The course introduces and investigates Latin inscriptions as evidence for the Latin language and Roman political, religious, legal, social and economic history.
This class will involve the study of Latin scripts from Antiquity through the Middle Ages with a view to providing students with the practical skills necessary for reading unpublished Latin texts prior to the Renaissance. The class will allow students to become conversant with the various types of Latin script as well as practice the accurate transcription of Latin texts. A field trip to libraries in Toronto for hands-on experience with primary material will be organized as part of the class.
LAT 633Greek and Roman Identities in the Lyric Poetry of Horace0.50 units
This course investigates the representation of Greek (and other) culture in the Odes of Horace. We shall examine how the Roman perception of earlier and contemporary Greek cultural values is manipulated in Horace's poetry in order to articulate the nature of his lyric poetry, as well as social, political, and aesthetic values. By careful consideration of a wide range of poems, and by comparing them to the Greek models of Pindar, Sappho, Alcaeus, and Archilochus, we shall determine Horace's representation of the unique as well as derivative characteristic of Augustan society and literature.
Tacitus Annals I-VI provide a fascinating insight into how the most famous of Latin historians viewed the early years of the Roman Empire. On the way, Tacitus' descriptions of members of the imperial family, Roman commanders, barbarian chieftains, eastern kings, and even the self-serving Senate are drawn with firm strokes and a superbly concentrated economy.