The Administrator's Dilemma: Competing Loyalties in Imperial Service

The Pattern

Describe the pattern in 1–2 paragraphs. What is it? What does it look like when you encounter it? Patterns are recurring structural elements — a type of scene, a rhetorical move, a narrative device — that appear in multiple texts in recognisably similar form.

Where the Pattern Appears

In Herodotus

Describe one or two specific instances in Herodotus. Give the book and chapter number. Quote briefly if relevant.

"Quotation from Herodotus." — Herodotus, Histories, Book III, Chapter 38¹

Explain what function the pattern serves in this text.

In Thucydides

Describe instances in Thucydides. The Melian Dialogue, the Funeral Oration, the Plague — many of Thucydides' most famous passages are instances of recurring patterns.

"Quotation from Thucydides." — Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V, Chapter 89²

In Tacitus

Describe instances in Tacitus. Note how the pattern's function may have changed — Tacitus is often inverting or complicating patterns he inherited from earlier authors.

How the Pattern Varies

A comparison section: the pattern appears in all three texts, but it works differently in each. What does comparing the variations reveal?

Why the Pattern Matters

What does identifying this pattern allow us to understand that we could not see in any single text?

Identifying the Pattern in New Texts

A short practical section: what should a reader look for when reading other classical sources?

• Signal 1 — description of what to look for
• Signal 2 — another marker
• Signal 3 — a contextual clue

Optional cross-reference note.