BMCR 2009.01.44, Matthew Hartnett, By Roman Hands: Inscriptions

Matthew Hartnett, By Roman Hands: Inscriptions and Graffiti for
Students of Latin.  Newburyport, MA:  Focus Publishing, 2008.  Pp.
xvii, 110.  ISBN 9781585102945.  $16.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Roger Wright, University of Liverpool ([email protected])
Word count:  780 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2009/2009-01-44.html
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Teachers of Latin in the initial stages often feel that they have a
problem concerning the authenticity of the texts used to exemplify
grammatical points. This is usually solved by simply accepting the need
to invent brief examples specifically for the purpose, but Matthew
Hartnett, teacher at St Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts,
has hit on a more interesting plan; using genuine inscriptions and
graffiti in order to exemplify straightforward morphological and
syntactic features of Latin. They are not usually composed in a natural
spoken register, of course, but they are undeniably usually short, and
in fact examples can be found which do demonstrate all the main
features of Latin grammar.

This is not a textbook in itself, and will require both a teacher and a
separate grammar book to be effective. The first part of the book,
"Nouns: the Uses of the Cases", contains thirty-nine inscriptions,
presented in three sections: "Nominative and Accusative"; "Genitive and
Dative"; and "Ablative". There is no explanation here of what these
names mean, what the relevant endings are, or what the forms are for,
which will presumably have been explained already. The other three
parts are "Verbs: the Forms of the Indicative", with twenty
inscriptions, in four sections; "Miscellaneous Forms and
Constructions", with forty-three inscriptions, in six sections; and
"The Syntax of the Subjunctive Mood", with forty inscriptions presented
in eight sections.

There are thus one hundred and forty-two inscriptions in all. Each
inscription is given a heading related to its content, a reference to
the published source (usually CIL), a version in bold type and capital
letters intended to be similar to the attested inscription, an edited
version in normal bold type and punctuation (emended in such a way as
not to contradict precepts given by the teacher, which begs a number of
questions), a few lines of comment on the content allied with a partial
paraphrase, and a glossary of several of the words. Seven of the more
legible inscriptions are given a photograph, eleven are given a
drawing, and two reproduce an illustration from an earlier publication
(of 1897). This explanatory material does not include a translation,
nor, for the most part, any linguistic comment on the use of the
feature which it is intended to demonstrate. The fact that some of
these texts are in hexameters or elegiacs passes unmentioned. Indeed,
little linguistic pedagogical material interrupts the flow apart from a
few gnomic references in the glossaries, and it is easy for a reader to
forget that this is the purpose of the exercise. Since so many of the
texts are epitaphs, the comments on the content tend to take the form
of a question concerning the view of death taken in the phrasing,
attitudes which are indeed surprisingly varied, but may not improve
classroom morale.

The inscriptions themselves are varied. They were engraved, scratched
or painted, as inscriptions on monuments, graffiti on walls, epitaphs,
notices, adverts, messages on signs, rings, slave-collars, lamps and
the Vindolanda tablets; the majority are from Rome or Pompeii, but
there are also examples from England, France, Spain, Algeria, Tunisia,
Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Turkey (manifesting no
noticeable diatopically interesting variations); the majority are
undated here, the earliest one given a dating being one quoted by Livy
(6.29.9) but now lost, of the fourth century B.C., and the latest a
Christian one of A.D. 381 (although one undated case is surprisingly
taken from a fifteenth-century manuscript reference). No diachronic
observations are made at all. This is unusual in itself, since
linguists are used to these data being adduced in support of arguments
concerning geographical variation, including Oscan or Umbrian evidence,
for example, or chronological evolution, including attestations of
archaic usage or of newly developing forms, such as those which the
late Jo/zsef Herman used in most of his studies of "Vulgar" Latin,
rather than to exemplify normal usage.

The book is neatly printed and is likely to turn out to be pleasant and
instructive to use in class if the teacher gives it careful preparation
in advance. The indexes could be exploited in interesting ways, since
(for example) not all the illuminating uses of the ablative occur in
the section entitled "Ablative". And it is always worth reminding
students at more advanced levels that the great literature in what we
call "Classical" Latin was a marked genre and a minority sport of the
erudite, and that Latin as a whole (what used to be called "Vulgar
Latin" until it became obvious that everybody used it) was rather
different. Those with a particular interest in inscriptions will find
this book useful too. But overall it will probably strike most
potential readers as a charming curiosity.