Unit I - Overview
Welcome back to your study of Latin. This first unit of Latin 102 returns you to the passive voice in the present system for indicative and infinitive moods; we cover the remaining conjugations. We also complete your introduction to the five declensions (“the fabulous five”); give you more ablative uses; and introduce you to the glories and mysteries of the Latin participle. The first three of these topics will not challenge you, for they use or build on forms, concepts, and grammatical phenomena you already know.
The Latin participle, on the other hand, is an amazing set of forms with many functions and uses some of which are very different from those in English. Your efforts will be well spent on the participle.
Terms and concepts relating to your study of grammar in this unit include: parsing; reduplication; synopsis.
On Culture...
Your cultural presentations return to you to Cicero on Catiline and to the former’s ideas about oratory and the orator; and Vergil’s account of Laocoon’s tragically-ignored warning reappears. You will also meet poet’s fourth Eclogue, a poem which helped foster Vergil’s development into an “honorary Christian” in the classical Christian tradition. On a lighter note, Martial tells us why we should beware of medical students!
Discussion
Your posting asks you to comment on what is most challenging for you in your study of Latin and is due by the end of the first week of Unit One. Your first homework will cover chapters 21 and 22 of this three-week unit and is due accordingly.