January Newsletter

Happy New Year and welcome to the Polyglossos January newsletter. Every month, I will talk about things happening in my life that are related to Classics learning and some advice for beginners, along with some extra snippets that didn't fit on my Instagram posts this month.

What I'm up to.

Latin Stort Stories: Myth and History for Beginning Latin Students is now copyrighted! It will go to print in February and hopefully be ready for distribution and purchase in March.

Advice for Beginners.

At this point, you may have already encountered some Latin reading. I think now is a good time to spend some time reading Latin historical stories and Ancient Greek/Roman myths if these are unfamiliar topics to you. Background knowledge helps with reading, especially in the future. I believe that knowing a bit of background on a piece of text also makes reading it more interesting and engaging. You can also check out my book too which will be available soon.

Did you know?

As the image suggests, Marcus Valerius Martialis, commonly known as Martial, quotes Cicero in his epigram 9.70. This epigram is directed towards Caecilianus, who uses this phrase often. However, Cicero used this phrase during a period of war, but in Martial's time Rome was peaceful, so Martial is criticizing Caecilianus' attitude towards society. At the same time, Martial describes the time period as peaceful and prosperous to act supportive of the emperor at the time, Domitian, something he often does in his epigrams. Martial can roast just about anyone, except Domitian.