CODEX 5.2
Please make your selection from the above CODEX menu options for Episode 5.2
KEY-TEXT A
tīrōnēs Potentium
ōlim duo tīrōnēs in mūrō labōrābant. lapidēs īnscrībēbant, sed labor dūrus erat.
"cūr nōs Potentibus haec verba īnscrībere dēbēmus?" inquit prīmus tīrō. "cūr nōn sumus custōdēs? custōdēs modo custōdiunt, et labor eōrum facilior est. custōdibus placet ōtium! nōbīs sōlīs labor dūrus datur." tum tīrō cēlum in terram iēcit.
secundus tīrō rīsit. "tū es rīdiculus," inquit. "audī mē." trāns mare ad Aegyptum spectāvit, ubi praetōrium Potentium erat. dē virō potentissimō cōgitābat, et vōce timidā clāmāvit: "carpe cēlum! nōbīs dīligentiōribus esse necesse est, aut vir nōbīs īrātus erit. et īra illīus virī perīculōsior est quam labor."
prīmus tīrō cēlum cēpit et iterum lapidēs īnscrībēbat. sed adhūc dubitābat. "dīc mihi," inquit, "cūr praetōrium Potentium in Aegyptō est? cūr nōn adest in Ītaliā, prope Rōmam?"
secundus tīrō oculōs magnōs fēcit. "tacē!" inquit. "haec verba perīculōsa sunt. inimīcī tē audīre possunt, et inimīcīs nihil dīcere dēbēmus."
Visual Walkthrough
KEY-TEXT B
Īnfēlix Dīdō
in Libyā, Aenēās omnia Dīdōnī dīcēbat et omnēs amīcī Dīdōnis tacitī sedēbant. tandem Dīdō hospitēs dīmittēbat et omnēs Pūnicī Trōiānīque dormiēbant. sed Dīdō dormīre nōn poterat. per tōtam noctem dē Aenēā et labōribus Trōiānōrum putābat. erat trīstis.
Aenēās et Trōiānī post tantōs labōrēs fessī erant. eīs placēbat in Libyā manēre. tum Dīdō Aenēam amāre incēpit; Aenēam semper spectābat. Aenēās nōn iam habēbat uxōrem, Dīdō nōn iam habēbat marītum. Aenēās quoque Dīdōnem amābat.
per tōtam hiemem in Libyā manēbat et Dīdōnem iuvābat, dum novam urbem faciēbat.
sed rēx deōrum, Juppiter, Aenēam dē caelō spectābat. īrātus erat quod Aenēās ibi manēbat et ad Italiam nōn nāvigābat. Mercurium, nūntium deōrum, vocāvit et "venī, Mercurī," inquit, "ad Libyam celeriter volā! Aenēam iubē statim ad Italiam nāvigāre!"
Mercurius statim imperia patris facere parābat; ālās in pedibus posuit et dē caelō in Libyam volāvit. Aenēam invēnit; Aenēās domum faciēbat. ad eum accessit et "audī mē, Aenēā," inquit, "ego sum Mercurius, deōrum nūntius. Juppiter, rēx hominum et pater deōrum, mē mittit ad tē. mē iubet haec verba tibi dīcere: nōlī in Libyā manēre. statim ad Italiam nāvigā et novam Trōiam ibi conde. Nunc!"
Aenēās, ubi Mercurium ante oculōs vīdit et imperia Jovis audīvit, territus erat. nōn poterat imperia deōrum neglegere. ad comitēs rediit et iussit eōs nāvēs parāre. necesse erat sibi ad Italiam nāvigāre.
sed Dīdō omnia cognōvit; ad Aenēam cucurrit et "perfide!" clāmāvit, "tūne parās sine mē exīre? amōrem meum nōn amās? mē sōlam relinquis? ego sōla maneō et moriar!"
ille hērōs trīstis erat et respondit, "ego quoque tē amō nec tacitus abīre parō. sed Iuppiter ipse mē iubet novam Trōiam in Italiā condere. Italiam nōn meō animō petō." tum vērō īra in Dīdōne magna erat. "ego tē nōn retineō. ī nunc. Italiam pete. sed tē moneō: poena mala tē manet; aut ego aut aliī Pūnicī posteā poenās ā tē capient." sīc Dīdō dīxit et ad terram cecidit.
Aenēās trīstis erat sed tamen Dīdōnem relīquit. tum rediit ad comitēs nāvēsque. necesse erat sibi facere imperia deōrum. necesse erat sibi parāre nāvēs. postrīdiē prīmā lūce Trōiānī nāvigāre incēpērunt.
Dīdō, ubi diēs vēnit, ad mare spectāvit. nāvēs Trōiānōrum vīdit ad Italiam nāvigantēs. dēspērāvit. servōs iussit magnum ignem facere. ad ignem ascendit. gladium cēpit. omnēs servī territī spectāvērunt. Dīdō tum pectus suum gladiō percussit. omnēs lacrimābant quod Dīdōnem mortuam vidēbant. soror Dīdōnis, Anna, ignem ad corpus portāvit et mox corpus Dīdōnis in flammīs erat. nūbēs nigrae ad caelum surrēxērunt.
tum Aenēās, dum per mare celeriter nāvigābat, ad Libyam respēxit. nūbēs nigrās vīdit in caelum surgentēs. "quid videō? quid est?" inquit. "cūr nūbēs nigrae ad caelum surgunt? est Dīdō in perīculō? quid dēbeō agere?" sed redīre nōn poterat ob imperia deōrum. trīstis erat sed ānxius ad Italiam nāvigābat.
Visual Walkthrough
Informational Text A
Herculāneum
Herculāneum erat urbs pulchra in Ītaliā, prope Pompēiōs, sub monte Vesuviō. haec urbs minor quam Pompēiī erat, sed dītior. Herculāneum portum parvum habēbat, quem mercātōrēs saepe petēbant.
in urbe multa sunt: īnsulae, theātrum, templa. est quoque palaestra magna, ubi virī corpora exercent. sunt et thermae, ubi hominēs aquā fruēbantur et corpora cūrābant.
Rōmānī dīvitēs, quī ā Rōmā discēdere volēbant, Herculāneum saepe petēbant. multī senātōrēs prope mare magnās vīllās habēbant. in hīs vīllīs erant fontēs et hortī ingentēs. hospitēs, quī quiēscere cupiēbant, ad thermās veniēbant. Herculāneum enim nōn urbs labōris erat, sed urbs ōtiī.
sed annō DCCCXXXII A.U.C. (79 CE) mōns Vesuvius saxa ignemque ēiēcit. cinis et saxa super urbem cecidērunt, et Herculāneum sub terrā multōs annōs iacēbat. ille tamen cinis multās rēs servāvit: pictūrās, cibum, papȳrōs, etiam corpora. prope lītus, ubi ōlim hominēs nāvēs exspectābant, multa corpora invēnimus. hae rēs nōbīs vītam Rōmānōrum cotīdiānam ostendunt, clārius quam ūllī librī.
in ūnā vīllā magnum papȳrōrum numerum invēnimus. hī papȳrī erant librī antīquī, ferē MDCCLXXXV (1785) volūmina. haec vīlla igitur bibliothēcam habēbat, id est locum ubi librī manent. hanc vīllam hodiē "Vīllam Papȳrōrum" vocāmus. multōs ex hīs librīs Philodēmus scrīpsit, poēta et philosophus, quī ōlim in Campāniā vīvēbat. cinis Vesuviī hōs librōs servāvit, et hodiē, post tot saecula, eōs iterum legere incipimus.
Text originally written by Sean Minion, revised 7/26
Informational Text B
Palaestra
palaestra erat pars thermārum Rōmānārum. in palaestrā Rōmānī sē exercēbant. Rōmānī, ubi palaestram intrābant, servō pecūniam dabant. tunc cum amīcīs conveniēbant. aliī per palaestram currēbant. aliī discōs et pilās iaciēbant. aliī virī inter sē pugnābant; hōs virōs Rōmānī pugilēs vocābant. variī mercātōrēs in palaestrā cibum et vīnum vēndēbant.
post palaestram Rōmānī ad apodytērium prōcēdēbant. apodytērium erat locus ubi Rōmānī vestēs relinquēbant. cīvēs vestēs servīs saepe trādēbant, quod fūrēs saepe in thermīs aderant. fūrēs erant hominēs malī quī rēs aliōrum capiēbant. hī fūrēs saepe vestēs pulchrās in apodytēriō capiēbant. deinde Rōmānī ad tepidārium prōcēdēbant, ubi sedēbant et inter sē colloquium habēbant.
in tepidāriō vapor erat, et corpora Rōmānōrum calida fīēbant. tunc Rōmānī calidārium intrābant. in calidāriō aqua erat calidissima. sub thermīs erat hypocaustum. hypocaustum erat locus ubi flammae ārdēbant et aquam calidam faciēbant. ibi servī oleum in corpora dominōrum impōnēbant, deinde oleum strigilibus dētrahēbant. strigilis erat parva rēs quā servī corpora pūrgābant. aqua frīgida quoque cīvibus aderat.
post calidārium Rōmānī ad frīgidārium prōcēdere poterant. frīgidārium erat locus ubi aqua frīgida erat. ibi Rōmānī in aquā natābant.
Rōmānī in thermīs nōn sōlum corpora pūrgābant, sed etiam cum amīcīs conveniēbant.
Text originally written by Sean Minion, revised 7/26
GRAMMATICA
Operative, last episode you named a third case, the dative, the to/for case, the one that marks who receives what is given, said, or shown. This episode two of its threads come together. First we pin down the dative of the pronouns you have been reading on sight for a while now. Second we give a name to a shape you were told to notice and read past: the comparative.
Dative pronouns: mihi and tibi
You have met these many times. The moment a character hands something to you or says something to me, the pronoun shifts into the dative. These are worth knowing cold, because they are everywhere:
| to / for me | to / for you | |
| Dative (to/for) | mihi | tibi |
Watch them do the dative's one job, receiving:
Sextus mihi chartam ostendit.
Sextus showed the map to me.
Marcus tibi volūmen dedit.
Marcus gave the scroll to you.
quid mihi dīcis?
what are you saying to me?
Notice that mihi and tibi do not sit where the direct object sits. In each sentence there is still an accusative doing the being-given (chartam, volūmen); the dative pronoun is the third role, the person on the receiving end. When you meet one, ask the dative question: given, said, or shown to whom?
You will also meet eī, "to him / to her," the dative of is. Recognize it for now; the plural datives, "to us" and "to you all," come later in the mission.
It may be worth your while, operatives, to view this video briefing from latintutorial.com about personal pronouns. Plural pronouns are covered in the video, but don't get too anxious, we'll see more of those later.
Comparatives: the -ior shape
In the last key-text you were told to notice adjectives in an unfamiliar shape, longiōrēs, maiōra, and read on. Here is the rule behind them. To turn an adjective into its comparative, "more ___" or "___-er," Latin does not add a word in front the way English often does. It changes the ending, usually to -ior:
| plain | comparative |
| lātus (wide) | lātior (wider) |
| pulcher (beautiful) | pulchrior (more beautiful) |
| dīves (rich) | dītior (richer) |
A few very common adjectives build the comparative from a different root, exactly as English does (good → better, not gooder):
| plain | comparative |
| bonus (good) | melior (better) |
| magnus (great) | maior (greater) |
| parvus (small) | minor (smaller) |
Than what? When a comparison names the other side, Latin joins it with quam, "than." You saw this in the informational text:
Herculāneum minor quam Pompēiī erat, sed dītior.
Herculaneum was smaller than Pompeii, but richer.
domūs Herculāneī pulchriōrēs sunt quam domūs Pompēiīs.
the houses of Herculaneum are more beautiful than the houses at Pompeii.
For now it is enough to recognize the -ior shape on sight, read it as "more ___," and see that quam points to the thing being compared. You will produce comparatives yourself in this episode's attunement.
VERBA
| Latin | English | Part of Speech |
| iam | now, already | adverb |
| nec | and not, nor | conjunction |
| pars | part | noun |
| prope | near | preposition |
| verbum | word | noun |
CULTURALIA
Operative, twice this episode you are asked to read something ancient and pull meaning out of it: first the papyrus from Marcus's tablīnum, then an inscription hidden in the forum wall. Romans read both very differently from how you read this screen. Before you try to decipher either, it is worth knowing how each was made to be read.
Reading a scroll
The papyrus you re-read is a volūmen, a roll. There were no bound books with pages in the world of 79 CE; a long text was written in narrow columns across a sheet of papyrus that could be many feet long, then rolled up. You read it with both hands, unrolling from the right and rolling up into the left as you went, so only a column or two showed at once. When you finished, the whole thing was wound the wrong way and had to be rolled back, which is where our word volume comes from: a thing you turn. And the text gave you almost no help. Words often ran together with no spaces (scrīptiō continua), punctuation was scarce, and there was no title page, no index, no page numbers. A reader had to already know the language well and read slowly, often aloud. Keep this in mind when you look at what Maecenas wrote: an ancient reader would not have skimmed it. Every word was meant to be worked through.
Reading an inscription
The words carved in the forum wall follow different rules again. Roman inscriptions were cut in capital letters only, with no lowercase and often no spaces, words instead divided by small raised dots called interpuncts. To save the stonecutter's labor and the expensive stone, inscriptions leaned heavily on abbreviation: common words shrank to a letter or two that every Roman could expand on sight (COS for cōnsul, S P Q R for Senātus Populusque Rōmānus). Reading one is therefore a small act of decipherment even for a fluent Roman: you supply what the carver left out. Inscriptions were everywhere in the Roman world, on tombs, temples, milestones, public buildings, and because stone outlasts almost everything, they are one of the great sources of what we know about Rome. Scholars have gathered hundreds of thousands of them into a single collection, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum; if you want to see what real ones look like, that database is where they live.
When the key is missing
Sometimes the language itself is lost and there is nothing to read with. The most famous case is the Rosetta Stone, a slab carrying the same decree in three scripts: Greek, which scholars could read, and two forms of Egyptian, which no one could. Because the Greek gave them a known parallel beside the unknown, they could work from the readable version toward the unreadable one and finally crack Egyptian hieroglyphs. That is the deciphering move in its purest form: use what you already understand to unlock what you do not. Hold onto it. It is exactly the method this episode asks of you, a papyrus and an inscription that only give up their meaning when you bring outside knowledge to them.
Where you are: Campania
All of this is happening in Campania, the wealthy, fertile region around the Bay of Naples. Volcanic soil made its farmland some of the richest in Italy; the sheltered bay made it a center of trade; and its mild coast made it the place well-off Romans went to escape the capital. Along that curve of coast sat a string of towns, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Neapolis (modern Naples), and the resort of Baiae, with the great cone of Vesuvius rising behind them, its slopes green with vineyards. No one living there in 79 CE knew it was a volcano. As you move between Pompeii and Herculaneum this episode, you are crossing the most desirable stretch of coastline in the Roman world, in the last months before it changed forever.
ATTUNEMENT
Attunement, Episode 5.2
Preview each exercise, then copy it into your own Google Drive to complete it.
5.2.a - mihi, tibi, or eī?
dative pronoun recognition · 8 items5.2.b - "Smaller than Pompeii"
comparative production · 6 gaps5.2.c - Herculāneum and the baths
informational-text comprehension · 8 questions5.2.d - Dīdō and Aenēās
key-text B comprehension · 6 questions5.2.e - The Written Word and Power
products, practices, perspectives · interpretive5.2.f - The Two Recruits
key-text A comprehension · 8 questionsMemorātiō
reflect · recall your pathOperative, sit a moment and remember. Today you saw Herculaneum, a town of leisure beneath Vesuvius, and you read Maecenas's papyrus again with new eyes. In the wall of the forum you found a hidden inscription. What did it say, and who concealed it there? Remember, too, the two recruits cutting words into stone, and the praetorium far off in Egypt. Why do the Powerful keep themselves so far from Rome?
Write down what you remember, and what unsettles you. These words will hold your way to the Lapis in memory as the work goes on, over the weeks and months ahead.
