The Literary Lens
What values did Roman writers traditionally attach to literature and education? On what basis: what did they judge makes literature "good"?
What value did Romans typically attach to successful literary creation (their own or other people's)? What did they count as "success" in writing literature?
How did Roman authors deal with non-Roman literary and cultural traditions - Greek and others?
How did Romans connect literature, identity, and memory? How did these connections influence their own literary production?
What did Romans consider qualified people to participate in literary culture as public speakers and as writers?
How did Romans use literature, as well as traditional mythological stories and characters, to think about social, scientific, philosophical, and religious problems?

The One and the Many
What benefits and what obligations did ancient Romans suppose framed relationships of the individual to the state?
What systems of relationships, with what reciprocal benefits and obligations, organized Roman society? (kinship, friendship, class, ownership, patron-client reciprocity, military service, religious sodality, trade-guild, etc.)
What did the notion of libertas mean to a Roman - is "freedom" a good translation?
What tensions did ancient Romans perceive between individual happiness and duty to family and country?
What evidence do our texts give us about the validity of generalizing from any one idea in any one text to "Romans" more generally?

Sex, Love, and Family
What did ancient Romans typically consider to be "normal" relationships within a household, a family, a marriage?
In what ways and to what extent did patriarchal authority shape Roman domestic relationships?
In what ways did gender matter? How can you tell what assumptions formed Roman gender-values? How did Roman ideas about gender change over time?
What did love have to do with it? Explore Roman erotics.
How did childhood figure in Roman conceptions? maturity? old age? death? generational heritage?

Human and Divine
How did religious practice figure in Roman private life? In Roman public life?
How did religious belief figure in Roman life? What did ancient Romans expect to get from religion?
How did ancient Romans conceive of divinity?
What did traditional divine identities and stories of Italic and Greek myths have to do with Roman religiosity?
How did Roman culture relate to the natural world?
How scientifically, in a modern sense, did Romans know the physical world within which they lived? How did they systematize their knowledge of the physical world?
How did encounters with other cultures add to the scope of Roman religions? (local cults, Greek philosophical thought, Judaism, Mithraism, Christianity, etc.)

Ethics and Morality
How did ancient Romans identify "right" and "wrong"? Compare and contrast their criteria with other societies', including ours.
What did ancient Romans suppose was required for a "good" life? for an ideal society? Why?
How would ancient Romans have understoond "happiness"? Whom would they have identified as "happy," and why?
What elements connected Roman conceptions of "right," "wrong," social or individual "good," "morality," "justice," and personal honor?
Did Roman conceptions of morality change? How?
What would ancient Romans have understood to be the purpose of human life?