Activities for Classroom Use

Suggestions

• During the Empire the imperial family introduced an interesting female iconography. To the Roman repertoire of artistic representations of the clothed and veiled female head or bust or full figure, often displaying the pudicitia pose, was added the depiction of women in the guise of goddesses. Several Worlds offer texts and images of women in forma deorum which can be used to examine the political use and commemoration of matronal virtues.
• Compare the late 1st century BCE eulogy Laudatio Turiae in The Worlds of Roman Women with the Furia Spes inscription in Companion: both are Augustan and both can be found in the World of Marriage. While funerary texts tend to idealize the deceased and conform to cultural norms, nevertheless, the male voice of the Laudatio and the female voice of Furia Spes offer venues for comparison and contrast of expression, tone and gender values.
• Texts are read with greater understanding in the context of their ancient sites, e.g., Ovid in the Circus, Aurelia Nais in the Emporium on the banks of the Tiber river, Hortensia and Tullia Minor in the Roman Forum, Metilia Acte in Ostia, the caupona of Salvius in fast-food and drink shops in VRoma, Ostia, or Pompeii, Gladiatrices in amphitheaters and the training ludi (see Resources for on-line links to VRoma, the Pompeii Project, Ostia Antica) .
• As a counterbalance to traditional literary emphasis on the Roman elite class, read the Columella passage in the World of Work about slave women in a villa rustica in conjunction with the passages in The Worlds of Roman Women by Cato and Columella on the vilica and on slave mothers (World of Work), or with any intermediate Latin textbook that includes slave characters as part of the plot.
• Enter the lives of ancient women through simulation: by searching Worlds and Resources for data and models, students can create letters (cf. Vindolanda site), epitaphs (cf. Euodia's inscription), poetry (cf. Calenus' Sulpicia and the poems of Sulpicia in The Worlds of Roman Women), family histories, or personal journals of real or fictional Roman women, identifying them by age, class, and occupation and setting them in specific physical, social and temporal circumstances.

Semester Projects

Ann R. RAIA, “Funerary Inscription Project.” In this activity students explore the genre of epigraphy in search of Roman women, who are represented on funerary monuments through sculpture and writing that is not exclusively male and elite. Student projects are appended to the instructions.

Ann R. RAIA, “Text-Commentary Project.” This activity proved an effective learning tool in several Latin and Greek classes, particularly for students preparing to teach. Three student projects from the 2002 Roman Women course are at De Feminis Romanis: Kim Nickerson's Commentary to Pliny's Epistulae VII.24, Jen Pinheiro's Commentary to Cicero's Pro Cluentio V.12-VI.17, Cara West's Commentary to Seneca's De Consolatione ad Marciam 3.3-4.3. Two student commentaries produced in the 2007 Roman Women course were expanded into Companion texts: Erin Daley's ( Vergil's Aeneid VII.803-817) and Danielle DeLancey's (Tacitus' Annales XI.12).

World Activities

World of CHILDHOOD

Barbara F. MCMANUS, “An Inscription Activity” for the Grave Monument of a Young Girl. Students are invited to recreate a missing epigraphic text.

World of BODY

Beth SEVERY-HOVEN, The Roman World: “Project on Roman Portraiture.” This exercise can be used with other images and adapted to include a Latin text, such that of Macrobius on Julia Augusti.

World of FAMILY

Anne LEEN, “Group Activity for Propertius, Elegies 4.11.” This group project is the culmination of a three-day unit on the Propertius passage in The Worlds of Roman Women that focuses the class on reading Latin for comprehension of content and culture.

World of STATE

Edmund DE HORATIUS, “The Story of Lucretia in Text and Image.” This activity is actually a study unit in three parts: an exercise for close reading of the myth/story, a presentation of major Latin and English primary sources for reading or review, and an art project with fully developed instructions and grading criteria.

Barbara F. MCMANUS, “Livia: Rome's First ‘First Lady’ Activity.” This activity connects text analysis with exploration of an associated ancient site through an assignment that links Companion to the Worlds of Roman Women, the reader The Worlds of Roman Women, and VRoma.

Barbara F. MCMANUS, “Tarpeia in Livy and the Roman Forum.” This activity connects text interpretation with the exploration of associated ancient sites through an assignment that links Companion to the Worlds of Roman Women and VRoma.

“Female Fury In The Forum: Ancient Rome 195 & 42 B.C.,” a primary source activity in the “Classroom Lesson Series” of Women in World History Curriculum. Building on this exercise, students may compare Hortensia's speech in Appian to the earlier Latin narration of the event by Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilia 8.3.3.

World of RELIGION

John J. DOBBINS, “Steps in Reading a Latin Inscription” at the Pompeii Forum Project: Eumachia

Stacie RAUCCI, “Dido in Text and Performance.” This activity, intended for a Latin class but useful as well in courses in translation, connects textual interpretation of Vergil's Aeneid IV.630-662 with the reception of Vergil’s Queen Dido in various media.