mater Euryali et rex Antiochus

Here's a surprising statistic. Latin (with 185 candidates) is the ninth most popular foreign language at the HSC this year. Ninth most popular is not a lot to boast about, but here is a list of courses with fewer candidates than Latin Continuers this year*:

• Vietnamese Continuers (166 candidates)
• Chinese Continuers (131 candidates)
• Modern Greek Continuers (116 candidates)
• Indonesian Continuers (77 candidates)
• Turkish Continuers (56 candidates)

Armenian, Croatian, Dutch, Filipino, Hindi, Hungarian, Macedonian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Swedish, Tamil and Ukrainian all had fewer than 50 candidates.

For the record Classical Greek and Classical Hebrew had 11 and 37 candidates respectively. Ancient History was the seventh most popular HSC course over all, with 12 127 candidates. You can find the full list here.

*These figures do not include Background Speakers or Beginners courses, which are in some cases(especially for Chinese) substantial.

Anyway, those 185 Latin Continuers students sat their HSC exam yesterday, and the 11 I spoke to afterwards seemed pretty happy with it. No real surprises, but enough interesting questions to allow them to shine. Here's my translation of the unseen passages, in case anyone is interested:

O Clementiam

O clementiam populi Romani seu potius patientiam miram ac singularem! Civem Romanum securi esse percussum M. Annius, eques Romanus, dicit, taces: archipiratam negat, fateris. Fit gemitus omnium et clamor, cum tamen a praesenti supplicio tuo continuit populus Romanus se et repressit et salutis suae rationem iudicum severitati reservavit. Quid? sciebas tibi crimini datum iri? quam ob rem sciebas, quam ob rem etiam suspicabare? Inimicum habebas neminem; si haberes, tamen non ita vixeras ut metum iudici propositum habere deberes.

(In Verrem V.74)

Explain the irony present in the final sentence of this extract (Inimicum habebas… habere deberes).

Talia per Latium

Talia per Latium. quae Laomedontius heros
cuncta videns magno curarum fluctuat aestu,
atque animum nunc huc celerem nunc dividit illuc
in partisque rapit varias perque omnia versat,
sicut aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen aenis
sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine lunae
omnia pervolitat late loca, iamque sub auras
erigitur summique ferit laquaria tecti.
nox erat et terras animalia fessa per omnis
alituum pecudumque genus sopor altus habebat,
cum pater in ripa gelidique sub aetheris axe
Aeneas, tristi turbatus pectora bello,
procubuit seramque dedit per membra quietem.

(Aeneid VIII.18-30)

Identify the tone of this extract and explain how Virgil's language has helped to create this tone.

Carol Manners Essays

Each year the CLTA holds an essay competition "for Year 12 students of Latin and Greek who may write an essay from a range of topics related to the HSC and IB Latin and Greek prescribed texts."

The winning essays for 2009 have been published online:

• Vice and Virtue in Cicero’s In Verrem V
• Cicero’s Rhetorical Method in In Verrem V
• Two major differences between the lyric verse of Horace and Catullus

The standard is of course exceptional, and all three essays are well-worth reading. Here is part of the introduction to the second essay, as a brief taste:

Cicero’s rhetorical method in Verrine V fulfils various functions, diverting from structured reasoning (probare), and becoming a “self expression of the orator”. It influences emotionally (flectere), entertains (delectare), and makes Verres a “human object of contempt”. The need to persuade a jury and audience had already been ccomplished in the Actio Prima, where the weight of evidence incriminated Verres. Considering the Actio Secunda was published but never delivered in court, the focus will be particularly on dispositio (arrangement of material), elocutio (style and power of words) and the context of the Verrines in Cicero’s career.

valete

Year XII Latin, 2009

quo bello?

Trial Examination, Question 3 (a)

Quid dicis? an bello fugitivorum Siciliam virtute tua liberatam? Magna laus et honesta oratio; sed tamen quo bello? Nos enim, post illud bellum quod M'. Aquilius confecit, sic accepimus, nullum in Sicilia fugitivorum bellum fuisse. 'At in Italia fuit.' Fateor, et magnum quidem ac vehemens. Num igitur ex eo bello partem aliquam laudis appetere conaris? num tibi illius victoriae gloriam cum M. Crasso aut Cn. Pompeio communicatam putas? Non arbitror hoc etiam tuae deesse impudentiae, ut quicquam eius modi dicere audeas. Obstitisti videlicet ne ex Italia transire in Siciliam fugitivorum copiae possent. Ubi, quando, qua ex parte? cum aut ratibus aut navibus conarentur accedere? Nos enim nihil umquam prorsus audivimus, sed illud audivimus, M. Crassi, fortissimi viri, virtute consilioque factum ne ratibus coniunctis freto fugitivi ad Messanam transire possent, a quo illi conatu non tanto opere prohibendi fuissent, si ulla in Sicilia praesidia ad illorum adventum opposita putarentur.


Why is it important for Cicero to discredit Verres’ military career?

Drances et Murena

Over the next couple of weeks, as I have opportunity I will be posting some sample answers for the trial paper my year 12 students sat recently. This might be a bit boring for regular readers, but I hope that someone out there might find it a helpful resource.

regna pallida, dis invisa

One of the most exciting and vivid passages in Aeneid VIII comes at the climax of the story of Hercules and Cacus. Hercules has succeeded in tearing the roof from Cacus' cave, and Cacus responds by spewing out great clouds of smoke and fire.

Audax Pallas

Question 3

Ut celsas videre rates atque inter opacum
adlabi nemus et tacitis incumbere remis,
terrentur visu subito cunctique relictis
consurgunt mensis. Audax quos rumpere Pallas
sacra vetat raptoque volat telo obvius ipse
et procul e tumulo: `Iuvenes, quae causa subegit
ignotas temptare vias, quo tenditis?' inquit.
`Qui genus? Unde domo? Pacemne huc fertis an arma?'
Tum pater Aeneas puppi sic fatur ab alta
paciferaeque manu ramum praetendit olivae:
`Troiugenas ac tela vides inimica Latinis,
quos illi bello profugos egere superbo.
Euandrum petimus. Ferte haec et dicite lectos
Dardaniae venisse duces socia arma rogantis.'
Obstipuit tanto percussus nomine Pallas:
`Egredere o quicumque es' ait `coramque parentem
adloquere ac nostris succede Penatibus hospes.'
excepitque manu dextramque amplexus inhaesit.

How has Virgil characterised both Pallas and Aeneas in these lines to display their heroic qualities? (5 marks)

Nymphae, Laurentes Nymphae

Question 2

“nymphae, Laurentes nymphae, genus amnibus unde est,
tuque, o Thybri tuo genitor cum flumine sancto,
accipite Aenean et tandem arcete periclis.
quo te cumque lacus miserantem incommoda nostra
fonte tenet, quocumque solo pulcherrimus exis,
semper honore meo, semper celebrabere donis
corniger Hesperidum fluvius regnator aquarum.
adsis o tantum et propius tua numina firmes.”

How has Virgil infused these lines with a sense of religious awe and reverence? (5 marks)

Belli Signum

I recently gave my year 12 class an assessment task on Aeneid VIII; over the next couple of days I'll post some of the questions, and my own responses. Feel free to criticise my answers, or to add anything to them. Here's the first one:


ut belli signum Laurenti Turnus ab arce
extulit et rauco strepuerunt cornua cantu,
utque acris concussit equos utque impulit arma,
extemplo turbati animi, simul omne tumultu
coniurat trepido Latium saevitque iuventus
effera. Ductores primi Messapus et Ufens
contemptorque deum Mezentius undique cogunt
auxilia et latos vastant cultoribus agros.

How has Virgil used language to convey the dramatic preparations for war in this passage? (4 marks)
Virgil has used a range of language techniques to effectively convey the chaotic preparations for war amongst the Latin peoples. This is obvious from the opening line. Virgil has used a long sentence (from ut belli to iuventus effera), containing multiple subordinate clauses to create the impression of frenzied action. The tricolon in lines 1-3, emphasised by the repetition of ut… utque… utque, give the passage a dramatic build up, before we reach the focus of the sentence in lines 4-5. These lines also contain an abundance of verbs (extulit, strepueunt, concussit, impulit, coniurat, saevit, cogunt, vastant), many of them in the present tense, which convey the dramatic action of the scene, and create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind.

Spelunca Caci

Perhaps the cave of Cacus looked something like this...

This is how Virgil describes it in Aeneid VIII:

iam primum saxis suspensam hanc aspice rupem,
disiectae procul ut moles desertaque montis
stat domus et scopuli ingentem traxere ruinam.
hic spelunca fuit vasto summota recessu,
semihominis Caci facies quam dira tenebat
solis inaccessam radiis; semperque recenti
caede tepebat humus, foribusque adfixa superbis
ora virum tristi pendebant pallida tabo.

Now first of all look at that cliff, all overhung with rocks, and see how the great bulk of the mountain has been scattered far and wide, and how that cave lies deserted and how the crags speak of some great destruction. Here was the cave, sunk deep down into a vast cavern, where the dreadful form of the half-human Cacus used to live, inaccessible to the rays of the sun; the ground was always warm with fresh slaughter, and, fixed to the haughty door frame, hung the faces of men in gloomy decay.

(Aeneid VIII, 190-197)

If you imagine some dismembered heads hanging by the entrance I think it's not a bad match.

Myoparones

Translating Cicero’s In Verrem V with my year 12 class recently, we came across an unusual Latin word. Verres had been accused (among many other things) of accepting a bribe to release a pirate, and keeping the plunder for himself and his cronies, and Cicero, in summing up his behaviour, writes:

Haec igitur est gesta res, haec victoria praeclara: myoparone piratico capto dux liberatus, symphoniaci Romam missi, formosi homines et adulescentes et artifices domum abducti, in eorum locum et ad eorum numerum cives Romani hostilem in modum cruciati et necati...

And so this is what he accomplished, this outstanding victory: having captured a pirate myoparo, the leader was set free, the musicians who had been on board were sent to Rome, as for the pirates’ captives, the good-looking ones, the young ones those with any kind of skill were taken away to his home, and in place of the pirates whom he had set free, and to make up their number, Roman citizens were tortured and killed as if they were enemies…

The unusual word here is myoparo, in the first line; it seems to refer to some kind of pirate ship, but what kind of ship exactly? Levens has this to say:

myoparone: this word, which is used later in the speech (§§89, 97, 100), to describe other pirate ships, was a grammarians’ puzzle until the discovery in Tunisia [i.e. the Ancient city of Carthage] of a mosaic depicting various types of a ship with their names attached… There a myoparo is shown between a vessel called mydion or musculus (Gr. and Lat. diminutives of mus, which in both languages, means a rat or mouse) and another called paro, so we suppose it to be a portmanteau word denoting a ship combining the characteristics of these two types. The first half of the compound suggests that the myoparo was small (cf. §§89; 97) and fast-moving (in the mosaic it has both mast and oars), as pirate ships would need to be…

R. G. C. Levens, Cicero; The Fifth Verrine Oration

I tried to locate a picture of the mosaic referred to by Levens, but the best I could find was at this site. Here are two other discussions of what kind of ship this actually was:

As a rule we do not find that the pirates made use of any particular rig or build. Probably, in most cases the would-be pirate was content with the first boat that came to hand by theft or purchase… The two vessels which in Hellenistic and Roman times are most closely associated with the pirates, the hemiolia and the myoparo, were [also] widely used by others… The myoparo, according to Mr Torr was broader than the regular warship in proportion to its length, and, we may assume, more suitable for stowing loot. Both vessels were sea-going ships, the myoparo, at any rate, possessing a mast and sails, as well as oars.

H. A. Ormerod, Piracy in the Ancient World

[Myoparones] were fighting ships of no great size. They were in use throughout the Mediterranean in the First Century B.C. for warfare and for piracy. Apparently they were broader than the regular war-ships in proportion to their length, and therefore better able to keep the sea. [The evidence of Appian and Plutarch] would naturally define the myoparones as vessels of a hybrid species between the long ships and the round ships… vessels termed parones and parunculi are mentioned in verses that are ascribed to Cicero…. The myoparones therefore bore a compound name: and a compound name would naturally be given to a ship of an intermediate type.

C. Torr, Ancient Ships

40 000 000 sestertii

In the first part of Cicero’s In Verrem, he makes the following accusation against Verres, accusing him of stealing 40 000 000 sestertii during his time as governor of Sicily:

Dicimus C. Verrem, cum multa libidinose, multa crudeliter, in civis Romanos atque in socios, multa in deos hominesque nefarie fecerit tum praeterea quadrigentiens sestertium ex Sicilia contra leges abstulisse.

We say that Gaius Verres not only did many wanton things, many cruel things against Roman citizens and against their allies, as well as many criminal things against the gods and humankind, but that in addition he also stole from Sicily, against all laws, forty million sestertii.

(Cicero, In Verrem Actio Prima, 56)

That’s obviously a lot of money, but how much exactly? It’s always a bit tricky to try and convert Roman money into current figures- partly because the value of the currency changed over time (due to inflation etc) and partly because things in Roman times had different relative values from those of today. Here are a couple of comparisons though that might help you to get your head around the value of 40 000 000 sestertii.

Marcus Licinius Crassus lived about the same time as Cicero, and was one of the wealthiest Romans. Pliny tells us fortune was worth 200 000 000 sestertii, made through proscriptions, slave-trading, mining and property speculation. The amount embezzled by Verres, then, was approximately 20% of the fortune of the richest man of his time; the richest man alive at the moment is (apparently) Warren Buffet, worth about $US 70 billion. Twenty percent of that figure comes to $US 14 billion.

Cicero himself bought a house from Crassus for 3 500 000 sestertii. This house was located on the Palatine Hill, in a fashionable area of Rome where lots of other important and wealthy people lived (including the family of Catullus’ Lesbia), and Cicero himself described the house as ‘large and noble’. A similar house today might be found in Mosman, where the median house price for the six months to November 2008 was $1 785 000. 40 000 000 sestertii would get you approximately eleven of these houses, which comes to about $20 million.

A loaf of bread, in ancient Rome would set you back about 2 asses. There were 4 asses in a sestertius, so for 40 000 000 sestertii you could buy eighty million loaves of bread. These days a loaf of bread costs about $3.79 (the kind I usually buy, anyway) from the supermarket, making 40 000 000 sestertii worth about $150 million (you could probably get a discount for buying in bulk)

In Cicero’s time a soldier in the army would have earned 900 sestertii a year, taking about 45 000 years to earn 40 000 000 sestertii. A soldier in the Australian army these days earns about $31 719 a year, which makes 40 000 000 sestertii work out at about $1.4 billion.

Marcus Antonius and Manius Aquilius

At the beginning of Cicero's fifth Verrine oration, he mentions the case of Manius Aquilius, like Verres a former governor of Sicily, who was charged with (and apparently guilty of) corruption during his time in office. Cicero suspects that Verres' lawyer will try to use the same tactics used by Aquilius' lawyer (Marcus Antonius, the grandfather of the famous Mark Antony) to secure his acquittal. This is how he describes the scene:



causa prope perorata ipse arripuit M'. Aquilium constituitque in conspectu omnium tunicamque eius a pectore abscidit, ut cicatrices populus Romanus iudicesque aspicerent adverso corpore exceptas; simul et de illo vulnere quod ille in capite ab hostium duce acceperat multa dixit, eoque adduxit eos qui erant iudicaturi vehementer ut vererentur ne, quem virum fortuna ex hostium telis eripuisset, cum sibi ipse non pepercisset, hic non ad populi Romani laudem sed ad iudicum crudelitatem videretur esse servatus.



With the case almost concluded himself grabbed hold of Manius Aquilius and stood him up in the sight of everyone and tore the tunic from his breast, so that the Roman people and the judges could see the scars received on the front of his body; at the same time he said many things about that wound which he had received on his head from the leader of the enemies, and in this way persuaded those who were meant to judge the case to fear very much that the man whom fortune had snatched from the weapons of the enemies, when he had not spared his very person, that this man would seem to have been preserved not for the praise of the Roman people, but for the cruelty of the judges.

(Cicero, In Verrem V.3)

It's a dramatic, sensationalistic approach and Cicero here seems to regard it with cynicism- it was just a convenient trick to get Aquilius acquitted of his obvious guilt (something that Cicero himself would never stoop to doing, of course). But elsewhere Cicero describes the same event with more sympathy. In his De Oratore, he writes from the point of view of Antonius, giving him a chance to explain his actions:

Saepe enim audivi poetam bonum neminem sine inflammatione animorum exsistere posse et sine quodam adflatu quasi furoris. Qua re nolite existimare me ipsum, cum mihi M'. Aquilius in civitate retinendus esset, quae in illa causa peroranda fecerim, sine magno dolore fecisse. quem enim ego consulem fuisse, imperatorem ornatum a senatu, ovantem in Capitolium ascendisse meminissem, hunc cum adflictum, debilitatum, maerentem, in summum discrimen adductum viderem, non prius sum conatus misericordiam aliis commovere quam misericordia sum ipse captus, cum excitavi maestum ac sordidatum senem et cum ista feci, quae tu, Crasse, laudas, non arte, sed motu magno animi ac dolore, ut discinderem tunicam, ut cicatrices ostenderem.

For I have often heard that no man can be a good poet without a burning heart or without some kind of insane inspiration. And so do not suppose that I myself, when I had to defend Manius Aquilius against the State, did the things I did in closing that case, without great emotion. For I remembered that he had been consul, a general decorated by the Senate, that he had climbed the Capitol in triumph, when I saw him him humbled, crippled, sorrowing, his fortunes completely reversed, I was myself overcome by compassion before I tried to excite that same compassion in others, when I called forth that unhappy old man, filthy as he was, and when I did those things which you praise, Crassus, not as a trick, but affected by great pain in my heart- that is I tore open his tunic and exposed his scars.

(Cicero, De Oratore 194-5)

Yr 12 lesson; Rhetoric now and then

The NSW HSC syllabus includes a list of stylistic features and literary terms with which you should be familiar, to help you describe and analyse the style of the Latin authors we read together. We've already seen many of these features in context, particularly in the speeches of Cicero, who was without doubt one of the greatest Roman orators.

To help us become a bit more familiar with some of these rhetorical techniques, go to the syllabus and read over the list you'll find there (on pages 32-7). If any of the explanations are a bit unclear, have a look at this site, which gives a definition of a variety of rhetorical terms, along with examples.

Then go and read Barack Obama's victory speech and see how many of these rhetorical techniques you can identify in it.

In a word document, make a list of all the techniques you can find, including examples, and email it to me at the end of the lesson.

Cicero in Sicily

Preparing to teach Cicero's In Verrem V for next year, I came across a passage where Cicero reflects upon the time he spent in Sicily as a quaestor. Cicero is deservedly known for his arrogance and high opinion of himself, but in this passage we get to glimpse a rare side of his character; a less serious, and more self deprecatory side.

non vereor ne mihi aliquid, iudices, videar adrogare, si de quaestura mea dixero... vere me hercule hoc dicam: sic tum existimabam, nihil homines aliud Romae nisi de quaestura mea loqui. frumenti in summa caritate maximum numerum miseram; negotiatoribus comis, mercatoribus iustus, mancipibus liberalis, sociis abstinens, omnibus eram visus in omni officio diligentissimus; excogitati quidam erant a Siculis honores in me inauditi. itaque hac spe decedebam ut mihi populum Romanum ultro omnia delaturum putarem.

I’m not of afraid of appearing to boast, gentlemen, if I speak about my quaestorship… Indeed, by Hercules, I will say this; at that time I imagined that people at Rome were talking about nothing else, apart from my quaestorship. I had sent a huge amount of grain when prices were high; I was friendly with the businessmen, fair to the merchants, generous to the contractors, honest with the allies, I appeared to be most diligent in every job for everyone; certain unheard of honours were devised for me by the Sicilians. And so I left Sicily with such hope that I thought that the Roman people would confer upon me everything of their own accord.

Cicero starts true to form- he's not afraid tell people about all the things he achieved in Sicily, and his high opinion of himself is clear from the reception he expected when he arrived home in Rome. But things weren't quite as he imagined, as an encounter in Puteoli proved:

at ego cum casu diebus eis itineris faciendi causa decedens e provincia Puteolos forte venissem, cum plurimi et lautissimi in eis locis solent esse, concidi paene, iudices, cum ex me quidam quaesisset quo die Roma exissem et num quidnam esset novi. cui cum respondissem me e provincia decedere: 'etiam me hercule,' inquit, 'ut opinor, ex Africa.' huic ego iam stomachans fastidiose: 'immo ex Sicilia,' inquam. tum quidam, quasi qui omnia sciret: 'quid? tu nescis,' inquit, 'hunc quaestorem Syracusis fuisse?' quid multa? destiti stomachari et me unum ex eis feci qui ad aquas venissent.

But in those days when, as I was leaving the province, I happened by chance to come to Puteoli for the sake of making a journey, when a lot of fashionable people were accustomed to be there, I almost died, gentlemen, when someone asked me on what day I had left Rome and whether there was any news. I replied to him that I had come from the provinces: ‘Of course, by Hercules!’ he said, ‘from Africa, if I remember rightly.’ Getting annoyed now, I said pedantically to him: ‘No, from Sicily.’ Then someone else, like some kind of know-it-all, said ‘What? Didn’t you know he’d been quaestor at Syracuse?’ What else could I do? I stopped getting annoyed, and pretended that I was one of those who’d come to enjoy the waters.

(Pro Plancio 64-5)

There were two quaestors assigned to the province of Sicily, one based at Syracuse, the other at Lilybaeum- Cicero had been at Lilybaeum. Despite what Cicero had imagined, people at Rome were oblivious to his achievements.

The word Cicero uses for 'getting annoyed' is a great one- stomachor. Obviously it's related to the word 'stomach' and reflects how Cicero felt physically as well as emotionally. I suppose we mean a similar thing when we say that we find something 'hard to stomach'.

Verres

One of next year's HSC set texts is Cicero's fifth Verrine oration, one of a series of speeches (which were never actually delivered) prosecuting the corrupt former governor of Sicily, Verres. Here's a bit about Verres, taken from the Oxford Campanion to Classical Literature.

Verres, GAIUS, propraetor in Sicily 73-71 B.C., where he showed himself a cruel and rapacious governor. He was impeached by Cicero on behalf of the Sicilians in 70, threw up his case, and retired into exile. He kept some of his stolen treasures, and these, twenty-seven years later, attracted the cupidity of Antony. Verres was accordingly included in a proscription list and was murdered.

Verres was charged with having embezzled 40, 000, 000 sesterces during his time in office. I'm not sure how much that would be in today's money, but it's obviously a lot. Corruption was quite common, and a political job in the provinces was a good way for unscrupulous politicians to make a lot money. Governors would expect to be prosecuted on their return to Rome, though it was not hard to avoid conviction. Verres himself said (according to Cicero) that an aspiring governor should keep the money he makes in the first year of office for himself. What he makes in the second year will be needed to pay for a good lawyer, and what makes in the third year can be used for bribing the jury.