Like many teachers, I’m naturally attuned and attracted to historical plaques and the like. A recent visit to downtown Bennington to pay the sewer and water bill found me on foot. This afforded me the opportunity to check out a kiosk that I had passed regularly when driving. It features several panels about Bennington—sites to visit, local business and industry, architecture, etc. On a nearby building, I discovered another plaque that I had not previously seen. To this Latin teacher’s delight, the plaque featured the reply of Colonel John Stark, hero of the Battle of Bennington, to an invitation to attend the anniversary celebration of the victory. In describing his fellow patriots, Stark notes that “they came, they saw, they conquered.” I suspect Stark recalled his schoolboy Latin!

 

 

Not until I moved to Vermont (the “Green Mountain” state) did I learn that it took fourteen years for New York State to relinquish its claims to Vermont. So, Vermont did not become the fourteenth state of the United States until 1791, when representatives from the communities assembled at the First Parish Church in Bennington and ratified joining the union. During those fourteen years, Vermont was an independent republic as attested by coins such as the one depicted below. From 1785, the coin depicts the sun rising over a mountainous landscape with a large plow below and the legend Vermontis Res Publica. The obverse shows an all-seeing eye at the center surrounded by rays punctuated by stars. The inscription Stella Quarta Decima translates as “the fourteenth star” (on the flag) and references Vermont’s pending status as the fourteenth state. Very cool!

 

 

Now allow me a couple notes about this issue of eLitterae. Some of you enjoyed attending the Darius Arya webinar this past year, when he talked about the work of the American Institute for Roman Culture that he founded twenty years ago and its efforts to provide videos about Roman material culture. Arya sought suggestions from the participants for future videos. In this issue’s Teaching Tip, I highly recommend that you check out the AIRC’s library of fabulous videos.

 

Our last webinar speaker this year was Steve Tuck, well-known expert on res Campanianae. The Teaching Tips & Resources section features a recent article of Tuck’s published in the popular press. Tuck discusses what scholars have learned about the survivors of Vesuvius’s eruption from Roman records. Great stuff!

Don

 

Summer provides an opportunity to relax, rejuvenate, and renew. In the interest of renewal, all too often, we teachers create a list of summer learning to-dos that is far more than a wee bit ambitious. This summer I encourage you to take on just one summer project that you’re sure to enjoy personally and find highly useful for your classes.

 

Check out the treasure of resources offered through the American Institute for Roman Culture. Missioned to engage and inspire everyone with Rome’s cultural heritage through free educational materials, AIRC produces its content on location. Executive Director and Roman archaeologist and classicist Darius Arya proves to be both skilled at creating content and engaging as a narrator.

 

AIRC has assembled an impressive library of videos on its Ancient Rome Live YouTube channel that teachers will find informative and ideal for complementing their Latin language and literature lessons. More than a hundred videos cover topics ranging from Arpinum to shopping in ancient Rome. The videos vary in length, but the majority tend to run from eight and a half to eleven and a half minutes with some topics using fifteen to twenty minutes. It’s a delight to peruse serendipitously all the topics covered or more methodically to check under the eighteen or so headings. This treasure trove is the harvest of some twenty years of Arya’s work and experience studying Rome’s material culture in situ. You will find videos pertinent to each of your Latin classes.

 

Make this summer project option top priority!

 

Note: The American Institute for Roman Culture is the proud recipient of a Masciantonio Grant from the Classical Association of the Atlantic States. The award recognizes and supports the commitment of the AIRC to providing free educational content. During 2024, the AIRC is producing new videos on such topics as the chronology of Rome from its foundation to the Fascist era, Latin inscriptions in situ, childhood in antiquity, and religion. To date, AIRC has produced

 

Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers is pleased to be working on a full lineup of new texts to align with the College Board's announced AP Latin curriculum changes. We will offer our acclaimed Pharr-style student textbooks, comprehensive workbooks, notebooks, and an online component (LUMINA) to help teachers and students prepare for the exam. Our books will include all of the required readings and additional selections chosen by expert teacher-scholars. Usability features, such as glossaries, frequent-vocabulary lists, a rhetorical device appendix, and more will help teachers and students move quickly and with confidence through the readings.

 

Watch here for updates and previews of the new materials. If you would like to receive email updates announcing finalized book contents, print dates, and exam copy releases, please fill out this form.

Medievalists from around the world, more than fifteen hundred strong, flocked to Kalamazoo, MI, for the 59th Congress of the International Congress on Medieval Studies held May 9 to 12 at Western Michigan University. Several hundred additional scholars attended virtually. B-C’s Don Sprague joined an array of international exhibitors in Western’s brand-new student center. Nearby presentations and eateries like Starbucks resulted in a steady flow of traffic to the building and to the exhibit halls.

 

 

The B-C exhibit featured such institute-favorite titles as The Latin of Science, The Plays of Hrotswitha of Gandersheim, and Medieval Mosaic. Attendees delighted in the various books for beginning Latin like Ursus et Porcus and B-C’s popularization of Latin projects like Ubi Fera Sunt. Several admirers of Explore Latin: Aves self-identified as “birders” who just had to have a copy! Purchasers included attendees from Germany, Finland, Iceland, and the UK. A graduate student research supervisor from China, missioned to find a good introduction to Latin series, eagerly took home both the student editions and the teacher’s manuals for Latin for the New Millennium. From this set of sales, Don learned that Helsinki has a street named Agricolankatu.

 

See you next year in Kalamazoo?

The African Classics Network is happy to announce the 3rd International Classics Conference of Ghana (ICCG) and their Call for Papers entitled: "Classics Beyond Borders."
DATE: 18-20 September 2024
DEADLINE: 31 May 2024
For more information and to contact for enquiries,
visit the Events page on the ACN website.

 

 

Plenary
Opening Keynote, Craig Williams, author, A Martial Reader: Selections from the Epigrams

 

Session 2
“Teaching Latin through Song” David Pellegrino, author, forthcoming Lumina: Pliny and Vergil Selections, Catullus Vocabulary Cards for AP Selections, Cicero and Horace Vocabulary Frequency Lists for AP Selections, and coauthor with Dennis De Young of Caesar and Vergil AP Vocabulary Cards

 

Saturday, June 29, 2024
Session 8
“An Asynchronous Resource for AP Latin” Live and Virtual, Bridget Dean PhD, President, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.

 

 

Edited by Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, Illustrator: John Leech