LATIN HONOURS

General aims: to develop expertise in the Latin language, through the reading of Latin texts and regular translation exercises; to provide an understanding of selected literary works of major importance and the genres and situations to which they belong; and to study in depth certain aspects of the historical and social background.

JOINT Honours students choose six of the papers below, of which one or two must be from A, three from B, one or two from C

SINGLE Honours students choose ten of the papers below, of which one or two must be from A, six from B, two or three from C. In addition, they must write a supervised dissertation. (Recent topics: Roman musical instruments, Greek athletics in Rome, Roman bath-houses, the Roman family).

A: Language papers

• Unseen translation (for all students)
• Prose Composition (optional)

B: Literature Papers

• Comedy (Plautus and Terence)
• Elegy (Tibullus, Sulpicia, Propertius, Ovid)
• Epic (Ennius, Vergil, Lucan, Milton)
• Fiction (Petronius, Apuleius)
• Historiography (Livy, Tacitus)
• Medieval Latin (Abelard, medieval lyric)
• Oratory (Cicero, Sallust)
• Satire (Horace, Juvenal, Johnson)

C: Historical/Social Papers

• Christianity and Classical Culture
• Gender and Sexuality in the Roman World
• Roman Britain (taught by the department of Archaeology)
• Roman History (details under review)
• Roman Law (taught within the School of Law)
• The Roman Empire (taught by the department of Archaeology)
• Various papers from the Greek Honours menu

LATIN, PRE-HONOURS LEVELS

The approach you take depends on whether you are beginning the language (so 1A + 1B) or not (so 1C + 1D).

1A Introduction to Latin (intensive language instruction, outline of Roman history)

1B Introductory Reading of Latin (further intensive language instruction, preliminary reading of selections from Latin authors (Catullus, Terence), social topics)

1C Reading Latin (reading of Latin authors (Livy, Tibullus), study and revision of Latin language, survey of Roman history)

1D Reading of Latin (Advanced) (further language study and reading of Latin authors (Catullus, Terence, at greater length than in 1B, plus an author chosen by the students), social topics)

2A Latin Letters and Society (selected letters of Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, and the social background)

2B Augustan Poetry (selected works of Vergil (Aeneid), Horace (Odes), Ovid (Metamorphoses) and their Augustan background).

PRIZES AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS OF LATIN

First level:
COWAN MEDAL - awarded from a fund founded in 1836 by James Cowan, undergraduate in Arts 1819

Second level:
MUIRHEAD MEMORIAL PRIZE (£75 - pounds) - founded in 1776 in memory of George Muirhead, Professor of Humanity 1754-73

Second level students in Latin are also eligible to enter the VIVA VOCE EXAMINATION ON THE BLACK STONE FOR THE COWAN MEDAL. This is literally an examination taken (sitting) on a black stone, part of an ornate mahogany chair made in the late eighteenth century and now one of the treasures of the Hunterian Museum. Once a necessary part of student progression, this test (some call it an ordeal) is now a voluntary examination for second-year latin students based on prior study of two set texts.

Third level:
MUIRHEAD MEMORIAL PRIZE (£75 - pounds) (see above)

Honours:
WILLIAM RAMSAY MEDAL - founded in memory of William Ramsay, Professor of Humanity (Latin) 1831-63

Other Departmental and University Prizes

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