See Figures List)
2) Contact the figure by posting a message on his or her wall. Begin the message with the
phrase “Friend Request” followed by a colon. Explain why the figure shares common
interests with you. Provide a citation that justifies the request.
3) If the figure accepts your friend request, you may add them to your friend library. You’ll
do this in the same way you added pictures to your personal pictures library. You must
save the picture to your hard drive before uploading it to your friend library. You do not
need to provide URLs for pictures in your friend library.

What to do if you receive a friend request:

1) Evaluate the request by considering the validity of the explanation provided. Check the
cited source and determine whether or not the information is consistent with or in conflict
with your own information. Decide whether or not the figure in question really might
have been a friend, relative, or ally of your figure or have shared a common interest with
him or her.
2) Once you have made your decision, communicate the answer to the figure by posting on
his or her wall. Provide a citation to justify your response.
3) If you accept the friend request, follow the step mentioned above for adding his or her
picture to your friend library.
CITATIONS

Complete bibliographical information for sources that have been important to you in developing
knowledge about your figure should be listed in your Works Cited web part on your home page.
You can add to your annotated list of references throughout Phase 3. When you post on others’
Walls or the Forum, you should provide short citations to direct your classmates and your
teacher to a specific source in your annotated list that inspired or justifies the post.* Place these
citations beneath your posts. Please use the following guidelines:

• For works by Plutarch and Suetonius that provide “chapter numbers,” identify the author
and indicate the “Life” and the “chapter number” to help others find the relevant
information: Plutarch, Life of Marius: 27. If accessed online, add the URL.
• For print sources, provide the first meaningful phrase of the relevant Works Cited entry
found on your annotated bibliography page: “Octavia” or Morris and the page number.
• For websites, post the URL: http://classics.mit.edu/Augustus/deeds.html

*There is one exception to this policy. If you are replying to a post and your reply is based off
the same source used by the original poster, you may simply write “Ibid” as your citation. You
do not need to add the source to your Works Cited unless you think it a useful source of
information on your topic.

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

There are two important documents which you will need to have completed and emailed to me
by class time on May 19. One is “POPULUS ROMANUS Post-Tracker,” which is available for
downloading from my POPULUS ROMANUS page. You will use this document to keep a
record of all of the posts you make on pages besides your own (wall or Forum posts). The
second, “POPULUS ROMANUS Survey,” will be made available on my POPULUS
ROMANUS page for a workday designed for that purpose on May 18. Send me ONE email with
these two documents as attachments before you come to class on May 19.
GRADING Student Name/Hr: ________________
Name of Figure: _________________
Points will be distributed as follows:
10 pts. “Welcome”

10 pts. Timeline

10 pts. Picture(s)

20 pts. Annotated Bibliography

15 pts. Wall Posts

5 pts. Friend Library

10 pts. Forum Posts

10 pts. A Day in the Life

10 pts. POPULUS ROMANUS

survey

__________ / 100
Extra Credit for optional activities: __________
Total: ___________

Factors into the grading of most categories include historicity, spiritedness, and polish.
Historicity—Does your work on POPULUS ROMANUS reflect and promote a strong
understanding of your figure and related subjects? Did you aggressively seek out and make use
of both primary and secondary sources? Did you cite your sources? Did you include details
which demonstrate your understanding of the daily life of the people of Rome?

Spiritedness – Did you bring your figure to life? Did you creatively present your figure
in a way that illustrated his or her character, personality, or interests? Were you an active, vital
participant in POPULUS ROMANUS?

Polish—Is your work free of spelling or grammatical errors? Did you follow the project’s
technical instructions carefully?