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.

Interpretamenta are school books such as this one (A.C. Dionisotti, JRS 72 [1982] 112).

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

"And you," he sais, "dictate to me." I said, "First recite."

et dixit mihi: Non vidisti cum redderem prior te?

And he said to me: "Did you not see when I recited before you?"

et dixi: Mentiris, non reddidisti. Non mentior.

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

Si verum dicis, dicto.

I said, "If you are telling the truth, I will 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.

In the midst of this quarrel, the little boys, who were so bidden by the teacher, line up in two groups for their elementary exercises; one of the older boys gave one group of them syllable to spell. The other group recited word lists, in order, to the assistant teacher; they print the words, and then print lines of verse, and I, who am in the advanced class, was given a dictation exercise.

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

Then, when we sat down, I go through my word lists and notes on grammar and style.

clamatus ad lectionem audio expositiones, sensus, personas.

Called up to the head teacher to read aloud, I listened to his comments on narration, speech construction and characterization.

interrogatus artificia respondi.

I was questioned about grammatical theory, and I gave my answers.

Ad quem, dixit. Quae pars orationis? declinavi genera nominum, partivi versum.

"What are the parts of speech?" I declined nouns and parsed sentences.

ut haec egimus, dimisit ad prandium.

When we had finished this, the teacher dismissed us for lunch.

dimissus venio domi. muto, accipio candidum, olivas, caseum, caricas, nuces. bibo aquam frigidam. pransus revertor in scholam.

After being dismissed, I came home. I change clothes and eat some white bread, olives, cheese, dried figs, and nuts. I drink cold water. After lunch I return to school

invenio magistrum perlegentem, et dixit: Incipite ab initio.

I find the teacher reading, and he said, "Begin at the beginning."