Materials on the Way for Pliny Outside the New AP Latin Curriculum

I recently posted an article on the revised AP Latin curriculum including some letters of Pliny the Younger in lieu of lengthy passages of the Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico.

I have long been a fan of Pliny and count him as my favorite writer of Latin prose. As I recounted in my earlier post, I had planned to create and distribute some handouts for teachers, only to discover that excellent and worthy materials were already available from Geoffrey Steadman.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-latin-revised-framework-preview.pdf

Instead of giving up on my project completely, I decided that I would redirect my efforts to offer suggestions and materials for the "Teacher's Choice Prose" section (see image above). I agree with most of the choices that the College Board has made for Pliny, but also feel that they left out some interesting and iconic letters (the titles are my own):

• I.1: Publishing My Letters - A good lead-in to Pliny's epistles as he writes about how he collected his works and made them available for publication. I have always liked reading about what authors have to say about their own work and other authors (see III.21 below).
• I.6: Making the Most of the Hunt - A fun letter in which Pliny makes the most out of his hunting trip and uses it as an opportunity to get all sorts of work done.
• III.21: Lamenting the Death of Martial - Pliny's letter recalling his friend Martial and his character, and it seems Martial was quite the character.
• IV.19: She Really Loves Me! - A touching letter in which Pliny describes the relationship with his wife and how much she cares for him and loves him.
• X.96: What Do I Do about the Christians? - A truly iconic letter in which Pliny, as governor of the province of Bithynia, writes to the Emperor Trajan and asks for the proper procedure for handling those who have been accused of being Christians.
• X.97: Handling the Christians - Trajan's thoughtful and straightforward response to Pliny.

My plans are to create texts, notes, and materials in pdfs (and possibly even ppt) and make them available for teachers, hopefully by January or February 2025.

Check Out Materials for the New AP Latin Curriculum

The College Board has announced that they are replacing Caesar with Pliny the Younger for the next iteration of the Advanced Placement Latin curriculum. Latin teachers are eagerly awaiting the final details on which letters will be included and how they will fit with the revised lines of Vergil's Aeneid. Hopefully the announcement will come soon so that writers can get started on materials. The 2025-2026 school year will be here before we know it!

Speaking of materials... since I am a fan of Pliny the Younger AND I have time on my hands through the joys of retirement, I decided that I would adapt some of the materials I had created for my own classroom and make them available to teachers, for a modest fee. I was getting excited over the possibility of creating materials and making a contribution to the Latin community.

I looked through my files, checked out the texts of Pliny I had on hand, and checked texts available online, and determined that all of them lacked macrons. I figured that I would need to offer these diacritical marks if I wanted to offer anything for sale, so I asked on the very useful Latin Teacher Idea Exchange (LTIE) on Facebook whether teachers would use materials without macrons, and good thing I did!

I received responses fairly quickly, including a post directing me to a prolific writer who included macrons. I took a look and my plans for developing materials came to a screeching halt. Not only were there letters of Pliny the Younger available with long marks, but there were facing notes, vocabulary, and review of grammar and syntax found in them... almost in the exact same format I was planning to offer! I was a little disappointed that someone had beat me to it, and had come up with the same idea I had, but after checking out the materials available, I was impressed and glad that they existed for teachers, AND for free!

Check out Geoffrey Steadman's copious materials available on the new AP Latin curriculum as well as numerous other Latin and Greek authors and works. I am impressed and wish I had known these existed when I was still teaching! Outside of the printed texts, there are new and FREE pdfs available to download with a promise of updated versions coming later in Spring 2024. Do check them out and see if you can use them! Good stuff!

About Those Ships in Pliny the Younger VI.16

When my students were reading authentic Latin literature, I would encourage them, as they worked through a passage, to pay attention to references to people, places, and things, and look them up so that they would have a fuller understanding of what the author was saying. To pass over a reference was an indication of trying to just get through the work and not really engage in the passage. A good example is the passage below from Pliny the Younger's description of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the actions of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, to observe and record this extraordinary event. When the reader gets to the mention of liburnicam, it is too easy to say "Hmm, that must be some sort of boat," and move on. You really don't have any more understanding of it until you get further in the letter and Pliny the Elder changes his mind and orders out the quadriremes. Then you think that a liburnicam must be smaller and that a more substantial vessel is necessary. Let's take a closer look.

https://pompeiitourguide.me/2013/10/21/miseno-cape/

In 79 CE, Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) was in command of the Roman fleet stationed at Misenum, the port located across the Bay of Naples from Mount Vesuvius. As the author of the Naturalis Historia, he would have been very interested in closely observing and experiencing a volcanic eruption, particularly one so close to him. His nephew, Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus), writes:

Magnum propiusque noscendum ut eruditissimo viro visum. Iubet liburnicam aptari; mihi si venire una vellem facit copiam; respondi studere me malle, et forte ipse quod scriberem dederat. 8 Egrediebatur domo; accipit codicillos Rectinae Tasci imminenti periculo exterritae — nam villa eius subiacebat, nec ulla nisi navibus fuga -: ut se tanto discrimini eriperet orabat. 9 Vertit ille consilium et quod studioso animo incohaverat obit maximo. Deducit quadriremes, ascendit ipse non Rectinae modo sed multis — erat enim frequens amoenitas orae — laturus auxilium.

So here is a picture of a liburnica:

https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/tag/boat/

This is not such a small ship and certainly would have served Pliny the Elder's purposes until he changes his mind and his plan.

In English the passage above reads:

"This [the eruption] was a great and rather close thing to be examined, as it seemed to a very learned man. He [Pliny the Elder] orders the liburnica to be made ready; he gives me the opportunity whether I wanted to come with him; I responded that I preferred to study, and by chance he himself had given me something to write. He was setting out from home; he receives a message from Rectina, the wife of Tascus, frightened by the impending danger -- for her villa was lying at the foot [of the mountain], and htere was no escape execpt by ships --: she was begging him to rescue her from such great peril. He changes his plan and what he had begun with a studious mind he finishes with a very great/noble one. He launches the quadriremes, he himself climbs on board, about to bring help not only for Rectina but for many -- for the pleasantness of that coast was popular." (The translation is my own.)

And this is a picture of a quadrireme:

https://naval-encyclopedia.com/antique-ships/roman-ships

This is certainly a larger ship and much faster with its four banks of oars.

So what does this contribute to the reading of the of the passage about Pliny's intentions? It illustrates that Pliny the Elder was taking a ship probably larger than we imagined, but that the quadrireme is definitely larger and better suited to his decisions to mount a rescue mission. The pictures helps us to imagine the scene better and understand fully the plan. 

Reading the English on the New AP Latin Exam

Since the recent announcement of the changes to the curriculum in the new AP Latin exam, I have been pondering the required readings. For Vergil we are returning to the old curriculum of selections from Books 1, 2, 4, and 6; gone are the tedious selections about the hand-to-hand combat between Aeneas and Turnus in Books 10 and 12. I never really liked those passages at the end, but that could be due more to the tiresome forced march through the previous 1,500 lines than the actual content.

I am intrigued, though, with the inclusion of being responsible for the content in English for Books 8 and 12. I have long enjoyed they the episode where Aeneas arrives at Pallanteum and Evander tells him the stories associated with archaic Rome. The presentation and description of the shield are also fascinating and seems to fit nicely with the themes of history, values, leadership, and the relationship between the human and the divine. The content of Book 12 provides a good cap for the story as Aeneas reaches his goal which seemed so out of his reach at the beginning of the story.

I am a bit stumped, though, with the inclusion of Book 7 in English for Caesar's De Bello Gallico. While it is true that this book handles in large part the conflict between Caesar and Vercingetorix, it has been added to the curriculum for its content and contribution to the story in English and not for its Latinity.

What we, as teachers, need to know from the College Board is how much importance will be given to knowing the content of the works as literature instead of knowing how to read, translate, and understand the assigned Latin passages? Although knowing the stories in English has always been important for the AP Vergil exam, now that we have (again) a combination exam, why has importance been given to what the students will read in translation? Not only will we have to provide translations (for loan or for purchase) for the Aeneid, but now also for Caesar. Are there good translations out there? I will have to find out.

The New AP Latin Curriculum

The big news at this year's ACL Institute was the new AP Latin curriculum for the May 2013 exam. This summer's announcement brought some relief to those who were bewailing the Vergil-Caesar combination, particularly after some suggestions were given for teaching by theme.

The new requirements for Vergil's Aeneid (rather, the pared-down list) are:

• Book 1: lines 1-209, 418-440, 494-578
• Book 2: lines 40-56, 201-249, 268-297, 559-620
• Book 4: lines 160-218, 259-361, 659-705
• Book 6: lines 295-332, 384-425, 450-476, 847-899

The mention was made that this selection of lines was made with much soul-searching, tears, and regret. More regrettable, though, is the announcement that the student is required to read only Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12. Why not the whole Aeneid? I may still require that the student read the entire work in order to completely appreciate this important piece of literature. I'm intrigued by the inclusion of Book 8.

The required lines for Caesar's Bellum Gallicum are:

• Book 1: chapters 1-7
• Book 4: chapters 24-35 and the first sentence of chapter 36
• Book 5: chapters 24-48
• Book 6: chapters 13-20

The required reading in English is the entirety of Books 1, 6, and 7.

I plan to take a much closer look at these lines later in the summer.

I am pleased, though, with the suggestion of themes for this new combination of authors. I was initially disappointed, maybe even let down, with the announcement of Caesar as the author who would be paired with the vates, but these suggestions are exciting:

• literary genre and style
• war and empire
• view of non-Romans
• history and memory
• Roman values
• leadership
• human beings and the divine

I am most interested in the last four items of the list, particularly Roman values and the relationship between humans and the gods. As I become more familiar with these lines, I will be able to make a better stab of their application.

I am hoping that there are good textbooks produced to make this combination of authors interesting and exciting. I'd write my own, bu there are other things to do.

Vetus Novus Homo

"Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?" It has been quite some time since these words have been heard aloud in my classroom. I have to admit that I have not taught Cicero since way back in the mid-90's. When the Advanced Placement bandwagon ran roughshod over our school system's curriculum over a decade ago, the emphasis in Latin turned away from the authors of Latin prose and grounded itself solidly in poetry. Since that time we have usually finished the Latin II textbook in the first quarter or half of Latin III and then spent the balance of time in making the transition to the reading and translation of authentic Latin literature. Sure, prose authers were a big part of that, namely selections from St. Jerome's Vulgate, some letters of Pliny the Younger, and some war correspondence from Caesar, but there was never room or a time for the rhetoric and philosophy of Cicero. I reluctantly pushed him aside as Latin IV and V alternated between the epic poetry of Vergil and the lyric and elegiac poetry of Catullus and Ovid. Now, times have changed.

I have brushed off Jenney's Third Year Latin, dug through my filing cabinet, and reacquainted myself with this long-neglected prose author. I have always been an advocate of Latin prose and a fan of Cicero and look forward to his reappearance in my classroom. His return has been made possible by the College Board's elimination of the AP Latin Literature examination. The Latin teachers in my system have agreed to teach AP Vergil in the fifth-year Latin class, thus opening up (for me, at least) a class of fourth-year Latin students who now have the opportunity to read and translate a wide variety of Latin authors and works. I know by experience that Cicero will be difficult for many of my students and that the subject matter can be a bit challenging, as well. We'll take it slow and I will make every effort to make the class interesting and meaningful. Updates in our endeavors will follow.

Teaching Caesar

It has been said that Julius Caesar is the most famous Roman of them all. Everyone has heard about Caesar and something of his exploits (right or wrong) in Rome. Many cite their exposure to be the tragedy by Shakespeare... who, I must remind them, wrote literature, not history.

I, like a good number of other teachers, was quite surprised (and even a bit disappointed) when the College Board announced that Caesar would be paired with Vergil on their upcoming capstone AP Latin exam. My first thoughts were, "Ooh, how boring!" and "What does Caesar have to do with Vergil? How disjointed can that be?" I am waiting for the CB's announcement of what work(s) and sections from Caesar will be required before I make any final decision on how I feel about this unlikely combination.

In an effort to cozy up to the idea, I pulled out Caesar's De Bello Civile the other evening, opened the text at random, and started reading. Hoping that things would be diffent than his De Bello Gallico, I was sorely mistaken. Most of what I read was about troop movements, crossing rivers, obtaining supplies (and depriving Pompey of them), and worrying about where his transport ships were. Um, not exactly stuff to interest the typical teenager in the typical public high school!

Here's hoping that the College Board will announce an interesting syllabus combining Caesar and Vergil in some sort of meaningful and natural way... and NOT taking the direction of the art of war in the second half of the Aeneid and in Caesar's illustrious career!

Declining in Greek

We have put AP Latin Literature to bed -- hopefully for not too long a nap. The College Board will issue their proclamation soon about what road we will all be taking in a couple years.

The class is not over yet, though. We are playing in Greek: learning to read and write the alphabet, working with some prefixes, roots, and suffixes, learning some vocabulary, and (today) we learned how to decline a noun. Our goal is to read and translate the first story or so in Athenaze.

So, I write on the board ho anthropos mikros (transliterated into the English alphabet here). My students made me proud several times today. Right off the bat they recognized that Greek had an article.

Another student quickly asked, "Does the -os ending have anything to do with the -us ending in Latin?" I beamed.

When I demonstrated the declension, they were fascinated that Greek did not have an ablative case. I explained that the Greek genitive and dative took up the slack. Another student commented, "Good! I never liked the ablative anyway." (Boooo.....!)

After the declension (and a little prodding from me), they recognized that the omega in the dative singular was analogous to the -o in Latin and that the -oi (nominative plural), -ois (dative plural), and -ous (accusative plural) were not too far removed from the Latin. It is interesting to note that they don't think the -on and -um are close cousins.

I love my students and I love when we are learning for the sake of learning!

The Tatters of the Year

It is Memorial Day and tomorrow we will enter what I have come to call the tatters of the year. The AP and state exams are over. The weather is warm. The finish line is in sight. I try to tell my students that, even though you can see the end of the course, the race is not yet finished. Too many, though, have set their goal well short of that chalk line ahead.

Even though there are still three weeks left in the school year (time enough to learn some new things!) instruction is effectively over. The seniors, who will graduate a week before the end of school and (most of whom) are grade-exempt from final exams, have already stopped coming to school. This has a profound impact on the motication of the rest of the student body who also want to check out early. There are also fieldtrips, assemblies, and other activities to distract them from their studies. Oh yeah, there are still second semester exams to be given...

OK, what to do?

In the words of the Borg (from Star Trek: The Next Generation), "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." I have learned that I can beat my head against the wall and drag the students kicking and screaming (or, worse, chatting or snoring) through a lesson on the ablative absolute or I can change things up and work toward application of the material learned in an earlier, more focused period of their education.

In AP Latin, we dutifully said our farewells to the Latin Literature syllabus and didn't look back. We are now learning the Greek alphabet and will try to cover the first chapter or two of Athenaze. I am surprised at how excited the students are to start something brand new. They tell me that it is like going all the way back to starting Latin I, when everything was fresh, new, and exciting. Ah, but our time in Greek will be too short... just a taste for now and encouragement to take it in college.

In my other classes we are moving toward reading and translating. To teach the uses of the subjunctive mood at this point would be a Herculean effort which would quickly turn, I fear, into a Sisyphean labor. These new things are best left for the next school year. Why not take everything we have done this year and apply it to readings and translations in their textbooks and a few outside items I bring in? We can polish these skills and reinforce the material taught this year as an effort of moving toward their finals. Application is to be stressed over acquisition.

It's a plan.

ACL 2008

The 61st Annual Institute of the American Classical League has come and gone and I sit to write about it from the other side of a short family vacation to Long Island. The University of New Hampshire in Durham played an outstanding host and Sherwin Little, Tom Sienkewicz, Geri Dutra, and all others involved in the planning and execution of this outstanding gathering are to be commended.

I took the slow and liesurely route and drove to the Institute from Virginia. I set out on Tuesday morning and reached my goal of getting past most of the New York metropolitan area about mid-afternoon. In all, not a difficult drive but getting across the George Washington Bridge and navigating through the Bronx amid a sea of tractor-trailers was a bit of a pain. The next morning I easily completed the trip to New Hampshire and spent the night in Dover, about five miles outside of Durham. I stayed in Dover because, alas, there was no room in the inn at Durham when I made arrangements for lodging. The next day I move my belongings to the Holiday Inn Select at Durham and settled in for the Institute. On my return trip, getting past the traffic and bother of New York City was again my goal and I spent the night at East Windsor, New Jersey (near Princeton) via the Massachusetts Turnpike and a scenic trip through the Berkshires.

Anyhow, back to the Institute. Here are some highlights: My first interest involved Advanced Placement Latin and the College Board... Too much time was spent at the first session involving the grading of this year's exams with the presenters talking about how they had nothing to do with the decision about cancelling the AP Latin Lit exam and how we all must be calm and reasonable. No problem there. The later plenary session, titled "Latin Advanced Placement Tests: Responses and New Directions?", promised to be more interesting but I left disappointed and feeling no better (and no more informed) about the entire situation. No one was present who had actually had some say in the decision, just those who had something to say. Primarily, and I find this impressive after the initial reaction on LatinTeach and elsewhere, there were no fireworks, yelling, screaming, or crying. Everyone remained civil. We were assured that the Vergil exam would not change (probably) for the next three years or so and that we all, teachers, professors, professional organizations, would have input into future changes. I don't know how this was promised when there were no "officials" present. Most of the comments and suggestions were interesting and reasonable but there was nothing new or even reassuring that we had regained control of what and how we teach on the upper levels (if, indeed, we ever had control). I was annoyed at the presenter from a very prestigious prep school who suggested that we really don't need the AP exam. His school had dropped the entire AP program several years earlier and, guess what, their students continued to have no problem getting into Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Um, when your prestigious prep school carries instant name recognition, it is true that AP results make no difference in the admissions offices, BUT your average high school in your average town across the country has to buy into the AP program in order to level the playing field just a bit for their students. Like I said, I did not leave the plenary feeling better about things.

I was very interested by Matthew Hartnett's presentation on "Inscriptions and Graffiti in the Latin Classroom" and I intend to bring this genre of authentic Latin into my classes as soon as possible. Just because it isn't great literature doesn't mean it isn't interesting and has value in the classroom.

Ken Kitchell's "Teaching Latin Comp the Fun Way - The Long and the Short of It" was thoroughly enjoyable. It was refreshing (and a little reassuring) to learn that colleges and universities assign creative projects for their students and they end up having a great time while learning.

I was the presider for "Latin Via Storytelling: Backwards Design to Fit Any Textbook" and this session may well prove the most useful for me. Bob Patrick, Stephanie Sylvester, and Rachel Ash did an outstanding job of presenting the techniques and benefits of TPRS in the Latin classroom. The almost painless method of teaching and learning new vocabulary is alone worth consideration of this method. I need to apply some more thought here.

More than anything else, the benefit and purpose of attending an ACL Institute are the opportunities to meet new teachers and reconnect with old fiends and acquaintances. Putting a face with a name only seen on LatinTeach is great. It is very important that a professional establish contacts and networks in order for ideas, help, and suggestions to flow freely. No one can teach on an island and expect to grow.

Finally, there was the clambake. Not being a fan of seafood, I must admit that I opted for the barbequed chicken. I know that I wimped out but I have never found seafood to be palatable (and to think that I live so close to the Chesapeake Bay!). I did enjoy the company of my colleagues who were enjoying their lobsters and clams, though, and that's the best thing!

Next year in LA? We'll see!

Combined (and Uncombined) Classes

I am very excited this year because, for the first time in years, I am not teaching Latin IV students and Advanced Placement students in the same room at the same time. I have handled this situation well in the past but was never very happy with the idea. I have tried different approaches to this arrangement, including splitting the class and teaching each half separately with separate curricula, while the other half completes assignments, projects, or groupwork, and teaching both halves together, the same curriculum, but having different "levels" of expectations and requirements. I prefer the latter, and had the most success doing so.

Now that I have each level in separate classes, I don't have to make special requirements or divide myself or my attention: AP Latin is cruising through Vergil's Aeneid and there's no looking back at the dust we are leaving behind, and Latin IV is reviewing and handling items of grammar and syntax (some advanced) and cutting their teeth on authentic Latin literature. Happiness all around... almost... but more about that later.

In Latin IV this year we are reading and translating from Caesar's De Bello Gallico... an author and work that I am embarrassed to admit that I have ignored for more than a decade. I have plans to revisit Pliny and Cicero (returning to the much neglected prose authors) and then move on to Ovid's Ars Amatoria (after blowing the dust off of those textbooks as well). Basically I plan to revisit authors and works *I* haven't read for a while... Vergil, Catullus, Ovid, and Horace are great authors and I wouldn't ditch them for the world but I'll leave those for the APs and we IVs can snuggle up with the others.

Now for the downside... I am in the wonderful situation where numbers are not a problem -- I owe that to lots of hard work and interesting, challenging classes. Last year I was given a schedule which included two Latin IV/AP classes: one on "A" day and one on "B" day (we operate on an alternating day block schedule). This arrangement allowed two options for a student to fit Latin into his or her schedule. Essentially almost everyone was a happy customer. This year, though, we offer Latin IV on "A" day and AP Latin on "B" day. Due to several "singleton" classes (most of them APs) and band, some upper-level Latin students were not able to take the class of their choice, or (miserabile dictu!) did not take Latin at all!

I was not willing to take on any students in independent and/or individual instruction because I have four preparations (which sometimes morph into six when the classes on "A" and "B" get on different paces), an active Latin Club and certamen teams, department responsibilities as chair, professional activities outside of school, and a family with two active and busy children.

Which teaching situation do I prefer? I must honestly admit that the jury is still out.

Class After AP

My students asked today what we were doing after the AP Latin Literature exam. Certainly they are not looking ahead and anticipating the end of the year... My reply was that we would be translating some of Horace's Odes. I had wanted to do the Catullus/Horace combination this year but a couple of very eager students convinced me that Ovid was the way to go. No problem on this end -- there was some things I wanted to do with the Amores anyway. In any case, I believe there are some poems of Horace that every serious Latin student must experience before graduating from high school. More about Horace later.

In the years that we have taken the AP Vergil exam, I often give my students a mini-lesson in ancient Greek. I have them learn to recite, read, and write the Greek alphabet, transliterate some Greek terms and roots into English, and then tackle the first few chapters from Crosby and Shaeffer's An Introduction to Greek and Balme and Lawall's Athenaze. The students enjoy this unique diversion and feel that they've gone back to first-year (which essentially they have) and that things are suddenly easy and exciting again. A few students have even gone on to take Greek in college. If nothing else, I tell my students that they can now go to college and identify the correct fraternity or sorority house advertised in the party flier.