Latin 310
The current version of this syllabus will always be on the web at this address: http://www.wellesley.edu/ClassicalStudies/Latin310/310syl-08.html
Using the electronic version will have the advantage that all the links will be live and you can be sure it's up to date. The electronic version also cannot be lost, bent, folded, spindled, mutilated, or eaten by pets (or wolves, for that matter).
By 4:00 pm on Friday, 9/5, give me back the sheet with your preferences for Oral Presentation topics or email me the information. If you miss this deadline, you will be assigned whatever topic no one else has chosen.
Modern reading: T. J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC) (Routledge: London and New York, 1995), pages 1-47, a discussion of literary, historical, and archaeological evidence and of pre-Roman Italy. Some of this is quite dense material, and you haven’t been in school for three months, so take your time.
Introductions and reflections, in 2 parts
First: Spend some time thinking about what courses you've found most stimulating, how you feel you've learned most productively (not necessarily "learned the most data," but learned most productively), where you've found the most satisfaction in learning, how you've functioned as a class member as well as an individual student. Then write me an email talking about those things. Include how much Latin you've read, what other Classics-related courses you've taken, Classical places you may have travelled, and any things or activities you'd like to see this course include. Be utterly selfish: what would you like? what would you find interesting or stimulating or challenging? Different people will want different things, and that's fine. This syllabus is detailed and specific, but it can be changed and adapted.
In class, we’ll talk over the Cornell reading and sight-read and discuss the Preface to Livy’s Ab Urbe condita, in which Livy explains his view of history and of Rome. The Preface is the hardest Latin in all of Livy, so it will be a good thing to work on as a group. I’ll pitch in as needed. The goal is not to terrify you but for everyone to read and understand. If you want to look at the text ahead of time (you do NOT need to), here's a pdf version.
Latin: Livy 1.1-2 (about 75 lines) html version of the Latin -- pdf version of the Latin -- Vocabulary list in pdf
Ancient reading in translation:
Modern reading: Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, pages 48-57 (on the archaeology of very early Latium) and 63-68 (on the Aeneas legend)
Extra
Credit: Images of Aeneas on coins,
vases, and the Ara Pacis: Post a paragraph of discussion on the
FirstClass conference. More than one person can do this, whether
as individuals or as a group.
Latin: Livy 1.4-1.6.2 (about 76 lines) html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Modern activity I: Romulus and Remus on Roman coins
Modern activity II: The wolf, after Rome from Rome in Rome: The wolf was used in the 20th century in a way that may give us a sense of its power as an image or of the power it was hoped to have. Look at http://www.romegeorgia.com/capwolf.html (this replica of the statue is also in Rome, but Rome, Georgia, U.S.A., a gift of Italy).
Extra credit: Jan
Bremmer, selection from his article "Romulus, Remus and the Foundation
of Rome," pages 25-34, in Jan Bremmer and Nicholas Horsfall, editors, Roman
Myth and Mythography (University
of London Institute for Classical Studies Bulletin Supplement 52,
1987) (on e-reserve). Post a page of summary and discussion on the FirstClass conference.
Latin: html
version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary
list ---commentary on the Ovid,
pdf
Ancient reading in translation: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.86-87: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1D*.html (you'll have to scroll down to get to chapter 86).
Modern
reading: Cynthia Bannon, The Brothers of Romulus: Fraternal Pietas
in Roman Law, Literature, and Society (Princeton
University Press 1997), pages 158-173 (e-reserve). Read this very quickly for
the main analysis.
Oral Presentation: Augustus and Romulus. Romulus was a crucial part of Augustus' re-invention of Rome, although the emperor decided against taking the name Romulus (its associations of fratricide were wrong for someone who had won sole power through a civil war) in favor of the name Augustus. Explore Augustus' emphasis on Romulus and the casa Romuli (hut of Romulus) on the Palatine, where Augustus also placed the domus Augusti. You'll find useful information in Catherine Edwards, Writing Rome (Cambridge University
Press 1996), pages 30-43, on the casa Romuli (on e-reserve) and in Jennifer Rea, Legendary Rome: Myth, Monuments, and Memory on the Palatine and Capitoline (London 2007), pp. 21-43 (e-reserve).
Extra Credit: Jan Bremmer, selection from his article "Romulus,
Remus and the Foundation of Rome," pages 34-38, in Jan Bremmer and
Nicholas Horsfall, editors, Roman Myth and Mythography (University
of London Institute for Classical Studies Bulletin Supplement 52,
1987) (on e-reserve). Post a paragraph's discussion on the First Class conference.
Extra Credit: Cicero on Romulus, Remus, and urban planning. Read Cicero, De Re publica 2.2-11(translation e-text: Cicero-de-re-publica-2-2-11.html), in which Cicero has Scipio present the early history of Rome. What is Cicero doing to the complex of mythological stories surrounding Romulus? In this version, what has happened to Remus? How are Romulus’ various actions explained? Why does he found Rome in the place he does? Post a page's discussion on the First Class conference.
Ancient reading in translation:
Latin: Vergil, Aeneid 8.184-279 (95 lines) html version --- pdf version ---
I'm not providing a vocabulary list for this, since I assume everyone has an edition of Vergil to use.
Compare Vergil’s version of this story to Livy's and to Dionysius'. What is the same? what’s different? does the story carry the same meaning in all three accounts?
Thinking about your Latin. By noon on Monday, 9/22, email me a page’s informal
discussion of how you see your work so far in the course: what’s going
productively for you, what do you think it would help to work on more,
what (if
it’s
different from that) do you think it would be interesting to
work on more. This is NOT for grading purposes, but to help both you
and me think about your work and the course.
Extra Credit: If anyone would like to read Livy's version in Latin and post a translation on the First Class conference, I'd be happy to provide Extra Credit! The passage is 58 lines long, and here are some resources: html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Latin: Propertius 4.9 (74 lines). html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Ancient reading in translation, so you can see another version written after Vergil: Ovid, Fasti (calendar in verse), Book 1, the section on January 11 (e-text: http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkOne.htm--you'll need to scroll down to January 11).
Compare Ovid’s version to what you’ve seen in Vergil and Propertius.
Oral Presentation: Propertius and Vergil on Hercules and Cacus. Propertius wrote his poem after Vergil, perhaps with reference to Vergil. How are the two versions related to each other? Richardson, in his commentary on Propertius (which Clapp owns if you want to look at it), says, "The whole poem is comedy, one way and another, and the central point of the game seems to be a gibe at Vergil." Would you agree? You might also want to consult W.
S. Anderson, "Hercules Exclusus: Propertius, IV, 9," American
Journal of Philology 85
(1964) 1-12 (on e-reserve).
It seems strange to us today, in the United States, that the Romans highlighted the Rape of the Sabine Women as one of their foundation-stories. We’ll look at several different ways of understanding the Rape of the Sabine Women and at how Romans understood it.
Latin: Livy 1.9 (about 62 lines) html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Ancient reading in translation: Livy 1.10-13 (to finish out Livy’s story of the Sabine women)
Modern reading
Latin html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Compare Ovid’s and Cicero’s accounts to Livy’s. What tones do the different passages take? What picture of Romulus do they paint? How has the story of the Rape of the Sabine Women been transformed and taken into Roman culture?
Modern
activity, due by 6:00 pm on Sunday, 10/5: Below you’ll
find links for various paintings and a sculpture of the Rape of the
Sabine Women.
Look at all the paintings and the scultpure, and then choose one
to discuss in a posting on the conference. In your posting, first
carefully describe
the work of art and then comment on it. Don’t all choose the same
one: if more than two people have already posted on a particular piece, choose another to post on (although if several people post simultaneously, that's fine). Your postings do
not have to be in polished form.
Oral Presentation: The Rape of the Sabine Women in 20th Century Art. By the 20th century, even Augustan Rome was almost 2,000 years away, let along the mythical founding of Rome and the Rape of the Sabine Women, yet the subject is still alive. Explore the Rape of the Sabine Women in modern art (and have plenty of images for people to look at as you talk). Here are three artists who worked with the theme:
Latin: Propertius 4.4 (LONG: 94 lines) html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Oral Presentation: Tarpeia. What did Tarpeia do? Was she a heroine or a traitor? How many different versions are there (so far as we know)? How do the different versions relate to each other? To help yourself organize your observations, you might want to make a chart of the elements that appear in the various versions. Here are references some versions for you to look up:
Latin: html version --- pdf version ---Vocabulary list
Ancient reading in translation:
Modern
reading: Mary Jaeger, Livy’s Written Rome (Ann Arbor 1997),
pages 30-56 (on the Battle in the Forum in today’s
assignment) (on e-reserve). Read this quickly for
the main analysis.
Latin: html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Ancient reading in translation
Oral Presentation: The Death of Romulus. Was Romulus taken up to the gods? Was he chopped up by the senators and carried away in pieces? What might the story/stories suggest about Romulus or about Rome? Although the story of the death of Romulus goes back to before Ennius, it took on new meaning with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 CE. Compare Livy and Cicero with Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch. You'll find helpful Augusto Fraschetti, The Foundation of Rome (M. Hill and K. Windle, trans., Edinburgh 2005, from the orig. publ. in 2002), pp. 85-112 (e-reserve).
Extra
Credit: Post a translation and discussion of the elogium of Romulus from the Forum at Pompeii (Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 64)--this is the entire text (the square brackets and italics indicate missing letters that are supplied):
Romulus Martis
[f]ilius. Urbem Romam
[condi]dit et regnavit annos
duodequadraginta. Isque
primus dux duce hostium
Acrone rege Caeninensium
interfecto spolia opi[ma]
Iovi Feretrio consecra[vit,]
receptusque in deoru[m]
numerum Quirinu[s]
appellatu[s est].
What has the Romulus legend become? (Where is Remus?)
Modern
reading: Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, pages 119-50, chapter 5: "Traditional History: Kings, Queens, Events, and Dates."
Ancient reading in translation: Livy 1.17-24, to get you up to today’s Latin assignment
Latin: Livy 1.25 (59 lines). html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
The Roman Horatii defeat the enemy Curiatii.
Extra Credit: Andrew Feldherr, Spectacle and Society in Livy’s History (Berkeley
1998), pages 123-31 (e-reserve). Post a page's summary and discussion on the First Class conference.
Latin: Livy 1.26 (65 lines). html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
After the battle, the surviving Horatius kills his sister and is tried.
Ancient reading in translation: Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia 6.3.6, in the section De severitate (e-reserve). What has happened to Livy’s story, which Valerius Maximus certainly knew?
Modern reading: Andrew Feldherr, Spectacle and Society in Livy’s History (Berkeley 1998), pages 132-44. Read this quickly for the main analysis (e-reserve).
Oral Presentation: Jacques-Louis David and Roman historical mythology. The French painter did a famous painting called "The Oath of the Horatii" in 1784-85. Compare his painting to Livy's account: what value does the story have for the Roman historical writer? for the French painter, roughly 1,800 years later? (yes, that's a large number) You'll find some help getting started at http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/neocl_dav_oath.html.
Ancient reading in translation, part 1: Livy 1.27-46.1 (to get you up to the Latin assignment)
Latin: Livy 1.46.2-1.48.7 (124 lines). html version --- pdf version
Since this is a very long Latin assignment, let’s try this: everyone read 1.46-48 through in English first and then read it FAST in Latin. Don’t look up every word you don’t know: guess, guess, and guess again! Every time you feel like you just have to look up a word, take a sheet of paper and write down five guesses about what you think it means. Then choose one and plunge ahead. Another method is to put your dictionary on the other side of the room, so you have to get up and walk across the room every time you look up a word. In class we’ll go over the passage and talk about how to read Latin fast.
Ancient reading in translation, part 2:
Compare Ovid’s and Valerius Maximus’ account to Livy’s. How close is the relationship between the three authors’ accounts?
Oral Presentation: History and Tragedy. Livy explicitly identifies the story we’ve just read as sceleris tragici exemplum (1.46.3). What does he mean by calling it that? What was the relationship of tragedy to history for the Romans?
Latin:
Modern activity: Coins and images of Augustus, i.e., propaganda. Go to Eric Krondratieff's website Octavian to Augustus and look at numbers 39-59 to see how Augustus manipulated public opinion.
Modern
reading: To learn what we know (very little) about the Battle of Actium: Werner Eck, The Age of Augustus, sec. ed., (trans. 2007 by D. L. Schneider from the German original of 1998/2007), pp. 34-45 (= Chapter 6: "The Final Battles for Power: Actium and Alexandria") (e-reserve).
Extra Credit: For a discussion of an archaeological project aimed at learning more about the Battle of Actium, read The Actium Project's website and post a page of summary and discussion on the First Class conference.
Latin: Propertius 4.6 (on Actium) (e-text)
Ancient reading in translation: The Res gestae divi Augusti (Deeds of the Divine Augustus): Most of you have probably read this already, some of you in Latin in Latin 200.
Modern
reading: On Augustan coinage, statuary, and mythological associations: Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (A. Shapiro, trans.) (Ann Arbor 1988, pb 1990), pp. 33-57 (e-reserve).
Oral Presentation: The Forum of Augustus as a
display of moral examples from Roman history. To get oriented, you might consult Karl Galinsky, Augustan Culture:
An Interpretive Introduction (Princeton University Press 1996), pages
197-213 (on e-reserve). It might be interesting to compare the Shield of Aeneas in Vergil's Aeneid (Book 8).
Latin: TBA
Ancient reading in translation: TBA
Modern
reading: TBA
Oral Presentation: Mussolini and Augustus. Mussolini, the Fascist ruler of Italy, presented himself as a second Augustus, both in constructing the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, excavating the Mausoleum of Augustus, and reconstructing the Ara pacis and in holding the Mostra Augustea della Romanita (Exhibition of Augustus and Romanness) to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of Augustus' birth. Discuss Mussolini's use of Augustus. You'll find helpful Borden W. Painter, Jr., Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City (New York 2005), pp. 71-77 (e-reserve), and T. Benton, "Epigraphy and fascism," in A. Cooley, ed., The Afterlife of Inscriptions: Reusing, Rediscovering, Reinventing and Revitalizing Ancient Inscriptions (London 2000), pp. 163-192 (e-reserve). You might also consult, Wayne Andersen, The Ara Pacis of Augustus and Mussolini: An Archaeological Mystery (Geneva/Boston 2003) (I have a copy you can borrow).
Again, rape appears at a crucial turning point in Roman history, the expulsion of the kings and the establishment of the Roman Republic.
Ancient reading in translation, part 1: Livy 1.54-1.57.3
Latin: Livy 1.57.4-1.58 (72 lines) html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Ancient reading in translation, part 2: Livy 1.59-60 (the end of Book 1)
--so we know how it comes out before reading the next day’s Latin assignment)
Modern reading: Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, pages 215-39 (on the expulsion of the kings and the beginning of the Republic)
Oral Presentation: Machiavelli and Livy. Machiavelli (1469-1527), author of the famous book The Prince, used Livy as a springboard for discussions of politics and other subjects in his Discourses on Livy (Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio) . How does he use his predecessor? Are the stories "live" for Machiavelli? Get a copy of the Discourses on Livy out of Clapp (I'd recommend the 1996 translation by Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov: in Clapp, JC143. M16313 1996) and read the sections that interest you the most. I'd suggest focusing on sections that draw on parts of Livy that we've read, e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 1.9, 1.10, 1.22, 3.2, 3.4, and 3.5. You may find it useful to consult Harvey C. Mansfield, Machiavelli's New Modes and Orders: A Study of the Discourses on Livy (orig. pub. 1979) (in Clapp, JC143.M163 M3).
Latin: Livy 1.59-60 (end of Book 1) (74 lines) html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Ancient reading in translation: Livy 3.44-49, the story of Verginia, whose chastity is threatened and who is killed by her father (to protect her, he claims), at another crucial political turning point.
Oral Presentation: The Rape of Lucretia and the Romans. The Rape of Lucretia, obviously, is not the first turning-point in Roman historical mythology that is marked by rape. Discuss Livy's narrative of the rape of the Lucretia and his story of Verginia, whose chastity is threatened and who is killed by her father (to protect her, he says) at another crucial political turning point, and Roman attitudes toward sexual violence. You might find it helpful to consult Cristina
G. Calhoon, "Lucretia,
Savior and Scapegoat: The Dynamics of Sacrifice in Livy 1.57-59," Helios 24
(1997) 151-169 (on e-reserve) and Sandra
Joshel, "The Body Female and the Body Politic: Livy’s Lucretia
and Virginia," pages 112-30 in A. Richlin (ed.), Pornography
and Representation in Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford
1992) (on e-reserve).
Ancient Reading in Translation: Ovid, Fasti 2.721-760 (e-text), the beginning of the Lucretia narrative
Latin: Ovid, Fasti 2.761-852. html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Modern
reading: Matthew Fox, Roman Historical Myths: The Regal Period in
Augustan Literature (Oxford
1996), pages 210-17 (on e-reserve)
Oral Presentation: Benjamin Britten's chamber opera, The Rape of Lucretia. How does Britten use the story of Lucretia? How does his version compare to other versions in various media? You'll want to listen to the opera several times, so I'd suggest checking it out of the Music Library early in the term, not just a few days before your presentation.
Latin, Part 1 : Lucretia as exemplary icon. html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Latin, Part 2: Augustine, De civitate dei 1.19. The Rape of Lucretia posed a dilemma for Augustine, after Christian nuns were raped when Rome fell: how should the Church think about rape and suicide? html version --- pdf version --- Vocabulary list
Extra Credit: Ian Donaldson, The Rapes of Lucretia: A Myth and its Transformations (Oxford
1982), pages 21-39 (e-reserve). Post a page's discussion on the First Class conference.
By
Sunday, Dec. 7, at noon, post on the FirstClass conference
a one-page discussion of your final paper.
Your discussion should summarize the question you intend to answer in your paper, how you expect to go about answering it (e.g., books and articles and ancient sources you have consulted or will consult), what answer you expect to find, and at least two specific things you would like your commentators to address (be specific, not vague: "Please tell me whether this is a good idea" doesn't give your commentators much help).
By Sunday, Dec. 7, at 10:00 pm, read everyone’s proposal and post comments on three (3) of the original
proposals. I'll hand out a list of who will be commenting on whose proposal. Everyone will comment on three of their classmates' proposals and will receive comments from three of their classmates.
Your comments should be posted as separate responses to separate proposals, not all in one posting.
Your comments should include
In class, be prepared to respond to your classmates' comments, not in the sense of defending yourself against them, but in the sense of asking for clarification or further suggestions about your proposal. "Got any other ideas" puts your commentator in an awkward spot, but "I found your comment about my discussion of Livy's presentation of Romulus helpful--do you think including Remus in the analysis would advance my argument" puts them in a good position: they can think about a specific issue and respond thoughtfully.
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Created: 8/2008
Last revised 10/08
Expires: 2/1/09
