This course is designed to develop your newly-acquired ability to read Latin. Your primary goal is to become a more fluent reader of Latin prose through practice, review of grammar and syntax, improved knowledge of vocabulary, and the development of varied reading strategies. Our regular class meetings will thus be devoted to working through the textbook The Satyricon of Petronius, which provides grammatical review and adapted readings from Petronius’ Satyricon. For each chapter, I will introduce the forms and syntax under review, we will translate and discuss the exercises based on that grammar, then we will read the passage from Petronius’ novel. Scheduled vocabulary and grammar quizzes, the occasional pop quiz, composition and other exercises will enliven our weeks. You and your classmates have the unique opportunity to be the first users of this textbook, written this past summer by myself and your colleague Chris Larabee, Macalester ‘11, and we will be eager to hear your comments and suggestions for improvement.

Reading Latin is supposed to be about enjoying literature, however, not memorizing forms. I would like to emphasize this part of the course as much as possible. To this end we will read all that survives of the Satyricon in translation, as well as a series of short commentaries on related historical, literary and cultural themes. All of these are designed to enrich our frequent and lively classroom discussions, which give meaning to your ability to read Latin prose in the original. Finally, out of these discussions will grow a selection of a different author and text to study and compare for the last few weeks of the term.