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Can anyone recommend some Latin?

(S)

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S
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Looking for some recommendations on what's good in Latin, as part of a reading group. Just finished up some Ovid and Cicero, so we're looking for something different.
 
The only thing I read in Latin from beginning to end was the "Asterix" comic books.
 
Do you read the texts in Latin or you read them translated? What have you read of Cicero? If you haven't read the Tusculan Disputations then you should...

There is always Virgil " The Aenead" unless you are in the mood for love poetry in that case there is nothing like Catullus. If you have a lover to impress then I suggest Catullus. He makes Shakespeare look provencial :)

Have you read "Pervigilium Veneris"?If you are serious with Latin you should.

Of course there are more but I don't know how fond of the Latin Literature you are.

Let us know what you will decide to read.
 
Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars, Caesar's Commentary on the Gallic Wars, Martial's Epigrams

Hesterno fetere mero qui credit Acerram, fallitur: in lucem semper Acerra bibit.

(Anybody who thinks that Acerra reeks of yesterday's wine misses his guess. Acerra always drinks until sunrise.)
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Just about anything from the Loeb Classical Library series.
 
The Anaeid is a great little story, and if you ever get bored translating it, you can learn the history about how the work was made. For example, there are heavily veiled criticisms of Augustus Caesar in the work, but apparently Virgil was so afraid that it was too obvious that he asked to have the epic burnt on his death bed. It wasn't.

But still, what a sneaky little writer. No wonder he ended up in the Inferno.
 
Kullervo said:
Martial's Epigrams
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Seconded. Though you may have to buy an extended Latin dictionary to recognize all nasty words. (I've not read the originals, only a translation that made a point of not cleaning the epigrams like the earlier politically correct translators generally did).
 
Huh. What portions of the Aeneid were critical to Augustus? They teach us here that the epic was to Augustus's benefit; it provided an epic past for the Romans [one-up'ing the Greeks at every turn]. It was said that Virgil begged his friends to burn it, because it is incomplete, and Augustus, his patron, ordered his pals not to burn it.
 
Actually, the Latin Mass is quite an interesting read. You don't have to be a Catholic to appreciate the rhythm and poetry of it. Hymns like "Adeste Fideles" are also interesting, because you can compare the Latin to the English version.
 
What's your level? Plautus is fun, but the latin is fiendishly difficult, being vernacular and not at all what you're probably used to. I could never get through the "Pot of Gold," even back when my Latin wasn't a decade or two old. But it might be worth a try if you're looking for a challenge.

I believe you can also get Harry Potter in Latin, but that's probably not quite what you had in mind...
 
(S) said:
Huh. What portions of the Aeneid were critical to Augustus? They teach us here that the epic was to Augustus's benefit; it provided an epic past for the Romans [one-up'ing the Greeks at every turn]. It was said that Virgil begged his friends to burn it, because it is incomplete, and Augustus, his patron, ordered his pals not to burn it.
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Apparently, the key is the scene where Aeneas is given a sheild in book 8. Some scholars have pointed out that the fact that the shield only depcits war, and the line (in my prose version, but I understand it's similarly translated in other books- last line of book 8):

Marvelling at (the shield), and rejoicing at the things pictured on it without knowing what they were, Aeneas lifted on to his shoulder the fame and the fate of his descendants.
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Virgil, The Aeneid, New Prose Translation by David West, 1991, Peguin Books, England

This last line was apparently a criticism of Augustus's habit of making war without appreciating the horror and sorrow that goes with it. A certain modern-day leader comes to mind.

Now, this is all a bit of a stretch, to be sure, but the argument presented is that Virgil had to slide a criticism in without Augustus noticing. His clue was the last line of book 8- because the last line was supposed to be really significant.

I like to go with this theory, because in repressive regimes, or regimes where strict censorship is practiced, people tend to tightly disguise their criticisms. Look, for example, at Dante's Divine Comedy.

Edit: Or even look at Nostradamus, and how many people even today think he was a soothsayer rather than a critic of his times.
 
It looks like Catullus for the reading group. Though, Pervigilium Veneris looked undaunting enough that I'll take a look at it on my own time sometime.
 
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