Salvete Omnes (Χαίρετε Πάντες): Salutationes et Dies Primus!

Dies primus tandem adest (The first day is finally here)! It was so wonderful to facilitate our fabulous students’ arrival today to mark the beginning of the 2024 Governor’s Latin Academy! After moving in and attending a wonderful opening ceremony, we reconvened this afternoon for a variety of activities. We kicked off the festivities with our first Province Cup competition, in which provinces vied against one another to earn points towards attaining κλέος (kleos, a.k.a. eternal glory). Asia Minor bested the other provinces in this game but there will be many more to come!
 
We then went on a tour of key locations on campus and our sacred pomerium (boundary). Afterwards, we took some more steps towards building togetherness by discussing our identities in Latin and learning the names of all the members of our vibrant community. After several rounds of the name game, everyone was ready for cena (dinner). While we enjoyed our first meal in Estes Dining Hall, the true highlight was the scintillating conversation in our province groups (as you can see in the picturae below).
 
Following dinner, we traveled back to Andrews Hall where Magistra Koshute, Consularia Sophia, and Consularius Benji led us in a discussion about Roman rhetoric, political offices, and election dipinti/graffiti. We also began to prepare for our own Academy electiones, which will be occurring on Tuesday. Students organized themselves into Optimates and Populares factions based on their provinces and nominated candidates for each elected office. Each faction is actively scheming to seize as many offices as possible so stay tuned! This evening, students were hard at work making dipinti (originally wall paintings) and graffiti on paper using Roman cursive to advocate for their candidates. Others played games with friends, colored, or headed to bed early after a meaningful first day.
 
We are so excited to start classes tomorrow!
 
Magister/Διδάσκαλος Cogan