Colloquia Monacensia

A dialogue about going to school, from the "Colloquia Monacensia," edited by G. Goetz in the Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, vol. 3 [Leipzig: Teubner 1892] pp. 644-654, trans. adapted from Joanne Shelton, As the Roman Did, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) 108-109. The text is medieval, with elements going back to the 3rd c. AD.

Ante lucem vigilavi de somno;

I awoke before dawn;

surrexi de lecto, sedi, accepi pedules, caligas; calciavi me.

I arose from my bed, I sat down and took my socks and shoes. I put them on.

poposci aquam ad faciem;

I requested water for my face;

lavo primo manus, deinde faciem lavi; extersi;

First I wash my hands, then I washed my face; I dried off;

deposui dormitoriam; accepi tunicam ad corpus;

I took off my sleeping clothes; I received the tunic for my body;

praecinxi me; unxi caput meum et pectinavi;

I belted myself up; I anointed my head and combed my hair;

feci circa collum pallam; indui me superariam albam;

I put on a scarf around my shoulders; I put a white cloak over it;

supra induo paenulam;

over that I put on a rain mantle;

processi de cubiculo cum paedagogo et cum nutrice salutare patrem et matrem;

I left my bedroom with my tutor and my nurse to say good morning to my father and mother.

ambos salutavi et osculatus sum; et sic descendi de domo.

I said good morning to both and kissed them; and then I left the house.

Eo in scholam. introivi, dixi: Ave magister, et ipse me osculatus est, et resalutavit.

I go to school. I entered and said: "Greetings, teacher," and he himself kissed me, and greeted me in return.

porrexit mihi puer meus scrinarius tabulas, thecam graphariam, praeductorium.

The slave who carries my books handed me my wax tablets, my writing box, my writing instrument.

loco meo sedens deleo. praeduco ad praescriptum;

sitting in my seat I smooth over the tablets. I copy an assigned text;

ut scripsi, ostendo magistro; emendavit, induxit;

When I have written it, I show it to the teacher; he corrected it, he wrote over my errors;

iubet me legere. iussus alio dedi.

He bids me to read it out loud. Having been ordered, I recited it to another student.

edisco interpretamenta, reddidi. sed statim dictavit mihi condiscipulus.

I memorize exercises. But immediately afterword my fellow student dictated to me.

Et tu, inquit, dicta mihi. dixi ei: Redde primo.

And you, I say, dictate to me. I said to him . . .

et dixit mihi: Non vidisti cum redderem prior te?

And he said to me: Did you not see when I was -ing before you?

et dixi: Mentiris, non reddidisti. Non mentior.

And I said: You are lying, you did not. I am not lying.

Si verum dicis, dicto.

If you are speaking the truth, dictate.

inter haec iussu magistri surgunt pusilli ad subductum et syllabas praebuit eis unus de maioribus, alii ad subductorem ordine reddunt, nomina scribunt, versus scripserunt, et ego in prima classe dictatum excepi.

Meanwhile at the command of the teacher the pusilli rise to subductum and one of the older boys provided syllables for them, others repeated the subductor in order, they write words, the wrote verses, and I received dictation in the first class.

Deinde, ut sedimus, pertranseo commentaria, linguas, artem.

Then, when we sit down, I go through commentaries, linguae, ars.