Course Name: “Reading Latin: Catullus, Horace, Ovid, and Petronius + Roman Culture”

Subtitle: “Eating, Drinking, and Touring in Ancient Rome”

Who: High School, Gap Year, and College/Grad students with at least 1 year of reading original Latin tests

What: Advanced Latin readings about Roman feasts and celebrations

When: Saturdays and Sundays in January-February 2021

Calder Classics invites avid Classics students to join us for this online course where we read Latin texts that describe Roman feasts and celebrations. Roman writers such as Catullus, Horace, Ovid, and Petronius tell us much about the social rituals, crowd psychology, and political attachments of their times in odes, satires, and epic poems associated with the themes of food and wine. On Saturdays in this course we read excerpts from these authors who use eating and drinking as their backdrop. Their texts reveal details about dinner table customs, festivities, and family gatherings, how guests should and should not behave, what they might bring to a dinner party and what they should not take home. We also explore the mythological stories and gods associated with our theme both in prose and poetry as well as in masterpieces of art and architecture. At least one school year of reading original Latin texts is recommended.

In the spirit of our traditional travel programs this online course will engage with ancient sites that are related thematically to, or directly inspired by, the literature we have read. On Sundays, we will focus on the Touring component of the course title. Using English translations of walking tours written in the late Republic and early Empire, we imagine what it was like to live in the city of Rome and interact with the physical environment. We will then study the archaeological remains of Roman sites that feature in these imaginary tours, and theorize how they might have looked in antiquity. We will consider how Romans made sense of space and place, and then turn our attention to archaic Rome, Augustan Rome, and specific sites such as the Palatine Hill and the Forum Romanum. Finally, we will explore the ways in which we have interacted with and explored Rome since the end of the Roman Empire, and how these interactions have affected our perceptions of the city. Note that this portion of the course will help students prepare for the “Culture and Civilization” section of the National Latin Exam.

Dates: Jan 9 - Feb 28, 2021.

Days: The class meets on Saturdays and Sundays for eight consecutive weeks*.

Time: Each session is 1.5 hours, at 12-1:30 pm EDT.

Total Class Time: 24 hours.

Faculty

Fees

$1200 per 24-hour session

(please contact us at calderclassics@gmail.com if you would like to take just Saturdays or just Sundays)

Where do our High School students come from? Check out this list of schools

Where do our alums go on to college? Check out this list of colleges

Testimonials for Calder Classics Online

I cannot thank Calder Classics enough for a splendid month this summer. I took two Reading Latin courses: Constructing Memory and Raise a Toast to Wining and Dining. They each offered something different but were equally fascinating. Even reading some of the same authors (Vergil, Catullus, Horace, Ovid) and looking at the same artists (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Vasari) brought new insights the second time around, since the theme of each class was well defined yet broad. The online format worked well, I thought--obviously, we’d all rather be in Florence, but in some ways meeting remotely increased the possibilities of what we could read and see. Actually, my art history teacher really was in Florence, and made a tremendous effort to immerse us in the culture, knowledge, and landscape around her. All of the teachers were more than willing to stay late or come early to class to make sure we, the students, felt fully confident about our translations and interpretations of the material at hand. I’ve been given a wonderful toolkit of terminology, literary, artistic, and historical; directions for dissecting relevant words, images, and ideas; and pure enthusiasm for reaching into corners of my mind and of the world I never knew existed. From these courses, I have learned how to critically engage with nonverbal as well as verbal information, and to try and find each within the other. So, I think I finally have an answer to the age-old question as to which is superior, art or literature: both!

My Calder Classics experience was amazing, my teacher was super nice and very helpful! I learned a lot about Augustan Rome and read many interesting authors. Although I wish we had been able to actually go to Rome, I really enjoyed my experience!

Calder Classics Rome in Absentia provided an informative and fun virtual experience where I was able to study Latin and pretend to travel to Rome right from my bedroom.

Absolutely wonderful. Calder makes the best poets from the Latin Golden Age incredibly accessible. Here you mingle with them and glimpses through their eyes.

I liked the diversity. Usually classics courses focus on one author, one work-- focusing on one theme is a great change of flavor.

I really enjoyed the Art History portion of the course which I have never taken before. It was really valuable to have a teacher who is actually in Florence and could (virtually) take us to certain places. It made not being in Italy slightly better. Despite all the pandemic obstacles in the way, Calder Classics was able to adapt and deliver an incredible online program that taught me so much!

This class was a great way to help me feel confident when reading and translating Latin.

Classes are very interactive and fun, great way to enjoy the summer with some people while learning at the same time!

I think that Calder Classics is a great program for over the summer. I was clearly learning and improving my Latin, but I had so much fun both with the reading materials and the art history classes we paired with our reading, that it never really felt like a class, it was just a fun way to learn more about the Latin language and surrounding culture!

Throughout my weeks with Calder Classics, I was able to experience a wide variety of classics related topics in an engaging and interesting way. The teachers and materials were amazing and definitely furthered my knowledge and interest in the classics moving forward.

“Calder Classics was everything that I expected it to be and more. We read from famous Roman leaders, historians and poets such as Livy, Caesar, and Cicero. I learned a lot by reading and analyzing these texts, and thanks to Sarah, I was able to improve my grammar dramatically. The other half of our days were spent with Dr. Crispin Corrado who led us around Rome. We visited many ancient sites, including Pompeii, the Circus Maximus, the Caracalla Baths, the Forum, and much more. Crispin’s expertise and maternal nature was integral to all of the knowledge I gained on this trip. In addition, I made many close friends - we already have organized a reunion in Rome in 10 years!!! Overall, this trip opened my eyes to how much I love Latin, and even more importantly learning! “ Nathaniel, student