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Historical Latin came from the prehistoric language of the Latium region, specifically around the River Tiber, where Roman civilization first developed. How and when Latin came to be spoken has long been debated.
May 10, 2022 · Long before Arthur Wynne came up with his idea of a word-cross for the New York World in 1913, an unknown but ingenious Latin writer had cottoned on to the fun to be had by arranging words into a reticulated grid.
Oct 22, 2024 · Originally spoken by small groups of people living along the lower Tiber River, Latin spread with the increase of Roman political power, first throughout Italy and then throughout most of western and southern Europe and the central and western Mediterranean coastal regions of Africa.
- The Latin language is an Indo-European language in the Italic group and is ancestral to the modern Romance languages. During the Middle Ages and un...
- A “dead” language is one no longer learned as a first language or used in ordinary communication. Classical Latin, the language of Cicero and Virgi...
- Latin was the lingua franca of scientific work in the West during the Middle Ages, so Western scientists used Latin for naming species of organisms...
- Overview
- Ancient Latin literature
- Stylistic periods
Latin literature, the body of writings in Latin, primarily produced during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, when Latin was a spoken language. When Rome fell, Latin remained the literary language of the Western medieval world until it was superseded by the Romance languages it had generated and by other modern languages. After the Renaissanc...
Literature in Latin began as translation from the Greek, a fact that conditioned its development. Latin authors used earlier writers as sources of stock themes and motifs, at their best using their relationship to tradition to produce a new species of originality. They were more distinguished as verbal artists than as thinkers; the finest of them have a superb command of concrete detail and vivid illustration. Their noblest ideal was humanitas, a blend of culture and kindliness, approximating the quality of being “civilized.”
Little need be said of the preliterary period. Hellenistic influence came from the south, Etrusco-Hellenic from the north. Improvised farce, with stock characters in masks, may have been a native invention from the Campania region (the countryside of modern Naples). The historian Livy traced quasi-dramatic satura (medley) to the Etruscans. The statesman-writer Cato and the scholar Varro said that in former times the praises of heroes were sung after feasts, sometimes to the accompaniment of the flute, which was perhaps an Etruscan custom. If they existed, these carmina convivalia, or festal songs, would be behind some of the legends that came down to Livy. There were also the rude verses improvised at harvest festivals and weddings and liturgical formulas, whose scanty remains show alliteration and assonance. The nearest approach to literature must have been in public and private records and in recorded speeches.
Ancient Latin literature may be divided into four periods: early writers, to 70 bc; Golden Age, 70 bc–ad 18; Silver Age, ad 18–133; and later writers.
Britannica Quiz
Latin’s oldest version is known as “Archaic Latin”. It was spoken around the lower parts of the Tiber River, including where modern Rome lies. As the city of Rome developed and eventually gained power, other languages of the Italian peninsula impacted Latin. One such example is Etruscan.
Oxford Latin offers translation, identification and verification of Latin texts from the Classical and medieval periods, from Christian and non-Christian texts.
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The Latin script originated in archaic antiquity in the Latium region in central Italy.
