Paper 1: Latin Texts and Paper 2: Latin and Greek Language

Aims and objectives

1. To introduce students to the Latin language and to develop their knowledge, abilities and skills towards the supported reading of original Latin texts and the independent reading of short passages from a variety of Latin authors.
2. To foster and enhance students' understanding of the structure and functioning of the Latin language.
3. To support students' acquisition and understanding of Latin vocabulary.
4. To introduce students to the fundamentals of the Greek language.
5. To offer guidance in the reading of texts in connection with students' work for Papers 1 to 4.

Scope and structure of the examination papers 2026-27

Paper 1. Latin texts. This paper is a 3-hour exam (not including reasonable adjustments). It consists of Section A: two short translations of passages from the set texts; Section B: one critical discussion from a choice of 2 passages from set texts (Res Gestae and Catullusonly); Section C: one passage from the set texts for linguistic structures questions and scansion (if applicable).

Paper 2A. Latin and Greek Language (option A) is intended for candidates who did not have GCSE (or equivalent) Latin on admission to the University. This paper is a 3-hour exam (not including reasonable adjustments). It consists of Section A: two unseen passages for translation (words found on the Prelims weekly vocabulary lists [available on Moodle] will not be glossed and words found in the set texts will not normally be glossed, but in the case of the latter Examiners reserve the right to gloss such words if it is deemed necessary); Section B: five English-into-Latin sentences; Section C: Greek exercise(s) appropriate to the level up to Reading Greek section 7. In exceptional circumstances, on proposal of the relevant Director of Studies, the Language Teaching Committee may decide to recommend to the Education Committee that a candidate be allowed to take different option of Paper 2 than the one which they would normally be assigned to.

Paper 2B. Latin and Greek Language (option B) is intended for candidates who had GCSE or AS-level (or their equivalents) Latin on admission to the University. This paper is a 3-hour exam (not including reasonable adjustments). It consists of Section A: two unseen passages for translation (words found on the Prelims weekly vocabulary lists [available on Moodle] will not be glossed and words found in the set texts will not normally be glossed, but in the case of the latter Examiners reserve the right to gloss such words if it is deemed necessary); Section B: five English-into-Latin sentences; Section C: Greek exercise(s) appropriate to the level up to Reading Greek section 7. In exceptional circumstances, on proposal of the relevant Director of Studies, the Language Teaching Committee may decide to recommend to the Education Committee that a candidate be allowed to take different option of Paper 2 than the one which they would normally be assigned to.

Passages from the set texts presented in examinations will follow the prescribed editions listed below.

Course descriptions

All candidates for the Four Year Course receive one grammar lecture and one grammar class per week for MT and LT. All examples are taken from this year's set texts. Every lecture has a pre-recorded video, slides and handouts (all on Moodle). In Michaelmas the classes will have 3 hours of reading classes and in Lent either 3 or 2 hours depending on which group you are in, in Easter candidates receive two hours of reading classes per week plus one hour for unseen practice. The schedule of set text reading breaks down as follows: Augustus Res Gestae in Michaelmas, Ovid Metamorphoses 3 in Lent, Catullus (1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 15, 29, 32, 35, 48, 50, 51, 58, 70, 72, 75, 83, 85, 87, 100, 101) in Easter.

The prescribed edition for Augustus Res Gestae will be provided in class. The prescribed edition for Ovid Met. 3 is Richard Tarrant's Oxford Classical Text; copies will be provided in class. The prescibed edition for Catullus is John Godwin, Catullus: the Shorter Poems, Warminster(Aris and Phillips), 1999. In Lent and Easter term these classes will also include an introduction to Greek.

We shall work through Sections 1-7 of the Reading Greek course (2nd edition CUP 2007) both the Text and Vocabulary and the Grammar and Exercises coponents.

These four lectures will survey Latin literature, placing the major works in their historical context and setting out the basics of literary genre. Sample passages of prose and poetry will be studied via handouts.

Introductory reading: Susanna Braund's Latin Literature (2002) and Richard Jenkyns' Classical Literature (2015) provide engaging introductions.

These two lectures form part of the Part IA course ‘ROMA/AMOR: from Republic to Empire’ (see here). Four-year students are expected to attend the lectures on Res Gestae in their first (Prelim.) year. The Res Gestae will also features variously in introductory lecture courses on history, art and archaeology, and linguistics.

This course will provide an introduction to the Metamorphoses via close readings of portions of Book III. By reading the stories of Cadmus, Actaeon, Narcissus, and Pentheus we shall examine Ovid's engagement with earlier epic, his descriptions of natural terrain, his explorations of auto-eroticism and the thin line between human and animal, and the ways in which Dionysiac religion fluctuates between joy and savage violence.

Introductory readings:

The chapters on Metamorphoses in Philip Hardie (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ovid (Cambridge, 2002); a recent short introduction is Gareth Williams, On Ovid'sMetamorphoses (New York, 2022).

Recommended editions:

The Faculty will distribute a text and some notes based on the edition of A.A.R. Henderson (Bristol, 1991 and often reprinted). Another basic edition is Donald E. Hill, Ovid. Metamorphoses I-IV (Warminster, 1985). Much more advanced is Alessandro Barchiesi's commentary in A. Barchiesi and G. Rosati, A commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses. Volume 1 (Cambridge, 2024) (scholarly). Also useful: Ingo Gildenhard and Andrew Zissos, Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.511-733 (at https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0073]) (aimed at school students but going well beyond A-level).

Catullus is one of the best-loved and most influential of all Roman poets. This series of lectures introduces his poems, with special attention to the selection prescribed for Prelim. candidates; topics include poetic tradition and innovation, Lesbia and other loves, and the politics of Catullus’ poetry. The recommended commentary is John Godwin’s Catullus. The shorter poems, Warminster (Aris & Phillips), 1999. For introductory reading try Marilyn B. Skinner A companion to Catullus, Malden, MA (Blackwell), 2007.

Practical guidance in approaching and structuring critical discussion of passages from ancient texts. Examples and hands-on practice drawn from the Prelim set texts.

This course may discuss any passage from the Prelim set texts and the issues raised.

All scholarly reading and writing about literature is ‘theoretical’, in the sense that it rests upon ideas about what literature is, what it is for, and what it means. The aims of this course are three-fold: firstly, to allow students to understand better what are the hidden assumptions that underpin the way that they have been brought up to read; secondly, to help them understand the range of alternative options available; and thirdly, to give them practical tips to allow them to expand their literary-critical toolkits. The lectures will be accessible — no prior knowledge is assumed — and will benefit any student with any interest in reading ancient literature either as literature or in historical terms. The lectures will cover the more established areas of theory, including narratology, deconstruction and feminism, and also newer fields like ecocriticism and new materialism. A good place for the curious to start is Jonathan Culler’s accessible Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2011).