LAN302: Pagans and Christians from Augustus to Augustine (Advanced)
Key details
| Accredited towards | Diploma of Classical Languages |
| Unit type | Elective unit |
| Credit points | 6 |
| Indicative contact hours | 3 hours per week |
| Prerequisites | See below |
| Offered in | Semester 2 |
| Tuition fee | Learn more |
Overview
Some of Rome’s greatest authors wrote during, and responded to, the regime of the Emperor Augustus (reigning c.27 BC – AD 14). The end of this period coincided with the earliest events in the Christian Gospels. In this unit students read texts from Augustan literature (e.g. Vergil, Horace, Livy) as well as from the great Christian Latin authors of the fourth and fifth centuries (e.g. Jerome, Augustine). Students may also read from authors of the intervening “Silver Age” (e.g. Seneca, Tacitus, Juvenal). The predominant theme of texts from the pre-Christian authors is “religion at Rome”. The predominant theme of texts from Christian authors is the encounter between Christianity and paganism, whether within the individual (e.g. Augustine’s Confessions), or in public (e.g. Ambrose on the Altar of Victory). Students engage in close reading of ancient texts both as an end in itself as well as to consolidate knowledge acquired in earlier units.
Learning outcomes
On completion of the unit students will have:
- An understanding of how to translate syntactically complex texts from Latin, and the problems involved in the ‘translation’ of texts.
- An understanding of the relation between language and culture, and between grammar and interpretation.
- An understanding of how to apply evidence from beyond the text, in order to interpret it successfully, and some understanding of the evidence pertaining to the texts being studied.
- A basic understanding of the principles of Latin prosody and the ability to identify the effect of metre in some cases.
- The ability to participate confidently and effectively in group work, contributing with clarity and coherence.
Prerequisites
Students may enrol in LAN302 if they have completed LAN204. Otherwise they may only enrol if they have a sufficiently advanced, and demonstrable, knowledge of Latin sufficient for this unit.
Interested in other Latin units?
LAN101: Classical Latin I
LAN102: Classical Latin II
LAN203: Classical Latin III
LAN204: Classical Latin IV
LAN301: Language and Culture in Late Republican Rome
LAN302: Pagans and Christians from Augustus to Augustine
LAN305: The Eternal City from Paganism to Christianity
LAN311: Virgil
LAN312: Cicero