Courses for sUMMER 2013




LATN 5090 L11  Latin for Reading   Sogno   Session I (May 28-June 27)   MW 6:00-9:00 PM  Lincoln Center

LATN 5093 R21  Ecclesiastical Latin   Clark   Session II (July 2-August 6)   MW 6:00-9:00 PM Rose Hill




Courses for fall 2013



Fall 2013 courses begin at fordham on August 28.

CLAS 8800.1	Greek Epigraphy	CUNY at NYU	Kellogg	Mon. 4:15
CLAS 8802.1	Ecphrasis [description below]	NYU	Konstan	Mon. 6:30
CLAS 8803.1	Education in Greece and Rome [description below]	NYU	Cribriore	Tues. 4:15
CLAS 8804.1	Greece and the Mediterranean in the Archaic and Classical Periods: Materials, Methods, and Debates [description below]	NYU	Kowalzig	Tues. 6:30
CLAS 8811.1	Pindar	CUNY	Lidov	Wed. 4:15
CLAS 8824.1	Greek Rhetoric and Composition	CUNY	Kowersky	Wed. 6:30
GREK 6361.1	Euripides [description below]	Fordham Lincoln Ctr. Rm. 404	Peirce	Thurs. 4:15
LATN 6454.1	Livy's First Pentad [description below]	Fordham Lincoln Ctr. Rm. 404	Penella	Thurs. 6:30
MVST 5050.1	World of Late Antiquity [description below]	Fordham Rose Hill (Bronx) FMH 416	Sogno/McFadden	Wed. 5:00-7:30

Ecphrasis - Prof. Konstan
     Although the term "ecphrasis" was used in ancient handbooks of rhetoric to denote a lively or vivid descriptive technique, it has since come to designate the verbal description of a work of art, and this latter sense defines the topic of this course.  We will survey Greek ecphrases, beginning with the "Shield of Achilles" in the Iliad and the Hesiodic Shield of Heracles, examine examples of the device in drama and epigram, and carry our investigation down to Roman times with a look at texts by Lucian, Pausanias, the two Philostrati, and Callistratus, among others.  Among the questions we will examine are: How is time treated in narrative accounts of static works of art?  What aesthetic values are revealed or implicit in ecphrases, and how do they measure up to surviving art works and modern conceptions of beauty and artistic merit?  Do ecphrases constitute a literary genre?  How do ecphrases relate to or illustrate rhetorical ideals of vividness or enargeia?

Education in Greece and Rome - Prof. Cribiore
     This course will cover questions regarding ancient education from Plato and the sophists to Hellenistic and late Roman times.  Students will inquire about literacy in antiquity, the location of schools, the existence of a fixed curriculum from the Hellenistic age on, and the place education (especially upper education) had in society.  Particular emphasis will be put on rhetorical education.  The course will be based on literary and archaeological sources.

Greece and the Mediterranean in the Archaic and Classical Periods - Prof. Kowalzig
     This seminar is designed to provide a foundation for students in Greek and Mediterranean history and archaeology, surveying historical narratives, problems, debates and methods in studying the archaic and classical periods.  We will cover Greece and the Mediterranean from the Dark Ages to Alexander in the light of recent research in classics, and of contemporary approaches in neighboring fields, such as modern history, cultural and economic anthropology and the quantitative social sciences.  The course will offer an introduction to methodologies for studying ancient texts from Homer to Arrian in a historical perspective, and to Greek epigraphy, and will also include materials from art and archaeology.  All ancient materials will be read in translation.

Euripides - Prof. Peirce
     This class will focus on a close reading of Euripides's Bacchae and Cyclops, with attention to conventions of tragic language in particular.  We will look at the genres of tragedy and satyr play, their formal characteristics and their relationship, historical and formal.  We will also consider important issues of religion in these two plays, in particular the Dionysiac mysteries, sacrifice, and ritual pollution; the class will thus provide an introduction to the study of Greek religion.

Livy's First Pentad - Prof. Penella
     Selections from Livy's first pentad will be read in Latin, the rest in English.  We shall consider how the history of early Rome was narrated and what it meant to an Augustan historian.  The emphasis will be on historiography, ideology,and literary analysis.  The first pentad will be read as a "book" with closure and preoccupation with a number of recurring antitheses (war and peace, monarchy and tyranny, tyranny and libertas, patricians and plebeians, foundation and destruction, foundation and refoundation).
 
World of Late Antiquity - Profs. Sogno/McFadden
     The legacy of Gibbon's masterpiece Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has exercised a great and lasting influence on the way in which the world of Late Antiquity is perceived and presented, but the work of Peter Brown and other scholars has offered a powerful alternative to the Gibbonian concept of inevitable decline.  The two opposing concepts of "crisis" and "transformation" now co-exist as interpretive frameworks in the flourishing field of Late Antiquity and continue to inspire thought-provoking studies about this fascinating and enigmatic period, which defies easy explanation.  The course offers an introduction to the late antique world by surveying the history, art, and culture of the Roman Empire from the third to the sixth century.  We shall analyze both primary sources and monuments and examine critically the secondary literature that studies them.