Module CLAS2611: THE LITERARY AND POLITICAL CULTURE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

Department: Classics and Ancient History

CLAS2611: THE LITERARY AND POLITICAL CULTURE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• To provide a second year optional course for students from all degree programmes in the department that builds upon and extends the learning experience of various year 1 courses, in particular the core module.

Content

• Issues in the literary and political culture of the Roman republic, ca. 300-31 BC.
• The module focuses in particular on the particularities of Roman literary and political culture in comparison to Greece, with special attention being given to the forms of interaction between the wider populace and the elite, the initial absence, and eventual emergence of literary genres at Rome (tragedy, comedy, epic, historiography, satire, philosophy), and the social settings in which these literary activities took place.
• Sources include the ancient historians who wrote on the period (Polybius, Sallust, Livy), literary authors (Plautus, Terence, Ennius, Cicero), but also material evidence, such as inscriptions and statues.

Learning Outcomes

• An understanding of Roman republican political culture and the early history of Latin literature.
• An appreciation for the complex interfaces of culture and politics.
• An awareness of the differences between two cultures (Greece and Rome).
• Familiarity with a range of sources.

• Ability to handle appropriate methodologies necessary to understand diverse range of evidence for the ancient world (chiefly literary, but including epigraphic and visual material).
• Ability to synthesise different forms of evidence in reconstructing a coherent and plausible picture of the literary and political culture of a specific period of ancient history.
• Ability to evaluate principal modern scholarly discussions relating to a specific period of ancient history.
• Skills in the comparative analysis of culture.

• Analysis, evaluation and synthesis of a wide range of evidence.
• Selection and application of appropriate methodologies for different kinds of evidence.
• Clear, coherent and effective written argument.
• Good use of written English.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures are appropriate to the imparting of information and of methods of interpretation, of both ancient evidence and modern scholarship.
• Classes on source material provide engagement with varieties of historical evidence.
• Writing essays enables the assembling and evaluation of material and the formulation of logical and coherent argument, as well as skills in written English.
• Tutorials contribute to the critical handling of evidence and facility of discussion.
• Final examination tests ability to focus relevantly on historical issues and organise knowledge and argument appropriate to questions raised. enter text as appropriate for the module.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

One written assignment, maximum 2000 words; one exercise on text pasages, maximum 800 words. No collections.