Nomen: ______________________________________________
Dies: _________
Latin 2 December Dinner Party Skit Project
Background
With Christmas fast approaching, we are going to honor one of the inspirations for this holiday: the
Roman festival of Saturnalia. This festival, designed to honor the god Saturn (father of Jupiter), took place
on December 17th and later was expanded to last until December 23rd. This date was specifically chosen,
as it coincides with the winter solstice—the shortest and darkest day of the year. Therefore, Saturnalia is
a festival of light, as every day after this would become longer and longer as the light of the Sun came
back to the Earth.
The day started with a public sacrifice, followed by public celebrations and finally private celebrations.
On this day, no Roman citizens would not work, courts would be shut down, schools were closed, no
public business was conducted and no declaration of war could be made by the army. Also, social norms
would be flipped, as gambling and excessive drinking were permissible. The entire population shut down
to celebrate this festival of light.
In modern times, Saturnalia became one of the influences for the Christian holiday of Christmas, which
was specifically chosen on December 25th to incorporate the imagery of light emerging from darkness. At
the end of Saturnalia there was a custom of gift-giving, which also worked its way into Christmas. Some
reports even indicate that human-shaped desserts were eaten—possibly the ancestor of the gingerbread
man. These Roman origins led to the Puritans in New England banning Christmas in 17th century
America, due to its pagan origins.
Directions
In honors of this holiday, we will be celebrating our own Saturnalia festival by having a Roman-style
feast. As part of the celebrations, you and your gens will create Latin skits to entertain Magister Caccavale
and his gens optima. Your skit should be entertaining and accurate. You will use the first 5 chapters of
Ecce Romani as a guide.
Responsibilities of the Gens Optima
 Automatic 40/50 (80%)
 Organization of the feast (5 points)
o Figure out what each individual is bringing. This might include:
 Food, Drinks, Cups, Silverware (plastic), plates, napkins, etc.
 Welcome/Goodbye Oration in Latin (5 points)
o Together, the Gens Optima will write a brief welcome/goodbye speech to the other gentes
congratulating them on a good competition throughout the year
Responsibilities of All Other Gentes
 Welcome/Goodbye Speech to the Gens Optima in Latin (5 points)
o Each gens will participate in congratulating the Gens Optima and their superiority
 Latin Skit (45 points)
Your skit will meet the following requirements:
1) Each member of the gens must have an equal part and amount of dialogue (about 4-5 sentences)
2) A copy of the Latin script, as well as an English translation
3) It must include (and these must be bold/highlighted and identified in the script!):
a. 10 Imperfect Tense Regular Verbs (do not repeat!)
b. 3 Imperfect Tense uses of “esse”
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
3 Imperfect Tense uses of “posse”
3 Imperfect Irregular verbs (velle, nolle, ferre, ire)
3 Present Tense Irregular verbs (velle, nolle, ferre, ire)
3 Perfect Tense Verbs
5 neuter nouns (2 Nominative, 1 Genitive, 1 Accusative, 1 Ablative)
5 1st/2nd Declension Adjectives (1 Nominative, 1 Genitive, 1 Accusative, 1 Ablative, 1
Vocative)
5 3rd Declension Adjectives (1 Nominative, 1 Genitive, 1 Accusative, 1 Ablative, 1 Vocative)
Topic Suggestions-- *your gens is free to pick a topic of their choice
Roman Roads
Roman Dress
Roman Family Life
The Founding of Rome
Roman Slavery
Pompeii/Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
The Cornelius Family—Intro to the characters
Roman Names
Rubric
45 points
total
Grammatical
Accuracy (x6)
Group
Participation
(x2)
Performance/
Creativity/
Energy
5
4
 10 Imperfect
 8 Imperfect
Regular verbs
Regular verbs
 3 Imperfect uses of  2 Imperfect uses
“esse”
of “esse”
 3 Imperfect uses of  2 Imperfect uses
“posse”
of “posse”
 3 Imperfect
 2 Imperfect
Irregular Verbs
Irregular Verbs
 3 Present Irregular  2 Present
Verbs
Irregular Verbs
 5 Neuter Nouns
 4 Neuter Nouns
 5 1st/2nd
 4 1st/2nd
Declension Adjs
Declension Adjs
 5 3rd Declension
 4 3rd Declension
Adjs
Adjs
 Each member has
 Certain members
an equal amount of
have slightly
dialogue
more dialogue
than their peers
3
 6 Imperfect
Regular verbs
 2 Imperfect
uses of “esse”
 2 Imperfect
uses of “posse”
 2 Imperfect
Irregular Verbs
 2 Present
Irregular Verbs
 3 Neuter Nouns
 3 1st/2nd
Declension Adjs
 3 3rd Declension
Adjs
 Certain
members have
significantly
more dialogue
than their peers
 Students speak in a  Students speak in  Students’ speech
clear voice without
a clear voice with
is clear, but with
stopping or
a few stops or
many stops and
stuttering
stutters
stutters
 Students are very
 Students are
 Students are
highly energetic
highly energetic
somewhat
and excited for the
and excited for
energetic and
skit
the skit
excited for the
skit
 Skit shows very
 Skit shows high
high creativity
creativity
 Skit shows some
creativity
2
1/0
 4 Imperfect
 Does meet
Regular verbs
grammatical
requirement
 1 Imperfect
s
uses of “esse”
 1 Imperfect
uses of “posse”
 1 Imperfect
Irregular Verbs
 1 Present
Irregular Verbs
 2 Neuter Nouns
 2 1st/2nd
Declension Adjs
 2 3rd Declension
Adjs
 One or more
 One or more
group members
group
have very
members do
limited dialogue
not speak
 Students’
speech is not
clear and has
many stops and
stutters
 Students have
low energy/
enthusiasm
 Skit shows little
creativity
 Students’
speech is
not clear
 Very low
energy/
enthusiasm
 Very low
level of
creativity