Teaching ‘correct’ Latin in late antique Rome

Bibliographic Data

ID11835337
AuthorsFrances Foster (University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume62
Issue2
Pages57-73
Publication date2019-05-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage & History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1759-7536 • E-ISSN: 1759-7544
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17597536.2019.1641936
OpenAlexW2965956451
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited13

Roman grammatici taught formal registers of Latin language through reading Latin poets. By late antiquity, there was an ever widening gap between ‘correct’ formal Latin and the language which students used in daily contexts. Equally, the texts used in schools were centuries old and written in highly contrived literary registers. In addition, students at even the most traditional and elite schools in Rome may well have come from all over the empire, and were not necessarily native Latin speakers. One grammaticus, the late antique teacher and writer Servius (fl. 390–410), has left a vast commentary which indicates some of the approaches he used in teaching ‘correct’ Latin usage. We can tell, from his commentary, the linguistic difficulties his students seem to have encountered with Latin. In this paper, I examine how Servius addressed multiple purposes: reading Latin verse, daily communication and ‘correct’ formal Latin. I show instances in which Servius addresses students of differing linguistic backgrounds, although he only uses the target language in his Commentary, and perhaps in his classroom

Ancient history · Antique · Art · Elite · Empire · Late Antiquity · Latin Americans · Linguistics · Literature · Medieval Latin · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Roman Empire · Sociology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Law · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

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