Hidden Gems in Ancient Literature

Module description

Topic: Literature of the Late Republic

The literature of the late Roman Republic often lives in the shadow of Cicero’s speeches and the poetry of the Augustan period. While some authors such as Catullus and Lucretius have always appealed to students and scholars throughout the centuries, others such as Varro and Nepos have often been neglected. The historiographies of Julius Caesar and Sallust tended to attract the attention of historians, not literary scholars, and their literary value have subsequently been under appreciated. Yet this body of texts offers important and unique insights into Roman culture during a period of profound and unprecedented political change. This module examines this rich and thought-provoking corpus of texts, and explores what the literature of the late Republic can tell us about the issues that dominated Roman life at the time, issues such as friendship, patronage, power, and empire. Does the erotic poetry of Catullus and the Epicurean philosophy of Lucretius have something in common? What can Varro’s treatise on agriculture and Nepos’ biography of Atticus tell us about class and social mobility in the Republican world? What narrative techniques do Caesar and Sallust use in their writing of historiography? Should the ‘early’ works of Virgil and Horace be considered as ‘late’ republican literature? These and other questions form the central enquiries of this module. 

Assessment details

2,500 word essay (100%)

Teaching pattern

10 x 1 hour lectures and 10 x 1 hour seminars (weekly)

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