Unit information: Latin Language Level D2 in 2018/19

Unit name	Latin Language Level D2
Unit code	CLAS32343
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Laura Jansen
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	CLAS22408 or equivalent
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Classics & Ancient History
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

For the Romans, verse satire, especially in the works of Lucilius, Horace and Juvenal, was the quintessentially Roman genre, with no counterpart in Greek. Associated with personal attack and diatribes on the state of society, it also focuses on the self-styled outsider’s attempts to gain an entrée into Roman society. But satire is not the only genre that adopts aggression as its posture: the epigrams of Catullus and Martial also project themselves as examples of ‘Roman straight-talking’, whilst the Epodes of Horace self-consciously look back to the ‘iambic’ poetry of the Greek Archilochus. In this unit, we will read some central texts of this ‘poetry of aggression’ and explore what the Romans thought they were doing with it. How do the different genres characterize their aggression? Is this poetry a serious critique of society and its most prominent figures, or a source of lurid entertainment? Does its character change as Republic phases into Empire?

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit successful students will be able to demonstrate:

1. developed skills in reading, translating and interpreting a Greek/Latin text and in evaluating translations of it;
2. close familiarity with current debates about the texts studied, and their historical and cultural significance;
3. skills in constructing coherent, relevant and sophisticated critical arguments, and in relating their readings of the texts to wider theoretical issues, as appropriate to level H;
4. developed and enhanced skills in oral and written communication by contributing to discussion in seminars, presenting short papers, and producing an essay and a written examination to a standard appropriate to level H.

Teaching Information

3 hours of seminars per week

Assessment Information

• 1 essay of 3000 words (50%),

• 1 two hour examination (50%).

Both will assess ILOs 1-4.

Reading and References

Set Texts:
- Selections from Lucilius, Catullus, Martial and the letters of the Younger Pliny (to be circulated by Dr Jansen)
- Horace Epodes 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 (ed. David Mankin, Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics, 1995)
- Horace Satires 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9 (ed. P.M.Brown, Aris & Phillips, 1993)
- Juvenal Satires 1, 2, 3 (ed. Susanna Morton Braund, Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics, 1996)

Secondary bibliography:
- Amy Richlin, The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humour (New Haven and London, 1983)
- Kirk Freudenburg, The Cambridge Companion to Roman Satire (Cambridge, 2005)
-Paul Allen Miller, Latin Verse Satire: An Anthology and Reader (London & New York, 2005)