Rishi Mallipeddi: Rome

Latin Curriculum

Tutorials took place every single night from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m and sometimes took place in the mornings from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  The two sections of readings we had were prose readings and poetry readings. We began with the prose and read Suetonius’s passage which explains how Julius Caesar was murdered. The next passage we read was Livy’s account of Cicero’s murder, followed by Suetonius’s writings on the murders by Octavian(Augustus). Also in the curriculum was the first part of the first book of Tacitus’s Annals, in which Tacitus describes in detail how the principate was formed and even goes back to the formation of the Roman Republic. We also read two of the letters that Pliny the Younger wrote to Tacitus about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and how Pliny’s uncle, Pliny the Elder, was helping several people during the eruption. After the prose readings, the curriculum went straight into Vergil’s poetry. The poetry selection that we read was part of the sixth book of The Aeneid, during which Aeneas goes into the Sibyl of Cumae. The final reading that we did was around 150 lines of the first book of the Georgics, in which Vergil describes the life of a farmer and how to foresee the coming of bad weather. Also for the first week and a half of the course, optional grammar review sessions were available. In fact there were in total four quizzes and one exam to see if the students were worthy of getting three college language credits, and three of the four quizzes were over Latin grammar. We had quizzes over Latin verb synopsis, pronoun use and declension, and an extremely thorough quiz entailing many independent and dependent uses of the subjunctive. In the Latin tutorials, we were encouraged to look at every single word individually and see how it fit into its own clause or sentence, which is quite similar to many of the ways MBA has taught me how to translate but also quite different because it is a much freer approach.

The City

From the moment I first stepped into the city of Rome, I was blown away. Everything that I had studied about for three years in class was either still standing or the remnants of the structure were still clearly visible. I was extremely impressed with the views of the cities off of the seven hills.Some of the best sights were the several arches, especially the arch of Titus and the arch of Septimius Severus, which are still standing today. Another great historical sight in Rome was the Pantheon, which I visited twice, once in the middle of the trip and once on the last day. The Pantheon is filled with huge statues of several prominent figures in Christianity, the most famous being Jesus. I wanted to visit the Trevi Fountain but the fountain was under reconstruction. The group also visited around forty Catholic churches during the entire trip. My favorite sight in the city by far was Saint Peter’s Basilica because of the magnificent artwork that was on display, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the classic artwork in the Basilica.

A statue in the Pantheon

St.Peter's Basilica Jesus's Ascension

Naples Trip

About a week and a half into the trip, the Latin in Rome group took a five day and four night excursion into Naples. On the first day we climbed the famous Mount Vesuvius, and saw some fantastic views from the peak of the mountain and inside the crater of the mountain. On that same night, the group drove into Sorrento, a historical Italian town that has been made into a great town for shopping. The next day the group traveled to the famous island of Capri, where the Emperor Tiberius famously threw lovers off of the peak of the island. After arriving on Capri we first took a boat ride around the island and saw most of the scenic areas of the island. Then we explored the upper part of Capri and about half of the group, including myself, opted to visit the villa of Tiberius, and after a lengthy, painful climb we reached the top and saw the remnants of the famed emperor’s villa. After visiting Capri, we returned to our hotel in Sorrento for a tutorial that evening, which was followed by dinner and an excursion into the historic city itself. On the third day of the Naples trip, we traveled to Pompeii, a city renowned for its’ destruction in 79 A.D. I could not fully enjoy Pompeii due both to short time allotted for us and due to the fact that it was raining. On the fourth day of the trip, we attempted to visit the Sibyl of Cumae, and then visited an amphitheater in Naples, followed by a trip to the beach. On the fifth and final day of the Naples trip, we visited Arpinum, the birthplace of Marius and Cicero! The group was given plenty of free time and we walked around the town and had some authentic Italian pizza.

View from the top of Vesuvius

Drew with Cicero

The Villa of Tiberius

Food

We began each morning on campus with breakfast at around 7:30 and were given the choice of bread, meat, doughnuts, or cereal. Every single lunch and dinner on campus consisted of pasta and meat with various types of vegetables and bread. The types of pasta varied from penne to bowtie to rigatoni to spaghetti, and each type of pasta came with different types of sauces such as marinara, meat sauce, and alfredo. The meats served at lunch and dinner were either beef, fish, pork or chicken. For every meal that we did not have on campus and when we were given a choice of what we wanted to eat, I had pizza. I especially liked the Margherita pizza, which is just a normal pizza with cheese and marinara sauce. Although gelato was easily accessible in the city, I did not enjoy it so I only ate it four times on the entire trip, but my favorite flavor was stracciatella, which was like vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips.

Memories

My favorite part of the trip by far was meeting new people. I hope to have made some lifelong friends and people that I will keep in touch for a while. I will always remember the time I spent bonding with the people in the Latin in Rome group. I will remember all the ping-pong games that we played every day, and how all of my suitemates regularly stayed up after curfew, while remaining in our rooms, and talked well past midnight. I will remember all the time we spent together translating, talking, or playing sports.

Tutor Marshall Kibbey and I

Tutor Daniel Orazio and I 

Fellow student, Austin Benson, and I 

Some fellow students and I

Thanks

I would like to give my thanks to everyone who helped me in my process of getting to Rome. I would especially like to thank the Wilson family for their generosity of paying for my language grant and all the other students language grants. I would like to thank the Latin Department and especially the three Latin teachers that I have already had: Dr.Seay, Mr.Gaither, and Ms.Ellery, for preparing me to go to Rome. I would finally like to thank Mr.Paolicchi for his enormous amount of help organizing the program.