The Complete Latin Course

G D A Sharpley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780415603898
• eBook ISBN: 9781136849572
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The Complete Latin Course is a comprehensive introduction to Latin for students and armchair enthusiasts alike. This modern, user-friendly text offers a series of fascinating glimpses into the world of ancient Rome, and sets you up to read Virgil, Cicero, Juvenal, Tacitus and many other authors in the original Latin.

The story of Rome is told by the ancient authors themselves. Authentic texts help to guide the student through the mechanics of Latin, whilst giving insights into the history of Rome, her culture and society, her gods, her games, her power struggles and the eventual fall of empire.

Originally published as Essential Latin, this extensively revised and expanded second edition features:

• Reading passages from Latin prose authors, including Cicero, Petronius, Pliny, Sallust, Suetonius and Tacitus, and from poets (Catullus, Horace, Juvenal, Martial, Ovid and Virgil) with guidance on reading aloud and meter.
• A detailed step-by-step approach to Latin grammar, with engaging activities and exercises.
• A companion website with a full answer key for exercises, translations, grammar reference tables for the USA, the UK, Europe and elsewhere, additional exercises, word lists and other supports: http://www.lingua.co.uk/latin/materials/complete-latin

Ideal for classroom use or independent study, The Complete Latin Course will prove an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, adult learners and anyone interested in comprehensively developing their knowledge of Latin.

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Myth, legend and history

Nouns and verbs

A noun is a ‘thing’, like paper, butter or happiness. We often use the or a before a noun. Names are also nouns (but we don’t normally put the or a in front of names, except for a plural like the Smiths). Many nouns are solid things, which you can see or touch. Some are abstract, like happiness, injury or debt. Abstract nouns are not so solid but we may feel them keenly enough.

A verb describes the action, what is done by the nouns, e.g. have, run, speak. Some English nouns are used as verbs, as in paper over the cracks, or butter the toast.

Practice 1a

Identify two Latin nouns and a verb in this sentence:

agricola taurum fugat

the farmer chases/is chasing the bull

Nouns: subjects and objects

The Latin verb fugat appears at the end of the sentence above. The farmer, agricola, is the active one, the person doing the chasing, and so this noun is the subject. The bull, taurum, is the object, because he is on the receiving end, i.e. the one being chased.

Now subject and object are swapped:

taurus agricolam fugat

the bull chases/is chasing the farmer

The endings of the two nouns have changed: agricolam (the farmer) is now on the receiving end of fugat (chases) and so is the object, while taurus (the bull) is the subject, the one who is doing the chasing.

farmer as subject is	agricola
and as object	agricolam
bull as subject is	taurus
and as object	taurum

Negative

Here are some more nouns. The presence of the negative (nōn = not) does not alter the endings. Grammatically there is still an action being described, if negatively:

puella servum nōn fugat

the girl is not chasing the slave

servus agricolam nōn amat

the slave does not like the farmer

taurus puellam nōn fugat

the bull is not chasing the girl

There are many nouns like agricola and puella which have the same endings, and there is another group like taurus and servus:

	farmer	girl	bull	slave
as subject	agricola	puella	taurus	servus
as object	agricolam	puellam	taurum	servum

Articles the and a

There are no Latin words for ‘the’ or ‘a’, so add them to your English translation as you feel it right: taurus = a bull or the bull.

Practice 1b

Fill the gaps with nouns with the right endings:

(a) taurus…………………. {a farmer} fugat.

(b) …………………. {the farmer} taurum nōn amat.

(c) puella………………………. {a bull} nōn fugat.

(d) servus………………………. {the girl} amat.

Word order

In English we rely on the position of the words to know who is doing what to whom. The subject is almost always first, then the verb, followed by the object (the farmer chases the bull). Mix them up and we’re in a muddle. In Latin the status of subject or object is made clear by a word’s ending, not by its position. So the word order is more flexible and variable...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• The Latin alphabet
• 1 Myth, legend and history
• 2 The Republic
• 3 Carthage
• 4 Greece
• 5 New factions and old families
• 6 The Republic under strain
• 7 Friends and enemies
• 8 Civil war
• 9 The Ides of March
• 10 A woman in politics
• 11 Politics and marriage
• 12 The sweetness of peace
• 13 Dissenting voices
• 14 Songs and suppers
• 15 Tales of love
• 16 Women: warriors, drunks and literary critics
• 17 Family ties
• 18 Slavery
• 19 Education
• 20 Life at work
• 21 Life at leisure
• 22 Fugit irreparabile tempus
• 23 On the edge of the world
• 24 Gods and spirits
• 25 Rough justice
• 26 Christianity
• The pronunciation of classical Latin
• Timeline of Latin writers
• Grammar summary
• Index of examples
• Index of grammar
• Abbreviations
• Latin to English vocabulary
• English to Latin vocabulary
• Additional online support