Why Study Latin?

Why Study Latin*

Parents often ask me why their children are studying Latin in this day and age.  It's a good question.

Latin is a dead language.  That means no one speaks it any more. So why on earth is it still taught?

Just because of a huge weight of tradition?  Because Daddy and Grandaddy both learned Latin? Because of its intellectual prestige? Because once it was the lingua franca of educated Europeans? 

These reasons aren't relevant anymore, but there are some real benefits to be had from learning Latin, for adults and children alike.

At the beginning of term I usually give the parents of my Latin pupils a piece of paper listing some of the reasons for learning this 'dead language':

1.  Learning Latin increases mental ability. In a recent study in America, children at a primary school were divided into two random groups. One group did a small amount of Latin per week, the other didn't. At the end of a term, the children who did Latin were doing consistently better at ALL subjects than the children who didn't do Latin. It has long been maintained that Latin helps develop logic and language skills. In fact, every few years a flurry of articles are published stating that a new study has shown the benefits of learning Latin. 

2.  Learning Latin teaches grammar and syntax. When I was at the University of London studying German with other post-graduates, it soon became evident that about half the class had no idea what grammatical terms like definite article, case and conjunction meant.  The teacher had to stop and ask how many of us wanted to review these basic grammatical terms before we started the course properly.  These were all adults with at least one University degree behind them, going on for an MA or  MSc, yet several of them raised their hands.  What did those particular students have in common?  They HADN'T studied Latin.  Those of us who had studied Latin didn't need to review grammatical terms.  

3.  Learning Latin helps us learn English itself.  One of my ten-year-old pupils, Ian, was in the hospital with an eye problem.  He noticed the word lachrymal on one of his forms.
'Does that have anything to do with tears?' he asked the staff nurse.
'Why, yes, it's the department that deals with tear duct problems. How did you know that?' she asked.
'I study Latin,' he replied.
Ian and three eleven-year-olds helped me make a diagram of the cases. (right)

Over 60% of all English words are derived from Latin (or Greek).  

4.  Learning Latin helps us learn the so called Romance Languages. A Romance language isn't one you speak with a guitar in your hand and a rose between your teeth; it's a language which developed from the language spread by Roman soldiers and colonists: Latin! Romance languages include Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Romanian. Compare the Romance words for 'friend':

Latin: amicus

Italian: amico

Spanish: amigo

French: ami

and some non-Romance words for 'friend':

Hebrew: haver

Russian: dryg

Japanese: tomodachi

Swedish: vaen

It is particularly relevant, now that the UK is part of Europe, to familiarise ourselves with the cultural and linguistic heritage of the Roman colonists. :-( 

5.  Learning Latin helps you learn other 'dead languages'.  What are some other dead languages? Biblical Hebrew and Greek, if you want to be a Bible scholar. Ugaritic, Akkadian or Egyptian Hieroglyphics, if you want to become an archaeologist like Indiana Jones.  

6.  In fact, learning Latin helps you learn almost any other language, because to learn Latin you must learn HOW to learn a language.  You learn to analyse words and sentences; you learn how to memorise vocabulary; you learn to put aside preconceived ideas (based on English) of how a language should work.  

7.  For this reason, anyone who wants to be a novelist, travel writer, pilot, journalist, diplomat, missionary or international business person – in other words, someone who will need to learn other languages – would benefit from learning Latin.  

8.  Anyone who wants to become a doctor, nurse, physiotherapist or vet would benefit from knowing Latin because the parts of the body are still referred to by their Latin terms.  The word valve means 'a folding door' in Latin, the atrium in the heart is a 'hall' or 'chamber', and it's easy to picture the structure of certain bone cells when you know the word trabeculae means lattice-work.   

9.  Anyone who wants to become a gardener, botanist or zoologist would benefit from Latin.  Most flora and fauna are known by their Latin names.  In fact the words 'flora' and 'fauna' are both Latin.

10.  Finally, Latin is fun.  Learning the language is like solving a giant puzzle.  Anyone who likes crosswords, codes or cryptograms will derive great pleasure from making sense of it.  Latin literature tells of myths and battles, love stories and philosophies, comedies and tragedies, poetry and prose. Latin history is full of fascinating men and women: Caesar, Cleopatra, Hannibal, Cicero, Nero, Hadrian, Spartacus, Marcus Aurelius, St Augustine, St Jerome and many more.  

I think this last reason is the most important for the children, and just to make sure they are convinced of this point, I start off each new school year with a Latin banquet.  We spend one or two lessons discussing what food the ancient Romans or Pompeiians would have eaten. Once we have eliminated chocolate, bananas, potatoes and tomatoes, I get each student to volunteer to bring a 'Roman' food. 

On the day, we spread out a large sheet or rug to catch all the crumbs and spread cushions to recline on. We put our food on plates in the middle. For greater authenticity you could wear tunics and garlands, and have a couple of children volunteer to be slaves. We serve well-watered red and white 'wine' - grape juice in jugs - as our beverage. Then we all recline on our left side, leaving the right hand free. No forks are allowed; they were unknown in Roman times. So we eat with spoons and our fingers.  

Our Roman Banquet menu could look like this: 

Gustatio (Starters)

hard boiled eggs with salt

black olives

pomegranates

almonds or pistachio nuts

Mensa Prima (Main Course)

smoked fish

cold roast chicken

warm pitta bread and hummus

Mensa Secunda (Dessert)

grapes

figs

pistachio halva

honeycomb

honeycakes

During the banquet we each take turns reciting a poem or telling a story. Play some of Synaulia's ancient Roman music to help set the mood.

For end-of-term parties, I screen a Roman movie. My personal all-time favourite and the film I believe most accurately portrays ancient Rome is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. 

'Oh, Mother,' grumbled my teenage son the other day, 'You really shouldn't throw Latin banquets and show films; you'll give those poor kids the idea that Latin is fun.'

*This is a slightly updated version of an article I wrote way back in 1997, in the pre Minimus days when I was teaching my own ad hoc Latin course to primary school aged kids in London. Feel free to use it; I only ask that you give me credit. 1997 © Caroline Lawrence

[Caroline Lawrence's Roman Mysteries books are perfect for children aged 9 - 90. Carrying on from the Roman Mysteries, the Roman Quests series set in Roman Britain launched in May 2016 with Escape from Rome.]

Children in Pompeii & Herculaneum

Recently I gave a family-friendly talk at the British Museum about Children in Pompeii and Herculaneum. This was part of the halfterm events accompanying Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum Exhibition. Fans of my Roman Mysteries books who couldn't come asked if I could write a report... so here is a summary of my talk.

Flavia Gemina, detectrix

I started out with an illustrated reading from The Roman Mysteries Treasury called A Day in My Life, about a day in the life of a Roman girl, Flavia Gemina. Flavia is the main character of my Roman Mysteries books. Although she leads an unusually eventful life and lives in Ostia, rather than the Bay of Naples, many aspects of her life and the the lives of children in Pompeii and Herculaneum would have been similar: rising at dawn, washing in the garden by the fountain, a light breakfast, household prayers with paterfamilias in atrium, lessons in the morning, a light lunch, siesta or the baths after lunch, dinner at around four in the afternoon and bed at sunset. In a reversal of today, poor people would eat out, buying their food from "fast food joints" and only people rich enough for cook slave and kitchen would eat in. 

When a baby was born, it would be wrapped tightly in strips of cloth called swaddling to keep it safe, then placed at the feet of the seated father. If he took the baby onto his knee (Latin genu) that meant he acknowledged the child as his, i.e. the baby was genuine! If not, the baby might be "exposed", i.e. left to die outside the town wall! (The Secrets of Vesuvius tells a story of this happening). Babies were not usually named for the first week or two as so many did not survive. Nor did many children survive past infancy. In ancient Roman times you could die of something that is easily treatable today.

Romans did not have our concept of childhood as an idyllic time to have fun and be innocent. Children were essentially mini-adults, working as soon as they were able and, if you were a girl, marrying as young as 12!

sewing with a bone needle

Working-class girls, i.e. those from the plebs, would probably help with the family business as soon as they were able, until they got married and started having children. Some girls might learn enough reading and maths to make lists and do basic accounts. The wife of the baker Terentius Neo is famously holding a stylus and writing tablet in a fresco from Pompeii. She is obviously proud of the fact that she is a pleb who knows how to read and write. 

The proper occupation for unwed, upper-class girls (in the equestrian or patrician classes) was weaving. You would spin wool into yarn, then weave that yarn into cloth on a loom then stitch it into garments with a bone needle. 

Girls would marry at 14 or 15, then have a baby and very often die, as childbirth was the biggest killer of young women in Roman times. At my talk, I showed a picture of a birthing chair from Cairo such as pregnant Roman women might have used when they gave birth. When I asked the audience what they thought this was for, one cute little girl wondered if it was "a baby's cot"? But I think you will agree: there are a few flaws in that suggestion!

Working class boys would probably go to school until they knew the basics of reading, writing and maths. "School" was often just a screened-off part of a columned walkway in the forum, so it would have been quite noisy. Richer boys and occasionally girls might have enjoyed a private tutor. Greek-born or Greek-speaking tutors were highly sought after as Greek was the language every educated boy or girl needed to learn. In my books, Flavia and her friends are tutored at home by a handsome young Greek named Aristo. Most children would not be this fortunate.

gestures of an orator

The Roman version of University for boys would be the study of rhetoric. Many went abroad. Two popular destinations were Athens and Rhodes. That was the ancient equivalent of studying at Oxbridge in the UK or Stanford in America. Here they would learn how to be an orator so they could practise law and climb the ladder of honours to political office. This is the course that Flavia's patrician boyfriend Flaccus pursues. (For more about this, read The Slave-girl from Jeruslaem)

mosaic of a Roman ball!

How did Roman kids have fun? We have found a few toys, but not many. Essentially Roman children had fun the same way adults did: a trip to the chariot races, arena, playing with dice, watching cockfights, hunting, etc. Even the Roman mosaic from Ostia of a startlingly modern-looking football (right) was probably for adults to throw around in the palaestra, the exercise area of the public baths.

As I prepared this talk, it struck me yet again that our lives would have seemed unimaginably luxurious and safe to ancient Romans. Even the most basic bathroom with its porcelain fixtures, cold and hot running water, scented soaps and clean towels would have been a luxury undreamt of by Alexander the Great or Augustus Caesar! 

To illustrate how blessed we are, I showed objects that we have easy access to now which they did not have in Roman times. "Which one of these objects (below) on its own would have been worth an Emperor's ransom?" I asked.

Which of these on its own would have been worth an emperor's ransom?

One person suggested the tomato, because you could plant the seeds and grow more of this exotic fruit. Another suggested chocolate though Romans might have to acquire the taste. The electric plug reminds us they had no electricity so of course it would have been useless. The clock reminds us they had no batteries so that would have been useless, too. Glasses might be useful, but what if they didn't match your prescription? And who could you call with a telephone but no providers? For me, the object beyond price would be the Savlon. Although they didn't have a clear concept of infection, they did know about balms and ointments. In a time and place where the smallest scratch could become infected and kill you, that tube of antiseptic cream would certainly have saved many lives.

so-called "boat houses" Herculaneum

Assuming you lived to be 10 or 11, how would you have survived the eruption of Vesuvius? That was my next question. I described the not-too-scary beginnings of the eruption of Vesuvius – a lot of ash shooting up but no lava or flaming rocks – and I gave children in the BP lecture theatre a choice of sheltering in sturdy vaulted "boat houses" forming the foundations of the Herculaneum baths, or running away with nothing but pillows to cover their heads. Anyone who has grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area or Japan would know the safest place to shlelter during an earth tremor would be under a sturdy vault. But in this case the correct answer is "pillows" as death overtook those who sheltered in the vaulted storehouses of Herculaneum when the superheated air collapsed in a pyroclastic surge!

eruption of Vesuvius as depicted in CBBC Roman Mysteries TV show

They should have run away!

I didn't show the children in my audience any of the pictures of plaster casts made from the bodies of children who died in the eruption, but I did talk about the famous "dog of Pompeii" and I reassured them that he gained eternal fame through his few moments of suffering. And of course he inspired my first book: The Thieves of Ostia! This brought me to my four characters, based on the four elements of which Romans believed the world was composed. 

And that brought me to perhaps the biggest differences in Roman times and modern: the concept of the four humours. Romans believed people were full of four basic juices which they called humours: blood, mucus, yellow bile and black bile. I quickly determined through raising of hands, if members of my audience were cheerful sanguine "otters", stoically melancholic "cats", faithfully relaxed phlegmatic "golden retrievers", or hot-tempered choleric leader-type "lions". You can take the Four Humours Quiz HERE.

sponge-stick and an "as" of the Emperor Domitian to show scale

And finally no talk about daily life in Ancient Rome would be complete without my discussion of What Romans Used for Toilet Paper! I showed images of various options to wipe, not forgetting my Roman "as" for scale. (It's the size of a 50p but much more fun to say than "50p"). I finished with my pièce de résistance: a demonstration of how the sponge-stick was used. And that was it!

If you liked some the things I talked about in this post and want to know more about life in first century Italy, you will love the Roman Mysteries books. For more info, go to my author page or my website. 

"Give Romans a Hug!"

Paul Roberts

I am so excited about the upcoming "Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum" exhibition at the British Museum.

It will be on from Thursday 28 March through until Sunday 29 September 2013.

In a recent interview with art historian Alastair Sooke, British Museum Roman curator Paul Roberts (right) says he wanted this exhibition to show what daily life in Ancient Rome would have been like.

Roman Mystery #2

Daily life in Ancient Rome is my passion, too. This is what I try to explore in my children's historical fiction series, The Roman Mysteries. Yes, my four protagonists solve mysteries and even go on a few missions for the Emperor Vespasian, but there is lots about ordinary life in a Roman town: shopping, eating, sleeping, napping, going to the baths, going to the doctor, entertainment, observing the festivals, etc. After all, the Romans were a lot like us, only they used a sponge-on-a-stick as loo roll and they didn't have chocolate!

Because Paul Roberts wants the exhibition to be about daily life, he and the organisers decided to set out the exhibition like a Roman house. The artefacts, objects or bodies (!) that might have been found in those rooms will be on display. The first thing you would have seen upon entering many Roman houses was the watch dog. Some houses had clever mosaic depictions of watchdogs. There are at least three different versions that I am aware of.

three different watchdog mosaics from Pompeii

These mosaic dogs were not meant to fool would-be robbers, but rather they warned potential perps about what might be waiting within. In fact, one mosaic actually has the Latin slogan "CAVE CANEM" written in tesserae beneath the dog. This literally means Beware of the Dog!

plaster cast of a watchdog who died in Pompeii

The famous plaster cast of the watchdog who died in the eruption of Vesuvius and left his negative space in the hardened ash will be the first item to greet us. This heartbreaking image inspired my first mystery, (and also Cerberus in the Cambridge Latin Course). Like many other objects that will be on show, he has never been shown in the UK before.

Over the May halfterm holiday, I am honoured to be giving two lectures supplementing this exhibition! The fun, illustrated talks will be aimed at families with children 7+, and they will focus on two of my favourite subjects: Animals and Children in Roman times.

If you have children with even a speck of interest in Ancient Rome, book tickets to see the Pompeii Exhibition for the May halfterm holiday. If you come on Monday, 27 May, you can reserve a free place to hear me give an illustrated lunchtime talk about Animals in Pompeii and Herculaneum. I'll be showing images of animals in mosaics, frescos and sculpture. I'll also introduce you to some real animals I have met on my research trips, like posh and scruffy cousins below. These dogs are the descendants of the ancient Roman watchdogs, lap dogs and hunting dogs.

Strangely, children aren't as well represented visually as animals. For every hundred images of animals, I'd guess we have only one or two of children. (Fewer, if you don't count cupids!) But if you come to my free lunchtime talk on Friday 31 May, you will learn some fascinating things about Children in Pompeii and Herculaneum. There are lots of fun and surprising facts about a day in the life of a Roman child. Including the ancient Roman version of toilet paper!

In his interview with Alastair Sooke, Paul Robertson said, "I want to give Romans a hug; that's what I want."

Roman Mysteries author Caroline Lawrence at the British Museum

I agree. I love the Romans. Sometimes I even dress up like one!

If you and your children also like the Romans, do book now for this exciting exhibition and also for one (or both) of my talks, and let's give the Romans a hug!

[This lecture is long gone but you can still get the 17 books in the Roman Mysteries series. They are perfect for children 9+ studying Romans as a topic in Key Stage 2. The Roman Mystery Scrolls series is aimed at kids aged 7+ and the Roman Quests series, set in Roman Britain, is a follow on for kids 9+]

Roman Mysteries on TV (& DVD)

The Roman Mysteries TV show is a BBC produced series based on the The Roman Mysteries, a set of 17 historical novels for children written by me, Caroline Lawrence.

Season One was filmed in Tunisia and Malta, and first aired on CBBC (UK) in 2007.

Season Two was filmed in Bulgaria and Malta, and first aired on CBBC (UK) in 2008.

Both seasons are repeated about twice a year on CBBC.

The Roman Mysteries TV series is now available as a Box Set of region 2 DVDs and as a HD download on iTunes in Great Britain and the rest of Europe. Rights have not yet been sold to Canada and the USA.

For information about the series, visit the official CBBC website, where you will find, among other things, an interactive Roman Mysteries Game.

[The 17+ books in the Roman Mysteries series are perfect for children aged 9+, especially those studying Romans as a topic in Key Stage 2. There are DVDs of some of the books as well as an interactive game. Teachers, check out the SCHOOLS page.]

Caroline Lawrence on the set of season 2 at Boyana Studios, Bulgaria