Latin

salvete, Classicists!

It is great that we have the chance to look ahead and that you now have a genuine opportunity to explore some of that history and mythology that has maybe passed you by so far. Up to now it is has mostly been about the language and about learning texts for exam questions, but now you can enjoy putting all of that into context. Hurrah!

So, who really are these people telling bizarre stories about poisoned robes and furies thrusting snakes up women's dresses? Why was Caesar even bothering to cross the English Channel to a country inhabited by woad-wearing, bearded yokels...and who but a madman takes elephants over the Alps?!

Have a look at some of the following resources, which will give you a feel for what life was actually like in the Roman republic and empire. You absolutely don't have to access them all at once (!), but watch a video each week, read one of the suggested books, revise some language and it will all help massively in getting you ready to hit the road running in September.

If you find something which you fancy looking in to more, then do tell us about that and we'll see what else we can suggest. And we'll check in with you occasionally to see how you are getting on and what you are enjoying.

The link here takes you to a talk on Britain and its early days, answering questions about what Caesar was doing and interestingly then moving on to how Britain fared after the Roman empire faded away. 

BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' has loads of good discussions about the Roman world. These two, on the emperors Augustus and Nero would be well worth a listen as they cover the 1st Century AD, which together with the republic of the 1st century BC, is our period. 

Thinking back to Hannibal and his elephants struggling with all that ice and snow, you could learn more about the man himself and what he (nearly) achieved here

Pliny the Younger of course is a key figure in the 1st Century AD; witnessing the eruption of Vesuvius, working in the highest lawcourts of the day in Rome at little more than 18 years of age and surviving the tyrannical reign of Domitian to work for emperor Trajan over in Bithynia et Pontus. Melvyn Bragg and his mates chat about the man here.

Authors to read.... Ovid

Undoubtedly, one of the most useful things you could do would be to read the Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Naso or Ovid, who you know already from the Medea text. It is just a fabulous hexameter poem, tales of individuals transformed by the gods into other forms and full of Ovid's characteristic humour and pathos.

Apart from being a great read, knowing these stories puts you at great advantage with A level translation, since the Metamorpsoses are used on exam papers every year. If you go into a translation knowing that the Dryad Daphne was transformed into a laurel bush, it makes life so much easier!

You'll easily pick up a Penguin translation on Amazon or elsewhere and I shall happily refund when we return to school. I do recommend Poetry in Translation as well, which has some nicely fluent translations of Latin poems. The Metamorphoses are available there....

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph.php

Ovid was a colourful character who ended up being exiled by the emperor Augustus because of his carmen et error, his poem and his mistake.  I suppose if an emperor is trying to encourage stable marriage and strengthen the male population through encouraging couples to have children, and you then come along and write poems about how to steal another man's wife...well, that could be considered an error! 

Authors to read...Virgil

You need to understand here that I love Virgil. His Aeneid, the epic hexameter poem telling the story of Aeneas escaping the fall of Troy to found a new home for the Trojans in the West, the foundation legend for the city of Rome, is just a cracking read and you will be studying the final book of that in September. If you get the chance to read the poem beforehand...do it! There are verse and prose translations readily available as Penguin books.

There is a discussion of the Aeneid on 'In Our Time' here. I do recommend listening to this. Obviously, if you read the Aeneid in translation first, it will make more sense, but still worth diving in and giving it a go...excellent background knowledge ahead of Aeneid XII. 

What we cannot do within all of this is ignore the fact that Latin is first and foremost a LANGUAGE. We could tiptoe around it, pussyfoot and faff all we want, but at the end of the day, if your language skills are good, you will get much more out of the subject...enjoyment and ultimate grade!  I WILL HAPPILY STAND UP RIGHT NOW AND SAY THAT I LOVE THE LANGUAGE AND THE SATISFACTION THAT COMES FROM UNRAVELLING A TRICKY LATIN SENTENCE THROUGH KNOWING EXACTLY HOW THE WORD ENDINGS ALL WORK. I bloody love it and you should too!

If you could use some time to go over the GCSE accidence (grammar), that is almost the same as what is required at A Level. So really, just consolidate everything you should already know and that would be a massive advantage when September comes round. Here is the list and you'll find everything in the back of Essential GCSE Latin and your CLC textbook, so just dive in and enjoy a bit of rote learning!!

IMPORTANTLY... we just want you to enjoy having an initial exploration of some of the background to Latin...language, culture, literature. Just love having a dig around!