Latin 521
Study Guide for Final Examination
December 4, 2023

N.B.: the exam is Monday, December 11, 3:30-5:30pm

Part I (identifications): you will be asked to identify a specified number of terms with an informative short answer explaining the item’s relevance/significance for the Senecan portion of this course. [Part I = ca. 12% of total exam points]

The items are likely to come from this list:

Epistulae Morales
Lucilius
Epicurus
sapiens
proficiens

paraenesis
sententia
Saturnalia
declamatory style

Lost Cause
Accius
Tantalus
Atreus
Thyestes
Satelles
Fury
Nuntius
ira

spectacle (theme)/Senecan metatheater
stichomythia
quod nolint velint
epic simile (Senecan)
epistolarity/epistolary tradition
metaphorical slavery
utililitas
apatheia and metriopatheia
satiety (theme)


Part II: translation of prepared passages, i.e. Seneca, Ep. 7, 12, 18, 21, 47, 53 (only passages we translated in class: see "Course News" for these); Thy. (only passages we translated in class: see "Course News" for these). There will be some morphological & syntactic identifications. [Part II = ca. 75% of total exam points]

Part III: scansion of a few lines of Seneca's iambic trimeters [Part III = ca. 3% of total exam points]

Part IV: brief commentary on Latin passage(s); you will be asked to comment on (a) selected passage(s) in Latin with a carefully organized short answer. [Part IV = ca. 10% of total exam points] The answer format is as follows:

(1) identify the author and work;
(2) identify the speaker(s) of the passage (i.e. character(s) who speak and/or the work’s narrator);
(3) briefly describe the context in which the passage occurs;
(4) write a carefully organized short answer commenting on the significance of the passage in light of (e.g.) the work’s themes, ideas, style, its characters, its (socio-)historical or literary significance, literary, poetic and/or rhetorical qualities (et al.).