Ecce Romani
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ecce Romani | |
 |
|
| Author | Gilbert Lawall |
|---|---|
| Language | Latin |
| Subject(s) | Latin Textbook |
| Publisher | Scott Foresman & Co |
| Publication date | January 2000 |
| Media type | Paperback |
| ISBN | ISBN 0673575888 |
Ecce Romani is a series of Latin textbooks. It teaches the language through a series of stories, beginning with introductory Latin and moving on to involve deeper concepts and vocabulary. The plot of the stories revolves around a wealthy family living in the town of Baiae in the Roman province of Campania in A.D. 80. The family is made up of Gaius Cornelius, a Roman senator, his wife, Aurelia, and their two children, Marcus and Cornelia. The family has also taken in a boy named Sextus, whose mother died the previous year in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and whose father is in the Asia Minor. In the beginning chapters of the book, Cornelia often plays with her friend and neighbor Flavia. They also have many slaves, some of whom are Davus, the overseer of their farm, Geta, who runs away and is later captured and labelled with "FUG", and Eucleides, the tutor and keeper of the boys.
The first lines of the book are extremely memorable to most Latin students: Ecce! In pictura est puella, nomine Cornelia. Cornelia est puella Romana quae in Italia habitat...
In the beginning, the family lives in a small town called Baiae. Cornelia is best friends with a girl named Flavia, who lives in a neighboring house. Marcus and Sextus are also friends who always seem to annoy Davus, a slave from Britannia (now Britain). Later on, we are told that Cornelia is also friends with the daughter of Davus, to whom Cornelia sends a doll as a birthday gift. The boys are tutored by Eucleides, a Greek slave. The four Roman children spend time in the woods often, where in one instance they are frightened by a wolf.
Gaius receives a letter from the emperor, in which he is told he urgently needs to go to Rome. Instead of going alone, he brings everyone in the family, including Sextus.
After their departure, Davus takes control of the farm, and deals effectively (if harshly) with a runaway slave named Geta.
Meanwhile, as the family is traveling down the Via Appia (Appian Way), a courier goes by quickly, forcing the family's carriage into a ditch. The carriage driver, Syrus, cannot extract the carriage from the ditch, and the family becomes stranded.
Gaius and Aurelia are worried. They finally decide to stay at an inn, owned by Apollodorus, along the road. Aurelia understands the dangers that inns posed to wealthy Romans, and is rather afraid of staying there. Sextus and Marcus, however, are not so fearful, and accompany Cornelius to the dining area, where they are told a frightening story by a certain soldier staying in the inn. Afterwards, the boys are terrified to go to sleep, but both eventually drift off. The next morning, the inn's slaves help Syrus drag the family's carriage from the ditch, and they complete the journey to Rome without further mishap.
Upon arrival, they are welcomed to the city by Cornelia and Marcus's uncle, Titus.
The Cornelii then throw a dinner party for friends and family. At this dinner party, Titus collapses because of inebriation. After the party is over, Eucleides comes back home wounded. He was mugged in a bad part of Rome while coming back from his brother's house. After he recovers, he takes the boys to school, where Sextus disobeys the teacher and is beaten. The reader is then introduced to Quintus Valerius, who will later be betrothed to Cornelia. Sometime later, Marcus comes of age, closely followed by Cornelia's marriage to the above named Valerius. The final chapter of Book II is the funeral of Titus.
David Perry is the man heard on the audio vocabulary guide that comes with some editions of Ecce Romani. He is an expert in pronunciation, and has recently gone on to co-write the newest edition of Ecce Romani III.
The final book of the series, breaks away from stories about the Cornelii, and students are exposed to real Latin by people such as Petronius, Cicero, and Augustus to name a few.
