Learn Latin with the Latin Database by Michael Bobrowski
Latin Database v2.0.0
Online Latin Learning Tool
Why Learn Latin
Latin is a highly organized and logical language which makes it similar to studying math. Latin will sharpen your mind, cultivate mental alertness, create keener attention to detail, devlop critical thinking abilities, and enhance problem solving ailities. If you enjoy Math or Music then you will most likely enjoy learning Latin because it requires some of the same intellectual skills as Math and Music. Even if you do not enjoy Math or Music and you do not want to sharpen your mind, learning Latin gives you a unique skill that not a lot of people have in the modern world.
A Brief History of Latin
753 BCRome is Founded by Romulus, a mythological character who killed his brother Remus. At this point there are only a few thousand people speaking Latin in and around Rome.
500 BCEarliest known Latin inscription, on a pin which read "Manios me fhefhaked Numasioi" which means "Manios made me for Numerius"
250-100 BCEarly Latin, the first Latin literature usually in loose translations of Greek works or imitations of Greek generes.
100 BC-150 ADClassical Latin. Cicero, Caesar, Vergil, and Tacitus write masterpieces of Latin literature.
200-550Late Latin. The Western half of the Roman Empire has been cripled. St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin - The Vulgate
600-750Latin becomes a dead language. Few people outside of monasteries can read it and classical Latin is preserved only in church documents.
800-900The Carolingian Renaissance. Charlemagne decides that Latin is good and promotes it throughout his kingdom.
1100-1300Contact with Arabs who conquered North Africa and Spain leads to a revival of learning, all writing is done in Latin.
1400-1650During the Renaissance, people start reading Latin classical authors and bringing Latin words into their language.
Until 1900Nearly everyone who goes to college must learn Latin and most people who major in a humanity study Greek.
1960The Catholic Church decides that Latin is no longer the obligatory language of Catholic masses.
PresentAlmost no one speaks Latin but people still attempt to learn the language despite its obsolescence.