III. HOW ROME ROSE TO POWER1

Rome's rise to world dominion is a thrilling story. She had certain natural advantages to begin with. The hills on which the city was built were easy to defend, the large river close by and the not distant sea made Rome a commercial center, and the fact that Rome was central to Italy and fairly central to the Mediterranean lands made her a suitable seat of

government. Rome was the natural head of the Latin tribes and early proved herself stronger than the Etruscans. Her most stubborn antagonists in Italy were the Samnites; these she conquered in the three Samnite wars (343-290 B.C.). She then overcame the Greek cities in Southern Italy (281-272 B.C.), though they were helped by Pyrrhus, a Greek king who was an able general and had a powerful army. The first province brought under Roman rule as it extended itself beyond Italy was Sicily, taken from the most dangerous enemies the Roman Republic ever had, the Carthaginians. They were a great commercial people, whose capital was Carthage, not far from the present Tunis. Carthage ruled a powerful empire in Northern Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and later in Spain, and had as a military leader the illustrious Hannibal, one of the greatest generals that ever lived. Rome finally destroyed Carthage after three great wars (264-146 B.C.), thus gaining all the lands which Carthage had ruled. It was much less difficult to take Macedonia (146 B.C.), Greece (146 B.C.), Syria (64 B.c.), and Egypt (30 B.C.). Julius Caesar made the northern Roman frontiers safe by subduing Gaul (58-50 B.C.), and led an expedition (54 B.C.) into Britain. Southern Britain became a province in 44 A.D. and Northern Britain in 85 a.d. The last important province taken into permanent occupation by Rome was Dacia (on the Danube), added by the Emperor Trajan in 106 A.D. Rome had now reached her utmost limits and the rest of her story is that of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

1 Cf. Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome, "The Prophecy of Capys."

THE PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN

(For Study and Reference)

Our pronunciation of Latin is that of the Ancient Romans at the beginning of the Christian era.

A correct pronunciation of Latin can be acquired only by imitation of the teacher. It is suggested that the teacher first take up with the class Sections 1 to 6 and illustrate each point by the voice. In this way the pupil, after practice in class with the teacher's help, will study these sections by himself with interest and confidence.

Suggestions for Study: 1. Learn Sections 1-6, pronouncing carefully each Latin word several times. 2. Read Section 7, which is mainly for reference. 3. Practice on the Exercises in Sections 8-9.

THE LATIN ALPHABET

1. The Latin alphabet, from which comes our own, was borrowed from Greek colonies in southern Italy as early as 700 B.C.1 It had twenty-three letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i (both as vowel and consonant),2 k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, v (both as vowel and consonant),3 x, y, z1; it had no j and no w.

1 The Latin Alphabet can be traced to the picture writing of Egypt (in characters called hieroglyphs), which goes back to at least 5000 B.C. Thus M was originally the picture of an owl, and its shape still suggests the owl's ears and beak; N is from the hieroglyph m, which pictures the rippling surface of the water. This picture writing became simplified into a few strokes easily made, and was adopted by the Phoenicians, a seafaring people, who brought it to the Greeks. 2 From the seventeenth century the vowel sound was expressed by i, the consonant sound by j.

3 From the tenth century the vowel sound was expressed by u, and the consonant sound by v.

4 x, y, and z were not in Cicero's time included in the alphabet; they were used in the Latin spelling of Greek words.

THE SOUNDS REPRESENTED BY THE LETTERS

2. Vowels. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and y. Each vowel has both a long and a short sound. These sounds, though distinct, the Romans generally indicated by the same letter. Sometimes a mark was placed over a long vowel; a late form of this mark (-) is now used. Thus a represents the long (i.e. slow) sound of a, as in English far. In this book a short vowel generally has no mark over it, but sometimes a mark (~) is used to call attention to the short (i.e. quick) sound. Thus a, or ǎ, represents the short sound of a, as in English sofa. A Latin long vowel (similarly a diphthong) requires twice as much time as a short vowel.

The long and short sounds of the vowels are:

NOTE. y (long or short) has the sound of French u or German ü; with the lips in position to give the sound of u, give the sound of short i.

1 Not as in hot.

2 In Latin, an initial long u does not have a preceding y sound as in English (e.g. use).

3. Diphthongs (two-vowel sounds). — The diphthongs are ae, au, ei, oe, eu, ui. A diphthong is a union of two short vowel sounds to form one syllable; the two vowels are pronounced in quick succession by one effort.

The diphthongs, with their equivalent sounds in English, are:

4. Consonants. Most consonants are pronounced in Latin as in English, but, while in English several consonants are pronounced in more than one way, in Latin a particular consonant has generally but one sound.' The following consonants require special care:

NOTES. — 1. In gu, qu, and sometimes su before a vowel, the u has the consonant sound: língua (ling-gwa), quis (kwis), persuadeō (perswá-de-ō).

2. r is trilled as in French.

3. ch, ph, th are pronounced like k, p, t, followed by the aspirate h ; púlcher (púlc-her), Délphi (Délp-hi), Carthagō (Cart-ha-gō).

4. Doubled consonants should be pronounced separately and in different syllables: míttō (mit-tō), villa (víl-la).

DIVISION INTO SYLLABLES

5. A Latin word has as many syllables as it has vowels or diphthongs, as pecunia (pe-cu-ni-a), caúsa (caú-sa), puélla (pu-él-la), nāvigat (nā-vi-gat).

Words are divided into syllables as follows:

a. A single consonant between two vowels goes with the second: Itália (I-tá-li-a), auxílium (au-xí-li-um).

b. If two or more consonants occur together between vowels, the division is usually before the last consonant: sílva (síl-va), victória (vic-to-ri-a), innocéntia (in-no-cén-ti-a), sánctus (sánctus). Exceptions to this rule are given in c.

c. A consonant, if followed by 1 or r, goes with the 1 or r: públicus (pú-bli-cus), agrícola (a-grí-co-la), mediocre (me-dí-ocre), dēmonstrō (dē-mōns-trō). But in compound words a preposition is pronounced separately, as in abrúmpō (abrúm-pō).

ACCENT

6. a. In words of two syllables the accent is regularly upon the first: pórta (pór-ta), spéctat (spéc-tat), sílva (síl-va), māter (má-ter), páter (pá-ter).

b. In words of more than two syllables the accent is upon the

1 EXCEPTIONS. -b before t or s is pronounced as p: obtíneō (=optí-ne-ō), urbs (= urps), ábstulit (= áps-tu-lit); n before c, g, or qu is pronounced like n in anchor (cf. ng in singing): áncora (= áng-ko-ra), ángor (= &ng-gor), ínquit (= {ng-kit).

2 Caesar's famous message to the senate, "I came, I saw, I conquered."