107-409 Roman Literature and Society

37.5 points at second/third year in classics and archaeology see Prerequisites for third year. Admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours see Honours entry for fourth year.

This subject examines Roman literature from the last years of Augustus to the reign of Nero. Commonly characterised as a time of increasing tyranny, corruption, madness and crime, this period produced a varied and powerful literature which deals not only with blood, guts and insanity but with subtle issues of power, social relationships, art and sexuality which were fundamental to the dynamics of Roman elite culture at this time. Students should develop a knowledge of a range of genres from epic, elegy and satire to drama and the ancient novel. Texts studied include Ovid's Metamorphoses, Lucan's Civil War, the tragedies of Seneca and Petronius' novel of Roman low-life, the Satyricon.