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Tentative 2024-25

The following courses are likely to be offered during academic year 2024-25. The list is still subject to change; information on the Timetable may supersede it. If you have specific questions, please contact the professor listed, or the chair or Language Progran Director.

SUMMER 2024

CLST 10.15 Magic and the Occult in the Ancient World  Curse tablets and love potions, amulets and talismans, step-by-step instructions to reanimate the dead or control the divine—from simple spells designed to meet the needs of the poor and the desperate to the complex theurgies of the philosophers, the people of the Greco-Roman world employed magic to try to influence the world around them. In this course, we will study the ancient practitioners of magic, the techniques and objects through which they served their clientele, the bodies of occult knowledge upon which they drew, and the cultural contexts in which they operated or were thought to operate. INT or TMV, CI  Glauthier

LAT 30.03/GRK 30.04 Ancient Fiction: The Greek and Roman Novels  Close reading of Greek and Roman novels in the original in addition to wider-reading in translation, with particularly attention to narrative, genre, and literary and cultural context. LIT, W Glauthier

FALL 2024

CLST 1 Introductory Topics in Classical Studies Which ancient faces and personalities come alive for us when we look back at Greek and Roman antiquity? How does the world of the ancient Mediterranean intrigue, repel, awe, amuse, or disturb us? Designed for students who have not previously taken courses in this area, this special-topics course introduces the different areas and disciplines that contribute to Classical Studies in the the twenty-first century. Open to all classes. CI

CLST 06   Introduction to Classical Archaeology Introduces the basic methods and principles of Classical archaeology. Students will acquire an appreciation of the development of material culture in the Mediterranean world from prehistory to the collapse of the Roman Empire.  INT or ART, W. course flyer

CLST 11.19 Before Billboards and Twitter: Roman Coins Text. This hands-on course focuses on the ancient Roman production, the development and use of money at Rome, the logistics of coin production, and the methods for studying coinage to write ancient history. Students learn basic numismatic methodology by handling and studying coins from the collection in Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art and prepare material for a coin installation. A final unit treats the ethics of coin collecting and the role of the modern museum. SOC, W. Stewart

CLST 15 Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Kings  This course has two aims: (1) to establish a basic understanding of the history of Alexander the Great and of Greek-speaking peoples in the eastern Mediterranean during the fourth through first centuries BCE and (2) to explore the cultural, military, political, and economic innovations of what was a singular age of experimentation. INT or SOC, W. Christesen

GRK 10   Readings in Greek Prose and Poetry For who have aleady studied the basics of the language. Readings drawn from Greek tragedy will illustrate foundational concepts of the culture. LIT, W. Schultz

GRK 18  The Figure of Helen. We will read the relevant passages of the Iliad and Odyssey, Sappho fr 16, Gorgias' Helen, part of Isocrates' Helen, part of Euripides' Helen or Trojan Women, and maybe a few other bits and pieces from Herodotus, Stesichorus, and the like. Themes would include paradigms of femininity, women's agency, and especially issues around rhetoric, representation, and reality.

LAT 1    Latin 1  A rapid introduction to the Latin language through reading passages of gradually increasing difficulty, with an introduction to the history and culture of Pompeii and Roman Egypt in the first century AD. LAT 1 Course Flyer 2023.pdf, Lynn, Staff

LAT 3    Latin 3    Completes the introduction to Latin grammar and syntax, then moves into unadapted selections from Pliny, Catullus, Ovid, and other Roman authors. Foxley, Walker

LAT 10.01  The Landscape of Latin Literature  Designed to introduce students to varied aspects of Latin literary culture. Beginning with some physical evidence of literacy and writing materials, we will proceed to study the physical history of ancient books and publication methods, then analyze a series of short works illustrating how the Romans themselves thought about literary production, the functions texts can serve, and the nature of meaning and authorship. Also introduces library resources, including illuminated manuscripts in Dartmouth's collection. LIT, W. Lynn (Course flyer LAT 10 2023.pdf

LAT 25 or 30.09  Texts on Roman Slavery   Stewart.

LAT/GRK/CLST 85      Independent study

LAT/GRK/CLST 87      Thesis I

WINTER 2025

CLST 2 The Tragedy and Comedy of Greece and Rome. The course studies in translation selected works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca (tragedy), Aristophanes and Plautus (comedy), and some of their central themes and questions: law, community, revenge, passion, and justice. We will approach them both as texts and as scripts/librettos, considering their relationship to other types of performance (ritual, rhetoric, music, dance) and genres (history, philosophy) as well as to theatrical space. There will be practical workshop opportunities for those interested. Open to all classes. ART, W. Tell

CLST 17 Roman History: The Republic. This course surveys the history of the Roman people from 753 (traditional date of the founding of Rome) to 44 B.C. (the assassination of Julius Caesar). Topics include the development of Roman law, the conquest of all lands bordering on the Mediterranean, and the civil wars that destroyed Republican government. Particular emphasis is placed on the Roman political community: the political, religious and social factors that influenced the definition of the Roman aristocracy in the fourth century, the institutions that maintained the ascendancy of the elite, the military and political values inherent in the citizenship, the social and political mechanisms that militated against civil dissent, and the role of political values in the eventual destruction of Republican government from within.  SOC, W

CLST 24 The Birth of Rome  Why did the Rome emerge as the most powerful city of the Western world? How did later Romans remember and heroize the events that led to their supremacy?  We will trace this remarkable transformation through both science and literature: the physical evidence recovered through archaeology, and literary accounts in Greeks' and Romans' prose and poetry that tell stories of Rome's foundation and struggle for survival. Readings include passages from Virgil's Aeneid and Livy's History of Rome, as well as excerpts from ancient writers that include Dionysius, Strabo, Plutarch, Cicero and Ovid. SOC, W

GRK 1 Introductory Ancient Greek  Study of Greek grammar, syntax, and vocabulary accompanied by reading of simple Greek prose selections. This course is designed to be followed immediately by GRK 3 in a two-term sequence. Schultz

GRK 30 Topics in Greek Literature. Tell

LAT 1   Latin 1    A rapid introduction to the Latin language through reading passages of gradually increasing difficulty, with an introduction to the history and culture of Pompeii and Roman Egypt in the first century AD. Lynn 9L        

LAT 2   Latin 2 -  Continues the study of the Latin language, with a look at the history and culture of Roman Britain and the city of Rome in the first century AD. Includes an introduction to Roman funerary inscriptions, curse tablets, and coins. Walker, 9L, Lynn, 10, Gaki, 10, Christesen, 2.

LAT 10.03 Topics in Latin Texts: Petronius's Satyricon and Neronian Rome  An introduction to continuous readings of unadapted Latin prose via the hilariously bizarre novel Satyricon, written by a certain Petronius during the reign of Nero. Petronius's work will be supplemented with excerpts from Petronius' contemporaries or near-contemporaries (Seneca, Lucan, Tacitus) to paint a picture of the carnivalesque madness that was Neronian Rome. The course Includes a comprehensive review of Latin grammar and the opportunity to discuss questions of language and interpretation. Glauthier, course flyer.pdf.

LAT 20  Latin Epic: Ovid's Metamorphoses. LIT, W. Glauthier.

CLST 88 Thesis II

SPRING 2025

CLST 07                    First-Year Seminar

CLST 10.03 Mind, Heart, Brain. Considers some of the earlest recorded theories of human and animal psychology worked out in Greco-Roman antiquity. What physical substances and/or bodily organs give rise to the characteristic functions of living things, such as sense-perception, self-movement, and self-awareness? How it is that human beings are capable of concept-formation, reasoning, memory, and emotion, and to what extent are these capacities also present in non-human aniimals? Is the mind-stuff radically distinct from the body and its afflictions, or initmately bound to it? Students work collaboratively to develop their own analyses of these and related issues in a range of philosophical, scientific, and medical texts from both Greece and Rome.  TMV, W. Graver

CLST 10.13 New Testament. Studies the collection of Christian texts now called the "New Testament" for the insights they provide into the complex cultural interactions in the first-century Mediterranean world. Three primary texts, the Gospel of Mark, Paul's letter to the Colossians, and Paul's letter to James, will be examined in light of their original Jewish context and their embeddedness in Greek thought and Roman socio-political structures. This small-enrollment class is taught conjointly with GRK 29, but with assignments and assessment appropriate for students reading entirely in English. TMV, W. Whaley

CLST 19 Methods and Theory in Ancient History: Roman Britain. This course is designed to introduce the student to the various types of documentary evidence available to the ancient historian and to the various perspectives for framing and answering historical questions. We consider the interpretive methodologies for each type of document (coin, inscription, papyrus) as well as the particular historical context in which these documents were produced. Topics include the function of coinage and economic thinking in the ancient world and the political significance of the publication of law. The final weeks of the term allow for in-depth consideration of a specific problem in ancient history.  SOC, W. Stewart

CLST 20 Greek Archaeology: First Hominids to Mycenean Palaces. This course traces the cultural evolution of humanity in the Aegean basin from the era of hunting and gathering (Palaeolithic-Mesolithic) through the early village farming stage (Neolithic) and the formative period of Aegean civilization (Early Bronze Age) into the age of the great palatial cultures of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece. The emphasis in the early part of the course will be on the different economic bases of early life in the Aegean and on regional variation within it. In the latter half of the course, study of the palaces, fortified citadels, and royal tombs at such sites as Knossos, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Troy will lead to discussions of the Greek myths about Atlantis, King Minos' sea empire, and the Trojan War, and their basis in historical fact. May be taken in partial fulfillment of the major in Art History.  SOC, W. Hruby

CLST 30/31               Off-Campus Study Program in Greece. Christesen

GRK 1.02/3.02  Intensive Greek    A double course (two time slots) covering both GRK 1 and GRK 3 in a single term. Introduces all the basics of grammar and syntax and provides a gradual introduction to the reading of continuous texts. Tell

GRK 3   Intermediate Greek  Continued study of Greek grammar and syntax and an introduction to reading in prose authors. Satisfies the College language requirement. Schultz

GRK 29 New Testament. A brief introduction to the language, vocabulary, and idiom of New Testament Greek, followed by readings in the Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul.  TMV, W. Whaley

LAT 2   Latin 2  Continues the study of the Latin language, with a look at the history and culture of Roman Britain and the city of Rome in the first century AD. Includes an introduction to Roman funerary inscriptions, curse tablets, and coins.

LAT 3   Latin 3  Completes the introduction to Latin grammar and syntax, then moves into unadapted selections from Pliny, Catullus, Ovid, and other Roman authors.

LAT 10.04 Latin Manuscripts and Paleography An introduction to paleography, from the scripts of Late Antiquity to the Humanist scripts of the Renaissance. Students learn to transcribe and translate Latin manuscripts and to understand them both as transmitters of texts and as material objects that tell their own stories. Lynn

LAT 35 Satire and Humor. Basically a humorous monologue on contemporary topics, verse satire is the one kind of writing the Romans claimed as entirely their own. The class will read some of the best-known examples by Horace and Juvenal and may also explore other examples of Roman humor: epigrams by Catullus or Martial, Seneca's Pumpkinification, Petronius's Satyricon.  LIT, W. Graver