Love and War: Latin poetry at the end of the Republic LATIN4033
- Academic Session: 2026-27
- School: School of Humanities
- Credits: 20
- Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
- Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
- Available to Visiting Students: Yes
- Collaborative Online International Learning: No
- Curriculum For Life: No
Short Description
The course examines a period of enormous influence in the history of poetry: the final years of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Empire. It centres on reading selections from Propertius and Tibullus in Latin, and will also include the study of Catullus, Virgil, and Horace in translation. It focusses on the relationship between love poetry and war, and on the strong sense of poetic identity that was the enduring legacy of the poetry of this period.
Timetable
5x1hr lectures; 15x1hr seminars over 10 weeks as scheduled in MyCampus. This is one of the Honours courses in Classics and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.
Requirements of Entry
Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry in Classics, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.
Excluded Courses
CLASSIC4094
Co-requisites
None
Assessment
The standard assessments for this course are:
■ Exam (120 minutes) - 60%
■ Oral Presentation - Latin commentary (20 minutes) - 40%
If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:
■ There is no alternative to the exam, but extra time or separate space can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)
■ Recorded presentation, written script of equivalent length, ppt slides as alternative to presentation.
Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.
Main Assessment In: April/May
Course Aims
This course aims to:
■ Provide students with the opportunity to focus on a crucial period in Rome's cultural development and explore its literature
■ Foster students' awareness of the importance of gender and sexuality as expressions of political and social environments
■ Develop skills in close reading and analysis of Latin poetry
■ Develop students' exploring Latin texts from a variety of different perspectives, reflecting the key themes of the course
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course students will be able to:
■ Produce detailed readings of Latin poetry in both oral and written form
■ Show evidence of understanding of the social, historical, and literary contexts of the poetry studied
■ Present their own research relating to the themes of the course in a coherent and scholarly form
■ Translate selected texts into good English, showing appropriate awareness of the significance of individual phrases and vocabulary