00567 - Latin Literature (A-C)

Academic Year 2024/2025

  • Moduli: Francesco Citti (Modulo 1) Antonio Ziosi (Modulo 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Humanities (cod. 8850)

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to present authors and genres of the literature of Rome in their historical development and to provide the basic tools (phonetics, morphology, syntax, prosody and textual criticism) for interpreting Latin texts and documents. Upon successful completion of the course students will be able to competently demonstrate: 1. knowledge of Roman literature (main genres, authors and works set in their historical and literary context); 2. knowledge of Latin language (phonetics, morphology, syntax), of Latin prosody and of the basic concepts of textual criticism as appearing in the mentioned texts; 3. capacity to translate the Latin texts listed in the programme; 4. capacity to carry out a literary and linguistic analysis of the listed in the programme.

Course contents

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE (lectures in class)

The course presents an introduction to Latin literature and its literary genres through a selection of texts dealing with the theme of the Underworld and Afterlife.
module I (F. Citti): readings from Horace's Odes and Seneca's De otio.
module II (A. Ziosi): readings from Virgil's Eclogues and Ovid's Tristia.

A detailed list of the passages, whose translation (from Latin) will be required during the final examination, will be specified in the online teaching materials.

II. HISTORY OF LATIN LITERATURE
The notions on genres and authors, presented during the lectures, should be integrated by a general historical framework. In particular, the knowledge of the literary history regarding the following authors is required: Augustine, Apuleius, Catullus, Caesar, Cicero, Ennius, Juvenal, Hieronymus, Livius Andronicus, Livy, Lucan, Lucilius, Lucretius, Martial, Naevius, Horace, Ovid, Petronius, Plautus, Pliny the Elder, Propertius, Quintilian, Sallust, Seneca, Statius, Suetonius, Tacitus, Terence, Tibullus, Virgil.

III. LATIN LANGUAGE AND SYNTAX, TEXTUAL CRITICISM, METRE
In addition to the notions presented during the lectures, the seminars and in the online tools, students are required to have a good knowledge of the Latin grammar (morphology and syntax), of elements of textual criticism and Latin metre (hexameter and elegiac couplet).

IV. AUTHORS
1. Cicero: Pro Archia.
2. Virgil: Aeneid, Book 4.
Both are to be studied and analysed in their entirety; Aeneid 4 must be read in metre, with scansion.

V. UNSEEN TRANSLATION
The examination also includes an oral translation of a short sentence, from an unfamiliar text (not listed in the syllabus), from Latin into Italian.

TIMETABLE: Monday, 11-13 (Aula 3, via del Guasto); Thursday 11-13 (Aula 3, via del Guasto); Friday 11-13 (Aula 1, via del Guasto). Lectures will start on Monday 16th September 2024.

SEMINARS: online seminars (on MS Teams) devoted to the authors (Cicero, Virgil and the hexameter) will be available for students (time t.b.c.).

STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND THE LECTURES are required to replace the texts analysed in the special focus course with the study of Virgil, Aeneid 6, and Seneca, The brevity of Life. Recommended editions: A. Albertini (Eneide, libro 6, Roma, Ed. Alighieri, 2005) and A. Traina (La brevità della vita, Bologna, BUP, 2017). All the other parts of the programme (essays, literarary history, grammar, translation) remain unaltered.

Readings/Bibliography

I. SPECIAL FOCUS COURSE
Texts: The Latin texts will be uploaded online, in the ‘Teaching materials’.

Critical essays:
• G. B. Conte-A. Barchiesi, Imitazione e arte allusiva, in Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica, I, La produzione del testo, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 1989, 81-114.

At least 1 essay from the following list:
• A. Traina, Introduzione a Orazio lirico: la poesia della saggezza, rist. in Id., Poeti latini (e neolatini). V, Bologna, Pàtron, 1998, 133-68.
• A. Traina, Lo stile “drammatico” del filosofo Seneca, Bologna, Pàtron 19954 (e successive ristampe), 9-41.
• A. Traina, La chiusa della prima egloga virgiliana (vv. 82-83) (in Appendice: La struttura della IX egloga), rist. in Id., Poeti latini (e neolatini), I, 175-195.
• G. Rosati, L'addio dell'esule morituro (Trist. 1.3): Ovidio come Protesilao, in Ovid. Werk und Wirkung, II, Bern-Frankfurt 1999, 787-796.
• R. Degl’Innocenti Pierini, Quantum mutatus ab illo… : riscritture virgiliane di Ovidio esule, Dictynna, 4, 2007: https://journals.openedition.org/dictynna/153?lang=en#bodyftn44

NB: Please note that the reading of the critical essays is compulsory also for the students who do not attend the lectures.

II. HISTORY OF LATIN LITERATURE
G.B. Conte, Letteratura latina. Manuale storico dalle origini alla fine dell'impero romano, Firenze: Le Monnier, 2002 [in English: G.B. Conte, Latin Literature: A History, Baltimore, The John Hopkins UP, 1994].

III. LANGUAGE, TEXTUAL CRITICISM, METRE
Language: I. Dionigi, E. Riganti, L. Morisi, Il latino, Bari, Laterza 2011 is recommended. For Latin syntax: A. Traina, Sintassi normativa della lingua latina, Bologna: Pàtron, 2015. As an alternative, Allen and Greenough's New Latin grammar, Ginn & Company, Boston-NY-Chicago, 1903 (both for syntax and morphology). For specific problems of phonetics, morphology and syntax: A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapt. II-VI.

Textual criticism and Latin metre: A. Traina, G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007, chapt. VII-VIII.

IV. AUTHORS
Cicero: Il poeta Archia, a cura di E. Narducci, traduzione di G. Bertonati, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2000.
Virgil: Eneide, IV, from Eneide, introduzione di A. La Penna, traduzione e note di R. Scarcia, Milano, Rizzoli BUR, 2002; or Virgilio, Eneide, traduzione di M. Ramous, introduzione di G.B. Conte, commento di G. Baldo, Venezia, Marsilio, 1998.

Teaching methods

Lectures in class, complemented by seminars (where students will interact with the teachers; individual research will be discussed and essays and tests corrected).

Assessment methods

In the viva voce examination, the students will be tested on Latin phonetics, morphology, syntax and literature through the reading and translation of the Latin texts analysed in class and listed in the programme.
The ability to translate a short sentence from an unfamiliar text (without vocabulary, with the help of the teacher for non-basic vocabulary) will also be assessed.

Please note that, as far as the viva voce examination is concerned, the course can be divided into two parts: the core course, i.e. parts II, III and IV (to be completed first), and the focus course (part I and V). Two examining sessions at most are allowed between the taking of these two parts.

The assessment criteria are thus explained:
failing grades: lack of basic linguistic knowledge and inability to produce a correct translation and interpretation of the text. Lack of knowledge of Latin literature
passing grades: language proficiency at an intermediate level; translation and literary interpretation of the texts are mostly correct, but inaccurate and lacking in autonomy
excellent grades: language proficiency at an upper-mid level; translation and interpretation of the texts are not only correct, but carried out with autonomy and precision. Good knowledge of Latin prosody and metre.

The evaluation of oral translation from unfamiliar text (syllabus item V) will affect the overall oral grade according to a range from a maximum reward of 2 points (autonomous recognition of vocabulary and constructs, full understanding of the text, production of a translation in correct Italian) to a maximum penalty of 2 points (inability to analyse the text and failure to understand it).

Teaching tools

Lectures are complemented by seminars on different aspects of Latin Literature (please see the course programme). Teaching materials will uploaded online (including a video tutorial dedicated to Latin hexameter).

Office hours

See the website of Antonio Ziosi

See the website of Francesco Citti