From navigating the etiquette of public baths to managing a relative who had glugged too much wine, life in the Roman Empire was a complicated business.
But newly translated textbooks used by Greek-speaking schoolchildren have revealed that students learnt to get to grips with life in the ancient world through their Latin studies.
The manuscripts, which have been compiled by Professor Eleanor Dickey and translated into English for the first time in her new book Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks in the Ancient World, reveal a series of life lessons taught to children learning Latin between the second and sixth centuries AD.
Ancient Greek manuscript reveal Roman life lessons
Newly released textbooks reveal how lessons in everything from negotiating a good price at the market to how to deal with a drunk relative
The newly translated textbooks used by Greek-speaking schoolchildren have revealed that students learnt to get to grips with life in the ancient world through their Latin studies Photo: Zisterzienserstift Zwettl
By Alice Philipson, Rome
11 Feb 2016
The Telegraph
From navigating the etiquette of public baths to managing a relative who had glugged too much wine, life in the Roman Empire was a complicated business.
But newly translated textbooks used by Greek-speaking schoolchildren have revealed that students learnt to get to grips with life in the ancient world through their Latin studies.
The manuscripts, which have been compiled by Professor Eleanor Dickey and translated into English for the first time in her new book Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks in the Ancient World, reveal a series of life lessons taught to children learning Latin between the second and sixth centuries AD.
Professor Dickey said the texts were in widespread use in the Ancient World, teaching children everything from how to avoid the wrath of a teacher if they are late for school to negotiating a good price at the market.
“At least six different versions were floating around Europe by 600 AD,” she told The Guardian. “This is actually more common than many better-known ancient texts: there was only one copy of Catullus, and fewer than six of Caesar.”
Five of the lessons taught in the textbook are:
1. How to behave in the public baths
The book describes a visit to the public baths, where wrestling is followed by anointing with oil, before a stint in the sweat rooms.
Finally, there is a visit to the hot pools.
“Let’s use the dry heat room and go down that way to the hot pool,” says one character. “Go down, pour hot water over me. Now get out. Throw yourself into the pool in the open air. Swim!” “I have swum.”
Readers also learn that after taking a shower, they should scrape themselves off with a ‘strigil’, a metal scraper used to remove dirt.
Professor Dickey said the use of the strigil after washing could only mean the water was so filthy that bathers left the water dirtier than when they arrived.
2. How to do deal with a drunk relative
“Quis sic facit, domine, quomodo tu, ut tantum bibis? Quid dicent, qui te viderunt talem?” the textbook says, which Professor Dickey translates as: “Who acts like this, sir, as you do, that you drink so much? What would they say, the people who saw you in such a condition?
“Is this a fitting way for a master of a household who gives advice to others to conduct himself? It is not possible (for things) more shamefully nor more ignominiously to happen than you acted yesterday.”
Finally, the book adds: “Great infamy have you accumulated for yourself … But now you don’t want to vomit, do you?”
The recipient of the verbal onslaught responds that he is “very much ashamed”.
3. How to throw a good insult
The book suggests: “Do you revile me, villain? May you be crucified!”
Or alternatively: “And does he revile (me), that animal-fighter? Let me go, and I shall shake out his teeth.”
4. How to avoid a telling-off when you’re late for school
The textbook tells the story of a boy who is told that “yesterday you slacked off and at midday you were not at home”. However he wriggles out of punishment by mentioning his very important father, whom had taken him “to the praetorium”. There, he was “greeted by the magistrates, and he received letters from my masters the emperors”.
5. How to get a good price at the market
Students struggling to haggle at a market are given advice on how to negotiate. “How much is the cape?” the textbook says. “Two hundred denarii.”
“You’re asking a lot; accept a hundred denarii," is the response given, appearing to recommend that students do not mince their words.
Ancient Greek manuscript reveal Roman life lessons - Telegraph
But newly translated textbooks used by Greek-speaking schoolchildren have revealed that students learnt to get to grips with life in the ancient world through their Latin studies.
The manuscripts, which have been compiled by Professor Eleanor Dickey and translated into English for the first time in her new book Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks in the Ancient World, reveal a series of life lessons taught to children learning Latin between the second and sixth centuries AD.
Ancient Greek manuscript reveal Roman life lessons
Newly released textbooks reveal how lessons in everything from negotiating a good price at the market to how to deal with a drunk relative
The newly translated textbooks used by Greek-speaking schoolchildren have revealed that students learnt to get to grips with life in the ancient world through their Latin studies Photo: Zisterzienserstift Zwettl
By Alice Philipson, Rome
11 Feb 2016
The Telegraph
From navigating the etiquette of public baths to managing a relative who had glugged too much wine, life in the Roman Empire was a complicated business.
But newly translated textbooks used by Greek-speaking schoolchildren have revealed that students learnt to get to grips with life in the ancient world through their Latin studies.
The manuscripts, which have been compiled by Professor Eleanor Dickey and translated into English for the first time in her new book Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks in the Ancient World, reveal a series of life lessons taught to children learning Latin between the second and sixth centuries AD.
Professor Dickey said the texts were in widespread use in the Ancient World, teaching children everything from how to avoid the wrath of a teacher if they are late for school to negotiating a good price at the market.
“At least six different versions were floating around Europe by 600 AD,” she told The Guardian. “This is actually more common than many better-known ancient texts: there was only one copy of Catullus, and fewer than six of Caesar.”
Five of the lessons taught in the textbook are:
1. How to behave in the public baths
The book describes a visit to the public baths, where wrestling is followed by anointing with oil, before a stint in the sweat rooms.
Finally, there is a visit to the hot pools.
“Let’s use the dry heat room and go down that way to the hot pool,” says one character. “Go down, pour hot water over me. Now get out. Throw yourself into the pool in the open air. Swim!” “I have swum.”
Readers also learn that after taking a shower, they should scrape themselves off with a ‘strigil’, a metal scraper used to remove dirt.
Professor Dickey said the use of the strigil after washing could only mean the water was so filthy that bathers left the water dirtier than when they arrived.
2. How to do deal with a drunk relative
“Quis sic facit, domine, quomodo tu, ut tantum bibis? Quid dicent, qui te viderunt talem?” the textbook says, which Professor Dickey translates as: “Who acts like this, sir, as you do, that you drink so much? What would they say, the people who saw you in such a condition?
“Is this a fitting way for a master of a household who gives advice to others to conduct himself? It is not possible (for things) more shamefully nor more ignominiously to happen than you acted yesterday.”
Finally, the book adds: “Great infamy have you accumulated for yourself … But now you don’t want to vomit, do you?”
The recipient of the verbal onslaught responds that he is “very much ashamed”.
3. How to throw a good insult
The book suggests: “Do you revile me, villain? May you be crucified!”
Or alternatively: “And does he revile (me), that animal-fighter? Let me go, and I shall shake out his teeth.”
4. How to avoid a telling-off when you’re late for school
The textbook tells the story of a boy who is told that “yesterday you slacked off and at midday you were not at home”. However he wriggles out of punishment by mentioning his very important father, whom had taken him “to the praetorium”. There, he was “greeted by the magistrates, and he received letters from my masters the emperors”.
5. How to get a good price at the market
Students struggling to haggle at a market are given advice on how to negotiate. “How much is the cape?” the textbook says. “Two hundred denarii.”
“You’re asking a lot; accept a hundred denarii," is the response given, appearing to recommend that students do not mince their words.
Ancient Greek manuscript reveal Roman life lessons - Telegraph