Aching Wrists

[Gibbon]

A week today and I've got my first essay type exam for 28 years, so I've been practising my handwriting and boy do my wrists ache.

Also whilst revising came across a bit of Cicero that has some startling revelancies for todays society.

(a)
Gaius Gracchus introduced a corn law. The commons were delighted, it made generous provision for the means of subsistence without their having to work for it. The boni found it repugnant, because they thought the commons were being encouraged to give up hard work and take to idleness, and they could see that the treasury was being drained dry. (Cicero, Pro Sestio 103)
(b)
... so too Gaius Gracchus. Although he had granted extravagant doles and poured out money from the treasury like water, he nevertheless spoke as if he were the watch-dog of the treasury. Why should I pay attention to words when the facts are in front of my eyes? The famous Lucius Piso Frugi had consistently opposed the corn law. But once the law had been ratified, for all that he was an ex-consul, he came along to collect his corn ration. Gracchus noticed Piso standing there in the crowd, and with the Roman people listening asked him how he could reconcile his applying for his corn ration with his opposition to the law which made it possible. ‘Idonot care for
this fancy of yours, Gracchus, to divide my goods among every
Tom, Dick and Harry’, replied Piso; ‘but, since that is what you
are doing, I shall claim my share.’ Does not the conduct of that
worthy and wise statesman make it plain that Rome’s public
wealth was being squandered by Gracchus’ law? Yet read
Gracchus’ speeches and you will declare him to be the jealous
guardian of the public purse.
(Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 3.48)

[SimonMac]

Swap hands half way through, also if you sit on your hand it feels like someone else is writing the essay for you

[ChrisPackit]

Swap hands half way through, also if you sit on your hand it feels like someone else is writing the essay for you

...and Paint your finger nails with a bright red nail varnish, so it looks as if someone else is doing it for you ........ the exam that is

[EternalOptimist]

Try using your Dictophone

[mudskipper]

I'm in the same boat, except I did one last year.

Someone suggested taking along a few different pens - the slight change in grip helps relieve the strain.

[norrahe]

A week today and I've got my first essay type exam for 28 years, so I've been practising my handwriting and boy do my wrists ache.

Also whilst revising came across a bit of Cicero that has some startling revelancies for todays society.

(a)
Gaius Gracchus introduced a corn law. The commons were delighted, it made generous provision for the means of subsistence without their having to work for it. The boni found it repugnant, because they thought the commons were being encouraged to give up hard work and take to idleness, and they could see that the treasury was being drained dry. (Cicero, Pro Sestio 103)
(b)
... so too Gaius Gracchus. Although he had granted extravagant doles and poured out money from the treasury like water, he nevertheless spoke as if he were the watch-dog of the treasury. Why should I pay attention to words when the facts are in front of my eyes? The famous Lucius Piso Frugi had consistently opposed the corn law. But once the law had been ratified, for all that he was an ex-consul, he came along to collect his corn ration. Gracchus noticed Piso standing there in the crowd, and with the Roman people listening asked him how he could reconcile his applying for his corn ration with his opposition to the law which made it possible. ‘Idonot care for
this fancy of yours, Gracchus, to divide my goods among every
Tom, Dick and Harry’, replied Piso; ‘but, since that is what you
are doing, I shall claim my share.’ Does not the conduct of that
worthy and wise statesman make it plain that Rome’s public
wealth was being squandered by Gracchus’ law? Yet read
Gracchus’ speeches and you will declare him to be the jealous
guardian of the public purse.
(Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 3.48)

I always enjoyed studying Cicero, he was one of the more interesting orators.

Good luck with the exam.

[Gibbon]

I always enjoyed studying Cicero, he was one of the more interesting orators.

Good luck with the exam.

Thanks.

Yes Cicero is interesting and ironically more important now, as a good source, than he was alive during the fall of the republic. Although he came to an ill deserved end, but that was politics as it was.

[Spacecadet]

Is there no option to type it in the exam?

[Clippy]

Hire a Bob to do the writing for you.

Although all your answers may end up in Hinglish.

[Old Greg]

I always rather liked the Gracchi brothers. They used a constitution based on an electoral system rigged heavily in the favour of the aristocracy to attempt some kind of redress for the pressures being put on the ordinary Roman by social and economic changes. No wonder they were whacked.