As with most things involving the Romans, increasing the historical accuracy for this scene involves increasing the terror factor.
This episode of Julius Caesar Explains brought to you by CLAS-L 131 Beginning Latin I, coming up next in Fall 2024, online asynchronous.
Welcome back to Julius Caesar Explains, our series where we summon Julius Caesar’s spirit from Mt. Olympus to answer our questions about Ancient Rome. Caesar, it’s good to have you with us.
DIVINE JULIUS CAESAR, FORMER ALMOST-ROMAN-EMPEROR AND ANOTHER COMPLETE SOCIOPATH: The second I figure out how to counteract whatever spell you’re using to summon me, I swear I will come back in full form and feed your insides to the birds.
Right. Our topic for discussion today is “Why Study Latin?” Students have a lot of options and demands for their class schedule these days. A language last spoken commonly in the Roman Empire seems like a hard sell. So to get started…In one sentence or less, why should I take Latin?
CAESAR: Because I will invade your village and kill all your people if you don’t. (muttering from lawyers) Seriously? Fine. Since my legal team informs me I can’t threaten violence this side of Olympus…You should take Latin because Latin teaches you the fundamentals of language.
Which language?
CAESAR: Any language. Or at least any I know about.
How does that work?
CAESAR: Because Latin isn’t spoken anymore, when you learn Latin, you learn it as a language that you are going to read. That means you learn Latin from a compositional perspective, understanding how the parts of a sentence are put together. You then can use those skills to better understand how the parts of a sentence in any language are put together. Even this guttural Anglo-Saxon barbarian tongue you insist on us using today.
Do you mean English?
CAESAR: (disinterested shrug)
So to clarify…Latin can help you write better in English?
CAESAR: Of course. To understand a Latin sentence, you have to identify the sentence’s subject, the verb, all the various components, and how they’re related. You have to do the same thing to write a clear English sentence. You probably just don’t realize you’re doing it when you speak in your native tongue.
So Latin helps with language acquisition skills, even for English. Does Latin have other language benefits?
CAESAR: Obviously. Once my beloved Roman Empire collapsed, several of the former provinces developed their own version of Latin, and over time those became separate languages. I believe you call them Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian. So the vocabulary of those languages is very close to Latin.
Can you give me some examples?
CAESAR: Someone’s demanding, aren’t you? Let me think…To say “I love you” in Latin, you would say te amo. In Spanish you would say the exact same thing, te amo, and in Italian you would say ti amo. In French it’s je t’aime. Plus, you pathetic Anglo-Saxon speakers somehow let yourself get conquered by the Gauls at some point, so a lot of English words are derived from French, and thus basically Latin.
Conquered by the…are you talking about when William the Conqueror invaded England from France in 1066?
CAESAR: (disinterested shrug)
If I remember correctly, the French conquest of Britain is why a lot of the more complicated English vocabulary has its roots in Latin.
CAESAR: That’s what I said. Do I stutter?
Can you give me an example of that phenomenon?
CAESAR: Stuttering? You’ll have to talk to Claudius.
No, some English vocabulary that is built from Latin roots.
CAESAR: I suppose. Let me see…The English word “decapitate” comes from the Latin words caput, which means “head,” and de, which implies “distance or separation from.” So if I decapitate you for asking me stupid questions, I separate you from your head.
(Nervously) Um, thank you for that vivid example. Any other reasons to learn Latin?
CAESAR: Any language gives you insight into the cultures that speak it. So if you learn Latin, you learn about the culture of Ancient Rome.
At the risk of irritating you further…can you give me an example?
CAESAR: One does spring to mind. Sometimes the Roman army needed to exact an extreme punishment on a group of people, like a military unit that showed cowardice, or a village that had rebelled. The soldiers would line the men of the village up, then kill every tenth man. That’s where you get the English word “decimate,” from the Latin deci for 10. You destroy one tenth.
(More nervously) That sounds vaguely sociopathic.
CAESAR: (disinterested shrug)
Right. We should probably wrap up as soon as possible. So our takeaways are: Latin helps you to understand language fundamentals, provides vocabulary for languages like Italian, Spanish, French, and even English, and gives you insight into Ancient Roman culture. But one last question that I know our audience is wondering…isn’t Latin a dead language?
CAESAR: You’re going to be dead yourself if you keep pestering me. A “dead language” is a language that no one speaks from birth. So yes, in that sense Latin is dead. But a dead language isn’t a useless language. In fact, the fact that Latin is dead just frees up time that other language classes spend learning pronunciation and small talk. Want to learn how to find the bathroom when you’re abroad? Rather than focusing on exact phrasing, learn the Latin word balneum. Then you can figure out baños in Spanish, bagno in Italian, bain in French, etc. In fact, et cetera is a Latin phrase meaning “and other things.” Need bread for the table? Latin pan gives us the Spanish pan, Italian pane, French pain…
Would you say Latin is a starter set for other languages?
CAESAR: I would never say something that stupid sounding. It’s not inaccurate, it’s just inane.
Um, right, thanks…my manager is giving me a paper telling me to ask about Latin’s connection to the Bible. I really would prefer not to, our guest is looking rather intimidating…
CAESAR: Intimidate, that’s another English word with Latin roots. Timeo means “I fear,” so intimidate means “to make into being fearful.”
(Quite nervously) Fascinating…The Bible?
CAESAR: What about it? The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in Greek. Although I suppose both were translated into Latin, and that was the version that circulated for most of European Christian history. The Latin translation is called The Vulgate, from the Latin word for “crowd,” vulgus. That’s the same word that gives English the word “vulgar,” like this interview.
(Timidly…see what I did there?) Can you give an example of why that might be important?
CAESAR: One particularly stupid example is how you mortals translate the story of the shepherds being visited by heavenly beings whenever that Jewish carpenter was born.
Christmas?
CAESAR: Whatever. I’ve seen pictures where the heavenly beings are up in the sky and the shepherds look mildly disturbed. But the Latin says “et ecce Angelus Domini statit iuxta illos…et timuerent timeo magno.” That means the being was suddenly right next to them, and the Latin doubles down on words for fear, that timeo root again. And then adds magno, like in “magnification.” Those shepherds are terrified, a word, incidentally, that comes from the Latin word terreo, meaning “I make afraid.” In Latin the scene is more horror-film-jump-scare than happy holiday.
Why do you have that line of Luke’s Gospel memorized?
CAESAR: I really like famous quotes of people being terrified.
Ok, that is absolutely sociopathic. I’m leaving. Why do we keep on inviting this violent lunatic back? I don’t care that he’s in the name of the series…
Convinced you should learn Latin? Enroll in CLAS-L 131 Beginning Latin I, coming up Fall 2024, and fulfill GEC and World Language requirements while you’re at it! Keep going with CLAS L132 Beginning Latin II in Spring 2025. Can’t get enough of Ancient Greece and Rome? Earn a Classics Minor in just 15 credits!
