Roman daily life in Cicero's time. Teaching practices and techniques — syllabi design

Members of the intersession group

• Prof. Associate, Dr. Bianca-Jeanette Schröder
• Dragana Dimitrijevich

Annotation

Studying Latin does not only mean to learn the language, to study grammar and learn the words, it also does not only mean to read the texts (prose or poetry, on history, philosophy, etc.) as isolated issues: to understand the texts properly, it can help to know in which situation it was produced, situation not only in the sense of history of dates and battles, but in the sense of “normal, that is, daily” life.In textbooks for schools and in handbooks for university students (at least in those that are accessible to me),the subject “Roman daily life” has an increasingly important role, not only in order to place the texts into their context of production, but also in order to make the old language more alive, to attract the students’ interest in the “reality” itself. But: the information that is given stems from texts of very different genres and, even more important, from very different times. So often we read details that are mentioned by Plautus and those mentioned by Martial side by side, but the question of change or continuity is seldom, if ever, raised (the same problem can be observed in various media: in historical movies, novels, children’s books). To get ourselves and provide for our students a clearer picture, we will look at the subject (at its single details) first not from a diachronous, but from a synchronous perspective. We will start with Cicero’s time and in a first step look at Cicero’s own texts, than at further sources from the same period (other authors, but especially inscriptions, archeology); finally in the last stage we will chose one (or more) further period(s) for comparison.

We will provide material that can be used in different ways and adapted to the various situations at our universities: one possibility is to offer a special course on the theme; another possibility is to use parts of it in different courses, for students of Latin or extra fines (history, archeology, social studies). The material has to be presented in different ways: one part of it can be presented as a reader (passages with introduction and commentary); but it is very important that another part be presented as material for the individual work of the students.

An important goal is to provide material that does not only improve the students’ knowledge (to be read and learned by heart), but it has to help to improve their abilities: The students have to learn how to read, analyse and interprete texts by themselves, to ask their own questions to the texts; they must learn and develop methods to work independently.

Timetable

1st stage (Sept. 2005 – Sept. 2006)

• by 1. Feb. 2005: decide, which of Cicero’s texts are to be taken into account, and who will work on which of these texts; start to search for secondary literature
• by 1. Apr.: having looked through the chosen text/s, a list of the concrete themes can be established,
  for example, details in the following fields: birth and death, illness; ages: growing up (education), getting old; family (man and women, parents and children, brothers and sisters, relationships, authority) and household; free Romans (duties and rights of a Roman citizen), slaves, freedmen; work (duties, posts, trades, professions), leisure (books, theatre, banquets); life in town, life in the country; journeys; religion, cult and philosophy; peace and war, friends and enemies.
• by 1. Jun.: write some first samples (passages for the “reader” and for the “working material”), then discuss them among the members of the group
• to be presented at the summer session 2006: samples of passages taken from Cicero’s works, especially his letters; ask the participants to use the material in their own teaching and to comment on it.

2nd stage (Sept. 2006 – Sept. 2007)

• by 1. Jan. 2006: decide, which further sources are to be taken into account, and who will work on which one
• by 1. Aug.: write more samples and discuss them
• to be presented at the closing summer session 2007: samples of passages taken from further sources. Discuss with the participants, in which form the material can be published (on the homepage of the project / as an article in the planned internetjournal / in printed form).

3rd stage (Sept. 2007 – Sept. 2008)

• by 1. Jan. 2006: decide, which further sources are to be taken into account
• by Sept. 2008: organise the material in a final form