All Roads

  Food and Cooking in Ancient Rome by Clive Gifford Illustrations by Paul Cherrill   The above mosaic is held in the Vatican's Profane Museum. It depicts a variety of food garbage (and a mouse) which was meant to camouflage the REAL food garbage that guests would have thrown on the floor while eating. This type of mosaic was so common that it has its own name: asarotos oikos , or “unswept room.”  (2nd century CE) If you have a mental image of Romans eating, chances are you envision a banquet with toga-clad men eating bunches of grapes and exotic delicacies while slaves pour them wine; someone recites a poem in the background and strums the lyre. Maybe a dancing girl capers around. Scenes like this certainly occurred regularly among the upper echelons of society both in Rome and in the many places where Roman influence spread, but it was not a typical meal for "Joe Roman," anymore than dinner at the Four Seasons or Serendipity is typical for a person in the US today. Most ...

Before we get into things, here are some other images that pop up when you search "G is for Gladiator": A Jeep Gladiator: (I wouldn't want to face that in the Coliseum) The letter G "dressed up" as a gladiator: (there were many variations on this theme) And of course: (Are you not entertained?) Finally, did you know that there are cheerleaders for the American Gladiator show called the G-force cheerleaders? This really was an educational Google search! Now for the actual content.   G is for Gladiator: An Ancient Rome Alphabet Recommended for ages 8-10, AR level 7.0, lexile 1050L Alphabet books, in my mind anyway, are picture books that don't have a lot of text but do have many fun illustrations such as Dr. Seuss's ABC , Chicka Chicka Boom Boom , or Eating the Alphabet . But this book by the couple Debbie and Michael Shoulders and illustrated by Victor Juhasz is much more informative and, as you can see from the reading level, written for children who kn...

You Wouldn't Want to be a Roman Gladiator! Gory Things You'd Rather Not Know written by John Malam illustrated by David Antram Okay, so I was really, Really, REALLY trying to get away from the books in series, books by the same author, etc. theme that I seem to have going, but I have failed. It turns out that this book by John Malam is in fact part of an extensive series, even though the library record didn't indicate that. The back cover of the book lists three other books in the series, but my dear old ACPL owns at least forty of them. So, yeah, it's a series. Before I dive in and actually discuss the gladiator book, can I just comment on a couple of the other titles in the series? You Wouldn't Want to be an Egyptian Mummy , You Wouldn't Want to be an Aztec Sacrifice , and You Wouldn't Want to be a Pirate's Prisoner . That is correct, I wouldn't want to be any of those things. Although I personally would also opt out of life as a gladiator, I can i...

Sorry for the title - I was a little desperate for a wordplay. I don't feel too bad: "trium" is a form of the word "three" in Latin (the genitive plural, if you must know!). So after taking on five books by Don Nardo, I am trying to be a little more restrained this time and only looking at three books about the Colosseum by various authors. Two are from the children's section and one is from the YA department, but they all have slightly different takes on their very well-worn subject, as you will discover below. I was rather amazed at the number of books that the Allen County Public Library owns on the Colosseum; I certainly could have gone for more, even without leaving the main branch. I don't know what's more surprising to me: the depth of the ACPL's collection or why people feel that they need to write another book about the Colosseum. I'm guessing that it's not so much a compelling passion to describe the world's most famous amph...

(The Roman historian Tacitus and the author Don Nardo) Don Nardo has published more than five hundred forty books, a large portion of them historical works geared towards kids and teens. His books are ones that my students often end up using when they have to write their reports on historical or cultural topics relating to Rome. I cruelly assign 600-word reports twice a year AND I demand that students consult two book-length sources. I truly am the worst. Here is just a sampling of what Don Nardo has written on topics in Roman history: Greek and Roman Theater The Age of Augustus The Punics Wars The Collapse of the Roman Empire Life of a Roman Slave Rulers of Ancient Rome Games of Ancient Rome Roman Roads and Aqueducts Roman Amphitheaters Life of a Roman Gladiator The above list is a tiny fragment of his works just relating to Rome! It honestly is amazing how prolific this guy is. I headed to the teen section of my library and lazily asked where the Roman history section was instead of ...

The excessively long title of this post says it all. This blog will be a place to compile and review print resources for Latin students at the 8th grade and high school levels to use in writing short research reports. I generally assign topics for these reports according to the following scheme: Latin 1: mythology and general topics in Roman culture (cooking, games, medicine, warfare) Latin 2: the Punic Wars and other conflicts around the same time period (c. 300-150 BCE) Latin 3: famous figures of the first century BCE (both politicians and authors) Latin 8: assorted topics as strikes my fancy