Time Travel
Time travel is real. You can go back in time and hear Julius Caesar speak in his own voice. With the great poet Vergil you can recite the very words that cause Octavia, the sister of the Emperor Augustus, to faint. Cicero can share with you all the back channel gossip about the illustrious figures of the Golden Age of Rome. St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas can explain God and the World to you directly, without the filter of a translator’s interpretation. All you need to do is learn Latin.
“Time Travel is Real” Podcast
I hope I haven’t disappointed all you science fiction fans out there. I have always been a big fan of Star Trek, but literal time travel is beyond our reach. Nonetheless, learning the language of great men and women of the past truly does give us a direct line of communication with them. We have access to more than just their ideas. We can read and hear the exact words they used to express themselves.
In Their Own Words
That was always the main attraction of Latin for me. I was interested in history, and I enjoyed literature. How much I would have loved to travel back in time to share ideas and experiences with all the people I had read about! But even if I couldn’t visit the past bodily as Captain Kirk and Spock were able to do, there was still a real connection. Even if I couldn’t share my own experiences with our distant ancestors, they could still speak directly to me.
“But even if I couldn’t visit the past bodily as Captain Kirk and Spock were able to do, there was still a real connection.”
Image from Star Trek: The Original Series, “Who Mourns for Adonais?”
I still enjoy traveling through time, more than four and a half decades after my first high school Latin class. I eventually went on to teach Latin (along with Greek, English, History, Mythology, and Theology) for thirty-five years and counting. I’ve worked in public schools as well as independent Catholic schools (both traditional and online). I’ve taught my own children and other homeschooled children in semi-formal classes in my local library, and around my kitchen table. It’s been a great adventure.
Ancient But Not Old
One thing that has kept the adventure fresh and exciting for me over the years is that I never do quite the same thing twice. The Latin language may be ancient, but it never needs to be old. I’ve used a wide array of texts and programs. Sometimes, I’ve used no book at all. I’ve tried a dizzying number of approaches and styles, and I’m still trying new things.
The newest thing is this website, Aeterna Latina (Eternal Latin). Here I hope to use 21st century technology, and an age-old language, to bring you with me back in time. Feel free to look around. I have posted some of the videos I made for my remote students during the COVID days – they have a homemade look to them (for good reason!), but you may find them helpful.
Also, I have just published my first full-scale online course on the Udemy platform. It’s called Mastering the Ablative Case in Latin: 20 Uses Made Easy. In the new year I hope to have an introductory Latin course following the text Latin for the New Millennium.
Time travel is real. Stellae sunt terminus!
Featured image top of page: Vergil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia, by Jean-Baptiste Wicar, 1790-3
