The story of Argos and Odysseus is a heartbreaking one of loyalty and loss for any dog lover. Argos Canis Optimus et Fortis retells the famous scene from the Odyssey where Argos alone recognizes Odysseus. This story is told from Argos’ point of view. This story can be used in conjunction with Cerberus Canis Monstruosus because Cerberus idolizes Argos as the best dog due to his loyalty. Words in bold are glossed words.
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Nuptiae Romanae: Roman Marriages
This reading describes Nuptiae Romanae, Roman marriages, and laws pertaining to Roman marriages in simpler Latin that is suitable for use in Latin III or IV classrooms. In particular, this reading discusses the marriage ceremony, Augustan laws on marriage and on procreation, marriage in manu, concubinage, and women in comedy. Teachers can provide the entire reading or choose which sections to provide students. This reading would be a good complement for students who are reading Ira Veneris because Venus argues the marriage is illegitimate because Psyche is mortal while Cupid is immortal. Essentially, Venus argues that they are of different classes. Similarly, this reading would complement the Mostellaria where Bucco…
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Vita Plauti: A Biography of Plautus in Latin
Students who are preparing to read one of Plautus’ plays can read this biography of Plautus in Latin. It provides background knowledge of his life, his corpus of writings, and describes Roman comedy. If students are preparing to read the Mostellaria, starting with this biography of Plautus in Latin will help provide some important background knowledge without straying from the target language.
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Scylla et Ulixes
Scylla et Ulixes is a short story that is suitable for use in Latin II. The story retells the myth of how Scylla was changed into a monster as a result of a magical potion. It includes lots of descriptions of body parts, the sea, and sailing. It also includes some general descriptions of the weather. The vocabulary is somewhat limited, but not as limited as it may be in a novella. Although this was not written with a particular set of vocabulary in mind, it is suitable for use for students depending on their familiarity with the 165 vocabulary words in the story.
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Apicula et Iuppiter
Apicula et Iuppiter is based on a fable in Latin. I have expanded the story to add more details, including dialogue, while also simplifying the syntax and sheltering the vocabulary. This story uses 75 words to retell the fable. Many of these words would be familiar to students, but some, like favus, mel, and apis, are likely not. If you are interested in comparing this fable to the original, you can read the original fable here.
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Dictionary for Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae
The dictionary for Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae contains all the Latin words used in the novella of short stories. The dictionary does not further break down the vocabulary by each story. Some words are used only in one story. If you would like a preview of the novella, you can read the first few paragraphs of each short story here. You can review more detailed information about the novella here. Unlike the Index Verborum, which is a list of all the word forms in the novella, the dictionary for Ridiculi et Horribiles Dei et Deae provides the full dictionary entry for the word. In addition to providing the…
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Romana Cena
What did Romans eat for dinner? How did Roman dinners differ depending on socioeconomic status? To follow the readings and activities for Romanum Prandium and Romanum Ientaculum, we introduced some common dinner vocabulary to teach about the Romana Cena. We aren’t teaching synchronous classes to our students, so we created videos and short readings for our students to allow for repetition of the vocabulary. We introduced the students to the list of vocabulary. Students watched a short video on Cena Coreana and read about the cena Magistri Smith. Students also watched my husband’s video (with outtakes) and read his story. I also made a video about dinner, with outtakes, and…
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Romanum Prandium
What did the Romans eat for lunch? To follow our discussion of Romanum Ientaculum, we introduced students to common lunch-related vocabulary and taught about the Romanum Prandium. We aren’t teaching synchronous classes to our students, so we created videos and short readings for our students to allow for repetition of the vocabulary. There are four of us in our upper schools, so we each had a hand in creating the reading and listening materials. We introduced the lesson with a video aimed at our novice students, which included the food labeled with post-its. If you’re looking for a harder video, there’s also a Coquamus video with some of this same…
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Romanum Ientaculum
Like every other teacher, we have also changed our expectations to match the realities of a pandemic and virtual teaching at our school. We had been preparing as a department to teach Via Periculosa with our students. We ultimately decided to scrap reading it online with the hope that we would be able to better teach it in the fall–whatever that may look like. The solution we came up with was to talk about travel, which would have been our segway into Via Periculosa, and food. Let’s start by talking about the Romanum Ientaculum, the Roman breakfast.
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Fabula Brevis: Apollo et Python
Apollo et Python is a short story that we used in our Intro to Latin course in middle school. We taught it the week before spring break after reading Diana et Actaeon and finishing our speaking assessment. This story is perfectly suited for a TPRS story, and it’s how we introduced the story. (Here is the link to the skeleton story with guiding questions for students). We glossed the words or phrases in bold in the story.
