Undergraduate Course: Cicero and Catiline (ANHI10094)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will provide an opportunity to study in detail one of the best-documented episodes of ancient history, the Catilinarian conspiracy of 63-62 BC, within its historical (political and social) context. The course will also involve literary study of the principal sources in translation. It differs from LATI10027 The Catilinarian Conspiracy in that knowledge of Latin is not required and more texts are studied. |
| Course description |
The Catilinarian conspiracy was the attempted seizure of power at Rome by the disaffected aristocrat Catiline; it was suppressed by the consul Cicero, who controversially executed five of the ringleaders. The sources, to be read in English translation, consist of Cicero's speeches to the senate and people during the crisis, his defence in court of the consul-elect L. Murena on a bribery charge, his later defence of an alleged conspirator P. Sulla, and the historian Sallust's account of the conspiracy written twenty years afterwards. In addition to supplying historical information, these sources also represent the best and most exciting oratory and historiography of the late republic.
The course will develop students' ability to interpret Roman history of the late republic through detailed study of a particularly full range of sources while also developing their understanding and appreciation of some of the best known classics of Roman literature.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 courses in Classics (at least 1 of which should be in Roman History) at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses.
**As numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course.** |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- understand a key period of Roman history with its associated ancient literature, together with the modern scholarship on it, through assessed coursework and a written examination;
- appraise and appreciate the ancient sources for the Catilinarian conspiracy, through assessed coursework and a written examination;
- demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the subject through assessed coursework and a written examination.
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Reading List
D.H.Berry, Cicero: Pro P. Sulla Oratio (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries; Cambridge, 1996)
D.H.Berry, Cicero: Defence Speeches (Oxford World's Classics; Oxford, 2000)
D.H.Berry, Cicero: Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics; Oxford, 2006)
D.H.Berry, Cicero's Catilinarians (Oxford Approaches to Classical Literature; New York, 2020)
A.Drummond, Law, Politics and Power: Sallust and the Execution of the Catilinarian Conspirators (Historia Einzelschriften 93; Stuttgart, 1995)
A.R.Dyck, Cicero: Catilinarians (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics; Cambridge, 2008)
B.M.Levick, Catiline (London, 2015)
C.Macdonald, Cicero, vol. 10: In Catilinam I-IV, Pro Murena, Pro Sulla, Pro Flacco (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1977)
J.T.Ramsey, Sallust's Bellum Catilinae, ed. 2 (New York, 2007)
R.Syme, Sallust (Berkeley etc., 1964)
T.P.Wiseman, "The peasants' revolt and the bankrupts' plot", in J.A.Crook et al. (eds), The Cambridge Ancient History, ed. 2, vol. 9 (Cambridge, 1994), 346-58
A.J.Woodman, Sallust: Catiline's War, The Jugurthine War, Histories (Penguin Classics; London, 2007) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
On completion of the course, students will have attained an ability to read political speeches and narrative accounts carefully and critically, to grasp some of the basic principles of criminal law, and to recognise and understand techniques of oral and written persuasion.
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Dominic Berry
Tel: (0131 6)50 3590
Email: |
Course secretary | |
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