Study Course Outlines

LATIN LITERATURE Ι


Teaching Staff: Evangelou Gabriel
Course Code: ΛΑΦ201
Course Type: Compulsory Elective
Course Level: Undergraduate
Course Language: Greek
Delivery method: Lectures
Semester: 4th
ECTS: 5
Short Description:

The primary goal of the course is the study of epistolography in ancient Rome through the study and analysis of the letters that Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote and received. Particular emphasis will be placed on the historical dimension of the time of writing of the letters and Cicero’s activities in the field of politics, as well as on the ways in which he took advantage of his rhetorical skills

Objectives - Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
• Understand the particular literary value of certain letters written by Cicero.
• Identify the persuasive methods used by both Cicero and other prominent Romans of the era in their letters. 
• Recognize Cicero’s contributions to the field of politics and the peculiarities of the Roman Republic. 
• Determine the reasons why both Cicero and later Roman politicians and writers were exiled, noting the impact of exile on themselves and their families. 
• Grasp the basic principles of Epicurean philosophy and explain Cicero’s fundamental disagreements with the Epicurean School and its followers. 
• Translate passages from Cicero’s letters that have been examined in the classroom into modern Greek.

Syllabus:

Week 1: Introduction to Cicero and the last decades (63-27 BCE) of the so-called Roman Republic (Respublica Romana).

Week 2: Introduction to the literary (and non-literary) genre of epistolography in ancient Greece and ancient Rome.

Week 3: Brief introduction to the circumstances under which Cicero was exiled from Rome. Examination of Cicero’s letter to his wife Terentia (Fam. 14.3) during his exile.

Week 4: Examination of Cicero’s letter to Terentia (Fam. 14.4) during his exile.

Week 5: Examination of Cicero’s letter to his brother, Quintus (QFr. 1.3), during his exile.

Week 6: Examination of Cicero’s letter to his close friend, Atticus (Att. 3.7), during his exile.

Week 7: Examination of Cicero’s letter to his friend, Atticus (Att. 4.1) after his return from exile.

Week 8: Examination of Cicero’s letter to his potential ally, Caesar (Fam. 7.5).

Week 9: Examination of Caesar’s letter to Cicero (Att. 9.6A).

Week 10: Examination of Cicero’s letter to his most important ally, Pompey (Fam. 5.7.1).

Week 11: Examination of the letter of consolation from Sulpicius Rufus to Cicero (Fam. 4.5).

Week 12: Examination of Cicero’s response to Sulpicius Rufus’ letter of consolation (Fam. 4.6).

Week 13: Examination of Cicero’s attitude toward Epicurean philosophy through his letters to Atticus (Att. 14.20, Att. 16.7).

Suggested Bibliography:

Clark, M. L. (2004), Το ρωμαϊκό πνεύμα, Μετάφραση Π. Δημητριάδου, Επιμέλεια Μ. Λ. Τρομάρας, Θεσσαλονίκη.

Kennedy, A. G. (2014), Ιστορία της Κλασικής Ρητορικής, Μετάφραση Γ. Ν. Νικολούδης, Επιμέλεια Χ. Μπαλτάς, Αθήνα.

 

Θεοδωρόπουλος, Τ. (2006), Με την ανάσα της Αθήνας και της Ρώμης, Αθήνα.

Τουρλίδης, Α. Γ. (1975), Η διαμόρφωσις της πολιτικής σκέψεως εν Ρώμη και ο Κικέρων, Αθήνα.

Φούγιας, Γ. Π. (2001), Κικέρων: ο Ελληνολάτρης φιλόσοφος ρήτορας, Αθήνα. 

Bellemore, J. (2008), “Cicero’s retreat from Rome in early 58 BC”, Antichthon 42, 100-120. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antichthon/article/abs/ciceros-retreat-from-rome-in-early-58-bc/DD14FCCB4D35607437AE3D60B9B6CEA2

Carcopino, J. (1951), Cicero: The Secrets of his Correspondence, 2 vols, tr. by E.O. Lorimer London.

Claassen, J. (1999), Displaced Persons: The Literature of Exile from Cicero to Boethius, London.

Grebe, S. (2003), “Marriage and exile: Cicero’s letters to Terentia”, Helios 30, 127-146.

Kelly, G.P. (2006), A History of Exile in the Roman Republic, Cambridge.

Tempest, K. (2011), Cicero: Politics and Persuasion in Ancient Rome, London & New York.

Wilcox, A. (2005), “Sympathetic rivals: consolation in Cicero’s letters”, American Journal of Philology 26, 237-255.

Teaching Methods:

Each class will take place in the form of both lectures and dialogues using the Herbartian approach and Socratic/maieutic methods. One week before each lecture, in addition to the texts under examination, tables with the basic vocabulary of the texts will be provided, allowing students to have their first contact with the texts and thus be better prepared for their interpretive and linguistic analysis.

At the end of each PowerPoint presentation, additional relevant bibliography will be provided for those who wish to delve deeper into a particular aspect of Cicero’s letters. To help students, word-for-word translations of the texts examined in the classroom will be provided in the PowerPoint files.

Starting from the second lesson and onwards, each lecture will commence with a recap in the form of questions to the students on the key points discussed in the previous lecture to reinforce the material covered.

Finally, the digital platform Padlet (https://padlet.com/) will be used, where students will have the opportunity to exchange opinions and notes on the letters discussed in the classroom.

New Technologies:

Throughout the course, extensive use of PowerPoint presentations with the instructor’s notes and audiovisual material will be made for the discussion of images and for displaying maps and videos related to the examined text. To achieve a better understanding of the vocabulary of the texts studied in the classroom, online sources will be utilized, which provide information regarding the translation and declension of terms within a sentence.

Online sources:

Online access to Latin texts: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/

Online access to Latin texts (with translations of ancient works into English): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/

Online dictionaries (with translations of Latin words into English): •http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=amo&la=la#lexiconhttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amo#Latin

Abbreviations of scientific journals as well as of ancient authors and their works: Hornblower, S. & Spawforth, A. (2003)4, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th Edition, Oxford. https://oxfordre.com/classics/page/3993

Additionally, email exchange will be used to communicate with students outside of the instructor’s office hours.

Evaluation Methods:

Written or oral examination.
Optionally, students will have the opportunity to present a paper on a letter from/to Cicero that has not been examined in class and to analyse it. The optional assignment will be added to the final grade of the course.


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