Archive for April, 2011
Top Three Ancient Roman Controversies Posted by kunthra on Apr 30, 2011
There are certain controversies about ancient Rome that scholars have continued to argue over. Here is my Top Three List of controversies about ancient Rome. 1) There are a lot of controversies surrounding gladiators. There’s a popular belief that before gladiators fought to the death, they recited the phrase, “Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant”. The…
Ancient Roman Quotes Posted by kunthra on Apr 27, 2011
Some of the greatest quotes and inspirational sayings come from ancient Rome. One such quote that comes to mind is “Consuetudinis magna vis est” by Cicero. Before I tell you what it means, try to figure out the meaning by yourself. You can get the general gist of a quote even if you don’t understand…
Ancient Roman Adoptions Posted by kunthra on Apr 23, 2011
In Ancient Roman times, the practice of adopting boys among upper class families was fairly common. Unlike the adoptions of today, adoptions in Ancient Rome were almost always for political reasons. In the case of Julius Caesar, he did not have a legitimate male heir, so he chose Octavian as his adopted son. As heir…
Sulpicia Posted by kunthra on Apr 19, 2011
It’s pretty rare to get a glimpse of the female perspective in ancient Roman poetry. One of the most famous female poets from ancient Rome is a poetess by the name of Sulpicia. We only have six poems by her; of which one of them is shown below: inuisus natalis adest, qui rure molesto (Birthday…
Latin Roots Posted by kunthra on Apr 15, 2011
There are certain Latin roots that cause Latin students to be confused because they look similar in spelling. For example there’s the root “ar-“ which can mean ”plow”/”till” or “be dry”. Here’s a little quiz for you: which of these Latin words means “to plow”? Which of these means “to be dry”? 1) arāre 2) …
Ancient Roman Idioms Posted by kunthra on Apr 11, 2011
Like with any language, Latin contains idioms that don’t make sense at first glance. Take for instance “ad calendas Graecas” which literally means “On the Greek day of the calends”. To understand the meaning of this idiom, the word calends has to be translated first. The ancient Romans used to label the first of every…
Ancient Roman Paintings Posted by kunthra on Apr 8, 2011
Although the ancient Roman Empire is long gone, it’s nice to know that there are still some relics of the civilization in which the ancient Romans lived. In particular, these precious relics are left in the form of paintings. For instance, the ancient Romans drew many still life paintings. The still life presented below is…