MW 2.30-3.50 LI 442
http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/courses/2000spring/cl302/
Ladd 209 x5462 Hours MTuTh 11-12
email: marnush@skidmore.edu
| Texts Schedule |
Pompeii, Naples Arch. Museum |
| CL302
Petronius' Satyrica
MW 2.30-3.50 LI 442 http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/courses/2000spring/cl302/ |
Prof.
Michael Arnush
Ladd 209 x5462 Hours MTuTh 11-12 email: marnush@skidmore.edu |
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During
the Hellenistic era, the age between the death of Alexander in 323 BC and
the principate of Augustus in 31 BC, the literary genre of the novel developed
and flourished. Not surprisingly, Greek schools of rhetoric served as one
of the backdrops for the origins of the novel, for it was there that students
articulated imaginary and fantastic stories as they practiced their declamation.
Other literary developments in Greece and further east - Milesian tales
and Menippean satire - contributed to the beginnings of the novel, including
romantic narratives from the ancient Near East. Finally, there are the
works of such great Roman satirists as Horace and Lucilius which had an
extraordinary impact on the development of the novel. By the first century
A.D., Roman Silver Age authors made significant strides in improving this
literary genre. We will examine the earliest Latin manifestation of the
novel: Petronius’ Satyrica. C. Petronius Niger (floruit 50-65
AD), arbiter elegantiae to the court of the Emperor Nero (54-68
AD), framed and gave shape to the Roman conception of the novelistic form.
Our focus will be on a set-piece within the larger work: the Cena Trimalchionis
or the “Dinner of Trimalchio.”
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Michael Arnush |
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Maintained by Michael Arnush, Classics Department
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866
518 580-5462