Latin lessons in real life

The annual Second Year Latin Trip took place at the end of February, offering students the opportunity to embrace learning outside of the classroom. The Classics Department took a group of 58 Second Year students to visit the Roman Baths, where they explored the ancient complex, visited the museum, and took part in an educational session.

Bath or Aquae Sulis as the ancient Romans called it, was a key town in ancient Roman Britain, and has a lot of relevance to the Second Years’ study, with their learning about the cultural significance of the baths complex as a place of leisure and religion.

The trip included an extensive list of activities that students were able to take part in, including reading a variety of Latin inscriptions that they found at the baths, as well as being able to handle real Roman artefacts up close.

Second Year Aaryav explained that his favourite part of the trip was exploring the different Roman artefacts in the different rooms, saying that he got to “explore the items that they used like the sandals in the storage room and the bathroom items in the warm room.” The most interesting thing that he learned was the history of the Sulis Minerva statue, the Deity of Bath combining the Celtic healing goddess Sulis with the Roman goddess of wisdom and craftsmanship, Minerva. A gilded bronze head of her was discovered in 1727, “since it was made from bronze and coated in gold, someone cut the head out from the rest of her body! Overall, this trip was a lot of fun and I would love to go there again.”

Another Second Year student Teddy also commented, “Going on the Latin trip to the Roman bath complex was an amazing experience for all who went and all who were Involved. As a student I thoroughly enjoyed it being able to see real Roman architecture from the first time in my life.

“I really enjoyed looking at all of the Roman everyday objects such as curse tablets or brooches and even ear wax cleaners (they were disgusting!) showing how Romans were just like us normal people. The funniest part of the trip was when we saw the tile that a dog stood on, whilst it was still drying concrete, another piece of evidence showing that  actually we can even relate to them with them having pets as so do we nowadays.”

Overall, the trip provided the students an exciting insight into their learning while allowing them to put their knowledge into action for the day!