FOR

LATIN PROSE WRITING

WITH

FULL INTRODUCTORY NOTES ON IDIOM

BY

Whittemore

MAURICE W. MATHER, PH.D.

FORMERLY INSTRUCTOR IN LATIN IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY

PREFACE

IN planning the present book it has been the aim of the authors to present within two covers all the essential apparatus for the writing of average passages in Latin prose. By including in the Notes on Idiom the requisite body of syntax, stated from the point of view of the student who is to write Latin, they have dispensed with the ordinary system of reference to three or four Latin grammars. They believe that in this way not only much time will be saved, but that the added convenience will produce more accurate results, since both student and teacher may refer instantly to the statement of any of the ordinary principles involved. The addition of the Latin text tends to the same end, and it is hoped that for the exercises contained in this volume the student will rarely find it necessary to refer to anything not included in the volume itself.

The book is not intended to teach how to write isolated sentences illustrative of given constructions, but it assumes that the pupil, after a year or more of such practice (the time varying in different schools), is ready to learn the art of writing connected narrative in Latin. Recognizing that, in order to attain perfection in writing any language, good models must be studied, the authors. have based their exercises on Caesar, Nepos, and Cicero, such selections from these writers being taken as are usually read in schools. About a page of Latin text serves as a model for each exercise.

As the book is not for beginners, the individual exercises have not been made vehicles for teaching any one or two constructions, such as the ablative absolute, purpose, etc.; but the authors have felt at liberty to introduce at any time even the more difficult con

structions. Indirect discourse, for instance, is taken up at the very beginning. But this will not be found to occasion too much difficulty, for constant reference is made to the notes on Latin idiom (pp. 1-69), where the construction needed is briefly explained from the point of view of a writer, not a reader or translator, of Latin. At the same time, the principle of gradation has been followed to some extent, especially in the exercises based on the third book of the Gallic War, the Alcibiades, and the Manilian Law. While, in general, the vocabulary and the constructions for any exercise will be supplied in the Latin text on which the given exercise is based, yet enough variation from the language of the model is required to give the pupil abundant practice in handling forms and constructions. Where the vocabulary of the model is not sufficient, occasionally the Latin word is given in a footnote; more frequently, however, a synonym or hint is given in English, or, when possible, the pupil is referred to a preceding section in the Latin text where the word is found or at least suggested. By this means the pupil's power of observation is increased, his interest is quickened by the pleasure of discovery, and he will remember the word much better than if he found it ready at hand in a dictionary. It will be seen, therefore, that for work of this grade an English-Latin dictionary is quite unnecessary. Indeed, the use of such a book would mean the loss of no inconsiderable part of the training which is supplied by the study of Latin writing.

In the Notes on Idiom no constructions have been explained except such as are common in prose. The illustrative examples are almost all, with the exception of the very simplest, taken from the authors who serve as models for the exercises. It did not seem worth while to cite the references, as doubtless the larger number of the examples will be familiar to most teachers.

A number of recent examination papers from various colleges have been inserted, in the belief that they will be found useful for sight tests and occasional examinations. The notes accompanying some of the papers belong to the original examinations. For the text of the Latin models the small Teubner series has been followed. The punctuation has been changed, however, to conform