Autumn

Students undertake a review of the fundamentals of Attic Greek in the context of developing their reading proficiency. A general ability to recognize common Greek case uses and regular constructions, as well as a strong basis in Attic Greek vocabulary is assumed. Students continue to increase their reading proficiency by engaging with longer, more complex, and more interesting selections of authentic Greek, including Xenophon and Plato. Through these readings, students explore a range of authors and genres, who touch upon various aspects of the ancient Greek world, including the history of the language, the societies, cultures, politics, and religious practices of its people.

Successful completion of this course will prepare students for intermediate Greek courses (GREK 20200-20300). This course is appropriate for students who have earned an appropriate language placement or by permission of the instructor.

Immerse yourself in the prose written by various authors from ancient Greece and the subsequent Hellenic tradition. Readings this quarter involve increasingly longer selections of Greek prose (e.g. Plato, Xenephon), with an aim to review grammar and improve reading proficiency. Discussion in class will focus on the literary, historical, and cultural contexts necessary to appreciate the authors and texts. In addition to review, more advanced grammar will occasionally be introduced and vocabulary will be surveyed as necessary. 

Introduction to Attic Greek introduces students to the fundamentals of the ancient Greek language through which students may access the works of Homer, Sappho, Plato, Thucydides, and Sophocles (among countless others). This course represents the first step. Course work involves the reading and writing of Attic Greek, alongside the development of vocabulary and the formal study of grammar. Students encounter authentic texts throughout the course. Successful completion of this course will prepare students for GREK 102. 

Students undertake a review of the fundamentals of classical Latin in the context of developing their reading proficiency. A general ability to recognize common Latin – case uses and regular constructions – as well as a strong basis in Latin vocabulary is assumed. Students continue to increase their reading proficiency by engaging longer, more complex, and more interesting selections of authentic Latin. Through these readings, students explore a range of authors and genres, who touch upon various aspects of the Roman world, not only the history of the city, but also the society, culture, politics, and religion of its people.

Successful completion of this course will prepare students for intermediate Latin courses (LATN 20200-20300). 

Accelerated Introduction to Classical Latin introduces students to the fundamentals of classical Latin through a sequence of two courses. By the end of this first course, students will have encountered nearly all the most commonly used Latin grammar and a large collection of Latin vocabulary. They will also develop their reading proficiency by engaging longer, more complex, and more interesting sentences and passages of Latin, including selections from authentic texts. Through these readings, students will touch upon various aspects of the Roman world, engaging not only with the history of the city, but also with the society, culture, politics, and religion of its people. Successful completion of this course will prepare students for LATN 112. 

Immerse yourself in the Latin prose and poetry written by various authors from ancient Rome through the long tradition and reception of Latin literature. Readings this quarter involve increasingly longer selections of Roman prose and poetry (e.g. Cicero, Catullus), with an aim to review grammar and improve reading proficiency. Discussion in class will focus on the literary, historical, and cultural contexts necessary to appreciate the authors and texts. In addition to review, more advanced grammar will occasionally be introduced and vocabulary will be surveyed as necessary. 

Introduction to Classical Latin introduces students to the fundamentals of the Latin language through which students may access the works of Vergil, Horace, Cicero, Tacitus, and Ovid (among countless others). This course represents the first step. Course work involves the reading and writing of Latin, alongside the development of vocabulary and the formal study of grammar. Students encounter authentic texts throughout the course. Successful completion of this course will prepare students for LATN 102. 

The figure of the outlaw looms large in the political and literary imaginations of the Roman and American empires. But what is an outlaw? What does it mean for the law that some people are outside of it? What, if anything, makes violence within the law different from violence without it? How does the rhetoric of legality and criminality implicate ideas of gender and ethnicity? We will explore these questions (among others) using methods from ancient history, literary criticism, and political theory, as we range from historical scholarship and ancient novels to modern films and musical albums. All readings will be in English. No prior training in Roman history required.

This graduate seminar serves as an introductory survey of the range of evidentiary categories, methods, and main interpretive frameworks used by practitioners in the field of ancient historical studies. We will chart the development of historiographical ideas and techniques of analysis of texts and material culture, as well as discuss some of the critical approaches to ancient history in practice today. Key topics will include frameworks like positivism, determinism, and (post)structuralism; dating, periodization, and scale; culture history; economic history; cliometrics and big data analyses; social history and studies of gender and the everyday; eurocentrism and postcolonialism; and methods drawn from e.g. epigraphy, papyrology, archaeology, and art history. Assignments will center on the crafting of original research projects and the practice of historiographical writing. The course focuses on the ancient Mediterranean but is open to MA and PHD students from any field.

Lucian of Samosata (b. approx. AD 120), like many authors of the New Testament, wrote in Greek but was born and grew up in an Aramaic speaking community. His idiosyncratic literary output comprises around 70 prose pieces which reflect a engaging synthesis of comedy, satire, popular philosophy, and theological musing. Many of his works present a savvy commentary on his cultural and religious environment, and especially enjoyable is his mirthful abandon in identifying religious quackery and the victims of it. As one of the most important and prolific pagan authors of the early centuries AD, Lucian's works form an important background to the early Christian movement, both in his direct references to Christians (in the Peregrinus and Alexander) and in his sensitive description of the vast religious amalgam in which early Christianity grew.

The class will focus on daily close reading and analysis of Lucian's Greek and discussion of his ideas. We will read the first 20 or so of the Dialogues of the Gods, Lover of Lies, Alexander the False Prophet, and the Death of Perigrinus. These works represent a sampling of genres in which Lucian is at his best: mythic paraphrase and parody and religious and social satire.