Classical Latin Research Articles

Pro Latinitate Activa: a student's perspective on Active Latin

Abstract Critics have argued that the Active1 approach to Latin is not, in fact, an effective way to learn the language. This misconception appears to stem at least in part from misunderstandings regarding teaching methodology, such as the belief that teachers who use these methods neglect grammar or do not in fact introduce students to ‘real’ original Latin, but simplified versions of the texts created by the teachers themselves. As someone who learned Latin primarily through the Active Method, I can attest that this is an unrealistic representation. These methods are not used at the expense of formal grammar instruction; they are a different way of teaching grammar that also stresses the importance of acquiring a large vocabulary for the purpose of more fluent reading. Nor do such courses never progress to the reading of authentic Classical Latin. I will use online descriptions of Active Method courses to demonstrate this.

Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer and Classical Latin Poetry in Scholarly Debate on Early History of Ancient Rus

This article is dedicated to a stylistic feature of 17th-century scholarly texts, namely the incorporation of poetic quotations into polemical scientific discourse, which enhances the expressiveness of evaluations concerning opponents and their concepts. An analysis of Gottlieb Bayer's texts is conducted. A number of works by the academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer (1694–1738), focus on the early history of Ancient Rus. In preparing these works, Bayer extensively relied on ancient historical sources, and his articles were written in Latin, which naturally involved the traditions of classical literature in discussions pertaining to the historical issues of early Rus. This publication examines quotations and reminiscences from classical Latin poetry introduced by G. S. Bayer in his article “Origines russicae” (“The Origins of the Russians,” posthumously published in 1741). The poetic interpolations within the scholarly text serve as elements of the author’s style and fulfill two purposes. Firstly, they are utilized by the author to illustrate his assertions, lending emotional depth to academic reasoning and subtly indicating the breadth of his intellectual horizon, which enhances the perception of the scholarly reliability of his work. Secondly, they sustain Bayer’s polemical stance towards certain established historical concepts of his time, allowing for a sharp critical tone that accentuates the polemical fervor without resorting to personal attacks.

Increase of Complexity from Classical Greek to Latin Poetry

In this paper a method is developed to analyze the increase of complexity from classical Greek poetry to classical Latin poetry by mapping large samples of poems onto a symbolic time series. This mapping setup intends to characterize the regular succession of rhythms, that is, the patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in a verse. Using techniques from information theory; more precisely, the mutual information function, it is shown how the rhythmical patterns in Greek poetry evolve to more complex behavior in Latin poetry. Some interesting results are reported.

Senior domno Orbita confirmat. Evolución sociopragmática de los tratamientos don y señor en el iberorromance primitivo

Abstract The aim of the paper is to analyse the sociopragmatic evolution of the nominal treatments don and señor in primitive Iberoromance (10th–13th centuries). Through the search in the notarial documents of that period, extracted from CORDE, the author examines how the insertion of the new nominal treatment SENIORE, inexistent in classical Latin, spreads sociopragmatically causing the pragmatic corrosion of the initial treatment from DOMINUS.

A Metaphor to Build Empires: Imitatio and the Politics of Representation in European Humanism

In Western criticism and philosophy, Renaissance discussions of imitation have often been seen as both a legacy of Greece and Rome, and as the foundation of modern theories of art and literature. This investigation shows that the discussions of imitation that spread throughout the Renaissance were indeed adopted from Latin Roman discussions of poetry and rhetoric, but they have no connection to the famous Greek philosophical concepts of mimesis/imitation that are found in the work of Plato and Aristotle. Indeed, European concepts of imitatio/ imitation, as this study shows, developed their conceptual potential before Plato’s and Aristotle’s discussions of mimesis became familiar in Europe. Furthermore, Renaissance discussions of imitation were not theories of art and literature, as is commonly believed. They were simply an educational pedagogy that organized the appropriation of the canons of description of classical Latin into the vernaculars. The peculiarity and the scale of this pedagogy become evident when located within its geopolitical context. In the early modern era, neither the dead Latin language nor the vernaculars were equipped to manage the wealth or the administrative and cultural needs of ascending European states. Like Rome at the height of its power, European states were emerging empires in need of a language and a culture. And just like the Romans resorted to the imitation of Greek masterpieces in order to develop their language, Europeans advocated the imitation of Latin masterpieces to develop their vernaculars. But while the Romans resorted to imitatio often with resentment and bitterness at the impossibility to match the Greek achievement, European humanists considered imitatio to have been a resounding success [sic]. By adopting the Roman practice of imitatio, European cultures appropriated and internalized Roman ambivalence without solving or even identifying it.

Algae, Fungi, Binomial Nomenclature and the Search for “Correct” Pronunciations

The spelling of Latin plurals in words like fungi, algae produces pronunciation variants and spirited arguments over correctness. Because the experts in specialty areas could be considered the arbiters of terminology standards, American and British biologists in several fields were surveyed to determine whether historical standard pronunciations of certain words have been maintained or lost. Results indicate that in some cases traditional pronunciations are still the standard in these discourse communities, while in others North America and the UK have diverged. In addition, newer spelling pronunciations have come into play on both sides of the Atlantic, even among these experts, with older forms threatened with extinction. Binomial nomenclature is also subject to variation as a longstanding debate over the use of anglicized or classical Latin and Greek challenges the need for any standard pronunciation at all.

Terminologia Anatomica 2nd edition: perspectives from anatomy educators in the United Kingdom.

English anatomical terminology has evolved over the long history of anatomical practice, with major influences from ancient Greek, classical Latin, Arabic, and post-classical Latin. Beginning in the nineteenth century, there have been various attempts to standardise and rationalise anatomical language, beginning in 1887, and culminating in the publication in 2019 of the second edition of the Terminologia Anatomica. This paper presents a brief historical overview of the development of anatomical terminology and usage in English, followed by a summary of the results of an anonymised survey of current practices that was sent out by email to anatomy educators at 45 medical schools in the United Kingdom. This is followed by personal reflections by six senior academics and/or clinicians, reviewing their extensive experience of teaching, researching, and communicating the language of anatomy within United Kingdom medical and clinical institutions.

Writings from a Sienese Renaissance prisoner. Antonio Petrucci’s fall and his zibaldone (1461-1465)

Urbino. November 1464. Antonio Petrucci, a preeminent Senese politician and condottiero, is still imprisoned, following his defeat at the hands of papal troops on 30 October 1461. During his captivity, Petrucci composed a Zibaldone (a commonplace book), in which he mainly copied lyrics by Latin classics and Italian poets and humanists. Petrucci’s autograph also contains a complaint against Fortune dated 10 November 1464, which is one of the last texts of the manuscript. Petrucci was certainly not the first medieval author to reflect on human fate and the role of Fortune. On the contrary, the image of the wheel of Fortune is probably among the most iconic of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, Petrucci’s complaint is not simply a general reflection on the role of Fortune. The lamentation is chiefly the way Petrucci decided to portray his own personal fall, accusing the “very cruel Fortune” of depriving him of his “illustrious and gracious homeland”, Siena. It would be superficial to reduce the Senese’s complaint to a simple description of his misadventures, and the same is true for every document written by someone who suffered a failure. Petrucci’s case raises questions about the sources available to historians to study the history of downward mobility.

The First Latin Translation of Li 礼 from the Analects of Confucius: Roman Virtues or Religious Acts?

This article centers around the early translation of the term Li 礼 in the Analects of Confucius (论语). This Latin translation shows that the interpretation of the Confucian term Li 礼 mostly did not include any religious meaning. This article also centers on the personal formation of the Jesuits of that time. Taking Michele Ruggieri as reference, this article details how studies based on the Latin Classics (especially Cicero) provided them with a reference to interpret this term as unrelated to religious worship. When the Jesuits arrived in China, at the end of the Ming dynasty, strong emphasis was given to the proper etiquette towards state officials. This in turn derived from the situation in the imperial court. In this historical environment, the Confucian rites (Li 礼) were interpreted as “good manners”. This article also presents briefly the question of whether for Christians, Li 礼 as a proper social behavior inspired by a particular cultural tradition has any connection with or can be a problem for the rituals of the Christian tradition instituted by Jesus as vehicles of divine grace.

Divergence-time estimation in Indo-European

Abstract Divergence-time estimation is one of the most important endeavors in historical linguistics. Its importance is matched only by its difficulty. As Bayesian methods of divergence-time estimation have become more common over the past two decades, a number of critical issues have come to the fore, including model sensitivity, the dependence of root-age estimates on uncertain interior-node ages, and the relationship between ancient languages and their modern counterparts. This study addresses these issues in an investigation of a particularly fraught case within Indo-European: the diversification of Latin into the Romance languages. The results of this study support a gradualist account of their formation that most likely began after 300 CE. They also bolster the view that Classical Latin is a sampled ancestor of the Romance languages (i.e., it lies along the branch leading to the Romance languages).

Time Evolution of the Symmetry of Alphabet Symbols and Its Quantification: Study in the Archeology of Symmetry

We investigated the time evolution of the symmetry of symbols constituting alphabets rooted in the Phoenician script. A diversity of quantitative measures of symmetry of graphemes appearing in Phoenician, Western Greek, Etruscan from Marsiliana, Archaic Etruscan, Neo-Etruscan, Euclidian Greek, Archaic and Classical Latin and Proto-Hebrew scripts, constituting the Phoenician script family, were calculated. The same measures were established for the Hebrew/Ashurit and English scripts. The Shannon-like measures of symmetry were computed. The Shannon diversity index was calculated. Our findings indicate that the Shannon diversity index increased with time in a monotonic way for the studied scripts. The diversity of symmetry groups inherent for addressed alphabets grows with time. We also introduced the symmetry factor of the alphabet. The symmetry factor quantifies the averaged level of symmetrization of the alphabet and the possible parsimony of graphical information necessary for the drawing of the entire set of graphemes constituting the alphabet. We found that the symmetry factor is decreased with time for the alphabets rooted in the Phoenician script. This means that the average level of symmetrization of the studied alphabet increases with time. The parsimony of graphical information necessary for writing graphemes is consequently increased with time. The values of the symmetry factor calculated for the addressed scripts are close to one another, with the pronounced exception of the Hebrew/Ashurit script. Our study supplies the arguments for the point of view, according to which the modern Hebrew/Ashurit script did not emerge from the Phoenician one.

Rewriting the Textbook: an investigation into students’ practices with creative composition in a Year 7 Latin class

Abstract This project investigated the effectiveness of a creative Latin composition exercise. Within this exercise, students built upon existing Latin textbook material, inserting their own character into an existing Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) story (CSCP, 1998). This form of exercise has links to more conventional prose composition exercises, but it also takes inspiration from exercises which use fanfiction to improve language skills (Bahoric and Swaggerty, 2015).

LINGUOPOETIC ANALYSIS OF BAROQUE UKRAINIAN ELEGY "CUPIDO SEU AMOR ALATUS" BY ILARION YAROSHEVYTSKYI

Background. Latin baroque literature of Ukraine represents inheritance and unique interpretation of classical and medieval plots. Ukrainian poets and Ilarion Yaroshevytskyi, in particular, demonstrate their literary mastership and cultural reception of the time. His poem reflects the baroque worldview of distorted world and struggle of good and evil, spirit and flesh, Christian and pagan views, ascetic and secular life. The goal of the article was to conduct in-depth analysis of linguopoetic peculiarities of the poem in order to present the author's embodiment of the baroque worldview by the language means. Methods. The following methods were employed: method of linguostylistic and linguopoetic analysis, method of cultural interpretation, contextual and interpretative method, classification, systematization and generalization. Results. Analysis of the elegiac poem revealed the following linguopoetic peculiarities: 1) at lexical level – the use of mythological names denoting divinities and their epithets (Mars / Gradivus, Venus / Diona / Cypris / Erycina, Artemis, Lar); mythological characters (the Meduse Gorgon, Daedalus and Icarus, Eryx, Charybdis); 2) at syntactic level – parallel constructions / chiasm; inversion of the three types; 3) at stylistic level – direct speech; irony; repepetitions; comparisons; 4) at conceptual level – the oppositions of war and peace; secular and ascetic life; christian and mythological worldviews; spiritual and corporeal love. Conclusion. Latin elegy, represented in a poetic course "Cedrus Apollinis", contributed to the development of the genre in Ukrainian baroque literature and corresponded to the classical Latin samples. The poem demonstrates the author's awareness of mythological and medieval plots and their bizarre combination in elegiac genre.

Odlike vulgarnog latiniteta u Egerijinom putopisu / Characteristics of Vulgar Latin in Itinerarium Egeriae

In this paper, a linguistic analysis of the Itinerarium Egeriae, one of the oldest documented Christian pilgrimages to the eastern Mediterranean, is presented. The aim of the work is to present characteristics related to Vulgar Latin. The linguistic analysis is focused on characteristics which are not in keeping with classical norms, in an attempt to describe certain changes with regard to Classical Latin and traditional grammar, which may cause difficulty for the reader. It is evident that the Itinerarium Egeriae is not characterized by ornate expression like the texts of classical writers, but it offers interesting, if sometimes confusing, deviations from classical norms. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first section Egeria, the purpose of the trip, the text, the author’s ability to observe, and her style aimed at spiritual instruction are presented. Egeria’s style of Latin are the subject of the second and main section of the work, which includes language, style, literary aspect and phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical characteristics of travel writing.

El arte de traducir un texto parenético: Ceasornicul domnilor, la traducción rumana del Relox de príncipes

This study proposes an analysis of the Romanian translation of Relox de príncipes. At the turn of the 17th century, the Moldavian scholar Nicolae Costin undertakes a major literary project and manages to complete it, despite all the conceptual and translation-related obstacles he most likely encountered. His text betrays, on the one hand, the influence of the Latin word order and, on the other hand, various calques and neologisms borrowed from Classical Latin. Although we find some glosses and interpolations in his translation, in most cases they are meant to increase the accessibility of the text for Romanian readers. Thus, we see a relationship of faithfulness between the source text and the target text in the case of Nicolae Costin’s literary creation, since the translation definitely maintains the spirit of Antonio de Guevara’s writing.

Teksty historyków rzymskich na lektoracie języka łacińskiego we współczesnej szkole wyższej i w dawnym polskim szkolnictwie – zarys historyczny i wybrane zagadnienia dydaktyczne

Texts of Roman Historians on the Latin Language Course at a Modern University and in the Former Polish Educational System – Historical Outline and Selected Didactic Issues In this article the author focusses on two problems: these are a reception of Roman historical texts in the former Polish educational system and methods that can be used while working with students on translation and analysis of Roman historical texts in Latin classes at a modern university. In the first part of the paper, in a short outline the author presents which texts of Roman historians were read and how they were worked on in Polish schools from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. In the second part of the article the author deals with selected didactic issues, which are often focused on during Latin classes nowadays. The author discusses here her own didactic experiences and presents some methods of working on reading, translation and analysis of Latin historical texts that can be used to make teaching and learning interesting and inspiring for both a lecturer and student.

The Reanalysis of Old French Nouns Declension by Taking Classical Latin Nouns Declension as a Pattern

In some flexional languages, the nouns declension is a very important and difficult part to study. The nouns root and the flexional endings are the two most essential elements in declension. By these two elements, all forms of nouns in declension can be known. In classical Latin, the singular nominative and the singular genitive of nouns are written together in the dictionary to let the learners know the information about the two elements of declension. Nevertheless, in an old French dictionary, these two elements can not be known. This paper will reanalyse the old French nouns declension by taking the classical Latin nouns declension as a pattern to find out the regularity of declension and these two elements of declension in old French. This research will be helpful to grasp the old French nouns declension and will help the learners understand better old French morphologically. Further, sufficiently understanding the declension of the old French nouns is helpful to read the manuscripts in old French. Moreover, this paper offers a new idea and thinking about compiling the old French dictionary in the part of noun.

A stochastic LATIN method for stochastic and parameterized elastoplastic analysis

The LATIN method has been developed and successfully applied to a variety of deterministic problems, but few work has been developed for nonlinear stochastic problems. This paper presents a stochastic LATIN method to solve stochastic and/or parameterized elastoplastic problems. To this end, the stochastic solution is decoupled into spatial, temporal and stochastic spaces, and approximated by the sum of a set of products of triplets of spatial functions, temporal functions and random variables. Each triplet is then calculated in a greedy way using a stochastic LATIN iteration. The high efficiency of the proposed method relies on two aspects: The nonlinearity is efficiently handled by inheriting advantages of the classical LATIN method, and the randomness and/or parameters are effectively treated by a sample-based approximation of stochastic spaces. Further, the proposed method is not sensitive to the stochastic and/or parametric dimensions of inputs due to the sample description of stochastic spaces. It can thus be applied to high-dimensional stochastic and parameterized problems. Five numerical examples demonstrate the promising performance of the proposed stochastic LATIN method.

The Carolingian cocio: on the vocabulary of the early medieval petty merchant

The word cocio (i.e. petty merchant or broker in classical Latin) was a rare term that after a long absence in written Latin reappeared in several Carolingian texts. Scholars have posited a medieval semantic shift from ‘merchant’ to ‘vagabond’. But this article argues that this consensus is erroneous. The Carolingian cocio continued to refer to petty commercial agents, that is, to small merchants. Furthermore, the term’s appearance in capitularies and its subsequent medieval vernacular afterlife together suggest that the term was borrowed from (unattested) proto‐Romance usage. A corrected history of the early medieval use of cocio illuminates the relationship between spoken and written Latin as well as aspects of social, religious, and economic history in the Carolingian period, and speaks to the promise of language to shed light on economic realities.

Future expressions in a sixth-century Latin translation of Josephus

Abstract Over the history of Latin, a number of ways to express futurity evolve and disappear. Perhaps most notably, the future tense is lost in all Romance languages, replaced generally by periphrases with habeo. I present here the expressions of futurity present in the Latin translation of Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities and Against Apion, conducted in sixth-century CE Italy under the aegis of Cassiodorus. I first examine the use of the synthetic future tense, and then suggest that the translators deliberately avoid using habeo + infinitive in any sense. This contradicts recent claims that habeo + infinitive was characteristic of high register usage in Late Latin. I then analyse the use of the present tense to express futurity, the future participle + sum, gerundives as future passive participles and infinitives, and the curious use of debeo and possum. I show a number of changes in the system from Classical Latin, and suggest a new potential route for the development of debeo to express the future in certain Romance varieties.