Jacobus Pontanus

Soldier or Scholar: Stratocles or War Jacobus Pontanus

The play translated in this volume confronts problems and questions similar to our own, but from a gap of over four centuries. Should students fight? Which ones? Why? Why not? What role should teachers play in students' decision to enlist? What about the desires and claims of family and loved ones? What are the claims of the state on its youth? How ready are young people to make decisions of this magnitude? How are the views of veterans to be weighed? All these important questions are raised in this play. We hope to offer a document of student life in the sixteenth century that also stimulates reflection on these issues that, unfortunately, are not bound by time and continue to be relevant. "[Pontanus is] one of the most refined educators, dramatists and Latinists of his times." - Jacob Schmutz, Professor at Sorbonne, Paris