Professor: Fornara Course format: Language Number of respondents: 5 Total Enrollment: 5 Class Composition: Froshs: 1 Sophs: 1 Jrs: 1 Srs: 0 Concs: 3 Non-Concs: 2 Don't Know: 0

Instructor Average: 1.27 Course Average: 1.42

"Attic Orators" is a slight misnomer. In fact, there is only one Attic orator in the eyes of this course: namely, Demosthenes. Students read Demosthenes, translate Demosthenes, and often become one with Demosthenes. The prerequisite for this course is a good amount of experience in reading Greek, or at least two years of Greek language courses at Brown.

Professor Fornara was described as extremely helpful and patient. He gave careful explanations in answer to questions, and seemed to care deeply whether everybody understood. He was willing to meet individual needs and considered it a priority to improve everyone's knowledge of Greek.

The goals of this course are to achieve greater skill in reading and especially translating Greek. Most of the course was devoted to literal translation of speeches by Demosthenes. The focus was on Greek grammar, and not on Demosthenes and the historical setting in which he lived, although, since students did read his speeches, these were also covered to a small extent.

Students were glad they'd taken this course, because their knowledge of Greek was greatly improved. Gaps were filled in, confusions were straightened out, and a lot of individual attention was provided. The class size was very small, which also helped in addressing everyone's needs. Students spent anywhere from four to fifteen hours weekly on this course. The one suggestion students had was that working with two or three orators, and not just Demosthenes, might have been more interesting.

In conclusion, if you want to really tighten your grasp of Attic Greek, this is the course for you. It was "not easy, but well worth the work." Professor Fornara will work with you on a personal basis to improve your Greek, and you will gain the ability to impress family and friends alike by spouting Demosthenes on any occasion.

View GR/0108 in the Brown Online Course Announcement.