Ludi Scaenici 2012

Sancton Wood School’s Year 8 Latin burst on to the stage at the Ludi Scaenici competition held in the city of Cambridge.

Judge Alexander Welby Head of Classics at the Leys School said; “ The Sancton Wood play went to the core of what Classics is about.”

“It explored the tensions between the Modern and the Ancient World.”

Xan Hill of Year 8 was singled out for praise. “To pronounce well when screaming as Laocoon (Xan) did showed enormous skill. Hard work had clearly gone into the whole cast’s learning.

In the play Xan was declaiming in Latin whilst simultaneously being strangled by a sea serpent.

“There were some wonderful examples of pronunciation particularly on the words Pugnax and magnus. The pronunciation was beautiful,” said Mr. Welby.

Second Judge actress Elisabeth Donnelly commented:

“We wanted to see you perform. The characterisation was excellent. You made the Latin your own”.

Charlie Fynn as an outraged Hercules was praised highly.

The play was co-written and co-directed by Darin Mount and Russell Lord.

Teams travelled from as far away as Ipswich, Norwich and Rugby to compete.

 (Russell Lord is Latin teacher at Cambridge International School and Sancton Wood School in Cambridge. He is a keen supporter of ARLT and has taught options groups at the ARLT Summer School.)

Archaeology a burden on debt-stricken Greece

When the news bulletin in February announced that over 70 objects of inestimable value had been looted from the Olympia Museum, we might have thought that this was a regrettable but isolated occurrence. Apparently not. According to the Daily Star of Lebanon, Greece is struggling to preserve and protect the archaeological remains it has, let alone sanction any new archaeological digs. In consequence, illegal digs are beginning to flourish.

“Let us leave our antiquities in the soil,” Michalis Tiverios, a professor of archaeology at Thessaloniki’s Aristotelio University, told Ta Nea daily, “to be found by archaeologists in 10,000 A.D., when Greeks and their politicians will perhaps show more respect to their history.”

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2012/Apr-07/169494-archaeology-a-burden-on-debt-stricken-greece.ashx#ixzz1reuOubhy
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

10 Greek Plays That Are Essential to Any Education

Whether you love Greek history and culture or find it dull beyond words, there’s no denying that classical scholarship has had a big impact on just about every succeeding aspect of Western culture. College students pursuing degrees in fields like history, philosophy, theater, creative writing and art history (among others) will be especially well-served reading these works, as they inspired many other later artists, writers and thinkers and are referenced in numerous ways today– a testament to their enduring power.

But what are the 10 plays?  Find out here:

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2011/10-greek-plays-that-are-essential-to-any-education/

Schools’ events at Liverpool

Language Taster Day
Friday 18 February

Ancient Worlds Summer School
25 July – 5 August

from Bozo sapiens, one for the A level candidates studying Cicero this year

Cicero: Legality 

The Latin word “Cicero,” as every schoolboy knows, means “chickpea” – an insulting nickname based possibly on the shape of the family nose. Cicero was a swot from the earliest age, motivated both by a desire to excel and by a slight but rankling sense of social inferiority. Though his family was rich, it was not… precisely Roman, but Latin, from the surrounding countryside. Thus the young Cicero was apt to be treated the way Etonians treat grammar-school boys or New Yorkers treat midwesterners: “just as if he were one of us” – which is not like one of us at all.

Still, his keen brain and relentless ambition opened up for him the path to greatness: the cursus honorum by which any citizen could rise from minor office to the heights of senatorial and consular power. All agreed that his knowledge of Roman law was matched only by his command of rhetoric – and in both he had no equal. Legal battle was a spectator sport in Rome: every politician seeking glory had not only to win a victory against the barbarians, but also to conduct a successful defense and prosecution.  These performances took place in the open forum, before an audience as passionately expert in legal spectacle as its descendants are in opera or soccer: once, when Cicero finished an oration with the quick flick-flack of a double trochee, the whole court erupted in wild cheering.

He had no fondness for military life, but was not afraid to use aggressively those weapons he possessed. His first major speech was a direct challenge to the favorites of Rome’s current dictator, Sulla. Cicero hated dictatorship and felt a fierce loyalty to a republic that had not only established such an excellent legal system, “of universal application, unchanging and everlasting,” but had given a provincial like himself the rostrum from which to prove his superiority.  He was grateful – and, as he said, “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” read the rest of this article

Teacher’s Pack for the Roman Baths museum at Aquae Sulis

from Anne Dicks;

A project I have recently taken on is updating the Teacher’s Pack for the Roman Baths museum.  The education staff there are very keen to get ideas from teachers about the sort of information they would like to have included in the pack.

We want to expand the scope of the pack to include topics studied for Key Stage 3 as well as for GCSE and in the 6th form.  As well as giving help with translating the Latin on inscriptions etc. we can focus on topics like Romanisation, women, the economy – anything that might be of use for Classical Civilisation, Archaeology and Ancient History courses.  Any ideas will be very welcome!  I don’t know anything at all about IB exams ….

The museum displays are in the process of being reorganised and the route around the museum has changed, so I consider it a real privilege to be involved in liaison between teachers and the museum at this exciting time. If you have any ideas, please contact me at  anne@pyrrha.me.uk

You can find out more about Anne’s work here - 

Pyrrha’s Roman Pages website  pyrrha.me.uk

CICERO Latin competition website ciceroeuropa.eu

Suki’s own website   pyrrha.demon.co.uk/suki.html

SPQR re-enactment

Global Post

ROME — Recently, residents and tourists around the Coliseum watched in awe as a legion of Roman soldiers marched in unison down Rome’s Imperial Avenue.

“Caesar!” called out the commander in Latin as the legion came to a stop. “I, Centurion Lucius Valerius Seianus, have brought your favorite legion here to return the scepter of command to your hands!”

A horn blared as the Centurion placed a large laurel crown on the pedestal of the statue of Julius Caesar, the great Roman general who was stabbed to death in the Forum 2,053 years that day — March 15, or the “Ides of March.”

As an excited crowd of tourists snapped their cameras, the legion made its way to the Roman Forum.

“It’s our way of exporting Rome’s history without being boring,” said the Centurion, whose real name is Giorgio Franchetti. He is president of the historical reenactment group, called “SPQR.”

The name is an acronym in Latin from ancient Rome, Senatus Populus Que Romanus — meaning the Senate and the People of Rome. With 35 active members of all ages, “SPQR” is one of several non-profit associations in Rome devoted to experimental archeology.

“Experimental archeology means putting yourself in the shoes of ancient characters who can no longer tell you how they lived,” Franchetti said, “to experience their struggles in first person.”

Members of the group are not actors. They are passionate Romans who believe their approach to archeology helps keep ancient Rome alive, much as Civil War reenactors in the U.S. discover history by portraying period characters and recreating scenes from another era.

In addition to studying archeological findings, such as jewels, weapons and military equipment, these enthusiasts re-create an entire living environment by organizing Roman encampments, gladiator trainings and religious rituals.

Their devotion to the study and practice of the Roman Empire has turned them into a subculture of purists.

Last summer, when rumors circulated about an idea to build a theme park inspired by the Roman Empire, SPQR President Giorgio Franchetti went on alert. He feared the plan would provide a superficial rendition of Roman life with one goal in mind: making a profit.

ROME — Recently, residents and tourists around the Coliseum watched in awe as a legion of Roman soldiers marched in unison down Rome’s Imperial Avenue.

“Caesar!” called out the commander in Latin as the legion came to a stop. “I, Centurion Lucius Valerius Seianus, have brought your favorite legion here to return the scepter of command to your hands!”

A horn blared as the Centurion placed a large laurel crown on the pedestal of the statue of Julius Caesar, the great Roman general who was stabbed to death in the Forum 2,053 years that day — March 15, or the “Ides of March.”

As an excited crowd of tourists snapped their cameras, the legion made its way to the Roman Forum.

“It’s our way of exporting Rome’s history without being boring,” said the Centurion, whose real name is Giorgio Franchetti. He is president of the historical reenactment group, called “SPQR.”

The name is an acronym in Latin from ancient Rome, Senatus Populus Que Romanus — meaning the Senate and the People of Rome. With 35 active members of all ages, “SPQR” is one of several non-profit associations in Rome devoted to experimental archeology.

“Experimental archeology means putting yourself in the shoes of ancient characters who can no longer tell you how they lived,” Franchetti said, “to experience their struggles in first person.”

Members of the group are not actors. They are passionate Romans who believe their approach to archeology helps keep ancient Rome alive, much as Civil War reenactors in the U.S. discover history by portraying period characters and recreating scenes from another era.

In addition to studying archeological findings, such as jewels, weapons and military equipment, these enthusiasts re-create an entire living environment by organizing Roman encampments, gladiator trainings and religious rituals.

Their devotion to the study and practice of the Roman Empire has turned them into a subculture of purists.

Last summer, when rumors circulated about an idea to build a theme park inspired by the Roman Empire, SPQR President Giorgio Franchetti went on alert. He feared the plan would provide a superficial rendition of Roman life with one goal in mind: making a profit.

Cicero, father of politically correct comedy

The Times is well staffed for Latin, with Philip Howard as a long-standing witty and erudite writer, and Mary Beard as Blog expert. Take Mary and set her to give a lecture, and then employ Philip to report on it, and you have the recipe for this excellent piece:

Philip Howard

Dico, dico, dico! I say, I say, I say! What made an Ancient Roman laugh? Professor Mary Beard, of Cambridge University, considered this ticklish question at the extraordinary joint meeting of the Scottish and English Classical Associations in Glasgow last night.

The popular theory is that Romans were not great funsters. They were bullies who laughed at lesser breeds being put down and humiliated.

One puzzle is that the Romans had only one basic word for laughter: ridere, from which we derive “risible”. Whereas we have a minutely nuanced vocabulary — chortle, chuckle, cackle, smirk, titter, hoot, guffaw, smile — the Romans had no word for smile, so they used compounds of ridere. Subridere, a little laugh, from which the French derive sourire. The Romans did, however, have dozens of words for joke, which cause translators difficulties in distinguishing between sal (salt, wit) and facetiae (facetiousness).

So who was the drollest Roman of them all? Professor Beard argues that it was not Plautus, Martial, or Terence, but Cicero.

This sounds odd, because we have been brought up to think of antiquity’s most famous orator as a dour, pompous, humourless guy whose wit was deployed solely for the humiliation and derision of his courtroom or political opponents.

Here is Cicero’s quip about his no-hope son-in-law: “Seeing his son-in-law, who was a very short man wearing a long sword, he said, ‘Who has buckled my son-in-law to that sword?’ ” His surviving line of verse contains a boastful and laboured pun: O fortunatam natam me Consule Romam,” which translates as, “O congrats, Rome, on being conceived when I was consul.”

Ancient writings about laughter, some by Cicero himself, reflect on what topics of joking are appropriate (jokes on baldness OK; on bodily smells or blindness not OK). A Roman joke, according to Cicero, should be spontaneous, urbane, truthful. Truth, mimicry, simulation and dissimulation lie at the heart of Roman laughter. The urbane wit should not pick on the really weak, according to Cicero. He should not joke about serious crime.

The exposed and potentially vulnerable position of the jesting, deriding orator is one facet of a bigger truth about laughter: that he who provokes laughter is simultaneously liable to be the butt of laughter. This is shown by the Latin adjective ridiculus, which means both something or somebody who makes you laugh and something or someone who is laughed at, or laughable (ridiculous in our sense).

A funny thing happened on the way to the amphitheatre

— The elder Crassus was said to have laughed only once in his life. What caused Crassus to crack up? The sight of a donkey eating thistles and the well-known saying that came to mind: “Thistles are like lettuce to the lips of a donkey”

— In the middle of the Civil War the exasperated Pompey is reputed to have said of his reluctant ally Cicero: “I wish to goodness Cicero would go over to the enemy, then he would learn to fear us”

— A man leaving the Roman theatre was asked by another whether he had seen the play. “No, stupid,” he replied. “I was playing ball in the orchestra”

— Gaius Memmius, the tribune of 111BC, was said to have had taken a bite out of the arm of a man called Largus, as they were tussling over the affections of a woman.

— Crassus claimed that all over the town of Terracina the letters MMLLL were pasted up on the walls: “Mordacious Memmius Lacerates Largus’ Limb”

— A joke made to a one-eyed man, Gaius Sextius: “I shall dine with you my friend, for I see you’ve got a place for another one.” “This,” said Cicero, “is the unacceptable joke of a scurra [professional clown] both because it was unprovoked, and because it could be used against any one-eyed individual”

— Cicero was defending his client Milo on the charge of murdering the infamous Clodius in 52BC and was under interrogation from the prosecution. The case was going to hinge on exact timing. When did Clodius die, they asked him. And here is the joke, the one that is, on its own, enough to justify the whole category of double entendres: Cicero replied with just one word, sero. The pun is on the two senses of sero: both “late” and “too late”. Clodius died late in the day, and he should have been got rid of years before

Dealing with litter along the Antonine Wall.

Volunteers have been doing battle with litter along the Antonine Wall.

The Roman fortification, which ns 37 miles from Bo’ness to Old Kilpatrick, was chosen as the launch site for National Spring Clean 2009.

Schools, youth clubs, community groups and individuals will be involved in litter picks across the country over the next month.

So far, more than 35,000 people have signed up for the Spring Clean, organised by Keep Scotland Beautiful.

John Summers, chief executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “It is amazing to see today, what the Romans achieved by working together, and if we do the same, work together to combat littering, then maybe we can leave a legacy of a litter-free Scotland.

National Spring Clean 2009 is a great opportunity for groups of people to really make a difference to the environmental quality of Scotland.”

Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead added: “Scotland’s natural environment is worth around £17bn to our economy and the cost to our local authorities for street cleansing alone is now over £100m per annum.

“Litter is a problem which cannot be ignored.

“We want as many people as possible to get involved in this year’s campaign. It offers people throughout Scotland the opportunity to restore a sense of community pride and clean up their neighbourhoods for themselves and visitors to our country.”

Meanwhile, a campaign to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle the packaging that comes with their everyday products has been launched.

The initial stages of the Positive Package drive will focus on Easter egg wrapping.

Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham launched the campaign at Oakbank Primary in Perth.

She said: “Packaging is a key area in relation to waste. Some packaging helps protect products and can make them last longer, which can reduce waste. Equally, though, excess packaging is wasteful.”

Dr Nicki Souter, from Waste Aware Scotland, said: “There are many things we can all do to limit the amount of waste that packaging generates, such as looking for products with less packaging or reusing things like carrier bags and refillable products.

“Over and above that, we can also all recycle more of our packaging, as this can then be used again to make new products.”

Medieval recycling – or robbing Roman walls

Medieval News

Archaeologists in Gloucester have unearthed evidence that recycling is not just a twenty-first century idea. An archaeological investigation in the centre of the city has discovered that medieval settlers used parts of a Roman wall to construct buildings.

Gloucestershire County Council’s archaeology team is exploring the area where Kimbrose Triangle meets Southgate Street before work begins in the summer to connect the Quays to the city centre. But they were frustrated in their search for the line of the old Roman wall.

Gloucestershire County Council project officer Paul Nichols said: “We found Roman deposits about one metre below the pavement level. The earliest deposits were soil layers containing shards of Roman pottery and fragments of wall plaster. Above that was a mortar floor surface, which we believe was the internal floor of a Roman building.

“We didn’t find any evidence for the Roman wall, suggesting that we were just inside the line, but it’s also possible that parts of it may have been recycled and used to build later buildings. It was certainly a worthwhile exercise and we will be providing a full report that will be of benefit to city planners.”

The nearest remains of the wall are inside Gloucestershire Furniture Exhibition Centre on the corner of Southgate Street and Parliament Street, and Blackfriars. Henry Hurst uncovered the wall at Bearland in 1969. It runs under Berkeley Street, to the nearest corner of the Cathedral, to St Aldate Street, through King’s Walk, Brunswick Road, and Parliament Street.

“They could have been just inside the city wall, if the wall is there,” said Gloucester Civic Trust’s Nigel Spry. “It may be that it’s been taken away during later periods to use in other buildings.”