By Roman Hands: Inscriptions and Graffiti for Students of Latin - Softcover

Hartnett, Matthew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1585104027 ISBN 13: 9781585104024

Publisher: Focus, 2012

Synopsis

By Roman Hands takes Latin out of the textbook and allows students to see and translate Latin as it actually appeared on Roman monuments, walls and tombs. The first collection of entirely authentic and un-adapted inscriptions and graffiti accessible to beginning and intermediate students of Latin, By Roman Hands unites the study of language and culture in a novel and compelling way and at a level that the Latin can be grasped and discussed by early Latin learners. Ranging from a love letter hastily scratched on a Pompeian wall to the proclamation of an emperor’s achievements formally inscribed on a monumental arch, these carefully selected texts afford fascinating glimpses into the lives and minds of the Romans, even as they illustrate and reinforce the basic elements of the Latin language.

This edition, revised to work in parallel with the second edition of Susan Shelmerdine' s Introduction to Latin or any standard beginning Latin text, includes more texts and illustrations, and an additional section of inscriptions for practice and review.

About this title

About the Author

Matthew Hartnett teaches Latin and Greek at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He holds a B.A. in Classical Studies from the College of William and Mary and a Ph.D. in Classics from Columbia University. In 2006 he received the Matthew I. Wiencke Teaching Award from the Classical Association of New England.

From the Back Cover

By Roman Hands takes Latin out of the textbook and allows students to see and translate Latin as it actually appeared on the monuments, walls and tombs of the Romans themselves. The first collection of entirely authentic and un-adapted inscriptions and graffiti accessible to beginning and intermediate students of Latin, By Roman Hands unites the study of language and culture in a novel and compelling way. Ranging from a love letter hastily scratched on a Pompeian wall to the proclamation of an emperor’s achievements formally inscribed on a monumental arch, these carefully selected texts afford fascinating glimpses into the lives and minds of the Romans, even as they illustrate and reinforce the basic elements of the Latin language. This edition, revised to work in parallel with the second edition of Susan Shelmerdine' s Introduction to Latin, includes more texts and illustrations, and an additional section of inscriptions for practice and review.

• Suitable for use alongside any introductory Latin textbook
• Selections accessible by grammar point or by cultural theme
• Running notes on grammar, vocabulary and context
• Comprehensive vocabulary section
• Index of selected grammar, syntax and figures
• Over thirty photographs and drawings

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Study of Roman Inscriptions

The study of inscriptions (called “epigraphy,” from the Greek word for inscription) provides students of ancient Rome with an incomparable source of information about Roman life, both public and private. It has been estimated that over 300,000 Latin inscriptions have been found. Some of these can still be seen in the place (in situ) where the Romans put them; others have been removed from their original locations and can be seen in museums; still others were seen and recorded at some time between antiquity and the present, but have since been lost. Those inscriptions that remain, which must be a small percentage of the total number produced by the Romans, nevertheless convey an indelible impression of the duration and geographical extent of Roman civilization. Inscriptions have been found all across the Roman Empire, from the British Isles to the Persian Gulf, from North Africa to the Black Sea. And these inscriptions range in time from at least the fifth century BC to the fifth century AD and beyond.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, a group of German scholars conceived of the ambitious project of researching, recording and cataloguing all known Latin inscriptions and publishing them in one place. The title of this imposing multivolume collection is Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum—usually referred to by the abbreviation CIL. Work on this impressive collection, which currently boasts 17 volumes, many of which are themselves comprised of numerous volumes and additional supplements, continues to this day. In addition, many other smaller collections have appeared over the years which facilitate access to the most interesting and important of the hundreds of thousands of texts included in CIL. However, the standard means for citing a Latin inscription is still according to its location in CIL, thus the entry for each inscription in this book cites, whenever possible, its location in CIL by volume and inscription number (e.g., CIL 10.6942). In addition, references are provided to several useful collections of inscriptions published in English whenever an inscription included here appears also in that collection (e.g., Gordon 50). The full titles of all the works thus cited can be found in the Abbreviations of Collections of Inscriptions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Focus
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1585104027
• ISBN 13: 9781585104024
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 168