00567 - Latin Literature

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to present authors and genres of the literature of Rome in their historical development and the basic tools for interpreting Latin texts and documents.
The following knowledge and skills will be requested:
1. knowledge of the literary history, which includes the ability to outline profiles of the main genres, authors (listed in the programme) and their works and set them in their historical and literary environment;
2. the ability to translate the texts in Latin listed in the programme;
3. knowledge of phonetics, morphology and basic syntax, as appearing in the mentioned texts;
4. the ablity of carrying out a literary analysis of the studied texts (both in Latin and in Italian).

Course contents

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE
Troy's end and the spes ... fidissima Teucrum:  lectures from Vergil, Aeneid, II and Seneca, Troades. 

II. CORE COURSE
Latin Language (syntax); Latin Literature (history of Latin literature), Textual Criticism, Metres (elegiac couplet).

III. AUTHORS
Cicero: Philippic IV.
Ovid: Heroides VII, Dido to Aeneas.
Sallustius: Catiline's conspiracy (1-16; 20-22; 25; 37-38; 54; 59-61)
Vergil: Aeneid, Book II (the whole book, see special focus course)

IV. CRITICAL ESSAYS (see. Bibliography)

SEMINARS (hosted by the Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Medioevala, 32 Zamboni Street, 3rd floor)
Authors
1. Lectures from Cicero: A. Castelli [ven. 13-14, Aula XII] dal 9.10.2009.
2. Lectures from Ovid (with metrical explanation): A. Ziosi.[giov. 16-18, Aula XII].
3. Lectures from Sallustius: M. Maraldi [lun. 13-14, Aula XII], dal 5.10.2009.

Latin Language: the students of the course of Letteratura latin can also attend the seminars of the course of Lingua latina:
1. Beginners  – first semester: R. D'Alfonso [wedn. 15-17, Aula XII]; or B. Nanni [mon. 14-15 thurs. 14-16, Aula mansarda]
2. Intermediate 1st level (morphology and elementary syntax) – first semester: A. Bertocchi [mon. 14-15 Aula XII or thurs. 12-13 Aula mansarda]; second semester: A. Bertocchi [thurs. 13-14 Aula seminari]
3. Intermediate 2nd level (translation and syntax) – first semester: A. Castellii [thurs. 12-13, Aula XII], or C. Pavone [wednes. 11-12, Aula seminari]; second semester: A. Castellii [fry. 11-13 Aula seminari] or C. Pavone [wednes. 11-12 Aula seminari]

Readings/Bibliography

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE
Texts:  Vergil: Eneide, introduzione di A. La Penna, traduzione e note di R. Scarcia, Milano, Rizzoli BUR 2002, or Virgilio, Eneide, traduzione di M. Ramous, introduzione di G.B. Conte, commento di G. Baldon, Venezia, Marsilio, 1998. Seneca:  Le Troiane, introduzione, traduzione e note di F. Stok, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 1999.
Readings: almost three of the following essays: G.B. Conte, Il paradosso virgiliano: un'epica drammatica e sentimentale, in Virgilio. L'epica del sentimento, Torino, Einaudi, 2007 (also published as  introduction to the Marsilio ed. of Vergil's Aeneid); D.Fowler - A. Barchiesi, Virgilian narative, in The Cambridge Companion to Virgil, edited by C. Martindale, Oxford 1997, pp. 259-281; J. O'Hara, Virgil's style, in The Cambridge Companion to Virgil, edited by C. Martindale, Oxford 1997, pp. 241-258; A. La Penna, Il potere, il destino, gli eroi, introduction to the BUR edition of Vergil's Aeneid; A. Perutelli, L'Eneide di Virgilio, in La poesia epica latina. Dalle origini all'età dei Flavi, Roma, Carocci, 2000, pp. 83-114; A. Salvatore, Lettura del II Libro dell'Eneide, in Lecturae Vergilianae a c. di M. Gigante, vol. III, L'Eneide, Napoli, Giannini, 1983, pp. 33-97; A. Traina, Pietas, in Enciclopedia Virgiliana, Roma, IEI, 1988, vol. IV, pp. 93-101.

II. CORE COURSE
Language: I. Dionigi - E. Riganti - L. Morisi, Verba et res. Morfosintassi e lessico del latino, 2 voll., Bari, Laterza 1997 is recommended. As for the syntax: A. Traina, Sintassi normativa della lingua latina, Bologna, Cappelli, 1993. See also A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapt. II-VI.
Literature: G.B. Conte, Letteratura latina. Manuale storico dalle origini alla fine dell'impero romano, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2002, or M. Citroni, Letteratura di Roma antica, Bari, Laterza, 1997 or V. Citti - C. Casali - C.Neri, Gli autori nella letteratura latina. Disegno storico. Dalle origini alla tarda latinità, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2005.
Textual criticsm and Latin metres: A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapt. VII-VIII.

III. AUTHORS
Cicero: Le Filippiche, a cura di B. Mosca, contributi di C. Borgia, Milano, Mondadori, Meridiani-I Classici Collezione, 2007.
Ovid: Lettere di eroine, introduzione, traduzione e note di G. Rosati, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 1998.
Sallustius: La Congiura di Catilina, prefazione, traduzione e note a cura di L. Storoni Mazzolani, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2000.

Teaching methods

Lectures in class;
Seminars (where individual research will be discussed and essays and tests corrected).

Assessment methods

In a viva voce examination the students will be tested Latin phonetics, morphology, syntax and literature through the reading and translation of the Latin texts dealt with in class and listed in the programme.

Teaching tools

1. Online teaching materials: (see webpage above); handouts with the same content will be distributed in class
2. Seminars (cf. course content) devoted to the introduction to the bases of the Latin language (phonetics, morphology and syntax)

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Citti