Description and Objectives

This course aims to heighten and hone the use, understanding and purpose of Latin syntax, focusing on the more sophisticated elements of Latin’s grammatical principles not covered thoroughly (or at all) in the Elementary and Intermediate Latin courses.

Textbooks

The textbook for this course is Ecce Romani III: A Latin Reading Program, From Republic to Empire (3rd edition).

Course Requirements

Students will be required to study the textbook’s and instructor’s explications of various elements of Latin syntax and either complete associated Exercises or read and translate sample selections of extant Latin literature, usually historical prose, written by various “giants” of the ancient, Classical language, including Eutropius, Caesar, Cicero and Pliny.

Course Expectations

The students will be expected to prepare for in-class review of their nightly completion of syntactical exercises or translation of 5-15 lines of Latin historical prose.

Goals for Student Learning

The students will sharpen their skill in thinking and communicating. This skill will be acquired, as it usually is, by reading some of the sharpest thinkers and communicators the world has ever known.

The students, even in this “beginning” Advanced Latin course, will attain such mastery of the grammar and syntax of the language, the most important tools, e.g., lexica, reference grammars and commentaries, and the most frequently encountered vocabulary, that they will be able to read entire classical Latin texts as literature.

Successful Students

The students successful in this course will: 

• study Latin at least fifteen minutes every day of the week, and will
• seek extra help at the first signs of difficulty, not only from the instructor, who is available before/after school and by appointment during Mass Study Hall, but also from classmates.