Latin word for listening

Part 1
Intro — Introduction [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
femina, ego, vir, est, sum, puer, puella
tu, es, dormit, quis, non, sed
in, domi, ea, is, studet, scribit, urbe, et
frater, soror, pater, mater
Greetings [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 15 | | 36
Words:
nomen, salve, salvete, mihi, tibi, ei, quid, agit
habeo, habes, habet, me, quomodo, te, se, bene, male
habitasne, habito, habitas, Italia, Romae, ubi, ita, minime
Where — Places [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
iuvenis, americanus, habitat, novi eboraci, novum eboracum, num, urbs
quid, civitas, estne, solus, universitas
iuvenes, sunt, civitates, urbes, multi, quot, habitant, universitates
meus, bostonia, philadelphia, familia, natus
Plurals [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
filii, filiae, dormiunt, mei, meae, tui, fratres
puellae, sunt, habitant, tuae, student, feminae
duo, duae, viri, pueri, quinque
sorores, quattuor, quot, tres, multae, suntne
School [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
magister, magistrum, magistra, discipulus, discipula, discipuli, discipulos, discipulas
disco, lego, linguas, linguam, liber, librum, libros, latinam
studeo, linguae, litteris, litteras, latinae, latinis, latinas
lectio, ludus, discipulae, scribo, doceo, liber
Parents [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 15 | | 36
Words:
quoque, servare, severus, benignus, ille, mater, pater
senilis, maritus, ille, paterfamilias, familiaris, uxor
sepulchrum, sacrificare, pius, is, cotidie
Part 2
Market [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 15 | | 36
Words:
panis, panem, foro, vinum, velim, velisne, rubrum
olivae, olivas, crustulum, crustula, hoc, hae, quanti, constant
velit, da, quaeso, constat, decem, viginti, triginta, nummis
Travels [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
urbem, urbes, visito, visitas, visitat, multas, condis, condit, condo
venio, venis, venit, veniunt, a, ab, unde, nunc
iter, facio, facis, facit, faciunt, longum, ad, quo
forum, domo, domum, eo, is, it, eunt, cum
Plurals 2 [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
sumus, estis, habitamus, habitatis, studemus, studetis, nos, vos
habemus, habetis, docemus, docetis, pueros, puellas, filios, filias, multos
visitatis, venimus, venitis, facimus, facitis, itis, imus, visitamus
amamus, amatis, velimus, velitis, nostrum, nostram, nostros, nostras
Work [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
professor, medicus, medica, ratiocinator, pecunia, numerare, sanare, aeger, sanus
histrio, architectus, scaena, aedificium, construere, theatrum, agricola, ager
pistor, coquere, tabellarius, epistula, portare, pictor, pictura, pingere
poeta, carmen, miles, pugnare, coquus, cibus, mercator, emere, vendere
Routines [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
cena, placet, tu, is, lectus, prandium
taberna, salutatio, patronus, cliens, paedagogus, dormire
sacer, pulcher, noster, templum, vates
optimus, ara, visitare, hodie, debere, gladiator, pugnare
Emotions [test]
Tips and notes: yes
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
fessus, sollicitus, vester, ebrius, senex, laetus, miser
iuvenis, iratus, psittacus, otiosus, ignavus, negotiosus, pulso
tacitus, placidus, perfidus, peritus, comes, socius, contubernalis
impius, fortasse, scio, sententia, interdum
Food [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
plurimus, piscis, pavimentum, pinguis, iacio, iacere
garum, mensa, pecuniosus, salsus, gustare, triclinium
caro, nobis, ossa, vobis, caupona
ovum, pavo, bibere, poculum, patella
Time [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 15 | | 36
Words:
primus, hora, secundus, tertia, mane, excitare, post, ante
quarta, quintus, meridies, horologium, vesperi, sero
interdiu, noctu, tempori, interficere, advenire
Part 3
Language [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
loquor, legere, orator, exclamare, colloquium, habere
loquor, volumen, mittere, bibliotheca
hispanice, verbum, velle, semper, turba, anglice
proximus, inscriptio, invenire, germanice, tacite, laudare
Home [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
lararium, villa, sedere, sella, ambulare, tablinum, mater, pater
latrina, cubiculum, insula, cenaculum, via, aut, stercus, sordidus
meus, mus, mustela, captare, hic, canis, culina
armarium, vestimentum, dormire, solent, coquere, atrium
Gods — Gods and goddesses [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
videre, bubo, neptunus, unda, bacchus, regere
minerva, mars, deus, hostis, bellum, scutum, gero, sapiens
contorquere, iuppiter, hasta, fulmen, mercurius, iter
appropinquare, deus, noli, nolite, contorquere, rogare, nemo
Shop — Shopping [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 15 | | 36
Words:
tuus, tradere, gemma, fur, anulus, concupiscere, aureus
sub, toga, candida, stola, nova, celare
emptor, velle, emere, vendere, calcei, pretium, aestimare
Activities [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 15 | | 36
Words:
balneum, lavare, implere, labrum, aqua
posse, implere, lavare, sedere
tradere, sacrificare, donum, sacerdos, callidus
Hobbies [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
soleo, saltare, colligere, pupa, pingere
velle, cantare, saepe, ambulare, suaviter
velle, narrare, fabula, currere, celeriter, mos, antiquus
natare, lente, ire, platea, piscina
Nature [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | | 48
Words:
delere, pons, rapide, ignis, forte, pessimus, animal
ascendere, homo, arbor, fluere, flumen, languide
exire, caelum, ventus, per, vehementer, perflare
mons, imber, umbra, descendere, de, silva
Feast — Banquet [test]
Tips and notes: no
Number of lessons: 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 15 | | 36
Words:
fartus, perna, esurire, caseus, pane
comedere, valde, olere, sine dubio, tam, nimis
caffea, ientaculum, aurora, stultus, exhaurire, semisomnus, bibere
Total
Skills: 22
Words: 536
Lessons: 81 | 81 | 162 | 243 | 405 | | 972
Tips and Notes: 12 (54.5%)
Other links:

List of Vocabularies for Language Courses of Duolingo
Last update: 2019-09-13

Latin


Latin


All Languages


Quiz


Collections



{{app[‘fromLang’][‘value’]}} -> {{app[‘toLang’][‘value’]}}


{{app[‘user_lang_model’]}}

x

To tru­ly mas­ter read­ing Latin you have to devel­op good lis­ten­ing com­pre­hen­sion skills. To help you with this, we have record­ed pas­sages from text­books and Latin lit­er­a­ture to lis­ten to on this page. Every Latin audio file is accom­pa­nied by a tran­scrip­tion of the recitation. 

You can down­load them to lis­ten to them on-the-go, on your iPhone, in you car or any­where else. Click on the audio links below to access them.

These 1–5 min­utes record­ings of short Latin texts are per­fect for lis­ten­ing to in spare moments. So press play when stand­ing in line, or when stuck in traf­fic, or doing the dish­es, and you’ll find your Latin get­ting bet­ter and better. 

Click here for a method of study­ing and get­ting the most from these recordings.

The Story Of Androclus And The Lion

In cir­co max­i­mo vena­tio­n­is pugna pop­u­lo dabatur.  Mul­tae ibi fer­ae, sed praeter alia omnia leo cor­pore vas­to ter­ri­fi­coque fremi­tu et sonoro ani­mos ocu­losque omni­um in se con­vert­er­at.  Intro­duc­tus erat inter com­plures ceteros ad pug­nam bes­tiarum datos servus viri con­sularis; ei ser­vo Andro­clus nomen fuit.  Hunc ille leo ubi vid­it procul, repente qua­si admi­rans stetit ac deinde sen­sim atque placide, tamquam famil­iaris, ad hominem acced­it. Tum cau­dam more adu­lan­tium canum blande movet, cru­raque et manus homin­is, prope iam exan­i­mati metu, lin­gua leniter demul­cet.  Andro­clus inter illa tam atro­cis fer­ae bland­i­men­ta amis­sum ani­mum recu­per­at, pau­la­tim ocu­los ad leonem refert.  Tum qua­si propter mutu­am recog­ni­tionem lae­tos videres hominem et leonem.

Haec tam mira res max­i­mos pop­uli clam­ores exci­tat et imper­a­tor Andro­clum vocat quaer­itque, “Cur tibi uni atro­cis­simus leo pepercit?” Ibi Andro­clus rem mir­i­fi­cam nar­rat: “Cum in provin­cia,” inquit, “Africa pro­con­sul meus domi­nus esset, ego ibi iniquis eius cot­tid­i­a­n­is ver­beribus ad fugam sum coac­tus et, ut mihi a domi­no tutiores late­brae essent, in locos deser­tos et remo­tos con­ces­si ac, si defuis­set cibus, con­sil­i­um fuit mortem aliquo pacto quaerere.  Tum die medio, in specum remo­tum late­bro­sumque me recon­do.  Non mul­to post ad eun­dern specum ven­it hic leo, debili uno et cru­en­to pede, gemi­tus edens et mur­mu­ra ob dolorem cru­cia­tumque vul­ner­is.  Pri­mo qui­dem con­spec­tu adve­ni­en­tis leo­nis ter­ri­tus sum; sed postquam leo videt me procul delites­cen­tem, mitis et man­sue­tus acces­sit et sub­la­tum pedem mihi por­rex­it qua­si opis petendae gra­tia.  Ibi ego spinam ingen­tem, pedi eius inhaer­entem, rev­el­li et sine magna iam formi­dine sic­cavi pen­i­tus atque deter­si cruorem. Ille tum, mea opera lev­a­tus, pede in manibus meis pos­i­to, recubuit et quievit.”

“Ex eo die tri­en­ni­um totum ego et leo in eodem specu eodemque vic­tu vix­imus.  Nam earum quas capiebat fer­arum mem­bra opimio­ra ad specum mihi fere­bat, quae ego, ignis copi­am non habens, merid­i­ano sole tos­ta ede­bam. Sed ubi mihi vita illa feri­na iam moles­ta fuit, leone absente, reliqui specum et tribus post diebus a mil­itibus vis­us appre­hen­susque sum et ad dominum ex Africa Romam deduc­tus.  Is me sta­tim capi­tis damnav­it ded­itque ad bes­tias. Intel­lego autem hunc leonem, a quo tunc sep­a­ra­tus sum, cap­tum gra­ti­am mihi nunc ben­eficii et med­i­c­i­nae referre.” 

Haec dix­it Andro­clus. Tum omni­um precibus demis­sus est et poe­na solu­tus et leone suf­fragi­is pop­uli dona­tus.   Postea Andro­clus et leo, loro tenui revinc­tus, urbe tota cir­cum taber­nas ibat.  Dona­tus est aere Andro­clus, floribus spar­sus est leo; omnesque obvii excla­mant, “Hic est leo, hos­pes homin­is, hic est homo medicus leonis.”

The Story Of Perseus Part 2 – Latin Texts

Today I’m recit­ing the sec­ond and final part of the sto­ry of Perseus, tak­en from Richie’s Fab­u­lae faciles, which by know quite well known. If you haven’t heard the first part, you’ll find it here below. Enjoy!

Post haec Perseus in finis Aethiop­um ven­it. Ibi Cepheus quidam illo tem­pore reg­nabat. Hic Nep­tunum, maris deum, olim offend­er­at; Nep­tunus autem mon­strum sae­vis­si­mum mis­er­at. Hoc cot­ti­die e mari veniebat et homines devor­a­bat. Ob hanc causam pavor ani­mos omni­um occu­paver­at. Cepheus igi­tur orac­u­lum dei Ham­mo­nis con­suluit, atque a deo ius­sus est fil­iam mon­stro tradere. Eius autem fil­ia, nomine Androm­e­da, vir­go for­mo­sis­si­ma erat. Cepheus ubi haec audi­v­it, mag­num dolorem per­cepit. Vole­bat tamen civis suos e tan­to per­icu­lo extra­here, atque ob eam causam imper­a­ta Ham­mo­nis facere constituit.

Tum rex diem cer­tam dix­it et omnia par­avit. Ubi ea dies ven­it, Androm­e­da ad litus deduc­ta est, et in con­spec­tu omni­um ad rupem adli­ga­ta est. Omnes fatum eius deplora­bant, nec lacrimas tenebant. At subito, dum mon­strum exspec­tant, Perseus accur­rit; et ubi lacrimas vid­it, causam doloris quaer­it. Illi rem totam expo­nunt et puel­lam demon­strant. Dum haec gerun­tur, fremi­tus ter­ri­bilis audi­tur; simul mon­strum hor­ri­bili specie procul con­spic­i­tur. Eius con­spec­tus tim­o­rem max­i­mum omnibus iniecit. Mon­strum magna celer­i­tate ad litus con­tendit, iamque ad locum appropin­qua­bat ubi puel­la stabat.

At Perseus ubi haec vid­it, gla­d­i­um suum edux­it, et postquam talar­ia induit, in aera sub­la­tus est. Tum desu­per in mon­strum impe­tum subito fecit, et glad­io suo col­lum eius graviter vul­ner­av­it. Mon­strum ubi sen­sit vul­nus, fremi­tum hor­ri­bilem edid­it, et sine mora totum cor­pus in aquam mer­sit. Perseus dum cir­cum litus volat, red­i­tum eius exspectabat. Mare autem interea undique san­guine infici­tur. Post breve tem­pus belua rur­sus caput sus­tulit; mox tamen a Perseo ictu grav­iore vul­ner­a­ta est. Tum iterum se in undas mer­sit, neque postea visa est.

Perseus postquam ad litus descen­dit, pri­mum talar­ia exuit; tum ad rupem ven­it ubi Androm­e­da vinc­ta erat. Ea autem omnem spem salutis depo­suer­at, et ubi Perseus adi­it, ter­rore paene exan­i­ma­ta erat. Ille vin­cu­la sta­tim solvit, et puel­lam patri red­did­it. Cepheus ob hanc rem max­i­mo gau­dio adfec­tus est. Meri­tam gra­ti­am pro tan­to ben­efi­cio Perseo ret­tulit; praeterea Androm­e­dam ipsam ei in mat­ri­mo­ni­um ded­it. Ille liben­ter hoc don­um accepit et puel­lam dux­it. Pau­cos annos cum uxore sua in ea regione hab­it­a­bat, et in mag­no hon­ore erat apud omnis Aethiopes. Magnopere tamen matrem suam rur­sus videre cupiebat. Tan­dem igi­tur cum uxore sua e reg­no Cephei discessit.

Postquam Perseus ad insu­lam navem appulit, se ad locum con­tulit ubi mater olim habitaver­at, sed domum inven­it vac­uam et omni­no deser­tam. Tris dies per totam insu­lam matrem quaere­bat; tan­dem quar­to die ad tem­plum Dianae per­ven­it. Huc Danae refuger­at, quod Poly­dectem time­bat. Perseus ubi haec cog­novit, ira magna com­mo­tus est; ad regiam Poly­dec­tis sine mora con­tendit, et ubi eo ven­it, sta­tim in atri­um inrupit. Poly­dectes mag­no tim­o­re adfec­tus est et fugere vole­bat. Dum tamen ille fugit, Perseus caput Medusae mon­strav­it; ille autem simul atque hoc vid­it, in sax­um ver­sus est.

Post haec Perseus cum uxore sua ad urbem Acrisi redi­it. Ille autem ubi Per­se­um vid­it, mag­no ter­rore adfec­tus est; nam propter orac­u­lum istud nepotem suum adhuc time­bat. In Thes­saliam igi­tur ad urbem Lar­isam sta­tim refugit, frus­tra tamen; neque enim fatum suum vitavit. Post pau­cos annos rex Lar­isae ludos mag­nos fecit; nun­tios in omnis par­tis dimis­er­at et diem edix­er­at. Mul­ti ex omnibus urbibus Grae­ci­ae ad ludos con­venerunt. Ipse Perseus inter alios cer­ta­men dis­co­rum ini­it. At dum dis­cum conic­it, avum suum casu occid­it; Acri­sius enim inter spec­ta­tores eius cer­t­a­min­is forte stabat.

(Ritchie’s Fab­u­lae Faciles)

I high­ly rec­om­mend this book for some enjoy­able inter­me­di­ate-lev­el reading.

The Story Of Perseus Part I

Today I’m recit­ing the first part of sto­ry of Perseus, tak­en from Richie’s Fab­u­lae faciles, which by know quite well known.

Haec nar­ran­tur a poet­is de Perseo. Perseus fil­ius erat Iovis, max­i­mi deo­rum; avus eius Acri­sius appella­batur. Acri­sius vole­bat Per­se­um nepotem suum necare; nam propter orac­u­lum puerum time­bat. Com­pre­hen­dit igi­tur Per­se­um adhuc infan­tem, et cum matre in arca lignea inclusit. Tum arcam ipsam in mare coniecit. Danae, Per­sei mater, magnopere ter­ri­ta est; tem­pes­tas enim magna mare turba­bat. Perseus autem in sinu matris dormiebat.

Iup­piter tamen haec omnia vid­it, et fil­i­um suum ser­vare con­sti­tu­it. Tran­quil­lum igi­tur fecit mare, et arcam ad insu­lam Seri­phum per­dux­it. Huius insu­lae Poly­dectes tum rex erat. Postquam arca ad litus appul­sa est, Danae in hare­na qui­etem capiebat. Post breve tem­pus a pis­ca­tore quo­dam reper­ta est, et ad domum reg­is Poly­dec­tis adduc­ta est. Ille matrem et puerum benigne excepit, et iis sedem tutam in finibus suis ded­it. Danae hoc don­um liben­ter accepit, et pro tan­to ben­efi­cio regi gra­tias egit.

Perseus igi­tur mul­tos annos ibi hab­it­a­bat, et cum matre sua vitam beat­am age­bat. At Poly­dectes Danaen magnopere ama­bat, atque eam in mat­ri­mo­ni­um duc­ere vole­bat. Hoc tamen con­sil­i­um Perseo min­ime gra­tum erat. Poly­dectes igi­tur Per­se­um dimit­tere con­sti­tu­it. Tum iuven­em ad se vocav­it et haec dix­it: “Turpe est hanc ignavam vitam agere; iam dudum tu adulescens es. Quo usque hic manebis? Tem­pus est arma capere et vir­tutem praestare. Hinc abi, et caput Medusae mihi refer.”

Perseus ubi haec audi­v­it, ex insu­la disces­sit, et postquam ad con­ti­nen­tem ven­it, Medusam quae­siv­it. Diu frus­tra quaere­bat; namque nat­u­ram loci ignor­a­bat. Tan­dem Apol­lo et Min­er­va viam demon­straverunt. Pri­mum ad Graeas, sorores Medusae, per­ven­it. Ab his talar­ia et galeam magi­cam accepit. Apol­lo autem et Min­er­va fal­cem et specu­lum dederunt. Tum postquam talar­ia ped­ibus induit, in aera ascen­dit. Diu per aera vola­bat; tan­dem tamen ad eum locum ven­it ubi Medusa cum ceteris Gor­gonibus hab­it­a­bat. Gor­gones autem mon­stra erant specie hor­ri­bili; capi­ta enim earum anguibus omni­no con­tec­ta erant. Manus eti­am ex aere fac­tae erant.

Res dif­fi­cil­li­ma erat caput Gor­go­nis abscidere; eius enim con­spec­tu homines in sax­um ver­te­ban­tur. Propter hanc causam Min­er­va specu­lum Perseo ded­er­at. Ille igi­tur ter­gum ver­tit, et in specu­lum inspiciebat; hoc modo ad locum ven­it ubi Medusa dormiebat. Tum falce sua caput eius uno ictu abscid­it. Ceter­ae Gor­gones sta­tim e som­no exci­tatae sunt, et ubi rem viderunt, ira com­mo­tae sunt. Arma rapuerunt, et Per­se­um occidere vole­bant. Ille autem dum fugit, galeam magi­cam induit; et ubi hoc fecit, sta­tim e con­spec­tu earum evasit.

City Life, Country Life (Pliny)

Today I’m read­ing a let­ter writ­ten by Pliny,  in which he treats the dif­fer­ences between city life and coun­try life. He does seem to favor one over the oth­er though…

Plin­ius Mini­cio Fun­dano suo s.

Mirum est quam sin­gulis diebus in urbe ratio aut con­stet aut con­stare videa­tur, pluribus iunc­tisque non constet.

Nam si quem inter­ro­ges ‘Hodie quid egisti?’, respon­deat: ‘Offi­cio togae vir­ilis inter­fui, spon­salia aut nup­tias fre­quen­tavi, ille me ad sig­nan­dum tes­ta­men­tum, ille in advo­ca­tionem, ille in con­sil­i­um rogavit.’

Haec quo die feceris, nec­es­saria, eadem, si coti­die fecisse te reputes, ina­nia viden­tur, mul­to magis cum secesseris. Tunc enim subit recor­da­tio: ‘Quot dies quam frigidis rebus absumpsi!’

Quod evenit mihi, postquam in Lau­renti­no meo aut lego aliq­uid aut scri­bo aut eti­am cor­pori vaco, cuius ful­turis ani­mus sustinetur.

Nihil audio quod aud­isse, nihil dico quod dixisse paen­iteat; nemo apud me quemquam sin­istris ser­monibus carpit, nem­inem ipse rep­re­hen­do, nisi tamen me cum parum com­mode scri­bo; nul­la spe nul­lo tim­o­re sol­lic­i­tor, nullis rumoribus inqui­etor: mecum tan­tum et cum libel­lis loquor. 

O rec­tam sin­ce­r­amque vitam! O dulce otium hon­es­tumque ac paene omni nego­tio pul­chrius! O mare, o litus, verum secre­tumque μουσεῖον, quam mul­ta inveni­tis, quam mul­ta dictatis!

Proinde tu quoque strepi­tum istum inanemque dis­cur­sum et mul­tum inep­tos labores, ut pri­mum fuer­it occa­sio, relinque teque studi­is vel otio trade.

Satius est enim, ut Atil­ius nos­ter eru­di­tis­sime simul et facetis­sime dix­it, otio­sum esse quam nihil agere. Vale.

(Plin. Ep. I.9)

Cicero’s Story About Fraud

Today’s record­ing is of a pas­sage from the third book of de Offici­is in which Cicero tells a great sto­ry: The Roman eques Canius is look­ing to pur­chase a lake­side property.

As luck would have it, he meets Pythius, a wealthy banker, who has just the thing, but Pythius is not selling…

C. Canius, eques Romanus, nec inface­tus et satis lit­ter­a­tus, cum se Syra­cusas otian­di, ut ipse dicere sole­bat, non nego­tian­di causa con­tulis­set, dic­tita­bat se hor­tu­los aliqu­os emere velle, quo invitare ami­cos et ubi se oblectare sine inter­pel­la­toribus posset.

Quod cum per­cre­buis­set, Pythius ei quidam, qui argen­tari­am fac­eret Syra­cu­sis, venales qui­dem se hor­tos non habere, sed licere uti Canio, si vel­let, ut suis, et simul ad cenam hominem in hor­tos invi­tavit in posterum diem.

Cum ille promi­sis­set, tum Pythius, qui esset ut argen­tar­ius apud omnes ordines gra­tio­sus, pis­ca­tores ad se con­vo­cav­it et ab iis petiv­it, ut ante suos hor­tu­los postri­die pis­car­en­tur, dix­itque quid eos facere vel­let. Ad cenam tem­po­ri ven­it Canius; opi­pare a Pythio adpara­tum con­vivi­um, cum­barum ante ocu­los mul­ti­tu­do, pro se quisque, quod ceper­at, adfere­bat; ante pedes Pythii pisces abiciebantur.

Tum Canius “quae­so”, inquit, “quid est hoc, Pythi? tan­tumne pis­ci­um? tan­tumne cum­barum?” Et ille: “Quid mirum?” inquit, “hoc loco est Syra­cu­sis quidquid est pis­ci­um, hic aqua­tio, hac vil­la isti carere non possunt.”

Incen­sus Canius cupid­i­tate con­tendit a Pythio, ut venderet. Gra­vate ille pri­mo. Quid mul­ta? impe­trat. Emit homo cupidus et locu­ples tan­ti, quan­ti Pythius voluit, et emit instruc­tos. Nom­i­na fac­it, negotium conficit.

Invi­tat Canius postri­die famil­iares suos, ven­it ipse mature, scal­mum nul­lum videt. Quaer­it ex prox­i­mo vici­no, num feri­ae quaedam pis­ca­to­rum essent, quod eos nul­los videret. “Nul­lae, quod sci­am,” ille, “sed hic pis­cari nul­li solent. Itaque heri mirabar quid accidisset.”

Stom­achari Canius, sed quid fac­eret? Non­dum enim C. Aquil­ius, col­le­ga et famil­iaris meus, pro­tuler­at de dolo malo for­mu­las; in quibus ipsis, cum ex eo quaer­ere­tur, quid esset dolus malus, respon­de­bat, cum esset ali­ud sim­u­la­tum, ali­ud actum.

Cic., De Off­ic. III, 14

Erasmus’ Perilous Winter Journey

I’ve been get­ting e‑mails ask­ing me to record some­thing by the 16th cen­tu­ry human­ist Eras­mus. Since I enjoy his work and his eclec­tic Latin, I looked through a vol­ume of his. 

I stum­bled upon a let­ter that I’ve read togeth­er with sev­er­al stu­dents the last cou­ple of years in which he describes a dan­ger­ous journey.

Below you can lis­ten to the record­ing of Eras­mus Latin text and down­load it to learn on-the-go.

Per­ven­imus tan­dem et qui­dem incol­umes, tamet­si invi­tis (ut apparet) et superis et inferis. O durum iter! Quem ego posthac Her­culem, quem Ulyssem non contemnam?

Pugnabat Iuno sem­per poet­i­cis viris infes­ta; rur­sum Aeolum sol­lic­i­tarat; nec ven­tis modo in nos sae­viebat, omnibus armis in nos dim­i­ca­bat, frig­ore acer­ri­mo, nive, gran­dine, plu­via, imbre, neb­u­lis, omnibus denique ini­uri­is. Hisque nunc sin­gulis nunc uni­ver­sis nos oppugnabat.

Pri­ma nocte post diuti­nam plu­vi­am subi­tum atque acre obor­tum gelu viam asper­ri­mam effe­cer­at; acces­sit nivis vis immod­i­ca; deinde gran­do, tum et plu­via, quae simul atque ter­ram arboremve con­tig­it, prot­i­nus in glac­i­em conc­re­ta est. Vidiss­es pas­sim ter­ram glac­ie incrus­tatam, neque id aequali super­fi­cie, sed col­li­culis acutis­simis pas­sim exs­tan­tibus. Vidiss­es arbores glac­ie vesti­tas adeoque pres­sas, ut ali­ae sum­mo cacumine imum solum con­tin­ger­ent, ali­ae ramis lac­er­ae, ali­ae medio trun­co dis­cis­sae star­ent, ali­ae fun­di­tus evul­sae iacerent.

Iura­bant nobis e rus­ti­cis homines natu grandes, se sim­i­le nihil unquam in vita vidisse antea. Equis inter­im eun­dum erat nunc per pro­fun­dos nivi­um cumu­los, nunc per sentes glac­ie incrus­tatos, nunc per sul­cos bis asper­os, quos pri­mum gelu durav­er­at, deinde et glac­i­es acuer­at, nunc per crus­tam quae sum­mas obdux­er­at nives; quod qui­dem mol­lius erat quam ut equ­um sustineret, durius quam ut ungu­las non scinderet.

Quid inter haec ani­mi Eras­mo tuo fuisse cre­dis? Inside­bat attoni­to equo eques attoni­tus; qui quoties aures erige­bat, ego ani­mum deiciebam, quoties ille in gen­ua procum­be­bat, mihi pec­tus saliebat. Iam Bellerophon ille poet­i­cus suo ter­re­bat exem­p­lo; iam meam ipse temer­i­tatem exse­crabar, qui mutae belu­ae vitam et una lit­eras meas commiserim.

Sed audi quid­dam, quod tu credas ex veris Luciani nar­ra­tionibus peti­tum, ni mihi ipsi Bat­to teste accidisset.

Cum arx iam ferme in prospec­tu esset, offendimus omnia undique glac­ie incrus­ta­ta, quae ut dixi in nivem incider­at. Et erat tan­ta ven­to­rum vis, ut eo die unus atque alter col­lap­si perierint. Fla­bant autem a ter­go. Itaque per declive mon­tium me demit­te­bam, per sum­mam glac­i­em veli­f­i­cans, atque inter­im hastili cur­sum mod­er­ans. Id erat clavi vice. Novum nav­i­gan­di genus.

Toto fere itinere obvius fit nemo, sequitur nemo, adeo non solum sae­va sed eti­am mon­stru­osa erat tem­pes­tas. Quar­to vix demum die solem aspex­imus. Hoc unum ex tan­tis malis com­mo­di excerp­simus, quod latron­um incur­sus timuimus minus; timuimus tamen, ut homines pecu­niosos decebat.

Cicero on the Magical Ring of Gyges

The first ring of pow­er: Gyges finds a ring that makes him invis­i­bile. This is a short sto­ry told by Cicero in the third book of De offici­is.

Satis nobis, si modo in philosophia aliq­uid pro­fec­imus, per­sua­sum esse debet, si omnes deos homi­nesque celare pos­simus, nihil tamen avare, nihil iniuste, nihil libidi­nose, nihil incon­ti­nen­ter esse faciendum.

Hinc ille Gyges induci­tur a Pla­tone, qui cum ter­ra disces­sis­set mag­nis quibus­dam imbribus, descen­dit in illum hia­tum aeneumque equ­um, ut fer­unt fab­u­lae, ani­mad­ver­tit, cuius in lat­eribus fores essent; quibus aper­tis cor­pus homin­is mor­tui vid­it mag­ni­tu­dine invis­i­ta­ta anu­lumque aureum in dig­i­to; quem ut detrax­it, ipse induit (erat autem regius pas­tor), tum in con­cil­i­um se pas­to­rum recepit. Ibi cum palam eius anuli ad pal­mam con­vert­er­at, a nul­lo vide­batur, ipse autem omnia vide­bat; idem rur­sus vide­batur, cum in locum anu­lum invert­er­at. Itaque hac opor­tu­ni­tate anuli usus regi­nae stuprum intulit eaque adi­utrice regem dominum interemit, sus­tulit quos obstare arbi­tra­batur, nec in his eum faci­noribus quisquam potu­it videre. Sic repente anuli ben­efi­cio rex exor­tus est Lydiae.

Hunc igi­tur ipsum anu­lum si habeat sapi­ens, nihil plus sibi licere putet pec­ca­re, quam si non haberet; hon­es­ta enim bonis viris, non occul­ta quaeruntur.

– Cicero, Off. III

Sallust on Glory and Virtue

This is a Latin record­ing of the clas­sic begin­ning of Sal­lusts’ Bel­lum Catilinae.

Omnes homines, qui sese stu­dent praestare ceteris ani­mal­ibus, sum­ma ope niti decet, ne vitam silen­tio transeant velu­ti pec­o­ra, quae natu­ra prona atque ven­tri oboe­di­en­tia finx­it. Sed nos­tra omnis vis in ani­mo et cor­pore sita est: ani­mi impe­rio, cor­poris servi­tio magis utimur; alterum nobis cum dis, alterum cum beluis com­mune est. Quo mihi rec­tius vide­tur ingenii quam vir­i­um opibus glo­ri­am quaerere et, quo­ni­am vita ipsa, qua fruimur, bre­vis est, memo­ri­am nos­tri quam max­ume longam effi­cere. Nam divi­tiarum et for­mae glo­ria fluxa atque frag­ilis est, vir­tus clara aeter­naque habetur.

Sed diu mag­num inter mor­tal­is cer­ta­men fuit, vine cor­poris an vir­tute ani­mi res mil­i­taris magis pro­ced­eret. Nam et, prius quam incip­ias, con­sul­to et, ubi con­sulueris, mature fac­to opus est. Ita utrumque per se indi­gens alterum alterius aux­ilio eget.

Igi­tur ini­tio reges – nam in ter­ris nomen imperii id pri­mum fuit – diver­si pars inge­ni­um, alii cor­pus exerce­bant: eti­am tum vita hominum sine cupid­i­tate agita­batur; sua cuique satis place­bant. Postea vero quam in Asia Cyrus, in Grae­cia Lacedae­monii et Athe­niens­es coepere urbes atque nationes subigere, libidinem dom­i­nan­di causam bel­li habere, max­i­mam glo­ri­am in max­i­mo impe­rio putare, tum demum per­icu­lo atque negoti­is com­per­tum est in bel­lo plu­ru­mum inge­ni­um posse. Quod si regum atque imper­a­to­rum ani­mi vir­tus in pace ita ut in bel­lo valeret, aequa­bil­ius atque con­stan­tius sese res humanae haber­ent neque ali­ud alio fer­ri neque mutari ac mis­ceri omnia cerneres. Nam imperi­um facile iis art­ibus retine­tur, quibus ini­tio par­tum est. Verum ubi pro labore desidia, pro con­ti­nen­tia et aequi­tate libido atque super­bia invasere, for­tu­na simul cum moribus inmu­tatur. Ita imperi­um sem­per ad optu­mum quemque a minus bono transfertur.

— Sal­lustius, Cat. 1–3

Aurelius Victor on Romulus, the First King of Rome

Romu­lus asy­lum con­ve­nis pate­fecit et mag­no exerci­tu fac­to, cum videret coni­u­gia deesse, per legatos a finitimis civ­i­tat­i­bus petiv­it. Quibus negatis ludos Con­sualia sim­ulav­it, ad quos cum utriusque sexus mul­ti­tu­do venis­set, dato suis sig­no vir­gines rap­tae sunt. Ex quibus cum una pul­cher­ri­ma cum magna omni­um admi­ra­tione duc­ere­tur, Talas­sio eam duci respon­sum est. Quae nup­ti­ae, quia feliciter cesser­ant, insti­tu­tum est, ut in omnibus nup­ti­is Talas­sii nomen iteretur.

Cum fem­i­nas finiti­mo­rum Romani vi rapuis­sent, pri­mi Caeni­nens­es con­tra eos bel­lum sumpserunt. Adver­sus quos Romu­lus pro­ces­sit et exerci­tum eorum ac ducem Acrônem sin­gu­lari proe­lio devic­it. Spo­lia opi­ma Iovi Fer­e­trio in Capi­to­lio consecravit.

Sabi­ni ob rap­tas bel­lum adver­sus Romanos sumpserunt. Et cum Romae appropin­quar­ent, Tarpeiam vir­ginem nac­ti, quae aquae, causa sacro­rum, hau­rien­dae descen­der­at, ei T. Tatius optionem muner­is ded­it, si exerci­tum suum in arcem per­duxis­set. Illa petiv­it, quod illi in sin­istris manibus gere­bant, videlicet anu­los et armil­las; quibus dolose repromis­sis Sabi­nos in arcem per­dux­it, ubi Tatius scutis eam obrui prae­cepit; nam et ea in lae­vis habuerant.

Romu­lus adver­sus Tatium qui mon­tem Tarpeium tenebat, pro­ces­sit et in eo loco, ubi nunc forum Romanum est, pug­nam con­seruit: ibi Hos­tus Hos­til­ius for­tis­sime dim­i­cans cecid­it, cuius inter­itu con­ster­nati Romani fugere coepe­runt. Tunc Romu­lus Iovi Sta­tori aedem vovit, et exerci­tus seu forte seu divini­tus resti­tit. Tunc rap­tae in medi­um processerunt et hinc patres inde coni­uges dep­re­catae pacem conciliarunt.

Romu­lus foe­dus per­cus­sit et Sabi­nos in urbem recepit, pop­u­lum a Curibus, oppi­do Sabi­no­rum, Quirites vocav­it. Cen­tum sen­a­tores a pietate patres appellav­it. Tres equi­tum cen­turias insti­tu­it, quas suo nomine Ramnes, a Tito Tatio Tatiens­es, a Lucu­mone Luceres appellav­it. Plebem in trig­in­ta curias dis­tribuit easque rap­tarum nominibus appellavit.

Cum ad Caprae palu­dem exerci­tum lus­traret, nusquam com­paruit; unde, inter patres et pop­u­lum sedi­tione orta, Iulius Procu­lus, vir nobilis, in con­tionem pro­ces­sit et iureiu­ran­do fir­mav­it Romu­lum a se in colle Quiri­nali visum augus­tiore for­ma, cum ad deos abiret; eun­demque praecipere, ut sedi­tion­ibus abstiner­ent, vir­tutem col­erent; futu­rum, ut omni­um gen­tium domi­ni exsis­ter­ent. Huius auc­tori­tati cred­i­tum est. Aedes in colle Quiri­nali Romu­lo con­sti­tu­ta, ipse pro deo cul­tus et Quir­i­nus est appellatus.

– Aure­lius Vic­tor, De viris illus­tribus, ii

Cincinnatus

One of the most famous sto­ries from Latin lit­er­a­ture con­cerns Cincin­na­tus’ brief dic­ta­tor­ship, and his absence of lust for pow­er. Authors of the empire would often look back to him as an exam­ple of the old Roman morals before they were “cor­rupt­ed”. Lis­ten to the Latin text record­ed from the text book writ­ten by San­ford and Scott.

Dum tri­buni imperi­um con­sulare leg­ibus definire conan­tur, L. Quinc­tius Cincin­na­tus con­sul fac­tus est. Ut mag­i­s­tra­tum iniv­it, rep­re­hen­dit et sen­a­tum et plebem, quod eidem, tri­buni eti­am atque eti­am creati, civ­i­tatem tur­bar­ent. Sen­a­tus igi­tur decrevit mag­i­s­tra­tus con­tin­uari con­tra rem pub­li­cam esse. 

Plebs tamen eos­dem, quos antea, tri­bunos creaverunt. Patres quoque, ne quid ced­er­ent plebi, Luci­um Quinc­tium con­sulem fecerunt. At is, “Min­ime mirum est,” inquit, “si nihil auc­tori­tatis, patres con­scrip­ti, habetis apud plebem. Vos eam minuitis, qui in con­tin­uan­dis mag­is­trat­i­bus plebem imi­t­a­mi­ni. Ego me con­tra sen­a­tus con­sul­tum con­sulem refi­ci non patiar.” Alius igi­tur con­sul fac­tus est. 

Post pau­cos annos Aequi exerci­tum Romanum muni­tion­ibus clausum obside­bant. Cum hoc Romam nun­tia­tum esset, L. Quinc­tius con­sen­su omni­um dic­ta­tor dic­tus est. Legati a sen­atu mis­si eum invenerunt trans Tiber­im agrum quat­tuor iugerum colen­tem atque in opus inten­tum. Rogaverunt ut toga­tus man­da­ta sen­a­tus audiret. 

Quinc­tius admi­ra­tus iubet uxorem togam propere e tugu­rio pro­ferre. Cum, abster­so sudore, toga vela­tus pro­ces­sis­set, dic­ta­torem eum legati salu­tant atque in urbem vocant; qui ter­ror sit in exerci­tu expo­nunt. Quinc­tius exerci­tum obses­sum celerit­er lib­er­av­it et hostes sub iugum mis­it. Tri­umphans urbem iniv­it sex­toque dec­i­mo die dic­tat­u­ram in sex menses accep­tam depo­suit.
 

– San­ford and Scott

Demosthenes and The Donkey’s Shadow

Greek lit­er­a­ture is a rich trea­sure trove of inter­est­ing and amus­ing anec­dotes that pos­ter­i­ty has often used to illus­trate a par­tic­u­lar point in an ele­gant and enter­tain­ing man­ner. Lis­ten to this Latin audio pas­sage in which Demos­thenes tells the tale of the don­key’s shad­ow to make an impor­tant point.

Demos­thenes ora­tor, cum capi­tis reum in iudi­cio defend­en­dum sus­cepis­set, neque aus­cultar­ent iudices, ex impro­vi­so cla­mans, “Lep­i­dam,” inquit, ”audite nar­ra­tionem: Adulescens ali­quan­do, Athe­nis Megaram pro­fec­turus, asinum con­dux­it. Meri­die vero, ardente sole, onus depo­suit, asinique umbram ipse subi­it. Reiec­tus autem ab aga­sone, vim con­tra parat, et asi­ni eti­am umbram se con­duxisse ait. Quae cum negaret aga­so, et asinum dum­tax­at con­duc­tum affir­maret, ambo in ius eunt.” His dic­tis, e con­tione descen­dit Demos­thenes. Reti­nen­tibus autem eum iudi­cibus atque ut nar­ra­tionem per­fi­ceret flag­i­tan­tibus, cum sug­ges­tum iterum con­scendis­set, “De asi­ni,” inquit, “umbra libet, Athe­niens­es, audire, viri tamen de vita per­i­cli­tan­tis causam aus­cultare recusatis?”

— R.B. Apple­ton, Fab­u­lae vir­ginibus puerisque aut nar­ran­dae aut recitandae.

The Story of the Shrewd Elephant

One should nev­er under­es­ti­mate an ele­phant and his ire when cheat­ed. This week’s record­ing of short Latin texts is a short sto­ry about a shrewd ele­phant and it’s revenge…

Pic­tor ele­phan­tum esse providum ani­mal ex hac clade certe intellexit:

Ele­phan­tum enim, dum pro­bosci­dem alte sub­latam retinet, per imag­inem exhibere voluit; itaque puero imper­av­it ut poma in os illius iniceret.

Quo poma ini­ciente diu ele­phas pro­bosci­dem extolle­bat; at, cum iam illa defuis­sent, nec quid sibi esset facien­dum sciret puer, re vera ei illu­dens, poma se offerre simulabat.

Idcir­co ani­mal id sagax, cum nihil in ore reciperet, non modo pro­bosci­dem demisit sed puerum impu­den­tem ultum est. 

Imag­inem enim paene con­fec­tam, per­a­cutis den­tibus totam per­tusam, pes­sum ded­it puerumque invicem ludib­rio affecit.

– Hardy, H. J. A Latin read­er for the low­er forms in schools

Suetonius on Julius Caesar

Sue­to­nius, most famous as author of a series of biogra­phies of the Roman emper­ors, has a par­tic­u­lary amus­ing and engag­ing style, with an eye for detail, and a remark­ing abil­i­ty to paint with words. In this record­ing you can lis­ten to the Latin text in which Sue­to­nius gives a detail phys­i­cal descrip­tion of Julius Caesar.

Fuisse tra­di­tur excel­sa statu­ra, col­ore can­di­do, teretibus mem­bris, ore paulo ple­niore, nigris veg­etisque oculis, vale­tu­dine pros­pera; nisi quod tem­pore extremo repente ani­mo lin­qui atque eti­am per som­num exter­reri solebat.

Armo­rum et equi­tan­di peri­tis­simus, laboris ultra fidem patiens erat. In agmine non­nun­quam equo, saepius ped­ibus anteibat, capite detec­to, seu sol seu imber esset; longis­si­mas vias incred­i­bili celer­i­tate confecit.

In obe­undis expe­di­tion­ibus dubi­um cau­tior an auden­tior, exerci­tum neque per insidiosa itin­era dux­it umquam nisi per­spec­u­la­tus loco­rum situs.

A Brun­di­sio Dyrrachi­um inter opposi­tas class­es hieme trans­misit ces­san­tibusque copi­is, quas sub­se­qui iusser­at, cum ad accersendas frus­tra saepe misis­set, novis­sime ipse clam noc­tu parvu­lum navigium solus obvo­lu­to capite con­scen­dit, neque aut quis esset ante detex­it aut guber­na­torem cedere adver­sae tem­pes­ta­ti pas­sus est, quam paene obru­tus fluctibus.

Ne reli­gione qui­dem ulla a quo­quam incep­to abster­ri­tus umquam vel retar­da­tus est. Cum immolan­ti aufugis­set hos­tia, pro­fec­tionem adver­sus Sci­p­i­onem et Iubam non dis­tulit. Pro­lap­sus eti­am in egres­su navis, ver­so ad melius omine “Teneo te,” inquit, “Africa.”

— Sue­to­nius, Divus Iulius, 45, 57–59 (sel.)

The Story About The Wood-cutter And The Golden Axe

There is some­thing quite amus­ing with this kind of short pithy sto­ries with a strong moral point to make. Lis­ten to the audio of this Latin text about an hon­est wood cut­ter, and his axe. Does his hon­esty pay off? Lis­ten and find out!

Lig­na­toris iux­ta flu­men, deo Mer­cu­rio ded­i­ca­tum, tigna cae­den­tis securis casu in flu­men decid­it. Quo mul­ta tris­ti­tia affec­to et iux­ta flu­min­is ripam con­si­d­ente, Mer­curius, mis­eri­cor­dia motus apparuit, lacrimarumque causam rogav­it; quam simul ac didic­it, securi aurea dela­ta, utrum illa esset quam ami­sis­set, scisc­i­ta­tus est. Se autem pau­perem non eius­mo­di securim habere respon­dit. Deinde aliam argen­team Mer­curius detulit; quam quoque, ubi lig­na­tor suam esse negav­it, postremo Mer­curius ligneam prae­buit. Illam suam esse homi­ni affir­man­ti Mer­curius, quo­ni­am eum ius­tum piumque esse cog­nover­at, omnes dono dedit.

Lig­na­tor autem, ad socios rever­sus, omnia, quae sibi accider­ant, ape­ruit; e quibus unus, ut eadem experire­tur, quum ad flu­men acces­sis­set, securim in aquam deiecit; deinde flens in ripa consed­it. Quem flen­tem Mer­curius con­spica­tus, ac mal­isne moribus an bonis esset cognoscen­di cupidus, securim ei, ut alteri, auream attulit et rogav­it, utrum eam quam ipse affer­ret ami­sis­set, nec­ne. Quam ubi suam esse affir­mav­it, Mer­curius, cog­ni­to homin­is men­da­cio atque impu­den­tia, neque auream neque ligneam prae­bere voluit. Itaque securi lignea amis­sa, non modo improbus sed eti­am stul­tus omnibus videbatur.

— Hardy, A Latin Read­er for the Low­er Forms in School

Aurelius Commodus

Aure­lius Com­modus is prob­a­bly, at least these days, most known from the motion pic­ture Glad­i­a­tor, where he his played by Joaquin Phoenix. The fas­ci­na­tion with this par­tic­u­lar emper­or goes back to the Roman his­to­ri­ans. In this episode you can lis­ten to a brief sum­ma­ry of Com­modus’ life as it is giv­en in the Epit­o­me de Cae­saribus.

Aure­lius Com­modus, Antoni­ni fil­ius, Anton­i­nus et ipse dic­tus, imper­av­it annos tre­dec­im. Hic qualis futu­rus esset, in ipso pri­mor­dio osten­dit. Nam cum in supremis mon­ere­tur a par­ente, attri­tos iam bar­baros ne per­mit­teret vires recipere, respon­der­at ab inco­lu­mi, quamvis pau­la­tim, nego­tia per­fi­ci posse, a mor­tuo nihil. Sae­v­ior omnibus libidine atque avari­tia, crudeli­tate, nul­li fidus, mag­isque in eos atrox, quos amplis­simis hon­oribus don­isque ingen­tibus extuler­at. In tan­tum depra­va­tus, ut glad­i­a­tori­is armis saepis­sime in amphithe­atro dim­i­caver­it. Huic Mar­cia, gener­is lib­er­ti­ni, for­ma tamen mere­trici­isque art­ibus pol­lens, cum ani­mum eius pen­i­tus dev­inxis­set, egres­so e bal­neo veneni pocu­lum obtulit. Ad extremum ab immis­so validis­si­mo palaestri­ta com­pres­sis fau­cibus exspi­rav­it anno vitae tri­ces­i­mo secundoque.

– Epit­o­me de Caesaribus

The Crime and Fate of Daedalus

Daedalus is most famous for being the first man to devel­op a viable flight technology—at least in Greek mythol­o­gy. In this episode I recite this sad sto­ry of Daedalus and the fate of his son as they fled from cap­tiv­i­ty. In this sto­ry you’ll learn why he was locked up in the first place. Was he an inno­cent man?

Daedalus, natu Athe­nien­sis, vir sum­mo inge­nio, mul­tas utiles artes inven­it. Sed Perdix, eius sororis fil­ius, qui a Daeda­lo doce­batur, eti­am puer, celerit­er prae­cep­tori ante­cel­lit. Cui Daedalus invidet et denique eum ex alta rupe prae­cip­item demit­tit. Deinde puerum decidisse nun­ti­at. Cui autem Athe­niens­es non cre­diderunt. Quam ob rem Daedalus cum fil­io Icaro ad Minoem, regem Cre­tae, effugit. Et Daedalus dix­it se Athe­nis iniuste expul­sum esse; se autem para­tum esse regi mul­tis rebus servire. Nec dif­fi­cile erat id regi per­suadere. Nam dirum mon­strum, nomine Mino­tau­rus, nuper in Cre­ta apparuer­at, cui cor­pus homin­is erat, sed caput tauri.

Itaque Minos Daedalum benigne accepit, atque eum ius­sit in potes­tatem suam mon­strum redi­gere. Inde Daedalus mirabilem labyrinthum aed­i­fi­cav­it, qui mille vias et innu­mer­abiles ambages habuisse dic­i­tur. Hic Mino­tau­rum inclusit. Tamen necesse erat mon­stro cor­po­ra hominum ad cibum prae­bere. Pau­cis post annis Daedalus nun­ti­at se Athenas red­i­tu­rum esse. Id autem a rege non con­ced­i­tur. Inde ille novam viam fugae reper­it. Nam pen­nas avi­um in ordine ponit, quas lino et cera in for­mam alarum alli­gat. Has igno­tas alas umeris suis et fil­ii accom­mo­dat. Inde iter per­icu­lo­sum incepe­runt. Sed Icarus ius­sis patris non paret et cel­sior volat. Mox sol cer­am pen­narum mol­lit, et Icarus in mare decid­it quod nomen ab illo trax­it. Daedalus autem inco­lu­mis in Sicil­iam per­ven­it et mul­tis rebus regi Sicil­i­ae servivit.

– Scud­der, Jared, First Latin read­er, includ­ing prin­ci­ples of syntax

Two Letters from Cicero

It is a great turn of luck that so many of Cicero’s let­ters have come done to us. Many of these treat the con­tem­po­rary polit­i­cal events—for which let­ters are an invalu­able source of infor­ma­tion. Today, how­ev­er, you’ll lis­ten not to the polit­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions of the states­man Cicero, but to the wor­ried words of Cicero the father, writ­ing to his wife regard­ing their daugh­ter Tullia’s health. Enjoy this short but com­pelling Latin text recit­ed in the restored clas­si­cal pronunciation.

In max­imis meis doloribus excru­ci­at me vale­tu­do Tul­li­ae nos­trae, de qua nihil est quod ad te plu­ra scrib­am; tibi enim aeque mag­nae curae esse cer­to scio. Quod me pro­prius vul­tis accedere, video ita esse facien­dum: eti­am ante fecis­sem, sed me mul­ta impe­di­verunt, quae ne nunc qui­dem expe­di­ta sunt. Sed a Pom­ponio exspec­to lit­teras, quas ad me quam pri­mum per­fer­en­das cures velim. Da oper­am, ut valeas.

– Cicero, Fam. 14.19

Caesar and the Pirates

Cae­sar and the pirates. What more could we want? This is often quot­ed anec­dote is, of course, tak­en from the Roman his­to­ri­an Sue­to­nius who wrote sev­er­al biogra­phies of the emper­ors. The sto­ry I recite today is tak­en from his biog­ra­phy of Jul­lus Cae­sar. Lis­ten to the audio and find out how things turned out for the pirates.

Com­posi­ta sedi­tione civili Cor­neli­um Dola­bel­lam con­sularem et tri­umphalem repetun­darum pos­tulav­it; abso­lu­toque Rho­dum secedere sta­tu­it, et ad dec­li­nan­dam invidi­am et ut per otium ac requiem Apol­lo­nio Moloni claris­si­mo tunc dicen­di mag­istro oper­am daret. Huc dum hiber­nis iam men­si­bus traic­it, cir­ca Phar­ma­cus­sam insu­lam a prae­donibus cap­tus est, man­sitque apud eos, non sine sum­ma indig­na­tione, prope quadrag­in­ta dies cum uno medico et cubic­u­lari­is duobus. Nam comites ser­vosque ceteros ini­tio sta­tim ad expe­di­en­das pecu­nias, quibus red­imere­tur, dimis­er­at. Numer­atis deinde quin­quag­in­ta tal­en­tis, exposi­tus in litore non dis­tulit quin e ves­ti­gio classe deduc­ta perse­quere­tur abe­un­tis, ac redac­tos in potes­tatem sup­p­li­cio, quod saepe illis mina­tus inter iocum fuer­at, adficeret.

– Sue­to­nius, Divus Iulius, 4.

Never Lose Hope in Your Studies

Of all the moti­va­tion­al quotes and texts I have ever read, I thing Ringel­ber­tius puts it best in this pas­sage from his trea­tise on the best way to study. He tru­ly hits the nail on the head when he empha­sis­es the impor­tance of nev­er ever giv­ing up in our pur­suit of a wor­thy and good goal—in this case the learn­ing of Latin. If you have been strug­gling with estab­lish­ing a study habit—or any oth­er for that mat­ter— I sug­gest you lis­ten to the audio of the Latin text on repeat.

Si nos inter­im suc­ces­sus des­ti­t­u­at, deter­reatve labor, non con­tin­uo desisten­dum censeo. Si forte nos, in sub­lime ten­dentes ad mon­tis ver­ticem, deciens prae­cip­ites devolva­mur, immo cen­ties, mil­liens, totiens arden­tius ac inflam­ma­tiore spir­i­tu iter idem arrip­iemus, ad eun­dem ver­ticem ter­rarum advolabimus.

Rex Alexan­der, gen­erosi homo spir­i­tus, domi­tu­rus orbem ad rupem ven­it ita sub­limem, ut adi­tum mil­itibus nul­lum reperiret. Eo principes aliquot confuger­ant, advec­to com­mea­tu in bien­ni­um, sper­antes fore, ut interea homo aut mor­ere­tur aut minus sae­viret cupi­dine imperandi.

Hi ridentes, num Alexan­der volare pos­set, exploratores ill­luc mis­sos inter­ro­ga­bant. Nun­tia­tum hoc regi est. Qui graviter id fer­ens, volen­sque suos ad vic­to­ri­am incitare, aiebat: Nihil tam alte posu­isse nat­u­ram, quo vir­tus per­venire non queat.

Nec mul­to post, petram occu­pavit, pol­lic­i­tus ante decem tal­en­ta illi qui primus ad ver­ticem evaderet, novem secun­do, sequen­ti octo, quar­to septem, sic usque ad dec­i­mum decres­cente numero.

Qua de causa non male habere quemquam debet, si non prot­i­nus incre­men­ta doc­tri­nae sen­ti­at. Sicu­ti enim horologii umbram pro­gres­sam sen­timus, pro­gre­di­en­tem non cern­imus et fru­ticem aut herbam crevisse apparet, non apparet crescere, ita et inge­nio­rum pro­fec­tus, quo­ni­am minutis con­stat auctibus, ex inter­val­lo sentitur.

Leo­nis cat­uli informes nascun­tur, vix ingredi­un­tur semes­tres, non moven­tur nisi bimestres, sic ali­quan­do egere­gia futu­ra tarde solent provenire. Con­tra quae spec­tatis­sime flo­rent, cel­er­rime marcescunt.

Bene actum secum putat mer­ca­tor, si, post decen­nem nav­i­ga­tionem, post mille incom­mo­da, mille vitae dis­crim­i­na, rem sibi com­par­a­ver­it paulo ube­ri­orem; et nos pavi­dae ani­mantes pri­mo impetu spem omnem abi­ciemus? Quod­cumque imper­av­it ani­mus, obtinuit.

– Joachimus For­tius Ringel­bergius, De ratione studii

Ancient Roman Furniture

I remem­ber the first time I vis­it­ed Pom­peii. We were walk­ing through the streets worn out by the carts that had passed there 2000 years ear­li­er. It was tru­ly a mag­i­cal feel­ing to expe­ri­ence so up close the residues of every day Roman life. In the midst of this it start­ed pour­ing down. Dressed in ele­gant Hawaii shorts, I took cov­er. In our dis­ap­point­ment to not be able to con­tin­ue our walk, we learned of the wall­paint­ings show­ing fur­ni­ture of the time. Mar­vel­lous. Now, almost just as good, lis­ten to the audio of a Latin text describ­ing Roman furniture.

Et in atrio domus Romanae et in peri­sty­lo, exigua erat supellex. In tri­clinio autem sem­per erat men­sa, aut quadra aut orbis. Harum men­sarum mul­tae erant pul­cher­ri­mae et mag­ni pretii. Plin­ius maior de duabus men­sis scrip­sit, quarum alteri pretium fuit decies cen­te­na mil­ia ses­ter­tium, alteri paulo minus.

Con­vi­vae cir­cum men­sam in sel­l­is non con­side­bant sed ex tribus men­sae lat­eribus erant lec­ti, in quibus novem con­vi­vae accum­be­bant, terni in sin­gulis lec­tis. Lignea aut aenea erat spon­da lec­ti in quam torus et cer­vi­cal et vestes strag­u­lae imposi­tae sunt.

Lec­tus cubic­u­laris erat altior quam lec­tus tri­cli­nar­ius et scam­no ascen­de­batur. Varia erant gen­era sel­l­arum in domibus Roma­n­is; sed cathe­dra, in qua fem­i­nae plerumque sede­bant, erat simil­li­ma nos­tris sel­l­is. Omni­um sel­l­arum lautis­si­ma erat eburnea sel­la curulis curvis ped­ibus, in qua quidam mag­i­s­tra­tus sedebant.

Pul­cher­ri­mae erant lucer­nae Romano­rum, quarum mul­ta exem­pla adhuc exs­tant. Ali­ae fic­tiles, ali­ae erant aeneae, sed omnes sum­ma arte con­fec­tae. Lucer­nae, aut in men­sas aut in alta can­de­labra imponeban­tur, aut eti­am laque­aribus depen­de­bant. Non autem claram lucem praebebant.

–Scud­der, J. W., First Latin Reader

Sallust on the Death of Catiline

Sal­lust is by far my favourite Roman his­to­ri­an. No oth­er is able to com­bine nos­tal­gia, moral judge­ment, and an engag­ing nar­ra­tive style in such a pow­er­ful man­ner. The pas­sage you’ll lis­ten to now is tak­en from Sallust’s Bel­lum Catili­nae. In the record­ing you can lis­ten to the Latin text describ­ing the demise of Cati­line, the arch-neme­sis of Cicero.

Con­fec­to proe­lio tum vero cerneres, quan­ta auda­cia quan­taque vis ani­mi fuis­set in exerci­tu Catili­nae. Nam fere, quem quisque vivus pug­nan­do locum ceper­at, eum, amis­sa ani­ma, cor­pore tege­bat. Pau­ci autem, quos medios cohors prae­to­ria disiecer­at, paulo diver­sius, sed omnes tamen adver­sis vul­ner­ibus conciderant.

Catili­na vero longe a suis inter hostium cadav­era reper­tus est, paul­u­lum eti­am spi­rans fero­ci­amque ani­mi, quam habuer­at vivus, in vul­tu reti­nens. Postremo ex omni copia neque in proe­lio neque in fuga quisquam civis ingenu­us cap­tus est. Ita cunc­ti suae hostiumque vitae iux­ta pepercerant.

Neque tamen exerci­tus pop­uli Romani lae­tam aut incru­en­tam vic­to­ri­am adep­tus erat; nam strenuis­sumus quisque aut occider­at in proe­lio, aut graviter vul­ner­a­tus discesser­at. Mul­ti autem, qui de cas­tris visen­di aut spo­lian­di gra­tia processer­ant, vol­ventes hos­til­ia cadav­era, amicum alii, pars hos­pitem aut cog­na­tum reperiebant; fuere item, qui inim­i­cos suos cognoscer­ent. Ita varie per omnem exerci­tum laeti­tia, maeror, luc­tus atque gau­dia agitabantur.

–Sall., Cat. 61

The Story of Aeneas

Aeneas, the famous Tro­jan, that took the long way around to get to his promised land of Italy. On the way he broke the heart of Queen Dido—inadvertently, accord­ing to leg­end, giv­ing rise to Han­ni­bal, the Carthagin­ian avenger, that would almost con­quer Rome many cen­turies lat­er. Lis­ten to the audio of this inter­me­di­ate lev­el Latin sto­ry of Aeneas life. Enjoy!

Olim in Asia erat urbs anti­qua, quae Troia appel­la­ta est. Eam urbem Grae­ci decem annos obsederunt tandemque cepe­runt. Pri­amo rege fil­i­isque inter­fec­tis, urbem deleverunt. Sed Aeneas, qui inter claris­si­mos defen­sores urbis fuer­at, cum pau­cis comitibus ex urbe effugit; cum profu­gos ex omnibus part­ibus coegis­set, in Ital­iam migrare constituit.

Post septem annos ven­it in eam partem Ital­i­ae ubi erat urbs Lau­ren­tum. Ibi cum Troiani praedam ex agris ager­ent, Lat­i­nus rex Abo­rig­i­nesque, qui ea loca tenebant, agros defend­ere paraverunt.

Sed Lat­i­nus, postquam in col­lo­quio orig­inem mul­ti­tu­di­nis ducisque cog­novit, pacem cum Aenea fecit atque postea ei Lavini­am fil­iam in mat­ri­mo­ni­um ded­it. Troiani urbem con­diderunt, quam Aeneas ab nomine uxoris Lavini­um appellav­it. Deinde Tur­nus, rex Rutu­lo­rum, cui Lavinia ante adven­tum Aeneae despon­sa erat, bel­lo Lat­inum Troianosque aggres­sus est.

Vic­ti sunt Rutuli, sed vic­tores ducem Lat­inum amiserunt. Inde Tur­nus aux­il­i­um peti­it ab Etr­uscis, qui totam Ital­iam fama nomin­is sui implever­ant; illi metuentes novam urbem mul­ti­tu­dine et opibus cres­cen­tem laeti aux­il­i­um tulerunt. Aeneas in tan­to dis­crim­ine, ut Abo­rig­ines Troianosque sub eodem iure atque nomine haberet, Lati­nos utramque gen­tem appellavit.

Cum adver­sus Etr­uscos se moenibus defend­ere pos­set, tamen in aciem copias edux­it. Etr­usci vic­ti sunt; vic­tores tamen ducem ut antea amiserunt; post pug­nam enim Aeneam reperire non potuerunt; mul­ti igi­tur eum ad deos tran­sisse crediderunt.

– San­ford and Scott, A Junior Latin Reader

Cicero’s Quest for the Tomb of Archimedes

Mar­cus “Indy” Cicero goes on the quest to find the lost tomb of Archimedes. When even the natives did not believe his tomb was extant, Cicero, using a verse, sets out to prove them wrong. Unlike Indi­ana Jones, Cicero does not real­ly get his hands dirty. Did he find it? Lis­ten to the audio of this text tak­en from Cicero’s writings.

If you find the text dif­fi­cult, you can watch this video, in which I explain the text in eas­i­er Latin.

Archimedis ego quaestor igno­ra­tum ab Syra­cu­sa­nis, cum esse omni­no negar­ent, saep­tum undique et vesti­tum vepribus et dumetis inda­gavi sepul­chrum. Tenebam enim quos­dam senar­i­o­los, quos in eius mon­u­men­to esse inscrip­tos acceper­am, qui declar­a­bant in sum­mo sepul­chro sphaer­am esse posi­tam cum cylindro.

Ego autem cum omnia col­lus­trarem oculis—est enim ad por­tas Agra­gan­ti­nas magna fre­quen­tia sepul­chro­rum -, ani­mum adver­ti col­umel­lam non mul­tum e dumis emi­nen­tem, in qua iner­at sphaer­ae figu­ra et cylin­dri. Atque ego sta­tim Syracusanis—erant autem principes mecum—dixi me illud ipsum arbi­trari esse, quod quaer­erem. Inmis­si cum fal­cibus mul­ti pur­garunt et ape­ruerunt locum.

Quo cum pate­fac­tus esset adi­tus, ad adver­sam basim acces­simus. Appare­bat epi­gram­ma exe­sis pos­te­ri­oribus part­ibus ver­sicu­lo­rum dimidia­tum fere. Ita nobilis­si­ma Grae­ci­ae civ­i­tas, quon­dam vero eti­am doc­tis­si­ma, sui civis unius acutis­si­mi mon­u­men­tum igno­ras­set, nisi ab homine Arpinate didicisset. 

– Cic., Tusc. V.24

Roman Houses

If you don’t live close to a Roman vil­la, this is the next best thing. This pas­sage takes you on a tour of a Roman house, and is writ­ten in an acces­si­ble Latin style. Lis­ten to the audio and pic­ture the house you are walk­ing through!

Vestibu­lum domus Romanae erat vac­u­us locus ante ian­u­am. Per id vestibu­lum erat adi­tus a via ad domum. Ian­ua ipsa erat lignea; at postes saepe erant e mar­more. In lim­ine plerumque erat ver­bum “Salve” in pavi­men­to tes­sel­la­to scrip­tum. Inte­ri­or domus in tres partes divide­batur. Earum pri­ma pars appel­la­ta est atri­um. In medio tec­to eius par­tis, lucis et aeris causa, aper­tum spatium relic­tum est. Plu­via per eun­dem locum in implu­vi­um descen­dit. Supellex erat exigua; at pari­etes pul­chris sta­tu­is pic­tur­isque orn­a­ban­tur. In atrio, domi­nus ami­cis et cli­en­tibus adi­tum dabat.

Ab utroque lat­ere atrii erant noc­tur­na et diur­na cubic­u­la famil­i­ae hos­pitibusque. Locus prox­imus atrio appel­la­tus est tablinum. Hic tab­u­lae famil­iares con­de­ban­tur; et in eodem loco domi­nus pecu­ni­am serv­abat atque suum opus faciebat. Utrimque fauces ab atrio ad peri­sty­lum, ter­ti­am domus partem, duce­bant. In peri­sty­lo pul­cher hor­tus et fons colum­nis mar­mor­eis include­ban­tur. Ubi vela pro tabli­no reduc­ta sunt, tota domus, — atri­um, deinde tablinum, mox pul­chrum peri­sty­lum, — unum in con­spec­tum ven­it. Peri­sty­lo adi­ace­bant tri­clinia, cubic­u­la, et cel­lae omnis gener­is. Supe­ri­or domus ser­vo­rum et lib­er­to­rum usi­bus detinebatur.

– Ben­nett, Easy Latin Stories

Gladiatorial Fights in Ancient Rome

There is, as they say, noth­ing new under the sun. As the UFC is gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty, and dis­cus­sions arise regard­ing its role as enter­tain­ment, it can be use­ful to look to the Romans and their glad­i­a­to­r­i­al games, which though dra­mat­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent, nev­er­the­less, relate in spir­it to the mod­ern equiv­a­lents. Lis­ten to the audio of the Latin text and fol­low along with the transcription.

Romani e spec­ta­c­ulis glad­i­a­tori­is mag­nam volup­tatem capiebant. Qua in re cernebatur non tam bel­li­co­sum pop­uli Romani inge­ni­um quam pra­va vul­gi indoles. Pri­mo pug­nae glad­i­a­to­ri­ae inter mor­tuo­rum exse­quias ede­ban­tur, postea ei qui mag­i­s­tra­tum pete­bant spec­ta­c­ulis huius­mo­di plebis suf­fra­gia quaere­bant. Hoc con­silio mag­nas glad­i­a­to­rum famil­ias ale­bant. Iulius Cae­sar tre­cen­ta vig­in­ti paria simul in hare­nam misit.

Bar­bari cap­tivi et servi gre­gi adscribeban­tur glad­i­a­to­rum, mul­ti eti­am alii ultro nom­i­na prof­ite­ban­tur. Varia erant eorum arma: alius scu­tum gla­d­i­umque, alius clipeum sicamque, rete et tri­den­tem alius habebat. Non­nul­li divi­tias hoc tam atro­ci quaes­tu con­se­cu­ti sunt, per­mul­ti mis­ere perierunt. Cae­sarem spec­ta­c­ulis praes­i­den­tem saluta­bant glad­i­a­tores his ver­bis: ”Ave, Cae­sar, mori­t­uri te salutant.”

– Meur­er, H., Lateinis­ches Lese­buch mit Vokabular

Cicero on True and Perfect Friendship 

In his old age Cicero wrote set his hand to writ­ing philo­soph­i­cal trea­tis­es. These are my favourite works penned by the Roman ora­tor. Today you can lis­ten to the audio of a pas­sage tak­en from his work on friend­ship, where he dis­cuss­es the nature of true friend­ship. Lis­ten to the record­ing and fol­low along with the transcription!

Prin­ci­pio qui potest esse vita ‘vital­is’, ut ait Ennius, quae non in ami­ci mutua benev­o­len­tia con­qui­esc­it? Quid dul­cius quam habere quicum omnia audeas sic loqui ut tecum? Qui esset tan­tus fruc­tus in pros­peris rebus, nisi haberes, qui illis, aeque ac tu, ipse gaud­eret? adver­sas vero ferre dif­fi­cile esset sine eo qui illas grav­ius eti­am quam tu fer­ret. Denique ceter­ae res quae expetun­tur oppor­tu­nae sunt sin­gu­lae rebus fere sin­gulis, divi­ti­ae, ut utare, opes, ut colare, hon­ores, ut laud­ere, volup­tates, ut gaudeas, vale­tu­do, ut dolore car­eas et muner­ibus fun­gare cor­poris; amici­tia res pluri­mas con­tinet; quo­quo te ver­t­eris, praesto est, nul­lo loco exclu­di­tur, numquam intem­pes­ti­va, numquam moles­ta est; itaque non aqua, non igni, ut aiunt, locis pluribus utimur quam amicitia.

Neque ego nunc de vul­gari aut de medioc­ri, quae tamen ipsa et delec­tat et prodest, sed de vera et per­fec­ta loquor, qualis eorum qui pau­ci nom­i­nan­tur fuit. Nam et secun­das res splen­did­iores fac­it amici­tia et adver­sas par­tiens com­mu­ni­can­sque leviores.

Cumque pluri­mas et max­i­mas com­mod­i­tates amici­tia con­tineat, tum illa nimirum prae­s­tat omnibus, quod bonam spem praelucet in posterum nec debil­i­tari ani­mos aut cadere patitur.

– Cic., Am. 22–3

The Story of the Avenging Pigs

It is not as easy to steal pigs as one might be led to think. In this amus­ing sto­ry we learn what hap­pens when you attempt to pro­cure pigs in a less than hon­ourable fash­ion. A high price is payed. Lis­ten to the audio of this short Latin text.

Cum prae­dones ad Tyrrhenam ter­ram navem pirati­cam appulis­sent, ex hara per­mul­tos sues fur­to abac­tos in navem impo­suerunt; funibus, quibus reli­ga­ta erat, solutis, ad nav­i­gan­dum incubuerunt.

Suarii prae­sen­tibus piratis silen­tium tenebant, quoad e por­tu illi se eripuis­sent, et e ter­ra abessent tan­tum spatii quan­tum vox cla­man­tis audiri pos­set. Tum demum, con­sue­ta voce utentes, sues retror­sum ad se revo­ca­bant. Por­ci, ut pri­mum clam­orem sub­la­tum audi­verunt, sta­tim in unum navis latus col­lec­ti eam everterunt. Itaque piratae mal­efi­ci naufra­gio mox ad unum perierunt; sues vero incol­umes ad suos enatarunt.

– Hardy, H. J. A Latin read­er for the low­er forms in schools

Tommaso Vallauri on Q. Curtius Rufus

Down through the cen­turies, many authors have penned his­to­ries of Roman lit­er­a­ture in Latin. Where­as most of these works are often quite lengthy, the His­to­ria crit­i­ca lit­ter­arum Lati­narum, book from which this text is tak­en is uncom­mon in its brevi­ty. Writ­ten by Thomas Val­lau­rius, the pas­sage treats the Roman his­to­ri­an Q. Cur­tius Rufus who wrote a com­pelling his­to­ry of Alexan­der the Great’s deeds. While you lis­ten to the audio you can fol­low along in the transcription.

De Q. Cur­tii aetate dis­putantes viri eru­di­tis­si­mi in diver­sas omni­no abierunt sen­ten­tias. Nec defuere qui hunc scrip­torem antiq­ui­tati inv­i­dentes, cred­er­ent ipsius his­to­ri­am a viro quo­dam Ita­lo post renatas lit­teras fuisse concin­natam. Cum autem in tan­ta opin­ion­um dis­crepan­tia nihil cer­ti hac de re pos­sit affer­ri, prob­a­bil­ior tamen illo­rum sen­ten­tia vide­tur, qui arbi­tran­tur his­toricum hunc nos­trum Clau­dio aut Ves­pasiano imper­an­tibus vixisse.

Exar­avit de rebus gestis Alexan­dri Mag­ni libros X, in quibus non tam his­tori­ci, quam ora­toris partes egit, ut Mile­si­am potius fab­u­lam, quam ger­manam his­to­ri­am con­didisse videa­tur. Quod qui­dem tes­tantur inanes excur­sus, cre­ber­ri­mae descrip­tiones, declam­a­to­ri­ae con­tiones et nim­i­um studi­um in Alexan­dri vir­tutibus extol­lendis; postremo sty­lus floridus, orna­tus, fre­quen­tibus acutisque sen­ten­ti­is dis­tinc­tus, et nimi­is inter­dum trans­la­tion­ibus vitiosus.

– Val­lau­rius, Thomas, His­to­ria crit­i­ca lit­ter­arum Latinarum

What Price did Philoxenus Pay for his Outspokenness? 

Of the many anec­dotes from Greek his­to­ry, this one is among the most amus­ing ones. The poet Philox­enus learns the hard way the price hon­esty can have in the pres­ence of tyrants. But, giv­en a sec­ond chance, does he change his ways, or remain true to him­self? Lis­ten to the Latin audio and find out!

Poe­ma­tis scribendis oper­am dabat Sicil­i­ae tyran­nus Diony­sius, et magis ob carmi­na, quam propter res bel­lo ges­tas, sese iactabat. Arcessier­at ad se, ac prae­cipuo in hon­ore habebat, quoscumque usquam arte poet­icâ nobiles esse audier­at, eorumque iudici­is poe­ma­ta sua subi­ciebat. At illi, ne reg­is benev­o­len­ti­am amit­ter­ent, quae scribebat, omnia prob­a­bant ac laudabant.

Ader­at inter eos Philox­enus, cele­ber­rimus dithyra­m­bo­rum artifex, qui unus adu­lari nescius, cum ali­quan­do inep­ta a Diony­sio recita­ta carmi­na aud­is­set, de iis, quid sen­tiret, libere ape­ruit. Qua lib­er­tate offen­sus rex, rep­re­hen­sorem suum a satel­litibus abripi, et in lato­mias, qui pub­li­cus carcer erat, detru­di ius­sit. Sed postri­die ab ami­cis, Philoxeno veni­am dari pos­tu­lan­tibus, exo­ra­tus, rur­sus ad epu­las eum adhibuit.

Carmi­na sua, ut sole­bat, ipse mirum in mod­um extulit, et de quibus­dam versibus, quos omni­um opti­mos exis­tima­bat, sen­ten­ti­am Philox­eni exquis­iv­it. Ille nul­lo ad reg­is inter­ro­ga­tionem respon­so red­di­to, ejus satel­lites vocav­it, seque in lato­mias reduci ius­sit. Tam fac­etam lib­er­tatem, quae omni­um con­vi­varum risu excep­ta fuer­at, aequo ani­mo tulit Dionysius.

The Life of Cicero, Part 2

This is the sec­ond part of the sum­ma­ry of Cicero’s life com­posed by Charles Lhomond in the eigh­teenth cen­tu­ry. Below you will find the audio in Latin to lis­ten, as well as a com­bined audio/­text-video so you can fol­low along with the text and fol­low the tran­scrip­tion as pure text from Lhommond.

Pau­cis post annis Ciceroni diem dix­it Clodius tri­bunus plebis, quod cives Romanos indic­ta causa necavis­set. Sen­a­tus maes­tus, tamquam in pub­li­co luc­tu, veste muta­ta pro eo dep­re­ca­batur. Cicero, cum pos­set armis salutem suam defend­ere, maluit urbe cedere quam sua causa cae­dem fieri. Profi­cis­cen­tem omnes boni flentes pros­e­cu­ti sunt. Dein Clodius edic­tum pro­po­suit ut Mar­co Tul­lio igni et aqua inter­dicere­tur: illius domum et vil­las incen­dit. Sed vis illa non diu­tur­na fuit, mox enim totus fere pop­u­lus Romanus ingen­ti deside­rio Cicero­nis red­i­tum flag­itare coepit et max­i­mo omni­um ordinum stu­dio Cicero in patri­am revo­ca­tus est. Nihil per totam vitam Ciceroni itinere, quo in patri­am redi­it, accid­it iucundius. Obvi­am ei rede­un­ti ab uni­ver­sis itum est: domus eius pub­li­ca pecu­nia resti­tu­ta est.

Gravis­si­mae illa tem­pes­tate inter Cae­sarem et Pom­peium ortae sunt inimici­ti­ae, ut res nisi bel­lo diri­mi non posse videre­tur. Cicero qui­dem sum­mo stu­dio enite­batur ut eos inter se rec­on­cil­iaret et a bel­li civilis calami­tat­i­bus deter­reret, sed cum neu­trum ad pacem ine­un­dam per­mo­vere pos­set, Pom­peium secu­tus est. Sed vic­to Pom­peio, a Cae­sare vic­tore veni­am ultro accepit. Quo inter­fec­to Octa­vianum, Cae­saris here­dem, fovit, Anto­ni­um impug­nav­it effecitque ut a sen­atu hostis iudicaretur.

Sed Anto­nius, ini­ta cum Octa­viano soci­etate, Ciceronem iam diu sibi inim­icum pro­scrip­sit. Qua re audi­ta, Cicero trans­ver­sis itiner­ibus in vil­lam, quae a mari prox­ime aber­at, fugit ind­eque navem con­scen­dit, in Mace­do­niam tran­si­tu­rus. Unde aliquo­tiens in altum provec­tum cum modo ven­ti adver­si ret­tulis­sent, modo ipse iac­ta­tionem maris pati non pos­set, taedi­um tan­dem eum et fugae et vitae cepit regres­susque ad vil­lam “Mori­ar” inquit “in patria saepe ser­va­ta.” Satis con­stat, adven­tan­tibus per­cus­soribus, ser­vos for­titer fideliterque paratos fuisse ad dim­i­can­dum, ipsum deponi lec­ti­cam et qui­etos pati, quod sors ini­qua cogeret, ius­sisse. Promi­nen­ti ex lec­ti­ca et immo­tam cer­vicem praeben­ti caput prae­cisum est. Manus quoque abscis­sae; caput rela­tum est ad Anto­ni­um eiusque ius­su cum dex­tra manu in ros­tris positum.

Quamdiu res pub­li­ca Romana per eos gere­batur, quibus se ipsa com­mis­er­at, in eam curas cog­i­ta­tionesque fere omnes suas con­fere­bat Cicero et plus oper­ae ponebat in agen­do quam in scriben­do. Cum autem dom­i­natu unius C. Iulii Cae­saris omnia tener­en­tur, non se angoribus dedid­it nec indig­nis homine doc­to volup­tat­i­bus. Fugiens con­spec­tum Fori urbisque rura per­a­gra­bat abde­batque se, quan­tum lice­bat, et solus erat. Nihil agere autem cum ani­mus non pos­set, exis­ti­mav­it hon­estis­sime moles­tias posse deponi, si se ad philosophi­am ret­tulis­set, cui adulescens mul­tum tem­po­ris tribuer­at, et omne studi­um curamque con­ver­tit ad scriben­dum: atque ut civibus eti­am otio­sus aliq­uid prodesse pos­set, elab­o­rav­it ut doc­tiores fier­ent et sapi­en­tiores, plu­raque bre­vi tem­pore, ever­sa re pub­li­ca, scrip­sit, quam mul­tis annis ea stante scripser­at. Sic facun­di­ae et Lati­narum lit­ter­arum parens eva­sit paruitque viro­rum sapi­en­tium prae­cep­to, qui docent non solum ex malis eligere min­i­ma oportere, sed eti­am excer­pere ex his ipsis, si quid insit boni.

Mul­ta exs­tant facete ab eo dic­ta. Cum Lentu­lum, generum suum, exiguae stat­u­rae hominem, vidis­set lon­go glad­io accinc­tum, “Quis” inquit “generum meum ad gla­d­i­um adligavit?”—Matrona quaedam iuniorem se, quam erat, sim­u­lans dic­tita­bat se trig­in­ta tan­tum annos habere; cui Cicero “Verum est,” inquit “nam hoc vig­in­ti annos audio.”—Caesar, altero con­sule mor­tuo die Decem­bris ulti­ma, Canini­um con­sulem hora sep­ti­ma in reli­quam diei partem renun­ti­av­er­at; quem cum plerique irent salu­ta­tum de more, “Fes­tine­mus” inquit Cicero “priusquam abeat mag­i­s­tratu.” De eodem Caninio scrip­sit Cicero: “Fuit mir­i­fi­ca vig­i­lan­tia Caninius, qui toto suo con­sulatu som­num non viderit.”

The Life of Cicero, Part I

There are many biogra­phies of Cicero—fewer in Latin, but of these, the short sum­ma­ry of his life com­posed by Charles Lhomond in the eigh­teenth cen­tu­ry, is a great read for inter­me­di­ate stu­dents, or any­one want­i­ng to prac­tice their Latin while learn­ing about the Roman orator’s life. In this post you can lis­ten to the Latin audio, and fol­low along in the tran­scrip­tion of the text from Lhomond.

Mar­cus Tul­lius Cicero, equestri genere, Arpi­ni, quod est Volsco­rum oppidum, natus est. Ex eius avis unus ver­ru­cam in extremo naso sitam habuit, ciceris gra­no sim­i­lem; inde cog­nomen Cicero­nis gen­ti indi­tum. Suaden­tibus quibus­dam ut id nomen mutaret, “Dabo oper­am” inquit “ut istud cog­nomen nobilis­si­mo­rum nominum splen­dorem vin­cat.” Cum a patre Romam mis­sus, ubi cele­ber­ri­mo­rum mag­istro­rum scho­lis inter­es­set, eas artes dis­ceret, quibus aetas puerilis ad human­i­tatem solet infor­mari, tan­to suc­ces­su tan­ta­que cum prae­cep­to­rum tum cetero­rum dis­cip­u­lo­rum admi­ra­tione id fecit, ut, cum fama de Cicero­nis inge­nio et doc­t­ri­na ad alios man­as­set, non pau­ci, qui eius viden­di et audi­en­di gra­tia scholas adirent, reper­ti esse dicantur.

Cum nul­la re magis ad sum­mos in re pub­li­ca hon­ores viam muniri posse intel­legeret quam arte dicen­di et elo­quen­tia, toto ani­mo in eius studi­um incubuit, in quo qui­dem ita ver­sa­t­us est, ut non solum eos, qui in Foro et iudici­is causas per­orar­ent, stu­diose sectare­tur, sed pri­va­tim quoque dili­gen­tis­sime se exerceret. Pri­mum elo­quen­ti­am et lib­er­tatem adver­sus Sul­lanos osten­dit. Nam cum Rosci­um quen­dam, par­ri­cidii accusa­t­um, ob Chryso­go­ni, Sul­lae lib­er­ti, qui in eius adver­sari­is erat, poten­ti­am nemo defend­ere aud­eret, tan­ta elo­quen­ti­ae vi eum defendit Cicero, ut iam tum in arte dicen­di nul­lus ei par esse videre­tur. Ex quo invidi­am ver­i­tus Athenas stu­dio­rum gra­tia peti­it, ubi Anti­ochum philoso­phum stu­diose audi­v­it. Inde elo­quen­ti­ae causa Rho­dum se con­tulit, ubi Molonem, Grae­cum rhetorem tum dis­er­tis­si­mum, mag­istrum habuit. Qui cum Ciceronem dicen­tem audi­vis­set, fle­visse dic­i­tur, quod per hunc Grae­cia elo­quen­ti­ae laude privaretur.

Romam rever­sus quaestor Sicil­iam habuit. Nul­lius vero quaes­tu­ra aut gra­tior aut clar­i­or fuit; cum magna tum esset annon­ae dif­fi­cul­tas, ini­tio moles­tus erat Siculis, quos cogeret fru­men­ta in urbem mit­tere; postea vero, dili­gen­ti­am et iusti­ti­am et comi­tatem eius exper­ti, maiores quaestori suo hon­ores quam ulli umquam prae­tori detulerunt. E Sicil­ia rever­sus Romam in cau­sis dicendis ita floruit, ut inter omnes causarum patronos et esset et habere­tur princeps.

Con­sul deinde fac­tus L. Sergii Catili­nae coni­u­ra­tionem sin­gu­lari vir­tute, con­stan­tia, cura com­pres­sit. Catili­nae proavum, M. Sergium, incred­i­bili for­ti­tu­dine fuisse Plin­ius refert. Stipen­dia is fecit secun­do bel­lo Puni­co. Secun­do stipen­dio dex­tram manum per­did­it: stipendi­is duobus ter et vicies vul­ner­a­tus est: ob id neu­tra manu, neu­tro pede satis utilis, plurim­isque postea stipendi­is debilis miles erat. Bis ab Han­ni­bale cap­tus, bis vin­cu­lo­rum eius profu­gus, vig­in­ti men­si­bus nul­lo non die in cate­nis aut com­ped­ibus cus­todi­tus. Sin­is­tra manu sola quater pug­nav­it, duobus equis, insi­d­ente eo, suf­fos­sis. Dex­tram sibi fer­ream fecit eaque reli­ga­ta proelia­tus Cre­mon­am obsid­ione exemit, Pla­cen­ti­am tuta­tus est, duo­de­na cas­tra hostium in Gal­lia cepit. Ceteri pro­fec­to, Plin­ius addit, vic­tores hominum fuere, Sergius vic­it eti­am fortunam.

Sin­gu­larem huius viri glo­ri­am foede dehon­es­tavit pronepo­tis scelus. Hic enim rei famil­iaris, quam pro­fud­er­at, inopia mul­to­rumque scelerum con­sci­en­tia in furorem actus et dom­i­nan­di cupid­i­tate incen­sus indig­na­tusque, quod in peti­tione con­sula­tus repul­sam pas­sus esset, coni­u­ra­tione fac­ta sen­a­tum con­fodere, con­sules tru­ci­dare, urbem incen­dere, diripere aer­ar­i­um con­stituer­at. Actum erat de pul­cher­ri­mo impe­rio, nisi illa coni­u­ra­tio in Ciceronem et Anto­ni­um con­sules incidis­set, quo­rum alter indus­tria rem pate­fecit, alter manu oppres­sit. Cum Cicero, habito sen­atu, in prae­sen­tem reum per­oras­set, Catili­na, incendi­um suum ruina se restinc­turum esse mini­tans, Roma profugit et ad exerci­tum, quem par­aver­at, profi­cisc­i­tur, signa inlatu­rus urbi. Sed socii eius, qui in urbe remanser­ant, com­pre­hen­si in carcere necati sunt. A. Ful­vius, vir sen­a­torii ordi­nis, fil­i­um, iuven­em et inge­nio et for­ma inter aequales niten­tem, pra­vo con­silio Catili­nae amici­ti­am secu­tum inque cas­tra eius ruentem, ex medio itinere retrac­tum sup­p­li­cio mor­tis adfecit, prae­fa­tus non se Catili­nae illum adver­sus patri­am, sed patri­ae adver­sus Catili­nam genuisse.

Neque eo magis ab incep­to Catili­na des­ti­tit, sed infestis sig­nis Romam petens Antonii exerci­tu opprim­i­tur. Quam atrociter dim­i­ca­tum sit exi­tus docuit: nemo hostium bel­lo super­fuit; quem quisque in pug­nan­do ceper­at locum, eum amis­sa ani­ma tege­bat. Catili­na longe a suis inter hostium cadav­era reper­tus est: pul­cher­ri­ma morte, si pro patria sic con­cidis­set! Sen­a­tus pop­u­lusque Romanus Ciceronem patrem patri­ae appellav­it. Cicero ipse in ora­tione pro Sul­la palam praed­i­cat con­sil­i­um patri­ae ser­van­dae fuisse iniec­tum sibi a diis, cum Catili­na coni­uras­set adver­sus eam. “O dii immor­tales,” inquit “vos pro­fec­to incendis­tis tum ani­mum meum cupid­i­tate con­ser­van­dae patri­ae. Vos avo­castis me a cog­i­ta­tion­ibus omnibus ceteris et con­vertis­tis ad salutem unam patri­ae. Vos denique prae­tulis­tis men­ti meae claris­si­mum lumen in tene­bris tan­tis erroris et insci­en­ti­ae. Tribuam enim vobis, quae sunt ves­tra. Nec vero pos­sum tan­tum dare inge­nio meo, ut dis­pex­erim sponte mea in tem­pes­tate illa tur­bu­len­tis­si­ma rei pub­li­cae, quid esset opti­mum factu.”

The Life and Death of Brutus

Hodie vobis recitabo locum e libro qui inscribitur Urbis Romae viri illus­tres quem Car­o­lus Lhomond saecu­lo duode­vices­i­mo com­po­suit in usum dis­cip­u­lo­rum et, ut ex ipsa inscrip­tione patet, trac­tan­tur viri claris­si­mi Romae quales fuerunt Cicero et Caesar.

Mar­cus Bru­tus ex illa gente, quae Roma Tar­quin­ios eiecer­at ori­un­dus, Athe­nis philosophi­am, Rho­di elo­quen­ti­am didic­it. Eius pater, qui Syl­lae part­ibus adversabatur, ius­su Pom­pei inter­fec­tus erat; unde Bru­tus cum eo graves gesser­at simul­tates. Bel­lo tamen civili Pom­pei causam, quod ius­tior videre­tur, secu­tus dolorem suum reipub­li­cae util­i­tati posthabuit.

Vic­to Pom­peio, Bru­tus a Cae­sare ser­va­tus est, et prae­tor eti­am fac­tus. Postea cum Cae­sar super­bia ela­tus sen­a­tum con­tem­nere, et reg­num affectare coepis­set, pop­u­lus prae­sen­ti statu haud lae­tus vin­dicem lib­er­tatis require­bat. Sub­scripsere quidam L. Bru­ti stat­u­ae: “Uti­nam viveres!” Item ipsius Cae­saris stat­u­ae: “Bru­tus quia reges eiecit, primus con­sul fac­tus est; hic, quia con­sules eiecit, postremo rex fac­tus est.” Inscrip­tum quoque est M. Bru­ti prae­toris tri­bunali: “Dormis, Brute!” 

M. Bru­tus, cog­ni­ta pop­uli Romani vol­un­tate, adver­sus Cae­sarem con­spir­av­it. Pri­die quam Cae­sar est occis­us, Por­cia Bru­ti uxor, Cato­nis fil­ia, con­silii con­scia, egres­so cubicu­lum Bru­to cul­tel­lum ton­so­ri­um, qua­si unguium rese­can­do­rum causa, poposc­it, eoque velut forte elap­so se vulneravit. 

Clam­ore ancil­larum voca­tus in cubicu­lum uxoris Bru­tus obi­ur­gare eam coepit, quod ton­soris praeripuis­set offi­ci­um; at Por­cia ei secre­to dix­it: “Non est,” inquit, ”hoc temer­ar­i­um fac­tum meum, sed in in tali statu nos­tro mei erga te amor­is cer­tis­si­mum indi­ci­um. Experiri enim volui, si tibi proposi­tum ex sen­ten­tia parum ces­sis­set, quam aequo ani­mo me fer­ro essem interemptura.”

Quibus ver­bis audi­tis, Bru­tus ad caelum manus et ocu­los sus­tulisse dic­i­tur et excla­mavisse: “Uti­nam dignus tali coni­uge mar­i­tus videri possem!”

Inter­fec­to Cae­sare cum Anto­nius, vestem eius san­guino­len­tam osten­tans, pop­u­lum velu­ti furore quo­dam adver­sus coni­u­ratos inflam­mas­set, Bru­tus in Mace­do­niam con­ces­sit, ibique apud urbem Philip­pos adver­sus Anto­ni­um et Octavi­um dimicavit. 

Vic­tus acie, cum in tumu­lum se nocte recepis­set, audi­ta Cas­sii morte, ne in hostium manus veniret, uni ex comitibus latus trans­fo­di­en­dum praebuit. 

Anto­nius, Bru­ti cor­pus lib­er­to suo sepelien­dum tra­did­it, quoque hon­o­ratius cre­mare­tur, ini­ci ei suum palu­da­men­tum ius­sit, iacen­tem non hostem, sed civem depos­i­to exis­ti­mans odio. Cumque inter­cep­tum a lib­er­to palu­da­men­tum com­peris­set, ira perci­tus prot­i­nus in eum ani­mad­ver­tit, prae­fa­tus: “Quid? tu igno­rasti cuius tibi viri sepul­tur­am com­mi­sis­sem?” Non eadem fuit Octa­viani erga Bru­tum mod­er­a­tio, is enim avul­sum Bru­ti caput Romam mis­it, ut G. Cae­saris stat­u­ae subicere­tur. Por­cia cum vic­tum et interemp­tum virum suum cog­no­vis­set, quia fer­rum non dabatur, ardentes ore car­bones hausit, vir­ilem patris exi­tum muli­er imi­ta­ta novo mor­tis genere.

Cicero on the Circus Games

Abhinc aliqu­os menses recitavi epis­tu­lam Cicero­nis et nunc mihi tem­pus max­i­mum esse vide­tur ut alter­am epis­tu­lam ab eodem scrip­tore scrip­tam recitem qua Cicero ami­co aper­it quid de lud­is circensi­bus sen­ti­at. Iuvat pro­fec­to audire quid Romani ipsi senserint de his lud­is quibus homines et bes­ti­ae interficiebantur.

M. CICERO S. D. M. MARIO.

Si te dolor aliqui cor­poris aut infir­mi­tas vale­tu­di­nis tuae tenu­it, quo minus ad ludos venires, for­tu­nae magis tribuo quam sapi­en­ti­ae tuae; sin haec, quae ceteri miran­tur, con­tem­nen­da dux­isti et, cum per vale­tudinem poss­es, venire tamen noluisti, utrumque lae­tor, et sine dolore cor­poris te fuisse et ani­mo valuisse, cum ea, quae sine causa miran­tur alii, neglex­eris, modo ut tibi con­sti­ter­it fruc­tus otii tui, quo qui­dem tibi per­frui mir­i­fice licuit, cum ess­es in ista amoen­i­tate paene solus relic­tus. Neque tamen dubito, quin tu in illo cubicu­lo tuo, ex quo tibi Stabi­anum per­foran­do pate­fecisti sinum, per eos dies matuti­na tem­po­ra lec­tiun­culis con­sumpseris, cum illi interea, qui te istic reli­querunt, spectar­ent com­munes mimos semisomni.

Reli­quas vero partes diei tu con­sume­bas iis delec­ta­tion­ibus, quas tibi ipse ad arbi­tri­um tuum com­para­ras, nobis autem erant ea per­pe­tien­da, quae Sp. Mae­cius probavisset.

Omni­no, si quaeris, ludi appa­ratis­si­mi, sed non tui stom­achi; coniec­turam enim facio de meo; nam pri­mum hon­oris causa in scae­nam redier­ant ii, quos ego hon­oris causa de scae­na deces­sisse arbi­tra­bar; deli­ci­ae vero tuae, nos­ter Aeso­pus, eius­mo­di fuit, ut ei desinere per omnes homines liceret: is iurare cum coepis­set, vox eum defecit in illo loco: “si sci­ens fal­lo.” Quid tibi ego alia nar­rem? nos­ti enim reliqu­os ludos, qui ne id qui­dem lep­oris habuerunt, quod solent medioc­res ludi; appa­ra­tus enim spec­ta­tio tolle­bat omnem hilar­i­tatem, quo qui­dem appa­ratu non dubito quin ani­mo aeq­ui­s­si­mo carueris; quid enim delec­ta­tio­n­is habent ses­cen­ti muli in Clytaemnes­tra aut in Equo Troiano creter­rarum tria mil­ia aut armatu­ra varia ped­i­ta­tus et equi­tatus in ali­qua pugna? quae pop­u­larem admi­ra­tionem habuerunt, delec­ta­tionem tibi nul­lam attulissent.

Quod si tu per eos dies oper­am dedisti Pro­to­geni tuo, dum­mo­do is tibi quid­vis potius quam ora­tiones meas leg­erit, ne tu haud paulo plus quam quisquam nos­trum delec­ta­tio­n­is habuisti; non enim te puto Grae­cos aut Oscos ludos desiderasse, prae­ser­tim cum Oscos vel in sen­atu vestro spectare pos­sis, Grae­cos ita non ames, ut ne ad vil­lam qui­dem tuam via Grae­ca ire soleas. Nam quid ego te ath­le­tas putem desider­are, qui glad­i­a­tores con­tempseris? in quibus ipse Pom­peius con­fite­tur se et oper­am et oleum perdidisse.

Reli­quae sunt vena­tiones binae per dies quinque, magnificae—nemo negat—, sed quae potest homi­ni esse poli­to delec­ta­tio, cum aut homo imbe­cil­lus a valen­tis­si­ma bes­tia laniatur aut praeclara bes­tia venab­u­lo trans­ver­ber­atur? quae tamen, si viden­da sunt, saepe vidisti, neque nos, qui haec spec­tavimus, quidquam novi vidimus. Extremus ele­phan­to­rum dies fuit: in quo admi­ra­tio magna vul­gi atque tur­bae, delec­ta­tio nul­la exsti­tit; quin eti­am mis­eri­cor­dia quaedam con­se­cu­ta est atque opinio eius­mo­di, esse quan­dam illi belu­ae cum genere humano societatem.

His ego tamen diebus, lud­is scaeni­cis, ne forte videar tibi non modo bea­t­us, sed liber omni­no fuisse, dirupi me paene in iudi­cio Gal­li Caninii, famil­iaris tui. Quod si tam facilem pop­u­lum haberem, quam Aeso­pus habuit, liben­ter mehercule artem desinerem tecumque et cum sim­ilibus nos­tri viverem; nam me cum antea taede­bat, cum et aetas et ambi­tio me horta­batur et lice­bat denique, quem nole­bam, non defend­ere, tum vero hoc tem­pore vita nul­la est; neque enim fruc­tum ullum laboris exspec­to et cogor non­numquam homines non optime de me mer­i­tos rogatu eorum, qui bene mer­i­ti sunt, defendere.

Itaque quaero causas omnes ali­quan­do viven­di arbi­tratu meo teque et istam rationem otii tui et lau­do vehe­menter et probo, quodque nos minus inter­vi­sis, hoc fero ani­mo aequiore, quod, si Romae ess­es, tamen neque nos lep­ore tuo neque te—si qui est in me—meo frui liceret propter molestis­si­mas occu­pa­tiones meas; quibus si me relaxaro—nam, ut plane exsolvam, non pos­tu­lo—, te ipsum, qui mul­tos annos nihil ali­ud com­men­taris, doce­bo pro­fec­to, quid sit human­iter vivere. Tu modo istam imbe­cil­li­tatem vale­tu­di­nis tuae sus­ten­ta et tuere, ut facis, ut nos­tras vil­las obire et mecum simul lectic­u­la con­cur­sare pos­sis. Haec ad te pluribus ver­bis scrip­si, quam soleo, non otii abun­dan­tia, sed amor­is erga te, quod me quadam epis­tu­la subin­vi­taras, si memo­ria tenes, ut ad te aliq­uid eius­mo­di scriberem, quo minus te praeter­mi­sisse ludos poen­iteret: quod si asse­cu­tus sum, gaudeo; sin minus, hoc me tamen con­solor, quod posthac ad ludos venies nosque vis­es neque epis­tulis relin­ques meis spem ali­quam delec­ta­tio­n­is tuae.

The Story of Theseus, Part II

This is the sec­ond part of the sto­ry of the Greek hero The­seus and his adven­tures. If you haven’t lis­ten to the first part, I sug­gest you do that first.

Aegeus et Noverca

Interea Aegeus rex Medeam venefi­cam, quae Athenas nuper ven­er­at, in mat­ri­mo­ni­um dux­er­at. Ex ea autem nul­los liberos habuit. Quam ob rem vig­in­ti fil­ii Pal­lan­tis, fratris Aegei, reg­num sibi occu­pare con­stituerunt. His hominibus ea coni­u­ra­tio pros­pere evenit. Nam regem cum Medea in regiam se recipere cogunt, atque ipsi reg­num occupant. 

Olim, reg­nante Aegeo, Andro­geus Minois fil­ius Athenas ven­it, atque ludo­rum, qui ibi quotan­nis cel­e­bra­ban­tur, vic­tor appel­la­tus est. Haud ita mul­to post, casu nescio quo neca­tus est. Quam ob rem Minos, incen­sus ira, bel­lum cum Athe­nien­si­bus ges­sit. Quibus vic­tis ter­ri­bile trib­u­tum impo­suit. Eos enim quotan­nis septem iuvenes septemque vir­gines ad cibum Mino­tau­ro mit­tere iussit. 

Ea re cog­ni­ta, The­seus Cre­tam nav­i­gare et cum mon­stro pugnare con­sti­tu­it. Nec lacrim­is patris nec precibus pop­uli motus est. Denique sortes ducun­tur et omnia para­ta sunt. Infe­lices iuvenes cum The­seo navem atris velis aptatam, signum luc­tus, con­scen­dunt. Quam navem The­seus patri promit­tit albis velis aptatam, signum vic­to­ri­ae, Athenas red­i­tu­ram esse. 

Mox nau­tae navem solvunt, et altum mare petunt. Pau­cis post diebus navis Cre­tam appul­sa est. Cap­tivi exposi­ti ad regem ducun­tur. Tum pri­mum Ari­adne, pul­chra Minois fil­ia, The­sea videt. Sta­tim admi­ra­tione et mis­eri­cor­dia mota, nobilem iuven­em ser­vare con­sti­tu­it. Itaque vir­go, cap­tivis in carcerem duc­tis, cus­todes auro cor­rumpit, ac ipsa The­sei gla­d­i­um et filum dat. 

Ves­peri cus­todes The­sea in labyrinthum ducunt. Prope introi­tum autem iuve­nis cus­todibus insci­en­tibus filum adnec­tit. Subito ter­ri­bilem mugi­tum exaudi­unt. Inde cus­todes ex labyrintho disce­dunt et The­seus solus relin­quitur. Mox Mino­tau­rum videt. Tum acer­ri­ma erat pugna. Nam Mino­tau­ro erant et vires tau­ri et dolus celer­i­tasque homin­is. Denique vul­ner­ibus con­fec­tum mon­strum cadit. 

The­seus et Ariadne

Mino­tau­ro vic­to, The­seus filo viam, qua ven­er­at, celerit­er repetit. Ad introi­tum labyrinthi Ari­ad­nen videt, quae, metu tremens, iuven­em peti­tum ven­er­at. Nunc tan­dem vir­go lae­ta eum vic­torem videt, atque ei dic­it se omnia par­avisse; cus­todes carceris som­no vinoque sepul­tos esse; eius comites ad nav­i­gan­dum paratos esse. Sta­tim The­seus cum Ari­adne ad litus prop­er­at, ubi iam comites con­ven­er­ant. Sine tumul­tu omnes navem atris velis con­scen­dunt et nocte tec­ti per classem Minois evadunt. 

Nunc tan­dem eis est spes patri­ae viden­dae. Pos­tero die Nax­on veni­unt. Hic ab omni per­icu­lo tuti pau­cos dies manserunt. Tum The­seus et comites navem con­scen­dunt et Athenas cur­sum deri­gunt. Ari­adne autem in insu­la relic­ta est, quam ob rem, relic­ta sit, dif­fi­cile dic­tu est. 

Alii dicunt The­sei in ani­mo esse Nax­on postea redire ad ducen­dam Ari­ad­nen in mat­ri­mo­ni­um; alii deum Bac­chum coegisse iuven­em Ari­ad­nen relin­quere dicunt. Saltem cer­tum est Bac­chum eam in caelum secum evexisse et ei coro­n­am septem stel­larum dedisse. Eti­am nunc enim nocte in cae­lo Ari­ad­nea coro­na cernitur. 

Iam mul­tos dies Aegeus rex red­i­tum navis exspectabat, quae suum fil­i­um ad Cre­tam evex­er­at cum procul tan­dem navem cer­nit, sed – eheu! – atris velis! Nam The­seus casu nescio quo vela non mutaver­at. Tum rex mag­no dolore affec­tus se ex alta rupe in mare deiecit; unde mari nomen est Aegaeum. 

Inde The­seus rex Athenarum sapi­en­ter civ­i­tatem rege­bat. Aethram, matrem suam, Troezene arces­siv­it, quam sem­per habebat prae­cipuo honore.

Athe­nis in hoc statu erant res, ubi The­seus in urbem ven­it. Sine mora iuve­nis ad Aegei regiam con­tendit, atque tan­dem adi­tum ad patrem habuit. Sed Aegeus hunc iuven­em, qui Troezene ven­er­at, non agnovit. Quin eti­am eum pro hoste habuit, atque con­silio uxoris ei vinum ded­it, quo Medea venenum miscuerat. 

The­seus pocu­lum dex­tra sumpser­at, ubi pater in ebur­neo capu­lo glad­ii agnovit signa sui gener­is, atque pocu­lum ab ore excus­sit. Inde Medea per sua carmi­na effugit. At Aegeus ingen­ti gau­dio com­ple­batur, quod fil­ius inco­lu­mis erat, atque eum in regiam laetis­simus accepit. Postquam The­seus de omnibus per­i­culis itiner­is nar­rav­it, et pater et fil­ius deis immor­tal­ibus gra­tias agunt, et aras donis cumulant. 

Interea vig­in­ti fil­ii Pal­lan­tis de adven­tu The­sei audi­ver­ant, atque pugnare para­bant. Acer­rime The­seus impe­tum in eos fecit, cunc­tosque ex urbe expulit. Bre­vi postea Aegeus palam The­sea fil­i­um suum agnovit. Quam ob rem magna laeti­tia erat per totam urbem.

The Story of Theseus, Part I

THESEUS ADULESCENS

The­seus a sua matre in urbe Troezene edu­ca­tus est. Nam, ubi eti­am parvu­lus erat, Aegeus, pater eius, qui imperi­um Athenarum habuit, uxorem deseruer­at et suum reg­num repetiverat. 

Pri­mo The­seus ludi­cris cer­t­a­minibus vires aux­it. Mox erat valid­ior ceteris iuvenibus eius­dem aetatis. Deinde in vena­tione saltus per­a­gra­bat. Sem­per prin­ceps in per­icu­lo erat atque for­tis­simus armis. Nemo ex omnibus Argoli­cis iuvenibus iac­u­lo lev­ibusque sagit­tis cele­ri­or erat. Com­plures feras occid­it, sed maxime sae­vis­si­mam suem, quae agros diu vasta­bat. Iam nomen The­sei per totam ter­ram Argoli­cam claris­si­mum erat. 

Tan­dem mater The­se­um ad se vocav­it, atque patris gla­d­i­um soleasque ei osten­dit. “Sume,” inquit, “mi fili, haec mon­u­men­ta, et tuum patrem pete, quem in urbe Athe­nis reperies. Per­icu­losa et a latron­ibus infes­ta est via. Tamen dei te incol­umem per omnia per­ic­u­la ad tuum patrem ducent.” 

Inde The­seus maes­tus matrem suam reliq­uit, atque mox ad Atti­cam con­tende­bat. Quo in itinere prope Epi­dau­rum obvi­am ven­it cuidam sae­vis­si­mo latroni, Periph­etae nomine, qui fer­rea cla­va via­tores occide­bat. At The­seus de eius manibus clavam extor­sit, et ipsius teloeum occidit. 

SINIS 

Pau­cis post diebus The­seus in extremum per­icu­lum ven­it. Iam Isth­mo appropin­qua­bat. Hic propter angus­tias dif­fi­cil­li­mum erat iter. Utraque ex parte erant rupes altissi­mae et asper­ri­mae. Mox The­seus ante vas­tum specum latronem, Sin­im nomine, vid­it, de quo inco­lae ter­rae eum saepe numero prae­monuer­ant. Hic mul­to grav­ior hostis erat quam Periph­etes. Hic enim duas pro­ceras pinus ad ter­ram curv­abat, ad quas incau­tos via­tores alli­ga­bat. Deinde, ubi subito arbores solvit, cor­po­ra infe­licum hominum div­elle­ban­tur. Hoc mod­oiam plu­ri­mos via­tores necaverat. 

Ubi Sinis procul The­sea vid­it, pri­mo iuven­em irrisit. Inter­ri­tus autem The­seus in hostem inv­a­sit. acer­ri­ma erat pugna. Denique Sinis, vul­ner­ibus defes­sus, occid­it. Tum The­seus ad duas pinus mon­strum ipsum alli­gav­it. Mox divul­sum est Sinis cor­pus eodem modo, quo­tot via­tores ab eo ipso necati erant. 

Inde The­seus ad urbem Megaram con­tendit. Quo in itinere angus­ta semi­ta in altum mon­tem duce­bat. a dex­tra erat abrup­ta rupes magna alti­tu­dine. Hic late­bat latro, Sciron nomine, qui pri­mum via­tores spo­li­a­bat; deinde, dum hi eius pedes lavant, ipsos prae­cip­ites ad imam rupem deiciebat. infra ingens tes­tu­do eorum cor­po­ra devorabat. 

SCIRON 

Sciron erat ingen­ti mag­ni­tu­dine cor­poris atque ter­ri­bili aspec­tu. In quem tamen The­seus cum fer­ro audacis­sime inv­a­sit. Diu atque acrit­er pug­na­tum est. Denique Sciron sup­plex mis­eri­cor­diam implo­rat. Sed The­seus latronem ad imam rupem demit­tit eodem modo, quo ille mul­tos via­tores tam crudeliter necav­er­at. Qua ex re nomen Sciro­nis erat scopulis. 

Haud ita mul­to post The­seus in Atti­cam per­ven­it, atque ibi Cer­cy­onem luc­t­a­mine vic­it necav­itque. Sic The­seus perdi­tis hominibus latron­ibusque omnis gener­is lib­er­abat omnes ter­ras, per quas in itinere contendebat. 

PROCRUSTES 

Iam The­seus ad ipsam urbem Athenas appropin­qua­bat, ubi in ripa Cephisi in mag­num per­icu­lum capi­tis ven­it. Hic enim Pro­crustes hab­it­a­bat, qui in suam regiam tur­rim incau­tos via­tores duce­bat, atque eos pri­mo mag­nifice accip­iebat. Ubi autem nox ven­er­at, in mirum lec­tum infe­licem hos­pitem imponebat. Tum, si hos­pes lon­gior erat quam lec­tus, illius mem­bra satis prae­cide­bat. Si via­tor bre­v­ior erat lec­to, tum Pro­crustes eius cor­pus in lon­gi­tudinem lec­ti dis­ten­de­bat. Hoc mod­op­er mul­tos annos via­tores necav­er­at. Sed The­seus vic­tor latronem in ipsius lec­tum impo­suit, atque eius caput prae­cid­it. Bre­vi postea The­seus inco­lu­mis ad por­tam Athenarum pervenit…

– – Exi­tus fab­u­lae sep­ti­mana prox­i­ma edetur – –

The Christmas Story X2 (Vulgate And Sebastien Châteillon)

As Christ­mas draws near­er, many peo­ple are read­ing the Christ­mas Sto­ry from the New Tes­ta­ment. Most Latin­ists are famil­iar with the Christ­mas Sto­ry from the Latin Vul­gate, the so called Ver­sio Vul­ga­ta, but few­er have read the 16th cen­tu­ry trans­la­tion of the same Latin text in the trans­la­tion of the French born Sébastien Châteil­lon. Châteil­lon trans­lat­ed the Bible (Bib­lia sacra Lati­na, Basel, 1551) into an idiom more in line with the clas­si­cal Latin of authors such as Cicero and Cae­sar. He was by no means alone in this endeav­our, as Eras­mus of Rot­ter­dam, the famous dutch human­ist had under­tak­en a sim­i­lar project in 1516. This was in keep­ing with the human­ist move­ment, flour­ish­ing in 16th cen­tu­ry North­ern Europe, that strove, in its lit­er­ary pro­duc­tion, for, among many oth­er things, a more clas­si­cal diction.

It is an inter­est­ing exer­cise to com­pare the two ver­sions of the Christ­mas Sto­ry as ren­dered in the Latin Vul­gate and in the 16th cen­tu­ry trans­la­tion by Châteil­lon (Sebas­t­ian Castel­lio). The dif­fer­ences in vocab­u­lary and style are quite substantial.

In the record­ing below you can lis­ten to both ver­sions and fol­low along in the text.

Hodie vobis Euan­geli­um secun­dum Lucam legam, bis. Pri­mum e ver­sione vul­ga­ta deinde ex inter­pre­ta­tione quam Sebas­tianus Castel­lio saecu­lo sex­to dec­i­mo fecit. Iuvabit for­t­asse has inter­pre­ta­tiones com­para­re. Ad rem!

1 Fac­tum est autem; in diebus illis exiv­it edic­tum a Cae­sare Augus­to, ut describere­tur uni­ver­sus orbis.
2 Haec descrip­tio pri­ma fac­ta est prae­side Syr­i­ae Quiri­no.
3 Et ibant omnes, ut prof­iter­en­tur, sin­guli in suam civ­i­tatem.
4 Ascen­dit autem et Ioseph a Galilaea de civ­i­tate Nazareth in Iudaeam in civ­i­tatem David, quae vocatur Beth­le­hem, eo quod esset de domo et famil­ia David,
5 ut prof­itere­tur cum Maria despon­sa­ta sibi uxore praeg­nante.
6 Fac­tum est autem; cum essent ibi, impleti sunt dies, ut par­eret,
7 et peper­it fil­i­um suum pri­mo­gen­i­tum; et pan­nis eum involvit et recli­nav­it eum in prae­se­pio, quia non erat eis locus in dev­er­so­rio.
8 Et pas­tores erant in regione eadem vig­i­lantes et cus­to­di­entes vig­ilias noc­tis supra gregem suum.
9 Et angelus Domi­ni stetit iux­ta illos, et clar­i­tas Domi­ni cir­cum­ful­sit illos, et timuerunt tim­o­re mag­no.
10 Et dix­it illis angelus: “ Nolite timere; ecce enim evan­ge­li­zo vobis gaudi­um mag­num, quod erit omni pop­u­lo,
11 quia natus est vobis hodie Sal­va­tor, qui est Chris­tus Domi­nus, in civ­i­tate David.
12 Et hoc vobis signum: inve­ni­etis infan­tem pan­nis invo­lu­tum et posi­tum in prae­se­pio ”.
13 Et subito fac­ta est cum ange­lo mul­ti­tu­do mili­ti­ae cae­lestis lau­dan­tium Deum et dicen­tium:
14 “ Glo­ria in altissimis Deo, et super ter­ram pax in hominibus bonae vol­un­tatis ”.
15 Et fac­tum est, ut discesserunt ab eis angeli in caelum, pas­tores loque­ban­tur ad invicem: “ Transea­mus usque Beth­le­hem et videa­mus hoc ver­bum, quod fac­tum est, quod Domi­nus osten­dit nobis ”.
16 Et venerunt fes­ti­nantes et invenerunt Mari­am et Ioseph et infan­tem posi­tum in prae­se­pio.
17 Videntes autem cog­noverunt de ver­bo, quod dic­tum erat illis de puero hoc.
18 Et omnes, qui audierunt, mirati sunt de his, quae dic­ta erant a pas­toribus ad ipsos.
19 Maria autem con­serv­abat omnia ver­ba haec con­fer­ens in corde suo.
20 Et rever­si sunt pas­tores glo­ri­f­i­cantes et lau­dantes Deum in omnibus, quae audier­ant et vider­ant, sicut dic­tum est ad illos.

EVANGELIUM SECUNDUM LUCAM (SEBASTIANUS CASTELLIO)

Per id tem­pus decre­to pro­mul­ga­tum est ab Augus­to Cae­sare, ut censere­tur totus orbis, qui primus cen­sus habi­tus est Quiri­no prae­tore Syr­i­ae. Igi­tur, cum omnes ad prof­i­ten­dum in suam quisque civ­i­tatem profi­cis­cer­en­tur, ascen­dit eti­am Iose­phus ex Galilaea, ex oppi­do Nazaretha, in Iudaeam, in Dauidis oppidum, quae Beth­le­he­ma vocatur, quod esset ipse dauidi­cae domus atque famil­i­ae: ut prof­itere­tur una cum Maria, despon­sa sibi uxore praegnante.

Accid­it autem, ut, dum illic sunt, illa exac­to ad parien­dum tem­pore, fil­i­um suum par­eret pri­mo­gen­i­tum: quem fasci­is involvit et in prae­sepi reclin­auit; quod eis in diuer­so­rio locus non esset. Erant pas­tores in eadem regione excubantes et noc­tur­nis vig­ili­is ouile suum cus­to­di­entes: quibus ecce Domi­ni angelus asti­tit, eosque Domi­ni splen­dor cir­cum­ful­sit, et mag­no tim­o­re pert­er­ri­tos, sic est angelus allo­cu­tus: ”ne timete: en ego vobis enim ingen­tem nun­tio laeti­ti­am, toti pop­u­lo futu­ram: videlicet, vobis hodie natum esse seru­a­torem, qui est Chris­tus Domi­nus in oppi­do Davidis.

Atque hoc vobis signum erit: inve­ni­etis infan­tem fasci­is inuo­lu­tum, iacen­tem in prae­sepi.” Et repente exsti­tit cum ange­lo cae­lestium copi­arum mul­ti­tu­do, Deum lau­dan­tium, et ita dicen­tium, ”glo­ria in supremis Deo, et in ter­ra pax, erga homines beneuolentia.”

Deinde ubi ab eis discesserunt in caelum angeli, pas­tores illi cohor­tati sunt inuicem, ut Beth­le­he­mam peter­ent, et vis­er­ent quid rei accidis­set, quod Domi­nus sibi declarasset.

Itaque celerit­er pro­fec­ti, invenerunt Mari­am et Iose­phum, et iacen­tem in prae­sepi infan­tem, quo viso, praedi­carunt, quid sibi de puero illo dic­tum fuis­set. Ac quotquot audierunt, ea mirati sunt quae eis a pas­toribus dic­ta sunt. Maria vero eas res omnes observ­abat, cum ani­mo suo perpendens.

Redierunt autem pas­tores Deum cel­e­brantes atque col­lau­dantes, propter ea omnia, quae et audi­ver­ant, et, que­mad­mod­um eis prae­dic­tum fuer­at, viderant.

Catiline Addresses the Conspirators

One of the most strik­ing aspects of Sallust’s writ­ing is his abil­i­ty to com­pose speech­es that cap­ture the idea and per­sona of the speak­er. I am not alone in my appre­ci­a­tion of his writ­ten ora­to­ry, as many a human­ist stu­dent dur­ing the 16th cen­tu­ry would have to com­mit to mem­o­ry entire speech­es tak­en from Sallust’s works. Now, lis­ten to the Latin audio of Sallust’s take on Catiline’s speech where he address­es his co-con­spir­a­tors in the con­spir­a­cy which Cicero famous­ly put an end to.

CATILINA CONIURATOS HORTATUR (SALLUSTIUS, CAT. 20)

Ni vir­tus fidesque vos­tra spec­ta­ta mihi foret, nequi­quam oppor­tu­na res cecidis­set; spes magna, dom­i­na­tio in manibus frus­tra fuis­sent, neque ego per ignavi­am aut vana inge­nia incer­ta pro cer­tis captarem. Sed quia mul­tis et mag­nis tem­pes­tat­i­bus vos cog­novi for­tis fidosque mihi, eo ani­mus ausus est max­u­mum atque pul­cher­ru­mum fac­i­nus incipere, simul quia vobis eadem quae mihi bona malaque esse intellexi; nam idem velle atque idem nolle, ea demum fir­ma amici­tia est.

Sed ego quae mente agi­tavi, omnes iam antea divor­si aud­is­tis. Ceterum mihi in dies magis ani­mus adcen­di­tur, quom con­sidero, quae condi­cio vitae futu­ra sit, nisi nos­met ipsi vin­dica­mus in lib­er­tatem. nam postquam res pub­li­ca in pau­co­rum poten­tium ius atque dicionem con­ces­sit, sem­per illis reges tetrar­chae vecti­gales esse, pop­uli nationes stipen­dia pen­dere; ceteri omnes, strenui boni, nobiles atque igno­biles, vol­gus fuimus sine gra­tia, sine auc­tori­tate, iis obnoxii, quibus, si res pub­li­ca valeret, formi­di­ni essemus.

Itaque omnis gra­tia poten­tia hon­os divi­ti­ae apud illos sunt aut ubi illi vol­unt; nobis reli­quere per­ic­u­la repul­sas iudi­cia eges­tatem. Quae quo usque tan­dem patiem­i­ni, o for­tis­su­mi viri? Nonne emori per vir­tutem prae­s­tat quam vitam mis­er­am atque inhon­es­tam, ubi alien­ae super­biae ludib­rio fueris, per dede­cus amittere?

Verum enim vero, pro deum atque hominum fidem, vic­to­ria in manu nobis est, viget aetas, ani­mus valet; con­tra illis annis atque div­i­ti­is omnia con­senuerunt. Tan­tum­mo­do incep­to opus est, cetera res expe­di­et. Eten­im quis mor­tal­i­um, quoi vir­ile inge­ni­um est, tol­er­are potest illis divi­tias super­are, quas pro­fun­dant in extru­en­do mari et mon­tibus coae­quan­dis, nobis rem famil­iarem eti­am ad nec­es­saria deesse? Illos binas aut amplius domos con­tin­uare, nobis larem famil­iarem nusquam ullum esse? Quom tab­u­las signa toreuma­ta emu­nt, nova diru­unt, alia aed­i­f­i­cant, postremo omnibus modis pecu­ni­am trahunt vex­ant, tamen sum­ma lubidine divi­tias suas vin­cere neque­unt. At nobis est domi inopia, foris aes alienum, mala res, spes mul­to aspe­ri­or: denique quid relicui habe­mus praeter mis­er­am animam?

Quin igi­tur exper­gisci­mi­ni? En illa, illa quam saepe optastis lib­er­tas, praeterea divi­ti­ae decus glo­ria in oculis sita sunt; for­tu­na omnia ea vic­toribus praemia posuit. Res tem­pus per­ic­u­la eges­tas bel­li spo­lia mag­nifi­ca magis quam ora­tio mea vos hor­tan­tur. Vel imper­a­tore vel milite me uti­mi­ni: neque ani­mus neque cor­pus a vobis aber­it. haec ipsa, ut spero, vobis­cum una con­sul agam, nisi forte me ani­mus fal­lit et vos servire magis quam imper­are parati estis.

The Audacious Architect of Alexandria (Vitruvius)

Sal­vete sodales! Aus­cul­tatis vel spec­tatis Latini­tium. Ego sum hos­pes vester Daniel et haec est series ubi de lit­teris, et de locu­tion­ibus et de ali­is nuga­cioribus rebus loquor. 

Hodie vobis recitabo locum ex Vit­ru­vii libro secun­do de archi­tec­tura, quis cred­eret? Quamquam mul­ti sunt qui audi­to nomine Vit­ru­vii fab­u­las iucun­das min­ime exspectent, tamen in prae­fa­tione secun­di lib­ri inven­i­tur fab­u­la non ini­u­cun­da de Dinocrate archite­cho qui Alexan­dri­am con­sti­tu­it, quam vobis nunc recitabo. Proinde aequo ani­mo attendite!

VITRUVIUS, DE ARCHITECHTURA 2, PRAEFATIO

Dinocrates archi­tec­tus cog­i­ta­tion­ibus et soller­tia fre­tus, cum Alexan­der rerum potire­tur, pro­fec­tus est e Mace­do­nia ad exerci­tum, regiae cupidus com­men­da­tio­n­is. Is e patria a propin­quis et ami­cis tulit ad pri­mos ordines et pur­pu­ratos lit­teras ut adi­tus haberet facil­iores, ab eisque excep­tus humane petiv­it, uti quam pri­mum ad Alexan­drum perduceretur.

Cum pol­lic­i­ti essent, tar­diores fuerunt, idoneum tem­pus expec­tantes. Itaque Dinocrates ab his se exis­ti­mans ludi ab se petiv­it prae­sid­i­um. Fuer­at enim amplis­si­ma statu­ra, facie gra­ta, for­ma dig­ni­tateque sum­ma. His igi­tur nat­u­rae muner­ibus con­fis­us ves­ti­men­ta posuit in hos­pi­tio et oleo cor­pus perunx­it caputque coro­n­av­it pop­ulea fronde, lae­vum umerum pelle leon­i­na tex­it, dex­traque clavam tenens inces­sit con­tra tri­bunal reg­is ius dicentis.

Novi­tas pop­u­lum cum aver­tis­set, con­spex­it eum Alexan­der. Admi­rans ei ius­sit locum dari, ut acced­eret, inter­ro­gav­itque, quis esset. At ille: “Dinocrates”, inquit, “archi­tec­tus Mace­do qui ad te cog­i­ta­tiones et for­mas affero dig­nas tuae clar­i­tati. Namque Athon mon­tem for­mavi in stat­u­ae vir­ilis fig­u­ram, cuius manu lae­va des­ig­navi civ­i­tatis amplis­si­mae moe­nia, dex­tera pat­er­am, quae exciperet omni­um flu­minum, quae sunt in eo monte, aquam, ut inde in mare profunderetur.”

Delec­ta­tus Alexan­der ratione for­mae sta­tim quae­siv­it, si essent agri cir­ca, qui possint fru­men­taria ratione eam civ­i­tatem tueri. Cum invenis­set non posse nisi trans­mari­nis sub­vec­tion­ibus: “Dinocrates,” inquit, “atten­do egre­giam for­mae com­po­si­tionem et ea delec­tor. Sed ani­mad­ver­to, si qui deduxerit eo loci colo­ni­am, fore ut iudi­ci­um eius vitu­pere­tur. Ut enim natus infans sine nutri­cis lacte non potest ali neque ad vitae cres­centes gradus per­duci, sic civ­i­tas sine agris et eorum fructibus in moenibus afflu­en­tibus non potest crescere nec sine abun­dan­tia cibi fre­quen­ti­am habere pop­u­lumque sine copia tueri. Itaque que­mad­mod­um for­ma­tionem puto proban­dam, sic iudi­co locum improban­dum; teque volo esse mecum, quod tua opera sum usurus.”

Ex eo Dinocrates non disces­sit et in Aegyp­tum est eum per­se­cu­tus. Ibi Alexan­der cum ani­mad­ver­tis­set por­tum nat­u­raliter tutum, empo­ri­um egregium, cam­pos cir­ca totam Aegyp­tum fru­men­tar­ios, imma­n­is flu­min­is Nili mag­nas util­i­tates, ius­sit eum suo nomine civ­i­tatem Alexan­dri­am con­stituere. lta Dinocrates a facie dig­ni­tateque cor­poris com­men­da­tus ad eam nobil­i­tatem pervenit.

Mihi autem, imper­a­tor, stat­u­ram non tribuit natu­ra, faciem defor­mav­it aetas, vale­tu­do detrax­it vires. Itaque, quo­ni­am ab his prae­sidi­is sum deser­tus, per aux­il­ia sci­en­ti­ae scrip­taque, ut spero, per­ve­ni­am ad commendationem.

The Story of Mantacius the fraudster

If you are look­ing for sto­ries in Latin, this is a gem. Lis­ten to the audio of this sto­ry about the huck­ster Mantacius who under­stood how to make mon­ey by play­ing his fel­low man. What was his scheme? Lis­ten to the audio and find out!

Fab­u­la De Manta­cio Plano Sive Impostore

Mantacius, cum divi­tias pater­nas con­sump­sis­set, ut pecu­u­ni­am col­ligeret hoc con­sil­i­um dolo­sum ini­it. Hic homo, cal­lidus rerumque sagax, pro­fes­sus se homines mor­tu­os repor­tatu­rum, cives Lute­tiens­es decipere conabatur. Idcir­co ut hoc man­i­fes­tum exhibeat, promit­tit se post quin­dec­im dies ad sepul­cra itu­rum, ut omnes illic iacentes resti­tu­an­tur. Interea fama tam vul­gais exoriebatur ut mul­ti cives medicum, tan­ta praed­i­tum arte, adire vel­lent. Hinc non modo mag­nam glo­ri­am sed eti­am ali­quan­tum pecu­ni­ae consequebatur.

Tan­dem die iam appropin­quante, ser­vo pen­i­tus obstu­pe­fac­to atque ut aufugeret admo­nen­ti respon­dit Mantacius eum igno­rare quan­ta esset stul­ti­tia hominum. Quod cum vix dixis­set, accur­rit nun­tius, quem mis­er­at civis ditis­simus, ut promit­teret se septem ses­ter­tia medico datu­rum; sibi enim fuisse coni­ugem vio­len­tam et effre­natam; si ea rever­tis­set, max­i­mum sibi dolorem illat­u­ram; se idcir­co orare Mantaci­um ne illam­pestem reportaret. Septem ses­ter­ti­is per­so­lutis, Mantacius promisit se iis quae peti­is­set obse­cu­tum: nul­la arte usu­rum esse, ut illius coni­ugem in vitam redigeret.

Mox duo iuvenes opu­len­ti et prodi­gi, dum medicum obse­crant ne patrem avarum, cuius divi­tias ipsi acceper­ant, in vitam redi­geret, ses­ter­tia octo prae­be­bant. Deinde vid­ua eti­am for­mosa ped­ibus medici deiec­ta “Mihi,” inquit, “parce mis­er­ae; equi­dem alteri viro nubere volo, quod facere non potero, si vir pri­or per tuas artes in vitam redac­tus erit.”

Ex his ali­isque civibus, qui hanc miram potes­tatem time­bant, mag­nam cum accepis­set pecu­ni­am, Mantacius Lute­tia egres­sus est, ut divi­tias ali­unde exquireret.

Why Pliny wants to be like Spurinna

It is a nat­ur­al part of life that we grow old. Some peo­ple do this well, oth­ers, less so. If you want to hear how Spurin­na spent his old age, lis­ten to the audio of this let­ter writ­ten by Pliny the Younger. For his name did not pro­tect him from time.;)

Sal­vete sodales! Aus­cul­tatis Latini­tium. Ego sum hos­pes vester Daniel et haec est series ubi de lit­teris, de locu­tion­ibus et de lev­ioribus rebus loquor. Recito eti­am scrip­ta Lati­na varia et haec omnia et aus­cultare et spectare et leg­ere potestis apud latinitium.com/podcast.

Hodie recitabo epis­tu­lam Plinii in qua loquitur de Spurin­na sene quem valde admiratur.

C. PLINIUS CALVISIO RUFO SUO S.

Nescio an ullum iucundius tem­pus exegerim, quam quo nuper apud Spurin­nam fui, adeo qui­dem ut nem­inem magis in senec­tute, si modo senescere datum est, aem­u­la­ri velim; nihil est enim illo vitae genere distinctius.

Me autem ut cer­tus siderum cur­sus ita vita hominum dis­posi­ta delec­tat. Senum prae­ser­tim: nam iuvenes con­fusa adhuc quaedam et qua­si tur­ba­ta non inde­cent, senibus placi­da omnia et ordi­na­ta con­ve­ni­unt, quibus indus­tria sera turpis ambi­tio est.

Hanc reg­u­lam Spurin­na con­stan­tis­sime ser­vat; quin eti­am par­va haec — par­va si non coti­die fiant – ordine quo­dam et velut orbe circumagit.

Mane lec­tu­lo con­tine­tur, hora secun­da cal­ceos posc­it, ambu­lat mil­ia pas­su­um tria nec minus ani­mum quam cor­pus exercet. Si adsunt ami­ci, hon­estis­si­mi ser­mones expli­can­tur; si non, liber legi­t­ur, inter­dum eti­am prae­sen­tibus ami­cis, si tamen illi non gravantur.

Deinde con­sid­it, et liber rur­sus aut ser­mo libro potior; mox vehicu­lum ascen­dit, assum­it uxorem sin­gu­laris exem­pli vel aliquem ami­co­rum, ut me proxime.

Quam pul­chrum illud, quam dulce secre­tum! quan­tum ibi antiq­ui­tatis! quae fac­ta, quos viros audias! quibus prae­cep­tis imbuare! quamvis ille hoc tem­pera­men­tum mod­es­ti­ae suae indixerit, ne praecipere videa­tur. Per­ac­tis septem milibus pas­su­um iterum ambu­lat mille, iterum resid­it vel se cubicu­lo ac sti­lo red­dit. Scrib­it enim et qui­dem utraque lin­gua lyri­ca doc­tis­si­ma; mira illis dul­cedo, mira suavi­tas, mira hilar­i­tas, cuius gra­ti­am cumu­lat sanc­ti­tas scribentis.

Ubi hora balinei nun­ti­a­ta est — est autem hieme nona, aes­tate octa­va -, in sole, si caret ven­to, ambu­lat nudus. Deinde move­tur pila vehe­menter et diu; nam hoc quoque exerci­ta­tio­n­is genere pug­nat cum senec­tute. Lau­tus accu­bat et paulisper cibum dif­fert; inter­im audit leg­en­tem remis­sius aliq­uid et dul­cius. Per hoc omne tem­pus liberum est ami­cis vel eadem facere vel alia si malint.

Apponi­tur cena non minus niti­da quam fru­gi, in argen­to puro et antiquo; sunt in usu et Corinthia, quibus delec­tatur nec affici­tur. Fre­quenter comoedis cena dis­tin­gui­tur, ut volup­tates quoque studi­is con­di­antur. Sum­it aliq­uid de nocte et aes­tate; nem­i­ni hoc longum est; tan­ta comi­tate con­vivi­um trahitur.

Inde illi post sep­ti­mum et sep­tu­a­gen­si­mum annum auri­um ocu­lo­rum vig­or inte­ger, inde agile et vividum cor­pus solaque ex senec­tute prudentia.

Hanc ego vitam voto et cog­i­ta­tione prae­sumo, ingres­su­rus avidis­sime, ut pri­mum ratio aetatis recep­tui canere per­miser­it. Inter­im mille laboribus con­teror, quo­rum mihi et solacium et exem­plum est idem Spurin­na; nam ille quoque, quoad hon­es­tum fuit, obi­it offi­cia, ges­sit mag­i­s­tra­tus, provin­cias rex­it, mul­toque labore hoc otium meruit.

Igi­tur eun­dem mihi cur­sum, eun­dem ter­minum statuo, idque iam nunc apud te sub­sig­no ut, si me longius eve­hi videris, in ius voces ad hanc epis­tu­lam meam et qui­escere iubeas, cum iner­ti­ae crimen effugero. Vale.

What did Cicero Feel Going into Exile?

Often­times when we think of Cicero, we pic­ture that great and pow­er­ful ora­tor whose speech­es would strike like light­ning in the sen­ate. But we must not for­get that he was also a hus­band and a father. It is this Cicero we meet in this text and recording.

Sal­vete! Ego sum hos­pes vester Daniel. Haec est series ser­mon­um Lati­no­rum, ubi Latine loquor de vari­is argu­men­tis velut de locu­tion­ibus Lati­nis, de lit­teris Lati­nis, et de ali­is magis nugacibus rebus.

DE BREVILOQUENTIA EPISTULARI CICERONIS

Plerumque cum de Cicerone cogi­ta­mus, ante ocu­los nobis pon­imus ora­torem illum con­stan­tis­si­mum qui in Catili­nam vehe­menter dix­it, sed idem fuit pater et mar­i­tus qui mul­ta et varia exper­tus est. Epis­tu­lae eius nobis osten­dunt ali­um Ciceronem, verum hominem, qui dolet et gaudet.

Ut hunc Ciceronem cognosca­mus, hodie recitabo epis­tu­lam quam Cicero, in exsil­i­um pro­fec­turus, ad Ter­en­ti­am scrip­sit. Est epis­tu­la quar­ta lib­ri quar­ti et dec­i­mi epis­tu­larum ad familiares.

Cicero in epis­tulis suis inter­dum adeo con­cis­us est ut quid sibi velit non sem­per man­i­fes­tum sit. Propterea for­t­asse iuvet con­sulere huius epis­tu­lae edi­tionem cum adno­ta­tion­ibus. In pag­i­na huius ser­mo­nis, qui est sex­tus, apud latinitium.com/podcast inve­ni­etis nex­um ad edi­tionem huius epis­tu­lae cum adnotationbus.

M. TULLII CICERONIS EPISTULA 14.4.4. AD FAMILIARES

Tul­lius s.d.  Ter­en­ti­ae et Tul­li­ae et Ciceroni suis
Ego minus saepe do ad vos lit­teras quam pos­sum propterea quod cum omnia mihi tem­po­ra sunt mis­era, tum vero, cum aut scri­bo ad vos aut ves­tras lego, con­fi­cior lacrim­is sic ut ferre non pos­sim. quod uti­nam minus vitae cupi­di fuis­se­mus! Certe nihil aut non mul­tum in vita mali vidis­se­mus. quod si nos ad ali­quam alicuius com­mo­di ali­quan­do reciperan­di spem for­tu­na reser­vav­it, minus est erra­tum a nobis; si haec mala fixa sunt, ego vero te quam pri­mum, mea vita, cupio videre et in tuo com­plexu emori, quo­ni­am neque di, quos tu castis­sime coluisti, neque homines, quibus ego sem­per ser­vivi, nobis gra­ti­am rettulerunt.

Nos Brun­disii apud M. Lae­ni­um Flac­cum dies XIII fuimus, virum opti­mum, qui per­icu­lum for­tu­narum et capi­tis sui prae mea salute neglex­it neque legis impro­bis­si­mae poe­na deduc­tus est quo minus hos­pi­ti et amici­ti­ae ius offi­ci­umque praestaret. Huic uti­nam ali­quan­do gra­ti­am referre pos­simus! habebimus qui­dem sem­per. Brun­di­sio pro­fec­ti sumus a. d. II Kal. Mai. per Mace­do­niam Cyz­icum petebamus.

O me perdi­tum, o me adflic­tum! quid nunc? Rogem te ut venias, mulierem aegram, et cor­pore et ani­mo con­fec­tam? Non rogem? sine te igi­tur sim? Opinor, sic agam: si est spes nos­tri red­i­tus, eam con­firmes et rem adi­uves; sin, ut ego metuo, trans­ac­tum est, quo­quo modo potes, ad me fac venias. Unum hoc sci­to: si te habebo, non mihi vide­bor plane perisse.

Sed quid Tul­li­o­la mea fiet? Iam id vos videte; mihi deest con­sil­i­um. Sed certe, quo­quo modo se res habebit, illius misel­lae et mat­ri­mo­nio et famae servien­dum est. quid? Cicero meus quid aget? iste vero sit in sinu sem­per et com­plexu meo. Non queo plu­ra iam scribere; imped­it maeror.

Tu quid egeris nescio, utrum aliq­uid teneas an, quod metuo, plane sis spo­li­a­ta. Pisonem, ut scribis, spero fore sem­per nos­trum. de famil­ia lib­er­a­ta, nihil est quod te moveat. Pri­mum tuis ita promis­sum est, te fac­turam esse ut quisque esset mer­i­tus; est autem in offi­cio adhuc Orpheus, praeterea mag­no opere nemo. cetero­rum ser­vo­rum ea causa est ut, si res a nobis abis­set, lib­er­ti nos­tri essent, si obtinere potuis­sent; sin ad nos per­tiner­ent, servirent, praeterquam oppi­do pau­ci. sed haec mino­ra sunt.

Tu quod me hor­taris ut ani­mo sim mag­no et spem habeam reciperan­dae salutis, id velim sit eius modi ut recte sper­are pos­simus. Nunc miser quan­do tuas iam lit­teras accip­i­am? Quis ad me per­fer­et? Quas ego exspec­tassem Brun­disii si esset lic­i­tum per nau­tas, qui tem­pes­tatem praeter­mit­tere noluerunt.

Quod reliqu­um est, sus­ten­ta te, mea Ter­en­tia, ut potes hon­estis­sime. vix­imus, floruimus; non vitium nos­trum sed vir­tus nos­tra nos adflix­it. Pec­ca­tum est nul­lum, nisi quod non una ani­mam cum orna­men­tis amisimus. sed si hoc fuit liberis nos­tris gratius, nos vivere, cetera, quamquam fer­en­da non sunt, fer­a­mus. atque ego, qui te con­fir­mo, ipse me non possum.

Clodi­um Phil­hetaerum, quod vale­tu­dine ocu­lo­rum impediebatur, hominem fidelem, remisi. Sal­lustius offi­cio vincit omnes. Pescen­nius est per­benevo­lus nobis; quem sem­per spero tui fore obser­van­tem. Sic­ca dix­er­at se mecum fore, sed Brun­di­sio discessit.

Cura, quod potes, ut valeas et sic exis­times, me vehe­men­tius tua mis­e­ria quam mea com­moveri. Mea Ter­en­tia, fidis­si­ma atque opti­ma uxor, et mea caris­si­ma fil­i­o­la et spes reli­qua nos­tra, Cicero, valete.

This article may contain affiliate links, meaning that I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links at no extra cost to you. For more information, please read my disclosure.

The English language contains over one million words, most of which the average speaker will never even know. Stacker identified the 50 most important Latin roots to help English speakers better comprehend the extensive English lexicon.

marekuliasz // Shutterstock

Anyone who has ever studied a stack of GRE vocabulary words or invested in a word-a-day calendar to try to expand their lexicon can attest to the fact that the English language is incredibly expansive. Data has shown that the average adult knows somewhere around 40,000 words in total, and that includes active (i.e., regularly used) and passive (i.e., familiar, but not utilized) vocabulary. Put that number up against the more than one million total words in the English language, and it becomes clear that the percentage of terms in English speakers’ everyday rotation is only a small fraction of the English language as a whole.

Looking at the sheer volume of the English vocabulary, one thing that helps make sense of the words is the notable patterns that emerge in light of its etymological roots; particularly, its Latin roots. Though Latin itself has often been referred to as a dead language, it is very much alive in the 80% of English terms that are borrowed directly from the ancient language and the over 60% of English words that have roots in Latin and Greek. In the same way that a new reader may try to sound out a word phonetically, looking at English through the lens of Latin etymology allows us to obtain a new grasp on the language, such that we can more actively deduce the meanings of unfamiliar words. This is the secret behind amazing spellers at the Bee!

To identify key linguistic elements from Latin that appear throughout the English language today, Stacker sorted through educational resources and online databases and compiled a list of 50 important Latin roots that shape the English language as we know it. Read on to get a better understanding of how some of the words you use regularly—and a few perhaps you’ve never seen before—all share a common foundation in Latin.

You may also like: States doing the most for a clean energy future

Pra Chid // Shutterstock

Ann

– Meaning in English: Yearly

The Latin root “ann”—which means “yearly”—can be found in countless words that reference events and occurrences that happen on a yearly basis. For example, an anniversary celebration marks the passing of another year of a relationship, a business, or a birthday. Then there are yearly events that are characterized as annual, such as award ceremonies (e.g., the Academy Awards), sporting events (e.g., Super Bowl), and holidays (e.g., Halloween).

EpicStockMedia // Shutterstock

Aqu

– Meaning in English: Water, sea

Whether it’s being used in reference to a color such as aqua, a blueish-green hue, or to describe sea life, i.e., aquatic, the Latin root “aqu” is familiar in its relationship to water and large bodies of water. The mainstream familiarity of the Latin root was on full display in the 2006 coming-of-age film “Aquamarine,” where the titular character is a mermaid washed ashore.

adriaticfoto // Shutterstock

Audi

– Meaning in English: Hearing, listening, sound

Those who prefer the convenience of listening to their books rather than reading them may recognize this Latin root from the name of Audible, Amazon’s audiobook and entertainment platform. The root also makes an appearance in the English terms audience, as in a group of people gathered together to listen to or receive a performance, and auditorium, the room in which said audience sits to listen.

Evgeny Bakharev // Shutterstock

Bene

– Meaning in English: Good

Derived from a Latin term meaning “well,” bene is most commonly used as a prefix in the English language. The word benign means harmless or favorable, and in pathology is used to describe a condition that is not life-threatening. A benefit is something that is considered favorable or advantageous, and the term can also be used to describe a charitable event. A benefactor gives help to a person or a cause. Perhaps the most famous example of a benefactor is Miss Havisham from “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.

You may also like: 125 Unique Words in English With Deep Meanings.

MAD_Production // Shutterstock

Bi

– Meaning in English: Two

The Latin prefix “bi” means two, as does the closely related, Greek-derived prefix “di.” A bifurcation describes the act of something splitting off into two distinct branches. In anatomy, the bicep is a muscle of the arm that runs between the shoulder and the elbow, so-named because it splits off into two branches where the muscle connects at the scapula. The word bicep translates to “two-headed muscle of the arm.”

You may also like: Most popular baby names in the 21st century

Yulia Grigoryeva // Shutterstock

Bibl

– Meaning in English: Book

The Latin root “bibl” may sooner remind college students of having to create bibliographies—detailed lists of the books and sources referenced in academic work—than anything else. However, the root’s connection to the English language has a far deeper history: “bibl” is also the root for the name of the Bible, the collection of Judeo-Christian texts and scripture.

frees // Shutterstock

Cent

– Meaning in English: Hundred

The term “cent” likely conjures up thoughts of money—i.e., dollars and cents—before anything else, but that ties back perfectly to the Latin root from which the term comes. One cent is 1/100th of a dollar. Pennies aside, the Latin root also makes an appearance in terms like “century” and “centennial,” which pertain to 100-year timespans and a hundredth anniversary, respectively.

Hurst Photo // Shutterstock

Circum

– Meaning in English: Around

The Latin root “circum”—meaning “around”—appears in terms like “circumnavigate,” which is the act of traveling all the way around something. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is remembered for successfully circumnavigating the globe in the early 16th century. This root also appears in terms like “circumvent,” which describes the act of getting around a problem, and “circumstance,” which pairs this root with another Latin root—“stance,” meaning “stand”—to reference a situation that focuses on a core cause.

otomobil // Shutterstock

Civ

– Meaning in English: Citizen

“Civility” is characterized by respect towards others, and “civics,” which refers to the infrastructure in place that is intended to facilitate civility, are both rooted in the Latin “civ,” meaning “citizen.” The root also makes an appearance in the name of the Honda Civic, a car that––as the brand puts it––is meant to improve the lives of citizens.

Maridav // Shutterstock

Clar

– Meaning in English: Clear

The term “clarity”—which comes from the Latin root “clar,” meaning “clear”—is the property of being both pure and clean, as well as being lucid and coherent. The root has seen a variety of modern uses alluding to its Latin translation, including the brand Clarisonic, a beauty company that develops products meant to provide clearer-looking skin, and Claritin, an allergy medication that promises clarity and relief from chronic allergies.

You may also like: How communities are dealing with invasive species across the U.S.

Halfpoint // Shutterstock

Cred

– Meaning in English: Believe

Credibility is the characteristic of being believable, and it’s a term that comes from the Latin root “cred,” meaning “believe.” While the term may appear in the case of legal proceedings—e.g., a court case requires credible witnesses—it also ties into the idea of credit and credit cards. Since credit cards work by allowing users to acquire items before paying for them in full, they operate on a system of trust and good faith—belief, essentially—that payments will be made in full at a later time.

Shutterstock

Dict

– Meaning in English: Say/speak

The Latin root “dict” appears in words like dictate, meaning to read something aloud; dictation, the act of speaking aloud with the intention of having your words recorded or transcribed; and predict, the act of stating something that will happen before it actually happens. Of all the instances in which “dict” appears in the English language, though, one of the most important may be the dictionary, which offers a comprehensive guide to all of the officially-recognized words in the English language. Some of the most respected and trusted dictionaries in the U.S. include the Oxford English Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster.

Somnuek saelim // Shutterstock

Ex

– Meaning in English: Out

The Latin root “ex” means “out,” while related roots, including “exter” and “extrem,” offer additional variations of the same translation. The word extreme, for example, may refer to something that falls out of a normal expected range, as was the case with weather extremities, including record rainfall and high/low daily temperatures across the U.S. in 2019, which broke more than 120,000 records across the country.

Canva

Fract

– Meaning in English: Break

The Latin “fract” is closely related to fellow Latin roots “frang,” “fring,” and “frag,” all of which mean “break.” A few of its familiar appearances may include infringe, as in the breaking of a legal agreement or violation of copyright, and fragment, a small piece of an item that has been broken. The root also appears in the word fragile, which can be used to describe items that are easily breakable.

Vadim Sadovski // Shutterstock

Inter

– Meaning in English: Between

The premise of the film “Interstellar” starring Matthew McConaughey is that a NASA physicist travels the universe via a wormhole in a quest to find a new home for mankind. The plot––and the flick’s title––reference the Latin root “inter,” meaning “between,” as McConaughey’s character essentially travels between cosmic stars. This root also appears in terms like international, which may refer to travel or political relations between nations, and interpersonal, which may refer to communication happening between different people (as opposed to intrapersonal, which uses the Latin root meaning “within”).

You may also like: Most popular baby names for baby boomers

Billion Photos // Shutterstock

Jur

– Meaning in English: Law

Legal systems are intended to act as a source of order and justice in society, and it turns out that a lot of the legal terminology that we’re familiar with today stems from the Latin “jur”—as well as the related roots “jus” and “judic”—meaning “law.” This includes the word jury, as in the body of citizens meant to come to a verdict in legal cases; judicial, as in something pertaining to the court or judge; and justice, as in fairness.

Peera_stockfoto // Shutterstock

Lax

– Meaning in English: Not tense

There are a number of ways that someone may choose to relax—yoga, unwinding with a good book, taking a bath, etc. Regardless of the method, the practice of relaxation just comes down to letting go of stress and releasing tension. The root origin of the term—the Latin “lax,” meaning “not tense”—is echoed in this way. The root also appears in the word laxative, which describes an agent used to relieve constipation by reducing tension in the bowels.

katjen // Shutterstock

Liber

– Meaning in English: Free

Liberty—which is defined as freedom from oppression in regards to one’s belief systems and way of life—is a fundamental tenet on which democracy is built. As for the Latin word “liber,” this is a fundamental root from which the term “liberty” stems. Further examples of “liber” in mainstream English language include the words liberate and liberation.

Champiofoto // Shutterstock

Lumin

– Meaning in English: Light

This Latin root meaning “light” appears in a number of common English words including luminous, which means that something is bright and shining. However, the Latin root has seen several linguistic iterations that go beyond these everyday terms as well, including brand names such as Luminary, a podcast streaming platform that may be considered to be bringing new and creative ideas “to light,” and fictional terms such as “lumos maxima,” the incantation used in the “Harry Potter” universe to generate a bright flash of light.

SDubi // Shutterstock

Magn

– Meaning in English: Big, great

The Latin root “magn,” meaning “big” or “great,” can be used either in reference to something physically large in size or something that big in its presence, such that it’s striking. In regular use today, the root appears in words like magnificent, which simply refers to something that’s amazing or awe-inspiring, and magnitude, which is used to characterize the large size or impact of something (e.g., a 3.2 magnitude earthquake).

You may also like: Resilient photos of cities that recovered from war

Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney

Mal

– Meaning in English: Bad

“Mal” is a Latin root meaning “bad,” and appears in such English terms as malicious, which is defined as having the intention to cause harm, as well as malevolent, which combines this root with another Latin root “volent,” which means “wishing.” Mal is defined as wishing evil or ill will upon another. Perhaps one of the most common pop culture affiliations with the root is “Maleficent,” the Disney film starring Angelina Jolie as the villainous fairy known for cursing Sleeping Beauty.

Fishman64 // Shutterstock

Migr

– Meaning in English: Wander

This Latin root is perhaps most prevalent in its connection to current events. Namely, “migr”—meaning “wander”—appears in the terms immigration and migrant, both of which have become majorly familiar in the collective consciousness as a result of such issues as the European migrant crisis as well as the U.S. border crisis and questions surrounding the country’s immigration policies.

Hrecheniuk Oleksii // Shutterstock

Multi

– Meaning in English: Many

There are a multitude of examples in the English language of the Latin root “multi,” meaning “many,” in use (with multitude being one of them). The root is perhaps most notable for its role in arithmetic, as it occurs in multiplication, which is a mathematical process for growing a number in size and count. The root also appears in the title of the 1996 comedy “Multiplicity,” which stars Michael Keaton as a man who clones himself numerous times to manage the demands of his day-to-day life.

richardjohnson // Shutterstock

Neg

– Meaning in English: Say no

The Latin root “neg” appears in English words that are defined by a lack of positive or affirmative response. For example, the word negate means that something is being nullified or shut down, or, it’s being “said no to,” essentially. Negativity, a quality often associated with pessimism and naysaying, is another example of the root in action.

Piyapong Wongkam // Shutterstock

Non

– Meaning in English: Not

When something is described as nonsensical, it means that it doesn’t make sense. When something or someone is characterized as noncommittal, it means that they won’t commit. These words—along with others that include “non” as a prefix—pull from the Latin root’s definition meaning “not.” It’s important to keep in mind that the line between “non” and “un” can get a little troublesome when navigating common vocabulary. For example, while unprofessional refers to behavior that isn’t professional, nonprofessional refers to lines of work that don’t require professional training.

You may also like: Most popular dog breed the year you were born

MyImages – Micha // Shutterstock

Nov

– Meaning in English: New

The allure of novels comes from their imaginative stories that can take readers away from the ordinary and mundane. A novel concept or innovative idea is characterized by offering something fresh and new, which all ties back to the Latin root “nov.”

Krasula // Shutterstock

Ov

– Meaning in English: Egg

While there are some English words beginning with “ov” that don’t tie back to this Latin root such as “oven,” which actually comes from Germanic origins, there are others that reference the root’s original definition: “egg.” Examples include oval, as in the egg-like shape, and ovary, as in the female reproductive organ that produces eggs.

Fabrik Bilder // Shutterstock

Pre

– Meaning in English: Before

“Pre” is a Latin-derived prefix that clarifies chronological order by signifying that something came before something else. For example, predict means that you talk about something happening before it actually happens. The word preliminary is another example and means that something occurs prior to something else in preparation for the main event. Of course, “pre” also occurs in the word prefix itself, which by definition is a grammatical add-on to the beginning of a word—i.e., it comes “before” the original word—that changes its meaning.

Julie Clopper // Shutterstock

Prim

– Meaning in English: First

In addition to words that reflect this root’s origins in its most literal sense such as primary, primordial, and primitive, there are also words derived from this Latin root that more loosely mean best-in-class, or top-tier. One such example is the word prime, most commonly used in reference to Amazon Prime, the membership service that provides expedited shipping and a catalog of member-only streaming content for Amazon customers.

fizkes // Shutterstock

Proxim

– Meaning in English: Nearness

When one makes an approximation of something, they’re making an educated guess about the count, measurement, or quantity of something based on information that allows them to come close—though maybe not exact—to the correct value. This word, along with others like proximity or proximal, comes from the Latin root “proxim,” meaning nearness.

You may also like: U.S. Air Force history from the year you were born

Evgeniy Voytik // Shutterstock

Ques

– Meaning in English: Seek

A Latin root that means “to seek” or “to look for,” “ques” appears in a number of words that English speakers use on a daily basis. Besides the very literal quest, which basically refers to a long search for something, there are also the terms question and request, both of which attempt to elicit some kind of response, information, or action.

Pixel-Shot // Shutterstock

Re

– Meaning in English: Again, backward

This Latin root is one that could refer to something happening over and over again, as is the case with such words as repeat or recur. It may also, however, be used to reference something that moves backward by being withdrawn, as is the case with the words renege and revert.

Andrey Bayda // Shutterstock

Retro

– Meaning in English: Backward, behind

Retro has been a standalone word since the mid-1970s when it started getting used in reference to fashion nostalgia. Before that, though, the word existed in the Latin vocabulary as a prefix meaning “backward” or “behind.” Of all the words that include the prefix—e.g., retrogress, retroactive, retrospective—one of the most familiar nowadays may be retrograde, as in Mercury Retrograde (when Mercury appears to be moving backward in its orbit).

ThamKC // Shutterstock

San

– Meaning in English: Healthy

This Latin root appears throughout the English language in a few different ways. For starters, it has a very literal and practical application in words like sanitize and sanitary, which simply refer to the eradication of bacteria so as to make something healthier and safer. However, the same root also occurs in the term sanity—and the opposite, insanity—which refers to mental health.

sirtravelalot // Shutterstock

Sci

– Meaning in English: Know

The Latin root “sci” (meaning “know”) has a few different roles in English. For one, it can refer to the actual act of knowing things, as is the case with terms like omniscience (meaning all-knowing), conscience (knowing right from wrong), and prescience (knowing things before they happen). Beyond that, “sci” also ties into the accumulation of knowledge, as it is a key root in the term science and is thus connected to all scientific branches (formal, natural, and social sciences).

You may also like: Where every U.S. president went to college

Shutterstock

Scrib

– Meaning in English: Write

While a young child’s doodles on a piece of paper might be dismissed as nothing but a little scribble, it turns out that scribble has some roots in the Latin language. The root “scrib” actually means “write,” and appears in such terms as transcribe, the act of copying down words from a recording or dictation, and describe, the act of writing down (or saying) what something looks, feels, tastes, sounds, or smells like.

designs by Jack // Shutterstock

Semi

– Meaning in English: Half

The Latin root “semi” (meaning “half”) is central to a lot of the traditions that we consider to be commonplace. For example, there’s the idea of a semi-final, where two sports teams face off in a match directly before the final and only one—such as half of the two teams—moves on to the final. A lot of brands, most notably, Victoria’s Secret, are also known for having semi-annual sales: one at the start of the year in January and one around the half-way mark in June.

Cipolina // Shutterstock

Senti

– Meaning in English: Feel

The Latin root “senti,” which is also close to the root “sens,” means “feel”—which is evident when looking at the English terms that have stemmed from the original root. The root is at the heart of our sensory system, which allows us to feel and experience things through our different senses. The classic book “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen interestingly juxtaposes two words that stem from this same Latin root in its title; here, sense is the ability to act with sound judgment and without being overly emotional, while sensibility refers to the ability to act from the heart or with feelings as a guide.

Twin Design // Shutterstock

Soci

– Meaning in English: Group

In the most basic sense, the Latin root “soci” appears in the term society, which is very literally a group of people who coexist in some capacity, whether they’re connected by a common government, neighborhood, or even just common interests (e.g., the National Audubon Society). This Latin root is also at the core of one of the biggest trends to have shaped modern culture: social media and the rise of platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.

everst // Shutterstock

Sol

– Meaning in English: Alone

While social networks bring people together—even if only virtually—togetherness isn’t always the name of the game. “Sol,” the Latin root for “alone,” is also a big player in the English language, and is used in words that refer to loneliness or lack of connection. For example, solitude and isolation are two words that pull from the root, as is the name for Solitaire, the computer card game meant to be played solo.

You may also like: Bizarre slang words and phrases from every state

schusterbauer.com // Shutterstock

Sub

– Meaning in English: Under

When The Beatles released “Yellow Submarine,” they may not have realized that they were incorporating some Latin-based lyrics in their hit song. “Sub” is the Latin root meaning “under,” and beyond showing up in the name of the underwater warship, the root also occurs in terms like submerge, which is the act of putting something underwater. The New York City subway system also employs the Latin root for the name of its network of underground trains and tracks.

Worawee Meepian // Shutterstock

Surg

– Meaning in English: Rise

Not to be confused with the root for surgery, which comes from the Greek words meaning “hand work,” the Latin “surg” means “rise.” For example, there’s been a “resurgence”: This combines the Latin root “re” with “surg”. Anyone who has attempted to call an Uber during rush hour or an “extreme” (if we’re using Latin) rainstorm is also likely familiar with the phenomenon of surge pricing, where rates increase as a result of heightened demand.

Min C. Chiu // Shutterstock

Tempor

– Meaning in English: Time

Musicians understand that tempo is the speed of a song’s underlying beat, and thus that the tempo helps determine the timing of a piece of music. For those less musically-inclined, however, this Latin root may feel more familiar in words like temporary, meaning something that only lasts for a given period of time, and contemporary, meaning that something is of the current time.

wavebreakmedia // Shutterstock

Test

– Meaning in English: Witness

Though the term “test” is a word on its own, the Latin root “test” is unrelated to the term meaning exam. Instead, the Latin here means “witness,” as in testimony, where someone shares their account of what they saw in a court trial. Legal proceedings aside, the root also appears in the word testament, which reflects a reliable account of something, such that it can be used as evidence to make a point.

Ink Drop // Shutterstock

Trans

– Meaning in English: Across

English terms that include the root “trans” are generally referring to something that has traversed a physical or imaginary border in some way. For example, the first trans-Atlantic flight was completed in 1919 by Charles Lindbergh when he spent 34 hours traveling from New York to Paris. A common use of the root is also in reference to transgender individuals, whose gender identity does not align with their birth sex.

You may also like: Iconic products released the year you were born

CURAphotography // Shutterstock

Vac

– Meaning in English: Empty

The Latin root “vac” appears in several highly-used English words, including what may be a collective favorite: “vacation.” Unlike certain terms that have a more literal tie to this root’s definition––e.g., “vacancy” means there are empty rooms in a space, “vacate” means emptying out a space, etc.––“vacation” is more of a loose derivative of the root, alluding to an empty schedule.

everst // Shutterstock

Vag

– Meaning in English: Wander

Of the Latin roots on this list, “vag” is one of the more unique in that it has a few different derivative words that reflect the term in unique ways. For example, while vagabond is a pretty literal extension of the Latin root, one of the other common derivative words—vague—reflects the meaning of the Latin root in a less direct way (i.e., it alludes to ideological “wandering” from the main topic).

Freedomz // Shutterstock

Ver

– Meaning in English: True

“Ver” is one of the more common Latin roots to appear in the English language. There are some terms that include the root—verdict and veracity—that may be less frequently utilized in everyday jargon, but that’s hardly the case with one of the most popular words that stems from this root: very. Whenever something is described as very soft, for example, the intention of the speaker is to communicate that something is “truly” soft.

Tero Vesalainen // Shutterstock

Vid

– Meaning in English: See, visual

While videotapes might have become obsolete, this Latin root, meaning “see,” is still kept alive in plenty of other key terms in the English language. One of the biggest, of course, is video, and though people’s sources of video entertainment have changed over the years, their affinity for it certainly has it. According to recent data, people watch an average of 16 hours of online video per week.

defotoberg // Shutterstock

Uni

– Meaning in English: One

This root, meaning “one,” is incredibly prevalent throughout the English language. It appears in a wide range of words, including unicorn (a one-horned mythical horse), unity (one entity), uniform (one outfit), unicycle (one-wheeled bike), and unibrow (one eyebrow).

This article originally appeared on Stacker.com. The article has been re-published pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.