Undergraduate Course: Cicero the Advocate (LATI10019)
Course Outline
School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
Summary | This course will provide an introduction to Roman forensic oratory through a study of a selection of Cicero's defence speeches from the early to the mid-first century BC. The speeches will be studied from both a literary and a historical perspective, with special attention being paid to techniques of persuasion.
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Course description |
The course will set the various trials in their historical context, consider whether the defendants are likely to have been guilty, and examine how Cicero rises to the challenge of speaking in his clients' defence. There will be a focus on Roman politics, and on matters of rhetoric and style. The speeches will be read partly in Latin and partly in English translation. The course will be particularly valuable in enabling Latin students who may previously have studied little or no Roman history to become expert in the particular historical moments from which the speeches derive.
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Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 courses in Classics related subject matter (at least 2 of which should be in Latin) at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses but Elementary or Intermediate Latin courses will not count. Students beyond Intermediate level but with less Latin than the prerequisite should consider taking either Latin 2A/2B. |
High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, command of the body of knowledge considered in the course
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others.
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Reading List
M.C.Alexander, The Case for the Prosecution in the Ciceronian Era (Ann Arbor, 2002)
Cicero: Defence Speeches, tr. D.H.Berry (Oxford, 2000; revised 2008)
M.L.Clarke, rev. D.H.Berry, Rhetoric at Rome: a Historical Survey3 (London, 1996)
A.R.Dyck, Cicero: Pro Sexto Roscio (Cambridge, 2010)
A.R.Dyck, Cicero: Pro Caelio (Cambridge, 2013)
G.A.Kennedy, The Art of Rhetoric in the Roman World, 300 BC-AD 300 (Princeton, 1972)
C.Macdonald, Cicero: Pro Murena (London, 1969)
J.G.F.Powell and J.J.Paterson (eds), Cicero the Advocate (Oxford, 2004)
E.D.Rawson, Cicero: a Portrait (London, 1975)
A.M.Riggsby, Crime and Community in Ciceronian Rome (Austin, 1999)
C.E.W.Steel, Roman Oratory (Cambridge, 2006)
T.P.Wiseman, Catullus and his World: a Reappraisal (Cambridge, 1985)
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Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
Special Arrangements |
In order for a student from outwith Classics to be enrolled, contact must be made with a Course Secretary on 50 3580 in order for approval to be obtained. |
Keywords | Cicero / Advocate |
Contacts
Course organiser | Dr Dominic Berry
Tel: (0131 6)50 3590
Email: d.h.berry@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Rachel Ord
Tel:
Email: Rachel.Ord@ed.ac.uk |
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