Sep 6 Assignment

To be finished preferably before the weekend. We'll see how this goes.



1. Read Callimachus and Latin Poetry by Wendell Clausen
2. Answer the questions sent by professor:
• How does Catullus figure in this article?
• What kind of specialized knowledge does Clausen expect from his readers?
• How well does he document his claims with references to ancient sources and modern scholarship?
• Does he limit his purview to close study of a few literary texts, in the fashion of New Criticism?
• Does he attempt to contextualize and illuminate literary texts by careful study of various--literary and non-literary--pieces of evidence, in the fashion of New Historicism?
• Do you detect any similarities between Clausen's style and approach, and those of his subject Callimachus?
• What does this article add to the study of Catullus? of Roman poetry?
• How might he or we improve it?
3. Translate Ennius epigrams and Scipionic inscription.
4. Finish translating Ovid Amores 3.9. Please consider as well how Ovid's poem relates to Augustan-era politics and propaganda. And how is Ovid quoting TIbullus himself, and what changes has he made to these Tibullan passages?
5. Translate the Aulus Gellius passage as a source on Roman elegy prior to Catullus. Translate and critique the Loeb translation of the elegies on pp. 382 ff.