Course Syllabus
Course Description and Objectives
In this course we shall read major works of literature from ancient Rome and her empire. We begin in the late Roman Republic with Catullus and Cicero; passing on to the Roman empire with the Augustan poets Horace, Vergil, and Ovid; and following those with the imperial biographer Suetonius and the Stoic philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. We shall read these works in their cultural context, considering their place in an evolving, multi-cultural and multi-lingual empire. While most of the works were originally written in Latin, it is neither accidental nor insignificant that the last work, Marcus Aurelius' meditations, was written in Greek by a Roman emperor: Rome was never a monolithic culture.
Your main task at home will be reading the ancient texts: there will be extensive reading, around two hours' worth per class. Together we shall discuss those texts and work toward placing them in their cultural and historical contexts. In class we shall move beyond the literature to consider other primary sources as well, such as inscriptions, coins, sculpture, vase paintings, and archaeological remains. There will also be discussion assignments and quizzes.
General University Requirement Credit
Classical Studies 370 provides you with five of the twelve necessary General University RequirementLinks to an external site. (GUR) credits in Humanities (HUM). The University requires the followings statement be printed on the syllabus:
Whenever you tell a story, see a film or a work of art, or ponder an ethical question, you are encountering the humanities. The humanities include academic disciplines that use critical, historical, and aesthetic approaches to explore how people experience and document their lives, examine and question the values of their societies, and creatively engage with their world. Currently, our courses in the humanities address the languages, literatures, fine arts, history, philosophies, and religions of Western cultural traditions.)
Of the "clusters" involved in the HUM GUR, this course most directly addresses society, culture, and history, which the University describes thus:
Courses in this cluster focus on the foundational knowledge and aesthetic, theoretical, and methodological approaches for studying the diversity of human experience.
On Keeping an Open Mind
While ancient Rome in one sense lies at the root of modern Western civilizations, it also differed from modern cultures in many ways. Likewise, within ancient Rome and her empire, many diverse traditions offered competing views on social and cultural issues, just as the modern world enjoys a diversity of perspectives. Some of the readings that you encounter in this class will seem very alien or even counterintuitive, and some shockingly so. The Roman poetic tradition, especially Catullus and Ovid, sets out to violate Roman social norms of sexuality and masculinity; Catullus and Ovid were obscene and shocking even in their own day, but they also had a lasting impact on literature that remains important to study. Catullus threatens sexual violence against other men; Ovid writes about physical abuse and rape of women. The biographical tradition too, embodied in Suetonius, seeks to shock audiences into negative receptions of some of its subjects: Suetonius' portrayal of Roman emperors includes pretty much every form of depravity imaginable. Keep in mind that literature does not always represent the noms of society and often deliberately challenges them, desiring to shock and offend.
This is not children's or "young adult" literature.
Instructor
- Office
- Miller Hall 122D
- Office Hours
-
- Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
- 10:00–11:00 AM
- Tuesdays and Thursdays
- 2:00–2:30 PM
- miller.krause@wwu.edu
- Office Phone
- (360) 650-4269 (email is better)
Teaching Assistant
Nico (Ἑλληνιστί· Νικώ; Latīnē: Victōria) Lee
- lee25@wwu.edu
Class Time and Location
This lecture meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00 to 5:10 PM in Fraser Hall 101 (the room downstairs, confusingly marked with a large green "2" on the wall of the main hallway). Lectures begin Thursday, September 26, and continue through Thursday, December 6. We do not meet on Thursday, November 28, which is Thanksgiving. You will take final examination on Canvas, so there is no need to meet during exam week.
Textbooks
I have asked the bookstore to make available the following:
- Ahl, F. 2008. Virgil: Æneid. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199231959. $14.
- Edwards, C. 2009. Suetonius: Lives of the Cæsars. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199537563. $11.
- Hays, G. 2003. Marcus Aurelius: Meditations. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 9780812968255. $12
- Lee, G. 2009. Catullus: The Complete Poems. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199537570. $12.
- Rudd, N. 2009. Cicero: The Republic and the Laws. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199540112. $11.
Those are the prices the bookstore projected in August. You are, however, free to use any translation you like, and you can find free translations of any of these authors online. The online translations tend to be older and written in forms of English that many students find difficult—the translations I've asked the bookstore to make available are more recent and easier to read.
Academic Integrity
Explore the University's site for Academic Honesty for more on the University's philosophy and regulations.
Grading
Grading Scale
Course Requirements
Reading
This is a literature course, and you will need to read the literature before class. The lecture will only make sense if you have read the literature before class, and the lecture should in turn make the reading clearer. Where readings are of unequal length, I've tried to make sure that the longer readings are due on Tuesday and the shorter on Thursday, so that you have the weekend to deal with the longer readings.
Attendance (10%)
You should come to the lectures. I realize, however, that sometimes Things Happen, so you have two free absences that Canvas will automagically excuse. After that, your absences need to be documented with a doctor's note or some other valid excuse to avoid losing points.
At the beginning of each class, you'll pick up a small slip of paper with a question on it. Usually this will ask you to write down what you find most interesting, most important, or most difficult to understand in the day's class: the point of these papers is to give me instant, daily feedback to help me improve future lectures. They also serve as a way of taking attendance.
Athletes and anyone planning on missing class for athletics, university-sponsored events, military duty, or religious holidays should inform me of absences in advance. That lets me excuse absences and add time to Canvas assignments for those students in advance. Within the first two weeks of class, give me a letter listing the games/matches/meets, events, military service, or holidays requiring absences for the quarter, so that I can plan ahead to help you stay on track. I like planning ahead.
Discussion Assignments (30%)
You will have five discussion assignments, most keyed to specific authors and tied to ancient rhetorical educational practices. In each discussion, you'll write a brief amount (fewer than 300 words, please) and post it to your discussion group, a small, randomly selected sample of the class (drawn from both sections). Others will be doing the same. They'll comment on your assignment, and you should comment on at least two other people's assignments. Remember that in any conversation other people might express opinions that are different from yours, and that's okay: you should remain polite even when someone says something that seems mind-numbingly stupid to you.
Quizzes (30%)
Almost every week, you will have a quiz, available on Canvas. Each quiz has ten questions and a time limit of ten minutes. You get only one chance at each quiz, so make sure that you've done the reading and reviewed your lecture notes before you take the quiz. Watch the due dates and deadlines: quizzes become available on Thursday immediately after class and are due Friday. If, by chance, some terrible disaster or the wrath of the gods keeps you from being able to take the quiz by then, it will remain open for another day after that. After Saturday, however, Canvas will close down the quiz forever.
The quizzes are not open-notes: the time limit will prevent you from looking up answers. You should only take the quiz when you are sure that you are familiar with the reading and the discussion in class.
The best way to study for quizzes is with another person from class. Find a study partner or group. Other people can tell you when you are wrong and tell you what is right, and this will save you pain when you take the quiz. The single best thing you can do at the beginning of the course to help yourself is to find other students with whom to study. Reading, taking notes, reviewing written things, making charts and graphs—those are all good, but nothing compares to having a study partner or group.
Final Examination (30%)
The final examination will be on Canvas, not in class, so you will be able to pick a time and place convenient to you to take the midterm. The final examination will have fifty questions and a time limit of one hour.
Help
If you have questions about how to use Canvas, first read the Canvas Guides for Students. If you still need help after that, contact the ATUS Help Desk at atus.wwu.edu/help-desk or helpdesk@wwu.edu or (360) 650-3333. I have gathered other resources on the Help page.
For other questions, e-mail me at miller.krause@wwu.edu or stop by my office during office hours.
Weekly Schedule
Below (or, on the Canvas mobile app, on a separate tab at the top of this page) you will find a schedule of all exams, quizzes, assignments, readings, lectures, and the film. You may find the Modules page easier to navigate, but the schedule below is strictly chronological.
Boilerplate: This syllabus is subject to change. Changes, if any, will be announced in class. Students will be held responsible for all changes.
Reality: The Plan™ was carefully conceived. There will be no changes except under extraordinary circumstances (i.e. if snow cancels classes).
Canvas provides feeds to which you can subscribe, to keep all your course info in your favorite calendar program like Apple's Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. For details, see the Canvas Guide on subscribing to the Calendar Feed. Or, you can download the .ics file for this class alone to subscribe to its calendar separately from your other courses.
Course Summary:
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