Latin
Chariot races, aqueducts, slavery, heated swimming baths, gladiators……the Romans never cease to amaze us with their strange mixture of civilization and technological achievements and appallingly barbaric entertainments. They ruled over an enormous Empire stretching from the Middle East to Scotland, and Manchester itself owes its foundation to the Roman fort of Mamucium on the way from Chester to the North and Hadrian’s Wall, the northernmost frontier.
The Romans might be interesting, but why learn their language? We can find out the interesting things from books, can’t we?
If someone were writing a book or finding out about YOU, but never bothered to come to talk to you or listen to what you had to say, you’d be a bit annoyed, I think. If we really want to know what the Romans were like then, we can read what they have to say to us now – in their writings. Real Romans speak to us in the thousands of works left by them for future generations (that means you!).
Isn’t it all rather boring to read musty old books?
Not at all! First of all, our books aren’t old and musty. Not all of them, anyway (!) ….secondly, what a variety of writing they produced: Virgil, in verse, told the story of the founding of Rome itself, when the Trojan hero Aeneas escaped from the burning Troy with a few other survivors, encountered adventure after adventure as he journeyed round the Mediterranean, and finally settled in Italy to found a new city; Cicero, the greatest barrister of his day, wrote speeches to be delivered in the Senate or in the law-courts, all in the most exquisite prose style the envy of speech-makers ever since; Catullus wrote some of the most beautiful love poetry of all time, as well as some of the most shocking….; Julius Caesar wrote of his own exploits as the most efficient and innovative commander of Roman Legions; Tacitus tells us all about the intrigues of the Emperors and their families and their murderous plots and poisonings; Apicius wrote a recipe book, useful for those dinner parties, as long as your guests like stuffed doormice, roast peacock,……. The full list of writers is impressively long considering they were writing a good two thousand years ago.
But isn’t Latin difficult?
Yes; it wouldn’t have suited the Romans to have it any other way! You need to have a good GCSE grade. But if you have found Latin reasonably straightforward so far (and if you have just loved those gerundives and perfect passive subjunctives and accusative and infinitive constructions and indirect questions, not to mention over a hundred and thirty endings for the verb ‘love’…), then you might have found a worthy challenge!
In any case a great deal of the marks in AS and A2 Latin go for the set texts and literary criticism - back to those exciting writers again – and (sadly?) you don’t need to know those word-endings for that!
What subjects can I take Latin with?
Latin’s mixture of logic and literary criticism mean that it has, in the choices of many past Sixth Formers, been studied beside Maths, English, modern foreign languages, sciences, earth science, music, … anything in fact. Its famous combination is, of course, with ancient Greek. Wonderful.
What job could I get with it?
Apart from making a very impressive (depending on your physique) Latin speaking Roman legionary, showing people around Chester? Or Rome…? Well, maybe as a holiday job…. Most Classics/Latin graduates go the way of most other Arts graduates, and you need to see the separate careers guidance available. There are a few (very few) jobs in Classical research, but most classicists have to surface into the modern world after their degree.
Exams (We do not ask our students to offer coursework in Latin AS or A2.)
AS
Paper 1
Unseen Translation
Paper 2
Prose and Verse Set Text
A2
Paper 1
Verse Text and Unseen
Paper 2
Prose Text and Unseen
For further details, see Mr Phil Maree, Head of Classics.