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A Roman Verse Satire Reader:

 Selections from Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal

A Roman Verse Satire Reader: Selections from Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal (Catherine Keane, Washington University) continues the successful BC Latin Readers series (Ronnie Ancona, series editor), following on the heels of the recent publication of A Plautus Reader: Selections from 11 Plays (John Henderson).

The trademark exuberance of Lucilius, gentleness of Horace, abrasiveness of Persius, and vehemence of Juvenal are the diverse satiric styles on display in this Reader. Witnesses to the spectacular growth of Rome’s political and military power, the expansion and diversification of its society, and the evolution of a wide spectrum of its literary genres, satirists provide an unparalleled window into Roman culture: from trials of the urban poor to the smarmy practices of legacy hunters, from musings on satire and the satirist to gruesome scenes from a gladiatorial contest, from a definition of virtue to the scandalous sexual display of wayward women. Provocative and entertaining, challenging and yet accessible, Roman verse satire is a motley dish stuffed to its readers’ delights.

Special Features

• Introduction on the Roman satiric genre and its authors
• 556 lines of unadapted Latin text selections: • Lucilius, Satires, fragments 172–75, 176–81, 185; 524–29; 1145–51; 1196–1208 • Horace, Satires 1.1.41–79; 1.4.103–43; 2.5.23–50; 2.7.21–71, 111–18 • Persius, Satires 1.1–12, 107–34; 2.1–16, 31–51; 5.21–51 • Juvenal, Satires 1.63–93, 135–46; 3.190–231; 6.60–102; 8.183–99, 215–30; 13.38–70; 14.1–55
• Grammatical and stylistic commentary printed at the back of the book
• 1 map and 4 black-and-white photos
• Complete vocabulary

The BC Latin Readers books, written by experts in the field, provide well annotated Latin selections to be used as authori-tative introductions to Latin authors, genres, or topics, for in-termediate or advanced college Latin study. Their relatively small size (covering 500–600 lines) makes them ideal to use in combination.

Each volume includes a comprehensive introduction, bibliography for further reading, Latin text with notes at the back, and complete vocabulary. Nineteen volumes are scheduled for publication; others are under consideration. BC Latin Readers currently in print include: A Lucan Reader: Selections from Civil War (Susanna Braund), A Terence Reader: Selections from 6 Plays (William S. Anderson), A Sallust Reader: Selections from Bellum Catilinae and Bellum Iugurthinum (Victoria Pagán), and A Plautus Reader: Selections from 11 Plays (John Henderson).

Andrew Reinhard, Bolchazy-Carducci’s Director of eLearning, attended the Classical Association’s annual meeting at Cardiff University in Wales from April 7–10. This was the third CA at which Bolchazy-Carducci has exhibited, and although attendance was down (roughly 350 delegates), sales and interest in BCP titles were up. Delegates were most interested in Latin for the New Millennium, the Follow Your Fates interactive fiction trilogy, Athens v Sparta CD, Looking at Latin grammar, four BC Latin Readers (Lucan, Terence, Sallust, and Plautus), and more. BCP is getting noticed in the UK and EU, and the welcome back we received was genuine.

Reinhard did have the chance to attend one paper session, the one in which he delivered a 20-minute presentation on the state of eBooks for introductory Latin. Oxford-based Classics outreach officer Cressida Ryan presented on her efforts to UK Latin teachers. Rowlie Darbie teaches secondary school Latin and spoke about how he organizes his classes and how testing works for state schools (known better as public schools in the US). Reception and dinner and Welsh folk dancing at Cardiff’s City Hall followed the final day of papers.

At the conclusion of CA, Reinhard remained in Wales to tour castles and to climb Mt. Snowdon, the highest peak in Britain. He successfully summitted the peak on Sunday, April 11, and had another person photograph him atop the mountain with the BCP banner. The wind almost turned the banner into a kite, but Reinhard managed to stay grounded long enough for the photo. From the snowy top of the UK, he could see Ireland, Wales, and England, all of which have now been introduced to BCP’s Classics textbooks.

Willie Major is an assistant professor of Classics at Louisiana State University, and co-authored Plato: A Transitional Reader with Abigail Roberts, Classics teacher at the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I had a chance to ask Major five questions about this latest project for Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers.

Andrew Reinhard (AR): Who is the intended audience for the Plato Transitional Reader, and how do you see it being used in class?

Willie Major (WM): Anyone who seeks beauty, truth, and the world of Forms! OK, seriously. The audience is any set of Greek students who have completed a sequence where they have learned the basics of Greek and are about to embark on reading Plato. These can be either high school or college students or beyond. It can be the first author they have read in the original Greek or simply the first time they are reading Plato. The idea is to use this reader for the first section of a course and, as the title suggests, provide a transition for students to reading Plato. When I beta-tested the reader, for example, the class completed it in six weeks and then proceeded to read Plato's Apology in J.J. Helm's very helpful edition. 

 
AR: Why have a transitional reader on Plato first instead of starting with Homer?

WM: Plato is a very common first author for students of Greek and perhaps the most common first author of Attic Greek for students to read. An excellent transitional reader on Homer is in preparation and will come next, so students who begin with Homeric Greek will soon have a comparable transitional reader available. 

 
AR: How did the two of you become writing partners on this project, and how did you divide the labor of writing it?

WM: The Bolchazys wanted to have a transitional reader series for Greek parallel to the Legamus series for Latin. That series pairs a college-level teacher with a high school teacher to make sure the reader meets teachers' needs at all levels. When they [the Bolchazys] approached me about the reader, I simply asked around for a dynamic, creative, and accomplished teacher of Greek in the high schools. Abbie and I met up at an ACL [American Classical League] Institute and she was perfect from the start. We had the same goals, so it was easy to pick passages. Mostly I would draft a section and we'd kick a chapter back and forth, adding exercises, ideas, pictures, and so on. Tim Beck came in as editor and just made everything so much better. 

AR: What was your favorite part about writing the book, and what was the most difficult?

WM: LOL! There was a favorite part? Two times stand out to me. The first was the first meeting with Abbie where we laid out what we wanted to do in the reader and she had some just brilliant and wonderful passages, which were exciting both for their content and the way they introduced students to typical things Plato does in his Greek (questions, for example, and arguments from analogy). The other time was beta-testing the reader and watching students make great strides as they worked through it. The most difficult time for me had to be making first drafts, because I was teaching Plato at the time and would struggle to stay enough days ahead to give them a section to work! That and the final editing. Tim Beck has the eyes of an eagle and the patience of Job. 

AR: Describe (briefly) the ideas behind how you decided to present the material in this reader (e.g. pedagogic methods)?

WM: Like Plato says, we just wanted to trigger students' memory of all their knowledge! Well, really we just tried to live up to the ideals of the series as laid out for the Legamus series in Latin. More pragmatically, I think of it this way: every teacher knows that the first extended reading in Greek is a challenge for a student. No teacher wants to overwhelm their students but many are reluctant to use simplified reading passages, because then they worry that students are still not ready to read unaltered original Greek. But in this reader, we actually have it both ways. The first reading is presented in three graded simplified versions and then the original, so students can start in their comfort zone and then learn in stages how Plato constructs his more complicated sentences. By the sixth and final passage, there is only the original, no pre-reading. All the passages, however, include facing notes and running vocabulary. Along the way, students review and learn some useful points of Greek which might not be emphasized in a beginning Greek sequence. In Plato, for example, there are lots of questions, so we include sections specifically on how to form questions and answers in Greek. We explain how a syllogism and argument from analogy work in Greek. And then Abbie just picked some great readings, such as the debate about athletics and the arts in education. Beyond that, it was just making sure teachers and students had all the help and resources they really need: exercises, comprehension questions, high frequency vocabulary lists, and so on.

AR: Thanks so much for talking today about the new Plato reader.

WM: It was my pleasure.

There are several online resources where one can read Plato (and other Greek authors) in the original:

The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae  is a research center at the University of California, Irvine. Founded in 1972 the TLG has collected and digitized most literary texts written in Greek from Homer to the fall of Byzantium in 1453 CE. Its goal is to create a comprehensive digital library of Greek literature from antiquity to the present era. Most of Plato’s writings can be read here in the original Greek (search for “Plato”) after entering the site.

The Library of Ancient Texts Online (LATO) is a collection of many online Latin and Greek texts from ancient authors. Visit the site and click on the “Plato” link on the left to begin browsing the collected works of Plato, most of them with links to online Greek-language editions.