TEXTS:

Do Not Print This Syllabus; It Is In Flux

Brief description of course

Having trouble with Roman names? Here is a guide

Chronology with maps giving an outline of major events in Republican history and various maps showing the growth of the Romans' territory

List of magistrates 134-43 BCE with brief notes about persons and events

Map of the Roman Empire and Map of Roman Provinces

August
29  Introduction. Background of Republican history

Troubles in the oligarchy; the military and its problems

September

2  Plutarch Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, Introduction and Lives (pp. 77-115)

5  Labor Day

It may come in handy to know that the Romans had their own political jargon

Marius' new army and Sulla the darling of Fortune

7  Appian 1.28; Sallust BJ chapters 1-8 (pp. 35-115) (you might skim chapters 2-4; if you want, read the Introduction to Sallust pp. 15-33)

Reading notes for Sallust's Jugurthine War

9  Sallust BJ chapters 9-12 (pp. 116-148)

Generals and demagogues

12  Introduction to Sallust BC pp. 151-157; Appian, Mithradatic Wars 10-28 (xerox)

Background on Mithradates VI

Another place where you can find information on Mithradates with pictures

14  Plutarch Marius, Introduction and Life §§1-32 (pp. 116-153)

  A Portrait of Marius

16  Plutarch Marius Life §§33-46 (pp. 153-168); Appian 1.28-75

Roman justice

A Portrait of Sulla

If you don't like that one, try this

21  Cicero Pro Roscio Amerino (DS) Introduction pp. xi-xxx, §§1-82 (pp. 3-34)

  A Portrait of Cicero

23  Cicero Pro Roscio Amerino (DS) §§83-154 (pp. 34-56)

Sulla's disciples

  A Portrait of Pompey

If you want to find out who Sertorius is, how many eyes he had, and why he was like Achilles, look here

For those who are interested, there are five parts to the second book of Cicero's prosecution of Verres, and a preface to the whole series of orations, the Divinatio in Caecilium, the pleading whereby Cicero won the right to prosecute Verres:
Eliminating collusion between prosecutor and accused
Verres' misdeeds as city praetor
Verres' misdeeds as judge in Sicily
Verres' misdeeds regarding the grain supply
Verres' thefts of works of art
Verres' idea of appropriate punishments

What Cicero thought of Verres' defense attorney: In Verrem 2.5.175 Tulit haec civitas quoad potuit, quoad necesse fuit, regiam istam vestram dominationem in iudiciis et in omni re publica, tulit!

Foreign wars and domestic strife

October
3  Plutarch Cicero §§10-27; Asconius' commentary on one of Cicero's campaign speeches, with fragments of the speech: In Toga Candida; Introduction to Sallust BC pp.157-171; Appian 2.1-7

Defending a crime (?) nearly forty years after the event: In Defense of Rabirius

5  Sallust BC chapters 1-5 (pp.175-214)

7  Cicero First Oration against Catiline, Second Oration against Catiline, Third Oration against Catiline

NOTE: For each of these orations, go to the bottom of the page for the tiny link ('next page'). It is probably a good idea to copy the text into one file and print it out, at least for the oration(s) which pertain especially to your character.

For the first two Catilinarian orations only, there are alternative links where the text already appears all on one page: First Oration against Catiline, First Oration against Catiline
Second Oration against Catiline, Second Oration against Catiline

The Athenian historian Thucydides was the source of Sallust's inspiration for the debate

12  Debate on the conspiracy

Choose your characters

14  Fall Recess

17  Cicero Pro Murena (DS) Introduction and §§1-90 (pp. 59-106)

19  Cicero Pro Archia (DS) Introduction, §§1-32 (pp. 107-121), in defense of a poet, and of literature. Please read the oration itself (pp.110-121; it is only 12 pages long) three times, and take different notes each time, as follows:

1. What is the sense of the oration as a whole?
2. What are the transitions of thought? (or, What is the structure of the argument and how does one topic lead to another?)
3. What is remarkable about individual turns of phrase, expressions, figures of speech or rhetorical expressions?

    Some Rhetorical Terms

The Three-headed monster

A Portrait of Caesar

Poets and Philosophy

28  Lucretius Books 3-4

November

2  Cicero Speech of Thanks to the Citizens (Post reditum ad Quirites) (xerox); Cicero, Letters to Quintus nos.3-4 (xerox); Plutarch Cicero §§28-34; Catullus Poems nos. 1, 5-8, 10-17, 21-28, 35-45

4  Cicero Pro Caelio (DS)

7  Catullus Poems nos. 51-52, 70, 72, 75-77, 79, 83, 85-88, 92, 107; Cicero Letter 20 to Lentulus Spinther (xerox), Letters to Quintus nos.5-7, 9 (xerox)

9  Plutarch Cicero §§35-36; Cicero Pro Milone (DS); Appian 2.20-25

Caesar

11  Plutarch Caesar §§15-27; Caesar BG books 1-2

14  Caesar BG book 5

16  Caesar BG book 7

Civil war

18  Cicero Letters 81-85, 92-98, 148-157 (xerox); Aulus Hirtius BG 8.48-54 (this is in Caesar BG pp. 219-222; Hirtius, who would be one of the consuls of 43 BCE, continued the account of the conquest of Gaul when Caesar did not finish it); Plutarch Pompey §§56-79; Appian 2.26-69

21  Appian 2.70-105; Plutarch Caesar §§28-57, Cicero §§37-39

28  Cicero Off. Book 2

30  Cicero Off. Book 3

December

2  Cicero Pro Marcello (xerox) ; Appian 2.106-154; Plutarch Caesar §§58-69, Plutarch Cicero §§40-49

5  Cicero First Philippic (xerox); Appian 3.1-98

The most well known of the other Philippics:
Philippic II
Philippic IX
Philippic XIV

7  Appian 4.1-51; Plutarch Antony §§1-35

16 at 12:00 noon  Final Examination

Final grade will be based upon: TBD

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