This advanced Latin course involves reading and analyzing passages from Apuleius, Metamorphoses (second century C.E.); Prudentius, Psychomachia (fifth century C. E.); St. Augustine, Confessiones (fifth century C.E.); Vitae of Vergil (fourth-fifth century C.E.), and Tiberius Claudius Donatus' commentary on Vergil's Aeneid (fifth century C.E.). Apuleius' novel Metamorphoses contains a semi-autobiographical description of his initiation into the cult of Isis which has been considered paradigmatic of the pagan conversion experience; earlier in this work, Apuleius provides a famous rendition of the Cupid and Psyche myth. Although these passages can be read in isolation, when read together they raise fascinating questions about the interdependence of myth and biography, and more generally of art and life that characterized the later Roman Empire. This course pursues the relationship between imaginative and actual experience in two additional, yet distinct contexts. By comparing two Christian authors, Prudentius and Augustine, we see how art and life continue to interact within the Christian experience of Latin culture. Prudentius' Psychomachia, a poetic account in the Vergilian style of the struggle faced by the Christian soul against vices, provides a stimulating comparison with Augustine's own account of his conversion in his Confessiones. In these two authors, myth and biography represent apparently discrete categories. However, pagans of the same period blur this distinction between art and life. The Vitae of Vergil exemplify how biography can become myth while Donatus' commentary on Vergil's Aeneid demonstrates how myth can become life. Evaluation will be based on classroom preparation and participation, a midterm, a 5- to 7-page paper, and a final exam. Prerequisite: Latin 202 or permission of the instructor.