Latin (Advanced)
Leader Margaret Dews BA Hons Latin
Meetings 3rd Tuesday of month 10.30am - 12 noon (new time)
We are a relaxed, enthusiastic group, now down to just three of us. Everyone has learned Latin before to quite a high level, but many years ago. Initially we worked through Rhoda Hendrick's Latin Made Simple quite quickly and then 'Lingua Latina: Familia Romana', a text book entirely in Latin, but not as impossible as that sounds. As one of many diversions on the way we compiled a map of the London Underground in Latin (Londinium Subterraneum) which attracted some national publicity though, sadly, not the interest of the then London Mayor Boris Johnson. But it was fun and we raised over £1000 with it for the local Hospice.
In the past we have made excursions to Chedworth, Bath, Cirencester, St Albans, Wall and Wroxeter and were pleased to invite others from our u3a to share in our discoveries.
Now we read Latin authors. There is no plan - it's all rather serendipitous. We translated Juvenal's description of life in Rome and followed that with accounts by Suetonius and Tacitus of the great fire, when Nero didn't fiddle but probably did sing. After some lyric poetry, Livy's account of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps and Cicero's defence of Caelius, we embarked on reading the whole of Vergil's Aeneid Book Four, the story of Dido and Aeneas. We are now reading some lighter works of Horace.
If you ever read a set book at school, don't be put off by the 'Advanced' tag: we are all a bit rusty post-pandemic and will progress quite slowly.
We would welcome new members. Please contact our groups coordinator via this website.
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