Lingua Latina - Roma Aeterna

[kizolk]

Ah, I've mixed up two books anyway: I was speaking of Fabulae Syrae, by Luigi Miraglia, meant to accompany each chapter of Familia Romana from the 26th to the 34th.

 

[Barbarus ex Finnia]

I have been reading each chapter three times. I read it through once. Then I copy the pensums into an exercise book. Then I start reading the chapter again to fill in the gaps in Pensum B, then again to answer Pensum C. By the end of that process I usually have some idea what the chapter was about, but some of the chapters are long and it takes me weeks to do each one. I think the chapters are getting harder. If the chapters were in English (my mother tongue) I do not know what reading age they would be set at, but they are quite political. Political writing can be difficult to understand because there are various parties playing off each other, misleading each other, and using rhetoric. I do not know, but I suspect it is more difficult to understand who is doing what to whom in an inflected language.

I have worked through an Oxford Grammar Guide again while working through Roma Aeterna, but I have not been reading much else in Latin.

Interesting selection of Latin books you have been reading. I have read Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis, Winnie Ille Pu, and De Bello Gallico. I will look up the others.

It seems that we use basically the same method with the exception that I am usually too lazy to write anything down. I tend to rely more on stumbling upon recurring words and phrases in everything I read in Latin, and somehow I resist the urge to translate everything in my head. Knowing Italian and Spanish helps quite a bit with understanding. I just read in Latin, mostly viva voce.

Oh, the Oxford series is pretty good! I forgot about it. And I forgot about Fabulae Aesopi, too! Considering your level (RA, chapter 52), however, I think off my list only Ad Alpes and/or Fabulae Aesopi would be an appropriate read for you. Latinitium.com has some pretty interesting intermediate/advanced material, too.

I can only imagine that for a native English speaker Latin must be really hard. Different phonology, case system and all that... Kudos to you!

 

[kev67]

It seems that we use basically the same method with the exception that I am usually too lazy to write anything down. I tend to rely more on stumbling upon recurring words and phrases in everything I read in Latin, and somehow I resist the urge to translate everything in my head. Knowing Italian and Spanish helps quite a bit with understanding. I just read in Latin, mostly viva voce.

Oh, the Oxford series is pretty good! I forgot about it. And I forgot about Fabulae Aesopi, too! Considering your level (RA, chapter 52), however, I think off my list only Ad Alpes and/or Fabulae Aesopi would be an appropriate read for you. Latinitium.com has some pretty interesting intermediate/advanced material, too.

I can only imagine that for a native English speaker Latin must be really hard. Different phonology, case system and all that... Kudos to you!

I don't know. I am also trying to learn Old English following your method, but it is taking a long time for the words to sink in. I still cannot pick up a text and get the jist, like you seem able to do with Latin from your knowledge of Italian and Spanish. I was considering changing my method to write down the words I have to look up. Old English is effectively a different language to modern English. Its grammar is more like German, but, still, it is related to modern English. I have studied Italian in the past in evening school. I got an A in a GCSE which is the exam 16-year-olds take. I am often surprised how different Latin is from Italian. Often the words look similar, but the grammar is very different.

 

[Barbarus ex Finnia]

True, the grammar in Latin is so different. I just read chapter 48 today, and thank God it was shorter than any of the previous ones - too many historical dates and names of people. I got a little confused in the end. However, I'm rather surprised by the fact that De Bello Gallico seems to be somewhat easier to read than the latter half of Roma Aeterna.

Writing down the unfamiliar words might be a good strategy, indeed. Old English with its (limited) case system may actually help with Latin grammar. I'm not an expert in English philology, but I guess the Latin influence with regards to vocabulary became predominant only later on, didn't it?

 

[kev67]

Quite a lot of Anglo-Saxon literature was actually written in Latin. Much of it is religious and monks spoke and wrote in Latin. Latin vocabulary came into English via old French after the Normans took over in 1066. Later Latin and Greek words came into English because educated people learnt those languages at school and university and used them to coin new words and terms in their professions.

 

[kev67]

I am on the last chapter. It feels like the last mile of a marathon where you can see the finish banner, but it does not seem to be getting any closer. In the penultimate chapter, Cicero had written some sort of drama in which the various types of government were discussed: monarchy, aristocracy and anarchy. By coincidence I started reading The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, who discusses the the same sort of thing. I did wonder whether Cicero's writings were studied when other countries organised their own constitutions, in particular America.

 

[Notascooby]

Machiavelli wrote a work on the first ten books of Livy. I've not read it but it looks interesting.

 

[AoM]

I did wonder whether Cicero's writings were studied when other countries organised their own constitutions, in particular America.

At least for the Declaration, Jefferson was definitely a fan.

Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee | Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism

www.nlnrac.org