Latin 310
Roman Historical Mythology

Fall, 2008
Wellesley College
Mr. Starr

Goals of the Course

Romans made myths into history and history into myths. For instance:

• there was the casa Romuli (hut of Romulus) in Rome
• Augustus, the first Roman emperor, considered taking the name "Romulus," although he decided not to because fratricide was not a positive association for someone who had just won a civil war.
• Roman brides parted their hair with a spear to commemorate the Rape of the Sabine Women, which was orchestrated by Romulus.
• David and Picasso both painted the Sabine women.
• Mussolini gave a copy of the Capitoline wolf to Rome, Georgia.

But was there ever a Romulus? Did he kill his brother? Were they nursed by a wolf (one imagines not ...)? And why feature wolves and rape and fratricide in your foundation story? What, if any, historical information is buried in the stories of Romulus and Remus, the Sabine women, Hercules and Cacus, Tarpeia, the rape of Lucretia and the expulsion of the kings from Rome and the establishment of the Roman Republic? How did the Romans use their historical myths both to reflect and to shape their culture? How did the Romans transform both ancient stories like Romulus and Remus and modern, well-known historical figures like Augustus into myths? We'll study ancient versions of various Roman historical myths and examine some modern reflections of those myths in different media, such as painting, sculpture, and a twentieth century chamber opera.

And, I hope, you'll learn to read Latin better!

Format of the Course

We'll meet twice a week for 70 minutes. There will be an assignment to read in Latin for almost all class sessions, from Livy or other authors, such as Ovid, Horace, Vergil, Propertius, and Cicero--even little-known or little-read authors such as Valerius Maximus, Eutropius, and Ampelius (OK, so you'll read only 7 lines of Ampelius' Liber memorialis, but you'll be the first one on your block who has!).

For many classes, you'll also read ancient material in translation and/or modern scholarly discussions. The modern discussions take a wide variety of angles on the material and are intended to broaden our views of how to understand the myths and how to approach them. Small, specific projects are also liberally scattered through the term. In some class sessions, there will be oral presentations, given in pairs. More on that when we meet on the first day.

Extra Credit: I've also included lots of Extra Credit projects and clearly identified them as Extra Credit in the Syllabus. Most of them are relatively small-scale, and all of them involve sharing your results with the rest of the class, usually by posting a page of discussion on the course's First Class conference, to maximize the impact of doing the project. I'm including the Extra Credit projects for several reasons:

• I couldn't help myself: there are so many interesting things to think about!
• Different people in the class have different interests, and Extra Credit projects address many diverse topics. Art, for instance, is utterly fascinating to some people, less so to others.
• Different people in the class learn most effectively in different ways (e.g., text, images, reading, writing), and Extra Credit projects can draw on and build particular strengths.
• You will always, always be sure to do the homework, but sometimes you have a little extra time (yes, yes, I know, this is Wellesley, so maybe only a little, tiny, minute bit of extra time every third Tuesday between 3:11 and 3:23 pm) and a little extra curiosity (that, I hope, is more common), and the Extra Credits will help you give in to that curiosity in an easy way.

Look at the Syllabus for the details on individual assignments, presentations, and Extra Credits.

Texts

I've ordered three required books, which should be in the College Bookstore:

• Gaiser and McClain's Bryn Mawr Commentary on Livy, Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City--Livy's History of Rome), Book One, which has copious notes focused specifically on helping you read the Latin
• DeSelincourt's Penguin translation of Livy 1-5, which he calls The Early History of Rome, for reading sections of Livy 1 we don't read in Latin
• Cornell's historical study, The Beginnings of Rome, for, obviously, the history. I'm intentionally not calling it a "background" book, because it's more important to the course than "background."

I've also ordered Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar as recommended but not required. I would definitely recommend getting a copy if you don't have one. This is a "real" Latin grammar, not an instructional text.

Those books represent only part of what you'll be reading. For help with Livy, there will be electronic texts of the Latin in both html form and pdf form and, for reading support, electronic vocabulary lists of words some of you might not know. We'll read quite a few recent articles and chapters from scholarly books in English, usually on e-reserve. And we'll read other texts, some in Latin and some in English translation from Greek or Latin. You'll get electronic or paper versions of all of the ancient texts and electronic vocabulary lists for most of the Latin texts. I’ve kept the readings in translation short and tightly focused, so that they can add extra dimensions to the material without taking a huge amount of time in themselves. But it will be crucial to read the selections in translation: these stories were extremely active parts of Roman life, not just stories in Livy

Finally, we'll use the FirstClass conference regularly and extensively.

Requirements

• Come to class and always be fully prepared. Please let me know in advance if you're going to miss class. If you have unavoidable problems that are out of your control, such as a long-scheduled athletic competition, please let me know what classes you have to miss as soon as you know your team's schedule.
• Midterm exam (mostly translation, maybe entirely translation: I'll let you know)
• Oral presentation, 15-20 minutes, done in pairs. Your oral presentation may turn into your final paper topic, but it does not have to (and you might even decide to write your final paper on someone else's oral presentation topic if you found it more intriguing than your own oral presentation topic). As you prepare your oral presentation, you will be required to work with a Public Speaking Tutor, who has been assigned specifically to our course by the Learning and Teaching Center. The skills you develop in preparing for and delivering your oral presentation will be useful in many more spheres than just Latin courses.
• Translation quiz at the end of the term, covering material read in Latin after the midterm exam.
• Final paper, due on the last day of final exams by 4:30, as specified by the Registrar (I can't change that date or grant extensions to it). Topic: your choice, but do talk to me about your topic at an early stage, since I may be able to suggest bibliography or warn you about hidden difficulties in a topic. Length: 15 pages.
• Class participation (see below).

Grading

The final grade will be made up of these five parts:

• Final paper--------------------------35%
• Oral presentation------------------- 15%
• Midterm exam ----------------------25%
• Translation quiz at end of term----10%
• Class participation-------------------15%

A word on Class Participation. You can participate in many different ways. For instance:

• You can translate particularly well in class.
• You can ask questions in class, about the Latin or about other topics.
• You can contribute to discussions in class.
• You can post on the course First Class conference.
• You can come up with new examples of topographical aetiology (using a story to explain a topographical feature).
• You can ... ---you see my point: you can do all kinds of things that would make a difference. I can think of some of them myself, but you'll think of others that haven't occurred to me and maybe never would.

Instructor

Ray Starr
Theodora Stone Sutton Professor of Classics
301 Founders Hall

Office phone: 781/283-2627
Home phone: See the College Directory online (please not before 8:00 am or after 9:00 pm)
Email in First Class: Raymond J. Starr ("r starr" is enough)
Email outside of First Class: rstarr@wellesley.edu

Office hours: Monday, 10:00-11:00 and Thursday, 12:30-1:30. I'm in my office a lot, not just during my office hours, so feel free to stop by whether it is a Formal Office Hour or not. What do hair salons say? Drop-in's welcome: no appointment required.

If you have a disability and need disability-related classroom or testing accomodations, please see me as soon as possible so we can make the arrangements, which are extremely easy to make. I've had lots of experience working with students with disabilities over the years, and we can call on the excellent help of Jim Wice in the Learning and Teaching Center, in Clapp Library.

-----------------------------
Created 8/08
Expires 2/09