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Semester 1

Monsters, Murder and Mayhem: Biography in the Ancient World (CLTR10014)

Subject

Classical Literature in Translation

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 Classics courses at grade B or above (at least 2 of which should be in Classical Literature), including an equivalent to Ancient History 2a: Past and Present in the Ancient World (ANHI08014). We will only consider University/College level courses. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

This course will look at biography from the Greek world through to late antiquity in order to reconstruct the lives of prominent Greeks and Romans. We will also attempt to understand the historical circumstances under which these works were written.

Course Description

This course will look at biography throughout antiquity and the ways in which it reconstructed the lives of prominent individuals. Authors and works to be studied include the Old Testament, Xenophon, Nepos, the Gospels, Suetonius, Plutarch, and the Historia Augusta. Discussion will centre on the question of what constitutes biography, the way in which biography was used by individual authors and what it can reveal about the period in which it was composed.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 50%, Coursework 50%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a Classics or HCA exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in two 3rd year Classics courses each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a third course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the extremely limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course