Aims

By the end of the course, the student should be able to reconstruct the reading, translation, and commentary of a Classic Latin author covered during the course. The student should also be able to produce a similar assignment on a part of the author's work that has not been studied in class.

Main themes

The course programme changes every year, alternating between the reading of a poet or a prose writer from the Republican or Imperial period. Prepared by a rigorous translation exercise, the explication of the author focuses on several aspects: philological critique; linguistic facts and grammatical knowledge; biographical, historical, and cultural context of the work; documentary and human value of the message; initiation to the problems of literary critique applied to a Latin text; study of literary genres; exemplary value of a Latin text in the history of ideas or of literary aesthetics; versification and meter techniques; realia.

Content and teaching methods

The contents of the course changes each year; it deals alternately with a Latin poet or prose writer from the Classic period. The course is given in lectures that may address all the questions relevant to the advanced study of a Latin author from Antiquity. The student is asked to present a personal assignment reproducing the analysis techniques covered during the course on a part of the work studied individually; this assignment should be supported by an extensive bibliography. In 2004-2005, the Satires of Juvenal.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisites: To have taken one of the two Latin courses given in the general course "Ancient Languages" during the first semester.
Assessment: Final oral exam at the end of the semester. The exam deals with a question relevant to the subject matter covered during lectures and with the presentation of a personal assignment written and typed up in advance according to the precise guidelines given at the beginning of the course.
Course Material: The student is asked to acquire the editions of the texts specified in the first class. There are no course notes for this course.

Other credits in programs