Latin Classes - Mark Riley has retired from teaching Latin at CSU Sacramento. For details of the Latin program at CSUS, contact the office of the Dept. of Foreign Languages in Mariposa Hall. If you want to take Latin on-line, see this website: http://carmentalatin.com

• Why Study Latin?

Papers and Publications

[Some of my papers are available in PDF format and thus can be viewed with and printed by Adobe Acrobat Reader regardless of the computer platform you use. Click on the titles in blue to download to your computer. The files can then be opened by Adobe Acrabat Reader. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader you can download and install it for free by following this URL:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html ]

Scholarship

• More on James Hume (see the fifth item in this list). Over the centuries many Scots emigrated and made their careers abroad. James Hume was one. In search of a wealthy and powerful patron, he began a heroic poem praising Cardinal Richelieu, the grey eminence behind King Louis XIII of France. Here  (http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/hume6/) is the text and translation (with introduction) of this uncompleted poem.
• Surprisingly few pieces of English literature were inspired by the Spanish Armada. One Latin example is a poem composed by Samuel Gott in the 1640’s and included in his Latin-language utopian novel Nova Solyma (“New Jerusalem”). The poem consists of three fragments of a heroic epic in Vergilian style, called the Philippica, supposedly written by a student studying literature in a school in this New Jerusalem. It is presented in the novel as an example of suitably uplifting poetry. Here (http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/gott/) is the text and translation (with an introduction which describes the novel).

• Rapahel Thorius, Hymnus Tabaci ("Hymn to Tobacco" 1626) - In the 17th century tobacco was viewed as marihuana is today: some people thought it was evil; other thought it would cure anything. This long poem by a London physician, Raphael Thorius, tells a mythological story about the discovery of tobacco (Bacchus found it in India), the many virtues of tobacco and what illnesses it can treat, and how to grow and cure tobacco. Thorius was a real fan and an inspiration for our time, when smoke-Nazis sadly infest the nation. The web site at the link contains the Latin text with English translation, introduction, and notes.
• Practice your Latin! Click here to download a Latin exercise book from 1623. John Harmar’s Praxis Grammatica was written for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year Latin students. It contains short sentences practicing all verb and noun forms, a collection of moral maxims and sayings, and a series of humorous anecdotes (Facetiae) about many people of antiquity, from Caesar Augustus to the philosopher Diogenes. This PDF file contains the Latin text, a complete English translation of all the Latin, and an introduction describing Latin language education in the 17th century. An inexpensive hard copy of this book is available here on Amazon. It is also available for the Nook.
• James Hume, Pantaleonis Vaticinia Satyra ("Pantaleon's Prophetic Satire" - 1633) -This short satire on contemporary French life was published in Rouen in 1633. It is edited at the link with an English translation and an introduction which includes the most complete biography of James Hume available to date.
• John Barclay in the history of the novel - a paper given at University of California Davis, May 2010.
  
• John Barclay as a Writer of Characters - a paper given at the APA convention, January 2010.
  
• Poets of Two Hearts: John Milton and Thomas May - a paper given at UCLA in March 2007. The version downloadable here was published in the "Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis" Berkeley Fall 2007.

• Review of M. Minkova and T. Tunberg, Reading and Exercises in Latin Prose Composition (Focus Press 2004), in Forum, Classical Journal 100.1 (Fall 2004).
  
  
• John Barclay: Argenis, Edited and translated by Mark Riley & Dorothy Pritchard Huber
  John Barclay's Argenis, the greatest and most popular of all Renaissance Latin novels, is an ingenious, deftly plotted tour de force, combining tragedy, romance, intrigue, and exotic adventure with lively, veiled descriptions of the social and political world of 17th century Europe. Prefaced by an extensive introduction and supplemented by numerous magnificent illustrations, this definitive modern edition presents Barclay's final Latin version, plus a modernised version of Kingsmill Long's widely read English translation of 1625.
  Co-published by MRTS and Van Gorcum & Comp. 2003 / 2 volumes, 424 & 552 pages / 86698-316-3 / MR273 / $60
  List of errata for John Barclay Argenis, edd. Riley & Huber, van Gorcum 2004.
  Due to inadequate proofreading, an unfortunate number of errors can be found in the Latin text of this edition. A list of corrections can be found here, a .pdf file. Most of these corrections are due to the careful reading of the text by Mr. H. W. Laven of Florence, Italy, who has worked on the Argenis for many years. Contrary to our claim on page 44, in this edition spelling has not been thoroughly modernized, i.e. restored to classical standards according to L&S. Older forms used by Barclay (for example retulit, scena, herus, mulctum, and others) still occur. These should present no trouble for the reader. The text's punctuation could doubtless be improved in many places, but the errata contain only outright errors, not possible improvements. We regret these errors and hope that this list may be helpful.
  
  
• "Quomodo Habitaverunt Romani" illustrated lecture in Latin, August 2003, Conventiculum Lexintonianum, Lexington KY.
  
  
• The following papers were written for publication in Temporini and Haase, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang der Romischen Welt II 36.7 (DeGruyer, Berlin). This series seems defunct. Therefore I am making these papers available in .pdf format:
  "The Greek Terminology for the Arithmetic Operations" - This paper lists and gives examples (in Greek with English translation) of all the terms for "add," "subtract," "multiply," and "divide," plus a few other terms. As usual in Ancient Greek, specialized technical terminology does not prevail; that is, no one word serves for each of the operations. This paper could not have been completed without the invaluable help of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG), whose database supplied most of the examples.
  "A Survey of Vettius Valens" - Vettius Valens' Anthologiae is the longest extant astrological work from antiquity. It is unique in several respects: the author was a practicing astrologer; the work includes more than 100 authentic horoscopes of Valens' clients or associates, including his own, which is used as an example many times throughout the work; the work also includes tables and the description of algorithms used by astrologers and mathematicians. My paper was finished in 1996 and does not take account of scholarship since that time.
  
  
• A short dictionary of Greek terms used in the astronomy and astrology writers can be found here. I made this wordlist for myself while translating Vettius Valens' Anthologiae, a translation that was never perfected but is available in a draft version here. Some abbreviations in the definitions are GH = Greek Horoscopes by Neugebauer and van Hoesen; HAMA = Neugebauer's History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy; Pt = Ptolemy; Cumont = Cumont, L'Egypt des astrologues. The others should be obvious.
  
  
• Vettius Valens- Find a link here to a translation of Vettius Valens Anthologiai, the longest astrological text from Greco-Roman antiquity. Update - page numbers have been corrected. [Update August 2011: Mr. David R. Roell (dave@astroamerica.com) is preparing a printed edition of my Survey of Vettius Valens and this translation of the Anthologiai. The book has not appeared yet. Its availability will be announced on this website.]
  What you find here is a preliminary translation completed in the 1990’s, but not perfected in the years since. It is based on Wilhelm Kroll’s 1908 edition (page numbers of this edition are marked with bold-faced K in my pdf) and on David Pingree’s 1986 edition (page numbers marked with P), a great improvement on his predecessor’s. The angled brackets (< >) indicate words added in the translation for clarity or (sometimes) to correct errors in the text. My studies in ancient mathematical literature, and (more important) in the Syriac and Arabic copies of Valens did not proceed far enough to put the finishing touches on this translation. Moreover I have moved on to other work. (See here.) So there are no guarantees of accuracy. You might also find some typos. Use at your own risk. In addition I am not prepared to answer questions about the translation. You are on your own.
  When studying Valens, also consult my Survey of Vettius Valens (on this webpage) and Neugebauer and Van Hoesen, Greek Horoscopes (Philadelphia 1987). Most of the horoscopes listed in Valens are translated by Neugebauer and Van Hoesen. Remember that some fractions in Valens (see p. 139) are in the sexagesimal system. The semi-colon corresponds to our decimal point. For example 2;20 = two and one-third, 2;40 = two and two-thirds.
  
  
• "Ptolemy's Use of His Predecessor's Data," Transactions of the American Philological Association 125 (1995) 221-250.
  
  
• "Manilius" in The Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy, ed. Donald Zeyl (Greenwood 1997).
  
  
• "Changing Enrollment Patterns" Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL) Bulletin, Spring 1997.
  
  
• Articles on Hippocrates, Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Kepler, Lavoisier, Malthus, Darwin, Mendel, Mendeleev, Schrödinger in Great Thinkers of the Western World, ed. Ian McGreal (HarperCollins 1992).
  
  
• "Science and Tradition in the Tetrabiblos", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 132.1 (1988) 67-84.
  
  
• "Theoretical and Practical Astrology: Ptolemy and His Colleagues", Transactions of the American Philological Association, 117 (1987) 235-256.
  
  
• "The Epicurean Criticism of Socrates", Phoenix 34 (1980) 55-68.
  
  
• "The Purpose and Unity of Plutarch's De Genio Socratis", Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 18 (1977) 257-73.
  
  
• "Critical Thinking and Cultural Relativism," Critical Thinking News, 4 (1985), 3-7.
  
  
• Glossary for Homer's Odyssey: A New Translation, Albert Cook, 1968.
  
  
• For my doctoral dissertation on Tertullian's Adversus Valentinianos see here on the website tertullian.org, which has many other relevant documents.

Computer Related:

• "Nisus: A Word Processor for Text Analysis" BMUG Newsletter VII.1, 179-80 (Winter/Spring 1991; Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, Berkeley CA 94709) .
• "Nisus" in Wordprocessing for Classicists ed. Robert Rowland, The American Philological Association (Scholars Press 1991).
• "Software for Learning Foreign Languages" BMUG Newsletter VII.1, 139-41 (Fall 1993; Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, Berkeley CA 94709).
• "Spanish Assistant for the Macintosh" BMUG Newsletter VII.1, 141-45 (Spring 1995; Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, Berkeley CA 94709).
• "Tips on Foreign Language Fonts," Macnexus, 2 (1986) 9
• If you want something translated by a human being, rather than by Google Translate, check out this site, "Applied Language Solutions". No guarantees!

Other:

• "Ieopardus: Certamen optimum Discipulis omnis Aetatis" Longman Latin Newsletter, Fall 1994.
• "Study Guide for Praxeis Apostolon [=Acts of the Apostles] 13:1-18:17" revised April 2006; keyed to the second edition of Balme and Lawall, Athenaze, 2004.
• "Notes to I John" Athenaze Newsletter, Spring 1994.
• An excellent political joke in Latin, with the characters George Bush, Hilary Clinton, Tony Blair, and (most important) Saint Peter.
• More Latin jokes. Here is a .pdf file of Facetiae (1689), a collection made by Johannes Ludovicus Praschius - Johann Ludwig Prasch, a author in both Latin and German who was an educator and a senator in his native Ratisbona/Regensburg. His biography (in Latin) can be seen here. A Latin novella by Prasch can be found below, on this web page.
• How to Get an A, from James and Glavinovich, two guys who really know the score in higher education.
• Various book reviews.
• Summer Reading for Latin students: Ferdinandus Taurus, a Latin translation of Munro Leaf's story about a bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight in the arena. Part Two includes a vacabulary list. Here is part one. Here is part two with the vocabulary.
• Latin names for animals, (ANIMALIVM NOMINA.pdf), a list provided by Prof. Stephen Berard, an enthusiastic proponent of spoken Latin and the author of several original Latin essays. He teaches at Wenatchee College in Washington state.

Current Research Projects/Interests

• History of Ancient Science (see publications list for specific areas).
• Latin Pedagogy, including the use of spoken Latin in the classroom and in daily life.
• Neo-Latin and Renaissance literature, including the works of John Barclay.
• An interesting letter of the geographer, Gerard Mercator, from 1579.
• A short novel, Psyche Cretica ("Psyche from Crete"), by Johann Ludwig Prasch (1685). This novel is based on the well-known story, Cupid and Psyche, part of the novel Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, by the 2nd century Latin author Apuleius. Prasch rewrote the story as a Christian allegory.
• Claudius Morisotus/Claude Morisot, a 17th century physician and Latin writer from Dijon, completed Ovid's Fasti, a catalog of Roman festivals through the year. Ovid wrote "January" through "June", before he was rudely interrrupted by his own exile. Morisotus wrote "July" through "December", a tour de force. Here is the text of July, August, and September. Here is October, November, and December.
• The Latin text of John Barclay's Icon Animorum (Paris and London 1614) can be found here, as well as Thomas May's English translation of this work entitled Mirror of Minds (1633). Note that both of these files are MS Word documents in .doc format. They are not finished texts; you might find some typos.

Professional Associations

• California Classical Association

Send problems/comments/suggestions to: mtriley@csus.edu