In your EPQ essay you may want to discuss one of the following questions:

• Tragedy in Greece and Rome: Medea in Greek and Roman theatre. To what extent did Greek theatre influence Roman theatrical production?
• Laughter and politics in Greece and Rome: to what extent did Greek comedy influence Roman comedy?
• Ancient heroes and epic in the Greek and the Roman world. Ulysses and Aeneas: to what extent did Greek epic poetry influence Roman epic production?
• Greek philosophical thought. To what extent did Stoicism and Epicureanism influence the development of philosophical and moral thought during Roman imperial age?
• Art and Architecture. To what extent did Greek art and architecture influence Roman artistic and architectural production?
• Ancient heroes in the Greek and the Roman world. Achilles and Theseus: to what extent did Greek mythology and artistic production influence Roman artistic production?

Ancient debate on Greek influence over Roman culture

• Horace, Epistles 2.1.93-157
• Livy, Histories, 25.40.1-3 (siege of Syracuse)
• Cicero, Ad Verrem, 2 (Romans pillaging artworks from Syracuse)
• Pliny, Naturalis Historia, 35.24. 26-28 (Romans collecting artworks)
• Polybius, Histories, 9.10.2-13 (Romans pillaging artworks from Syracuse)
• Plutarch, Life of Marcellus, 21.1-7 (transformation of Rome after the siege of Syracuse)
• Vitruvius, De Architectura, Books 3 and 4 (on temples) and Book 6 (on houses)

Mythology

• Hesiod, Theogony
• Greek tragic poets: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides
• Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautika
• Ovid, Metamorphoses
• Ovid, Fasti

 Theatre

• Euripides, Medea and Seneca, Medea
• Sophocles, Oedipus and Seneca, Oedipus
• Greek comedy writers: Aristophanes and Menander
• Latin comedy writers: Plautus and Terentius

Epic

• Homer, The Iliad and the Odyssey
• Virgil, Aeneid
• Lucan, Pharsalia
• Statius, Achilleid
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dyonisiaca

Philosophy

• Aristotle, Ethics
• Plato: Ethics
• Seneca, Moral and Political essays
• Lucretius, De Rerum Natura

Architecture - Temples

• Parthenon, Athens (Greece) (most of the frieze and of the pediments are displayed at the British Museum in London)
• Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae (Greece) (frieze is displayed at the British Museum in London)
• Greek temples at Paestum (Italy)
• Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus, Rome (Italy)
• Maison Carrée, Nîmes (France)
• Capitol temple, Dougga (Tunisia)

Architecture - Theatres

• Theatre of Epidaurus (Greece)
• Theatre of Dionysus at Athens (Greece)
• Theatre of Marcellus at Rome (Italy)
• Theatre of Pompey, Rome (Italy) (open link)
• Theatre of Orange (France)
• Theatre of Lepcis Magna (Libya)
• Theatre of Aspendos (Turkey)

Artefacts -Greek heroes

Look at how Greek heroes were portrayed in the Greek and in the Roman world. All the examples provided refer to two very popular Greek heroes, Theseus and Achilles. Their extraordinary popularity across the Greek and the Roman period is reflected in the exceptional number of representations on a wide array of media, from jewellery to silverware, pottery, paintings and mosaics but also in the changes that occurred in the meaning and significance of their stories across the centuries.

You can start by looking at the stories developed around the two heroes, what the ancient writers recall about their lives and how they tell about them, if there are any similarities between the written and the visual sources. You can also check the information provided by the linked pages or attached pdfs to get a better understanding of the contexts in which the images appeared: where they funerary, religious or domestic contexts? When where the images used and where? 

Theseus and the Minotaur

• Greek, Attic Black-Figured Neck Amphora, The J. Paul Getty Museum (open link)
• Greek, Black-figured neck-amphora, The British Museum (open link)
• Roman wall painting, House of M. Gavius Rufus, Pompeii (now at Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy) (open 2.1. Pompeii pdf file)
• Roman carved gemstone (sardonyx) with Theseus and the Minotaur, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (open 2.1 Gemstone pdf file)

Achilles

• Red Figure Amphora, Rome, Vatican Museums (open link)
• Red figure Kylix, from Etruria, Italy (Berlin, Antikenmuseen) (open link)
• Achilles and Ajax. Black-figure amphora (Rome, Vatican Museums) (open link)
• The Darius Vase, Red figure Apulian Crater, from Canosa di Puglia, Italy (Naples, Museo Archaeologico Nazionale,) (open link)
• Achilles killing Trojan enemies, François Tomb, Vulci, Italy (Rome, Villa Albani) (open link) 
• Roman wall painting, Achilles at Skyros, House of the Dioscuri, Pompeii, Italy (open 2.1 Pompeii Achilles pdf file)
• Sarcophagus with Scenes from the Life of Achilles, The Getty Museum (open link)

References: Theatre, Tragedy

• Easterling, P., & Hall, E. (Eds.). (2002). Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an ancient profession. Cambridge University Press.
• Easterling, P.E. ed., 1997. The Cambridge companion to Greek tragedy. Cambridge University Press.
• Flower, H.I., 2014. 17: Spectacle and Political Culture in the Roman Republic. The Cambridge companion to the Roman republic, p.377.
• Henry, D., 1985. The Mask of Power Seneca's Tragedies and Imperial Rome. Warminster, Aris & Phillips Ltd.
• Manuwald, G. (2011). Roman republican theatre. Cambridge University Press.
• Manuwald, G. (2016). Roman Tragedy. van Zyl Smit, B. (Ed.). (2016). A Handbook to the Reception of Greek Drama. John Wiley & Sons: 78-93.
• McDonald, M., & Walton, M. (Eds.). (2007). The Cambridge companion to Greek and Roman theatre. Cambridge University Press.
• Peterson, A., 2019. Laughter on the Fringes: The Reception of Old Comedy in the Imperial Greek World. Oxford University Press.
• Robinson, E.D., 2016. Brill's companion to the reception of Senecan tragedy: scholarly, theatrical and literary receptions. Brill.
• Roselli, D.K., 2011. Theater of the people: Spectators and society in ancient Athens. University of Texas Press.

References: Theatre, Comedy

• Augoustakis, A., Traill, A. and Thorburn, J.E. eds., 2013. A Companion to Terence. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Beard, M., 2014. Laughter in ancient Rome: On joking, tickling, and cracking up (Vol. 71). Univ of California Press.
• Flower, H.I., 2014. 17: Spectacle and Political Culture in the Roman Republic. The Cambridge companion to the Roman republic, p.377.
• Fontaine, M. and Scafuro, A.C. eds., 2013. The Oxford handbook of Greek and Roman comedy. Oxford University Press.
• Hunter, R.L. and Hunter, R.L., 1985. The new comedy of Greece and Rome. Cambridge University Press.
• M. Dinter (Ed.), 2019. The Cambridge Companion to Roman Comedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• McDonald, M. and Walton, M. eds., 2007. The Cambridge companion to Greek and Roman theatre. Cambridge University Press.
• Peterson, A., 2019. Laughter on the Fringes: The Reception of Old Comedy in the Imperial Greek World. Oxford University Press.
• Revermann, M. ed., 2014. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy. Cambridge University Press.
• Segal, E., 1987. Roman laughter: the comedy of Plautus. Oxford University Press on Demand.

References: Epic

• Boyle, A.J., 2003. Roman epic. Routledge.
• Fowler, R. and Fowler, R.L. eds., 2004. The Cambridge Companion to Homer. Cambridge University Press.
• Huxley, G.L., 1969. Greek epic poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis. Harvard University Press.
• Lowe, D., 2015. Monsters and monstrosity in Augustan poetry. University of Michigan Press.
• Toohey, P., 2003. Reading epic: an introduction to the ancient narratives. Routledge.

References: Philosophy

• Inwood, B. ed., 2003. The Cambridge companion to the Stoics. Cambridge University Press.
• Inwood, B., 2005. Reading Seneca: stoic philosophy at Rome. Oxford University Press.
• Long, A.A. ed., 1999. The Cambridge companion to early Greek philosophy. Cambridge University Press.
• O'Keefe, T., 2014. Epicureanism. Routledge.
• Sedley, D. ed., 2003. The Cambridge companion to Greek and Roman philosophy. Cambridge University Press.
• Sellars, J., 2014. Stoicism. Routledge.
• Sharples, R.W., 2014. Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics: an introduction to Hellenistic philosophy. Routledge.
• Trapp, M., 2017. Philosophy in the Roman Empire: ethics, politics and society. Routledge.
• Veyne, P., 2002. Seneca: the life of a stoic. Routledge.
• Warren, J. ed., 2009. The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism. Cambridge University Press.
• Warren, J. ed., 2009. The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism. Cambridge University Press.

References: Myth

• Dowden, K. and Livingstone, N. eds., 2011. A companion to Greek mythology. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Hardie, P. ed., 2002. The Cambridge Companion to Ovid. Cambridge University Press.
• Woodard, R.D. ed., 2007. The Cambridge companion to Greek mythology. Cambridge University Press.
• Hornblower, S., 2018. Lykophron's Alexandra, Rome, and the Hellenistic World. Oxford University Press.

References: Art and Architecture

• Flower, H.I., 2014. 17: Spectacle and Political Culture in the Roman Republic. The Cambridge companion to the Roman republic, p.377.
• Gruen, E.S., 1992. Culture and national identity in Republican Rome. Cornell University Press.
• Hölscher, T., 2004. The language of images in Roman art. Cambridge University Press.
• Ling, R., 1991. Roman painting. Cambridge University Press.
• Marconi, C. (Ed.). (2014). The Oxford handbook of Greek and Roman art and Architecture. Oxford University Press.
• McDonald, M. and Walton, M. eds., 2007. The Cambridge companion to Greek and Roman theatre. Cambridge University Press.
• Newby, Z. (2016). Greek Myths in Roman Art and Culture: Imagery, Values and Identity in Italy, 50 BC–AD 250. Cambridge University Press.
• Perry, E., 2005. The aesthetics of emulation in the visual arts of ancient Rome. Cambridge University Press.
• Ridgway, B.S., 2001. Hellenistic sculpture (Vol. 1). Univ of Wisconsin Press.
• Wallace-Hadrill, A., 2008. Rome's cultural revolution (Vol. 10). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Zanker, P. (1990). The power of images in the age of Augustus. University of Michigan Press.

• Perseus digital library: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
• The Grove Art Online: http://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/
• The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/index.html