I hope you can join me today, 10/23/2020, for my presentation LGBT Meets SPQR: Resources and Lesson Plans for including LGBTQIA+ Instruction Into High School Latin Curricula at the Classical Association of the Empire State's annual institute.
If you are unable to attend, click here for the PowerPoint Presentation that I will deliver.
Stay safe! Wear a mask!
Sed quid ages tandem, si utilitas ab amicitia, ut fit saepe, defecerit? Relinquesne? Quae ista amicitia est? Retinebis? Qui convenit? Quid enim de amicitia statueris utilitatis causa expetenda vides. … Vadem te ad mortem tyranno dabis pro amico, ut Pythagoreus ille Siculo fecit tyranno? Aut, Pylades cum sis, dices te esse Orestem, ut moriare pro amico? Aut, si esses Orestes, Pyladem refelleres, te indicares et, si id non probares, quo minus ambo una necaremini non precarere?
--Cicero, De Fin.II.24.79
What will you do when a
friendship is no longer useful to you (as what usually happens)? Will you end
it? What kind of friendship is that? Will you hold onto it? How will it benefit
you? You’ll question your definition of friendship if you only base it on how
it benefits you….
Will you offer yourself up
to a tyrant to be killed to save a friend, like that Pythagorean* did to the
Sicilian tyrant? Or, if you were Pylades, would
you proclaim that you were Orestes, so that you could die for your friend? Or
even if you were Orestes, would you contradict Pylades, give yourself up, and, if
you could not convince the tyrant of your identity, would you pray that you
both be killed together?
[*the myth of Pythias and Damon]
|
CICERO |
MAP: |
|
Name: Marcus Tullius Cicero Date: 106 BCE – 43 BCE Works:
de Amicitia de Divinatione* Epistles In Catilinam Pro Archiam, etc. |
REGION 1  |
|
BIO: |
Timeline: |
|
Cicero was an Italian-born Roman statesman
and author who lived during the complexities of Rome’s transition from
Republic to monarchy. Cicero spent most of his life in service of his
country, serving as both a lawyer, senator, and even consul [Roman
equivalent of president]. He is known for his suppression of the failed
governmental coup in 63 BCE known as the Catilinarian conspiracy that
occurred during his consulship. After the rise of Octavian [later known as
the first Roman emperor Augustus], his views fell out of favor and he was
eventually put to death during the proscriptions under the Second Triumvirate
(Octavian, Marc Antony and Lepidus). He was a prolific author with a wide
range in genres, and his literary style was adopted by Petrarch as the
default model for the Latin language. |
GOLDEN AGE ROME  |
"Ego sum Orestes", contraque ab altero: "Immo enimvero ego sum, inquam, Orestes!" Cum autem etiam exitus ab utroque datur conturbato errantique regi, ambo ergo se una necari cum precantur, quotiens hoc agitur, ecquandone nisi admirationibus maximis?
One says, “I am Orestes!”
The other responds, “No—it
is I who am Orestes!”
And when both give an
opportunity for the other to escape from the confused king, both beg that they
be killed together.
Every time this scene is
done, it receives the highest applause.
|
PACUVIUS |
MAP: |
|
Name: Marcus Pacuvius Date: 220 BCE – 130 BCE Works:
[tragedies] |
REGION 1 |
|
BIO: |
Timeline: |
|
Although only fragments of his works survive,
we know from later authors that Pacuvius was an early Italian tragedian whose
works included episodes from the Trojan War. He is one of the earliest Roman
dramatists, and was successor to Ennius, Rome’s first literary author. |
EARLY ROMAN |
|
CICERO |
MAP: |
|
Name: Marcus Tullius Cicero Date: 106 BCE – 43 BCE Works:
de Amicitia de Divinatione* Epistles In Catilinam Pro Archiam, etc. |
REGION 1 |
|
BIO: |
Timeline: |
|
Cicero was an Italian-born Roman statesman
and author who lived during the complexities of Rome’s transition from
Republic to monarchy. Cicero spent most of his life in service of his
country, serving as both a lawyer, senator, and even consul [Roman
equivalent of president]. He is known for his suppression of the failed
governmental coup in 63 BCE known as the Catilinarian conspiracy that
occurred during his consulship. After the rise of Octavian [later known as
the first Roman emperor Augustus], his views fell out of favor and he was
eventually put to death during the proscriptions under the Second Triumvirate
(Octavian, Marc Antony and Lepidus). He was a prolific author with a wide
range in genres, and his literary style was adopted by Petrarch as the
default model for the Latin language. |
GOLDEN AGE ROME |
Iidem perhibent, apud Lapithas Elato regi filiam fuisse, nomine Caenidem. Cum hac Neptunum congressum, promisisse, facturum se ei quodcumque vellet: ipsam petiisse, ut ab eo in virum mutaretur, fieretque invulnerabiis; praestitisse id Neptunum, nomenque viro Caenaeus factum.
They say that Caenis was the daughter of the Lapith king
Elatus. When she “met” Neptune, he promised that he would grant her whatever
she wanted: and she asked to be turned into a man, as well as become invincible.
Neptune granted his wish, and the man’s name became Caenaeus.
|
Phlegon of
Tralles |
MAP: |
|
Name: Phlegon Date: 2nd
century CE Works:
On Marvels |
REGION 5 |
|
BIO: |
Timeline: |
|
According to
the Suda [φ527], Phlegon of Tralles was a freedman of the Roman
Emperor Hadrian. He wrote numerous works in Greek that are now lost,
including the Olympiads and Roman festivals. His work, On Marvels,
is a collection of extraordinary occurrences throughout history. |
Roman Greek Literature  |
