Description and Objectives

This course will include a perusal and translation of selections from Petronius’s Satyricon, in particular the famous (or infamous) Cena Trimalchionis.

Textbooks

Lawall, Gilbert, Petronius: Selections from the Satyricon (ISBN 978-0-86516-288-4)

Course Requirements

To read and translate selections from Petronius’s Satyricon

Course Expectations

• The student will be expected to prepare for in-class translation about 10-20 lines of Petronius’s prose writing in Latin per class meeting.

Goals for Student Learning

• The student will sharpen his skill in thinking and communicating. This skill will be acquired, as it usually is, by reading some of the sharpest thinkers and communicators the world has ever known.
• The student will have such mastery of the grammar and syntax of the language, the most important tools, e.g., lexica, reference grammars and commentaries, and the most frequently encountered vocabulary, that he will be able to read classical Latin texts as literature.

Successful Students

The students successful in this course will: 

• study Latin at least fifteen minutes every day of the week, and will
• seek extra help at the first signs of difficulty, not only from the instructor, who is available before/after school and during Mass Study Hall, but also from classmates.