Now, I can’t deny that “seize the day” sounds a lot more inspiring than “pluck the day.”  How does one pluck a day, anyway? Here’s where it pays to go to the source. What exactly is Horace getting at in the eleventh poem in his first book of odes?
The bottom line is that Latin for the New Millennium does at least reasonably well in all five categories, and better than reasonably well in most.  It’s a five tool player.Â
Podcasts allow you to listen to the written word even when your eyes aren’t free to look at the parchment, and even when the narrator isn’t present.  Just imagine what Cicero or Vergil could have done with podcasts.
And if holding a century-old book in your hand can give a sense of a tangible connection to its readers over the past hundred years, what about reading the same words that have fired the imaginations of countless readers over the past hundred generations?
We can’t understand what we don’t even know.  We can’t draw valid conclusions if we don’t have the facts. Memorization gives us the matter to feed our cogitations.
A Free Guide A free guide . . . who can pass up a deal like that? Especially when it comes to uses of the Latin subjunctive mood. We don’t see much of the subjunctive anymore in English, which makes it a little mystifying. There are also so many different things the subjunctive can mean in Latin. And … Read more
Ilium in Italiam Ilium in Italiam portans, that is, bringing Troy into Italy. This is one of Juno’s many complaints against Aeneas in the opening scene of Vergil’s Aeneid (I.68). Juno, however, is the villain of the story. Bringing Troy into Italy is, in fact, the theme of the epic. The blending of the valiant remnant of Ilium with … Read more
Nothing is Free Nothing is free in this world, nihil gratis . . . at least that’s what they say. I’m here to tell you that something is free, at least until March 6th. That is, my “Mastering the Ablative Case” Udemy course is available at no expense to you for the next month. Why … Read more
Mastering Verb Forms Mastering the dizzying array of Latin verb forms is no easy feat. A typical verb has a truly impressive number of different configurations. Depending on how you count, a regular verb can have 250 or more. How can a learner possibly keep them all straight? Forget about keeping them straight, how can the Latin student … Read more
Meet Quintus Meet Quintus – Quintus Horatius Flaccus, that is. We generally call him Horace, one of the greatest poets of antiquity. He’s best known today among non-Latinists for his phrase carpe diem (Horace, Odes 1.11). And meet Quintus we do, on the very first page of Maurice Balme’s and James Morewood’s Oxford Latin Course. The student’s … Read more