Dan Conway
@magisterconway.bsky.social
190 followers 120 following 89 posts
Latin/French/IB/reluctant AP teacher. Sometimes tweets in Latin. Vergil fanboy. he/him
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Turns out the only way they shaved down the word count was from all the conjunctions and forms of “sum, esse” omitted in the Pliny letters
Nec illos nec alium quemquam regnare passurum
“Namque avaritia fidem, probitatem ceterasque artis bonas subvortit; pro his superbiam, crudelitatem, deos neglegere, omnia venalia habere edocuit.”

Move along folks, nothing relevant from the Bellum Catilinae here
Moreland and Fleischer is an absolutely bonkers textbook, one of the worst out there IMO
When I’m old, I can hope they call me “ille acriculus senex”
This passage of Pliny (7.59) is actually fascinating, it’s in the context of the first things that everyone came to a consensus on. Shaving is high on the list:

First: Let’s all use the Greek alphabet for writing

Second: Everyone should shave

Third: There are 12 hours in a day
Update: the advice to just skip the teacher’s choice readings has now come from multiple actual writers of the curriculum
Do the AP curriculum writers not know that it’s unrealistic to get through all of this content, or do they not care?
I asked the AP Latin Facebook group "Umm this is a lot of content, how can I possibly cover the syllabus texts and the teacher's choice material?" and the best response I got is "Just choose not to do the teacher's choice material" lol
But for digital formats it’s a bit of a pain. Especially Google Books previews: you usually only get access to a few pages, and the endnotes inevitably end up being beyond the access range
Is this from a Ken Forkish book by any chance? I’m mixing a dough for one of his recipes at this very moment!
Mash faciunt cuncti—monstrorum mash videamus!
Cerne sepulcralem, vir mulierque, chorum!
Thei did the Mash; thei did the Monstere Mash.
The Monstere Mash: beholde, sepulchral smash!
Thei did the Mash, and it kaughte on moost fast -
Hark, heare the Mash! Forsooth, the Monstere Mash!
Sure, you have anxiety, but did they write a monograph about your anxiety?
That’s what I want to tell them!!!
I agree, even with Cicero’s oratory (we did Pro Caelio for IB) the sentences sometimes meander a bit but generally all the components are there. But if my AP-ers see one more tricolon with asyndeton they’re going to scream
And a writer who is so privileged that the only thing he ever worries about is whether he will be remembered throughout the ages, and who writes like a tryhard as a result
But then they start arguing about how Carlon says one thing but Steadman says another! Lol
The AP Latin Facebook group is like 70% anxious posts asking which use of the subjunctive Pliny is using, and I don’t enjoy it tbh
Reposted by Dan Conway
I woke up to a review of a book published by a convicted felon in my field, and it's interesting to read that in the book, he attempts to depersonalize Cicero, to separate the man from the work. That's probably a neutral choice.
Related-ish: one Martial poem plays on the double meaning of “perire” as “to go all the way through, use up” and “to perish.” An astrologer tells a guy that he is “periturum cito,” so he spends all his wealth thinking he will die. He does not die, but he spent all his money—isn’t that “perire cito”?
And why did nobody tell me about AP Classroom?????? There are videos already there for the entire syllabus, PRODUCED BY THE COLLEGE BOARD ITSELF? I don’t have to record videos while actively sick with COVID (true story)?
Good catch, my eyes honestly glaze over when I hear that song