Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Hebdomeda Prima - The First Week
DE REGINALDO EIUSQUE CLASSE (About Reggie and His Class)
It's been a week since I've posted. I can't believe how busy I've been. Starting this (the second) week, I attend class from 2:00 PM to 7:30 PM, six days per week. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, we meet for an additional hour, from 8:00 to 9:00, sub arboribus (under the trees) in the grounds of Reggie's monastery. Sundays are supposedly our day off, but are actually the days that Reggie leads excursions to various places of interest in and around Rome. Of course there is much reading of Latin on these days, too.
I can't believe how much this guy gives, and all for FREE! I cannot imagine what this class would be worth if he were to charge - thousands of dollars, easily, especially considering Reggie's expertise. I was thinking about it today: at the end of these two months, I will have spent more class time with Reggie than I have with any other teacher or professor I've had since elementary school, when I was with a single teacher every day; I will have spent more class time with Reggie than I spend with my own students over three years. It's absurd! It's wonderful! It's especially amazing when one considers that Reggie works, too. Every morning, he spend four or five hours translating documents in the Vatican. That's twelve hours of work per day for him, NOT counting the time he spends correcting papers, creating Ludi (his homework sheets), and putting together packets for excursions. He says that he sleeps only about four hours every night, though I suspect he doesn't really get even that much sleep. Reggie is sixty-seven years old; he is a man with a mission.
ITER PRIMUM (The First Excursion)
On Sunday, Reggie took us to Ostia Antica (Ostia Antiqua, Latine), what used to be the port city at the mouth of the Tiber (the shore is now several miles out, and so this "port city" is no port at all). According to legend, Ostia was founded by Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, to guard the mouth (ostium) of the river Tiber. It was originally a fortified city; later it became a commercial city. It developed into the port of Rome shortly before the First Punic War (264 BC). The ruins there provide an excellent view of the domestic and commercial architecture of 1st and 2nd century AD Rome and allow a glimpse of what Roman urban life was like. Not only were the ruins themselves splendid, but reading Latin passages that related to the place provided the most overwhelming sense of immediacy of and closeness to antiquity. I had heard that Reggie's excursion packets were "gold," and it turned out to be true.
Soon after we arrived, we read some Vergil, specifically the passage from _The Aeneid_ which describes Aeneas' landing, which would have been on what used to be the bank of the Tiber, close to a present-day restaruant named (in Italian) "Aeneas' Disembarkment." The passage tells of an exhausted Aeneas dragging himself up onto the bank, where he saw a white sow and her piglets emerge from the brush, an unmistakably good omen. Reggie told us before we arrived that a white dog would greet us there. Sure enough, as we stood and read the Vergilian verses aloud, up trotted a white dog. "There he is, there he is," shouted Reggie, "I TOLD you he would come!" It was our own good omen.
After we entered the city, we proceeded to a tavern, where a still-visible inscription in the mosaic pavement reads: Dicit Fortunatus: vinum cratera quod sitis bibe (Fortunatus says: drink wine from the bowl to quench your thirst). We opted to drink it from a box; we poured cups of wine, toasted, and together sang "Gaudeamus Igitur," a Latin song urging people to rejoice and enjoy life, since we'll be dead soon enough.
We then followed the Via della Fontana, a street lined with apartment houses and shops, to large arcaded courtyard, where we read from Suetonius' _Life of Claudius_ about the construction of an enormous ship to carry an Egytian oblisk to Rome.
After a short visit to the museum and a relaxing picnic lunch, we proceeded to a street of ship-outfitting shops, whose mosaics remain to show us what was done there.
There we read Livy's account of the major effort to build ships and prepare rowers for the fight against the Carthaginians.
We then visited the amphitheater, where Reggie read a bit of Terrence to us. He loves Terrence (185-159 BC), who wrote very early Latin drama using the common language that one would have heard on the street.
Finally, we went to a hotel, the hotel where Augustine's mother most likely died. We read some very moving passages from Augustine's _Confessions_, in which he tells of his mother's life and death and expresses his desire that people remember her. Over 1,600 years later, they still do.
RES ALIAE (Other Things)
I did finally finish my grades and comments, which was a relief. Since then, I have had a chance to cross the Tiber and see a bit more of Rome. I'm tired, though, and will write of these things later.
It's been a week since I've posted. I can't believe how busy I've been. Starting this (the second) week, I attend class from 2:00 PM to 7:30 PM, six days per week. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, we meet for an additional hour, from 8:00 to 9:00, sub arboribus (under the trees) in the grounds of Reggie's monastery. Sundays are supposedly our day off, but are actually the days that Reggie leads excursions to various places of interest in and around Rome. Of course there is much reading of Latin on these days, too.
I can't believe how much this guy gives, and all for FREE! I cannot imagine what this class would be worth if he were to charge - thousands of dollars, easily, especially considering Reggie's expertise. I was thinking about it today: at the end of these two months, I will have spent more class time with Reggie than I have with any other teacher or professor I've had since elementary school, when I was with a single teacher every day; I will have spent more class time with Reggie than I spend with my own students over three years. It's absurd! It's wonderful! It's especially amazing when one considers that Reggie works, too. Every morning, he spend four or five hours translating documents in the Vatican. That's twelve hours of work per day for him, NOT counting the time he spends correcting papers, creating Ludi (his homework sheets), and putting together packets for excursions. He says that he sleeps only about four hours every night, though I suspect he doesn't really get even that much sleep. Reggie is sixty-seven years old; he is a man with a mission.
ITER PRIMUM (The First Excursion)
On Sunday, Reggie took us to Ostia Antica (Ostia Antiqua, Latine), what used to be the port city at the mouth of the Tiber (the shore is now several miles out, and so this "port city" is no port at all). According to legend, Ostia was founded by Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, to guard the mouth (ostium) of the river Tiber. It was originally a fortified city; later it became a commercial city. It developed into the port of Rome shortly before the First Punic War (264 BC). The ruins there provide an excellent view of the domestic and commercial architecture of 1st and 2nd century AD Rome and allow a glimpse of what Roman urban life was like. Not only were the ruins themselves splendid, but reading Latin passages that related to the place provided the most overwhelming sense of immediacy of and closeness to antiquity. I had heard that Reggie's excursion packets were "gold," and it turned out to be true.
Soon after we arrived, we read some Vergil, specifically the passage from _The Aeneid_ which describes Aeneas' landing, which would have been on what used to be the bank of the Tiber, close to a present-day restaruant named (in Italian) "Aeneas' Disembarkment." The passage tells of an exhausted Aeneas dragging himself up onto the bank, where he saw a white sow and her piglets emerge from the brush, an unmistakably good omen. Reggie told us before we arrived that a white dog would greet us there. Sure enough, as we stood and read the Vergilian verses aloud, up trotted a white dog. "There he is, there he is," shouted Reggie, "I TOLD you he would come!" It was our own good omen.
After we entered the city, we proceeded to a tavern, where a still-visible inscription in the mosaic pavement reads: Dicit Fortunatus: vinum cratera quod sitis bibe (Fortunatus says: drink wine from the bowl to quench your thirst). We opted to drink it from a box; we poured cups of wine, toasted, and together sang "Gaudeamus Igitur," a Latin song urging people to rejoice and enjoy life, since we'll be dead soon enough.
We then followed the Via della Fontana, a street lined with apartment houses and shops, to large arcaded courtyard, where we read from Suetonius' _Life of Claudius_ about the construction of an enormous ship to carry an Egytian oblisk to Rome.
After a short visit to the museum and a relaxing picnic lunch, we proceeded to a street of ship-outfitting shops, whose mosaics remain to show us what was done there.
There we read Livy's account of the major effort to build ships and prepare rowers for the fight against the Carthaginians.We then visited the amphitheater, where Reggie read a bit of Terrence to us. He loves Terrence (185-159 BC), who wrote very early Latin drama using the common language that one would have heard on the street.
Finally, we went to a hotel, the hotel where Augustine's mother most likely died. We read some very moving passages from Augustine's _Confessions_, in which he tells of his mother's life and death and expresses his desire that people remember her. Over 1,600 years later, they still do.
RES ALIAE (Other Things)
I did finally finish my grades and comments, which was a relief. Since then, I have had a chance to cross the Tiber and see a bit more of Rome. I'm tired, though, and will write of these things later.
# posted by srpaterson @ 4:21 AM 
