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THE IMPORTANCE OF

POSTANTIQUE LATINHow Should We Teach the Patrimony of Latin Literature?

o say ha Lain lieraure did no end wih he Romans would be an undersaemen. In ac heRoman conribuion o Lain, however undamenal, is a mere beginning. Te amoun o surviv-ing Lain l ieraure writen in Europe since he collapse o he Wesern Roman Empire in he laefh cenury is almos inconceivably larger han he surviving corpus o lieraure lef by heRomans hemselves.

Tis heriage o pos-Roman Lain l ieraure was anyhing bu a serile idiom reserved or a ew

reclusive monks. Te very pulse o wesern European civi lizaion, as i developed hrough he Mid-dle Ages and he Renaissance, moved primarily o he rhyhms o Lain prose and poery.

Te language o Caesar and Cicero perormed new uncions and came o be used in ways un-imagined by he ancien Romans. Lain became he vehicle or sciences as rened as ballisics andhydrodynamics. Lain exclusively provided he academic and philosophical vocabulary or he ex-pression o Europes mos sophisicaed houghs. Lain was he language in which undamenalconceps, such as graviy and he heliocenric solar sysem, received heir rs coheren expression.Lain, along wih some revived erms rom ancien Greek, supplied he language o boany and zo-ology. Lain was he inernaional language o carography, geography, hisory, and ehnography,he sciences hrough which he discoveries o Renaissance explorers gradually became par o he

consciousness o European civilizaion. Lain, and no any o he nascen naional ongues, was heprimary linguisic vehicle or all o his beore abou 1750 .

Bu medieval and Renaissance Lain was no merely he language o scholars, scieniss, andphilosophers; i also produced poery, leters, saire, cion, and many oher genresincluding

works widely recognized as monumens and maserpieces o world lieraure, ranging rom hesories o he Venerable Bede and he Carmina Burnao Tomas Mores opia and ErasmusPraise of Folly. Even as he language o creaive lieraure, Lain sil l rivaled he vernacular onguesin he Renaissance.

Tis inernaional and muliculural role o Lain was in some ways already anicipaed in helieraure o he Roman Empire, when he peoples o he Roman provinces, especially in he Wes,

began using Lain and no heir naive ongues as heir means o lierary expression.Tus Peron-ius and Seneca, who were rom Spain, wroe in Lain jus as he Arican Apuleius also produced hislierary work in Lain. T is muliculural role or Lain was even more pronounced in he Middle

Ages and Renaissance, when La in served as an inernaional language and a vehicle or a lieraryradiion which evenually exended even o he New World. Moreover, in he Middle Ages andRenaissance Lain was no longer anyones naive ongue, and his long-lasing phenomenon o heLain language, based on sable writen sources raher han uid popular usage, supporing such a

vas, varied, and dynamic lieraure rom abou 450 o abou 1750 is arguably more disinc-ive and signican han any lieraure produced by people who wroe in heir naive ongue.

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Te exisence o Lain curricula in he secondary schools is ofen deended because Lain offersaccess o he origins o wesern civilizaion. Te lierary heriage o he Romans is cerainly unda-menal. Bu he Lain lieraure produced afer he ime o he ancien Romans is no less cenral oour culure, language, and insiuions han he l ieraure o he ancien Romans. I culural lier-acy is one o he goals o our educaion, eachers o Lain should hink seriously abou broadeningheir perspecive and consisenly exploiing pos-anique as well as Roman Lain.

Lain helps sudens build vocabulary and verbal skills in English and modern languages. Su-dens who have aken Lain in secondary school ypically earn higher verbal scores in college en-rance exams han heir peers who never sudied Lain. However, Lain could offer even more lin-guisic resources and verbal power i more atenion were paid o pos-anique Lain in secondaryschool curricula. Medieval Lain lies a he basis o nearly he whole specrum o he vocabularyor modern universiies, degrees, and academic insiuions (and his includes basic English words,such as aculy, dean, chancellor, graduae, ec.). Medieval and Renaissance Lain is hesource or our erminology or elling ime (he Romans had no mechanical clocks). Te lis o our

word debs o pos-Roman Lain would embrace physics, asronomy, boany, and many oher sci-ences, no o menion such disciplines as philosophy and law.

Ye Lain is y pical ly augh, and Lain eachers are y pical ly prepared, in a way ha assumesha Lain is only abou he ancien Romansand no even he enire Roman radiion (sincemos o Roman lieraure produced afer abou 120 has litle place in canonical curricula).

Wha oher lierary and linguisic discipl ine ocuses so exclusively on is origins alone? I is imeor a change. Boh eachers and sudens o Lain should make he mos o wha he Lain radi-ion acually has o offer. In he long run, he place o Lain in our educaional sysem wil l be moresecure, i such a broadening o perspecive can be achieved. Some idea o he immense conribu-ions o our culure made by Lain afer he ime o he Romans, and seleced readings o someo he asoundingly rich pos-Roman Lain lieraure, should be a basic par o he eaching oLain oday a all levels. InLain for he New Millennium, Level 2 , we have endeavored o provideeachers and sudens, who are sill learning he undamenals o he Lain language, wih he

readings and culural inormaion ha will help o add his wider and richer perspecive o heLain classroom.

Tis w ider perspecive added by Level 2 is in no way inconsisen wih sandard placemen essand aciviies commonly employed by Lain eachers oday. In LNM Level 2 he Vocabulary oLearn is composed o a selecion o words mos commonly employed in such auhors as Ciceroand Virgil. Tese words remain common hroughou he enire Lain radiion, and our readingselecions consisenly highligh his vocabulary. LNM Level 1 is lled o he brim wih inorma-ion on Roman auhors, Roman culure, and Roman hisory. More inormaion on hings Romanis offered in LNM Level 2, boh in he noes o each chaper, and in he concluding par o eachchaper, where he reader will nd unadaped readings rom heLife of Aticusby Cornelius Nepos,

a conemporary o Cicero.Lain eaching in he new millennium should ake ull accoun o he ac ha Lain lieraure is

a phenomenon spanning he mil lennia.

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