Text only version is on Google books here:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jLnFUO89j14C
“Thesaurus Eroticus Linguae Latinae sive Theogoniae, Legum et Morum Nuptialum Apud Romanos Explanatio Nova ex interpretatione Propria et Impropria et Differentiae in Significatu Fere Duorum Millium Sermonum Ad Intelligentiam Poetarum et Ethologorum tam Antiquae quam integrae infimaeque Latinitatis; Edidit CAROLUS RAMBACH.”
Stuttgartiae MDCCCXXXIII.
Unless you wish this forum to be blacklisted by parents, I propose you remove your link, Metrodorus. Surely there are other places you might more appropriately advertise it. Sorry to say this, friend.
Nisi, Metrodore, velis à parentibus hoc forum anathematizatum esse, te nexus superum delere propono. Nonne aliàs adsunt siti harum ad rerum proscribendum decentiores? Me paenitet, amice, sic tibi dicere.
I think the pictures (especially one for abortion) are too explicit even for the adults
I’m going to have to agree with the above, Evan. You aren’t showing ancient Roman frescos from Pompeii, but real modern pornography, most of which is really unappealing. The first one at the bottom with the verpo, by contrast, is almost charming. You cite Plautus and others, but none of these authors actually displayed these things on stage or in their works — merely alluded to them. In the sitcom Scrubs, among others, the characters refer with mostly vague allusions to a lot of erotic or pornographic notions for comic effect, just like Plautus, but if they actually showed anything close to half of what they talk about, the show would be cancelled immediately.
I’m also unaware of what an abortion has to do with anything erotic. Are you really this twisted, amice?
I’m also unaware of what an abortion has to do with anything erotic. Are you really this twisted, amice
Personally I don’t think what Evan is doing is twisted per se. This is 2008. It may well turn out to be a very valuable project. I do however question the wisdom of placing the link on the textkit site where presumably there are many youngsters, some in their early teens.
As for abortion itself being featured on the blog, it would, it seems to me, would be included under the general title of the blog: THESAURUS EROTICUS LINGUAE LATINAE SIVE THEOGONIAE, LEGUM ET MORUM NUPTIALIUM APUD ROMANOS. Nor do I find the photo of the fetus to hard for adults. We all know that there are millions of these procedures being performed and nothing quite brings home the horrible reality of this like a photo. If we can live with the reality we should be able to live with photos of the reality.
My advice…please do, Evan, continue the project but respect the family oriented nature of this site by removing the link. In fact I think the place for the links to both your supplementary blogs would be on your own excellent Latinum Podcast site. Why don’t you advertise your blogs on the Grex? There are no rules for content for there so long as contributions are written in latin. Speaking of which I complement you on your own classical sounding prose.
By the way, where are the moderators, mariek and benissimus?
I respect your right to advertize, Metrodorus, but I question the wisdom of doing so in this instance on a novice-learner site. Please show consideration. Your edits still make no difference. Cynetus’s suggestions are very sensible.
Proscribendi, Metrodore, jus tuum honoro, at eo casu sapientiam tuam dubito qui cum consuetudine (!) in situ novitiorum obduras. Tibi imploro, circumspicientiam monstres. Correctiones tuae adhuc nullam rem mutant. Suggestiones Cyneti cordatae sunt.
Ita. I fail to see the need for pornographic images to illustrate the erotic language of the ancients. Images are necessary at the beginning levels, but this… I don’t think so.
By the way, where are the moderators, mariek and benissimus?
I take it that our moderators BENISSIMUS and MARIEK are in fact AWOL. So what then in their absence is the judgement of our supreme moderator? Members, zealots, fans have all spoken.
Speaking of which I complement you on your own classical sounding prose.
Well, evan, I don’t know what to say other than that I am tempted to withdraw the complement in the absence of more compelling evidence. I based that comment on my reading of the first entry in the blog. Since there was no other attribution attached to that particular piece I assumed that we were hearing your own voice. Now however I learn that the text is taken from a nineteenth century work. There is no problem with that of course. It is just that I became a little confused. You understand I hope.
Nihil, o ornate multa eruditione vir, mihi magis placeat quam ut haec latine jactemus.
Now, on the other hand, I suffer from a complete and utter lack of attention. A lot of things go by me. Have missed something ?
Things are good, Metrodorus. Probè egis. Factum bonum.
By the way, Cynetus, I have noticed that you have the most marvellous store of salutations, valedictions and epithets. Do they come from a favourite original (published) source?
Digredior sed te adnotabam, Cynete, speciosam salutationum, valedictionum atque epithetorum copiam habere. Defluuntne à fonte authentico et praelato (et edito)?
By the way, Cynetus, I have noticed that you have the most marvellous store of salutations, valedictions and epithets. Do they come from a favourite original (published) source?
Haha…I made that one up. But if you look in some of the scholastic colloquia (erasmus) you will see that there was this tradition of saluting folks rather elaborately. In the grex they carry this on somewhat. Ornatissime, doctissime, spectatissime are all common. I really recommend surmounting whatever obstactles may present themselves in order to join.
By the way, where are the moderators, mariek and benissimus?
Sed quid de hoc? Utrum nobis sunt moderatores annon?
Requiescant in pace.
If anyone still has the link to Evan’s illustrated site I would appreciate receiving it privately. I couldn’t find it last evening on the latinum podcast site and google was any help either.
The Romans were quite open sexually - for example, the straightforward way Lucretius writes about sex. Then there are all those priapic verses, the raunchy stuff in Plautus etc…The British Museum has a beautiful silver goblet on display with two men in bass relief having anal intercourse. A few months ago they had it only special display in a room just off the front entrance. No bar on children’s admission to see it, either. Reproductions of it are always on sale in the museum shop.
The pictures on the image based version of Rambach’s text , which is now linked to from the links section at the bottom of the Latinum FAQ are not what one usually associates with a Latin text. I only see the humorous side of it. Abire in semen. as an example, is quite frankly hilarious, assuming you’re not the unfortunate thus afflicted. The image based thesaurus is porn with a purpose. In our vernaculars we have clear visual images that we associate with erotic and rude vocabulary. I think the idea of learning a language to the extent possible without the intermediary of another language is useful…which is what the imaginarium vocabularium and the thesaurus is all about. They are simply learning tools. The internet is awash with porn. Might as well put some to a higher purpose heh? Then you can look at it and feel virtuous. 
In our vernaculars we have clear visual images that we associate with erotic and rude vocabulary
Recte dicis doctissime magister et sine dubio novum inceptum tuum omnibus magno auxilio futurum est quibus cordi sit funditus antiquorum scripta intellegere! An tibi in animo est gregi latine loquentium epistulam nuntiam hac de re mittere? Si non vis, equidem quid mittere suscipiam. Certus sum paginam illiam multorum latinistorum interesse.
Ne defassus sis antquam haec incepta omnia perficias! Cura te cures.
What may be good about pornography was never the question but its worst consequences, especially to this site. Words and images without good design are poor learning tools. In themselves at best they remain dumb, at worst they can mislead or distance. Sometimes they can hurt. Sometimes they can even get you arrested.
Nunquam in dubium vocatum est quo benè utatur pornographia sed quo malè, et in primìs quaecunque injuria hoc foro afferatur. Picturae cum dictionibus in suis non instrumenta educandi facent. Ita fieri eas benè deformari requirit ne indoctissimae vel minùs benè fallaces vel divellentes sint. Nonnumquam alios offendere possunt. Nonnumquam quidem sunt causa detinendi.
–I edited this post to include the post by Metrodorus it responds to.
You make an impassioned argument, Evan — I for one prize my book The Latin Sexual Vocabulary, in all its clear presentation of nearly every ancient Roman vulgarity. These words have a multitude of hilarious consequences.
And I love vulgarity, and I am excedingly pleased with hilarious and raunchy things alike (Tenacious D is one of my absolute favorites). So let it be known that these opinions come from a very progressive and open person.
Your analogy of a Roman goblet with the photographs you present is awfully specious, you must know. The equivalent of a photograph to a Roman, would be outright demonstration of the act with real people. Artwork is not life nor is it meant to precisely portray life — even realism. I know the goblet you speak of, and that is a work of art. The photos you present, needlees to say, are not (though I have seen many beautiful nudes photographed and painted in my time, even sexual acts, presented not harshly, but in an artistic manner). And as I mentioned above, Plautus and Lucretius did not have actors perform the sexual acts described before an audience, as you would have us observe.
There is plenty of erotic artwork available that may be used for pornographic or just aesthetic purposes, both ancient and modern. If you went that route, you could hardly be faulted. I think Adrianus’s last comment above put it best, with regard to “design.”
Eruditis viri Kyneto, Amadeo, Luci Equi, Adriane et al. amico suo Metrodori S.D.
Amici mei schedulas ad me dedisti, cum maxima voluptati accepi.
Num thesaurus iste nequam est? Non verro, codex iste utile est. Tamen photographa inurbanus sunt, non est disputandum, sed non multum. Nihilominus cupio multum fructum ex libris imagines. Lingua Latina non peritus sum, scio si quis linguam aliquam discere volo, utile est permultum legitur, ubicunque quin linguam anglicam. Ergo, faceo libros imaginibus . Vereor ut apte scribam, tamen facere non potui, quin tibi sententiam meam declarem. Quod ad me attinet, ediscina proficeo. Consilio tuo obtemperem. “ consilio amicorum suorum aures dent, neve ad verba sapientiae surdi sunt.? Hodie, iste nexus apud paginas “latinum? notus est. Qua de re queritur amici mei, non mirror quid causae fuerit. Vir et consilii magni et virtutis non sum.
Cura ut optime valeas,
Metrodorus.
(qui homo linguam latinam menses viii ediscit)
Who is virtuous or always shows good judgement or doesn’t make mistakes? And who won’t be often disappointed looking for intellectual trappings or classical echoes in prose? You’re better off wanting less and then you’ll be happy. Best not even to seek happiness. Off the scale to seek nothing!
Quis virtutis qualitatem habet? Quis mentem bonam semper ostendit? Quis nunquam errat? Et quis ornata eruditionis et sonoritatem scriptorum classicorum quaerit quin saepe falletur? Meliùs parùm velle si felix sis. Optimè quidem ne felicitatem quaeras. Suprà mensurandum est nihilum quaerere!