Visitors to Pompeii will now be able to see and hear life as it unfolded in Roman times, thanks to a computer project spearheaded by Geneva University.

The LifePlus programme takes real images of the ruined Italian city and adds the life that is missing, including simulated animals, plants, and humans.   more »

I don't know if you've discovered our ARLT calendar yet. It's on the right of the screen, looking a bit like an advertisement. The 'View my Calendar' logo leads to - - - a calendar (surprise!). Anyway, when you visit this calendar you'll find that not only was there a fine production of Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse, which I reviewed on this blog, but there's been a Foursight Theatre version touring the country, and next February 17th a version by Tony Harrison with Vanessa Redgrave in the title role begins in Stratford and later transfers to London.

Now I see the play is getting an outing in the United States, in San Diego, and I thought   more »

"Explorator" (whamblog, passim) draws my attention to a review in yesterday's Times of a book with a promising title: A Natural History of Latin:The Story of the World’s Most Successful Language. But after reading the review I'm not sure I'm going to shell out £16.99 after all. See what you think:   more »

So these are the ten most beautiful words in English - scroll down to see the news item - and half of them are virtually unchanged Latin words. Only two, smile and freedom, have no Latin connection. The list could be worth enlarging and putting up on your classroom wall: 1. Mother   more »

A line-for-line translation of the AQA Aeneid 2 prescription, kindly contributed by David Swift, is here. David says: "It's the sort of translation which will help the student identify and fix a context and, importantly, particular words and phrases."   more »

"I think we have some very young teachers who didn't have anything like that in their education," said Ellen Delaney, curriculum and staff development coordinator for North St. Paul/Maplewood/Oakdale schools.   more »

This is to be read in conjunction with the 5 diagrams posted here.   more »

In the days of old, Roman catapults hurled an assortment of unpleasantries at their foes. Boulders, arrows, burning straw, dead animals and dung were all used to drive opposing soldiers from their posts.

A pair of Andover eighth-graders used less intimidating materials when they recreated their own catapult - marshmallows.

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Oh dear! My browsing in the Irish Times has turned up a letter that suggests all is not well with Classics teaching in Ireland. I add another piece from the paper, nothing to do with Classics, that made me think. They are both from 2003. What do you think? Use the Comment facility if you want to share your views.   more »

I had my first six years of schooling in Dublin, and even before I began learning Latin I remember being asked by Gordon the slightly older boy next door to hear him recite his Latin homework. I think he was learning a declension. That was my first contact with the language, and I recall that I at first protested that I didn't know how Latin was pronounced.

"Sure that's easy. It's just like English."

So I was interested, while looking up my Irish family history in the Irish Times site, to come across a mention of Latin - and Greek - being taught in Dublin. In an article on Father Leonard Moloney's retirement from heading Belvedere College, I found just one mention of the Classics. Here are a couple of paragraphs from the article.

Belvedere College, bearing all the hallmarks of affluent suburbia, has thrived at the heart of Dublin's north-east inner city for over 150 years. Well-heeled, high-achieving and thoroughly Jesuit, the school is incongruous in its own location where low income, educational disadvantage and multi-ethnicity are the norm. ...

An important part of selecting candidates for the scholarship programme - which is not academically based - has been finding parents willing to provide the background support necessary to get a child through secondary school. "This is an academic school - we still study Latin and Greek. There are sacrifices involved in coming here, not least of which is the journey into the centre of the city everyday. Also, we are an unapologetically Catholic school, while, of course respecting other traditions. Scholarship students and their families, like everyone in the school, must have an openness to Christian values. If families aren't 100 per cent behind the students then the scholarship scheme doesn't work."

Two plays from a little book published in 1917 called Perse Latin Plays are now on the ARLT site.

The ...   more »

A set of 9 cartoon strips showing the recent US election as if in ancient Rome are good for a chuckle. Go here for the first set.   more »

Here's a useful warning from the USA, where it seems that students complain if their lecturers don't use technology, and complain when they do, that they don't do it well. PowerPoint seems to be the least helpful. My constant plea is ...   more »

I found this article well researched and its message valuable to all of us who love the classics (in the broadest sense) and long to pass on this treasure-house to the next generation as a whole, and not just to the children of the wealthy.   more »

From yesterday's Observer, something I could have told them without an in-depth research study in 25 schools in Kent: Children are to be barred from taking time off school to revise for exams after research showed that keeping them in supervised lessons led to dramatically higher grades.   more »

This piece from Australia came my way courtesy of Explorator (see the ARLT right hand menu for how to get ...   more »

The Association for Language Learning has a website here.

Unfortunately you won't find much of use there unless you are ...   more »

People who speak more than one language earn more money and have a wider choice of work, and are also ...   more »

The Times on 1st November had this bad news on language teaching, which means in this context modern language teaching. ...   more »

BBC2 has just aired an hour-long programme about Caesar's conquest of Gaul.

I saw only bits that fitted into the ...   more »

Having been given a nudge by a message from a student, I am transferring my translation and notes on Livy ...   more »

A good five shillingsworth back in the 1950s was a battered copy of Lempriere's Classical Dictionary. I see you can buy it on line for quite a lot of money, and what is on sale today is probably much updated and improved, but I have not found an on-line text. A few pages are now on my own site, at http://www.parsonsd.co.uk/lemprierep.php .   more »