2009 Fall LATIN 63-01
Bulletin Course Description Politics and thought in the late Republic: Caesar and Cicero. Instructor: Boatwright or staff
(Instructor named in bulletin description above may not be current. For current instructor, see listing below.)
Title INTERMEDIATE LATIN Department LATIN Course Number 2009 Fall 63 Section Number 01 Primary Instructor Crews,Rex Bailey Prerequisites
Synopsis of course content
The course is to teach students how to read Latin with enjoyment and comprehension. After a week and a half of grammar review we turn to Latin texts. Our major text is furnished by parts of Books I & III of Caesar's autobiographical Bellum Civile, in which he describes the war he fought against Pompey. Once students feel very comfortable with Caesar's Latin, we read some other authors' descriptions and evaluations of the same events (Suetonius, Cicero, and Pliny the Elder). Class work consists of student translations of assigned passages, and class discussion of syntax and meaning.
Grammar and historical background lectures are regularly given. Vocabulary lists and other help for translation will be found in the coursepack.
Textbooks
Caesar, Bellum Civile (Finn and Groten textbook)
Coursepack, including selections from Suetonius, Cicero, and Pliny the Elder.
Recommended: a Latin-English dictionary, a Latin grammar, and a translation of Caesar's Commentaries on the Civil War.
Assignments
We'll begin with about 1/3 page of Latin per assignment, and then build up to at least 1 1/2 pp. All the students will have to read Caesar's *Bellum Civile* in English translation.
Exams
Four 10-minute grammar identification quizzes in the first week and a half; five bi-weekly translation quizzes, 20 min. each, for the rest of the term; five-minute vocabulary quizzes on Mondays. A final exam on translation and syntax, with a brief essay question on the historical context.
Term Papers
None.
Grade to be based on
Short grammar quizzes, together = 10%; each longer
translation quiz, 10%; all the vocabulary quizzes,
together = 10%, final exam 10%, class participation,
20%.
