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A publication of the American Philological Association Vol. 4 • Issue 2 • Fall 2005

WHAT’S NEW AT POMPEII Book Review: AREIOS POTER kai he tou AND HERCULANEUM? philosophou lithos RESEARCH, EXCAVATION, EXHIBITIONS, by Diane L. Johnson AND BOOKS Andrew Wilson, trans. AREIOS POTER kai by Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow he tou philosophou lithos. The ancient Greek edition of J. K. Rowling’s Harry he volcanic eruption of Mount Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Blooms- Vesuvius (see Fig. 1) in A.D. 79 T bury Publishing (http://www.bloomsbury. affected the psyche of the Romans for a long time after the event, com), 2004. Pp. 250. Hardcover $21.95. and the memory of the explosion with ISBN 1-58234-826-x. its large loss of life was perpetuated by a variety of imperial and later Roman fter the much-anticipated release of writers. Martial, Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger Athe sixth book in the Harry Potter (whose two famous letters to Tacitus series this past summer and the release of have helped us understand the pyroclas- the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet tics – the nature of the volcanic rock of Fire, in November, few people these ejections of the eruption), Suetonius, days are unacquainted with the Harry Pot- Cassius Dio, Marcus Aurelius, Florus, ter phenomenon. Readers who are both and later Christian writers like Tertul- lian all mentioned the calamity of Vesu- Hellenists and Harry Potter enthusiasts will, Fig. 1. View of Mount Vesuvius from vius in various contexts in their works. of course, need no encouragement to Naples harbor, August 2005. Photo Statius (ca. A.D. 45-96), who was undertake Andrew Wilson’s delightful credit: Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow. born in Naples, for example, tells us in translation of J. K. Rowling’s first book. In his eulogy for his deceased father (Silvae what happened after A.D. 79 to the this review, I am addressing those who 5.3.205-08) that his father had planned “cities and peoples buried below” the have not yet discovered any reason why to write an epic poem about the erup- land in and around the areas affected by they should read the Harry Potter novels at tion of Vesuvius before he died. Statius the eruption of Vesuvius. The region’s also demonstrates the emotional con- topography, notably the coastline and all, whether in English, Greek, or any one nection he had to Vesuvius: the course of the River Sarno, was dras- of the more than fifty world languages into tically altered by the eruption. The which the books have now been translated. Will future generations believe, when buried cities remained somewhat alive Among this group I once numbered myself, once more crops and these deserted in the collective memory of the and I found any number of excuses for not places thrive again, that cities and Romans, but at some point, it seems peoples are buried below and that reading such fiction marketed to the young. that local knowledge of the precise loca- ancestral lands have disappeared, hav- I managed to hold out although I am sur- ing shared in the same fate? Not yet tion of both Pompeii and Herculaneum, does the mountaintop cease to threat- continued on page 2 continued on page 4 en death. (Silvae 4.4. 80-85)

“Almi Parentes” ...... 5 “Classics and Contemporary Statius’ expression of disbelief about Fiction” Panel at the APA Meeting “TELL THEM WE ARE RISING”: in Montreal...... 11 the desolation of the landscape of Cam- AFRICAN AMERICANS AND pania after this natural disaster and his THE CLASSICS ...... 6 Audio Review: “A Recital of Ancient Greek Poetry” ...... 14 realization that Vesuvius had not yet Book Review: “The October stopped threatening the neighboring Horse”...... 7 To A Professor of Latin ...... 16 territories (a fact that modern volca- Ask A Classicist...... 8 Greek And Roman Antiquities nologists have been studying for years at The Montreal Museum of ...... 18 ORAL LATIN: “LOQUIMUR QUO Fine Arts now) have a ring of contemporaneity to Inside MELIUS LEGAMUS” – WE SPEAK TO them. READ BETTER ...... 8 Guidelines for contributors...... 20 Statius’ comment leads us to ponder WHAT’S NEW AT POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM? continued from page 1

the two most famous cities affected, dis- Menander in the Antiquarium at Bosco- appeared. The name Cività (City) was reale. The exhibit includes glassware, used for the whole zone beneath which furnishings, pottery, bronzes, marbles, ancient Pompeii was actually buried and much more. Panels describe who until the 1740’s when formal excava- the inhabitants were, what they ate, tions began. what they read, what graffiti they scrib- A number of exciting discoveries bled, and generally how they lived. since the 1980’s indicate that there was Pompeii has seen a renaissance of a resumption of life immediately after highly focused research and excavation the eruption around the area of the projects in the last ten years. A short buried town and continued regeneration sampling follows of the many ongoing in the area. In fact, a whole new field of projects that are helping to provide a Pompeian studies has been established new understanding of many aspects of to understand those survivors who Fig. 2. Skeletons in the boat storage at Pompeiian life: John Dobbins studies stayed on and tried to rebuild their Herculaneum, August 2005. Photo credit: the forum (urban center) at Pompeii lives. In modern Pompeii, for example, Catherine K. Baker. (http://pompeii.virginia.edu/page-1.html); excavations on the Via Lepanto that Kevin Cole has been refining the build- began in the late 1980’s have revealed approaches, and new expectations have ing history of the northwest corner of in the jumble of structures found there emerged. It is time to pause and ask: the Pompeian forum; Steven Ellis has a definite resumption of life immediate- what is new at Pompeii and Hercula- begun work on explorations of the area ly after the eruption of A.D. 79. Within neum? What are the exciting discoveries around the Stabian Gate at the southern the last ten years, Italian archaeologists that archaeologists have been making in end of the city near the entertainment have also found a necropolis to the recent excavations? What kinds of stud- and theater district (http://www.stanford. southeast of Pompeii with finds dating ies have developed out of ongoing work edu/group/pompeii/index.htm); Eric between the fourth and fifth centuries at these sites? Poehler has been studying wheel ruts A.D. Archaeologists, volcanologists, and curb marks to better understand geologists, and anthropologists have Pompeii Pompeian traffic patterns; Betty Jo been hard at work carefully reconstruct- Mayeske, Robert C. Curtis, Robert ing a detailed sequence of events during Better control by the authorities of the Lindley Vann, and Benedict J. Lowe are the eruption and its effect on the Bay of illicit activities of organized crime on making a non-invasive study of the Naples. The Discovery Channel’s the Bay of Naples (the number of rob- structures that are associated with the “Pompeii: The Last Day” (2004) is a beries of antiquities, for example, has storage, distribution, preparation, serv- testament to this research (see greatly decreased) along with the intelli- ing, and consumption of food and drink http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/ gent management of the site of Pompeii at Pompeii (http://www.Pompeii-Food- pompeii/pompeii.html). by Superintendent Pietro Giovanni and-Drink.org); and Eckhard and Ela Nowadays, Pompeii and Hercula- Guzzo over the last ten years or so have Tiemanns are raising funds to restore neum are such household names to us greatly improved the “archaeological cli- the noble suburban Villa Imperiale (go that we tend to take them for granted. It mate” and educational value of the site to www.pompeiisites.org, click on is well known that Pompeii and Hercu- of Pompeii. In 1997, Pompeii was “Eventi” in the upper menu bar, and laneum were each destroyed in a very declared a UNESCO World Heritage follow the link to “Il Progetto VIMP”). different manner (more pumice and ash site, and now the Italian government A closer look at another large project, at Pompeii, up to twenty-five meters of allows Pompeii to keep the money from the Anglo-American Project successive pyroclastic surges at Hercula- its ticket sales for site conservation. The (http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/ neum). Each city, therefore, offers Superintendency of Pompeii has an field_proj/anampomp), can demonstrate archaeological evidence of a distinct excellent Web site (http://www. the new kind of detailed information we character. At Herculaneum, we can pompeiisites.org); visitors can take a vir- are now gaining from the excavations recover more upper floors of structures, tual tour of the ruins of Pompeii and and how this information is truly setting wooden beams, doors and collapsible access interactively (by name or trends for the future of Pompeian gates, wooden furnishings, shrines, address) about fifty locations at Pompeii archaeology. The Anglo-American Pro- screens, beds, and even a cradle with from a panoramic perspective. ject in Pompeii, begun in 1994 by Rick evidence of a blanket still in it, not to At the actual site of Pompeii, more Jones and Damian Robinson, aimed to mention papyrus scrolls and wooden houses (of the roughly 400 houses that record and excavate the history of an tablets. The human remains are pre- are excavated) are accessible to the pub- entire city block, insula 1 of Region VI served differently as well. To anthropol- lic today than were open ten years ago, (see Fig. 3). I have visited various parts ogists, the bones of Herculaneum (see and more care is given to conservation of this large excavation site almost every Fig. 2) reveal a great deal more than the and restoration throughout the site. The year since it started and have had the plaster casts of Pompeii, although Pom- House of the Menander, for example, benefit of personal tours from Jones and peii has other treasures to offer us. But opened to the public about two years Robinson on many occasions. The trian- after more than two hundred and fifty ago. After a visit to the pristinely reno- gular insula 1 (a block in the northwest years of excavation history at Pompeii vated mansion, one can later go to a corner of Pompeii near the Hercula- and Herculaneum, new techniques, new splendid new exhibit devoted to the neum Gate) was first excavated in the everyday objects from the House of the 2 eighteenth century but had been left accepted version. Fig. 3. Pompeii Interactive Map. exposed to the elements and abandoned Thanks to the Anglo-American Pro- Courtesy of Current World Archaeology ever since. Since erosion had eaten into ject , we can now see how insula VI.1 (www.archaeology.co.uk). wall decorations and floors, the team was first occupied in the fourth century could excavate down to the city’s earli- B.C., reorganized with modest houses preserve it for future generations. The est strata in areas where no floors sur- and workshops in the second century first efforts of the Trust will preserve vived. The bare masonry of many of the B.C., bombarded by the Roman army a the House of the Vestals, then the inns walls revealed much about the block’s century later, and finally dominated by a and bars of insula VI.1, and finally the structural history. single luxurious residence, the House of House of the Surgeon and the shrine What we see as tourists in Pompeii is the Vestals, which was surrounded by area. Eventually, the whole block will only August 24, A.D. 79, the final bars and shops. The team plans one be open to the public so that we all can moment in a long history of habitation more season (2006) at Pompeii and then appreciate the dynamic development of at Pompeii. Jones and Robinson and will focus on further publications that Pompeii in context. their team (comprising a field school of address a new array of questions: When hundreds of eager university students were Pompeii’s streets first laid out? Herculaneum from over thirty countries around the How did the densely packed townscape New excavation at Herculaneum has world) have essentially been writing a of A.D. 79 come into being? What was also yielded impressive results. Tourists new 400-year history of insula VI. 1, the relationship between rich and poor can now visit an exposed part of the including a new dating for the original habitation and inhabitants? How did the Villa of the Papyri, an opulent seaside construction of the House of the Sur- masses of Pompeii earn a living? dwelling located a few hundred meters geon, long thought to be one of the ear- The Pompeii Trust (http://www. from the western side of Herculaneum liest houses in Pompeii (see Fig. 6). pompeiitrust.org) is an outgrowth of the that was perhaps owned by Lucius The house, it turns out, cannot have Anglo-American Project. It is a charita- Calpurnius Piso, the father-in-law of been built before ca. 200 B.C. and per- ble organization founded a few years Julius Caesar (an advance reservation haps dates to even later than that! This ago to preserve insula VI.1 for posterity. done online at www.arethusa.net is finding compresses the sequence of The Project Director of the Trust, Rick required). While the villa contains color- changes in building styles and plan, not Jones, does not believe that archaeolo- ful wall paintings, marbles, bronzes, and just for this house, but also for the gists can excavate Pompeii and then other statuary, it has been known, since entire architectural history of Pompeii. walk away to their studies without look- its original excavation, more for its Jones and Robinson have also shown ing back. Pompeii is being ravaged by library of papyrus scrolls. In 2004, the that the original plan of the house was tourists, sun, rains, and wind every year, Friends of the Herculaneum Society significantly different from the generally- and an on-going effort must be made to continued on page 10 3 Book Review: AREIOS POTER kai he tou philosophou lithos continued from page 1

rounded by undergraduates who, judging and entertaining story (dulce) while review- from the emblems on their tee-shirts and cof- ing Greek vocabulary and grammar (utile). fee mugs and the references they make in Such an activity increases one’s ability to their essays, are crazy about Harry. It was read and appreciate Greek prose. Anyone not until one of them dared me to read a who has gone through first-year Greek will Harry Potter novel that I was goaded into derive considerable profit from Wilson’s action. “If I have to read it,” I weakly insist- work. ed, “I’m going to do it in Greek.” “Lan- But there is something else in this text guage-ist!” she fumed but accepted my that classicists will find appealing. As they condition. read, they will find themselves catching and Well, I have kept my end of the bargain savoring the memories of previous encoun- and can confidently state that Rowling tells ters with ancient texts, for into his transla- a good story: Hareios, an unloved and neg- tion Wilson has incorporated elements from lected orphan to whom various unaccount- the styles of many Greek authors, adding able things happen (polla . . . paradoxa) is something from Homer, Hesiod, Plato, rescued from his horrid foster family by a Xenophon, the Athenian tragedians, and half-gigas named Hagrides, who helps him Aristophanes. on his way to Hyogoetou Paideuterion, the The opening line in the Greek sets the boarding school where he is to study the tone: “Doursleios kai he gune enokoun te Fig. 4. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter magic arts (see Fig. 4). Our story traces tetarte oikia te tes ton mursinon hodou” in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Hareios’ first year at Hyogoetou: how he (“Dursley and his wife lived in the fourth (Warner Brothers, 2001), the film adap- becomes the star player on the Icarus-ball house on the street of the myrtle trees . . .”). tation of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997). (ikarosphairike) team, how he interacts with This reflects Rowling’s original sentence the eccentric sophistai of the faculty, how (“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Priv- dria. And this treno draws along many he meets those who will become his friends et Drive, . . .”). Yet, with the Greek page wagons, upon which the people of today and enemies, how he resists the evil force before my eyes, I think at once of the open- (hoi nun) are carried all over the country, that has killed his parents and longs to ing of Xenophon’s Anabasis: “Dareios and mounting and dismounting in the sta- destroy him. Parysatis had two sons.” Further on in Wil- tions.” (52) The reader is reminded throughout the son’s text, banqueters in Homeric fashion story of important truths: that it is equally “put aside their desire for potable and eat- Or take, as another example, marshmal- destructive to be self-satisfied and to be able” (103). Characters call Zeus and all lows: “malakhai helodeis are a kind of overwhelmed by lust for what one does not the gods to witness (see 124, for example, sweetmeat rather different from what peo- have; that compassion for those who are for a mouth-filling oath uttered by the ple of today call loukoumi“(162). Or golf: weaker is better than arrogance and intol- sophistria Magonogalea and another oath “Those playing it strike the balls of gkolph erance; that biological and ethnic diversity by the prim Hermione, 188.) Time is reck- with rods . . . hoping to direct them into a is preferable to tedious conformity; and, oned in the ancient manner: a lesson takes very small hole” (138). Have a look at finally, that the paranoid drive for security place “a little after the ninth [hour] of the Christmas dinner, complete with cranberry is both futile and deadly and must be coun- afternoon” (119), or Wilson adopts the sauce, plum-pudding, and the krakeres that tered by the infinite potential of creative Hesiodic “at the hour when the yoke is lift- the British are fond of exploding at holidays magic and youthful élan. This philosophical ed from the oxen” (69). The effect is espe- (165-66). aspect of the novel, of course, is part of cially delightful in those passages in which Many of Wilson’s adaptations of Rowl- Rowling’s original achievement, as are the Rowling’s original presents a phenomenon ing’s names are evocative: Hareios Poter, compelling and sometimes repellent charac- perfectly ordinary to a modern reader but for example, preserves the English while ters around whom the story develops. And, presumably alien to Wilson’s idealized evoking both Ares and the Areopagus, while Andrew Wilson has masterfully ren- reader of Greek: a train, for example, implying martial and political glory. Then dered them all in Attic dialect, we still need which Wilson describes in a Herodotean there is Snape, the malicious sophistes here to answer the question: why read this trans- digression as named Sinapys (“mustard”). Hareios’ bête lation when you can read the novel in Rowl- noire is Malfoy, an arrogant coward here ing’s original English? a wonder made of iron, breathing smoke, named Malthakos (“weak-spirited”). Well, I can start with the old utile-dulce such that it runs by itself (ex automatou) Poiphyktes (“snort”), is a nasty little ghoul. upon iron wheels, using steam to move argument: that it is fun to read an arresting Voldemort, the arch-villain himself, bears a just like the aiolipylai of Heron of Alexan- 4 name reminiscent of scaly serpents and death: Pholidomortos. ALMI PARENTES The quality of Wilson’s prose is very by Daniel N. Erickson high. I found very few errors in the Greek during my first read-through. The story is a n his essay “On Good Teaching,” Latin and had the fond hope that I which appeared in issue 2.1 of would as well. As I perused those compelling one, forcing the reader to keep I Amphora (10-11), Randall Nichols tomes, I was captivated by the pictures turning the page to see what happens next. eloquently relates that he entered the and became absorbed with what I read And while there are a few accent errors, a classics profession because he had chal- about Roman civilization and the histo- few slips in gender agreement, minor typo- lenging, dedicated professors who took ry of English words. However, the graphical problems (the misspelling in the a genuine interest in him. I, too, had charts termed “declensions” and “con- header for Biblos Theta, for example), there good teachers, but what motivated me jugations” completely mystified me, to pursue a career teaching both classics and I wondered whether I could ever was no occasion where I had to stop and and Spanish was the dedication and learn something that seemed so com- wonder where the text was going. When encouragement of my mother and plex. Intimidated though I was, I fol- Wilson uses verse, as in the song of the father, coupled with a natural interest in lowed my father’s advice and was deter- Pilos Nemetes (Sorting Hat) on pages 96- language. As traditional Romans revered mined to sign up for Latin. 97 or in the school anthem (104), the their parents and looked to them for When it came time for registration, I prosody is flawless. On all counts, this guidance, so I did with mine, receiving was very excited because I was then from them their sage advice and the entering high school and would be translation is a delight, to be read with confidence to follow my true interests studying new, challenging subjects. I pleasure and profit by Hellenists (and Latin- and strengths. had no difficulty getting the classes I ists, too) who love imaginative literature. Until the fourth grade, I did not care wanted, except for Latin. Upon asking much for school and attended only my counselor why Latin was not Diane L. Johnson (diane.johnson@ because I knew I would be in trouble offered, I was informed that it was a wwu.edu) has been teaching classics in the with my parents if I did not. However, dead language (which I assumed meant during this grade and for some that it was worthless) and therefore it Department of Modern and Classical Lan- unknown reason, I took a liking to had not been taught at the school for guages at Western Washington University words. The high point of each day came years. I found out that Spanish was the since 1991. Here she encourages in her when the teacher would give the vocab- only foreign language available, so I had students the development of writing and ulary quiz, for which I would prepare no choice but to enroll in it since I knew conversation skills in the ancient languages with great diligence. After some initial that colleges looked very favorably upon along with the acquisition of reading ability. failures, I was soon earning A’s and B’s language study. The counselor reas- and began to feel much better about sured me of the value of Spanish, point- She is also the editor of The World’s Muse, myself as a student. My mother and ing out that it was modern, spoken in her department’s journal of creative writing father were enthusiastic that I had finally many countries, and thus useful. I was in world languages. started to enjoy school, telling me how completely dismayed that my dad, proud they were each time they saw my whose advice I trusted implicitly, papers with those little gold or silver seemed out of touch with contemporary Coming in Future stars affixed. Success was contagious, views on education. Issues of Amphora and I began to study my other subjects Later that day, my parents asked me with similar effort. how registration went. I replied that it Ninth grade was another pivotal year went well and that the only class I could Classics and the U. S. Presidency in my academic development, for it was not get was Latin, so I took Spanish The Plague at Athens then that I began to think seriously instead. My dad could hardly believe about college. Ever since I was a child, I that our high school, which touted its Teaching Latin in Inner-City Schools had wanted to follow in my father’s pre-college curriculum, did not provide What Do Classics Librarians Do? footsteps and become a physician. its students the opportunity to study the Novel Approaches to the Classics III Before registering for classes, I spoke language that he considered essential with my dad at length about the courses for an aspiring college student. My Neo-Latin Literature I should take during high school to pre- mom, a registered nurse who had stud- The Art Infusion Project at the U. S. Mint pare myself to be a pre-med student in ied both Latin and Spanish, reminded The Oxyrhynchus Papyri college. Besides studying biology, him that Spanish was one of the advanced math, physics, and chemistry, Romance languages, the direct descen- The Colony of Augusta Merida in he was insistent that I take Latin dants of Latin, and stated that she Roman Lusitania because it would help me learn medical would be pleased to practice Spanish Naming Children in Ancient Greece vocabulary and be excellent training for with me. Review of HBO’s ROME the mind. I took her up on her offer and was I was curious about this language that glad that I did, for she helped make Review of Margaret Atwood’s The my dad said was useful and relevant to Spanish the highlight of my years in Penelopiad the present even though it was most public school. Besides quizzing me on Review of Harrius Potter et Philosophi ancient. Knowing that he had studied vocabulary and verb conjugations, she Lapis the subject in college, I asked him if I would practice speaking the language could look at his old Latin books. He with me and teach me Spanish sayings was happy to comply since he loved continued on page 15 5 “TELL THEM WE ARE RISING”: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE CLASSICS by Kenneth W. Goings and Eugene O’Connor

rom the time of the American One morning I went to a school for For example, an article drawn from colonies until well into the twenti- the Negroes and I heard a very black the work of the Haitian scholar Baron de F boy translate a passage from eth century, a “classical educa- Vastey in the African American publica- tion” (meaning training in Latin and Xenophon. His teacher was a full- tion Freedom’s Journal (February 7, Greek) was largely associated with blooded Negro. It happened that I 1829), argued thus: “The enemies of went straight from the school to a club elites, that is, with white gentlemen. where I encountered a group of gen- Africa wish to persuade the world that The received wisdom of the time was tlemen discussing the limitations of for five of the six thousand years that the that those outside this elite group had the African mind. “Teach ’em world has existed, Africa has been sunk neither the requisite mental capacity Greek?” said old judge so-and-so. in barbarism. Have they forgotten that nor the necessary leisure to master the “Now a nigger could learn the Greek Africa was the cradle of the arts and sci- classical languages. This criticism was alphabet by rote, but he could never ences? If they pretend to forget this, it leveled particularly at African Ameri- intelligently construe a passage from becomes our duty to remind them of it.” cans, who were assumed to be intellec- any Greek writer – impossible.” I told African Americans in the North, who tually deficient and socially marginal. him what I had just heard. “Read it? had received a classical education in Thought to be descended from “sav- Understood it? Was black? A black Negro schools and northern colleges and man teaching him? I beg your pardon, ages,” they therefore lacked a vested but do you read Greek yourself?” universities or abroad, began to form lit- interest in the foundations of Western “Sir,” he said at last, “I do not for a erary and historical societies in order to civilization. moment doubt your word. I know you demonstrate mastery of the intellectual Evidence from the archives of histor- think the nigger read Greek; but you currents of the day and to promote liter- ically-black colleges, autobiographies by were deceived. I shouldn’t believe it if acy. As Elizabeth McHenry convincingly early black classicists, and political writ- I saw it with my own eyes and heard it argues in Forgotten Readers (2002), these ings by abolitionists demonstrate, how- with my own ears.” (The Rebuilding of societies were also acts of resistance, ever, that not only were large numbers the Old Commonwealths [1902], 132-33) refuges from the racial attitudes that of African Americans able to master the denied African Americans citizenship classics but that indeed they saw the and often even full humanity. classics as part of their own heritage. David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored This article will therefore address both Ex-slave communities Citizens of the World (1829), which com- the motivation behind African American bined African Americans’ interest in classical training and the means that believed that economic social and secular history with a plea African Americans used to achieve a independence and political against the injustice of slavery, is anoth- classical education. Our focus spans the self-motivation could not er example of using the classical past to mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth defend blacks’ full human status. In century. happen without part, Walker’s text reminds us how his We begin with the challenges African well-trained intellectuals. views differ from those of Jefferson. His Americans historically faced. Typical of Appeal offered an alternative reading of the predominant views of the eigh- classical sources that argues for the intel- teenth and nineteenth centuries about lectual achievement of ancient historical African Americans and the classics are personages from North Africa, such as the following two examples. Thomas Hannibal, Cleopatra, and Augustine. Jefferson, in his Notes on the State of Vir- Both Jefferson and Page illustrate the Walker contended that ancient slavery, ginia (1785), dismissed the slave Phillis prevalent thinking about African Ameri- which was not racially specific, was Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, cans’ intelligence, particularly regarding humane in comparison to the condition Religious and Moral (1773), inspired by the classics. Given the racial and socie- of blacks in early nineteenth-century classical models, as beneath the level of tal bias against them, it is important to America. Ignorance among African criticism (Notes, Query XIV). His racist note that educated African Americans in Americans resulted not from biological views led Jefferson to regard the status the early nineteenth century used their inferiority but from a lack of education. of blacks in America as fixed by nature connection to the classics and the fact Appealing not just to secular sources but and not by institutionalized slavery. that there were great African civiliza- to biblical history, Walker inveighed Therefore, no training, particularly in tions in classical antiquity to bolster against Christians for their invidious Latin and Greek, could improve their their argument for the freedom of their treatment of blacks. Appropriating the status. We find essentially the same crit- brothers and sisters in slavery and there- millennial and teleological speculations icism being expressed roughly a century by their inclusion in the American main- of American Protestantism, Walker later by Walter Hines Page, who had stream. Indeed, African Americans were capped his appeal for tolerance by pre- studied Greek at Johns Hopkins under appropriating for themselves the larger dicting that one day the world would be Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve. Page, writ- American impulse of adducing classical, turned upside down and that African ing in 1902, recalls an incident he had particularly Roman Republican, models Americans would assume their rightful experienced in the South during Recon- to justify their efforts to define the new place within the social, political, and struction: American nation and their right to full economic life of the nation (74). citizenship in the American Republic. Walker’s appeal not only to reform 6 but also to educate was the driving Book Review: The October Horse force behind the rise, following the Civil War, of many of the black colleges by Helen Geagan and universities predominantly, but not exclusively in the South. Established Colleen McCullough. The October Horse. patched himself, an event McCullough by missionary societies and often fund- Simon and Schuster (http://www.simon- describes in grisly detail, including spilled ed by northern philanthropists, these says.com), 2002. Pp. 792. Hardcover guts and blood all over the place. liberal arts colleges were largely created $44.00. ISBN 0684853310. Pocket Books Plots in Rome fester. The “Kill Caesar on a New England academic model (www.pocketbooks.com), 2003. Pp. 1120. Club” grows slowly, under the guidance of that stressed a classical education. Paperback $7.99. ISBN 0671024205. Trebonius, abetted by Antonius. To justify Their founding roughly from the 1870’s to World War I truly comprised a their conspiracy, the conspirators put the “Golden Age” for African American ulius Caesar has been a figure of rumor about that Caesar wants to be King. education. The missionaries, philan- Jcontroversy since before his death, and This disgusts Caesar who only wants thropists, and church societies, as well controversies will continue to flourish. enough power to impose his style of as African American students and their Monarch? King? Rampaging general? democracy on the structures of the Repub- parents, concluded that a traditional Democrat? What was Caesar? At the popu- lic. He has, for example, imposed sumptu- classical education would provide future black leaders with a training that lar level, HBO’s new series ROME has ary laws and has made it difficult for sena- was a prerequisite for social equality in been devoting itself to the subject, but previ- tors to absent themselves from the Senate, American civil and political life. ously Colleen McCullough had entered the measures that have not increased his popu- Given the level of intolerance debate with six historical novels comprising larity with the senators. toward education for African Ameri- roughly 4,300 pages in her Masters of The Republicans make their last stand at cans, the task at hand was indeed a for- Rome series: The First Man In Rome (1990), Munda. Both sides are worn out. Caesar, midable one, but one performed by men and women of dedication and per- The Grass Crown (1991), Fortune’s more often clement than not, warns them severance. For decades before the Civil Favorites (1993), Caesar’s Women (1996), that this time there will be no mercy. Victori- War, slaves, with few exceptions, had Caesar (1997), and finally The October ous, with Octavius acting as his contuber- been forbidden to read and write. And Horse (2002). McCullough believes that no nalis (general’s aide), he sets about estab- if they did so, it could be done only sur- one can understand Caesar without being lishing Roman colonies all over Narbonese reptitiously. Thus, the political signifi- intimately familiar with the entire history of Gaul. He draws up all the legislation, ordi- cance of an education for former slaves following the end of the Civil War and the fall of the Roman Republic and the lead- nances, and by-laws himself. Typically, all emancipation cannot be underestimat- ing figures in it. Without such understand- colonies are to have Roman citizenship, vet- ed. Ex-slave communities pursuing ing, she says, “Caesar would remain what erans are to have generous land allotments, their educational objectives stressed he is in most people’s eyes: tritely judged freedmen are enabled to sit on the council leadership training. They believed that the man who would be King, more a in each colony, and a separate colony is to economic independence and political destroyer than a builder, and – greatest be founded for Rome’s urban poor. self-motivation could not happen with- out well-trained intellectuals. Most misconception of them all – a man who As Caesar’s relationship with Antonius black educators saw the classical cur- impatiently cut the knot of his Gordian deteriorates, his relationship with Octavius riculum not as a mere imitation of dilemma by marching on his country with a grows. As they are discussing possible white schools but as a way of gaining flip remark about dice” (Colleen McCul- sources of wealth to sustain Rome, Caesar access to the best intellectual traditions lough, “Reflections On Her Long Historical explains his plans to invade Parthia. of the era and the best means of realiz- Octavius uses the opportunity to worm the ing their own development. For exam- Novels,” pre-publication advertisement for ple, Richard Wright, an influential Fortune’s Favorite, 3). secret of Egypt’s wealth out of him. Caesar black educator of the post-Reconstruc- As highly entertaining and prodigiously prepares for his expedition. He draws up tion era, was once approached, when he researched as its predecessors, The Octo- his will. Not trusting the Senate to send him was a student at Atlanta University, by ber Horse opens just after the battle at necessary funds while he is in the field, a northern visitor who asked him what Pharsalus (48 B.C.) as Caesar sails for Caesar rifles the treasury and banks the freedmen had to say to their friends in money in Brundisium: “A prudent general New England. Young Wright’s reply Alexandria in search of Pompey (whose was: “Tell them we are rising” (James death concludes Caesar). He wants to par- takes his funds with him when he goes,” he D. Anderson, The Education of Blacks in don all who will be pardoned, to bring all explains to Octavius; “. . . if he has to send the South, 1860-1935, [1988], 29). into full participation in the political, eco- back to Rome for more money, the Senate For Wright, the classical curriculum nomic, and social structures of Rome. The can prove very difficult . . . .” (448). did not impose a white culture on Republicans, however, regroup under the Warned of his impending death by African Americans; rather, it was a way numerous people, Caesar, who has stepped for African Americans to understand benevolent, if unwilling, leadership of Cato the development of Western culture and head for Utica. McCullough gives an down from the Dictatorship and is lictorless, and their inherent right to participate in enthralling account of 10,000 Republicans ignores the warnings. He is killed while at that culture. Thus, with limited marching 1,400 miles along the coast of work with his scrolls in the Curia Pompeia resources and often poor physical Africa, only to be defeated at Thapsus. by twenty-two assassins (by McCullough’s plants, black colleges and universities Caesar arrives in Utica just as Cato has dis- count). The account is graphic and gory: continued on page 12 continued on page 13 7 AskAsk A Classicist A Classicist ORAL LATIN: LOQUIMUR A new feature in Amphora where our panel of experts will tackle QUO MELIUS LEGAMUS – intriguing questions about the WE SPEAK TO READ BETTER classical world and its influences. by Milena Minkova and Terence Tunberg

I have long wondered about the ral Latin, or the practice of spo- Latin in state school systems and ken and extempore (to various universities counts as a foreign lan- relationship in meaning between O degrees) interaction in Latin, guage. Oral proficiency is a part of lan- Qthe Latin verb despondeo, has become a “hot topic” among those guage-learning standards for both pre- despondere, despondi, desponsum, (“to concerned with the pedagogy of Latin college and college levels mandated in promise a woman in marriage”) and its in North America during the last decade various states. To our knowledge, no English derivative despondent (“despairing, or so. Oral Latin is frequently the sub- state education regulation specifically depressed”). Shouldn’t Roman fathers, who ject of interchanges on listservs, espe- exempts Latin from this aspect of lan- ordinarily chose the men that their daugh- cially LATINTEACH (http://nxport.com/ guage learning. Indeed, Latin teachers mailman/listinfo/latinteach). Oral tech- themselves have now begun to bring ters married, have been cheered up, rather niques for the classroom are treated in the expectations of Latin instruction a than depressed, when they promised their various recent articles published in jour- few small degrees closer to the level of daughters in marriage? nals aimed at Latin teachers (see, for proficiency that is taken for granted in example, Jeffrey Wills, “Speaking Latin the pedagogy of other languages. In the in Schools and Colleges,” Classical Standards for Classical Language Learn- When used with the direct object World, 92.1 [1998], 27-34). Workshops ing recently formulated by a committee animum, (“spirit”) despondeo (“to on oral strategies in Latin instruction formed under the auspices of the ACL Apromise a woman in marriage”) have become quite common at confer- and American Philological Association, means “despair, give up hope, and lose ences for teachers and professors of the under Goal I, Communication, we find heart” in classical Latin. Always quick on the classical languages, especially at the Standard 1.2 “Students use orally, listen etymological draw, the learned late Republi- annual Institute of the American Classical to, and write Latin or Greek as part of League (ACL). the language learning process.” can author Marcus Terentius Varro ventures The rubric “oral Latin” includes The move to oral Latin may seem an explanation at De Lingua Latina 7.71: quite a large range of activities. Oral radically new, but it is in fact a return to Latin can consist of simple substitutions something quite traditional in the peda- A man who had promised his daughter or word-change drills performed orally. gogy of Latin after the collapse of the (spoponderat), they said, had promised It may involve, at a somewhat higher Western Roman Empire. Although her away (despondisse) because she had level, asking students for simple Latin was nobody’s native language in gone out of the control of his will responses in Latin, perhaps relating to a the Middle Ages and Renaissance, a (sponte), that is, of his volition: even if he written text, or a set of prepared ques- spoken use of Latin existed among the did not want to give her away, he gave tions by the instructor. Total immersion educated, tied chiefly to the fact that her away because he had been obligat- is rarely the goal for classroom activities; Latin remained the universal lingua ed by his promise to give her in marriage in some cases, nevertheless, oral Latin franca of the church, law, the world of (sponsu) . . . . Thus, a person is also said may involve those taking part in a total- learning, and even secular administra- to have promised his spirit away ly Latin environment, such as in the tion. Students in Latin schools in many (despondisse animum), just as he is said intensive Latin workshops at the Uni- parts of Renaissance Europe were to have promised his daughter away versity of Kentucky (see Fig. 5), required to use only Latin in school, (despondisse filiam) because he had set designed to acclimatize participants to usually after the second year. Many a limit to the power of his will (sponte). extempore expression in an intensive Renaissance textbooks designed for stu- ten-day experience, or in a number of dent conversational Latin survive. They According to Varro, then, what caused emo- other seminars for spoken Latin that are known as colloquia. Some of these tional distress in a Roman man was not nec- take place on a regular basis in various little dialogues were written by famous essarily losing his daughter from his house- parts of Europe and the United States. humanists, including Erasmus, whose hold and giving her away to the bridegroom The resurgence of interest in spoken colloquia familiaria, revised and ampli- Latin is due to several factors. Many fied many times by their author, rise he had selected but the loss of his perceived teachers in both high schools and uni- above the rather undistinguished level ability to exert control over her. Varro posits versities have independently discovered of such works and include several mini- an analogy between losing one’s spirit, that oral interchange can be a useful masterpieces of Neo-Latin literature. what we might call one’s heart, and losing addition to the tools available to them The pedagogy of the Jesuit order found- one’s daughter in marriage, on the grounds for stimulating learning in the class- ed in the sixteenth century, a system of that both involve loss of control, and evident- room. Many Latin students, whether in teaching that lasted without much high schools or universities, enjoy being change until the eighteenth century, ly, a depressing loss of control at that. Now able to say things in Latin and to use insisted on maintaining the spoken use how do we say “control freak” in Latin? their new-found language skills to com- of Latin. In the Ratio studiorum of 1599, Paterfamilias, perhaps? municate just like the students of other the blueprint for the academies of the languages. Jesuit order, we read (among other 8 injunctions of a similar kind): and instinctively. Perhaps not surpris- develop a large vocabulary in order to ingly, in view of the fact that oral com- read more easily and quickly. Precisely Latine loquendi usus severe in primis munication has not been a typical prac- at this point, the concomitant active use custodiatur, iis scholis exceptis, in tice for Latin teachers for more than two of the language in writing and even quibus discipuli Latine nesciunt, ita centuries, modern statistics that illus- more so in speaking (which is much ut in omnibus quae ad scholam perti- trate the value of oral Latin as a learning more difficult if one aims at consistently nent, numquam liceat uti patrio ser- tool are hard to find. But most advocates maintaining correct construction) is an mone, notis etiam adscriptis, si quis neglexerit: eamque ob rem Latine of oral Latin, including ourselves, are incomparable aid to acquiring a more perpetuo magister loquatur. convinced by the logic of what the ped- instinctive knowledge and control of all agogy of other languages tells us: most these elements. Let the practice of speaking Latin be people are likely to learn any language strictly preserved – with the exception better and appreciate its nuances more of those classes in which the students easily if they have an active as well as are untrained in Latin – so that in all passive command of the language, espe- activities pertaining to the class it is cially in speaking, which demands Oral Latin can be a useful never permissible to use the vernacu- immediate response, and if they employ lar, with the provision of bad marks for all the faculties in learning: reading, tool both for beginning anyone who neglects [this injunction]. For this reason the teacher should writing, listening, and speaking – and language study and at the constantly speak Latin. not merely reading and translating. In more advanced stages. our own experience with M.A.-level But ability in extempore Latin expres- Latin instruction that involves both sion, whether speaking or writing, was written composition and oral discourse then highly prized for practical reasons. together, we have certainly observed Latin, as noted above, was the function- that, while some students may do some- ing language of the academic and eccle- what better at writing than spoken dis- But how should one speak Latin? It is siastical establishments. Academic pub- course or vice versa, those who can well known that the Latin spoken by the lication and ecclesiastical correspon- express themselves accurately and cor- ordinary citizens on a daily basis in the dence throughout Europe were over- rectly in both oral and written discourse streets of ancient Rome, or other cities whelmingly in Latin. Students without nearly always also do better on sight- in the empire, was quite different from some oral ability in Latin and compre- translation exams. the polished and sometimes elaborate hension of Latin discourse could never We are convinced that oral Latin can diction of Cicero or Livy, to name just finish a university curriculum since, be a very useful tool for beginning lan- two canonical authors. Should we not try throughout the Middle Ages and guage instruction, and particularly for to find out what the real day-to-day spo- Renaissance until the seventeenth cen- young children. But our experience also ken language of the Romans was and tury, and in some cases even later, Latin indicates that active usage is highly use that idiom in our oral Latin? Such an was the language of university teaching effective in the more advanced stages of approach might cause difficulties. and disputations, not merely in what we learning Latin when students are assim- Despite the evidence provided by would call classical studies, but in medi- ilating the more complicated material in inscriptions and Pompeian graffiti, the cine, law, and other fields. upper-level grammar courses and espe- real sermo cotidianus of even the literate These social factors that once cially when they are developing the members of the ancient Roman popu- encouraged the active use of Latin ability to read unadulterated Latin lace is not known in enough detail to have, of course, long since faded away, texts. When students reach this level, enable a modern practitioner of oral but one practical motive remains. Those they must recognize and understand a Latin to reproduce every aspect of it in a who favor oral Latin believe that it wide range of complex constructions, continuous and extempore spoken dis- helps students learn Latin more quickly put them together in context, and course. And even if such knowledge were available, it would probably not provide the most viable syntactical and morphological model for our oral Latin. Latinists who use spoken Latin today as a way to teach Latin better (such as our- selves) or use it to help internalize their own grasp of Latin will usually aim at a discourse close to the usage in the majority of literary texts studied by stu- dents and scholars. For most modern practitioners of oral Latin, the texts are the standard and goal. Good examples of the kind of sentence structure and syn- tax in literary texts that is congruent with spoken discourse can be found in the letters of Cicero and Seneca (despite the fact that the latter are not real let- ters), the plays of Terence (without the archaisms), or the colloquia of Erasmus Fig. 5. Participants of the 2005 summer Latin seminar at the University of Kentucky. and other Renaissance humanists. Photo credit: Diane Arnson Svarlien. continued on page 16 9 WHAT’S NEW AT POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM? of the papyrus fragments containing continued from page 3 known and unknown masterpieces lost for two millennia must be recovered as (http://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk) was he favors a cessation of excavation for soon as possible while there is still time. founded in order to advance public edu- now. Conservation at Herculaneum There is, indeed, a very real threat of cation of this UNESCO World Heritage (and this is just as true for ancient Pom- another eruption of Vesuvius within the site, to create an archive of materials peii) is a serious issue with complex next five to ten years, although no one relating to it, to promote research (espe- dimensions. For example, on the one can pinpoint the exact time. Volcanolo- cially continued investigation of the hand, one of the many challenges cur- gists suggest that this event will be cata- Villa of the Papyri), and to promote con- rently facing the main site at Hercula- clysmic, like the eruption of A.D. 79, servation. The hope is to build an inter- neum is the damage that pigeon drop- and if this is true, it puts the importance active membership to air publicly issues pings are causing to excavated build- of additional excavation of the papyri in such as whether further excavation (in ings. Pigeons have nested in just about another context, one of greater urgency. search of more scrolls in the Villa of the every available angle of every house. One thing is sure: the crisis of conserva- Papyri, for example) should be under- The acidity of their guano has been a tion is acute in both Herculaneum and taken. serious conservation problem, since it Pompeii, as is the threat of another pos- I first visited the villa in 1993 by weakens structural foundations every- sible eruption of Vesuvius, and no climbing down some sixty feet on a nar- where. With help from the Hercula- course of action will easily or inexpen- row fireman’s ladder that was fitted into neum Conservation Project, a collabora- sively provide solutions. a well. I could walk upright through tive venture of The Packard Humani- Exhibitions on Pompeii and some of the tunnels, but I also had to ties Institute and the British School at crouch down and dodge centipedes and Rome, falcons have now been released Herculaneum spiders to view the dimly-lit decorative into the archaeological zone to scare In 2003, the National Archaeological features hidden there (see Fig. 7). away the pigeons. Because falcons have Museum of Naples produced an engag- These were the same tunnels first already been successful against pigeons ing exhibit called “Stories from an cleared in 1750 under the supervision of at several airports, the Conservation Eruption – Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Karl von Weber by his excavation crew Project at Herculaneum, with three Oplontis.” In the large entry hall of the of forced laborers, who had been eager falcons soaring over the site, is museum were projected changing plucked from local prisons and asylums promising helpful results, although the images of plaster casts of the volcano’s for the mentally impaired. pigeons still seem to have the upper victims, mosaics, and frescoes. This fast- The new excavations, funded in part hand. paced slide show was accompanied by by the Getty Museum in Malibu, Cali- Professor Robert Fowler of the Uni- pulsating music, alternating with scenes fornia (itself a replica of the Villa of the versity of Bristol, on the other hand, of Vesuvius erupting, and sounds of ter- Papyri), proved that von Weber’s eigh- believes that the excavation of the villa rified crowds, crumbling walls, and the teenth century plan was accurate to the must continue in the more immediate whoosh of a pyroclastic cloud swooping centimeter (A. O. Koloski-Ostrow, future (The Times of London, Apr. 5, over the landscape. This show conclud- “Villa Re-Excavated,” Archaeology, 2002, 42). He feels that the remainder ed with silence and darkness before the March/April 1994, 23). Now, more than ten years later, several rooms of the villa are exposed once again to the Campan- ian sun: a second-story balcony, poly- chrome mosaics, and an elegant dining area have emerged. In the northwest insula near the villa property, moreover, we can see the atria (formal entrance halls) of other houses, a large swimming pool, an elaborate nymphaeum (a large, decorative water fountain) and other unidentified buildings, as well as an impressive skeleton of a horse. One unfortunately gets the impression that these finds were quickly passed by in the quest to clear the villa. The entire excavation site sits in a vast valley that looks like a giant gravel pit cleared by large earth-moving equipment. The villa is of exceptional importance, but if we expose more of it and do so with too much haste, are we really ready to guar- antee its safety for the future? Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Director of the British School at Rome, has written passionately on this topic (in the newsletter Birth of the Herculaneum Fig. 6. Professor Rick Jones of the Anglo-American Project (on the left) and Dr. Steven Society 1, 2004, 2, among other places); Ostrow, History faculty of MIT (on the right), in the atrium of the House of the Surgeon, 10 Pompeii, August 2004. Photo credit: Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow. spectacles and entertainments continue not revolve around the conclusion. to appear regularly. J. C. Fant has pro- Rather, as readers, we are captivated by duced a Pompeian bibliography at his more subtle matters, such as how the Web site, covering most of the impor- hero, Marcus Attilius, an appealing tant publications of the last ten years: water engineer from Rome, uses his http://www3.uakron.edu/csaa/Pompeii/ knowledge of Roman water technology, bibliography.html. and especially the castellum aquae (water I single out a few of the more recent distribution center) of Pompeii, to sur- publications that are particularly useful vive the catastrophe. Harris shows us in the classroom: Allison Cooley, Pom- that there are different ways to look at peii (2003); Ernesto De Carolis and Gio- almost any situation in life. vanni Patricelli, Vesuvius A.D. 79: The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow is Associate (2003); Jean-Paul Descoeudres et al., Professor and Chair of the Department of Pompeii Revisited: The Life and Death of a Classical Studies at Brandeis University in Roman Town (1994); Robert Etienne, Waltham, Massachusetts, where she has been Pompeii: The Day a City Died (1992); teaching Latin, University Humanities, and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology since Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum 1985. She has written extensively on Roman Fig. 7. Workmen in a tunnel near the (1994); and John Dobbins and Pedar daily life, water use in the Roman city, library of the Villa of the Papyri, Hercu- Foss, eds., Pompeii and the Ancient Settle- ancient health and sanitation, and Roman laneum, July 1993. Photo credit: Ann ments around Vesuvius (forthcoming). technology. Her most recent book, for which Olga Koloski-Ostrow. I also recommend Robert Harris’ she was editor and contributor, is Water sequence started all over again. It was thriller historical novel, Pompeii (2003), Use and Hydraulics in the Roman City an evocative way to begin the tour of especially if you are not going to Pom- (2001). Her current project is a new book more than 700 of the most recently peii any time soon (it might be a bit called Pompeii and Herculaneum: recovered and restored artifacts from unsettling to read it on site). A happy Roman Daily Life in the Shadow of Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as ending, of course, is not an option for a Vesuvius (forthcoming). from lesser-known towns on the Bay of story called Pompeii so the tension does Naples affected by the eruption: Terzigno, Oplontis, and Moregine (see Judith Harris and Angela M. H. Schus- “Classics and Contemporary Fiction” Panel at ter, “The Lap of Luxury,” Archaeology, the Annual Meeting of the American Philological May/June 2001, 30-35). The exhibition Association in Montreal broke new ground by placing objects such as gold rings, oil lamps, bronze ves- Barbara Gold sels, and jewelry in the context of the APA Vice-President for Outreach story of the people found with them. New casting techniques were also on panel on classics and contempo- display; solidified transparencies Arary fiction (organized by Thomas showed visitors both the shapes of the Falkner, Judith P. Hallett, and C. W. victims (in the manner of the old plaster [Toph] Marshall and sponsored by the casts) and the skeletal remains inside APA Committee on Outreach) will be the casts as well. The exhibit began in Naples and will continue to tour inter- presented at the annual meeting of the nationally until 2008. It will be at the American Philological Association in Field Museum in Chicago from October Montreal on Friday, January 6, 2005, Fig. 8. Exterior, Palais des Congrès de 22, 2005 to March 26, 2006 (see from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. in the Palais des Montréal January 2002. Photo credit: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/pompeii). Congrès de Montréal (see Fig. 8). This Christian Degrandmaison, Palais des A second, similarly intense exhibition Congrès de Montréal. called “The Last Hours of Hercula- panel will offer a unique approach to neum” (see http://www.smb.spk-berlin. the relationship between classical antiq- de/smb/en/kalender/index.php) will be uity and contemporary fiction by presenting both critics and authors and will afford a in Germany between May 20, 2005 and direct inquiry into the creative process. Panelists will focus on the ways that the classi- April 16, 2006. This show attempts to cal world finds expression in their own works and those of others in narratives, fic- unravel the final hours of the unfortu- tional characters, and the thematic, intellectual, and cultural concerns that inform con- nate inhabitants of Herculaneum who ran to the seashore. temporary fiction. Critic Michael Dirda (McDaniel College, Washington Post Book World) will speak Further Reading on “Classical Antiquity and Modern Fiction,” poet Anne Carson (University of Michi- Many excellent monographs on public gan) will speak on “Our Married Life is Perfect: Contempt in Homer, Moravia, and architecture and private houses, city Godard,” author Margaret Drabble will speak on “Crossing the Styx: The Afterlife of infrastructure and urban space, subur- the Afterlife,” and author Carol Goodman will speak on “A Classical Muse.” We ban villas, social and sexual life, history, hope you will attend the panel and join the discussion! politics, economy, wall paintings, and 11 “TELL THEM WE ARE RISING”: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE CLASSICS continued from page 7

offered a wide range of courses in Greek American proponents of the classics, and Latin that reflected those courses including the civil rights activist and being taught at white liberal arts col- educator W. E. B. Du Bois, railed leges. Men and women at black insti- against the rising tide of what they tutes of higher learning, sometimes for- called “utilitarianism.” The purpose of mer slaves or the children of slaves, rose learning, they said, was to acquire to become pioneering educators, schol- virtue, not to amass wealth. ars, and civil rights leaders. Among Many contemporary educators, both them were Daniel B. Williams (1861- white and African American, however, 1895), Professor of Ancient Languages decried this stress on classics, in that it at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate was not especially “useful” for training Institute; William Sanders Scarborough African Americans for the lives they were (1852-1926), the author of First Lessons expected to lead, particularly in the peri- Fig. 9. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Greek (1881) who became president of od of Jim Crow, which extended from (with President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Wilberforce University in Ohio; and 1876 to the mid-1950’s. Preferred was background), Cabinet Room of the Mary Church Terrell, a teacher of Latin the model of education promulgated by White House, March 18, 1966. and also first president of the National Samuel Chapman Armstrong’s Hampton Photo credit: LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Association of Colored Women. Institute and by Armstrong’s protégé R. Okamoto. By 1880, missionary education had Booker T. Washington, head of the established thirteen black universities Tuskegee Institute, which stressed for Negroes, showed that only one per- and eight colleges in North and South “domestic science” for women and cent of students at black colleges chose Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, industrial, manual, and agricultural train- classics as a major, a percentage roughly Texas, and elsewhere, predominantly ing for men. As stated in Negro Education: comparable to that at white schools (see but not exclusively in the South. How- A Study of the Private and Higher Schools for Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classi- ever, given the poor state of primary and Colored People in the United States (1917), cism [2002], 181). Beyond the bare sta- secondary education for African Ameri- edited by Thomas Jesse Nash: tistics, the report contains some telling cans at the time, these schools (at least comments on the status of education in the beginning) had to concentrate on The colleges have been . . . handi- and life for African Americans in the remedial learning. Thus, the colleges capped by the tenacity with which mid-twentieth century. Clearly favoring usually had three levels: the primary, the they have clung to the classical form the Hampton-Tuskegee model of prac- of the curriculum. They have had an secondary, and the collegiate. By 1895, tical education, the report states: twenty schools offered college-level almost fatalistic belief not only in the powers of the college, but in the Latin courses, though fewer than 750 of their and Greek features of the course. The Fortunately there are signs of change 9,100 total enrollment took such courses. majority of them seem to have more which indicate that a type of educa- But twelve years later, in 1907, the num- interest in the traditional forms of tion more closely related to earning a ber of missionary-related schools had education than in adaptation to the living, developing good communities, grown to thirty-seven, with nearly half needs of their pupils and their com- and providing better homes appears to their enrollment taking college subjects. munity. Ingenuously, some of their be receiving more widespread atten- This is a remarkable achievement for a leaders have been urging secondary tion. . . . [T]he tendency to exalt a lib- eral arts education distorts the idea of people who had been enslaved only schools to prepare their pupils for col- lege rather than life. (56) higher education and without a doubt forty years earlier. An 1899 survey of ten keeps many students at institutions missionary-related black colleges found Following the historical trend, black col- for Negroes from pursuing a kind of that “Ancient Languages” comprised educational experience that is of the thirty-one percent of their curriculum. leges and universities inaugurated, as greatest value to them. (Vol. 3, 11) Stress was duly placed on mastery of did white schools, a greater number of both Greek and Latin but also on philos- scientific and industrial courses, with a After World War II, with the rise of the ophy and the modern European lan- resulting reduction in classics. Thus, modern phase of the civil rights move- guages, chiefly French and German. between 1899 and 1909, the overall per- ment, African Americans at historically Starting after the turn of the twenti- centage of class hours devoted to classi- black colleges increasingly rejected, as eth century, and particularly from 1910 cal languages declined from thirty-one did their white counterparts, the classi- to 1919, teachers of the classics through- to twenty percent. Nonetheless, the cat- cal influence as elitist and Eurocentric. out the nation began to see their hege- alogues of black colleges such as Fisk, This was part of a larger national move- mony in higher education slip away with Howard, Livingstone, and Spelman, ment in higher education to demote the introduction of course electives and show, at least until 1920, an ample offer- classics because of its supposed lack of the increase in science and business ing of classical courses and authors. But relevance. But in addition to following courses, as well as with a promotion of as the century progressed, enrollments these trends, some African American the modern European languages over in classics courses shrank. A 1942 survey educators, such as Carter G. Woodson, Greek and Latin. While these changes of higher education for Negroes, pub- in his Mis-Education of the Negro (first were also happening within the larger lished by the U. S. Office of Education published in 1933), argued that the clas- American educational system, African under the title General Studies of Colleges sical curriculum had made African 12 Americans despise their African Ameri- Book Review: The October Horse can ancestry, nor had such elitist train- ing done anything to lift up the race. continued from page 7 By the time of the civil rights move- ment of the mid-1950’s to the mid- Lips tightening in outrage, Cimber cast his place on many a reading list for students of 1960’s, however, many African Ameri- fellow Liberators a fierce glare . . . and ancient history. The series opens in 110 strode forward to yank the toga away cans were turning, once again, to promot- B.C., in the consulship of Marcus Minucius from the left side of Caesar’s neck. But ing Africa as the cradle of civilization and Rufus and Spurius Postumius Albinus. She emphasizing the need to stress the role Gaius Servilius Casca . . . got in first, driv- proceeds, year by year, consulship by con- of Africans in classical culture. Perhaps ing down from behind at Caesar’s throat. the most prominent example is Dr. Mar- The blow glanced off the collarbone . . . . sulship. Volumes include maps, drawings tin Luther King, Jr. (see Fig. 9), who was Retreating backward, [Caesar] encoun- from period portrait busts (all art work is tered Pompey’s plinth just as Cassius educated in the classics and whose McCullough’s own), synopses in various speeches are filled with allusions to clas- pushed to the fore, sank his blade into Caesar’s face, screwed it around, enucle- forms of what has transpired in previous sical authors, most notably Plato (Trudy ating an eye . . . .” (484) volumes, afterwords, and extensive glos- Harrington Becker, “A Source for Ideolo- saries adapted to needs as the series pro- gy: The Classical Education of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Classical Bulletin 76.2, Caesar dies, his dignitas intact, the Repub- gresses. In the one instance where she can- 2000, 185). Thus, we go back to the early lic in chaos. not accept a traditional date, her reasons nineteenth century, when northern black The final 250 pages are about are given in the glossary, as are her rea- abolitionists were working to dispel Octavius, the brilliant, cold-blooded, calmly sons for diagnosing Caesar as suffering myths of black inferiority and also vaunt- terrible young heir to Caesar’s wealth. from hypoglycemia and Octavius from ing the contribution of Africa to the clas- asthma. sical world in order to validate the place When he hears of Caesar’s death, one of of blacks in American culture. Once the first things he thinks about is the war If one of the greatest assets of the series again, the emphasis lay on African Amer- chest in Brundisium. McCullough thinks is its wealth of detail, in The October Horse icans’ control over the role they were to Octavius stole it and gives a highly enter- it can become overwhelming. The scenes of play in the public, political, and intellec- taining account of how she thinks he might Cato’s suicide and Caesar’s assassination tual life of the nation. As part of the have done it. are too gory; the scenes involving Caesar movement to restore the primacy of clas- and Cleopatra are too detailed and sics to the American classroom, classical Rivalries among the assassins abound scholars have been showcasing, in print and shift: McCullough calls this chapter steamy; accounts of processions and tri- publications, Web sites, and exhibits, the “Armies All Over The Place.” The accompa- umphs are too long. But this is a minor contribution of African Americans to the nying map is entitled “Who Marched drawback. In her “Afterword” to The Octo- classics and the influence of the classics Where.” Finally, Octavius manages to con- ber Horse, McCullough notes that this is the on prominent African American teachers, solidate forces with Antonius, Lepidus, and last volume in her series, and “If I don’t artists, and civil-rights leaders. Such stop now, I never will” (750). Recently, efforts continue those of earlier African Pollio and agrees to terrible proscriptions. American classicists to instill pride and a They all march off to meet Brutus and Cas- however, she has been reported to be con- sense of achievement in their students. sius at Philippi (42 B.C.). McCullough gives sidering a sequel, and I, for one, look for- us a riveting account of this battle, making ward to it with interest and enthusiasm. Kenneth W. Goings ([email protected]) has sense out of great confusion. We leave a Ph.D. in history and is professor and chair Octavius, now Gaius Julius Caesar Divi Fil- Helen Geagan has an A.B. from Bryn of the Department of African American and Mawr College (1962) and an M.A. from African Studies at The Ohio State University. ius, in Rome manipulating the Triumvirate, intent on peace and proscriptions. the University of Cincinnati in classics and Eugene O’Connor ([email protected]) McCullough writes for the general pub- archaeology (1964). She also has a has a Ph.D. in classics and is managing edi- lic, but her wealth of social, cultural, and B.S.W. from McMaster University (1982). tor and acquisitions editor in classics at The political detail has merited her works a She was Secretary of Corinth Excavations Ohio State University Press. in 1966-67 and maintains an interest in ancient history and archaeology while APA SPEAKERS BUREAU working as a volunteer with Alzheimer patients and with refugees. he APA maintains a roster of enthusiastic speakers who are available to Taddress a wide variety of audiences – civic groups, professional societies, library and other reading groups, middle schools and secondary schools, junior and senior colleges, universities, and many other organizations. The Speakers Bureau can be found by going to the APA Web site at www.apa- classics.org and clicking on Outreach, listed on the left hand side of the screen of the home page. Under Outreach, you will find the Speakers Bureau. The Bureau lists e-mail addresses of dozens of speakers as well as descriptions of the talks they are prepared to give. A glance through the topics described there will make clear the breadth of presentations that are available, from Medical Practices in Pompeii and the Roman Empire to Women’s Letters from Ancient Egypt. 13 Audio Review: A Recital of Ancient Greek Poetry by Rachel Kitzinger

Stephen G. Daitz. A Recital of Ancient duces some of the principles he uses in his Greek Poetry Read in English Translation renditions. The tapes themselves include the and in Ancient Greek, 2nd edition, order passages read first in English and then in #S23820. Jeffrey Norton Publishers, Inc, Greek. In the preface, Daitz convincingly (1-800-243-1234), 1999. 4 audio tapes explains that he has produced this second about 40 minutes each side, with a booklet edition out of a performer’s desire to repeat containing all the Greek texts, 63 Pp. Pub- a performance (this time, twenty years later) Fig. 10. The Parthenon from the north- lished as part of The Living Voice of Greek when he knows he can do it better. west, 1957. The Parthenon sits atop the and Latin, series ed. Stephen G. Daitz. Used in conjunction with Daitz’s earlier Athenian Acropolis, location of one of the riotous scenes in Aristophanes' $59.50. ISBN 1-57970-046-2. audio tapes, The Pronunciation and Read- Lysistrata. Photo credit: Leo Curran ing of Ancient Greek (1984), these tapes (http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/ hose of us who have an interest in or would enable someone who is interested in Maecenas/) Tlove for ancient Greek poetry owe learning to recite Greek poetry to progress interest in Greek literature without extensive Stephen Daitz a debt of gratitude for his from the first steps of pronouncing individ- knowledge of the language. One might cer- tireless crusade to restore sound to the ual letters and learning the basic principles tainly listen to one or two selections to get a words most of us absorb with our eyes off of quantitative rhythm to a model of how to general sense of the sound of ancient Greek the printed page. In his numerous recitals combine rhythm, pitch, diction, and expres- as best we can reconstruct it, but I do not and workshops and in his recordings for sion into an oral representation of a poem. think there would be much incentive to listen The Living Voice of Greek and Latin series It would also be possible for a teacher to the tapes in their entirety. I say this of audio tapes produced by Jeffrey Norton whose course includes discussion of any of because of a limitation – as I see it – in the Publishers, he has not only taught the listen- the selections on the tapes to give students nature of Daitz’s performance. His greatest er the sounds of the “restored pronuncia- the experience of hearing the poem as an strengths are the clarity and fluency of his tion” of Greek and encouraged the use of a aid to that discussion. This use will be par- representation of the different rhythms of pitch accent, but he has also demonstrated ticularly helpful for language students at the Greek poetry and the consistency of his pro- his own understanding of how sound intermediate or advanced level who may nunciation (although I occasionally find it enhances our experience of poetry in per- have worked their way through a poem, difficult to distinguish eta from long alpha, formances of epic (he has recorded the since they can then have the experience of pi from phi, and tau from theta in his per- whole of the Iliad and the Odyssey), lyric, understanding the poem as it is performed. formance), and there is enormous pleasure and dramatic texts. As the founder of the The speed of Daitz’s delivery is exactly suit- to be derived from being able to hear, with Society for the Oral Reading of Greek and ed for this purpose. Listening to Daitz’s clarity, the range of rhythms his selections Latin Literature, he has created occasions at tapes is also an extremely valuable experi- illustrate. What I do not find in his perform- APA meetings both for scholars to read ence for students who find it difficult to ance, however, is a subtlety of expression papers discussing the issues that arise from believe that anyone could listen to and that would allow the listener intending to lis- the attempt to restore sound to “dead” lan- understand an inflected language, with its ten to the four tapes at a sitting to hear the guages and for anyone who is interested to freedom of word order and nuanced use of differences in character, style, and tone attend informal sessions where people read cases, without mentally rearranging all the between the different poets represented. aloud their favorite Greek or Latin texts. words; this is particularly true if the teacher Besides a raising of the pitch of his bass His latest contribution to the cause is a encourages students, following Daitz’s voice when he is performing a female voice, second edition of his 1978 audiotapes, A example, to learn to recite a poem them- an increase in volume to express moments Recital of Ancient Greek Poetry, which selves. Daitz acknowledges in his introduc- of intense anger, or a protraction of long include performances of Homer, various tion that the selection of poems is deter- syllables to indicate despair, there is little lyric poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripi- mined by his own preferences. It may be hit variety in the tempo, volume, or emotional des, and Aristophanes (see Fig. 10). This or miss, therefore, whether teachers would range of his performance. second edition contains new recordings of find a passage in Daitz’s selections that Daitz has a naturally sonorous and delib- all the selections in the first edition as well they planned to read with their classes. erate style of recitation that characterizes the as additional passages of lyric and epic. However, the passages include enough performance of passages both in English The four tapes (one of the Iliad, one of the variety of author, length, and difficulty that and in Greek. It allows him to deliver, for Odyssey, one of lyric, and one of dramatic there should be no trouble finding an example, the chorus of Furies from the poetry) are accompanied by a booklet in appropriate passage for listening. Eumenides or Simonides’ epitaph for the which the Greek texts are printed (with the It is a little harder to imagine how these Spartans who died at Plataea with great helpful addition of long marks over long tapes might be used by those who have effect. But it is beyond his ability – and per- vowels). In the introduction, Daitz intro- taught, or are teaching, students with an haps that of anyone except for the finest 14 continued on page 17 ALMI PARENTES In the end, student teaching was a total continued from page 5 success, enabling me to graduate from college and obtain a teacher’s certifi- and songs. Oh, what fun times we had (amare/amar), “good” (bonus/bueno), and cate. I was elated that I was then quali- together! Spanish quickly became my “bad” (malus/malo). Moreover, Latin fied to enter what I now knew to be a favorite and best subject, and hopes of improved both my vocabulary and read- noble profession, thanks in great part to being a doctor were soon replaced with ing comprehension in English, strength- my parents’ guidance and wisdom. thoughts of becoming a Spanish ening my critical thinking in the When I applied for teaching posi- teacher. My mom continued to be my process. As I continued my Latin stud- tions, I was surprised to receive several mentor throughout high school, and I ies the following year, I became con- offers, all of which required teaching remain grateful to her for her patience, vinced of the advantages that this both Latin and Spanish. I chose the job encouragement, and diligence in help- ancient tongue afforded students of that appealed to me most, which was at ing me discover and develop my talent today and realized that my dad was Newport (Arkansas) High School, and for languages. right after all. I found that Latin – far thoroughly enjoyed it. After teaching Following graduation from high from being dead – was immortal high school for eleven years (four at school, I enrolled in college to major in because it lives on in the Romance lan- Newport and seven at the Louisiana Spanish and become a teacher. Among guages and is the source of countless School in Natchitoches, Louisiana) and other courses, I registered for second- earning a doctorate along the way, I year Spanish since I had placed out of accepted a classics position at the uni- the first year. Although I enjoyed my versity where I have been since 1998. Spanish class immensely, I started to Although I no longer teach Spanish, I question whether I had made the right As traditional Romans make it a point to show my students choice of career because I knew that how their knowledge of Latin will help teachers earned much less than other revered their parents and them learn Spanish. They are often as professionals and were sometimes held looked to them for guidance, amazed at the similarities between the in low esteem. In contrast, accounting, so I did with mine. two languages as was I upon beginning one of the most popular majors on cam- my Latin studies twenty-seven years pus, had the potential for high earnings ago. and the prestige that accompanies the I have never forgotten the positive CPA designation. After an uncharacter- role my almi parentes (“nurturing par- istically rash decision, I changed my ents”) played in shaping my future. major to accounting the next semester. I words in our own language and many One of the ways in which I try to return liked my new course of study, but not others. the favor is by maintaining a genuine nearly as much as Spanish, and gradual- My enthusiasm for Spanish eventual- interest in each of my students. As my ly began to doubt whether it was the ly yielded to my love for Latin, and I mom and dad did for me, I offer them right one for me. declared a major in classics and a minor suggestions when they appear per- Shortly before the start of my junior in Spanish. At that time (1980), Latin plexed and encourage them to do what year, I was totally confused as to what was gaining in popularity at the second- they know in their hearts they can do career path to follow. The truth was ary level, and it was not hard to find a best. After all, good education is more that, although I did well in accounting, good job teaching Latin together with than just imparting knowledge to our my heart was not in it. To whom was I another subject. Therefore, after some students, training their minds, and to turn for help? After a little thought, it serious thought, I enrolled in education preparing them for careers. It is also was obvious that I should ask my par- classes to prepare myself to teach Latin concerned with humanitas and helping ents since I felt that they would know and Spanish, which I later discovered them achieve happy, satisfying lives. best. I sat down with them to discuss was a highly marketable combination. my dilemma, and they offered the sim- The demands of my new program of Daniel N. Erickson (daniel_erickson@ ple suggestion that I follow my dreams study required that I spend an addition- und.nodak.edu) is Coordinator of Classical and choose a career that I truly enjoyed, al three semesters in college, but I felt Studies in the Department of Modern and regardless of status or monetary that it was worth it because I was confi- Classical Languages and Literatures at the rewards. With their assurance that they dent that I had at last found a career in University of North Dakota. He is complet- would be happy with whatever I did which I could excel and a cause in ing a book entitled Latin, Spanish, and well, I decided to resume my Spanish which I truly believed. English: Vocabulary Bridges with studies in earnest. The rest of college was exciting and Edward V. George, Professor Emeritus of Not wishing to make another costly passed quickly. When the opportunity Classics at Texas Tech University. Randall poor decision, I carefully redid my came to student teach at a local public Nichols’ article, “On Good Teaching,” is schedule to include not only Spanish high school, I looked forward to it with available in the Amphora archive at but also beginning Latin, for I never great anticipation since it was then that http://www.apaclassics.org/outreach/ampho- forgot what my parents had said years I would learn for certain whether I had ra/2003/amphora2.1.pdf. earlier about its intrinsic value and rela- potential as a teacher. Although the first tionship to Spanish. I devoted myself few days in the classroom were a bit zealously to both languages that year, awkward because I was fully in charge and my efforts paid off. I soon started to of students for the first time, little by see remarkable similarities between little I became comfortable in my new Latin and Spanish, such as in the words surroundings and began to enjoy teach- for “friend” (amicus/amigo), “to love” ing the subjects that were my passion. 15 To a Professor of Latin ORAL LATIN: LOQUIMUR QUO MELIUS (In Memory of Sister Wilfred LEGAMUS – WE SPEAK TO READ BETTER Parsons, SND) continued from page 9 by Marie Cleary If we accept that our goal is a con- long or short. When speakers follow Most memorable of word stories versational Latinity reasonably close to these rules using one system of pronun- you told us – the language of the texts that we study, ciation, they can easily be understood does this mean sticking exclusively to after a period of acclimatization of only That “trivia” means chat where those subjects discussed in canonical a few days by a person used to the other three roads meet; authors, such as Cicero and Vergil, and pronunciation. Proponents of each pro- avoiding all other topics? If we intend nunciation take part in the summer That “pagan” in its root means to use Latin as a truly communicative Latin seminars at the University of backwoods Roman tongue, we may on occasion want to Kentucky. range outside this rather restricted Several societies exist for the promo- Who, ignorant of Christ, was kneeling material and also discuss things perti- tion of the active use of Latin, of which yet nent to the experience of students. So the oldest (founded in the 1960’s shortly much the better, the oral Latinist after the Second Vatican Council) and To idols in the grove; more heartfelt would argue, for this will stimulate probably the most authoritative, is the than one’s ability to think in appropriate Rome-based Academia Latinitati and correct Latin sentences unsupport- Fovendae (ALF) whose international "Infant” from infans, meaning ed by the memory of familiar Latin members are elected on the basis of “speechless one” – passages. And if the discussion of such contributions to the active use of Latin To me, a daughter of the working new material might occasionally after being nominated by a regular involve the use of a rare word or a Neo- member. The ALF sponsors a quadren- class – Latin term that never appears in nial international conference (the last Was “proletariat” from proles, canonical texts, the speakers are still one celebrated in Madrid in 2002, the using the Latin language with its cor- next to be held at Amposta, Spain from “offspring," rect structures, grammar, and even July 24-28, 2006), in which Latin is the The child-bearing ones who idioms. The occasional untypical or language of all contributions. Anyone, stayed at home, new word need not make the discourse including non-members, may submit a less Latin in regard to structure, syn- paper to these conferences. For the While emperors and the military tax, and other properties of Latin (such teacher or student of Latin, the experi- traveled, as the proclivity towards verbal expres- ence of participating in such an event, sion rather than abstract substantives). or in one of the seminars for spoken And populated all the hills of Rome. The main goal is to maintain a continu- Latin held each year in Europe and the ous flow of grammatically and idiomati- United States, can be boundlessly cally correct discourse in the target lan- enriching. Teachers may never employ Marie Cleary, M.A., Ed.D., is an inde- guage, with all of its conventions – a Latin in their classrooms at the level pendent scholar specializing in American linguistic environment that is never encountered in some of these confer- classical tradition and classics in education. interrupted simply because someone ences, but the increment in spoken abil- She is a member of the Associates at Five wishes to discuss material outside the ity that may result from such protracted confines of a text or a prescribed set of immersion can improve a teacher’s Colleges, Inc., Amherst, a program that circumstances. classroom effectiveness. A teacher who provides a base for qualified independent Pronunciation will also be an issue. has mastered this facility can resort to scholars. She is currently writing a biogra- Most people interested in spoken Latin extempore discourse in any situation, phy of Thomas Bulfinch, which will be pub- today employ one of two main systems and with much more flexibility than one lished by Peter Lang. At Emmanuel College, of pronunciation, the restored classical whose knowledge of Latin does not Boston, she studied Latin under Sister Wil- (to greater and lesser degrees of exact- include the extempore oral dimension. ness according to current linguistic Meetings in which Latin is the spoken fred Parsons. Sister Wilfred (1881-1970) thinking) or the Italianate ecclesiastical language are especially attractive when taught at Emmanuel from the 1940’s to the pronunciation. Which of these two the participants are international. There 1960’s. Her best known publication was methods a person uses is, in our experi- is a special joy in using the language we an edition of the letters of Saint Augustine ence, less important than helping learn- teach and study to communicate and in her own translations. ers understand that there is a method establish relationships with people who (common in fact to both) and a standard study the same language but whose ver- usage for each system. Whichever sys- nacular language we may not know or tem one uses, the goal should be to aim be able to use. at consistency and precision. The most Pedagogy of Latin (and, of course, significant difference between the two Greek) will probably always be more systems lies in the sounds of consonants oriented to reading ability than active and two diphthongs. In both types of expression – the goal, after all, is to bet- pronunciation, the same rules apply ter our ability to read ancient, medieval, about where a word should be accented early-modern, or any texts written in and which syllables are to be treated as Latin. But all the signs indicate that oral 16 Latin is here to stay as a viable approach Audio Review: A Recital of Ancient Greek Poetry to the teaching and enjoyment of litera- ture written in Latin. continued from page 14

Milena Minkova is Professor in Classics actor – to represent convincingly the large out of scholarly conviction – for example, at the University of Kentucky. She has stud- ied, conducted research, and taught in Bul- range of genres, styles, and emotions in a limiting pauses within the lines of stichic garia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and selection that includes, for example, Homer’s meters so that effects a poet might achieve Vatican City. She is the author of several enactment of a quarrel between Zeus and through enjambment or strong sense breaks books and numerous articles on Latin Hera, Xenophanes’ skeptical poem about in the middle of a line are difficult to hear – medieval philosophy, Latin literature, Latin anthropomorphic divinity, Sappho’s prayer restrict the means by which he might composition, and Latin pedagogy. She is the to Aphrodite, a Cretan merchant’s epitaph, achieve a more varied palette for his voice. co-author (with Terence Tunberg) of the recently published Readings and Exercises Timotheos’ account of the Persian defeat at In fact, the selections that Daitz sings (Sap- in Latin Prose Composition, From Salamis, Hermes’ warning to Prometheus pho 1 and the epitaph of Seikilos) are, to Antiquity to the Renaissance (2004) and from the Prometheus Bound, Sophocles’ my ear, effective because Daitz’s beautiful Reading Livy’s Rome (2005). “Ode to Man” from the Antigone, and a singing voice allows the emotional coloring chorus from the Bacchae. Even a conserva- of the music to emerge, without any Terence Tunberg, Professor in Classics at tive opinion about the nature of mimesis in dependence on dramatic performance. The the University of Kentucky, has also taught in Canada and Belgium. He has won inter- ancient performance would allow more sub- English translations he reads also have a national prizes in Latin composition, edited tlety and variation in the representation of consistency of tone – in part because for Latin texts, and published articles on ancient character and emotion than Daitz allows, many of the passages he has chosen the and Neo-Latin prose style. He is the founder but given the distinctive character of Daitz’s same translator, Richmond Lattimore – and moderator of the conventiculum Lat- natural voice, with its depth and resonance, which may frustrate the listener without inum, an immersion seminar for the spoken the vocal range and suppleness that might Greek who wishes to enter imaginatively use of Latin held annually every summer on the campus of the University of Kentucky. He bring out the dramatic shadings of different into the riveting experience that listening to is, along with Milena Minkova, an elected pieces are hard to achieve. His most con- the Iliad or seeing the Oresteia must have fellow of the Academia Latinitati Fovendae. vincing performance is the delivery of the been for early audiences. Choosing differ- wonderfully onomatopoetic language of cho- ent translators for different authors might ruses from Aristophanes’ Frogs and Birds, have given the Greekless reader some where the effect of the passage is entirely experience of a variety of styles, at least. dependent on an accurate representation of All this being said, however, I must return the sound and rhythm of the passage. in the end to the energy and dedication of In addition, decisions Daitz has made Daitz’s life-long campaign to enrich our understanding of Greek poetry through per- formance of its sounds. I know from my expe- ® (ISSN 1542-2380) is published twice a year by the American Philological Association (APA). The APA, founded in 1869 by “professors, friends, and patrons of linguistic rience with students or, indeed, anyone inter- science,” is now the principal learned society in North America for the study of ancient Greek and ested in ancient literature what a revelation it Roman languages, literatures, and civilizations. While the majority of its members are university and is to hear the poetry and to remove the college classics teachers, members also include scholars in other disciplines, primary and secondary school teachers, and interested lay people. The APA produces several series of scholarly books and “dead” from the misnomer “dead lan- texts and the journal Transactions of the American Philological Association. An annual meeting is held each guage.” Though there is room for a range of January in conjunction with the Archaeological Institute of America. opinion about what the living sound of the All of the APA’s programs are grounded in the rigor and high standards of traditional philology, with the study of ancient Greek and Latin at their core. However, the APA also aims to present a broad view of classi- language should be, we owe the possibility cal culture and the ancient Mediterranean world to a wide audience. In short, the APA seeks to preserve and of exploring, through performance, different transmit the wisdom and values of classical culture and to find new meanings appropriate to the complex ideas about that living sound to Stephen and uncertain world of the twenty-first century. Daitz. The APA’s activities serve one or more of these overarching goals: • To ensure an adequate number of well-trained, inspirational classics teachers at all levels, kinder- garten through graduate school; Rachel Kitzinger (rakitzinger@vassar. • To give classics scholars and teachers the tools they need to preserve and extend their knowledge edu) writes about Sophoclean tragedy and is of classical civilization and to communicate that knowledge as widely as possible; • To develop the necessary infrastructure to achieve these goals and to make the APA a model for involved in the production of tragedy in other societies confronting similar challenges. Greek and in English and the recital of The APA welcomes everyone who shares this vision to participate in and support its programs. All Greek poetry. She has recently published a APA members receive Amphora automatically as a benefit of membership. Non-members who wish to translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus receive Amphora on a regular basis or who wish further information about the APA may write to The American Philological Association at 292 Logan Hall, University of Pennsylvania, 249 S. 36th Street, with the poet Eamon Grennan (2004); it is Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304, or at the e-mail address: [email protected]. The APA Web site is part of the Oxford University Press series at www.apaclassics.org. Greek Tragedy in New Translations. Members are urged to pass this copy of Amphora on to non-members and to request additional copies of Amphora from the APA office.

17 Greek And Roman Antiquities at The Montreal correspond in detail with the account given Museum of Fine Arts by Vergil in Book 2 of the Aeneid but rather refers to a Greek version known cen- by John M. Fossey turies before Aineias’ son acquired, at the he Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Le sculpture is one of only five examples of the hands of the Augustan propagandist-poet, TMusée des beaux-arts de Montréal), type so far known and is in superb condi- his role as ancestor of the Julio-Claudian which began its life as the Art Association tion. Other pieces in the sculptural group dynasty at Rome. Another vase that tells a of Montreal nearly a century and a half include portrait heads of Brutus (? or Corbu- story is a black-figure lekythos by the The- ago becoming known by its present name lo?), the young Alexander Severus, as well seus Painter showing Priam ransoming Hek- in 1948, has long prided itself on the all- as Sokrates. On a neighbouring stand is a tor’s body from Akhilleus; here the details encompassing nature of both its permanent remarkable early fourth century B.C. Attic correspond very closely indeed with those collection and its programme of visiting grave stele and, behind it, a well-preserved given in the twenty-fourth book of the Iliad. exhibitions. The classical material in its per- portion of an Attic marble funerary lekythos Another vase in this group is again an Attic manent collection was, for the most part, of similar date; both pieces appear to come black-figure hydria showing the duel of acquired during the twentieth century and from the cemetery of Koropi, to the south- Athena and the giant Enkelados (?). In has developed over the last eighty years or east of Athens. another museum case, a Panathenaic so to become representative of many Although the Bronze Age is only thinly amphora attributed to the Kleophon Painter aspects of the visual and material culture of represented in the Museum’s permanent col- (ca. 430 B.C.) bears the only representa- the Greek and Roman world. Just five years lection, the subsequent development of tion known, in red-figure, of Kharon; Her- ago, I was appointed as the first ever Cura- Greek and Roman pottery can be followed mes as psykhopompos leads a young man tor of Archaeology with the mandate both from Geometric times through to the Imperi- (the deceased) towards Kharon who stands to develop the collection of antiquities and al period. After a sequence of smaller in the stern of his boat (N. B. the steering to organise a completely new exhibition of Korinthian vases, the largest proportion oar). the permanent collection of Mediterranean consists of Attic black-figure and red-figure In addition to these and other Attic Archaeology in a series of two galleries (of pieces, several of which are grouped into black-figure and red-figure vases, there are which the Greek and Roman material occu- two particular showcases as vases that “tell also examples of Boiotian and Euboian pies the larger) on the ground floor of the a story” (for the particular use of our educa- black-figure and of Etruscan and South Ital- Museum’s oldest, monumental building on tional service). An interesting example of ian red-figure, as well as plain black-glazed the North side of Sherbrooke Street. This this is the early fifth century kalpis/hydria cups, one of them in the shape of a Phei- new permanent exhibition, highlights of from the circle of the Antimenes Painter; this dias cup, so called from the finding of one which are described below, opened in vase shows Aineias fleeing from Troy with incised with his name in the workshop of early February 2004 at the same time as a his father Ankhises on his shoulders and the sculptor/architect at Olympia. There is visiting exhibition about Hellenistic terracot- accompanied by three other people, two also a selection of smaller Hellenistic vases tas entitled “Tanagra, a small world of females in front of him and a male (archer) and a few Roman pieces, including a good clay,” co-produced with the Louvre. The behind. While it is possible that one of the instance of early green glazed ware, prob- double event marked a turning point in the two women is intended to be Aineias’ wife ably produced in Asia Minor. museum’s history revitalising the local inter- Kreousa, there is no indication of his son. The exhibition contains other objects est in antiquity. As currently seen, the muse- The story as represented here thus does not made of fired clay, namely terracotta stat- um’s permanent collection and its exhibition are enriched by two important loans, the one a group of seventy-four objects from the Diniacopoulos Collection on long-term loan from the National Gallery of Quebec (Le Musée nationale des beaux-arts du Québec), the other a large mosaic floor of late antique date on loan from the govern- ment of the Syrian-Arab Republic. In the centre of the Greek and Roman room, a large pedestal supports a range of ten sculptured pieces (see Fig. 11), grouped around the headless statue of the Apollon Chigi carved in Parian marble dur- ing the second quarter of the second centu- ry A.D. and inspired by a work of the early fourth century B.C. Acquired in 2003, this Fig. 11. General view of the Greek-Roman Gallery at The Montreal Museum of Fine 18 Arts. Photo credit: Brian Merrett, MMFA. something of the extents, tempo- ral and geographic, of the classi- cal world by placing a Greek coin (for every mint represented in the collection) at its place of origin on a map of the Mediter- ranean area. Below this, a hori- zontal series of Hellenistic and Roman imperial portrait issues (unfortunately far from complete) Fig. 12. Examples of ancient glass emphasises the duration of the Fig. 14. Palaeochristian mosaic from (1953.Dg.6, 1953.Dg.86, 1953.Dg.61), later part of the classical world. Syria (6.2004.1-2), on loan from the The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Government of the Syrian-Arab Repub- The last stage of classical antiquity is Photo credit: Denis Farley. lic (General Direction of Antiquities), The represented by a single object, the large Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Photo floor mosaic on loan from the Syrian gov- credit: Christine Guest, MMFA. uettes (an area of current expansion in the ernment (see Fig. 14). This magnificent collection) and lamps. With the latter cate- example of Palaeochristian art originally and is available at the museum’s book- gory, we have a sufficiently wide collection decorated the floor of a church of the late store. The coin collection was published now (as opposed to merely four or five as fifth century A.D.; it probably lay either some years ago by Paul Denis and is now recently as 2001) to be able to show the within, or immediately in front of, the room apparently out of print. The catalogue development in form of this common and known as the diakonikon, to the side of the raisonné of the ancient glass collection is in essential artifact type from Neolithic times sanctuary; the eucharistic symbols in its its final stages of preparation (authored by to the Islamic Middle Ages. composition refer to the function of the Beaudoin Caron and Eléni P. Zoïtopoúlou), After clay objects, we turn to the ancient diakonikon in preparing the host for the and John Oakley and I have begun the vol- glass collection. This was for a long time communion service. This floor was one ele- ume on the Greek and Roman pottery. Jane already a principal kernel of the antiquities ment in a total of over eighty seized by Francis has undertaken responsibility for collection, especially since the receipt by Canada Customs in the second half of the the sculpture, Eléni Zoïtopoúlou and I for the museum in 1953 of the Harry Norton 1990’s and subsequently repatriated to the small objects. collection (Fig. 12 gives some examples). Syria after analysis by my team from This part of the permanent collection is so McGill University, together with the investi- John M. Fossey ([email protected]), large that only a representative sample can gations service of Canada Customs. The after obtaining his first degree at the Uni- actually be displayed. Of particular interest current loan by the Syrian government was versity of Birmingham (U. K.) and his doc- among the glass works is a necklace of made in thanks for our work in protecting torate at Université de Lyon II (France), Phoinikian or Punic manufacture, which that country’s cultural heritage. taught classical archaeology and Greek shows a series of tiny pendant heads; this epigraphy at McGill University from 1969 attractive type dates between 650 and 500 to 2000, first in the Department of Classics, B.C. then in that of Art History. Since his retire- The metal objects are perhaps our least ment as Emeritus Professor from McGill, he rich section but some recent (and for that serves as Curator of Archaeology at the reason, not yet displayed) acquisitions are Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He is a Fel- helping to fill out this aspect. There are, low of the Royal Society of Canada and of moreover, some outstanding works in the the Society of Antiquaries of London as category, such as the fourth century B.C. well as a Corresponding Fellow of the Ger- gold laurel wreath, apparently from Sinope man Archaeological Institute. Author of on the Black Sea, and a fine lead Fig. 13. Lead sarkophagos (1964.Ea.1), eight books and over a hundred articles on sarkophagos of third-fourth century A.D. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Greek archaeology, history, and epigra- date (see Fig. 13). The latter is one of the Photo credit: MMFA. phy, and co-author of two books, he has best preserved examples of this type of To an academic audience, it is obvious edited many volumes, in part through the object, which was manufactured at Tyre on that a collection of this sort, however well series McGill University Monographs in the Levantine coast. The metal artifacts also displayed, is of much more use when pub- Classical Archaeology and History, which include several miniature Etruscan bronze lished and thus made available to a wider he directs. He is also currently Executive figures and a number of Hellenistic and audience than just that which visits the Editor of the The Ancient World. Roman ornamental pieces, as well as ear- museum. The Diniacopoulos collection as a rings and a bracelet. The metals section whole has already been edited by me and concludes with coins. Here, we have taken Jane Francis of Concordia University (and the opportunity to use the artifacts to show published by the Museum and Concordia) 19 ® GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS A Publication of the American Philological Association Sponsorship: Amphora, a publication Suggested Length of Submissions: sponsored by the Committee on Out- Articles (1500-1800 words), reviews reach of the American Philological (800-1000 words). 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American Philological Association Non-Profit Org. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow 292 Logan Hall, University of Pennsylvania Brandeis University U.S. Postage 249 S. 36th Street PAID [email protected] Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304 Permit No. 2563 E-mail: [email protected] Philadelphia, PA Daniel Mendelsohn Web site: www.apaclassics.org [email protected]

Matthew Santirocco New York University [email protected]

Andrew Szegedy-Maszak Wesleyan University [email protected]

Susan Ford Wiltshire Vanderbilt University [email protected]

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