Cicero and the Roman Republic

Well, I don't normally advertise things - but this is just because I've found this book particularly useful.

I'm not a particularly high-level student - I'm only doing an AS in Latin right now, though in fairness I'm a year ahead of where I'm supposed to be - but at A-Level you're supposed to read around the subject. And my set text (prose) is part of Cicero's In Verrem, specifically II.1 53-69. So, of course, lots of reading about Cicero is involved, which means raiding the local libraries for everything they're worth. Raiding the local libraries for everything they're worth means reading books - in particular books that haven't been read for decades and that are unfortunately mostly in terrible condition. That, though, is beside the point...

...What was my original point, come to think of that? Oh yes, I've been stuffing my head with Cicero and Cicero and the Roman Republic by F. R. Cowell seems to be mentioned quite frequently. It was my birthday not so long ago and I nipped down to a local second-hand bookshop to treat myself...and I found this gem. (The photo, by the way, is not my copy, but it's the same edition.)

It's essentially an old-fashioned manual for what the Roman Republic was like in Cicero's day, the part he and others played in the failing regime, and how the Republic grew and developed over hundreds of years - it's really very difficult to describe, but I suggest you go and hunt down a copy somewhere anyway. It's not always easy reading and it's quite conservative and traditional in its ways, but it's certainly a good reference for things.

I'd also recommend reading Cicero's letters and as many of his speeches as you can find. I personally can't stand his philosophical works, but then I end up disagreeing with everyone about philosophy, and I haven't read his poetry (which is apparently abysmal).

Finally, a quick word about Imperium and Lustrum, both by Robert Harris. They do decently as a very basic introduction to Cicero, but they're works of fiction - and thus must be taken with more than a pinch of salt. They're also written quite simplistically, which is great if you like that sort of thing, but I don't. It would do you no harm to miss them out.

Stultum Ardet, Pala Futuite

Well...I can, and do, translate from English into Latin. A couple of phrases I'm very fond of:

(cookie for fellow-translators)

stultum ardet
pala futuite
pala/batillo
while I'm adding to this list, the words pala and batillum in general are just insanely useful (and interchangeable)
rationem confringite
dolabraque...dolabrarum semper obliviscor

Cui peccare licet, peccat minus.

"One who is allowed to sin, sins less." -- Ovid

Came across this today while translating one of his poems. Genius.

Why study Latin?

Firstly, I'm really sorry I haven't posted in over 2 months. Translation is a lot of work and I haven't really had my heart in it for a while - if I'm feeling nice I might put up some notes on Cicero or Ovid. Might.

Secondly, one of the first things I ever said here was that I wasn't trying to bring Latin to the masses, just to share my passion for it. That still remains mostly true - but only mostly.

Thirdly, if ever this sounds like I'm boasting - I'm trying not to boast, only to be honest. If I am boasting, though, please leave a comment and tell me to check my ego a bit. It would really be appreciated.

I wouldn't normally write posts like this, but I'm facing a bit of a crisis. I'm currently taking an AS level in Latin (in my GCSE year). Except for me, there are no AS students this year and therefore there will be no A2 students next year. I have only 2 classmates; both are leaving and probably won't do Latin in any case. None of the Year 10s are doing Latin. This means it's up to Year 8 and Year 9 to keep Latin at my school alive - and frankly I think that they need a little push. I'd hate to see my subject be pulled from the curriculum. I wouldn't be writing this otherwise. So here is my story of how and why I came to love Latin so much.

At the tender age of six, I was a budding history nerd and going through a period of obsession with all things Julius Caesar. I was also an NAGC member (for those not in the know, it works with bright kids and their families; when I was there, it had days out where kids would attend workshops on specific topics) and one day my mum pointed me to a workshop about learning Latin - the language of Julius Caesar. Needless to say, I was interested and also quite excited to get a feel for the language he spoke.

I remember a little of the session itself; it was an introduction to Latin, all we really had time for. It was also an introduction to the woman who would become my first Latin tutor and whose son would become a good friend of mine. I did Latin on and off for a couple of years using Minimus at first, then the Cambridge Latin Course (I wouldn't recommend the latter, incidentally - I find that it tends to confuse people).

I returned to doing Latin seriously with another tutor and the So You Really Want To Learn Latin course (I particularly recommend this - it's very, very strong on the grammar, though a bit old-fashioned). Because this course focuses on the bare basics of grammar, it allows a student to move quickly and get a good grounding - which I did. I spent the next couple of years in secondary school learning from those books and the CLC at the same time. I'm not really sure how far ahead I was - far enough ahead to be able to look at a piece of prose (no poetry until GCSE) and translate almost instantly.

That changed when I went to my first JACT Latin Summer School in Wells. If you're studying Latin at GCSE and A-Level, I highly suggest you go - ten days of intensive and very difficult translation, with a bit of grammar and perhaps some prose composition on the side. There are trips, workshops, lectures - some good, some bad - and the traditional cheesy play on the last evening where everyone goes in classically-themed fancy dress. If you don't mind geeky, guilty pleasures and you enjoy meeting intelligent people and getting your brain to work hard, I recommend it! Plus it improves your Latin so much.

Right, done singing the praises of Latin camp...where was I? Oh, anyway, the first time I went I found it brain-breaking at first - I wasn't used to translating actual Latin - but I got used to it and it made me enjoy Latin even more than I already did.

You see, the true joy and wonder of Latin isn't in "Caecilius est in horto" or "To the farmer", it's in learning the language and customs of people like us. It's in figuring out how the language works and how it becomes so descriptive. It's in hearing someone read the Aeneid out loud, like they would have done two thousand years ago. It's in reading the speeches of Cicero, one of the greatest orators (if not the greatest orators) in the Western world, and understanding just why they were so great - something lost in any translation; it's in reading his letters to his friends; it's in reading the epic that is the Aeneid and sharing in the triumphs and sorrows of the characters; it's in laughing at Trimalchio's extravagant dinner; it's in letting the words of Catullus move you with their honesty and power; it's in sitting next to Ovid under the hot Italian sun as he reflects on watching the races with a girl. It opens up a world of great writers who really make you feel like you're there watching everything.

If you like passion, sex, intrigue, love, war, fighting words, people who laughed and cried like us but somehow so much more, Latin is so incredibly rewarding - and it will last you a lifetime.

In Paradisum

This isn't strictly Latin-related - it's not really Latin poetry or prose - and I should probably warn you now: if you don't like classical music or Fauré's requiem, you should skip this post.

I'm fairly convinced this is what Heaven sounds like. I remember singing it myself not too long ago, and it brings back the best of memories. It brings back a pleasant early summer spent on the green fields, laughing with the rest of the choir and taking stupid photos in the sunlight that hurt my eyes, but I didn't care because I never wanted that day to end. It brings back our Oxford-educated director, a painfully young and refined eccentric who always took the time to crack a joke with us while shaping us into halfway-decent musicians. It brings back our in-jokes and the last of our time spent together as we learned and performed one of the most quietly beautiful pieces in existence.

OK, I'll stop ranting now and admit that that particular rendition is a little too saccharine for me. The true beauty of the piece is in the dynamics and harmonies, going from the simplicity of the soprano line at the beginning to the repetition of Jerusalem and then all over again for the second part. I guess you have to sing it live to get the full feeling.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, the Latin translation...

May the angels lead you
Into Paradise;
On your arrival, may the martyrs receive you
and lead you into the holy city
Jerusalem.
May a chorus of angels receive you
and with the formerly poor Lazarus
may you have eternal rest.

Dicebas quondam...

Once you used to say that you knew only Catullus,
Lesbia, and you didn't want to hold Jupiter dear before me.
Then I loved you not such as a common man loves his mistress,
but as a father loves his sons and sons-in-law.
Now I have known you: wherefore, although I burn ardently,
you're but by much cheaper and more worthless to me.
How can that be? you say. Because such a hurt
forces a lover to love more, but to want well less.

I hope I got the sense of this poem right - it's one of the most touching ones. It tugs at my heart-strings at least. This is what I like about Latin, especially Latin poetry; because of the way the language works, relying very little on syntax and a lot on inflection, it becomes very expressive - especially as you can play all sorts of fancy tricks with word order that are difficult or impossible in English. Another thing I tend to find is that Latin likes participles; this makes the language very descriptive as well. I don't know if it's the Latin or my wildly overactive imagination, but I can picture things very vividly in Latin and less so in English.

Quite a lot of these poems are about love. This is less to do with me being a sap and more to do with the book I'm working out of - yes, I use books, not the internet, and I don't do these poems in any particular order. Normally I wouldn't be seen dead with love poetry, but this stuff is so ridiculously good that I pass over the "love" part and just concentrate on the "poetry".

I wouldn't say that Latin is necessarily difficult to translate - as long as you have a strong handle on grammar and you keep practicing it's quite straightforward - but it's very, very different from English. Oh, of course we share some words (particularly inkhorn terms and scientific terminology), but if anything English is more Germanic than Romantic (note: I'm not a linguist, I'm just using some of my little linguistic knowledge). The grammar, the syntax, in fact the whole way Latin is set up is very different to the way English is set up. I almost certainly haven't covered everything (in fact I definitely haven't covered everything), but just as an example, Latin is highly inflected, English isn't. Latin doesn't rely much on syntax to get a message across, English does (just think of how bad this would sound if I mixed all the words in a clause up - Latin could get away with it just fine). All this can make it very difficult to keep the sense of the original Latin.

Another problem is that casual Latin constructions sound like very formal, old-fashioned English - and then there's the age-old task of the translator in deciding just how free to be with the language. It may not sound like much of a problem to those who don't translate, but to those who do it's a massive quandary. Translation is essentially a very complex balancing act between trying to translate accurately and trying to translate well - and the more complex the texts, the more difficult this balancing act gets. I haven't got any Latin qualifications yet and I do this for myself - so if the poems sound stilted to you, just remember how inexperienced I am and how difficult getting a good translation can be.

Vivamus, mea Lesbia

I attempted to cross-post from Vivat Libertas (the post in question can be viewed here), but I sort of managed to fail epically at that task. I've translated the poem, but all the analysis I put into it must be viewed there.

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
and let us value all the rumours of sterner old men
at one as.
Suns can set and return;
when brief light sets once,
we must sleep in unending night.
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
then another thousand, then a second hundred,
then yet another thousand, then a hundred.
Then, when we've made many thousands,
we'll mix them up, lest we know,
or lest anyone could give us the evil eye
since he may know there were so many kisses.