Pre-requisite(s): None

This course, which assumes no prior knowledge of the language, offers language instruction in Latin for beginners thrice a week of . Instruction will cover the writing systems, vocabulary, and syntax of Roman texts. The course focuses on grammar and vocabulary acquisition with exercises in both reading and generating example text. By the end of the semester, students will have an introductory familiarity with the literature and culture of the Roman world, a basic introduction to grammar and the simple constructions of the ancient language, and a limited but active vocabulary. They will be able to read short, adapted texts and will have acquired the familiarity to continue study of the language into Intermediate Latin .

Pre-requisite(s): YLL1201 or with permission from the instructor

Building on Beginning Latin, Intermediate Latin continues the study of Latin to some of the more advanced constructions. Students will gain an increased working vocabulary and be exposed to a greater variety of real Latin texts and their place in Roman culture more generally. On successful completion of Intermediate Latin, students will be able to read unadapted Latin texts with appropriate guidance and supporting materials, and they will be eligible to enroll for Advanced Latin and/ or a relevant linguistic 2 Unit Independent Study course.

Pre-requisite(s): YLL2201 Intermediate Latin or permission from the instructor

This course, for which Intermediate Latin or equivalent is a prerequisite, is designed to give students a familiarity with a fuller range of the more complex grammatical constructions in Latin, and to give them an opportunity to read in a more focused manner specific examples of unadapted ancient Latin texts .

The focus of study will be the poetry of Catullus (84-54 BC). Catullus is a young, rich and leisured gentleman at Rome who brings to his writings a full range of emotions from passionate love to intense anger; interacts with friends, lovers and statesmen, with varying degrees of success and sincerity; and indulges in sophisticated poetry with his ‘new age’ friends. Catullus provides (uncensored) exposure to the literary, social and cultural experience of late Republican Rome, and invites us to explore the conflicting demands placed upon young Romans of love, leisure, literature, and duty. In the process, students will become familiar with a range of ancient poetic genres and registers, including lyric, epigram, elegy and epyllion (‘mini epic’). A broad selection of poems will be studied, both in Latin and in English translation, including the mythological mini-epic of Peleus and Thetis/ Ariadne and Theseus (poem 64).

Pre-requisite(s): YLL2201 Intermediate Latin or permission from the instructor

This course, for which Intermediate Latin or equivalent is a prerequisite, is designed to give students a familiarity with a fuller range of the more complex grammatical constructions in Latin, and to give them an opportunity to read in a more focused manner specific examples of unadapted ancient Latin texts.The focus of study will be the mercurial figure of Catiline, the Roman aristocrat infamously implicated in conspiracies to overthrow the Republic between 65-63BC. This exploration is conducted via detailed analysis of a series of literary texts in the original Latin across a 40-year period, with particular attention paid to Cicero’s first speech against Catiline (In Catilinam 1), Sallust’s historiographical narrative in the Bellum Catilinae, and the image of Catiline on Aeneas’ shield in Virgil’s epic Aeneid. Students will be exposed to different literary genres that allow them to chart the development of ‘Catiline’ in the Roman elite imagination.

Pre-requisite(s): YLL2201 Intermediate Latin or permission from the instructor

This course, for which Intermediate Latin or equivalent is a prerequisite, is designed to give students a familiarity with a fuller range of the more complex grammatical constructions in Latin, and to give them an opportunity to read in a more focused manner specific examples of unadapted ancient Latin texts in the original.

The focus of study will be the Roman public baths: simultaneously visual showpieces of architectural and technological prowess, a sanitary haven for everyone in a disease-ridden city, and a meeting point for prostitutes, thieves and poisoners, as different classes of naked Romans engage in all manner of sordid encounters. This course offers an opportunity to explore the bewildering topic of the Roman public bathing experience through a series of prose texts studied in the original Latin. Selections come from architectural treatises, medicinal works, biography, and moralist letters, as well as the infamous bathhouse plot ridiculed by Cicero in his speech, Pro Caelio.

Pre-requisite(s): YLL2201 Intermediate Latin or permission from the instructor

This course offers an opportunity to explore, in the original Latin, Ovid’s grand, innovative and posthumously influential contribution to the epic genre, Metamorphoses. Through close reading of a selection of episodes, taken from Books 1-4 and 8, students will not only assess Ovid’s skill as dramatic and witty storyteller within individual stories; they will also explore wider issues pertaining to the epic as a whole, such as the poet’s creative use of earlier literature, the role of the gods, and the ways in which mythical characters and scenarios can be deployed to reflect the poet’s own status as exile.