Unit I: the Roman World: Roman Italy

Unit Objectives • To read and understand simple Latin sentences, dialogues, and narratives • To understand and apply the con- cepts of declension, case, number, gender; noun–adjective agreement; subject–verb agreement; conjugation of verbs, present tense; person and number of verbs; principal parts of verbs; the present stem and present infinitive of verbs; the nominative, genitive, and accusative cases • To learn about the geography of the Roman world This view looking across the Roman Forum from the Capitoline Hill sweeps over three thousand years of history. In the foreground, the ancient columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux (right) and the round Temple of Vesta (left). In the middle ground, the Church of Santa Maria Nova (tenth century A.D.); and the Temple of Venus and Rome (second century A.D.). In the background, the vast mass of the Coliseum (first century A.D.) and, if you look closely, an object clearly from the twentieth century. Even in ruins, the Forum remains to all the world an inspiration as one Stephen Studd/©Tony Stone Images of the wellsprings of civilization. 13 6° 8° 10° 12° 14° 16° 18° S P E ITALIA 46° L A T A i I Scale of Miles c T i n Mediolanum E 0255075100 u ○ N s G E Verona○ V A Mantua Aug. Taurinorum ○ I N ○ L L PadusL W E ia I L LIGURIA reb ○ T A M Genua Y S A 44° Rubico R ○ Ariminum R Metaurus E I ○Pisae Sentinum Arnus ○ ○ C Florentia U M H ○ AesisP U Arretium B I A L. Trasumennus R C I M E D Clusium ○ A N R ETRURIA U ○ Asculum Volsinii○ M I PAELIGNI A Falerii Narnia ○ ○ FRENTAN T CORSICA ○ SABINI I 42° Tarquinii Feronia Carsioli ○Aleria ○ M C Veii○ io ○ A Caere ○ An R U ○ Tibur SI Roma ○ M I M ○ Praeneste Luceria Ostia ○ LATIUM ○ Bovianum Tiberis ○ ○ O Antium Fregellae SAMNIUM A Aufidus ○ N BeneventumP Cannae Circei ○ ○ ○ ○U Formiae CapuaS F. VIA APPIA CA L Cumae○ M Caudinae ○ I P Venusia A Neapolis ○ AN Brundisium Pompeii○ IA CA ○ ○ L AB Tarentum R ○ LUCANIA I Paestum ○ A 40° SARDINIA Heraclea MARE MAGNA Caralis○ TYRRHENUM BRUTTIUM ○Croton GRAECIA Ercte M. Messana ○ Locri ° Eryx M. ○ 38 ○ Panormus ○ AEGATES Mylae ○Rhegium INS. ○Drepana ○ CALATHA I. Lilybaeum SICILIA Aetna M. ○ Hippo Zarytus Catana ○ ○ Agrigentum ○ Gela ○ Utica Pr. Mercurii Ecnomus ○ ○ ○Carthago Syracusae ada COSSYRA gr Pachynum Pr. NUMIDIA Ba 36° AFRICA MELITA Lesson I Lesson Objectives • To learn the uses of the nominative case Rßma et Italia and the endings of first declension nouns • To understand Latin word order Rßma est in Itali¤. Italia est in Eurßp¤. Britannia est in Eurßp¤. Britannia est ¬nsula. Italia nßn est ¬nsula. Italia paene1 est ¬nsula. Italia paen¬nsula est. 1 almost Sicilia et Sardinia sunt ¬nsulae. ænsulae in aqu¤ sunt. Austr¤lia ¬nsula est, sed §sia nßn est ¬nsula. Sunt viae et silvae in paen¬nsul¤ Itali¤. Viae et silvae et paen¬nsulae in 5 Eurßp¤ sunt. Italia et Graecia et Hisp¤nia paen¬nsulae sunt. Rßma nßn in Graeci¤ sed in Itali¤ est. Est Graecia in Eurßp¤? Est aqua in Antarctic¤, sed nßn sunt silvae in Antarctic¤. Silvae in §fric¤ sunt. Est America ¬nsula? Questions 1. Can you use other islands, countries, states, and cities whose names end in -a, such as Bermuda, India, Virginia, Philadelphia, to make up addi- tional Latin sentences? 2. What do we call an “almost-island” in English? 3. Which words in the reading seem totally unrelated to English? The words in parentheses are English derivatives of Latin words. An English In the vocabularies, the derivative is any word descended from an original Latin word. words in brackets are not Nouns needed now, but soon will a´qua, [a´quae f.] water (aqueduct, aqueous) be, so it may be simpler ¬n´sula, [¬n´sulae f.] island (insulate, isolate) and easier for you to learn sil´va, [sil´vae f.] forest, woods (Pennsylvania, sylvan) the whole vocabulary entry viá, [viáe f.] road, way, street (viaduct, deviate) now. Verbs est is, there is, he/she/it is sunt are, there are, they are Adverb nßn not (nonentity, nonsense) Conjunctions et and (et cetera) sed but LESSON I rß ma et I talia 15 Reading and Understanding Latin Following are hints to help you understand the meaning of a Latin sentence. 1. Read aloud through the entire sentence, word for word, in Latin. Pronounce the parts of each word (syllables) distinctly and accurately, In the vocabulary list, the remembering that there are no silent letters in Latin. Reading aloud is bet- nominative singular and ter, since you are less likely to skip over words or their important endings. genitive singular forms 2. Work on your pronunciation, since changes in Latin word spelling often of each noun, and its result in changes of meaning: li´ber (book), l¬´ber (free); d¥ć±s (you will gender, are provided. lead), duć±s (leaders); ma´la (bad), m¤´la (apples). Be especially attentive to the endings, since these regularly change the meaning. 3. Try to grasp the meaning of each Latin word in the order in which it appears in a sentence. Do not jump around. Your goal is to understand Latin as the Romans did. Direct comprehension of a sentence, rather than writing (translating) into English, should always be your ultimate goal. 4. If you cannot understand the meaning of a word, try to connect its spelling with an English word you do know. A´qua is related to aquatic which means having to do with water. By using the derivative aquatic, you may be able to see that the meaning of a´qua is water. Look up the meaning of a Latin word in the vocabulary list only as a last resort. 5. Be attentive not only to the root meaning of every word in a Latin sentence but also to its form (spelling) and position: ¬nsula = island, but ¬nsulae = islands. As you will learn, the meaning of a Latin word depends greatly on its exact spelling. A change in the form of a word (its inflec- tion) almost always results in a change in meaning. In Latin, word position is more important for emphasis than for meaning. 6. Learn as many meanings as possible for each vocabulary word, starting with the most basic: via = road, also way and street. If none of the meanings you have learned makes sense, try a synonym. However, do not change the part of speech. 7. Supply the article a, an, or the with the nouns that need one. Nouns In English and in Latin, nouns name persons, places, things, qualities, or actions. In addition to their meanings, nouns in Latin display the following features: case, number, gender, and declension. Case Latin nouns, by changing their endings, show various cases, which tell you how the word is to be understood in its sentence. You will learn about each case as you continue your Latin studies. Number Number simply means whether the noun is singular or plural. A noun is singular in number when it names one person, place, or thing. 16 UNIT I THE ROMAN WORLD In the Forum of Julius Caesar, a short distance from the Roman Forum, are the three surviving columns of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, the goddess of love whom Caesar claimed as the founder of the Julian clan. In the background are the arched remains of numerous shops, and Larry Lee/Westlight behind them the Capitoline Hill. It is plural when it names more than one. The ending of the noun shows whether it is singular or plural. ¬nsula island ¬nsulae islands v¬ta life v¬tae lives Gender Gender refers to whether the noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter in Latin. In English, you are used to calling female people and animals “she,” and male people and animals “he.” You normally refer to everything else using the neuter word “it.” In Latin, every noun has a gender that must be learned. Declensions Nouns are divided into groups called declensions. There are five declensions in Latin. The nouns grouped together within a single declension share the same general pattern of case endings. Nouns in the first declension all end in -a in the nominative singular. Most first declension nouns are feminine. LESSON I Rß ma et I talia 17 To decline a noun, add the case endings to the word’s stem (base). To find the stem, drop the -ae from the genitive singular form. First declension nouns are declined like the model silva (forest). Because you cannot FIRST DECLENSION NOUNS always tell a noun’s CASE SINGULAR PLURAL declension from its Nominative sil´va (forest) sil´vae (forests) nominative singular, you Genitive sil´vae silv¤´rum must also learn its genitive Dative sil´vae sil´v¬s singular to get to both its Accusative sil´vam sil´v¤s declension and its stem. Ablative sil´v¤ sil´v¬s There are four things you must learn about every Latin noun: its nominative singular, genitive singular, Sentences: Subject and Predicate gender, and basic meaning. The word “sentence” comes from the Latin word sententia, which means thought. In both Latin and English, sentences are words grouped together to express thoughts. Every sentence has two parts: the subject, about which something is said, and the predicate, which says something about the subject and includes the verb and everything that goes with it to complete the statement. Italy (subject) is a peninsula (predicate). Italia paen¬nsula est. The girls (subject) carry water (predicate).

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