Nearly a decade ago, several of us at the University of Reading decided to find out via a re-enactment experiment: we made a replica Roman school (complete with papyri, tablets, costumes, etc.), persuaded a group of local schoolchildren to act like Roman children, and sat down to try teaching them the way Roman teachers would have done. Everyone was surprised at the result: glorious fun combined with high-quality learning.

We discovered that Roman mathematics is addictive, with some alarmingly young future bankers getting hooked on calculating compound interest in Roman numerals (maybe it’s not simply avarice, but the lure of the dried beans used as counters?). And that the beginners’ Latin exercises used by imperial-period Greek speakers can introduce modern children to a new language with laughter, fun and teamwork while still offering a serious intellectual challenge. Ostraca (a.k.a. broken flowerpots) are more useful as a writing surface than we had expected, and children learn surprisingly fast how not to get ink everywhere (though the occasional spill does happen, of course). And the ancient schoolroom setting works for a wide range of ages: a sixteen-year-old needs to be given different tasks from an eight-year-old, of course, but since everyone is taught individually that is easy to achieve even when pupils of very different ages are in the room at the same time (as was often the case in antiquity). Once we had developed a suitable range of exercises, it turned out that even adults (and at the other end of the spectrum children as young as two) could learn from and enjoy the experience of being a pupil in an ancient school.

In fact we all learned so much, and had so much fun, that what had been intended as a one-off event was repeated yearly on campus and then started branching out to local schools who wanted to involve more children than could easily be accommodated in our department. Last summer we registered the Reading Ancient Schoolroom as a charity with the goal of spreading the opportunity of experiencing Roman education to as many pupils and teachers as possible. Our transition to charitable status has been funded by the AHRC, with enough extra money that this year (until 15^th May 2024) we can even offer free or reduced-cost events to a few schools that cannot afford to pay what it costs to produce an ancient schoolroom. So if your school would like to turn a classroom into ancient Rome for a day, please get in touch with us! More information is available at www.readingancientschoolroom.com.

The Reading Ancient Schoolroom is run by Eleanor Dickey (Professor of Classics at the University of Reading and author of Learning Latin the Ancient Way and Stories of Daily Life from the Roman World) and Nadin Marsovszki (Classics Research Associate at the University of Reading), who can be contacted at E.Dickey@reading.ac.uk or nadinmarsovszki76@gmail.com.

Iuvenalis Pictures, a creative body which aims to bring classical literature to a modern audience while promoting the study of Ancient Greek, has just released the world’s first feature length film entirely in spoken Ancient Greek (with the reconstructed pronunciation of 405 BCE and in multiple dialects – Attic and Doric).

The script is based on “The Frogs” by Aristophanes, “Alcestis” by Euripides, “Symposium” by Plato, and “Battle of the Frogs and Mice” and, following its premiere in Athens in September, it is now freely available to enjoy on YouTube, thanks to its sponsor, Elliniki Agogi. The entire film is provided with an original soundtrack and is embellished by some sand animations.

Embark on the un-frog-gettable journey to the Underworld here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr9bHa3xrV8

For further information, you can visit their website: https://frogsthefilm.com/en

βρεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ

Check out the trailer (with English subtitles): https://youtu.be/PEuVM4vI8Do

Starring: Laurens van der Wiel, Arthur Oosthout, Wim Nijs, Maxime Maleux, Victoria Dabo, Gorik Rutten, Wouter Mercelis, Reuben Pitts, Andy Peetermans, Alexandra Vereeck, Martijn Corstjens, and Naomi Commissaris

Sand art stories: Colette Dedyn

Original music: Nick Van Elsen

Written for the screen and directed by Thibaut Lejeune