The Ides of March, 44 BC

[strange_complex]

2050 years ago today, folks.


(If you're confused about how the maths add up, there, remember that there is no Year 0).

To mark this momentous occasion, let's see if you know more about Julius Caesar than the average first-year Ancient History student:

[Poll #947018]
Answers and explanations will be posted later today.

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I can see the lines you're thinking along, although of course I can't really comment properly yet, until I 'officially' declare the poll closed and give the answers. But basically, you have nothing to worry about, and I'll explain the finer details (as I understand them, anyway!) later.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Well, that's probably to the good. I have to remember that Ancient is my second exam field, anyway. The PhD systems are so different between here and the UK -- do you have to do exams at all?

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Not written ones. Usually PhD students here have to submit a substantial section of written work and face a panel interview about it, around a year or so after they've started, to confirm their PhD status. If they don't perform well at that stage, it might gently be suggested that they pursue an M. Phil. instead. Then after that, it's just submitting the thing itself, and passing a viva voce examination on it at the end.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I was in a PhD program that handed out the MA along the way, so we had two years of coursework, three language exams, written and oral exams in one's two major fields (so for me, Ancient and Medieval), and then a public defense of the PhD prospectus (having succeeded, one was then granted the MA). They've recently added a thesis defense, but that did not exist in my time. Thank goodness funding came with the first 5 years of that!