Description and Objectives

This course will include a perusal and translation of selections from Seneca’s Epistles and Tragedies.

Textbooks

Ker, James, A Seneca Reader: Selections from Prose and Tragedy (ISBN 978-0-86516-758-2)

Course Requirements

To read and translate selections from Seneca’s Epistles and Tragedies

Course Expectations

• The student will be expected to prepare for in-class translation about 10-20 lines of Seneca’s prose or dramatic writings 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.