Some Latin Prayers

Click here to download a couple of Latin prayers that use a number of words and/or grammatical constructions with which you should already be familiar, from our reading in class. The parts that should be familiar are marked in boldface italics. How many do you recognize? Try learning the Latin versions of these familiar prayers and using them in your private devotions.

Alicia in Terra Mirabili

In case you need a little extra encouragement to persevere in your study of Latin, here's a site where, one day, you may read Alice in Wonderland in Latin.

Learn More About Ancient Rome

As we move ahead in Familia Romana, you will learn a lot about the culture of ancient Rome (as well as the Latin language) by reading the stories in the textbook about the members of the Iulius household. Some of you, however, are already getting a little impatient to learn more about the culture, so here are some reading suggestions that may interest you:

• Read histories by Roman writers, such as Livy's History of Rome (which I've referred to in class) or Sallust's history of the Conspiracy by Catilina to bring down the Roman republic.
• If you have trouble telling the difference between the ancient Romans and the Greeks, you might want to read some of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, biographies of Greek leaders and their nearest Roman counterparts, in which Plutarch compares two similar leaders and judges which of them was greater. There is also one edition that includes just the six biographies of Roman statesmen who put in motion the events that led to the collapse of the Roman Republic (later reconstituted by Caesar Augustus as the Roman Empire).
• Read modern novels that accurately reflect and bring to life Roman culture. On my reading blog, I am currently discussing three series of murder mysteries currently available, which not only tell great stories but also bring to life ancient Roman culture. I can particularly recommend the SPQR mystery novels by John Maddox Roberts for illuminating Roman life and historical events in the day of Cicero and Julius Caesar, and the (quite funny) Marcus Didius Falco mysteries by Lindsey Davis, for giving entertaing glimpse into popular culture in the days of the emperor Vespasian and his sons, Titus and Domitian. Both of these series are not only highly entertaining but also give a fairly accurate view of Roman life in the periods they describe. I can also recommend the historical novels of Robert Harris, including his Pompeii, which takes place the day Mt Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.
• If you are interested in the intersection of life in Rome and the early Christian church, there are some novels that illustrate this pretty well. For instance, Quo Vadis, the story of a Roman tribune who falls in love with a young Christian woman during the time of Nero. You'll learn a lot about the trials and heroism of Christians at a time when they were being violently persecuted and martyred. You might also like some of the biographical novels by Louis Wohl that deal with early Roman Christians, such as his The Restless Flame: A Novel About Saint Augustine or The Living Wood: Saint Helena and the Emperor Constantine

Put Audio Files on your MP3 player

Did you know that you can practice with the resources on your Familia Latina CD even when you don't have access to a computer? After you have installed the CD software on your computer, here is where you will find the audio files (assuming the drive to which you installed is drive C):

• C:/Program Files/LLPSI/Familia Romana/latmedia/

The audio files have names like cap1.MP3, etc., and can be played on any device that plays files in the MP3 format. So if you have an iPod or similar player, you can practice your listening and pronunciation skills all through the day, if you just load the audio files onto your MP3 player.

Homework for Week 6 (Class April 10-11)

Nota bene: There will be no Latin class meeting during the Sacred Triduum, so the next time we will meet will be on April 10/11).

Since it will be two weeks before our next class, you would be well advised to spend some time during Holy Week practicing everything we've been reading and discussing in class, to get it really well ingrained in your memory, before concentrating on the current lesson, Lectio Secunda in Capitulo Secundo (vv. 25-61 in Cap. II). Then, in the week after Easter Sunday, you should complete the following:

• Cap. II, lectio II (vv. 25-61)
• Exercitia 5-9 for Capitulum Secundum
• The relevant portions of the instructions for Chapter 2 in Latine Disco (this will be everything for Chapter 2 except the last two paragraphs).

Just a couple of reminders to help you keep up or catch up during the next two weeks:

• You will learn more easily -- and more permanently -- if you use the "slow drip" method: a little at a time, with plenty of mental repetition and practice. Therefore, it is better to study and practice for twenty minutes a day over six days than to cram in 2 or 3 hours of intense study the night before class.
• But don't simply do the same thing every day; vary your activity and build from passive familiarity (reading the lectio) to active use (making up a little dialogue or monologue about the contents of the reading). Active use will be more challenging, but if you can spontaneously produce a correct and complete answer to even a very simple Latin question (such as, "Cuius filia est Iulia?") you will know that you are mastering the material.
• Give as much time and attention (or even more!) to learning and using case endings (or other relevant grammatical constructions) as you do to learning new vocabulary. Since Latin creates meaning through inflection (word endings that vary according to how the word is being used) rather than through word order, accurately use of word-endings will be more and more important as we progress in our study.
• Have fun with your study. See if you can find ways of practicing Latin that will make your time with Latin interesting and pleasurable rather than letting it become tedious drudgery. If you come up with any fun study techniques , let the rest of us know! You might be able to inspire others to do likewise.

Homework for Week 5 (Classes March 27 & 28) -- Capitulum Secundum

First, those who missed class on March 20/21 and did not take the quiz need to be prepared to take it this week. It's crucial that, before we move too much ahead, we all see what problems from the first chapter may need to be dealt with. Each chapter will be building on the previous one(s), and we need to make sure that we are building on a foundation that is rock-solid, not shifting sand!

In class, we began reading Lectio Prima in Capitulo Secundo, "Familia Romana," in which we are introduced to the Roman family whose life we will be following through the rest of the book. As should be almost routine by now, you should:

• First, look at the illustration at the beginning of the chapter carefully, trying to understand what it is depicting. This is a visual introduction to the written narrative that follows.
• Read through the lectio (vv. 1-24) carefully, perhaps first silently but later aloud (to practice pronunciation), pausing at the end of each paragraph to take note of the new vocabulary and grammatical features that are being introduced.
• Pay attention to the marginal notations, which point out the significance of new grammatical instructions. Try to figure out what they are pointing out, and make a mental note. Re-read relevant sentences to see if the context in which new things occur helps you to understand what they mean.
• After you have digested the reading, move on to the Exercitia in the workbook for the lectio you have just finished (for this week, exercitia I-IV on p. 4). Practice these orally before writing them out. Remember that even in the exercitia, there are marginal notations are there to help you -- they indicate the possible answers for the blanks to be filled in, so that you don't completely have to guess what is being asked for. 
• Write out the exercitia after you have practiced them to the point of ease and familiarity -- write the entire sentence or, if answering a question, a complete sentence that provides a factually and grammatically correct answer. Bring your work to class.

Nota bene [Note well]: If you have time, you should also try discussing the subject material spontaneously in Latin, just summarizing or paraphrasing the information contained in the lectio. This week, you can quiz yourself on the identities of Iulius, his wife Aemilia, and their children, Marcus, Quintus, and Iulia. Be sure to use the proper word endings, especially the new endings that indicate relationship (casus genetivus or genitive case: Iulius pater MarcI, Iulia filia AemiliAE, etc.).