Advanced Latin II: Pro Archia Poeta (L302)

When Cicero went to court to defend his old rhetoric teacher from a spurious prosecution concerning citizenship records, he could not have known that his courtroom defense would change the course of history and play no small role in shaping Western education for millennia. But that is exactly what happened. Maybe he hoped, though, that this speech would be remembered longer than a courtroom defense usually is. After all, early in the oration “Pro Archia Poeta,” his courtroom defense of his friend, the poet and litterateur Aulus Licinius Archias, Cicero apologizes for departing so far from standard litigation technique, because he quickly concludes the legal aspect of his argument for the defense in order to argue at length for the importance of the study of the “humane letters” in public life. Over 1300 years later, the great Renaissance humanist Francesco Petrarca discovered the lost manuscript of Cicero’s oration. Pro Archia Poeta quickly became the creed of the emerging humanist movement in Italy, and ever since, it has remained a touchstone for those who champion the humanities. Education in the West would not be the same without Cicero’s speech. In this course, we will read the oration in its entirety, study Cicero’s prose techniques, and speak in Latin while discussing the text.

• Sessions last 1.5 hours
• 1 session per week
• Course lasts 14 weeks
• Term runs Jan. 4, 2026 – Apr. 11, 2026