Courses in Classical Civilization

This course is a survey of masterpieces of Greek literature set in historical context, from the Trojan War through the Hellenistic period. Readings will include Homer?s Iliad and Odyssey, the poetry of Sappho, plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, and works by other authors. Particularly appropriate for first-year students, but available to all students, the course is a foundation for the classics major and minor. No prerequisite; no enrollment limit. Ordinarily offered every other year.

This course is an introduction to some of the great works of Latin literature. Texts will range from the comedies of Plautus, to the histories of Livy, Caesar, and Tacitus, to the speeches of Cicero, to the poetry of Catullus, Horace, Ovid, and of course, Virgil. Through our reading, we will work toward a better understanding of the texts themselves, the people and the culture that produced them, and the meaning and sometimes shocking relevance they hold for us today. We will discuss the themes within these works that are still important in our own society: How can war be justified? Why doesn?t (s)he love me? What happens when we die? There?s a reason that these texts are called ?classics?: they have stood the test of time because they are, indeed, timeless. They raise issues and emotions that are relevant and provocative for every age and every person who reads them. Hence they do what all good literature does: they force us not only to think about the culture that produced them but also to think about ourselves. No prerequisite.

Training in rhetoric?the art of public speaking?was a cornerstone of education in antiquity. The techniques developed in Greece and Rome for composing and analyzing speeches remain invaluable today, but the formal study of these techniques has all but disappeared from undergraduate curricula. This course seeks to fight this trend. In the opening weeks, we will read ancient handbooks on rhetoric, which anatomize the strategies and tropes available to the public speaker, and will engage in classroom exercises in speechmaking developed millennia ago. We will then examine the crucial role that rhetoric played in three venues: the assembly of democratic Athens, the criminal courts of republican Rome, and the cathedrals of Christian bishops in late antiquity. We will read and analyze extant speeches delivered in these three venues, by figures such as Pericles, Cicero, and John Chrysostom, as well as comparable speeches delivered by more contemporary figures such as Churchill, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr. It is hoped that the academic study of ancient rhetoric will aid students in developing their own skills as public speakers. No prerequisites.

This course may be taken either to supplement the work of another course in the department or to pursue a special course of reading not otherwise provided. Prerequisites: permission of instructor and department chair.

This capstone course is required for senior majors and senior minors in classics. Junior majors and minors may also take the course. Other juniors and seniors with a background in classics may also take the course by permission. The goals of the course are to synthesize an overview of some important aspects of the ancient world and to develop further the skills of research, analysis, and oral and written communication that are fundamental to scholarship and teaching. Each student will prepare a research paper on some aspect of classical antiquity. The student will write the paper in multiple drafts under the direction of a classics faculty advisor and the instructor of the course. She or he will also present the ongoing project to the class in order to benefit from its suggestions. The final selection of the paper topic and a prospectus of the project will be due in the second week of class; it is therefore essential that during the preceding spring semester students intending to take the course think carefully about their choice of topic and, in consultation with the instructor, approach an appropriate advisor on the classics faculty. The class will read background material for all the papers, as well as scholarship on several other topics of interest. Faculty in the classics department and allied disciplines will present guest lectures.

This course offers independent study for senior candidates for honors. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

This course offers independent study for senior candidates for honors. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.