Oxford Latin Course

Part I

Introduction

This course tells the story of the life of the Roman poet known to us as Horace. His full name was Quintus Horatius Flaccus, but in this course we call him simply Quintus. Part I tells the story of his childhood and early schooling in his hometown, Venusia, in south-east Italy. In Part II his father takes him to Rome for his secondary education; after this he goes to. university in Athens, but when civil war breaks out he leaves university to join the army. In Part Ill, when his side in the war

is defeated, he returns to Italy, begins to write poetry, and eventually becomes one of the leading poets of his time and a friend of the emperor Augustus.

You will learn more about his life in the first background essay (pp. 11-12).

We have chosen the life of Horace as the subject of this book both because he was an interesting person who tells us a

lot about himself in his poetry, and because he lived through one of the most exciting periods of Roman history; in his time he saw the assassination of Julius Caesar, the destruction of the old republic and the establishment of the empire.

The story is told in Latin, the language of the Romans; it was spoken throughout the Roman empire, which stretched from Syria in the east to Britain in the north. Latin is one of a large family of languages to which English and nearly all European

languages belong, as well as Indian and Persian. Anglo-Saxon, from which English is directly descended, is

.only distantly related to Latin and is not much like it. But about one half of the words in modern English are not Anglo-Saxon in origin, but borrowed from Latin at various stages of our history. Some of these words can hardly be fully understood unless you know some Latin; a knowledge of Latin will help you to spell and understand English better. Equally,

when you are reading Latin, the meaning of many Latin words from which English words are derived is immediately obvious; for instance, (Latin) parens = (English) parent; (Latin) accuso = (English) I accuse.

One good reason, then, for learning Latin is that a knowledge of Latin will improve your understanding of English. It is also a help in learning foreign languages, since Italian, Spanish and French are directly descended from Latin and have many features in common with it. Above all, the history and literature of the Romans are interesting in themselves and still important to us.

Our civilization is descended from theirs, and we can see their influence at many points both in our literature and in our lives today. You may be surprised to find that, in spite of the great differences between their way of life and ours, there are many similarities; we probably have more in common with a Roman of Horace's day than with an Englishman of the Middle Ages. Lastly, to read and understand Latin, you need to think clearly; this is a skill which is essential in all academic subjects and, indeed, in the whole of life. It would be wrong to pretend that Latin is easy but we hope that our course will make the process of learning it both interesting and enjoyable.

In learning any foreign language it is essential to pronounce the language correctly. Latin sounded very much like modern Italian or Spanish. Most of the consonants were pronounced much as they are in modern English, but the vowel sounds were like those of Italian.

· Consonants

c is always hard, as in cat (never soft as in nice).

g is always hard, as in God (except when it is followed by n; gn is sounded ngn, as in hangnail, so magnus is pronounced

mangnus).

h is always sounded, as in hope.

1 is used as a consonant as well as a vowel; as a consonant it sounds like English y; so Latin iam is pronounced yam.

q is never found except when followed by u, sounded as in English quick.

r is rolled, as in Scottish, and is always sounded, so in Latin sors, for example, both r and s are sounded.

s is always soft, as in sit (never like z, as in rose).

v is pronounced like English w; so vidi sounds weedee.

The other consonants are pronounced like their English equivalents.

Where double consonants occur, as in sitting, both consonants are pronounced; so ille is pronounced il-le (I is sounded twice).

Vowels

The five vowels each have a long and a short version:

a short, as in English cup (not as in cap).

a long, as in English father.

e short, as in English pet.

e long, as in English aim (French gai).

i short, as in English dip.

i long, as in English deep.

o short, as in English pot.

o long, as in English foal (French beau).

u short, as in English put.

ii long, as in English fool.

To make pronunciation easier, we have throughout the course put a long mark (a, e, i, o, u) over all long vowels; all vowels without such a mark are short.

Now sound aloud the five vowels in Latin pronunciation, each one first in short form, then in long. Do this several times until you are thoroughly familiar with the sounds.

The vowel sounds in Latin are constant, that is to say short a is always pronounced as in cup, long a always as in father, etc.

Next say aloud the following Latin words with correct vowel sounds:

amat, amamus, bibo, cena, colo, comes, ducis, duco,

ferimus, filia, pacis, pono, primus, luce, litus.

Read again what is said above about consonants and say aloud the following Latin words:

veni, vidi, vici, vinum, regis, partem, urbis, morte, patres, carmen, iam, iacio, eius, cuius, magnus, possum, annus, mitto, immemor, succurro, immortalis.

Diphthongs

A diphthong is two vowels making one sound:

ae as in English high.

au as in English how.

ei as in English eight.

eu e-u (not a proper diphthong - both vowels are sounded).

oe as in English boy.

ui u-i (both vowels are sounded).

Read aloud the following Latin words:

altae, puellae, laudat, caelum, nautae, heu, foedus, deinde, huic, pauper, .saepe .

? Read aloud the first story in the course (p. 10: Scintilla and Horatia at home); do this several times, until you are fluent in

pronunciation. At first read slowly and then at an ordinary English reading speed. Always READ ALOUD all the Latin you meet before attempting to translate it. Latin should sound like a foreign language (most like Italian), not a debased kind of English.