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Detailed Assignment for Week 4 (22-26 Jan.)

NB: At some point this week (4) I'm going to post to Canvas a passage from what we've read in Latin thus far for you to translate; this will be about the length of a passage you might expect to see on the Latin translation exam (i.e., 15-20 lines). You'll have a full week to do it (so will not be due until sometime in Week 5), and while I'll recommend you aim to do it in 20 minutes, it will not be timed.  More details anon.

Another NB: If there are any passages from the assigned Latin from Week 3 that we did not get to (there will be), and you have specific questions about any of that, please ask on Monday and we'll address them (otherwise I'll assume it all made sense!).  I will, however, have something to say about 13.45-46 (about Poppaea), a famous passage that should not go unremarked!

Read

ā˜žBook 14.1-9 (Latin); 10-13 (Woodman); 14-16 (Latin); 17-28 (Woodman)

Ponderanda

  • This week, as we move into Book 14, we will read in Latin one of the more famous (and chilling) sections in the Annals, the plot against and murder of Agrippina.  As you read T.'s account, consider ways in which this strikes you as a (mostly) literary account. What features, e.g., does it seem to have in common with what you know of Roman poetry or drama? Are there features that strike you as odd or out of place in a work of 'history'?
  • We will eventually think in a more concentrated way about 'Tacitus and Roman religion'.  But start thinking, as you read this week, about T.'s attitude toward things such as portents, divine wrath, the role of the gods, etc.  
  • We are also going to encounter in this week's reading, in a more serious way, Nero's penchant for performance.  What appear to be T.'s views of this, and how would you explain them?

Legenda ad libitum

Two suggestions here:

1) At some point you might want to dip into Ellen O'Gorman's Irony and Misreading in the Annals of Tacitus (Cambridge 2000).  In some respects this book is intended for a reader familiar with the entirety of the Annals, but even if that is not you, you might find sections of the book quite interesting.  Chap. 6, 'The empress' plot', is one such section; on pp. 138-43 she discusses the murder of Agrippina, but in the context of other murders (esp. of women) in the Neronian books.  Ebook available through UW Libraries.  

2) A more pointed article is R.D. Scott's, 'The Death of Nero's Mother (Tacitus, Annals, XIV, 1-13)', Latomus 33.1 (1974) 105-155.  PDF Download PDF attached. Download attached.