Latin Language
Did you ever wonder why the language of ancient Rome was called Latin and not Roman?
The answer is in the fact that Romans spoke the language of the district in which they lived, Latium in Italy.
The influence of Rome as a country made Latin the common language of South and Western Europe. In these areas Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese) were later derived from Latin.
To understand the English language thoroughly it is necessary to have a knowledge of Latin. This is caused by the fact that Anglo-Saxon language (Old English), had borrowed many words from Latin, either directly or through French. This Germanic language group, spoken in Britain, south of the Forth (except Wales and Cornwall), has been making these borrowings both before and after the Norman Conquest (AD 1066). As a result, modern English and Latin are quite closely connected.
The earliest samples of the Latin language we have are inscriptions, and fragments of songs, hymns, laws and annals.
However, the literary activity as such did not begin at Rome until the 3rd century BC.
In most branches of literature the Romans were deeply indebted to Greek models. The influence of Greek civilization on Rome began early (with the commerce between the people of Latium and the Greek cities of South Italy), and reached its fullest development after the conquest of Greece by Rome, which was completed in 146 BC.
The first Latin author known to us is Livius Andronicus, a Greek of Tarentum. Having been taken as a prisoner in war, he became a teacher at Rome, and there produced Latin adaptations of Greek plays (240 BC). The works of the writers who followed in that and the next century have mostly perished, except the comedies of Plautus and Terence (220-160 BC), and a prose work of Cato the Elder.
The ages regarded as classical are:
I. The Golden Age, comprising 1. the Ciceronian (80-43 BC) in which the chief poets were Lucretius and Catullus, the chief prose writers Cicero, Caesar and Sallust; and b. Augustan (43 BC - 14 AD) in which the chief poets were Virgil, Horace and Ovid, the chief prose writer was Livy.
II. The Silver Age (AD 14-120) in which the chief poets were Lucan, Martial, Statius, and Juvenal, the chief prose writers Seneca, Pliny, and Tacitus.
For many centuries after AD 120 Latin was used for literary purposes. Until recent times scientific and philosophical works were often written in Latin. The Roman Catholic Church still uses it in its services and for official purposes.
This website is a product of my own study of Latin. My personal interests focus more on the Classical rather than on the Ecclesiastical Latin and the translations and comments presented here reflect this preference.
Latin belongs to the family of languages known as Indo-European, which includes the following main groups:
in Asia:
Indian (e.g., Sanskrit)
Iranian (e.g., Persian)
in Europe:
Greek (ancient and modern)
Italic (e.g., Latin, Oscan, Umbrian)
Celtic (e.g., Welsh, Irish, Gaelic)
Germanic (e.g., German, English)
Slavonic (e.g., Russian)
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