Latin

Latin I is an introduction to the most basic of languages. Students learn to manipulate basic grammar and vocabulary primarily by reading stories about a family living in ancient Pompeii the year before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Some of the highlighted grammatical features will include inflection of verbs and nouns, variety of sentence pattern, and present and past tense expression. Students will use visual and dramatic and media to present projects that focus on aspects of ancient daily life in the Roman Empire including city planning, slavery, recreation, government and elections, and religion. Students are expected to participate in the presentation of a Latin play and in the creation of various visual projects related to life in ancient Pompeii.

At the end of the course, students will have mastered a vocabulary of about 500 words.

In Latin II students will continue to improve their reading skills by tackling complex Latin passages. Ancient Roman Britain provides the cultural and historic backdrop for the stories in this year’s text. Students will use visual, dramatic, oral, and technological media to present projects that focus on aspects of Roman provincial life including transportation, military life, occupational government, and religion. The grammar in this course includes uses of the participial and subjunctive moods, and the passive voice. Increasing proficiency in the details of this grammar will be used to achieve greater speed and fluency in reading.

At the end of the course, students will have mastered a vocabulary of 1000 words.

In Latin II Honors students will continue to improve and accelerate their reading skills by tackling complex Latin passages. Ancient Roman Britain provides the cultural and historic backdrop for the stories in this year’s text. At about the time students begin to work with the passive voice and the subjunctive in subordinate clauses, the historical backdrop changes to the ancient city of Rome and stories which explore the political and social relationships that defined life in the world’s largest and most developed city in the 1^st century C.E. Students will use visual, dramatic, oral, and technological media to present projects that focus on aspects of Roman provincial life including transportation, military life, occupational government, and religion.

At the end of the course, students will have mastered a vocabulary of 1250 words.

This course hopes to pay the dividend on the investment of effort in learning of Latin morphology, syntax, and vocabulary in Latin I - II. Students continue to follow the story of Quintus as he winds his way through Roman Britain back to Italy and the Eternal City: Rome. There our fictionalized stories begin to morph more towards the history, politics, culture, and society of 1^st century C.E. Rome. Students read about Roman building projects that helped to define monumental architecture for the western world as well as Rome’s uneven pacification efforts in the Middle East, the legacy of which the world is still wrestling.

In the spring of this course will feature a unit on ancient philosophy, especially ancient Greek philosophy. We’ll read some excerpts from Plato and Aristotle and reflect on some of the questions they posed two thousand years ago and with which we are still wrestling today.

This course hopes to pay the dividend on the investment of effort in learning of Latin morphology, syntax, and vocabulary in Latin I - III. Most of the course will be conducted seminar style and will feature authentic readings from the golden age of Roman literature, including such authors as Cicero, Julius Caesar, Pliny, and Vergil. We will explore a variety of historic and cultural and literary topics including the fall of the Roman republic and the rise of the Roman Empire, Roman law, managing the military, political invective, the Pax Romana, and social satire. The second semester of this course will be aimed at preparing students for reading the sections of Vergil’s Aeneid and Caesar’s Gallic Wars in the Advanced Placement course.

Latin IV is conducted seminar style as much a literature course as a language course.

Prose readings come from a range of authors including Tacitus, Pliny, Caesar, and Cicero. Poetry readings are from works of Vergil, Ovid, Martial, Horace, and Catullus. Some of the themes that structure our selections include love and friendship, urban vs. rural life, ancient mythology, the last days of Pompeii. Students will do translation and analysis in class and write short essays on what they read for homework.

The course mirrors the AP Latin course and its structure except that some of the required Latin syllabus is read in. Students are encouraged to take the Latin SAT II subject test.

At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Read and translate as literally as possible from Latin into English the required Latin passages from Vergil’s Aeneid

• Write analyses and critical interpretations of the required Latin passages of the Aeneid, with appropriate references to the use of stylistic and metrical techniques used by Vergil

• Read, examine, and practice written critical interpretation of the entire Aeneid in English

• Examine the historical, social, cultural, and political context of Vergil’s Aeneid

• Recognize the influence of Latin literature on the artistic achievements of the modern world and compare the themes and the heroes of the Aeneid with those of their own culture