Latin

Head of Department: Mr Ian Peel MA Oxon, PGCE 
Examination Board: OCR 

Why Study Latin?  

No translated text can ever express in full the nuanced and layered meanings which are exposed and explored when studying a text in the language in which it was originally written. By choosing Latin at A Level you will have the opportunity to read some of the world’s greatest literature in the original language – a challenging, exhilarating and enlightening experience! Latin appeals to lots of different sorts of students; we regularly have scientists as well as arts students in the Department. To enjoy Latin at A Level, you should like one or more of the following: variety, challenges, logical analysis and problem solving, discussion, great literature, sarcasm and scandal! 

Course Content

Latin A Level has the same key components of study as at GCSE: Language and Literature. 

The Language course in the Lower Sixth involves unseen translation from Latin, and English to Latin sentences. Translating into Latin is enjoyable and satisfying and we teach it in bitesize chunks to build up your confidence and precision.

Your Lower Sixth prose text will be part of Cicero’s, Pro Roscio, a speech vigorously defending a young man accused of orchestrating his father’s murder for financial gain. 

You will also read parts of Virgil’s Aeneid IV, the tragic love-story at the heart of his epic, where Aeneas has to decide to abandon a life of passion and luxury with Dido, Queen of Carthage, and to accept instead his god-given mission to found a new city in Italy.  

You will extend these linguistic and literary studies in the Upper Sixth by studying further prose and verse set texts, and by translating passages from a varied and stimulating range of authors. 

Assessment

• Unseen Translation: I hour 45 mins, 33% of A level 

• Prose Composition or Comprehension: 1 hour 15 mins, 17% of A level 

• Prose Literature: 2 hours, 25% of A level 

• Verse Literature: 2 hours, 25% of A level 

A Level Latin Specification

Latin

By studying Latin GCSE, you will be able to build on the linguistic skills you have developed in the Middle school and put these into practice by reading ‘real’ Latin - you will prepare one prose and one verse text prior to the examination and will be required to translate sections as well as answer comprehension questions about the text.

Assessment

• 2 x 1h language papers worth 50% of the overall mark
• 1 x 1h prose literature paper worth 25% of the overall mark
• 1 x 1h verse literature paper worth 25% of the overall mark

Latin Specification

Prep School L3 Latin: 

Students in the Prep School in L3 are taught simple Latin grammar and core vocabulary for one period a week. The course aims to consolidate and extend students’ understanding of English grammar via Latin, and to introduce students to the concept of Latin derivatives in both the English language and other Romance languages they may have encountered. Students also explore Greco-Roman mythology, analysing its moral messages and artistic interpretations.

Students will still start the Cambridge Latin Course when they enter the Senior School.

U3-U4 Latin: Cambridge Latin Course

Students in the middle school cover stages 1-20 of the Cambridge Latin Course. We use the Cambridge Latin Course at St Catherine's because it is the most enjoyable of all the Latin courses available. It is a story-based course that aims to build up reading skills and vocabulary through constant exposure to Latin. It delivers the grammar in a clear and accessible manner, although all teachers supplement the course with additional grammatical materials.

The grammar features covered in U3 are: the nominative, accusative and dative cases, declensions (first, second and third), and the present, imperfect and perfect tenses. In U3 we also focus on the civilisation topics of Roman houses and households, daily life, slaves and gladiators.

The grammar features covered in L4 are: infinitives, irregular verbs, agreement of adjectives, relative clauses and the pluperfect tense. The civilisation topics are the eruption of Vesuvius and the Roman invasion of Britain. Literature passages are also introduced in L4 for the first time.

The grammar features covered in U4 are: the genitive case, gender and agreement, demonstrative pronouns, imperatives and present participles. The civilisation topic is Roman Alexandria. Further literature passages are studied as preparation for the GCSE course.

* means that this is a book you could read for pleasure
** means that this book is a slightly harder read
^ means that this is a book that is relevant to the A-Level students

• Classical Epic: Homer and Virgil
• Camps, W.A, An Introduction to Virgil’s Aeneid ** ^
• Edwards, Mark, Homer: Poet of the Iliad ^
• Finley, M.I., The World of Odysseus ** ^
• Fowler, Robert, The Cambridge Companion to Homer ^
• Griffin, Jasper, Homer ** ^
• Griffin, Jasper, Homer: the Odyssey ^
• Griffin, Jasper, Virgil ^ **
• Harrison, Stephen, Oxford Readings in Vergil’s Aeneid ^
• Homer, The Iliad (translated by Peter Jones) ^ *
• Homer, The Odyssey (translated by D.C. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones) ^ **
• Jenkyns, Richard, Classical Epic: Homer and Virgil * * ^
• Jones, Peter, Homer’s Odyssey, a companion to the English Translation by Richmond Lattimore ^
• Luce, J.V., Homer and the Heroic Age * ^
• Martindale, Charles (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virgil ^
• Silk, Michael, Homer: the Iliad ^ *
• Thorpe, Martin, Homer * ^
• Virgil, The Aeneid (translated by David West) * ^
• Williams, R. Deryck, Aeneas and the Roman Hero ** ^
• Wood, Michael, In Search of the Trojan War *
• Zanker, G., The heart of Achilles: characterisation and personal ethics in the Iliad ^

Greek Tragedy

• Aeschylus, Prometeus Bound, Suppliants, Seven against Thebes, Persians (Penguin) *
• Aeschylus, The Oresteia (Penguin) * ^
• Blundell, Mary, Helping Friends and Harming Enemies: a study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics ^
• Easterling, Pat, The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy ^
• Easterling, Pat, Greek Drama ^
• Euripides, Electra and Other Plays (Penguin) * ^
• Euripides, Heracles and Other Plays (Penguin) *
• Euripides, Medea and Other Plays (Penguin) * ^
• Euripides, Orestes and Other Plays (Penguin) * ^
• Goward, Barbara, Aeschylus: Agamemnon * ^
• Hughes, Ted, Alcestis (his translation of Euripides’ tragedy) *
• Kitto, H.D.F., Greek Tragedy: a literary study ^
• Knox, Bernard, The Heroic Temper: studies in Sophoclean Tragedy ^
• Lloyd, Michael, Sophocles: Electra ^ *
• Mills, Sophie, Euripides: Bacchae ^ *
• Mills, Sophie, Euripides: Hippolytus ^ *
• Segal, Erich, Oxford Readings in Greek Tragedy ^
• Sophocles, Philoctetes (Arris and Phillips) * ^
• Sophocles, The Theban Plays (Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus) * ^
• Taplin, Oliver, Greek Tragedy in Action ^ William, Allan, Euripides: Medea ^ *
• Winnington-Ingram, R., Sophocles: an interpretation ^
• Woodard, Thomas, Sophocles: a collection of critical essays ^

Greek Comedy

• Aristophanes, The Birds and Other Plays (Penguin) *
• Aristophanes, Lysistrata and Other Plays (Penguin) *
• Aristophanes, The Wasps and Other Plays (Penguin) *
• Easterling, Pat, Greek Drama

Greek and Roman Philosophy

• Annas, Julia, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic Aristotle, Classical Literary Criticism (Penguin) ^
• Barnes, Jonathan, Aristotle **
• Fox, Adam, Plato for Pleasure **
• Guthrie, W.K.C., The Greek Philosophers from Thales to Aristotle
• Nadaff, Ramona, Exiling the poets: the Production of Censorship in Plato’s Republic Plato, Protagoras and Meno (Penguin) **
• Plato, Republic (Penguin) *
• Sedley, David, The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy
• Shields, Christopher, Aristotle Taylor, C.C.W., Socrates **

Greek Historians

• Dewald, Carolyn, The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus ^
• Dover, K.J., Thucydides Finley, M.I, Greek Historians: the essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius ^
• Gould, John, Herodotus ^ *
• Herodotus, Histories (Penguin) * ^
• Romm, James, Herodotus ^
• Rood, Tim, Thucydides: narrative and explanation
• Thomas, Rosalind, Herodotus in Context ^
• Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (Penguin)
• Usher, Stephen, Herodotus: the Persian Wars ^ *
• Westlake, H.D., Studies in Thucydides and Greek History

Greek History and Civilisation

• Andrews, Anthony, Greek Society **
• Buckley, Terry, Aspects of Greek History, 750-323
• Cartledge, Paul, The Spartans **
• Dover, K.J. Greek Homosexuality *
• Easterling, Pat, Greek Religion and Society * ^
• Easterling, Pat, The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature
• Forrest, W.G., A History of Sparta
• Grant, Michael, The Classical Greeks *
• Jones, Peter, The World of Athens: an introduction to classical Athenian culture * ^
• Powell, Anton, Classical Sparta: Techniques behind her Success
• Wycherley, Richard, How the Greeks Built Cities

Greek Art and Architecture

• Beard, Mary, The Parthenon ** ^
• Boardman, John, Athenian Black-figure Vases ^
• Boardman, John, Athenian Red-figure Vases ^
• Boardman, John, Athenian Red-figure Vases: the classical period ^
• Boardman, John, Greek Art * ^
• Boardman, John, Greek Sculpture * ^
• Boardman, John, Greek Sculpture: the Archaic Period ^
• Carpenter, Thomas, Art and Myth in Ancient Greece ^ *
• Cook, R.M., Greek Art, its Development, Character and Influence ^
• Jenkins, Ian, The Parthenon Frieze ^
• Pedley, John Griffiths, Greek Art and Archaeology ^
• Politt, J.J., Art and Experience in classical Greece ^
• Robertson, Martin, The Art of Vase Painting in Classical Athens ^
• Smith, R.R.R., Hellenistic Sculpture
• Woodford Susan, Introduction to Greek Art ** ^
• Woodford, Susan, The Parthenon ** ^

Latin Poets

• Catullus, The Poems (Penguin Classics) **
• Davis, P.J., Ovid and Augustus, a political reading of Ovid’s erotic poems ^
• Hardie, Phillip, The Cambridge Companion to Ovid ^
• Knox, P.E., Oxford Readings in Ovid ^
• Lyne, R.O.A.M., The Latin Love Poets from Catullus to Horace ^
• Nisbet, R.G.M., A commentary on Horace: Odes Book I
• Nisbet, R.G.M., A commentary on Horace: Odes Book III
• Otis, Brooks, Ovid as an Epic Poet
• Ovid, Metamorphoses (in Penguin Classics) **
• West, David, Horace Odes III: Dulce Periculum
• West, David, Reading Horace
• Williams, Gordon, Horace
• Wiseman, T.P., Catullus and his World *

Cicero

• Cicero, Murder Trials (Penguin Classics) *
• Cicero, Selected Political Speeches (Penguin Classics) *
• Everett, Antony, Cicero **
• Harris, Robert, Imperium **
• Rawson, Elizabeth, Cicero: a portrait *
• Shackleton, D.R. Cicero

Roman Historians

• Goodyear, F.R.D., Tacitus ^
• Goodyear, F.R.D., The Annals of Tacitus: Books I-VI ^
• Grant, Michael, Greek and Roman Historians: information and misinformation ^ *
• Livy, The Early History of Rome (Penguin Classics) *
• Livy, The growth of Rome (extracts from his histories) **
• Martin, Ronald, Tacitus ^
• Mellor, Ronald, Roman Historians ^
• Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics) **
• Syme, Ronald, Tacitus ^
• Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome (Penguin Classics) * ^
• Walker, B., The Annals of Tacitus: a study in the writing of history ^
• Walsh, P. G., Livy
• Walsh, P.G., Livy: his historical aims and methods

Roman History and Civilisation

• Alston, Richard, Aspects of Roman History, AD 14-117 *
• Bradley, Keith, Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World *
• Dawson, Ian, Greek and Roman Medicine *
• Flower, Harriet, The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic *
• Gardner, J.F., Women in Roman Law and Society *
• Grant, Michael, Julius Caesar *
• Griffin, Miriam, Nero: the End of a Dynasty *
• Holland, Richard, Augustus, Godfather of Europe **
• Holland, Tom, Rubicon: the Tragedy and Triumph of the Roman Republic **
• Jones, Peter, The World of Rome: an introduction to Roman culture **
• Massey, Michael, Slavery in Ancient Rome *
• Paoli, Unrico, Rome, its People, Life and Customs **
• Richardson, J., Roman Provincial Administration *
• Salway, Peter, The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain *
• Sear, Frank, Roman Architecture *
• Shelton, Jo-Ann, As the Romans Did: a Sourcebook in Roman Social History **
• Shotter, David, The Fall of the Roman Republic **
• Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew, Augustan Rome **
• Ward-Perkins, J.B., Roman Imperial Architecture *
• Woolf, Greg, Cambridge Illustrated History of the Roman World **

 

Website Links

• Cambridge Latin Course
• Classical texts in the original and in translation