Latin 302: Latin Literature of the Roman Empire

This course will introduce students to the beauty and the glory of Vergil’s Aeneid, the greatest work of Roman poetry and “the classic of all Europe”. The poem relates the myth of Aeneas, a son of the goddess Venus and a refugee from the Trojan war who is, according to Roman legend, the ancestor of the Roman people.

We will hone students’ Latin translation, analytical, scansion and recitation skills through careful, intensive reading of a considerable chunk of Vergil’s epic poem. The focus will be on analysis of grammar and vocabulary building, with attention to rhetorical and cultural elements of the text and analysis of style, meter, genre, and theme.

By the end of this class, students will be able to read Vergil with some fluency and, as a result, they will understand, and appreciate Vergil’s most famous work. After this course, students should be prepared for 500-level courses in Latin literature.