The Epistolary Genre in Rome
Code: 104202 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient Studies | OB | 3 |
| English and Classics Studies | OB | 3 |
Contact
- Name:
- Joan Carbonell Manils
- Email:
- joan.carbonell@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
The linguistic knowledge learnt in the first-year and second-year subjects, specially in "Historiografia i Oratòria Llatines" are taken for granted, and will not be explained again.
To attend this subject it is highly recommended to have passed "Historiografia i Oratoria Llatines".
Objectives and Contextualisation
After taking the course, students will be able to:
- Apply quick comprehension techniques of a Latin text with the help of the dictionary.
- Understand a Latin prose (eventually in vers) text (1st-2nd centuries aD) without using the dictionary.
- Translate a text in prose epistolary form up to 15 lines in a 1.30h.
- Make a grammatical, metric and stylistic commentar about a latin text written in epitolary form.
- Resolve issues about authors studied and their works and context .
- Associate the content of texts translated in class with aspects of its reception & subsequent tradition.
Competences
- Ancient Studies
- Apply grammatical knowledge acquired in the analysis and comprehension of Latin and Greek texts.
- Be able to express oneself orally and in writing in the specific language of history, archaeology and philology, both in one's own languages and a third language.
- Interpret texts written in Latin and Greek to understand the history and Classical civilisations.
- Interrelate linguistic, historical and archaeological knowledge of the ancient world with knowledge of other areas of the humanities, mainly ancient literature, philosophy and art.
- Make a commentary on a literary texts applying knowledge of genres, metrics and stylistics.
- English and Classics Studies
- Apply the methodology of analysis and knowledge of genres, metrics and stylistics to comment on literary texts and analyse the culture and history of English-speaking countries and the ancient world.
- Demonstrate grammatical knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages and its application to the analysis and comprehension of Greek and Latin texts.
- Identify and interpret literary texts of different languages, analysing the generic, formal, thematic and cultural features according to concepts and methods of comparative literature and literary theory.
- Interpret written texts in Latin and Greek to learn about classical history and civilizations.
- Interrelate linguistic and historical knowledge of the ancient world with knowledge of other fields of the humanities, mainly literature and archaeology.
- Produce effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in distinct languages.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyze the morphosyntactic components of a Latin text identifying those are specific of a literary genre or a particular linguistic variant.
- Explain the gist of a text without any need for a prior morpho-syntactic analysis or the use of a dictionary.
- Extract information from the Greek and Latin texts on aspects of realia especially related to their historical and cultural context.
- Extract information from the Latin texts on aspects of realia especially related to their historical and cultural context.
- Identify in the Latin texts the characteristics of a particular literary genre.
- Preparing an oral and written discourse in the corresponding language in a proper and organized way.
- Recognise the themes and clichés contained in the Latin works being studied in the European literary and artistic traditions.
- Recognise the themes and topics emanating from the Greek works studied in the European literary and artistic traditions.
- Translate fragments of the Latin works proposed.
- Translate fragments of the proposed Latin works.
- Use rapid text-comprehension techniques based on the semantic resources provided by a knowledge of Catalan, Spanish and, where appropriate, other Romance languages.
- Use rapid text-comprehension techniques based on the semantic resources provided by the knowledge of Catalan, Spanish and, where necessary, other Romance languages.
- Write a morpho-syntactic commentary on a Latin text.
- Write a stylistic commentary on a Latin text.
Content
I. The epistolary genre in Rome
1. The epistolary genre in antiquity. Limits and definition.
2. The epistolary genre in Rome. Stages, characteristics, and authors.
3. The letters before Cicero. Cornelia to her son Caius Gracus.
4. Cicero's letters, a personal diary.
5. The epistles in verse.
5.1. Horace. Literary epistles.
5.2. Ovid. Fiction (Heroidum epistulae) vs. reality (Tristia and ex Ponto)
6. The Epistles of Pliny the Younger. Naturality vs. facticity
7. The Epistles of Seneca. A didactic-moral correspondence.
II. Anthology of texts
Cornelia to her son Caius Gracus (C. Nepos, de viris illustribus fragmenta 1)
Cicero.
Ad familiares 2, 4 (Kinds of letters)
Ad familiares 9, 1 (The friendship of books)
Ad familiares 14, 19-24 (Everyday issues)
Ad Atticum 1, 2 (Fatherhood. Catilina)
Ad Atticum 3, 5 (In exile)
Ad Atticum 4, 1 (Triumphal Return from Exile)
Ad Atticum 15, 15 (Hate for Cleopatra)
Horace, Ad Pisones (excerpts)
Ovid
Tristia 3, 7 (Letter to an unknown poetess)
Pliny the Younger, Epistularum libri decem
1, 3 (Carpe diem)
1, 6 (Hunting with writing instruments)
1, 11 (Write me, please!)
1, 15 (Invitation to dinner)
3, 14 (A master murdered by his serfs)
4, 19 (In praise of Calpúrnia)
5, 18 (Plini is happy for his friend)
6, 20 (What did Pliny do during eruption of Vesuvius)
7, 5 (Love for Calpurnia)
8, 9 (The value of friendship)
8, 17 (The floods of Tiber)
9, 36 (A normal day in the life of Plini)
10, 96 & 10, 97 (Christians)
Seneca, Ad Lucillium epistulae morales
1, 7 (Secluded life)
1, 8 (True Freedom)
III. Grammar
Students must have assimilated the linguistic contents of the previously studied subjects of “Latin Philology" in the first and second courses. Grammar will focus on:
- NOMINAL SYNTAX: infrequent and / or singular uses of cases
- PRONOMINAL MORFOSYNTAX
- interrrogative & indefinite pronouns
- numerical, ordinal & distributive pronouns
- VERBAL MORFOSYNTAX
- nominal uses of the participle
- use of the subjunctive in independent phrases
- SYNTAX OF THE COMPLEX SENTENCE:
- completive subordinate clauses
- adverbial subordinate clauses: causal (quod), conditional, consecutives, final, and comparative sentences
- ways to express purposE
IV. Prosody and stylistics
- The elegiac distich
V. Reception and tradition of authors and texts
Inthis subject, gender perspective will be taken intoaccount in the following aspects:
- Including contentsof both a general nature (role of women in the Roman society of the 1st century BC) as specific (female senders and recipients).
- Not allowing a sexist use of language in the students’ oral and written contributions.
- Guaranteeing in the classroom an atmosphere respectful with thediversity and plurality of ideas, people and politics.
- Avoiding gender stereotypes in examples.
- Writing, in the references, the full names of authors, instead of only the initial.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Reading comprehension | 4 | 0.16 | 6, 2, 11, 9, 10, 12 |
| Theoretical contents | 6 | 0.24 | 5, 8, 7 |
| Translation & comentary of texts | 40 | 1.6 | 1, 14, 13, 6, 3, 4, 5, 8, 7, 9, 10 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Exercies of prosody and translation | 5 | 0.2 | 14, 3, 4, 5, 8, 7 |
| Reading comprehension and morphosintactical exercises | 5 | 0.2 | 1, 13, 6, 2, 11, 12 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Daily translation exercices | 45 | 1.8 | 1, 13, 6, 11, 10, 9, 12 |
| Required readings | 15 | 0.6 | 3, 4, 8, 7 |
| Study of lexicon & grammar | 15 | 0.6 | 1, 14, 13 |
The classes will be eminently practical. The professor will dedicate time to:
- Read, translate and comment on the proposed selection of texts.
- Provide students with mechanisms that allow them to progressively increase the volume of translated text.
- Read and understand texts in sight without the use of the dictionary.
- Correct the texts translated daily by students.
- Discuss the linguistic, literary and sociocultural content of translated texts, with a singular emphasis on aspects related to their later tradition.
- Explain the grammatical, metrical and stylistic contents based on the text.
- Explain de realia contents that help contextualise the text.
Students will have to use a bilingual university dictionary; they will not be allowed to use a school dictionary
Students will be responsible for bringing the proposed text for translation and commentary daily.
Note: 15 minutes of a class will be reserved, within the timetable established by the centre/title, for the complementation by the students of the assessment surveys of the teaching staff's performance and the assessment of the subject
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| House exercices | 10% | 7 | 0.28 | 1, 13, 10, 9 |
| In-class exercices | 15% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 13, 2, 11, 9, 12 |
| Translation and commentary of a passage previous commented in class | 10% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 14, 13, 6, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 7, 9, 10 |
| Translation of a fragment not previously commented in class (up to 15 lines) | 45% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 14, 6, 3, 4, 5, 8, 7, 9, 10, 12 |
| Translation of a short passage not previous commented in class (up to 10 lines) | 20% | 1 | 0.04 | 14, 6, 11, 9, 10, 12 |
This subject/module does not incorporate single assessment
I. Assessment
The final grade will be calculated as follows:
- Final exam. Translation and commentary of a passage not previous commented in class (up to 15 lines)
- Midterm. Translation of a short passage (up to 10 lines) not previous commented in class.
- Homework and/or in-class exercises
- Translation and commentary of a passage previous commented in class
- Active participation in class
II. Please note:
- The delivery of 5 of the assessment items (assignments / exercises / exams) excludes the possibility of obtaining the status of No avaluable as a final course grade.
- The 2.5 points distributed between the exercises done at home (1 point) and the exercises done in class (1.5 points) will be obtained as a result of the average of the grades of the total of the exercises proposed in each block. For the purposes of the average, it is understood, therefore, that the grade of an exercise not presented is 0.
- To be able to pass the subject (passed-MH), the student must, at a minimum, have completed the final test of translation of an unseen text and have obtained a grade =/> 4. If the sum of the weighting of the grades is 5, but this minimum requirement is not met, the student will be graded with a 4.5 (failed).
III: Reassessment
For the Re-assessment the following conditions are applicable:
- The student must previously have been evaluated for activities that equal to 2/3 parts of the final grade.
- The student will only can do a content-synthesis test (= 45%).
In the event that a student is unable to attend a partial test, final test or make-up test on the scheduled day, they will not have the opportunity to repeat the exam, unless the teacher deems it appropriate in view of the documentation supporting the reason for the absence.
In the make-up test, which will be scheduled by the Faculty Dean's Office Team, students will only be able to make up the part corresponding to the final exercise of translating an unseen text (45%).
The delivery of periodic exercises will be determined by the teacher within a period of one week. Exercises done in class or at home cannot be handed in after the deadline.
IV. Calendar of assigments:
- Midterm exam. Thursday 23-10-2025
- Final exam. Thursday 15-01-2026
- Translation and commentary of a passage previous commented in class. Tuesday 13-01-2026
V. Procedure for Reviewing Grades Awarded
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
VI. Plagiarism and copying
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
VII. IA use
This subject allows the use of AI technologies exclusively for support tasks such as bibliographic or content-based searches, text correction or translations, where applicable. Other specific situations may be contemplated, as deemed appropriate by the teacher. The student must clearly (i) identify which parts have been generated using AI technology; (ii) specify the tools used; and (iii) include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the
process and final outcome of the activity. Lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in the assessed activity will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade may be lowered, or the work may even be awarded a zero. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
Bibliography
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
ANTÓN MARTÍNEZ, Beatriz, “La epistolografía romana: Cicerón, Séneca y Plinio”, en Helmantica 142-143 (1996), pp. 105-148.
CASTILLO, Carmen, “La epístola corno género literario de la Antigüedad a la Edad Media Latina”, en EClás 18 (1984), pp. 427-442.
CUGUSI, Paolo, “L'epistolografía: Modelli e tipologie di communicazione”, en Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica (dir. G. Cavallo, P. Fedeli, A. Giardina), Roma, II, 1989, pp. 379-419.
GÓMEZ PALLARÉS, Joan, “Epistolografía”, en Studiosa Roma. Los géneros literarios en la Antigüedad en la cultura romana, Barcelona, UAB, pp. 203-216.
MUÑOZ MARTÍN, Mª Nieves, Teoría epistolar y concepción de la carta en Roma, Granada, 1985.
SCARPAT, G., “L'epistolografia”, en Introduzione allo Studio della Cultura Classica, Milano, I (1972) 473-512.
CICERO
BAÑOS BAÑOS, José Miguel (ed.), Cierón. Correspondencia con su hermano Quinto. Alianza, Madrid 2003.
BEAUJEU, Jean (ed.- trad.), Cicéron. Correspondance, Belles Lettres, Paris 1969.
BELTRÁN CEBOLLADA, José Antonio, Cicerón. Cartas III: Cartas a los familiares 1-173, Gredos, Madrid 2008.
CARCOPINO, Jerôme, Les secrets de la correspondance de Cicéron, Paris 1957, 2 vols. (= 1947).
MAGALLÓN GARCÍA, Ana Isabel, Cartas IV. Cartas a los familiares, II, Madrid, 2008.
RODRÍGUEZ-PANTOJA, Miguel, CartasI. Cartas a Ático (cartas 1-161D), Gredos, Madrid 1996.
RODRÍGUEZ-PANTOJA, Miguel, Cartas II. Cartas a Ático (162-426), Gredos, Madrid 2008.
SHACKLETON BAILEY, David Roy (ed.), M. TulliCiceronis Epistulae ad Atticum IX-XVI), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1961.
SHUCKBURGH, E. S., Letters of Cicero, Hoboken, N.J.: Generic NL Freebook Publisher, [s. d. Disponible a: [http://search.ebscohost.com.are.uab.cat/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2008443&site=eds-live]
WATT, William Smith (ed.), M. Tulli Ciceronis Epistulae ad familiares, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1965.
WATT, William Smith (ed.), M. Tulli Ciceronis Epistulae ad Atticum (I-VIII), Oxford University Press, Oxford 1982.
WHITE, Peter, Cicero in Letters: Epistolary Relations of the Late Republic, 2010.
PLINY THE YOUNGER
AUBRION, Etienne, "La correspondance de Pline le Jeune," in H. Temporini and W. Haase (eds.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II.33.1, 1989, pp. 304-74.
BERGMANN, Bettina, "Visualizing Pliny's Villas," in Journal of Roman Archaeology 8, 1995, pp. 406-420.
BRUÈRE, Richard T., "Tacitus and Pliny's Panegyricus", in CP 49, 1929, pp. 161-179.
GONZÁLEZ FERNÁNDEZ, Julián (trad.), Plinio el Joven. Cartas, Gredos, Madrid 2005.
GRIFFIN, Mariam T. 1999. "Pliny and Tacitus," SCI 18, pp. 139-158, 1999.
MYNORS, Roger Aubrey Baskerville (ed.), Plini Caecilii Secundi Epistularum libri decem, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1963.
OLIVAR, Marçal (ed.-tr.), Plini el Jove. Lletres, Fundació Bernat Metge, Barcelona 1927.
SHERWIN-WHITE, Adrian Nicholas, The Letters of Pliny. A Historical and Social Commentary, Oxford, 1966.
SENECA THE YOUNGER
CARDÓ, Carles (ed.-trad.), Lletres a Lucili, Fundació Bernat Metge, Barcelona 1928, 4 vols.
LANA, Italo, “Le "Lettere a Lucilio" nella letteratura epistolare”, en Sénèque et la prose latine (dir. P. Orirnal), Vandoeuvres-Genève 1991, 253-311.
MAZZOLI, G., “Le "Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium" di Seneca”, ANRW II.36.3 (1989), pp. 1823-1877.
REYNOLDS, Leighton Durham (ed.), L. Anaei Senecae ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1965, 2 vols.
REYNOLDS, Leighton Durham, The medieval tradition of Seneca's Letters, Oxford 1965.
ROCA MELIÁ, Ismael (trad.), Séneca. Epístolas morales a Lucilio, Madrid 1986.
SOCAS, Francisco (trad.), Cartas a Lucilio, Cátedra, Madrid 2018.
Software
None
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 2 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |