Classical Studies Home  Classics Faculty News and Events Spring 2005 Classes Major and Minor Requirements Student Research Study Abroad Why Study Classics? Classics VIPs FAQ         last updated: 3/27/05			Classes Fall 2005 Latin Greek Hebrew Classical Studies     Romans at a banquet Latin Scene from a Roman comedy (Mosaic, 3rd century CE, Museum Sousse, Tunisia, photo: Hans Zimmermann, Goerlitz ) Latin 131-01: Elementary Latin I (1) (Knorr) MWF 09:10am-10:10am, ETN 311 Latin 131-02: Elementary Latin I (1) (Williams) TTh 03:30pm-5:00pm, ETN 311 (Syllabus) (Answer Sheets) (Mock Final) Introduction to the language and culture of the ancient Romans. The course emphasizes the fast development of basic reading skills. Students will read three hit comedies by T. Maccius Plautus (ca. 254-184 BCE), Aulularia, Bacchides, and Amphitruo, in gradually less simplified versions. Textbooks (also used for LATIN 132 in Spring 2005): • P. V. Jones and K. C. Sidwell, Reading Latin, vol. 1: Text, Cambridge:   Cambridge University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-521-28623-9, $19.00. • P. V. Jones and K. C. Sidwell, Reading Latin, vol. 2: Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises,   Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-521-28622-0, $30.00. Back to top Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian Latin 231: Latin Prose: Tacitus, The Histories (1) (Knorr) MWF 10:20am-11:20am, ETN 311 (Syllabus) LINK NOT YET OPERATIONAL The Histories of Publius Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 55-ca. 117 C.E.), one of the truly great historians of all time, focus on the dramatic events after the assassination of the emperor Nero, the so-called Four Emperor Year (69 B.C.E.). Since the Julio-Claudian dynasty had died out with Nero, four Roman generals, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, supported by their legions, wrestled for the succession to the throne. In his trademark, rapid style, Tacitus recounts a gripping tale of treachery, ambition, and blood-stained politics. Prerequisites: Latin 132. Textbooks: Tacitus, Histories, Book I, ed. by Cynthia Damon, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN: 0521578221, $26.99. Charles E. Bennett, New Latin Grammar, Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1995, ISBN 0-86516-261-1, $24.00. John C. Traupman, The New College Latin & English Dictionary. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1995, ISBN 0-553-57301-2, $5.99. For your preparation, read the biographies of the four emperors in: De Imperatoribus Romanis Back to top Latin 391: Advanced Readings in Latin Literature: Archaic Latin Literature (1) (Knorr/Bachvarova) TTh 1:50pm-2:50pm, ETN 108 (Syllabus) LINK NOT YET OPERATIONAL This course allows for intensive study at the third year level of a text or texts in a single genre of Latin literature. The primary focus remains translation, but secondary readings will be incorporated and discussed. Prerequisite: Latin 232 or equivalent, or permission of instructor. (catalogue copy) Fall 2005: This Fall's course will focus on Archaic Latin Literature. Readings will include the famous Tablets from Iguvium, bilingual Latin-Umbrian inscriptions that will allow us to put Latin into the context of other Italic dialects, the Laws of the Twelve Tables from 451 BCE, the earliest written legislation in Rome, the Annales of Ennius (239-169 BCE), Rome's first national epos, and finally a smash hit, the Amphitruo, by Rome's first great comic playwright, Plautus (ca. 254-184 BCE). This course will continue to work on the comprehension of grammar and the building of vocabulary, but move considerably more rapidly than 200-level courses. Students will not only work through substantial portions of texts in the original, but will learn about their cultural and literary context. Tabula Iguvina IV Back to top Greek   The great relief from Eleusis, site of one of the most important ancient mystery cults: The goddess Demeter (left) and her daughter Persephone (right, with pine-torch) bid farewell to Triptolemos, the king of Eleusis, who has learned from Demeter how to cultivate the soil and grow wheat and will now teach these skills to mankind. (National Museum Athens, 450/445 BCE.) Greek 131 Elementary Ancient Greek I (1) (Bachvarova) MWF03:00pm-04:00pm, ETN ??? An intensive introduction to ancient Greek, the language of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, historiographers like Herodotus and Thucydides, tragic poets like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, comic geniuses like Aristophanes and Menander, and the writers of the New Testament. These and other Greek authors stand at the beginning of Western civilization, and their works still reverberate in our contemporary culture. Textbook (used for the entire first year): • Hansen, H. and G. M. Quinn. Greek: An Intensive Course. Fordham University Press:   New York, NY, 1992, ISBN: 0823216632, $37.50. Back to top Plato (ca. 427-347 BCE) Socrates (ca. 470-399 BCE) Greek 231 Ancient Greek Prose (1): Plato, Apology (Bachvarova) MWF 01:50pm-02:50pm, ETN ??? In the last decades of fifth-century-BCE Athens, an adoring crowd of fashionable young aristocrats, among them Plato, who later founded his own school of philosophy, gathered around a humble stone mason by the name of Socrates. In his patient search for truth and true wisdom, Socrates interviewed men from all walks of life, civic leaders, craftsmen, poets, and philosophers, but when he pressed them, he found that none of them knew much to start with. Plato and the others got a kick out of the way Socrates exposed the ignorance of their elders, but Socrates, the self-appointed "gadfly" of Athens, was finally put to trial and executed for "introducing new gods and corrupting the youth." Socrates' radical philosophy and subversive humor come best to life in Plato's deservedly famous Apology of Socrates that will be the focus of this class. Prerequisites: Greek 131 and 132 or equivalent. Textbooks: • Plato, Apology, ed. by Gilbert P. Rose, 2 vols.               Bryn Mawr Commentaries, 1989, ISBN: 0-929524-56-X, $ 10.95 • Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, revised by Gordon M. Messing, Harvard U Press, 1990,               ISBN: 0674362500, $42.00. • H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford U Press, 1963,               ISBN: 0199102066, $ 45.00. Cool links: The Last Days of Socrates (lots of background material, incl. an annotated view of 5th cent. Athens) The Ancient City of Athens (pictures of ancient monuments in Athens today) Athenian Litigation (links to websites and scholarly articles) Back to top Hebrew   Papyrus fragment of the Torah HEBR 231 Intermediate Classical Hebrew I (1) (McCreery) MWF 11:20-12:20, ETN 108 Readings and translation of selected passages from the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of the finer points of Hebrew grammar, poetry, and ortho-graphy will be examined. Prerequisites: HEBR 131-132 (open to Freshmen with good Hebrew background). For your preparation, check out the Library of Congress exhibit "SCROLLS FROM THE DEAD SEA: The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship", online at http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html. Back to top Classes in the Classical Studies Program Ara Pacis Augustae (detail) ARTH 270 (TH, 4th Sem Lang Req: Latin) Roman Art and Architecture (1) (Nicgorski) MWF 09:10am-10:10am, ART 212 This course offers a comprehensive study of Roman civilization through its artistic and architectural monuments beginning with its roots in the Etruscan and Greek past, through the varied stylistic idioms of the Empire, to its gradual transformation in the Constantinian era, the prelude to the new Christian civilization of Byzantium. Topics include the Villa of the Mysteries, the Ara Pacis Augustae, the column of Trajan, Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, and the Arch of Constantine. A special emphasis will also be placed on art historical methodology (i.e., which questions are posed, what evidence is cited and how meaning is construed) and on exploring issues of gender and private patronage as well as imperial propaganda and social policy. Back to top HIST 251 Rome: Republic, Empire and Memory to A.D. 600 (1) (Williams) TTh 11:20am-12:50pm This course will examine the rise and fall of the Roman Republic, the challenges faced by the Principate, the Christianization of the Roman Empire, and the gradual transformation of the Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms in the west and the Byzantine Empire in the east. Particular attention will be paid to how Roman expansion affected the development of Roman identity as it was experienced by the inhabitants of the city of Rome and those whom Rome conquered; how the socio-economic and political pressures of ruling an extensive empire eventually contributed to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Principate; how the structure of Roman government and the daily lives of the Romans changed during the third century; how Roman identity changed with the Christianization of the empire; and how Rome was remembered in western Europe and Byzantium. Back to top from left to right: Thales (?), Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle PHIL 230 History of Philosophy: Ancient and Medieval (1) (Markowitz) TTh 9:40am-11:10pm, ETN ??? Ancient and medieval philosophy from Thales through St. Thomas. The important ideas of leading philosophers and the movements they influenced. Emphasis is on metaphysics and the problems of knowledge. (from the WU course catalog) Back to top REL 113 (TH) Introduction to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible (1) (McCreery) MWF 10:20am-11:20am, ETN ??? An introduction to the history and literature of ancient Israel and to modern methods used in studying the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. The course has three basic aims: to reconstruct the history of ancient Israel on the basis of archaeological and form-critical methods, to survey the spectrum of literary forms in the Old Testament, and to identify the major theological themes and symbols used to express Israel's faith. Back to top REL 237 (W, 4th Sem Lang Req: Hebrew) Introduction to Syro-Palestinian Archaeology (1) (McCreery) W 06:00pm-09:00pm, ETN ??? An introduction to the history and current directions of archaeological research in the Holy Land, concentrating on modern Jordan, Israel, and Syria. Particular emphasis will be placed on the relationship between archaeological research and biblical studies. This course is a prerequisite for REL 337 Archaeological Methodology. Writing-Centered. Qumran cave 4 near the Dead Sea where fragments of approximately 580 different ancient manuscripts were discovered in 1954. Back to top   Extracurricular Activities Classics Club: The Classics Club meets three to four times per semester. Its meetings are open to anyone interested. Fall 2005 events include: September: Visit of the Euripides, Alcestis perfomance by the Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon in Portland Early December: Roman Potluck with real ancient recipes at Prof. Knorr's house. If you are interested in participating in any of these events or would like to know more about the Classics Club, please email Prof. Knorr (oknorr@willamette.edu)   ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA, SALEM SOCIETY: Every semester, the AIA offers three to four free lectures of interest to Classics students. For dates and times, see: http://www.willamette.edu/~anicgors/salemaia