Advice for teachers -
Latin

Outcome 1

Translate a seen passage of both a prose author and a poet, and answer questions on the accidence and syntax of the passages.

Examples of learning activities

• In groups, make a video about working through the translation of a passage, explaining how the grammar works, and show it to the class.
• Discuss how the style of a prose author in Unit 2 differs from a prose author studied in Unit 1. Focus on vocabulary, use of particular grammatical structures (such as ablative absolute), sentence length and word order.
• Answer a set of questions created by the teacher to guide students through the translation of a poem.
• Analyse the grammar of individual sentences, colour-coding nouns by their function, and bracketing off clauses, prepositional phrases and participial phrases.
• Focus on one particular aspect of grammar by an author, such as the use of participles.
• Discuss the differences between prose and poetry in ancient Rome by contrasting a passage of narrative from Caesar with one from Virgil in translation.
• Examine how different authors have translated the same poem; for example, Catullus has been translated by various authors since the Renaissance. Compare the translation of one passage by different authors over time. Which ones are most true to the literal translation, and which ones best capture the spirit? 
• Examine how the same poem can be translated in different ways by an author. The Australian author David Malouf, for example, has written a series of variations on the Emperor Hadrian’s poem ‘To my Soul’. Discuss how each one differs in tone and focus, and what each one adds to our understanding of the Latin original.

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  Develop a class system for translating poetry.
  

Detailed example

Develop a class system for translating poetry

Teacher prepares the following activities for students.

1. Discuss what makes poetry more difficult to translate than prose. Consider such things as the demands of the metre, the highly flexible word order, the use of allusions and circumlocutions, the need to create atmosphere and emotion, and the use of ellipsis.
2. Point out that some things still remain the same: the basic grammar does not change, and in fact often poetry has simpler syntax than prose.
3. Project a piece of poetry onto the board. With the class, talk through how they might approach translating it. As they come up with suggestions one member of the class can act as a scribe and start codifying the technique. For example, if the starting point were to identify the main verb in every sentence, this verb could be highlighted in yellow and used to find the subject, which could be highlighted in red, and so on.
4. Agreement is particularly difficult because words may be separated considerably from words they agree with. Discuss how you could show what words agree.
5. Where a poet has an indirect way of expressing something, ask the class to suggest ways through this. Is it better to keep the circumlocution, or should it be simplified? What impact does this have on the translation?
6. How will students deal with allusions? For example, they might be colour-coded green. When working in groups, one member may be tasked to find out more about each one and add it as a comment to a group text.
7. From this, come up with a technique that students can use when translating a poem together, taking on a series of different roles: grammar expert, vocabulary expert, word order/agreement expert and allusions expert.

Outcome 2

Respond to questions on the purpose and style, and accidence and syntax of a seen passage of a Latin author.

Examples of learning activities

‘Purpose’ refers to the message the author is trying to convey in the passage – what conclusions, feelings and reactions the passage is intended to provoke. ‘Style’ refers to how the author conveys a certain impression of an event or character.

• Using existing knowledge, create a list of different techniques a writer may use to depict a person or event.
• Practise creating a word picture in the style of the Roman author being studied. Start with a bare depiction of an event (e.g. the snake attacked a man and his sons), and then add stylistic elements one at a time: personifying the scene, adding descriptive elements to the snakes, adding dialogue, describing the despair of the man, describing the reaction of the onlookers. Follow up with a comparison with Virgil’s example (Aeneid II, ll. 203–224).
• Using a data projector, look at lines if text projected onto a whiteboard and annotate them to show how the author creates the depiction. Use different colour markers for word choice, metre, word order and techniques such as simile, metaphor and allusion.
• Examine passages where the poet’s style is particularly apparent. For example, dissect Virgil’s depiction of Charon (Aeneid VI, ll. 295–304).
• Outline the political context for a piece of writing. For example, in reading many of Cicero’s letters, it is necessary to first understand the political context, and the networks of alliances in which Cicero was involved. This might be best done as a series of diagrams.
• Read a selection of texts that all have a common theme, but take a different viewpoint. For example, read the rousing speech by Anchises in the Aeneid (Book VI, lines 847–853) and contrast this with the pessimistic view of empire by Tacitus (Calgacus’ speech, Agricola, 30), and discuss the author’s purpose in each case.
• Consider modern views to highlight the views of ancient writers. For example, examine modern attitudes to courtship and dating, and compare these to the attitude shown by Ovid in his Ars Amatoria. This activity will need to be treated with sensitivity.

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  Discuss various opinions about a key figure, such as Lesbia, and complete relevant analytical activities.
  

Detailed example

Examine Catullus’ depiction of Lesbia

Teacher prepares the following activities for students.

1. Consider questions related to Lesbia. What was the real Lesbia like? Can we ever know? Was she different to Catullus’ depiction of her? Why?
2. Follow the clues as to the real identity of Lesbia. This is discussed at length in Quinn’s introduction to his edition, and there are good sources available online.
3. Discuss as a class what information has been found, perhaps creating an online shared document.
4. Search for other mentions of this woman (assuming it is Clodia Metelli). Direct students to Cicero’s Fam. 5. 2. 6, Pro Caelio and his letters. Some students may also research her brother, Publius Clodius Pulcher.
5. Discuss Cicero’s portrayal of her, and the source of any bias he might have had.
6. Draw up a table with two columns: fact and rumour. What goes into each column?
7. Draw up a list of all that we can glean from Catullus’ portrayal of Lesbia. Compare this with the picture created by Cicero.
8. Consider the fact that neither may be right. How would it benefit both Cicero and Catullus to harm her reputation?
9. This might lead to a wider discussion of the depiction of women by Roman writers, and our uncertainty in trusting them in the absence of works by female authors.

Outcome 3

Scan the hexameter line and understand how the poet makes use of this metre.

Examples of learning activities

• Research descriptions of metre in ancient Sanskrit texts, which are the origin of this system.
• Using musical instruments or a music app on a phone, play the quantities as notes to appreciate the difference between different combinations of spondees and dactyls.
• After a passage has been translated, discuss how the metre of selected lines enhances the meaning.
• Construct a selection of lines that contain a range of metrical challenges, such as different types of elisions.
• Using a data projector, use lines projected on the whiteboard to write up a scansion. While doing this, each student talks the class through their thought processes.
  
• For every 20-line section of a text, pairs of students nominate four lines for the class to scan: two that are difficult, and two that show a particular metrical effect. (Note: the student pairs will need to scan every line of their section as preparation.)

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  Compare ancient and modern techniques for creating atmosphere.
  

Detailed example

Comparing ancient and modern techniques for creating atmosphere

Teacher prepares the following activities for students.

1. Discuss different ways in which film-makers create atmosphere, such as tension to create suspense in a scene. Consider the use of camera angles, lighting, focus and music.
2. Watch a short online clip from a famous movie, such as a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film. Ask students to identify what mood the director is trying to create and analyse how this was achieved.
3. Replay the scene but this time without any sound. Discuss how important sound is to creating atmosphere.
4. Explain that for a Roman audience, a poet was like a modern film-maker. Ask students to consider how a poet could create a particular atmosphere or visual picture.
5. Explain that sound was as important as meaning because all Roman poetry was intended to be read aloud. The choice of words, their positioning relative to other words, and the sound they make were all important.
6. Metre was a second level that the Roman poets had at their disposal. Now look at a passage from Virgil that creates a strong sense of atmosphere; for example, the storm (Aeneid I, ll. 81–92, 102–107). Provide students with a translation and ask them to follow the Latin as you read it, paying attention to the metre.
7. Ask students to identify the different stages of the storm, and how Virgil uses metre to achieve his effects.