Ben Revkin

As the Thanksgiving holiday slithers up towards us like a snake in a Pilgrim’s hat, what activities do you employ in your classroom to connect this holiday to antiquity?  This task is certainly much easier with other holidays.  We break out copies of Pliny’s ghost story before Halloween, and we craft sigillaria before our kids go off to celebrate Saturnalia with Santa Claus.  Should we, like every major retailer, skip from pumpkins and ghosts to pine trees and elves?

In an upper level course, why not read selections from Columbus’ De insulis nuper inventis?  Not only does the Latin version of this letter demonstrate the continued vibrancy of the language long after the dissolution of a Latin-speaking Roman Empire (and, notably, the last vestiges of the Greek-speaking Roman Empire had been consumed by the Ottomans a mere fifty years before the explorer’s voyage), it elicits comparisons with ethnographic passages from Roman authors.  As the students read Columbus’ descriptions of customs and possessions of the indigenous peoples whom he encounters, have them also examine Caesar’s description of the the Gauls and Germans, or Tacitus’ of the Germans, or Pliny’s of the peoples of North Africa or India, or Ammianus’ of the Persians.  I am partial to this succinct description of Egyptian customs, by the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela (De chorographia I.48-49):

cultores regionum multo aliter a ceteris agunt.  mortuos fimo obliti plangunt; nec cremare aut fodere fas putant, verum arte medicatos intra penetralia conlocant.  suis litteris perverse utuntur.  lutum inter manus, farinam calcibus subigunt.  forum ac negotia feminae, viri pensa ac domus curant; onera illae umeris, hi capitibus accipiunt; parentes cum egent, illis necesse est, his liberum est alere.  cibos palam et extra tecta sua capiunt, obscena intimis aedium reddunt.

colunt effigies multorum animalium atque ipsa magis animalia, sed alia alii — adeo ut quaedam eorum etiam per inprudentiam interemisse capitale sit, et ubi morbo aut forte extincta sint sepelire ac lugere sollemne sit.  Apis populorum omnium numen est — bos niger certis maculis insignis et cauda linguaque dissimilis aliorum.  raro nascitur nec coitu pecudis, ut aiunt, sed divinitus et caelesti igne conceptus, diesque quo gignitur genti maxime festus est.

If I might suggest a couple of simple discussion questions for the class —

( 1 )  How might Columbus’ description of indigenous Americans have been shaped by how Greeks and Romans traditionally wrote about “barbarian” peoples?

( 2 )  What can we discern about the worldview of the authors themselves in how they depict “barbarians”?

I hope this recommendation is at least mildly useful, and, as I stated earlier, do share if you have any unique Thanksgiving activities!

This year I could only attend one short day at the conference but the presentation that closed out the Latin strand certainly exemplified this year’s theme at MaFLA: “Proficiency: many languages, one goal!”  Thomas (TJ) Howell, Teacher at Belchertown High School, presented a unit “Numii et Historia” and modeled teaching with ‘Active Latin’ pedagogy.  He presented about the lives of the Emperor Nero and his mother Agrippina as we looked at coins depicting them.   This lesson supported our lifelong goal of proficiency by engaging listening and speaking faculties, and reminded me to set our standards high for students as well.
The lesson, though entirely in Latin, felt inclusive of all in the room and demonstrated the principle of ‘keeping it simple.’ He spoke slowly in short and readily comprehensible phrases, utilizing Q+A to engage listeners.  He repeated things often and illustrated the meaning to us several ways.  His question ”quid agitur hodie?” helped us to relax and become students again and expect that our questions would be answered. He reminded his audience that it is always good to have sign language and phrases for when something is not comprehensible. He taught us three signs to accompany requests of the teacher for help: “lentius!”, “iterum!” et “nescio vocabulum!” and then proceeded to review terminology for discussing coins. We used “in hac parte, in altera parte” instead of “obversa and reversa” or “capite et cauda” for the sides of the coin, for ease in communication and to focus us toward the detail rather than the terms.
I enjoyed TJ’s use of and emphasis on narrative in teaching about history. He told how he came about the idea of teaching using coins as primary source material, and, then he proceeded to project some images of coins that grabbed our attention. We explored the images for connections between them, and several people identified the image featured on coins as the Emperor Nero at different stages of his life: “possumus narrare fabulam principiis vitae Neronis.” We then were able to look more closely at the signs of his status, and match up the pictures with what we knew of his life story.
Reading the inscriptions on coins was the more challenging part of this lesson because of abbreviations. This could be easier by matching up inscription with the details in imagery which helped to date them. For example, the coin dating to after Nero’s quashing of the Conspiracy of Piso (anno LXV) we noted “Nero fit amplior, et prior, numquam ridet, sed Pisone interfecto ridet, quasi subridet Nero!….” On another coin, we noticed how an image of a temple of Janus with its doors sealed communicated Nero’s victory: “ianuam clusit pace terra marique parta senatus consultu et nunc Nero pacem et re vera Romam genuit.” We noted how toward the end of his reign he was depicted as “Nero Colossus, globum in manu, cum Victoria” and in another as “Apollo Citharoedus, coronam gerens, poeta, victor et triumphator.”  TJ utilized helpful questioning to get many involved and expounding away in Latin.
After some fun exploring coins,TJ returned to his unit’s structure giving greater detail about what classroom activities and goals were in a final project. He explained how investigating the coins accompanied their reading about the death of Agrippina and Nero’s life and times. His summative assessment involved a project where students created their own coins, and presented (certe, Latine!) about them. Audience members were also required to take notes and ask questions of the presenter, for points. We watched some impressive (no pun intended!) videos with students showing great proficiency in the language and in conveying their knowledge of coins and the history they depicted. We actually then were invited to view their actual reproductions, and view some of TJ’s sources for the lesson. The entire lesson was encouraging and inspiring and shows how a little comprehensible and active Latin goes a long way!