Latin 103 Spring 2017
MW: 4:00-5:10
TThF: 6th Period (2:40-3:50)
GDH 309B
Instructor: Brenda Fineberg
Office: GDH 309E
Office Phone: 341-7304
Office hours: MW 10:30-12:30and by appt.
In this final course of the Introductory Latin sequence, we will spend some time reviewing the morphology, grammar, and syntax that we learned in Latin 101 and 102. The primary work of the course will be the reading ofThe Millionaire’s Dinner Party, known in Latin as the “CenaTrimalchionis,”an episode from Petronius’ Satyricon.
According to some, the Satyriconwas the first novel in the western literary tradition. Petronius lived in the first century C. E., and the Satyricon was probably written around 65 C.E., during the years when Petronius is thought to have served as “arbiter elegantiae” in the court of the emperor Nero.The narrative is about a dinner party that unfolds over several hours, hosted by a rich freedman named Trimalchio. During the long day and night that this party spans, our narrator Encolpius tells us of the bizarre characters and events that he and his friends encounter as they navigate their way through their “journey.” The story is bizarre, humorous, and entertaining; and at the same time it provides a startling and revealing (if exaggerated) account of the life of a wealthy freedman living in Roman Italy during the Neronian period. I look forward to reading this text with you; and I hope that, after all the hard work you have done to learn Latin this year, you will enjoy the reward of reading an authentic text written by a “real” Roman author.
Required texts for the course
Oxford Latin Course College Edition. 2012.M. Balme & J. Morwood. Oxford University Press.
The Millionaire's Dinner Party. M. G. Balme, ed. Oxford 1996. ISBN: 9780199120253
Petronius Satyricon.2000.Translated, with notes and topical commentaries by Sarah Ruden. Hackett. ISBN: 9780872205109
EvaluationYour grade for the course will be determined as follows:
Chapter Tests:
(MDP 1-210%
MDP 1-415%
MDP 5-610%
MDP 5-815%
MDP 9-10 10%
Final Exam (All of MDP)15%
Test total75%
Daily work (preparation; engagement;
daily quizzes):20%
Presentation 5%
Chapter tests and daily quizzes:
Expect a very brief quiz every day at the beginning of class.
There will be a chapter test after each two chapters of The Millionaire’s Dinner Party, plus a final comprehensive exam. Each quiz will include the following:
1) previously seen passages to translate
2) forms and structures from those passages to identify
2) a short unseen passage to translate
3) a verb synopsis
4) a question on the subject matter of the passages covered, or a culture question from
student presentation(s) on which to write a brief essay
Two of the five quizzes will ask you to review material covered on previous quizzes, and the last test will be comprehensive (see the schedule of assignments below for specific details).For this reason, you should develop the habit of reading the assigned passages several times before class, and then again after class. If you regularly reread each day’s work several times, you will develop an easy familiarity with passages you have seen before, and you will find that new passages become less and less difficult to read. Assuming that you have taken every quiz during the term, you may drop one single quiz, or 10% of one double quiz. No part of the final exam may be dropped.
Daily Work:
Most of you have read this before, but just for the record, here it is again.Attendance matters: as a student in this course, you are part of a community. Your classmates rely on you, and you on them. Class participation requires regular class attendance; it also means preparing the day's work before class, as well as participating actively during class. And, as before, please remember that our classroom is an electronic free zone: no cell phones, no laptops, ipads, etc.
You may miss 3 classes without penalty.I recommend that you carefully hoard these 3 slots. Spring is a glorious time of year; it can also be treacherous. Warm sunny days can wreak great havoc on our winter-weary spirits: they can induce drowsiness and lure us away from all manner of good intentions.Even so, absences in excess of 3 will lower your class participation grade at a rapid rate.
A note on Flunk Day
Flunk Day is a time honored institution at Knox. I look forward to this rite of spring almost as much as you do. When Flunk Day comes, by all means enjoy yourselves!
What I do not like about Flunk Day is the tendency for Flunk Day to become Flunk Week. And, on a few occasions in the past, when Flunk Day has fallen very late in the term, it seemed to many of us who teach here that things never did get back on track in our classrooms: Flunk Day became Flunk Term. So, as for re-entering the world of Latin 103 after Flunk Day, this is what I ask: on the day after, please come to class. You may come sleepy; you may come unprepared; I hope that by 2:40 (or 4:00!) on the day after, you will be more or less alert and sober; but if you are not, I hope you will come to class nonetheless. For my part, I will agree not to have a quiz the day after Flunk Day (no matter what day it is), and I will not expect you to have looked at or thought about Latin since the day before Flunk Day. Just get yourself to class, and together we’ll negotiate a tolerable re-entry. On the other hand, if you are absolutely certain that you will not be in any shape to get to class the day after Flunk Day, then plan accordingly, and save one of your 3 free absences for that purpose.