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updated: 08/05/04
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updated: 08/05/04
Intermediate Latin Prose Professor Ortwin Knorr Email: oknorr@willamette.edu The emperor Caligula
who ruled 37-41 CE is one of the most notorious and fascinating
subjects of the Life of the Caesars (Dê vitâ
Caesârum) by C. Suetonius Tranquillus (c. 70 – after
122 CE). Suetonius, a Roman knight who served for a while as the
minister in charge of the emperor Hadrian's official correspondence
(magister ab epistulis), wrote not only numerous biographies
of emperors and other famous men but also lost works about, for
example, Cicero's physical defects, the diacritical marks used by
philologists, and famous courtesans. His imperial biographies are
particularly entertaining because of the vivid and often scandalous
portrait they paint of the emperors' private lives.
Suetonius, Life of Caligula
(LATIN 231 - Fall Semester 2004)
MWF 10:20-11:20am, Eaton 311
Classical Studies Program
Phone: x6029
Mailbox: 107 Eaton
Office Hours: W 11:30-12:30pm,
Th 10:20-11:20am
and by appointment, 306 Eaton
In his Life of Caligula, Suetonius gives a complex account
of the young emperor's personality describing Caligula's sadistic
cruelty, his sexual excesses, and his egomaniacal personality, but
also his quite reasonable attempts at governmental reform.
By the end of this course, you will not only know much more about
the life of Caligula, but also be familiar with the typical features
of Greek and Roman biographies, an important genre of classical
literature. In addition, you will have reviewed major points of
Latin grammar and have further advanced your Latin reading skills.
Prerequisites: Latin 132 or placement test.
Required Textbooks:
• Hugh Lindsay (ed.). Suetonius: Caligula. London: Duckworth,
1993,ISBN 1853993751,
$20.00.
• 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:
Garrett Fagan's online Biography of Caligula in De Imperatoribus
Romanis,
http://www.roman-emperors.org/gaius.htm
Schedule:
Click here
for a schedule of the semester.
Attendance:
Regular attendance is important for your success in this (as in
any other) class. Absences will be reflected in your final grade,
and you will not be able to discuss the assigned readings at the
same level as the rest of the class. If you need to miss class for
legitimate reasons (illness, exams, athletics, etc.), please inform
me per email as soon as possible. Please note that it is your
responsibility to get homework assignments from your classmates
if you miss class.
Reports:
For every class, two students will function as a living commentary.
Be prepared to summarize for our benefit the contents of Lindsay's
commentary and to comment on syntactical problems. Working together,
create also a vocabulary list of 10-20 unknown words to be distributed
at the beginning of class. This list will later be used as the basis
for our quizzes.
Quizzes:
Every two weeks, there will be a 30-minute quiz. It will consist
of a vocabulary part, a translation exercise, and grammatical questions
about phenomena such as absolute ablatives, indirect statements,
or predicative gerundives. The vocabulary and the translation passage
will be based on the chapters of Suetonius we have read, and the
grammatical questions will review syntactical phenomena that we
have focused on in one of the last class meetings.
Unfortunately, there will be no opportunity to make-up quizzes
that you missed. If you write all quizzes, however, you can drop
the quiz with the lowest grade.
Final Exam:
Your final exam will follow the format of the quizzes, except that
it will be much longer. The final exam will take place on Friday,
Dec. 17, 2004, from 9-11 am.
Honor Code:
All members of this class agree to be bound by an honor code. As
a matter of practice, that means that you do not cheat on quizzes
or exams. Collaboration on homework is fine, even encouraged, as
long as all members of a collaborative effort work equally. Simply
copying the homework of a classmate does you absolutely no good
and would in my view constitute a violation of the honor code.
Grading Policy:
Your grade for the course will be based on:
• your class participation and attendance (20%)
• reports (20%)
• quizzes (40%), and
• a final exam (20%)
Please
note the following important dates:
October 22 (Fri) Mid-Semester
Day - no class
November 25 (Th) - 28 (Sun) Thanksgiving Break -
no class
December 10 (Fri) Last
Day of Regular Classes
December 17 (Sat) Final
Exam 9:00-11:00 am, Eaton 311