The professor gave me a Phaedrus poem and asked me whether I understood it. I replied yes, save for these four words. If you gave me a dictionary, I would be able to fully give back the meaning. I am the dictionary, he replied. Having asked the four unknown words, I immediately gave back the meaning of the poem. I think you would be bored to death in Latin 1, but on Monday, they read Caesar in Latin 3, that’s where I think you should go. Or to a private teacher. But wait, how did I end up at university?
Monday and the Search for Latinists
On Monday, I decided to actually try and find people in town who are studying or speaking Latin. There must be some, right? There’s a whole Latin department. Well, turns out no one knows a single Latinist among my local friends. Literally no one. I started digging deeper. I found no Facebook groups, no sites, blogs, save for a few dead ones, but I did find a Latin course that has been, supposedly, taking place since mid-July not far from me.
I called the guy, but no one picked it up. Decided to call the university, no one responded. Finally, I stumbled upon a dead page of an old high school where a Latin competition for high-schoolers, called Hyperion, was mentioned. Alright, that’s a lead. Looked up Hyperion, found the organisers. Great, now where’s the phone number? Nowhere to be found. The email? I was staring at their names only.
Their names. Their full names. Suddenly, I found myself in a database with everyone who has a doctorate in this country being uploaded there. I typed in the full name, and success, I found a phone number. Called him, he picked it up, he’s the man who created the Latin department in 1993, I tell him I moved here recently, can’t find Latinists, where can I find them? Here. Come in on Wednesday. Brilliant.
Tuesday and Minecraft, but in Latin
Between this and Wednesday, we were streaming on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it didn’t end well, but I think we did a better job than with the first stream technology-wise, and we managed to talk throughout so there’s about three hours of relatively simple Latin for you.
Wednesday and Patreon
I didn’t find my sought-after Latinist peers, but I found the professor. He let me in on a few classes to find the people who study Latin. He was very surprised to hear that I actually speak the language instead of translating. Well, off to do some grammar translation next week, I thought, at least I’ll learn the proper names for grammatical phenomena in the language.
What I also did on Wednesday was I published an article called (), where I go into some detail about, well, adjectives and present active participles.
The reason for that post is that it finally happened. I have Patrons now! Latin suddenly turned from a hobby into a way of helping others with it. Now’s the time to shamelessly declare, if you want to help me make more Latin content and/or content about Latin, be sure to check my page out.
Friday, Cake Recipes and Roman Ruins
On Friday was my birthday, where I have shared the amazing recipe of my birthday cake in Latin, which you can , but I’m going to paste it in anyways:
Rēs emendae:
farīna
ōva
lac
saccharum
butӯrum
cacaō
Prīmum farīnam in crātērem circumfunditō. Sūmitō octō ōva, ea frangitō, dīviditōque alba et lūtea. Alba in alium crātērem additō. Dōnec spūma fīat, miscētō. Etiam farīnam lūteīs in mixtūram impositīs ōvōrum miscētō dum lac addis lentē. Additō quoque butӯrum saccharumque. Cavētō nē nimis saccharī addās, immō agitō pudenter. Dēnique additō albōrum spūmam ōvōrum. Miscētō dum mixtūra tardē nec celeriter fluat (velut laganī Americānī). Lac vel farīnam additō sī densitās male vidēbitur. Mixtūra sīc facta est.
In sartāginem partim mixtūrae funditō. Usque ad colōrem mūtātum exspectātō, deinde in patellam quandam factum sistitō laganum. Dum laganum proximum coquitur, spargitō aut cacaōnem aut saccharum super laganum. Secundum in laganum rem aliam spargitō, et sīc alternātō inter cacaōnem saccharumque deinceps dum omnia lagana perfecta sint.
Besides the recipe, I also visited Intercisa. Scīlicet, my hometown was built by the Communists, but long before that stood a Roman fortress called Intercisa, on the border of Pannonia province. A bunch of old stones have been found and are exhibited. I walked in the museum saying I was planning to do a video in Latin about Intercisa, and I was let in and was permitted to film.
Which also means there’s a video upcoming.
To give a teaser, I decided to share this picture with you:
The challenge is to read and understand it!
Saturday and Plūrimōs Annōs
On Saturday, I had the other Zoom chat, and people actually sang to me, which was very nice, and I thought I’d share the music video with you.
We also wanted to do another session in Latin, but not enough people showed up to actually start a game. If you’re interested in playing with us, be sure to .
Sunday and Some Latin Tutoring
This section is more of a heads-up. On Sunday, I had the chance to tutor a friend of mine and help his Latin. And what we were doing inspired me to talk a little about what it takes to start ‘getting’ the language. Be sure to check back this week for a new post!
Conclusion
I know this is a lot shorter and emptier than , but there hasn’t been that much going on either compared to last week. I do have some great plans though, and I hope next week we’ll see some more stuff that I can share.
I want to thank my Patrons again, I am eternally grateful.