MM: Overview

Image: a Roman sarcophagus.

Overview: Caedes Foedissima - pars I

"Marcellus, filius Octaviae, soror Imperatoris, est mortuus!"

Marcellus is dead! O di immortales! What a loss for the Roman people and for the future of Rome! The emperor's own nephew, the young man whom most assumed would take Augustus' place, is no longer alive. And worse, the circumstances of his death are unclear - what happened in Baiae, Campania, where he died? How could a young man of only 19 perish so suddenly. Nevertheless, the court and family of Marcellus are in deep mourning. The entire imperial family performs the funeral rites for the lost youth. Underneath the mourning, though, are the murmurs and rumors boiling up: this must have been caedes foedissima - a murder, most foul! Who was responsible?

Handouts: Study Guide and Reading Help 

As you progress through the module, please download and use the Study Guide Links to an external site. , to assist you in your note taking. The study guide can help guide your understanding of the module and provides important practice for the concepts covered on each page.

For Latin II, there will be a story told in parts, with each module telling a part of the story by presenting Latin reading passages. To successfully complete the reading for each module, please download the Reading Help Links to an external site. handout now and use it while completing the story lessons.

Essential Questions

  1. What are the major parts of speech in Latin?
  2. What rules govern the pronunciation of Classical Latin?
  3. What did the Roman World look like during the reign of Augustus?

Key Terms

  1. Noun- A noun is traditionally defined as a person, place or thing. In Latin a noun is a word that uses a set of case endings and has three characteristics, which are case, number and gender.
  2. Verb - A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is traditionally defined as a word that conveys an action or state of being. In Latin, a verb is a word that uses endings which indicate the five characteristics of person, number, tense, voice and mood. It additionally has non-finite uses (infinitive, participle, gerund).
  3. Adjective - An adjective is a word that is used to describe a noun.
  4. Agreement - how an adjective matches up with the noun it modifies.  Nouns and adjectives agree in case, number and gender.
  5. Preposition- a word which precedes a noun or pronoun and demonstrates the a relationship between two concepts in the sentence. Prepositions in Latin govern only two cases, accusative and ablative.
  6. Pronoun - a subset of nouns which serve specific roles - personal, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, intensive, reflexive.
  7. Gender - masculine, feminine or neuter
  8. Number - singular or plural
  9. Case - how a noun or pronoun is being used in a sentence
  10. Declension - a group of nouns.  The number (1st-5th) is determined by the genitive ending
  11. Conjugation - a group of verbs.  The number (1st-4th) is determined by the 2nd principal part
  12. Tense - when the verb is happening.  The six tenses in Latin are Present, Imperfect, Future, Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect
  13. Person - perspective of the subject. 1st, 2nd or 3rd person
  14. Roman Empire - The final period of ancient Roman history (27 BC - 476 AD) ruled by an Emperor.

ALL RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.