Ennius amicis in Anglia s.p.d

Hodie cognovi situm vestrum.

Vobis gratulor ob magnum laborem pro lingua latina.   more »

I listened to the broadcast last night of Radio 3 and enjoyed it. Sean Barret and Mia Soteriou, the readers, had been well coached, and their Latin pronunciation was quite good, although the vowel quantities were often wrong, and at times it seemed that the readers did not understand the syntax well enough to convey it to the listener. The BBC Radio 3 authorities are to be congratulated on an unusual and fascinating programme. I have to admit that I had never read Pliny the Elder in Latin.   more »

"Ruth Kelly is rumoured to dream in Latin -   more »

Barbara Bell, classics teacher at Clifton high school in Bristol and the creator of the popular Minimus textbooks, which provide an introduction to Latin for 7- to 13-year-olds, is the first winner of the Classical Association's new annual prize for "the individual who has done the most to promote   more »

Jennifer Judge, who is head of world languages at Garfield School, Seattle, registered with the ARLT site today - welcome, Jen! I find that she runs a jolly web site with useful as well as entertaining links. Here are two of her entertaining links:   more »

Our very good friend Lynda Goss needs our support.
(See Lynda's article on the ARLT web site on teaching Latin in a broom cupboard.)
This e-mail arrived in my in-box this morning and I pass it on for your immediate action, please.

"The new Head has decided to axe classics from the curriculum at Codsall after July, ..."   more »

A site called Hot Potatoes provides some easy-to-use software that makes professional-looking multi-choice and other quizzes. The snag is   more »

I am proud of having once got the excellent Philip Howard to give a lecture to an ARLT Summer School. He is a staunch, erudite and witty supporter of the Classics, and his piece on the downsizing of the Mars bar factory in Slough contains this fine survey of names from Greek and Roman mythology used in marketing today.   more »

If you take the following sentences alone, you will think that Simon J is attacking Latin. In fact they are part of an article furiously attacking the decision of OCR to reduce the syllabus of Latin and Greek at GCSE:

'I studied classics to A level. I found them enjoyable, irrelevant and a dreadful cost to my wider education, which I have struggled to rectify ever since.'   more »

Si hunc libellum latine scriberem, quot lectores intellegerent? Which is how Vatican Radio, or Finnish Radio�s Friday-night news bulletin, might put it.   more »

I don't know what prompted me to search for 'Latin' on the BBC website, but the search brought up several relevant pages. If you want to check them, you might like to start with this one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A657272 It's on Latin pronunciation, with a link to a page of 'handy' Latin phrases.   more »

I have just come across publicity for a course (now in the recent past) to help teachers in teaching Latin GCSE. It was to run for one day between 10 a.m. and 3.50 p.m. with two good speakers. And I quote:   more »

The great outcry when AQA decided to drop Latin and Greek did not lead them to change their minds, but it did draw attention to the different demands made by AQA (less demanding) and OCR (more demanding). People pointed out that AQA's thoroughly regrettable decision penalised state schools particularly, because pupils there have normally had less time for learning Latin and Greek, and need a less demanding exam. Now OCR has responded by   more »

A series of monographs on the Roman roads of Northern Spain is being put in English and Spanish on the net. I recommend you go to:   more »

In a rash moment I awarded the OBI to the University of Alabama - look it up if you must - but now I find that excellent work is going on in getting schools together for an annual Latin Day, and that the numbers are growing.   more »

Lloyd, a Latin professor, is using this week, which is National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week, to encourage his students to be teachers.   more »

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?   more »

THE Government will offer cash bonuses to secondary schools today in an attempt to arrest a sharp decline in the study of foreign languages   more »

An umbrella group for private schools criticised one of Britain's top universities yesterday for its secret policy of reserving places for pupils from poorly-performing state schools.   more »

WE DID NOT anticipate such a crushing defeat as that which the Greeks inflicted upon the Trojans at Cambridge last weekend. "It was a famous victory," the non-placets outnumbering the placets by 507. Conspicuous among the Trojans was our philosophic Premier, who seems to have a weakness for fads   more »

A message from Peter Jones

Last year, there was one Classics Cup on offer. This year there are no fewer than three:   more »

80 pictures of Pompeii with a commentary by a well informed amateur are here.   more »

This isn't about teaching Latin or Classical Greek (modern Greek, yes), but if primary schools become increasingly aware of languages other than English it can't be a bad thing. Here's the beginning of the Guardian's report.   more »

I gave the Kneehigh production of The Odyssey a less than enthusiastic welcome recently, so it's only fair to present three reviews, from the British Theatre Guide, The Guardian and Reviews Gate.   more »

May I draw your attention to this post on the ARLT Notice Board today? It includes copious links, and the ...   more »

The 2005 ARLT/CA Refresher Day has come and gone, and one participant tells me "York went really well .... Peter Jones was hilarious. There was a very good feel to the day." On a practical note, some of the Option Group leaders are providing notes on their topics to go on the web.   more »

I came in on the last part of Friday's programme, and was immediately hooked. After I'd adjusted to a young, slim Cicero,   more »

Here's a site that gives you a lot more than at first appears - a kind of Tardis. From the page linked above you can choose any of 15 historical periods between the stone age and contemporary Greece.

   more »

News that the Scottish Culture Minister is campaigning to have the Antonine Wall recognised as a world heritage site, and is enlisting school children in the campaign is excellent. This is from The Herald.   more »

Before they throw out their motto as meaningless, can any learned reader explain it? Here's the situation, as explained by ...   more »

Whether genuine or not, those letters are a good read, as a reading group at an ARLT Summer School found ...   more »

DW-World speculates on whether Cardinal Ratzinger might be the next Pope. He is a fluent speaker of Latin, apparently. The ...   more »

So this article from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette claims.

The web site in question provides audio files of someone saying ...   more »

Wilf O'Neill, Director of the ARLT Refresher Course held in York today, has e-mailed me twelve pictures taken by the ...   more »

Because I don't often visit the big smoke, I tend to stumble on the latest Roman detective stories several months after they appear. So I haven't read the latest Steven Saylor, The Judgment of Caesar or the latest Lindsey Davis, Scandal Takes a Holiday. (Note to self - must read LD's latest before meeting her at the ARLT Summer School in July. I see the paperback will be out in June ...)   more »

Veronica Kotziamani, a Latin teacher (she incidentally studied the Classics with my sister), who receives the ARLT e-newsletter, contacted me this morning with the exciting news that her husband is to build a new Colossus of Rhodes.   more »

Excavate a tel without leaving your computer screen. There's a site called Bible Dudes which has just developed a neat little demo on its archaeology page.   more »

A few reactions to the Education white paper published recently:

"The government has once again underlined its commitment to academic above vocational education."   more »

A white paper on skills is due out soon, which, according to a Feb 11 Guardian article that I've only just seen, will offer all adults free teaching towards 'level two standard'.

We must wait for the details, but it seems that here is a chance to offer teaching in Classical subjects to a new audience.   more »