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  • Catullus 6: an easier prose story
    Latin Short Stories

    Catullus 6: An Easier Prose Story

    September 26, 2022

    I had genuinely hoped that I would have more time before I hit one of those poems that I knew Catullus had written but personally hadn’t read. One of those poems with invective and pejorative vocabulary and sexual violence. Not a lepidus versus, no matter what Catullus might claim. So, I knew I was in trouble when I read the VROMA content warning and I hadn’t gotten any further than poem #6 in this undertaking.

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    Rachel

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    Parnassius Smintheus

    Parnassius Smintheus: A Latin Reading About a Butterfly with Ties to Apollo

    July 15, 2021
    An illuminated manuscript of the first poem of Catullus with the heading Catullus 1

    Catullus 1: an Easier Prose Story

    July 23, 2022
    Sample for Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus

    Sample for Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus

    December 28, 2019
  • Catullus 5 An Easier Prose Adaptation
    Latin Short Stories

    Catullus 5: An Easier Prose Story

    September 19, 2022

    After working through the difficulty of Catullus 4, I was immensely—immensely—grateful when I turned to Catullus 5 and immediately recognized the famous opening line. A somewhat simple poem! Indeed, let us live and love indeed! Still, I do remember when I first read this poem when I was a beginning Latin student. It’s straightforward to me now, but it wasn’t then. The genitive of value and those final lines with the cum clauses and negative purposes clauses and the dropping of ali- from aliquis left me scratching my head a little. Still, I thought it was a fun poem, and it is a fun poem. Every generation can relate to…

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    Rachel

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    Catullus 11 An Easier Prose Adaptation

    Catullus 11: An Easier Prose Adaptation

    November 15, 2022
    Saturn Titan Saturnus et Rhea

    Saturnus et Rhea

    January 12, 2020
    Catullus 2B

    Catullus 2B: An Easier Prose Story

    August 1, 2022
  • Catullus 4 an easier prose story
    Latin Short Stories

    Catullus 4: An Easier Prose Story

    September 12, 2022

    I’m going to sacrifice myself on the proverbial alter of dignity and tell you exactly what I felt while I was reading Catullus 4 for the first time: WHAT AM I EVEN READING? It didn’t help that I didn’t know the first word of the poem or that it took me far longer than I care to admit to realize that the boat was speaking. I went into Catullus 4 with absolutely no background knowledge of what I was going to read, and it won. Handily. For a rather long time.

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    Rachel

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    Romana Cena

    Romana Cena

    May 22, 2020
    Apollo et Python

    Fabula Brevis: Apollo et Python

    March 24, 2020
    Catullus 6: an easier prose story

    Catullus 6: An Easier Prose Story

    September 26, 2022
  • Catullus 3
    Latin Short Stories

    Catullus 3: An Easier Prose Story

    September 5, 2022

    Catullus 3 is a lament for the death of Lesbia’s sparrow, a lament that seems to focus more on the change in Lesbia’s physical appearance due to her grief than any genuine grief for the sparrow’s death on Catullus’ part. I wonder how Lesbia might have interpreted poems with this subtext about her lack beauty while she is grieving. I certainly would have been angry.

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    Rachel

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    Catullus 5 An Easier Prose Adaptation

    Catullus 5: An Easier Prose Story

    September 19, 2022
    Catullus 14B Prose Adaptation

    Catullus 14B: A Prose Adaptation

    January 2, 2023
    Catullus 4 an easier prose story

    Catullus 4: An Easier Prose Story

    September 12, 2022
  • Catullus 2B
    Latin Short Stories

    Catullus 2B: An Easier Prose Story

    August 1, 2022

    Most scholars have separated Catullus 2 and Catullus 2B for reasons that are now, to me anyway, clear having (finally) read both poems. If joined, the last three lines are a weird ending to a poem addressed to a sparrow. They just don’t make sense together. These three lines also seem a little weird floating out in isolation from anything else: I want more backstory, Catullus! What exactly is so pleasing to you, darn it?!

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    Rachel

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    Catullus 14B Prose Adaptation

    Catullus 14B: A Prose Adaptation

    January 2, 2023
    Catullus 5 An Easier Prose Adaptation

    Catullus 5: An Easier Prose Story

    September 19, 2022
    Sample for Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus

    Sample for Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus

    December 28, 2019
  • An illuminated manuscript with the tag Catullus II written above
    Latin Short Stories

    Catullus 2: An Easier Prose Story

    July 29, 2022

    Catullus 2, along with Catullus 3, are famous poems referencing Lesbia’s pet sparrow. While a sparrow may seem like an unusual pet today, they were common pets, especially as a gift from a lover. My cats would love for me to have a pet bird, but I imagine it would be a little much for everyone: me, the cats, the poor tormented bird, and my husband. I struggled some with this poem. Is it a sex metaphor? Maybe. Some people seem to have made that argument. Catullus doesn’t shy away from that topic. Though, I’m not sure I’m sold on that interpretation. Instead, I see some of the longing, the…

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    Rachel

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    Scylla et Ulixes

    Scylla et Ulixes

    August 15, 2020
    Nuptiae Romanae

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    September 4, 2020
    Catullus 6: an easier prose story

    Catullus 6: An Easier Prose Story

    September 26, 2022
  • An illuminated manuscript of the first poem of Catullus with the heading Catullus 1
    Latin Short Stories

    Catullus 1: an Easier Prose Story

    July 23, 2022

    I must confess something that seems rather shameless in the world of people who read Latin: I have read very little Catullus. In fact, I’ve read maybe a handful of poems, only two that I remember in any detail. I have probably read the poems about Lesbia’s famous sparrow—maybe, anyway—but I do vividly remember both Catullus 51 and 101. I might have even agreed to memorize Catullus 51 for one of my student’s fundraisers, where I recited it on stage in a toga. Though I don’t remember what prompted me to read Catullus 101, its pain and grief are renowned. Maybe that’s what drew me to it, the sense of…

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    Rachel

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    Romanum Ientaculum

    Romanum Ientaculum

    May 9, 2020
    Catullus 14B Prose Adaptation

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    January 2, 2023
    Catullus 15 An Easier Prose Adaptation

    Catullus 15: An Easier Prose Adaptation

    January 16, 2023
  • Parnassius Smintheus
    Latin Short Stories

    Parnassius Smintheus: A Latin Reading About a Butterfly with Ties to Apollo

    July 15, 2021

    I have been wont to stalk bumble bees and butterflies through fields, but it is much harder (and poor trail ethos) to chase a butterfly across the tundra. I recently hiked above the treeline in the Indian Peaks Wilderness in the Rockies, and I was struck by how many beautiful marked white butterflies I saw dashing and fluttering about the tundra near 11,000 feet. They were flying about everywhere about a foot or maybe two off the ground. I was charmed. I utterly rejoiced when one finally, finally deigned to stop its fly about and rest near the trail and let me take its picture.

    Read More
    Rachel

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    Romana Cena

    Romana Cena

    May 22, 2020
    Catullus 8 An Easier Prose Story

    Catullus 8: An Easier Prose Story

    October 10, 2022
    Roman Dinner Invitations

    Parasiti, Poetae, et Cenae

    December 24, 2020
  • Gladiator Riot Pompeii Latin
    Latin Short Stories,  Teaching Blog

    Latin Texts for Teaching the Gladiator Riot of Pompeii

    July 3, 2021

    This collection of Latin texts describes the gladiator riot at Pompeii in 59 C.E. They include an intermediate-level reading about the riot as well as tiers preparing students to read Tacitus’ account of the riot in Book XIV of his Annals. My latest novella, Atrox Caedes, is set on the day of this riot in Pompeii, and I first read Tacitus’ description of the riot while I was preparing for and researching the novella.

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    Rachel

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    Sample for Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus

    Sample for Medea et Peregrinus Pulcherrimus

    December 28, 2019
    Diana et Actaeon

    Fabula Brēvis: Diāna et Actaeōn

    March 18, 2020
    Catullus 12 an easier prose adaptation

    Catullus 12: An Easier Prose Adaptation

    November 22, 2022
  • Roman Dinner Invitations
    Latin Short Stories

    Parasiti, Poetae, et Cenae

    December 24, 2020

    Parasiti, Poetae, et Cenae is a collection of curated readings on the topic of Roman Dinner invitations and Roman parasites. It includes a short non-fiction reading in Latin introducing these cultural concepts and comprehension questions for that reading. The non-fiction reading connects to the Mostellaria as well as Catullus’ famous cenabis bene poem (Catullus 13) and several of Martial’s epigrams. These poems are included as tiered readings to help them be more comprehensible. This collection of teaching resources can be used in conjunction with teaching the Mostellaria or independently. It is most suitable for use in a Latin III or Latin IV classroom. The Martial Epigrams include: a description of…

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    Rachel

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    Diana et Actaeon

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    March 18, 2020
    Sample for Ira Veneris Capitulum I

    Sample for Ira Veneris: Capitulum I

    December 28, 2019
    Catullus 14 An Easier Prose Adaptation

    Catullus 14: An Easier Prose Adaptation

    December 26, 2022
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