Why Latin is not a dead language but a window into a vibrant world.
The common understanding of a dead language is one that is no longer spoken in daily life and if you check dictionary.com the example given is Latin. Growing up I always knew I wanted to learn Latin because it just seemed so cool. It was the root of multiple languages and so many words. This is not surprising considering that Latin was the spoken language of the Romans who at one time conquered land that spanned three continents. Still to this day words for commerce, medicine, and other fields have terms that come from ancient Latin words.
Why then is there a modern aversion to learning it that is resulting in High Schools and Universities cutting their programs and channeling funds into others? Perhaps the simplest answer is the current trend in education away from memorization which is a shame because memorization is a skill and one that is needed in life. The ability to know something off the top of one’s head is a time saver rather than pulling out one’s phone and quickly typing a question into a search engine and waiting for an answer (which without a foundation how do you even know if the information is correct?) As well as the current belief that Chinese is useful because of being helpful for business (which was the same belief that was held in the 1980s about Japanese my how trends change over the decades). As well as the fact that Latin naturally breeds discipline in order to be successful at it. Even more so if students are exposed to Roman culture.
The Roman virtues were qualities that citizens were to aspire to throughout their life. In many aspects it was a foundational stone for a higher power. It was something to cling to and have belief in because it was something higher than the individual alone. With the world seeming to crumble all around us after the pandemic these values are perhaps more important now. These virtues represented both private and public life. They are also where the Christian virtues came from because of the influence of the Roman world. They are still things to aspire to in the modern age. Character and integrity are timeless regardless of what is going on in the world. The idea of becoming educated was the idea of dedicating oneself to the cultivation of these virtues; dignitas, pietas, gravitas, prudentia, and veritas, just to name a few. These words show up in English as dignity, piety, gravity, prudence, and verity. The Roman equivalent contains so much more than what the watered down version of the English conveys. Piety is now equated with merely being religious while the Roman understanding of that virtue was duty to a higher power to the point to the point of personal sacrifice. Talk about commitment to something larger than oneself. Prudentia was the ability to understand the past, present, and future and act accordingly with that foresight. It was directional and sure not anxiety driven. In many respects it was an ability to see the big picture as well as the long term consequences of something. In a day and age of instant gratification prudence would be a useful skill to have let along virtue to embody.
The point is that in studying Latin and the culture of the Ancient Romans there are benefits to students not just from an academic level but also one of character. The certainty of character that these virtues instill is one that lasts for a lifetime and can never be taken away. It is something to strive for and attempt to live up to that is very much needed in our world today.
