The First Session of the Latin Group of Teignmouth u3a, October 2019
To begin with – at school we were taught that you learned Latin because it was good discipline for the mind and the soul. Perversely, I enjoyed it, and found I loved the rhythm and the sound of it. Bit like reading Shakespeare.
“What Country, Friend is this?” asks Viola of the Sea Captain after they struggle ashore from the shipwreck at the beginning of “Twelfth Night”. Not just “where are we?”, or “What is this place?” Fans of “Upstart Crow” will recognise this as what his dreadful old Dad calls linguistical poncing toggling, but to me it is just coming from the mind of a Latin scholar.
The Romans did a lot of “poncing toggling”, for instance their verbs usually come at the end of a sentence, and they were much more sparing with the little filler words that we use with such gay abandon.
And so, in 2019, I found myself “in media res”, in the middle of things, hoping to lead a Latin Study Group for which my only qualification was dusty school Latin, “Carry on Cleo”, Frankie Howerd’s “Up Pompey” and a few Hollywood creations of Rome, colourful but a bit suspect historically; oh, yes, and the BBC’s “I Claudius” (more upmarket, but just as suspect historically)
For writing and speaking Latin it is certainly necessary to learn the correct forms and word endings, and nothing for it to knuckle down and swot. But if you are like me and finding it more difficult to get things to stick than when you were a teenager, take heart, reading and understanding texts can be fun, even for a beginner. So much can be deduced from knowing our own language, and a good dictionary.
For study, we warm up with the Cambridge Course, which starts very simply, and then go on to reading and translating from a variety of sources.
ALL THE SOURCES USED ARE REFERENCED ON THE LATIN PAGE
Some important differences when translating to and from Latin –
Capital Letters – always for proper names, but not automatically for beginning sentences.
No definite or indefinite articles – the girl would just be puella.
The letter ‘v’ is pronounce ‘w’ and ‘g’ and ‘c’ are always hard. There is no ‘j’ instead ‘iu’ is used.
Unlike English, nouns and verbs have a variety of endings, which show their purpose and function in a sentence. They are said to decline. More of that later.
Cambridge Course Session 1. follows a family in Pompey who actually existed. Father, Caecilius, Mother Metella, son Quintus, their slave Sextus, cook Grumio, and dog Cerberus. (I can’t imagine why they called him Cerberus, the three headed dog who guards the entrance to hell.)
Grammar Alert: It also introduces us to our first anomoly, the important verb ‘esse’ to be. It declines oddly and the various tenses are a bit weird too, but more of them later. Also the verb is almost always at the end of the sentence, but ‘esse’ is used as in English.
| sum | I am | sumus | we are |
| es | you (s) are | estis | you (pl) are |
| est | he/she/it is | sunt | they are |
If you refer to your Cambridge Course Book 1 Section 1, or go online, there are numbered pictures to go with the words -:
| 1. Caecilius est pater | Caecilius is the father |
| 2. Metella est mater | Metella is the mother |
| 3. Quintus est filius | Quintus is the son |
| 4. Clemens est servus | Clemens is the slave |
| 5. Grumio est coquus | Grumio is the cook |
| 6. Cerberus est canis | Cerberus is the dog |
| 7. Caecilius est in tablino | Caecilius is in the study |
| 8. Metella est in atrio | Metella is in the atrium |
| 9. Quintus est in trinclinio | Quintus is in the dining room |
| 10. Clemens est in horto | Clemens is in the garden |
| 11. Grumio est in culina | Grumio is in the kitchen |
| 12. Cerberus est in via | Cerberus is in the street |
| 13. pater in tablino scribit | Father writes (is writing) in the study |
| 14. mater in atrio sedet | Mother sits (is sitting) in the atrium |
| 15. filius in trinclinio bibit | The son drinks (is drinking) in the dining room |
| 16. servus in horto laborat | The slave works (is working) in the garden |
| 17. coquus in culina laborat | The cook works in the kitchen |
| 18. canis in via dormit | The dog sleeps (is sleeping in the street |
“in” is followed by the ablative form of the noun. and the verbs are in the third person singular (he/she/it). If you want to start looking at how the nouns and verbs decline, they are given in full in –
THE ONLINE LATIN DICTIONARY
The Online Latin Dictionary is a marvellous free resource, I keep it open when I am translating. Click here to open it.
When you are translating always keep an eye for the English meanings or derivations of the words. Latin is the root of so much of our language and seeing the Latin roots helps us to understand. i.e hortus, garden – horticulture; culinus, kitchen – culinary; bibeo, to drink – imbibe; laborare, to work – labour; dormere, to sleep – dormant, dormitary. ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE ENGLISH CONNECTIONS – IT WILL MAKE LIFE A LOT EASIER.
How nouns decline in a clause – the cases are – 1. nominative, the subject; 2. vocative, addressing; 3. accusative, the object; 4. genitive, possessive; 5. dative, to or for; 6. ablative, by with or from. Examples below –
| canis sedet | the dog sits – nominative |
| canis sede! | dog sit! – vocative |
| cerberus est canem | Cerberus is a dog – accusative |
| caudam canis | the dog’s tail – genitive |
| os cani | a bone for the dog – dative |
| morsum cane | a bite from a dog – ablative |
We will come to how verbs decline later .
To close the First Section of the Cambridge Book there is a short passage about Cerberus. I suggest you don’t worry about the grammar, just get the sense of it.
Caecilius est in horto. Caecilius in horto sedet. servus est in atrio. servus in atrio laborat. Metella est in atrio. Metella in atrio sedet. Quintus est in tablino. Quintus in tablino scribit. cerberus est in via. coquus est in culina. coquus in culina dormit. Cerberus intrat. Cerberus circumspectat. cibus est in menas. canis salit. canis in mensa stat. Grumio stertit. canis latrat. Grumio surgit. coquus est iratus. “pestis! furcifer”” coquus clamat. Cerberus exit.
Caecilius is in the Garden. Caecilius sits in the garden. The slave is in the atrium. The slave works in the atrium. Metella is in the atrium. Metella sits in the atrium. Quintus is in the study. Quintus is writing in the study. Cerberus is in the street. the cook is in the kitchen. The cook is sleeping in the kitchen. The dog enters. The dog looks around. There is food on the table. The dog jumps. The dog stands on the table. Grumio wakes. the cook is angry. “Pest!” “Rogue!” the cook shouts. The dog leaves.
Here is a picture of the mosaic at the door of the house that has survived. Rather touching.
This and other photographs of the remains of the house of Caecilius can be found on the following web page,
https://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R5/5%2001%2026.htm
This ends part 1 of Session 1. In Part 2 we move to our second family.