Latin

LATIN 1

This course helps students develop fundamental grammar, forms, and vocabulary through exercises and the reading and writing of elementary material. Roman history and culture play an important role in the course along with Latin's contribution to the English language as a whole.

Objectives

In the course we plan to complete the first half of Wheelock’s Latin, while learning about
Rome’s history, culture, and the essential mark this culture has made on our own.

Texts

  • Wheelock’s Latin \
  • Oxford Latin Grammar by James Morwood

Grading

Grades are figured from regular quizzes, periodic tests on chapters, and performance on the mid-year and final exams.

LATIN 2

Continuing with Wheelock’s Latin, students carry on with more complex grammar and translation. Latin derivatives and vocabulary building exercises continue to be stressed. Students also examine in greater detail the history and politics of the first century B.C.

Objectives

In the course we plan to complete Wheelock’s Latin, while learning a good deal more about Rome’s history, culture, and the essential mark this culture has made on our own.

Texts

  • Wheelock’s Latin 
  • Oxford Latin Grammar by James Morwood

Grading

Grades are figured from regular quizzes, periodic tests on chapters, and performance on the mid-year and final exams

HONORS LATIN 2

While similar to regular Latin 2, Honors Latin 2 sustains a quicker pace through Wheelock’s Latin and then focuses its energy on reading more challenging examples of classical Latin from a variety of ancient authors.

Objectives

In the course we plan to complete Wheelock’s Latin, learn a good deal more about Rome, especially in the first century BC, and translate a number of ancient authors.

Texts

  • Wheelock’s Latin, 6th edition 

Grading

Grades are figured from regular quizzes, periodic tests on chapters, and performance on the mid-year and final exams

LATIN 3

This course engages in an intensive review of Latin grammar and syntax, along with a thorough treatment of Roman history. Students explore a range of authors from the last years of the republic and the first centuries of the empire. To gain a better sense of the full range of Latin's contribution, students also examine the language's place after the Roman Empire collapsed. Among other sources, they read from Ovid, Cicero, Livy, Pliny, Catullus, Vergil, and a number of medieval and renaissance sources.

Objectives

Students will be able to translate Latin comfortably and gain substantial insight into the world of ancient Rome and the legacy it left behind.

Texts

  • Wheelock’s Latin, 6th edition 
  • Fabulae Romanae: Stories of Famous Romans edited by G. Lawall and D. Perry
  • A Brief History of the Romans by M. T. Boatwright, D. J. Gargola, and R. T. Talbert

Grading

Grades are figured from regular quizzes and oral reports delivered on various topics, periodic tests on chapters, and performance on the mid-year and final exams.

HONORS LATIN 3

While similar to Latin 3, the Honors section presses on at a quicker pace in preparation for AP work in the coming year. We focus particular attention on the works and worlds of Caesar, Cicero, Livy, and Ovid. In addition to reading Classical Latin, we will examine medieval and Renaissance texts, and exercise language skills through English-to-Latin composition.

Objectives

Along with preparing students for the rigors of AP Latin Literature and AP Vergil, the course aims to give students a more complete reckoning of the late republic and early years of the empire in Rome.

Texts

  • Fabulae Romanae: Stories of Famous Romans edited by G. Lawall and D. Perry 
  • Oxford Latin Reader by Maurice Balme and James Morwood

Grading

Grades are figured from regular quizzes and oral reports delivered on various topics, periodic tests on chapters, and performance on the mid-year and final exams.

HONORS LATIN/ADVANCED TOPICS

This course offers advanced students of Latin the opportunity to explore a number of new authors and genres of literature in the Latin corpus. In the fall, we examine in detail books 6–10 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses while exercising regularly in English-to-Latin composition. Subsequently, for a quarter or more, each student will do independent and orginal research on a text from the school’s rare book collection. On completion of their work, students will present their findings to a small panel of faculty and outside experts in the field. In the spring, the group will read Plautus’ comedy, Mostellaria.

Objectives

Our primary goal is to improve students’ language skills, broaden their understanding and appreciation of Latin literature, and introduce them to original research on medieval and renaissance texts.

Texts

  • Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 6-10 by W. S. Anderson
  • Plautus' Mostellaria by F.R. Merrill
  • Latin Prose Composition by M.A. North and A. E. Hillard

Grading

Grades are figured from regular quizzes, periodic tests on chapters, and performance on the mid-year and final exams.

AP LATIN VERGIL

The efforts of this course are dictated for the most part by the requirements of the AP Vergil syllabus. Along with examining the whole poem in translation and its place in Roman literature, students translate parts of the Aeneid in Latin. In addition, we practice regularly in sight translation, composition, and in essay-writing exercises.

Objectives

Our primary goal is to prepare each student well for the AP exam in May.

Text

  • Vergil's Aeneid, selections from Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, and 12 by Barbara Boyd
  • A Vergil Workbook by Katherine Bradley and Barbara W. Boyd
  • The Best Preparation for the AP Latin Vergil and Literature by Ronald B. Palma

Grading

Grades are figured from regular quizzes, periodic tests on chapters, and performance on the mid-year and final exams.