Found in Antiquity

Tag: Latin

  • Twelve tenses: When English outdoes Ancient Greek in precision

    I have sometimes heard people say, “Ancient Greek is the most precise language in the world.” This usually comes from people who have not studied Greek for themselves and haven’t really seen its quirks first-hand. I don’t know how best to respond. True, there are distinctions which Greek makes that English doesn’t make, but in…

  • A Latin counting song and thoughts on Primary Latin

    I’m sorry that I missed an update in April, but there has been at least one reason for that. I’ve been involved in a pilot program to introduce Latin to a public primary school, and so far it has been a blast. Here’s a song I sung to the children yesterday on my guitar. First…

  • Latin and Greek for your pets

    Your dog can learn Latin and Ancient Greek! And everyone in the family can pick up a bit of Latin or Ancient Greek along with you and your four-legged pal. The internet may be chocked full of cat and dog videos, but did you know there aren’t any videos of dogs responding to (grammatically correct)…

  • Grammar or reading: which type of Latin or Greek textbook is better?

    If ever you read Amazon reviews of Latin and Ancient Greek textbooks, you’ll find some very lively discussions on the relative merits of grammar- and readings-based textbooks. (If ‘lively’ is the right word to use!) In this video, I outline the main differences between these two kinds of textbooks, and weigh in on the pros…

  • Keep calm, taxonomic Latin lives on

    As of this week, taxonomic descriptions need not be written in Latin. But wait a moment – contrary to what some news reports have implied, the names of plants and animals actually still do need to be written in Latin (or, Latin with an expanded Greek vocabulary, with some loan words from English cleverly snuck…

  • How to read an ancient manuscript: 11th century Vergil’s Aeneid (Part 2)

    Welcome back to the task of reading a real 11th century Latin manuscript of Vergil’s Aeneid. In Part 1, we launched straight into the task of deciphering this delightful Carolingian Minuscule manuscript, learning some of the most frequent scribal abbreviations. But there are still many more devices to go. Firstly, though, I realise I hadn’t…

  • How to read an ancient manuscript: 11th century Vergil’s Aeneid (Part 1)

    How would you like to read a genuine medieval manuscript? In this two-part series we will do just that. I’ve selected a very handsomely written 11th century Carolingian manuscript of Vergil’s Aeneid. The writing is quite clear and it has a decent number of scribal abbreviations, but it is quite manageable for those trying to…

  • Septimus: a Latin novella from the 1930s

    My neighbour Pat has recently given me her Latin textbook, a 1950s reprint of a beautiful 1930s classic, which may actually have been the forerunner of a revolution in Latin textbooks. First published in 1936, it is titled Septimus, not because it is the seventh book in a series, but for its main character, a…

  • Saint Patrick in his own words

    Today is Saint Patrick’s day. And yet for a long time, all I had associated with this saint was his holiday, drunken green-clad revellers, the Irish, leprechauns, and a story about snakes. He was more of a cartoon figure than a man, a cheesy one-dimensional character not really much more credible than Santa Claus. But…

  • List of Epigraphical Resource Abbreviations

    Collections of inscriptions are very useful but a little intimidating for budding Classicists to get their teeth into. These collections are almost always referred to by their acronym, which appear as a meaningless series of letters to the uninitiated. And since epigraphy is a somewhat arcane topic, it is surprisingly difficult to find the full…