Latin

Assessment

Our current topics are: • Prose Literature Cicero Pro Caelio: 56 BC – In Cicero’s landmark defence of his friend’s son from an accusation of murder he takes ruthless aim at an important witness, Clodia (possibly the inspiration for Catullus’ Lesbia). Tacitus Annals XIV: 59 AD – Tacitus describes the plots of an increasingly unhinged Nero against his mother, Agrippina. • Verse Literature Juvenal: Satires VI – In advising his friend Postumus against marriage, Juvenal rages against the lapsed morality of Rome. Virgil Aeneid II: Aeneas describes the fall of Troy to Dido, Queen of Carthage. Language lessons will focus on building your confidence in tackling a wide range of Roman authors, reading both prose and poetry; these will also constitute a broad survey of Roman literature, taking in history, rhetoric, lyric and elegiac poetry. You will also be encouraged to translate from English into Latin to grasp more firmly the mechanics of the language (though this is never compulsory in the final examinations). There is no coursework element