Rapid Reading Course in Latin Literature

Objectives: The purpose of this course is to provide an extensive survey of Latin literature in the classical period, with emphasis on reading, translation, and analysis. Students will read select texts of major authors in poetry and prose and will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the traditional scholarly questions as well as consideration of issues involving the emergence of genres and literary styles within a social and cultural context

Format: Students will need to prepare a relatively extensive section of Latin text each week. In class only a small amount of this text will be thoroughly discussed, with detailed commentary on literary and historical matters that this text touches. The weekly work put into the preparation will simultaneously help with the reading lists, as all extracts and authors are taken from it, thus allowing students to prepare better for their comps.

Part I: Latin Prose

W2: Caesar (Bellum Civile 1)
Assignment: Prepare book 1, as far as you can go. You need to know the vocabulary

W3: Cicero (Pro Caelio) *
Assignment: Prepare the entire speech. In class we will read sections 48 ff. (20 with the old numbering system) from verum si quis est qui etiam meretriciis amoribus interdictum iuventuti putet ...

W4: Sallust (Catilina) *
Assignment: Prepare Text from the Beginning

W5: Seneca (Letters) *
Assignment: Prepare Letter 88

W6: Tacitus (Annals 1) *

W7: Suetonius (Caligula) *

W8: Apuleius (Metamorphoses 1) *

MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT IS DUE

Part II: Latin Poetry

W9: Plautus and Terence

W10: Lucretius 1 *

W11: Vergil (Aeneid 8) *

W12 Tibullus 1 *

W13: Martial 5 & Juvenal 6 *

W14: Seneca (Thyestes) *

W15: Lucan 7 *

W16: Final Assignment

Bibliography:
Students will need a good history of Latin Literature (e.g., Latin literature: a history / Gian Biago Conte; translated by Joseph B. Solodow; revised by Don Fowler and Glenn W. Most., Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press, c1994.), and an introductory book for Roman History and Culture (e.g., The Romans: from Village to Empire by Mary T. Boatwright, Oxford University Press, 2004). In addition, selected readings and/or commentaries will be placed on reserve for each week's topic

Assessment: 12 weekly vocabulary tests (25 words in each test, from the author and work under discussion) at 5% each = 60%. (Test weeks are marked with an asterisk). Two assignments at 20% each. .
Assignment 1: Choose a passage of Latin prose (at least 1 page long) and write an essay (c. 2500 words) on matters of rhetorical and stylistic technique, syntax, and narrative structure.
Assignment 2: Choose a passage from Latin poetry (at least 100 lines) and write an essay (c. 2500 words) on matters of meter, rhetorical and stylistic technique, syntax, and narrative structure.