Students in Adjunct Assistant Professor Rosanna Lauriola’s spring course, Intermediate Latin, researched an unusual topic: college mottoes.

A Sense of Belongingness
“One of the challenges that classical studies teachers face is to motivate students to learn what they might perceive as a ‘dead’ language and culture,” says Lauriola. “This is particularly true for students who are not classics majors or minors. To help students develop some sense of belongingness as they learned Latin, I assigned them a unique task: to investigate colleges’ Latin mottoes, to create a new motto for RMC that would reflect their feelings about the college, and to invent a motto for each RMC program and department.”

The project, titled “What if…: Understanding, and Being Creative with RMC’s College Motto,” began with an exploration of Randolph-Macon’s motto, Esse quam Videri Malim (“I would prefer to be rather than to seem”), which is an adaptation of a sentence taken from Cicero, De Amicitia 98 (“Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem”). The motto is inscribed on a plaque hanging in Washington-Franklin Hall.

Students studied the motto in its original Latin context and in the context of the college’s history and mission. They also translated and analyzed the Latin mottoes of other U.S. colleges and universities in order to improve their Latin vocabulary and grammar. Finally, students created their own Latin mottoes.

At Home at RMC
Hannah Gutzwiller ’22, a philosophy and English major, says, “I enjoyed learning about the early history of RMC, including the college’s emphasis on debate. The need to be virtuous, rather than to seem virtuous, is a huge theme when it comes to public discourse and polite discussion. I can see how RMC tries to replicate that feeling today. We have many discussion-based classes, as well as a flourishing Franklin Debating Society; both show that the college is committed to sticking to its roots.”

Gutzwiller created her own motto: Fulgentium Animorum Domus, meaning “House of Bright Souls.”

“As we read mottoes from U.S. and international schools, I found myself drawn toward the ones that symbolize light and focus on the soul,” she says. “The ‘house’ part is important as well, because more than anything, RMC is my home.”

A Living Language
Biology major Kelsey Langham ’20 says her biggest takeaway from the course is that “Latin is everywhere. Although some may think of it as a ‘dead’ language, it is prominent in society today.”  After studying mottoes from 183 colleges, Langham and her classmates discovered that the two most common words used in Latin mottoes are lux (“light”) and veritas (“truth”).

As for her own motto, Langham came up with Sapientia, Scientia et Honor, which means “Wisdom, Knowledge and Honor”—three things she says are central to life at RMC.
“One becomes wise and knowledgeable by continuing to stimulate one’s brain and by trying new things,” she says. “College is the perfect atmosphere for this motto.”

Learning and Growing
Kayla Hooper ’20, a computer science major and cybersecurity minor, found it interesting that, after contextualizing RMC’s motto, it appears incomplete and open to interpretation out of its context. “The motto I created is Ubi omnes adolescent, meaning ‘Where everyone grows,’ because I believe that everyone who goes to college leaves more mature and ready to face the world. College students learn and grow.”

Rosanna Lauriola
Rosanna Lauriola earned her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pisa (Italy), and her Ph.D. from the University of Firenze (Italy). Her areas of specialty include Greek Epic, Tragedy and Comedy, Reception of Classics, and Women in Antiquity. She has published several books and peer-reviewed papers and is currently working on a new book. She serves as associate editor of the series Trends in Classics – Pathways of Reception and Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought.