Current Courses
The Classics Department offers courses in Greek, Latin, and classical civilization. See everything that Classics has to offer in the Course Catalog.
Classics Courses
- Jump to:
- Fall 2024
- Spring 2024
- Winter 2024
Fall 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Ancient Greek History
CLAS 225 - van Diepen, Lily
This course is an introduction to ancient Greek history from the Bronze Age to Alexander the Great, with emphasis on the remarkable and often brutal world of the Archaic and Classical Greeks. During this time, warfare is a constant, but the legacy of the Greeks also contains radical experiments in egalitarian political life, philosophy, art, literature and science that emerge from their dynamic history. Most of our readings are from the ancient sources themselves, including Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Aristotle, and Plutarch. Apart from learning the history, therefore, we also ask such questions as how to interpret primary sources and how to resolve conflicts among them.
Topics in Classical Civilization: Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient World
CLAS 295B - Chalmers, Matthew J.
Spring 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Topics in Classical Civilization: The Image & Influence of the Roman Emperor
CLAS 295D - Brobeck, Emma
This course explores the image of the Roman emperor in literature, art, architecture, and society in ancient Rome. Students learn the history of four key dynasties of the Roman Empire from the Julio-Claudians to the Severans. Class readings and discussion explore how the emperors interacted with the populace and how they were in turn depicted by others. Secondary topics such as historiography, numismatics, iconography, and epigraphy are built into the analysis of each imperial dynasty. Course work emphasizes core research materials and databases within the field of Classics and gives students an in-depth understanding of the processes for interpreting the role of the emperor in ancient Rome. Collaborative work will further enhance student understanding of methods of analysis of ancient written and material remains from the Roman Empire.
Winter 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Topics in Classical Civilization: The Tragedy of Troy
CLAS 295E - Loar, Matthew P.
This course will examine how authors both ancient and modern have used stories of the Trojan War to probe themes of grief, loss, and the healing power of community. We will read Homer’s Iliad as a handbook for PTSD, discuss Greek tragedy as a technology for griefwork, and explore modern adaptations of these ancient texts as mechanisms for processing the traumas of war. Far from glorifying violence and displays of valor, this class will highlight the many ways that war damages people and communities – sometimes irreparably – and how art and literature can sometimes, slowly and with luck, begin to heal.
CLAS345-01/LJS345-01 Introduction to Roman Law
CLAS 345 - Crotty, Kevin M.
Law is one of the most important legacies Rome has left behind--one that continues in importance to this day, not only for its historical interest, but as an excellent introduction to basic legal concepts that still function in modern legal systems. In this introductory course, we study the history of Roman law, particularly as it mirrored the largest developments in Roman constitutional history. We also study some of the most basic legal concepts of the person, family, property and obligations. We will also consider criminal law, international law, and the role of rhetoric. We approach these matters both through case law and by reading ancient Roman treatises on law.
Latin Courses
- Jump to:
- Fall 2024
- Spring 2024
- Winter 2024
Fall 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Elementary Latin
LATN 101 - Benefiel, Rebecca R.
An introduction to Latin language and Roman culture. Students will learn about the structure of language, and will focus on the acquisition of Latin vocabulary and grammar.
Intermediate Latin
LATN 201 - Dance, Caleb M.
Reading selections from some or all of the following: Cato, Nepos, Cicero, Caesar, Sallust, and Varro. Emphasis on style and syntax, along with the political and social background of the later Republican period.
Letters of Cicero and Pliny
LATN 310 - Benefiel, Rebecca R.
This course examines different styles and purposes of letter writing in the Roman world, focusing on the historically revealing letters of Cicero and Pliny, but also including samples from the Epistles of Horace and Seneca, as well as a few fictional letters by Ovid.
Spring 2024▲
We do not offer any courses this term.
Winter 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Elementary Latin
LATN 102 - Brobeck, Emma
A continuation of the materials and methods in LATN 101 with emphasis on syntax.
Practicum: Latin in the Schools
LATN 200 - Brobeck, Emma
A service-learning course in which W&L students design a curriculum and teach beginning Latin in the local elementary school.
Introduction to Latin Poetry
LATN 202 - Crotty, Kevin M.
Introduction to the language, meter, and style of Latin verse with readings from Horace, Ovid, Virgil, and Propertius.
Topics in Latin Literature: Martial and Roman Epigram
LATN 395E - Brobeck, Emma
In this course students will read a selection of poems from the Roman poet Martial in the original Latin. Martial wrote extensively about life in the early Roman Empire, and topics in class will include Roman social life, politics, gender, and sexuality. Additionally, students will explore Martial’s engagement with other Roman poets and how he defines the style of poem known as epigram for a Roman audience. By the end of the course students will have a thorough understanding of epigram as a poetic genre as well as what life was like in first century Rome.
Greek Courses
- Jump to:
- Fall 2024
- Spring 2024
- Winter 2024
Fall 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Elementary Ancient Greek
GR 101 - Laughy, Michael H.
An introduction to the ancient Greeks through a study of their language and material culture. This course focuses upon the essentials of grammar and vocabulary of Classical and Koine (Biblical) Greek. Language lessons are complemented with an introduction to Classical archaeology, with a focus on ancient Athens.
Intermediate Ancient Greek
GR 201 - Laughy, Michael H.
Readings in Greek prose.
The Greek Historians
GR 306 - Laughy, Michael H.
Herodotus and Thucydides through Greek texts and English translations; Greek historiography and its relationship to tragic, epic and philosophical literature.
Spring 2024▲
We do not offer any courses this term.
Winter 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Elementary Ancient Greek
GR 102 - Laughy, Michael H.
A continuation of GR 101. Further work on grammar and vocabulary of Classical and Koine (Biblical) Greek. Language lessons are complemented with an introduction of ancient Greek history, with a focus upon the Persia, Athens, and Sparta.
Homer
GR 202 - Laughy, Michael H.
An introduction to the language of Homer and to the Greek oral and written tradition; a reading of the Iliad or the Odyssey in Greek and in translation.
Topics in Advanced Greek Literature: Greek Lyric Poetry
GR 395D - Laughy, Michael H.
This course is an introduction to the Greek Lyric Poets, the immediate successors to Homer and Hesiod. The rapid developments in the political and social life of the seventh- and sixth-century Greek world form much of the background to these “poets of the lyre,” who composed captivating, memorable first-person accounts and insights into their world, such as in Ionia (Anacreon), Sparta (Alcman), Lesbos (Sappho), Italy (Ibycus), and elsewhere. As such, much of the course consists in thematic discussions of the poems, as well as discussions of dialect, meter, performance, and transmission.