From: Arcadia (arcadia@lynchburg.net)
Date: Thu May 09 2002 - 07:41:08 MDT
> [Adam 0]
>
> If I may interject, I'm not aware of the evidence that school children
were
> taught the Aeneid as literal history. In fact there are reasons I
> strenuously doubt this is the case.
Clearly you know more than me. My Latin was a long time ago. When we read
the Aeneid (and I did not to mean to cause it to be confused with Aesop's
Fables,) my Latin teacher said that the Aeneid had been taught as history to
school children, but I got the sense he meant children under ten. For
purposes of making my argument, defending the history books of the Bible, I
allowed that ambiguity to work in my favor, and you called me on it, in
classic style. Well done!
On the other hand, I think it would be a mistake to come away with the
impression that all smart people in Ancient Rome were skeptical in exactly
the same way that we expect smart people to be today.
Matt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Sep 25 2002 - 13:28:46 MDT