LH1: Overview
Overview: Latin Historians I
Historia est vitae magistra.
History is life's teacher.
-Cicero
Introduction
Romans began writing their own histories around the 2nd century BCE, immediately following several battles and victories over their neighboring Greeks. This is likely not a coincidence: much of Roman culture began to evolve and emerge around this time, as the Romans looked with envy upon the cultural output of their conquered foes. Starting around this time, Roman mythology, poetry, art, architecture, and most importantly for us, prose writing flourished. History even became the hobby for an elite Roman who had retired from public life.
Image information: La scoperta di Romolo e Remo (The Discovery of Romulus and Remus) by Vincenzo Camuccini, c. 1820 CE. Many historical accounts written by the Romans begin with the story of Romulus and Remus, who were abandoned by their vindicative grand uncle. A humble shepherd, Faustulus (pictured holding the twins) finds the babies and brings them home to be cared for by his wife, Acca Larentia.
Roman history followed a very specific concept: Ab Urbe Condita. The idea here is that Roman historians attempted to record, in order, events that had happened stretching back to the foundation of the city of Rome and ending contemporaneously. This should raise a question in your mind: if everyone was choosing this same method of history writing (mostly), what made each writer's history unique? As we read the various historians in this course, keep this question constantly fresh in your mind. By the time we've finished this section of the course, you should have a solid answer!
Study Guide
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. At the end of the module, you can then use the study guide as a tool to help prepare you for the module exam.
Essential Questions
- What grammar do you remember from Latin I and II?
- What is an independent clause?
- What is a dependent clause?
- How does Latin handle tense in a dependent clause?
- What is the sequence of tenses (subjunctive mood)?
- How did Romans approach the writing of history?
- Who was Livy?
- What was Livy's goal in writing his Ab Urbe Condita?
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