CLU22449 Catullus and Cicero
The love-poet Catullus and the statesman, orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero were close contemporaries, but often display contrasting attitudes – towards love and sex, youth and maturity, public and private life, and morality in general. This module will involve close reading of selections from Catullus’ poetry and of Cicero’s law-court speech Pro Caelio, both as literary works in their own right and as a window on the ideals and values of the Roman elite of the first century BC.
- Module Organiser:
- Dr Charlie Kerrigan
- Duration:
- Semester 2
- Contact Hours:
- 33 (two lectures and one language lab per week)
- Weighting:
- 10 ECTS
- Assessment:
- 50% coursework (one written assignment, one in-class test), 50% written examination
- Course open to:
- Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology; TJH Latin; Columbia Dual Degree; Visiting, Open Module
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Translate the prescribed texts both literally and idiomatically
- Analyse the language, style and themes of the two writers studied, both independently and in relation to each other
- Comment in detail on the two writers’ use of poetic and rhetorical devices, and its impact on the reader
- Compare and contrast Catullus’ and Cicero’s relation to their intellectual, ideological and cultural contexts
- Engage critically with recent scholarship on the poetry of Catullus, Ciceronian oratory, and the culture and ideology of the late Roman Republic in general
- Formulate well-researched views in written assignments
- Translate and analyse the language of unseen passages of similar genre, style or content