Roman
Living
Five-Day Lesson Plan For
Elementary Latin Students
by Anne Starkey, University
of Massachusetts - Amherst
Day One
and Day Two
The Domus: The Roman
Townhouse
100-Minute Lesson Plan
Pace
- Since this is a two-day plan,
a good place to stop on the first day is after the translation
of the Satyricon.
- Materials
- Transparencies, slides, computer
with Internet connection
- Paper, markers
- Craft materials to build a
model domus such as cardboard, glue, sugar cubes, Legos®,
Popsicle/craft sticks, clay, plain white or green vinyl tablecloth,
brown sugar, poster-board
Introduction
- Show pictures (slides, books,
transparencies) of different types of contemporary houses.
- Ask students to draw pictures
of their homes (hopefully some will love in apartments or ranches).
- Have three students with different
types of homes share their pictures with the class.
- Ask students what they think
of when they hear the word "home."
What words come to mind?
Privacy? Loud? Quiet? Warm? Cold?
Visitors? What do you (students)
do most in your family rooms? (Expect watching TV to be a popular
answer)How may rooms? What do you do in each room? How many doors
does your house have? Do you have skylights? Do you have a pool?
Security systems? What kind of houses did the Romans have? Do
you think their houses are similar to yours?
Let’s take a look at
a typical Roman townhouse during the Republic: the domus.
- Show overhead transparencies
of pictures of a domus; if possible, bring a laptop to
show images.
- Show the "Products"
first. Describe typical floorplans, the rooms and their functions.
- Ask: How do you think the Romans
felt about security, noise, or privacy after looking at the exterior
of the domus? Just a few windows, looks like a fortress.
- Ask: Where does the light fall?
The impluvium.
- Ask: What’s near the impluvium?
The atrium, tablinum.
- Ask: What do you think the
uses of these rooms were? Reception area, entertaining.
- Have students translate a passage
from the Satyricon as a group effort (10-15 minutes).
- Have students translate Vitruvius, On
Architecture, VI.5 1-2. (15 minutes).
Supply them with necessary vocabulary and grammar guidance. Ask
them content questions.
Go Over "Practices"
- Describe and emphasize the
importance of the salutatio ritual. Ask if the students
have guests visit their homes every day. Use the "Practices"
section as a guide.
Highlight "Perspectives"
- Ask: Why is there a ritual
based on the pater familias? Authority, social, and business
activities.
- Home is not private; it is
open to all guests.
- Emphasize the Romans’
concern with interior space over exterior.
Activities
- Role Play: The Salutatio.
- Assign a student to be the
pater familias. Arrange the desks in such a way as to
create a straight path to a desk in the back of the room, which
will be the tablinum where the pater will sit.
Create the fauces with a pair of desks at the beginning
of the path. Designate a few students to be clientes.
You, the teacher, will go through the fauces and offer
your greetings to the pater. Then have the other clientes
do the same. You may wish to have the students to devise a situation
and script. One client could be a son with his own household.
Another student could be a freedman (or woman).
- Ask students to summarize the
ritual.
- Construct a model domus.
- Divide your class into groups
of two or three. Assign a different room for each group to build.
- Then ask for a group volunteers
to build a complete domus on Day Five, when all students
will take part in a building project. On the last day, students
will be investigating building materials. There will be five
groups so that a domus, a villa, an insula,
an aqueduct, and a hypocaustum will be built.
- Have one or two groups of students
begin working on the landscape for the buildings for Day Five
instead of building rooms of a domus. The landscape should
cover a large table. They may use cardboard, clay, paint, paper,
brown sugar (in place of dirt), or poster-board. You should have
a plain white or green vinyl tablecloth for the students to use
as a base.
- Assessment: Choose from the
options listed in III of the teacher’s guide.
Translation
exercise
Vitruvius describes the domus
and outlines the distinction between private and public space
in the home:
Nunc etiam necesse est animadvertere
quomodo in privatis aedificis debeas aedificare loca propria
patribus familiarum et quodmodo loca communia cum extraneis.
Nam in haec quae propria patribus familiarum sunt nemo potest
intrare nisi invitatus, id est in cubicula, triclinia, balneas,
et cetera loca huius modi.
Communia autem sunt ea loca,
in qua homines de populo, etiam non invitati, possunt venire,
id est vestibula, cavaedium, peristylia, et cetera loca huius
modi. Igitur eis hominibus, qui communi fortuna sunt, non necessaria
sunt magnifica vestibula nec tablina neque atria, quod in aliis
officia praestant vistando neque ab aliis vistantur.
Vitruvius, On Architecture,
VI.5 1-2
Images
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Complementary
Resources
CTCWeb Resources
Unearthing
the Lost City of ABurbe-Suburbe
Catullus:
Tuffy the Tugboat meets the Brave Little Toaster
Ancient
Weddings
Maecenas:
Images of Ancient Greece and Rome
Sport
& Daily Life in the Roman World
Scratch,
Glue, Foil & Paint: Connecting Classics and the Art Curriculum
Knowledge Builders
Dress & Costume, Zeus,
Colonization, Homer's Iliad &
Odyssey,
and more.
Teachers' Companions
Dress & Costume, Zeus,
Colonization, Homer's Iliad &
Odyssey,
and more.
Other Resources
Roman
Living
Diotima: Materials for the
Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World
Exploring Ancient World Cultures: Rome
Global Glossary Terms
- domus
- insula
- aqueduct
- hypocausta
- Vitruvius
- atrium
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