Latin 011: Love and Hatred in Catullus

GOALS

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Translate Latin poetry with greatly increased speed and accuracy.
• Identify and comprehend both simple and complex Latin constructions.
• Give the characteristics of (i.e. number of feet, composition of each foot, location of long and short syllables, caesurae and diaereses, etc.) and scan poetry in a number of different Latin meters.
• Recite Latin poetry (in certain meters) with confidence and polish.
• Provide detailed information on the personality of Catullus as he presents himself in his poems: his philosophy, interests, political ambitions, personal relationships and realness.
• Describe the style of Catullus: the constructions he regularly employs, his favorite expressions, his sentence structure, etc.
• Illuminate the social and cultural climate of Rome in the late first century B.C.

READINGS

The course text is The Student’s Catullus, edited by Daniel H. Garrison (Third edition: U. of Oklahoma P., 2004). In addition, we will also make regular use of Wheelock's Latin (Sixth edition: Harper Collins, 2005). Both of these should be available in the bookstore, but you can probably find used copies for less elsewhere: amazon - Barnes & Noble - abe Books. *Please make sure that you have the proper edition of each text.*

Though Wheelock and Garrison include sufficient discussion of Latin grammar and syntax for the purposes of the course (and Garrison includes a vocabulary, as well), it might be useful to have both a Latin grammar and a good Latin/English dictionary (especially if you plan to continue on in the language). For the former, I would advise that you purchase Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar (Focus Publishing, 2001) or Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar (Bolchazy-Carducci, 1997 [reprint edition]). For the latter, I would suggest the Chambers-Murray Latin-English Dictionary (Chambers, 1994 [reissue]) or Cassell's Latin Dictionary (Cassell's, 1977). All of these texts are easy to find in local bookstores or online.

There are a few additional readings for this course, all of which will be available electronically: see the course schedule (below) for details.

PREREQUISITES

Latin 011 is normally taken after Latin 002 or three to four years of high school Latin. If you're concerned about placement in the course, please let me know.

RESEARCH

The following texts may prove useful in navigating Catullus and his work and can be found in McCabe and/or the Classics Seminar Room (Trotter 115). All non-Reference McCabe books will be placed on reserve.

Editions, Translations, Bibliographies, Commentaries and Concordances

• C. J. Fordyce, Catullus: A Commentary (Oxford, 1961). McCabe: PA6274.A2 1961.
• J. H. Gaisser, ed., Catullus in English (London, 2001). McCabe: PA6276.E5 G34 2001.
• P. Green, The Poems of Catullus (Berkeley, 2005). McCabe: PA6275.E5 G74 2005.
• J. P. Holoka, Gaius Valerius Catullus: A Systematic Bibliography (New York, 1985). McCabe: PA6276.H64 1985.
• V. P. McCarren, A Critical Concordance to Catullus (Leiden, 1977). McCabe Reference: +PA6276.Z8 1977.
• D. Mulroy, ed., The Complete Poetry of Catullus (Madison, 2002). McCabe: PA6275.E5 M85 2002.
• K. Quinn, Catullus: The Poems (New York, 1970). McCabe: PA6274.A2 1970.
• D. F. S. Thomson, ed., Catullus (Toronto, 1997). McCabe: PA6276.T5 1997.

Studies

• B. Arkins, Sexuality in Catullus (Hildesheim, 1982). McCabe: PA6276.A74.
• H. Dettmer, Love by the Numbers: Form and Meaning in the Poetry of Catullus (New York, 1997). McCabe: PA6276.D48 1997.
• J. Ferguson, Catullus (New York, 1988). McCabe: PA6276.F37 1988.
• J. H. Gaisser, Catullus and his Renaissance Readers (New York, 1993). McCabe: PA6276.G35 1993.
• A. K. Hurley, Catullus (London, 2004). McCabe: PA6276.H87 2004.
• M. Janan, When the Lamp is Shattered: Desire and Narrative in Catullus (Carbondale, 1994). McCabe: PA6276.J36 1994.
• C. Martin, Catullus (New Haven, 1992). McCabe: PA6276.M37 1992.
• J. K. Newman, Roman Catullus and the Modification of the Alexandrian Sensibility (Hildesheim, 1990). McCabe: PA6276.N4 1990.
• K. Quinn, The Catullan Revolution (Carlton, 1959). McCabe: PA6276.Q5.
• –––, Catullus: An Interpretation (New York, 1973). McCabe: PA6276.Q52.
• D. O. Ross, Style and Tradition in Catullus (Cambridge, 1969). McCabe: PA6276.R57.
• M. B. Skinner, Catullus in Verona: A Reading of the Elegiac libellus, Poems 65–116 (Columbus, 2003). McCabe: PA6276.S575 2003.
• T. P. Wiseman, Catullus and His World: A Reappraisal (New York, 1985). PA6276.W544 1985.
• D. Wray, Catullus and the Poetics of Roman Manhood (New York, 2001). McCabe: PA6276.W73 2001.

General Tools for Classicists

• S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.) (Oxford, 2003). McCabe Reference: DE5.O9 2003; Seminar Room.
• The Cambridge Ancient History (3rd ed.) (London, 1970–2000). McCabe Reference: D57.C25 1970.
• Loeb Classical Library. Translations of most major works by ancient Greek (and Roman) authors. Greek works are green (Latin works red). Copies of most authors available in the Seminar Room; fuller run in McCabe (search by author or title).
• G. B. Conte, Latin Literature: A History, trans. J. B. Solodow, rev. D. Fowler and G. W. Most (Baltimore, 1994). McCabe: PA6008.C6613 1994.
• L. Adkins and R. A. Adkins, A Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome (New York, 1994). McCabe: DG77.A35 1994.

Catullus wrote a lot of spiteful, venomous and (sometimes) downright hateful poetry. In this segment of the course we will examine a number of poems in which Catullus aims his barbs at the seamy underbelly of Republican Rome.