Ayla Lillian Wing

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Sample Lesson Plan 3:

This lesson was taught to a mixed group of 11th and 12th graders who elected to take Latin beyond the
school’s language requirement but declined taking the AP Latin course. The class was centered on Roman
Historians, and we were in the midst of a unit on Augustus’s Res Gestae.

Class: Latin IV/V - Roman Historians

Objectives:
• Students can read a historical Latin text with some help.
• Students can recognize that some physical elements of Augustus’s autobiography still
remain.
• Students can analyze artwork as a companion to the text.

Rationale: I find Augustus a fascinating historical figure and I love analyzing his motives. I
particularly love how there are some items mentioned in his memoir that still exist, most notably
the beautiful Ara Pacis, which to this day remains a tourist destination in Rome.
The Ara Pacis is a great and multi-layered work that would be totally easy to teach wrong.
An important emphasis throughout the lesson is the phrase “has been interpreted” – because it’s
true that nobody actually knows entirely what the various reliefs depicted. My goal is an
engaging lesson that will help students think critically and remember what they have learned
(many of them are going on a trip to Rome, where they may see the Ara Pacis in all of its
propagandistic glory). I am fortunate enough to have had two academic trips to the Ara Pacis and
I am savvy enough to have saved my notes from both encounters. I have a ton of resources, both
classical and educational, and I am enthusiastic about my subject matter.
Besides my love of this altar, it is also important for students to get a close look at this
work in a broader context. It can be very helpful for students to see that the things Augustus was
writing about were not just legends or pipe dreams, but real, historical, tangible, lasting legacies.
Zooming in on this one particular legacy will help establish credibility for the rest of the work – it
turns out Augustus was not just spouting nonsense! It is also valuable for students to understand
not just the language of the Romans but also their culture, especially through the products that
we can still look at and engage with. Finally, I am hoping that this lesson will help break up what
could become a monotony of reading every single day. I want students to get out of their seats.
And I want to introduce them to the concept that there are no wrong answers in studying the
Classics – as long as you can support your answer, that is.

Standards Addressed in the Lesson:

Standard 1.1: Students read, understand, and interpret Latin or Greek.
Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives of Greek or Roman
culture as revealed in the practices of the Greeks or Romans.
Standard 2.2 Students demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives of Greek or Roman
culture as revealed in the products of the Greeks or Romans.
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Standard 4.2 Students compare and contrast their own culture with that of the Greco-Roman
world.

Materials and Set-up Required

Smart board for Latin notes
Printed photos of the Ara Pacis reliefs
Word Doc with the relief photos for discussion

Agenda (70 Minutes):

1. Res Gestae Reading (25 Minutes)
2. Ara Pacis Overview (5 Minutes)
3. Relief Walk-Through (25 Minutes)
4. Discussion: What Did We Find? (15 Minutes)

Specific Activities Including Teacher Thinking:

What I say is in red.
Latin, translations, and guided questions on the left are in black.
Standards are in bold.
Teacher thinking on the right is in italics.
Reading
(25 Minutes)

Good morning everybody! Today we’re going to skip ahead a This part of the lesson
little bit to section 12, which is on your handout. is an example of
Standard 1.1.
Cum ex Hispania Galliaque, rebus in iis provincis prospere
gestis, Romam redi, Ti. Nerone P. Qintilio consulibus, aram
Pacis Augustae senatus pro reditu meo consacrandam censuit
ad campum Martium, in qua magistratus et sacerdotes
virginesque Vestales anniversarium sacrificium facere iussit.

When I returned to Rome from Hispania and Gaul, with things I have decided not to
in these provinces having been done successfully, with Titus script every single
Nero and Publius Quintilius were consuls, the senate decided grammatical question I
that the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) must be could ask about every
consecrated for my return at the Campus Martius, in which it word, but rather I have
would order that magistrates and priests and Vestal Virgins included a translation to
make an sacrifice help the reader follow
along. However, in the
Topics that could come up in this reading: bullet points I mention
• What rebus were gestis-ed? potentially significant
• Consecrandam is a gerundive, but also a Future Passive topics that could come up
Periphrastic – here there is a missing esse, which could as we are reading this. I
be confusing to some students. run translation classes in
• The Campum Martium, or Campus Martius as it is a student-centered
known today, which translates to “field of Mars” is an fashion, where I asked
area of Rome that was technically outside of the city students to translate,
boundary (called the pomerium) – armies could not be giving them hints and

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within the city walls, so they often assembled here guiding questions to help
(hence it being the field of Mars, the god of war). This them along.
was a place where Augustus and people just before
him added a lot of monuments and public buildings,
such as the Theater of Pompey (where Caesar was
stabbed!).
• In qua goes back to Ara, which is at the beginning of
this phrase because it is important!!!
• Why is iussit singular? (because Senatus is still the
subject – this one tripped me up at first actually)
• Magistratus, sacerdotes, and virgines all look
nominative but once we get iussit we know they must
be accusative (and they are subjects of the indirect Learning about
statement with facere). different types of
• Anniversium sacrificium would be a good transition to priests is an example
explaining what Romans did at an altar. of Standard 2.1.

Transition: Alright everybody, great reading. So what is this Ara Pacis Augustae, Altar of
Augustan Peace? What did they have to do on the altar again? (Answer: An annual
sacrifice). Exactly! So since it came up in our reading I thought I would give a little
background on what this altar actually is and how you can go see it today.

I will then change the screen to the pictures I have prepared.

Ara Pacis Background
(5 Minutes)
Okay, so here is a picture of the Ara Pacis. (That tiny human is I am hoping that it will
me, for scale.) excite/interest students
that I have been to this
It was dedicated in 9BCE and is a very beautiful and artistic monument before.
way for Augustus to say that he brought peace and therefore
he is the best. You have to remember that for decades before This part of the lesson
Augustus took power there were Civil Wars over who was is an example of
going to be in charge, and the Romans were probably getting Standard 2.2.
very weary. So, instead of saying that he took the power for
himself he markets his victory to the Romans as saying that
he “brought peace.” This gigantic altar is a physical statement
of that peace.

It an “open air” altar, which means, as you can see, it didn’t

have a roof. That was the Romans’ preferred altar style for
blood-sacrifices, which as we already mentioned happen
yearly.

Surrounding the altar is a stone screen, which is this giant

building-like decorated set of walls around where I am
standing. If you look, the actual altar is inside this doorway up
the steps, here. (I will point to the altar)

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On this stone screen are sets of reliefs, or carved sculptures.
Reliefs like this were common on altars and temples of the
like. Here is what they look like.

(I will then flip through some pictures of the reliefs)

Transition: There is a bit of controversy about who is on these relief panels, so I thought
that we as a class could put our Classicist Brains on and try to decide for ourselves who is
on these panels.

Alright, I’m going to pass out a worksheet for you to take notes on. There are six pictures
around the classroom for six different reliefs. I want you to write what you see in the
pictures, what they could mean, and, if you can, think about why Augustus would want to
include them.

Get up and wander and see what you can find!

I will now pass out the worksheet.

Activity: Relief Walk-Through

(25 Minutes)

Students will now walk around to different relief pictures and This part of the lesson
fill out the worksheet accordingly. I will wander around the also is another
classroom and answer any questions students may have/pick example of Standard
students’ brains to see what their preliminary thoughts are. 2.2.

This is my way of
bringing Rome to the
classroom and I am very
excited about it!
Transition: When students are wrapping up, I will say

Alright classicists, go back to your seats or find one near you. Let’s start discussing your
findings!
Discussion: What Did We Find?
(15 Minutes)
Here’s how I imagine the discussion for each relief panel to This discussion is
go: another example of
Standard 2.2
Okay, so what did you guys see in this panel? I will have one
of the panels on display on the smartboard. My hope is that after
students have been
Does anybody have a guess as to who this could be? forced out of their seats
Mythological figure, real life Roman? Anybody? and moved around a
little they will be more
Here’s my breakdown for each relief: enthusiastic and ready
Panel #1: This one is less up for debate than other reliefs, but for a discussion.
it is really hard to know because of how fragmented it is. The

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general consensus, though, is that this is Romulus and Remus
and, as you see down here, there would have been a lupa
(wolf) in the relief. Romans love to celebrate Rome’s founding
– even in modern times, you see the famous logo of the wolf
breastfeeding the twin babies Romulus and Remus all over
the frickin place.

Panel #2: Now this one is one of the more controversial

reliefs. The traditional interpretation is that this is Aeneas,
especially since there is a prophecy in the Aeneid that Aeneas
will see a white pig and that’s how he will know he’s in Rome.
You can see that there’s a pig right there. This could go along
with the Romulus relief since Aeneas is another legendary
founder of the city.
However, a more recent reinterpretation is that this is
actually Numa, who was the second king of Rome. This would
add nice juxtaposition between the first and second kings.
Also, Numa was known to be a very peaceful king, and we
must remember that this is an altar dedicated to Peace.
Aeneas was a lot of things but he was not known to be very
peaceful. We will also see some symmetrical reasons why this
could be Numa.

Panel #3: Now this is a procession. You can even see how the
artist tried to make it 3D by having some heads smaller than
and behind the figures in the front. This procession would
have accompanied the sacrifices, and many of the other
people are thought to be Augustus’s family members. I will
then show the picture of the relief with figures identified. This
is just one interpretation, though, so take it with a grain of
salt. You can’t see in this picture but Augustus is supposedly
also on the relief but earlier.
Notably, the two young boys here may have been Gaius and
Lucius, who were Augustus’s grandsons and choices for heirs,
but they both died young – as we mentioned a few classes
ago, everyone whom Augustus chose as an heir seemed to die
somehow.

Panel #4: Alright, so here is probably the best-preserved of

the pictures. And it’s beautiful, isn’t it? It sort of looks like
Beyoncé’s pregnancy announcement photos. Do you guys
know those? I will pull those up on the Smart Board. Let’s talk Talking about Beyoncé
about those for a second. What is Beyoncé going for there? I is an example of
expect answers about fertility and spring and the like. Standard 4.2.
So yes, Beyoncé is thinking fertility right now. That’s what
this relief is showing also. As you can see, this woman, who
we can probably assume is a goddess, has babies on her lap, is
surrounded by fruit and flowers and different animals, as well

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as these cherub-y guys who some say represent the winds
because of the way their cloths are moving. Because of this
fertility theme, there are a ton of goddesses that have been
posited to be represented here. Some say Tellus, goddess of
the earth. Some say Venus, goddess of love, whom Augustus
would have traced back in his lineage because Venus is the
mother of Aeneas, Augustus’s so-called ancestor. But
personally, I think the best interpretation is that this is Pax,
because who is this altar dedicated to? Pax! And she is
nowhere else to be found on the whole altar. Plus, look at the
animals – they’re existing harmoniously. The whole relief is
honestly relaxing to look at. Perhaps Augustus/the artist
focused on fertility when designing Pax’s relief because
Augustus wanted to stress how good the peace was for the
Roman people.

Panel #5: Alright, so here’s our most fragmented piece. The

one piece we do have shows female armor, which is how the
rest of the relief was recreated. Now, this one is a little less
controversial as well; all signs point to this being a depiction
of the goddess Roma, the personification of the city itself, who
is also a war goddess. Some say this could be other war
goddesses, such as Victoria or Minerva, who are both often
depicted in armor, but because of this altar’s dedication to the
city most people accept the Roma reading.

Panel #6: Now here is the second Procession. As far as I know,

this one is significantly less exciting than the other relief.
These are just priests who would have been lining up for the
sacrifice. As you can see, many of them have their heads
covered, capute velato as the Romans would have called it,
which is a sign of the priesthood. I don’t believe there are any
famous Romans or family members in this relief though.

Transition to the end of class: Alright everybody, good work today using your Classicist
brains and interpreting some art. I hope you learned something new about the Romans
and I hope you enjoyed having a little bit of Rome in your classroom today! See you next
class!

Supplementary Materials Begin on the Next Page

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Ara Pacis Text:

Cum ex Hispania Galliaque, rebus in iis provincis prospere gestis,

Romam redi, Ti. Nerone P. Qintilio consulibus, aram Pacis Augustae

senatus pro reditu meo consacrandam censuit ad campum Martium,

in qua magistratus et sacerdotes virginesque Vestales anniversarium

sacrificium facere iussit.

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Ara Pacis Worksheet

Relief #1:

What do you see? (Description of the Relief)

Who/what do you think it is depicting? (Best Guess)

Why would Augustus have wanted to include this on the altar?

Relief #2:

What do you see? (Description of the Relief)

Who/what do you think it is depicting? (Best Guess)

Why would Augustus have wanted to include this on the altar?

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Relief #3:

What do you see? (Description of the Relief)

Who/what do you think it is depicting? (Best Guess)

Why would Augustus have wanted to include this on the altar?

Relief #4:

What do you see? (Description of the Relief)

Who/what do you think it is depicting? (Best Guess)

Why would Augustus have wanted to include this on the altar?

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Relief #5:

What do you see? (Description of the Relief)

Who/what do you think it is depicting? (Best Guess)

Why would Augustus have wanted to include this on the altar?

Relief #6:

What do you see? (Description of the Relief)

Who/what do you think it is depicting? (Best Guess)

Why would Augustus have wanted to include this on the altar?

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