The Playmobil Romans Know Latin!

Our Playmobil Roman Arena set arrived! We bought the smaller set and decided to get some extra Roman soldiers nd gladiators to go along with it. Plus the Roman family, which we will name Caecilius, Metella, Quintus and Caecilia.

While wrapping the arena to put under the Christmas tree, we realized that the parchment that the Caesar character holds has some actual Latin on it. It's a list of Latin maxims including "Alea iacta est," "Dum spiro, spero," "In hoc signo, vinces," "Repetitio est mater studiorum," "Primus inter pares," "Fiat lux," "Quod erat demonstrandum," "De gustibus non est disputandum," and several others.

Very, very cool! Excellent attention to detail!

Io Saturnalia!

Today is December 17, the day that the ancient Romans began celebrating their week-long winter festival, Saturnalia, during which time schools and businesses closed, fans attended gladiator games, presents were exchanged (especially candles, according to William Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities), and parties took place at all levels of Roman society.

Sound familiar?

Of course, not everyone celebrated the Roman winter holiday by gaming or feasting. Pliny the Younger writes in Epistula II.17 about withdrawing to his sitting room to read and study quietly while the rest of his household made merry.

For Christmas and Saturnalia ideas, see previous Latinteach blog entries labeled Holidays.

A Classical Christmas

There are just a few more days before Christmas break and winter holidays begin. Here are two more sites you may find useful for December planning.

The Association for Latin Teaching (ArLT) has a brilliant collection of resources for Classics teachers planning Christmas celebrations, including Latin carols, a selection of Nativity readings excerpted from the Vulgate Bible, plus the "Messianic Eclogue" from Vergil, greetings, quotations and clip art for cardmaking, as well as some factual information about the Roman Saturnalia.

If you're looking for some religious Christmas lyrics, the Latin Library's Christian Latin Hymni et Cantica has several songs appropriate for the season.

See all Latinteach blog entries labeled Holidays.

No Escape from Pompeii

Discovery Channel News reports the reconstruction of the final hours of a prominent Pompeii family who perished following the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, by analyzing the layers of volcanic ash and examining the DNA from skeletons found in the home. This is a perfect opportunity to show the connection between science and the study of Latin and the Classics. This article is accompanied by some excellent links to a slideshow and podcast and extension activities. Latin teachers who use the Cambridge Latin Course Unit I will find this reconstruction particularly relevant, but it will be of interest to anyone fascinated by life in Ancient Rome. A great deal of our modern understanding of the Ancient Romans comes from the archaeological evidence excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum, in combination with accounts from historical and literary texts (see Pliny VI, 16, 20 for a Latin language account of the catastrophe.)

If you live near or will be travelling to Washington D.C. this winter, the National Gallery of Art is hosting Pompeii and the Roman Villa, a major exhibition featuring art, objects and artifacts pertaining to the disaster. Visit the NGA site for video background, exhibition guides, links to podcasts from behind the scenes, and information about related tours, lectures and talks.

More Christmas and Saturnalia Suggestions!

Ancient Roman nobility enjoyed feasting on stuffed dormice. However, it's likely that your students would prefer these chocolate Christmas Eve Mice from A Taste of Home cooking magazine. If you're looking for an authentic recipe (the ancient Romans didn't have chocolate), A Taste of Ancient Rome by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa (translated by Anna Herklotz) includes one.

By the way, Caroline Lawrence, author of the Roman Mysteries series has completely redesigned her website. Your students will enjoy the first installment of her new online newsletter "Dormouse." This month features a fun quiz with questions that show the parallels between our modern Christmas celebration and the Roman Saturnalia.

Who Says Rome Wasn't Built in a Day?

You can build Rome in your very own house on Christmas morning!

We ordered the Playmobil Romans for Christmas! Playmobil is a German toy maker that designs high quality playsets that include medieval castles, modern cities, zoos and much more. This year, they have released a set that includes the Colosseum, a Roman naval ship, gladiators, a Roman family, and of course, Gauls and barbarians.

Latin Christmas Carols

Soon it will be December (tomorrow!) which means it is time to start planning for Christmas and Hanukkah!

According to John Traupman's Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency (4th edition), this is how to wish someone a Merry Christmas in Latin: "Faustem ac felicem Christi natalem (tibi exopto)!" Of course, the Romans didn't celebrate Christmas. They celebrated the ancient holiday Saturnalia, so according to The Bantam New College Latin & English Dictionary, Revised Edition (3rd edition, also written by Dr. Traupman) they would have wished each other "Io Saturnalia!" or "Hilara Saturnalia!" (See Mary Beard's Five Things the Roman's Did At Christmas to find out more about Saturnalia.)

Check out the Rosa Latina website for some holiday ideas! Latin teacher and author, Rose Williams, has an excellent selection of free teaching packets available there, including including Holidays for Latin Class.

Kentucky Educational Television Latin Distance Learning has some great activities for winter holiday celebrations, including The Nativity Story in Latin and suggestions for a Saturnalia party.

Visit the Minimus Etc. website to download some very creative materials, including Latin Christmas Carol song sheets, the Animals' Carol, recipes, and several skits and plays that your students might enjoy performing.

Laura Gibbs' Gaudium Mundo blog features an impressive selection of winter holiday songs - Christmas, Hanukkah and secular - in Latin.

Michael Myer has placed Cantica Adventus, a collection of religious and secular Latin lyrics on his school site.

Preces Latinae has a large selection of religious hymns in Latin for the entire liturgical year (In Temporibus Anni), including Advent (Tempus Adventus) and Christmas Time (Tempus Nativitatis). This collection includes familiar songs of praise, including Veni, Veni Emmanuel ("O Come, O Come Emmanuel") and Adeste Fidelis ("O Come All Ye Faithful") as well as many others.

Start Studying Greek and Latin Now

According to to Charlotte Higgins, a British Classicist, "to understand the next four years of American politics, you are going to need to understand something of the politics of ancient Greece and Rome." Writing for The Guardian, a major British daily, she asserts that Barack Obama is "The New Cicero," (November 26, 2008) an intellectual politician and gifted orator. Ms. Higgins gives concrete examples of the rhetorical techniques employed by the President-Elect. No matter which candidate you may have voted for, it's a fascinating article.

To learn more about Cicero and his discourse on rhetorical technique, you can read his De Oratore ("On the Orator") either in the Latin original or in English translation. An excellent resource for learning more about rhetoric and rhetorical devices is Dr. Gideon Burton's Silva Rhetorica ("the Forest of Rhetoric") at Brigham Young University.

Soap Operas and Sophocles: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Healing

Only the term "post traumatic stress disorder" is new. PTSD has been around for thousands of years. Over the centuries, this theme has become part of poetic and dramatic tradition. Ancient and modern authors have written about it and explored it in epic and tragedy.

Recently the ABC soap opera All My Children cast JR Martinez, an actual Iraq vet (and a spokesperson for the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes) in a storyline about a returning soldier who has chosen to hide his identity from his wife (whose character is also a veteran, portrayed by career actress Beth Ehlers) due to the extent of his injuries. So, what does an afternoon soap opera have to do with the Classics? Like the ancient Greeks, Americans are trying to understand what it means to have served in combat and what that does to a soldier and his family.

Soldiers, returning home from war, have always had to deal with the trauma of what they have seen and endured, often in isolation, because they cannot begin to describe the horrors of war to those who have not also experienced it. (See a recent public service announcement, Alone, from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Community of Veterans Project for a deeply moving depiction of this isolation, as well as links to support.)

On the November 25, 2008 airing of National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Elizabeth Bair relates how the tragedies of the ancient Greek Sophocles resonate with audiences of contemporary veterans and their families. Listen to In Ancient Dramas, Vital Words for Today's Warriors for a powerful story of the emotional toll of war, as well as hope and healing. There you'll also find several accompanying videos from recent productions of Ajax and Philoctetes, performed for veterans at a recent Warrior Resilience Conference.

To explore more about how the Ancient Greeks can help us understand the psychic wounds of war, also see the works of psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character and its sequel Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming. Dr. Shay does an incredible job of showing the parallels between the experiences of the Homeric warriors and those of contemporary American soldiers.

Please remember the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen still serving far from home and family during your Thanksgiving this week.

Can You Go For a Day Without Latin?

The Anderson, IN, Herald-Bulletin editorial staff (November 20, 2008, Try to Go a Day Without Latin) questions the wisdom of the elected leaders in some British towns who wish to ban Latin in official documents.

Meanwhile, the Lexington (KY) Herald Leader (November 24, 2008, Latin Anything But Dead at Classics Convention) reports on the Kentucky Junior Classical League, whose members love the Latin language so much that they dedicated not just a day, but an entire weekend to Latin and the Classics.

Latin and the Recession

Nuntii Latini reports this week on the weakening economy in their story Recessio in USA Gravescit ("The Recession in the USA is Worsening.")

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting this week "Bankers to Learn What 'Malus' Is." That is to say, some financial institutions are changing their policies so that when fund managers make bad decisions, they will no longer get a bonus. In fact, they will lose money!

In Latin, bonus is, of course, an adjective meaning good, whereas malus is the opposite, an adjective meaning bad.

To Read the Past is to See the Future

Read about North Central High School (Indianapolis, IN) Junior Classical League's unique charity outreach, the Libri Juliani Project, to benefit victims of domestic violence at a shelter in their city.

Ascanius Classics Institute: An Opportunity for HS and College Latin Students

CALLING HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE LATIN STUDENTS
Spread your enthusiasm for the ancient world to a new generation!

Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the classical world in the elementary and middle school, is accepting applications for faculty positions at LatinSummer 2009 from now through January 26, 2009. Any high school or college Latin student is welcome to apply. LatinSummer is a two-week long program for students on the elementary and middle school levels.

LatinSummer 2009 will run in Williamsburg, Virginia, from July 24 - August 7, 2009. Faculty members earn a small honorarium. All room and board costs, and all or part of travel costs, are paid for by the Institute. For more information or for an application, please visit Ascanius on the web at www.ascaniusyci.org.

A Love of Books and Languages

Anthony Marshall, "a linguist by temperament and training" as well as a bookseller by trade, writes about how his love of languages -- particularly Latin -- has benefited him (not necessarily in monetary terms) in "Minding My Languages," the current lead article in the November/December 2008 issue of Book Source Magazine, a journal of the antiquarian book trade. Interestingly enough, although customers seem to enjoy browsing through all the foreign language books that he has stocked in his Melbourne (Australia) store, these books do not generally sell very well. Mr. Marshall says his best sellers in the foreign language category are, without a doubt, Latin and Greek.

Doctor Who in Pompeii!

The fourth series of Doctor Who will start on BBCAmerica starting this weekend! What does Doctor Who have to do with teaching Latin? Well, a famous character from the Cambridge Latin Course will be guest starring in the second episode later this month!

In Episode 2, The Fires of Pompeii, which airs on Saturday, November 22, 2008, the Time Lord Doctor and his companion, Donna, find themselves in the doomed ancient city in 79 AD . (If you miss it, don't worry. BBCAmerica will carry seemingly constant re-runs and you can also download individual episodes on Itunes after the first run of each new episode.)

By the way, The Official BBC Doctor Who site has Series 4 The Fires of Pompeii wallpapers for your computer desktop!

Stephen Colbert cantat!

Stephen Colbert sang "Happy Birthday" to his mother -- in Latin -- on Comedy Central's Colbert Report TV show last night (Thursday, November 6, 2008, last segment of the show).

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Happy 88th Birthday, Mom Colbert
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

Last April, he sang "Felicem Natalem Diem" to celebrate Pope Benedict XVI's birthday.

Review your Latin Grammar in Song!

The energetic teachers and students at Somerset Hills School District in Bernardsville, New Jersey, have put together a wonderful collection of Latin language resources! Included you will find helpful noun and verb charts and some clever songs to make it easier for you to remember noun and verb endings!

Dickinson College Latin Workshops

Two upcoming Latin workshops at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania have been announced.

Dickinson Latin Workshop: Roman Myth
Saturday, February 21 , 2009, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Presented by Stephen Heyworth, Fellow and Tutor in Classics,
Wadham College, Oxford University
Dickinson College, Tome 115, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA

Details: Prof. Heyworth is an authority on Latin poetry, especially Propertius and Ovid. He is currently working on Ovid's Fasti, and will share his thoughts on Roman myth in a three hour workshop, with ample time for questions and discussion. Lunch will be provided. The workshop is intended for teachers of Latin, but please pass this along to teachers of other subjects who might be interested.

The workshop is free of charge, but pre-registration is required so that materials can be sent in advance. For further details, including directions and pre-registration, please visit the Dickinson College Department of Classics website at http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/clst/teacher.html

Summer Latin Workshop at Dickinson College - July 12-17, 2009
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Application Deadline: May 1, 2009
Tuition: $300 (due June 4, 2009)

This year we will read Cicero's meditation on the Roman constitution, De re publica, in the edition of James Zetzel.

Tuition includes housing (consisting of single or double accommodations in college-owned houses), all meals, and access to Dickinson facilities, including library and gym. Participants are responsible for their own travel and book expenses.

Faculty: Christopher Francese, Associate Professor of Classics, Dickinson College; Meghan Reedy, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies, Dickinson College.

Further details, including how to apply for the course, are available at the Dickinson College Department of Classics Website at http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/clst/teacher.html.

Free Latin for the New Millennium Webinars

Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers is again offering free webinars (live, online presentation and voice discussion) on Latin for the New Millennium: Level 1, its recently released, innovative Latin program. Senior editor LeaAnn Osburn will be leading these sessions on these dates:

• Thursday, December 4th, 2008
• Thursday, February 19th, 2009
• Thursday, June 18th, 2009

All three webinars will be free. Each will be presented at 5:00 CST (6:00 EST). The webinars will last from between 60-90 minutes depending on questions from attendees. These new webinars will also feature a sneak-peek into the forthcoming Latin for the New Millennium: Level 2 textbook which includes Medieval and Renaissance Latin. For more information on how to participate, please see Bolchazy's Webinar schedule.

Nota Bene: Latin is an Elitist Language

It was bound to happen eventually. According to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, some local council governments in the UK have decided to ban the use of Latin phrases in official documents. Among the phrases no longer acceptable are et cetera (etc.), id est (ie.) and quid pro quo. Read all about it in Councils Ban 'Elitist' and 'Discriminatory' Latin phrases (Daily Telegraph, November 2, 2008). Also included in the article is a handy list of English equivalents for Latin terms considering confusing.