A Roman Map Workbook
A Roman Map Workbookby Elizabeth Heimbach offers students a broad and exciting overview of the ancient Roman world. An exploration of maps takes students first into the city of Rome, and then allows students to follow the expansion of the Roman Empire. The thirteen chapters of the book can easily supplement both a middle school and high school Latin curriculum, while also providing excellent background material for discussions in the school's history curriculum.Each chapter begins with a short essay about that chapter's map. Written in delightfully clear English prose, these introductions are filled with Latin vocabulary, and, of course, many place names. Students are invited into the culture and politics of the ancient world via readings that are just long enough to whet the student's appetite to learn more, but not so long as to be dismissed by those students in a hurry to get right into the map. Chock full of historical, geographical, and cultural facts, along with several allusions to classical myths, every chapter serves to capture the reader's interest. The introductory essays also give students clear guidance about how each map fits into a larger, more global picture.The maps themselves are accurate and contain just the right amount of detail to help students understand the ancient Roman world in a visual way. They have been produced in grayscale, making them suitable for student writing, erasing, and highlighting. Teachers will notice that many of the maps have been presented in two versions: one that includes the place names, and an unmarked copy for students to fill in on their own; this feature offers great pedagogical value. Hopefully, a later edition of the book will include blank versions of the remaining maps.Once students have read a chapter's preliminary remarks and have had a chance to view the map, then the more intense aspect of this workbook begins. Students are asked to locate places and geographical features on the maps and to give the Latin equivalent of modern names, and they are invited to do further research in the Ire ulterius section of the chapter. For classes with an oral component, every chapter includes questions that invite students to Responde breviter Latine. English translations of the questions appear at the end of the chapter. There are suggested projects related to the chapter's topics, and, in some of the chapters, students will be pleased to discover several questions for the game Certamen.In the beginning Latin class, students can use this book to locate Rome in the ancient world, and make comparisons to the political outlines of the region today. Such lessons are full of 'reachable moments', those opportunities to make connections to other areas of our students' lives, including information about basic geography, such as the Cardinal directions. In later years, as they advance through their Latin courses, students will enjoy the workbook activities on Pompeii, Roman Roads, Greece, Gaul, and Roman Britain, all just as filled with connections for students and their teachers to explore. Students planning to study Advanced Placement Latin will find thatA Roman Map Workbooksupports the AP expectation that students discuss the 'historical, social, cultural, and political context of Vergil's Aeneid.' Several chapters contain maps and information relevant both to the current exam (Vergil) and the revised AP syllabus (Vergil and Caesar).Teachers of Latin will find this book to be a useful and practical addition to their supplementary classroom materials. Discussion of the maps and activities will be a valuable use of cross-disciplinary planning time between Latin and Social Studies teachers.A Roman Map Workbookis an enticing look at the physical and cultural world of Latin speakers. --Laura Higley, Pequannock Township High School and Pequannock Valley Middle School