Università Roma Tre

The course is aimed at providing a more complete domain of the Latin language, also for a better understanding of the Italian language. A prose text (Sallust’s Bellum Iugurthinum) and a part of a poem (Lucan’s Bellum civile) will be read in original and explicated as regards both the language and the contents. For this purpose the course consists of:
(1) A number of lessons minded in particular to offer an overview of the main aspects of phonetics, morphology and syntax of the Latin language, with notions of prosody and metrics;
(2) Setting, reading, italian translation and commentary of:
- (a) Sallust’s Bellum Iugurthinum (full text)
- (b) Lucan’s Bellum civile (I 98-182; IX 734-838).

As for (1):
- R. Oniga, Latin: A Linguistic Introduction, edited and translated by N. Schifano, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014.
- S. Timpanaro, Nozioni elementari di prosodia e metrica latina, Firenze, 1953 [a .pdf copy of this book, currently not in print, will be made available on line at the url of the course].
- Further bibliography and tools about the texts in the syllabus will be given during the course, and made available on line at the url of the course.

As for (2):
- (a) Sallustio, La guerra contro Giugurta, traduzione e note di L. Piazzi, introduzione di G. Brescia, Milano, Rusconi, 2016 (or G. Crispo Sallustio, La guerra di Giugurta; prefazione, traduzione e note di L. Storoni Mazzolani, Milano, BUR 1976 and various reprints);
- (b) A. Luceri, Il ritorno dell’epos storico: il Bellum civile di Lucano, in A. Fusi - A. Luceri - P. Parroni - G. Piras (a cura di), Lo Spazio Letterario di Roma antica, vol. VI (I Testi. 1 – Poesia), Roma, Salerno Editrice, 2009, pp. 98-117.


Non-attending students will integrate the program with the individual study of the following text: - A. Traina - G. Bernardi Perini, Propedeutica al latino universitario (preferably, 6th ed. revised and updated by C. Marangoni, Bologna, Pàtron, 2007).