Th e oldest surviving example of Latin is a brief inscrip-
tion of four words on a cloak pin in Greek characters. Th is
shows that the full vowels were used in unstressed syllables,
a system that changed gradually as the Latin language devel-
oped. Th e other early surviving Latin scripts show a stress
accent on the fi rst syllable of any word, whereas by the late
republic the accent fell on the second or second-from-last syl-
lable. Indeed, one of the striking features of Latin is the im-
portance placed on accentuation.
As the Romans expanded their rule, with Latin as the
language of administration, the use of the language became
common throughout the empire. Roman citizens and many
others became fl uent in Latin. Th rough the Roman system
of education many Roman boys and also people all over the
empire learned Latin grammar. Cato the Censor (234–149
b.c.e.) told everybody that he had taught his son to read and
write, and the Roman scholar Pliny (23–79 c.e.) also believed
that children should be taught by their parents. Many tutors,
sometimes slaves, were employed to teach children Latin, and
secondary schools taught boys both grammar and rhetoric
(the study of methods of speaking and writing eff ectively and
persuasively). When the Edict of Caracalla (212 c.e.) extended
Roman citizenship to all freeborn men throughout the Ro-
man Empire, the desire to learn Latin increased further.
Although they were certainly not the fi rst texts, the earli-
est surviving extensive works in Latin were the comedies of
Titus Maccius Plautus (ca. 254–184 b.c.e.) and Terence (ca.
185–159 b.c.e.). Th e latter was a slave born in Carthage and
freed by his Roman master, a senator. Th ere was also the po-
etry of Quintus Ennius (239–169 b.c.e.) and Gaius Lucilius
(ca. 180–ca. 102 b.c.e.). Literature from the middle of the fi rst
century b.c.e. is dominated by the works of Marcus Tullius
Cicero (106–43 b.c.e.), and this period is oft en known as the
Age of Cicero. It was also the era of Lucretius (ca. 100–ca. 55
b.c.e.), Gaius Sallustus Crispus (86–34 b.c.e.), and the mili-
tary victories of Julius Caesar (100–44 b.c.e.). Th e works of
the latter, Th e Conquest of Gaul and Th e Civil War, are the
oldest surviving accounts of a military campaign by one of
its leaders. Caesar himself established the fi rst state library
in Rome, which was completed by Asinius Pollio (76 b.c.e.–4
c.e.). Th is had works in Greek as well as Latin, but eventu-
ally works in Latin began to overtake those in Greek. Gradu-
ally many cities throughout the Roman Empire established
their own libraries, a process that coincided with the rise in
bibliopolae (publishers). Th ese used scriveners (professional
copyists) to produce copies of books and made many works
available throughout the empire, indicating that there was an
extensive market for books.
During the Augustan Age (27 b.c.e.–14 c.e.) writers such
as Horace (65–8 b.c.e.), Virgil (70–19 b.c.e.), Ovid (43 b.c.e.–
17 c.e.), and Livy (59 b.c.e.–17 c.e.) wrote what are regarded
as some of the major Latin texts. Virgil’s Aeneid, describing
the arrival in Italy of Aeneas, a Trojan prince, was one of the
longest Latin epics of its period. Livy’s massive Ab urbe con-
dita libri (Books from the Foundation of the City) comprised
142 books, but only 35 survive. Th e detail in the surviving
books demonstrates an extensive literary tradition wherein
Livy was able to base his work on previous historians. Hor-
ace, Virgil, Ovid, and Livy were followed by Seneca the Elder
(ca. 55 b.c.e.–ca. 39 c.e.), Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 b.c.e.–65
c.e.), Tacitus (ca. 56–ca. 120 c.e.), and Petroneus (d. 66 c.e.),
the fi rst writer of fi ction. Suetonius (ca. 69–ca. 140 c.e.) and
Juvenal (ca. 55–ca. 127 c.e.) represented the climax of the Ro-
man Silver Age.
Literary works from the Age of Cicero showed that there
were at least three diff erent types of Latin used by the Romans.
Cicero wrote in what has become known as classical oratorical
Latin. Th is was used for oratory, senatorial and other records,
legal texts, and an old form of poetry called Saturnian verse.
Some other writers used classical written Latin, and evidence
from references in texts and also from inscriptions and votive
tablets (a tablet used for sacred or religious purposes) show
that the colloquial Latin used by many citizens of the Roman
Empire was quite diff erent and also changed extensively over
time, diverging from the other two and becoming known as
Vulgar Latin. Th ere are also references to these diff erences by
Roman grammarians. By the third century c.e. books were
written in this colloquial form. Both Saint Jerome and Saint
Augustine, writing in the fourth and fi ft h centuries, contin-
ued to write in classical Latin.
In terms of grammar Latin had six cases (forms of a noun
or pronoun indicating its role in a sentence) for the declen-
sions (changes in form to designate grammatical function)
of nouns and adjectives, and some nouns also had a locative
case (indicating place or direction). Some of these cases sur-
vived in languages derived from Latin. In the early Christian
Church, Latin played a crucial part in recording information.
It was the language of the city of Rome, which became the
center of western Christendom, of the Vulgate (the Roman
Catholic Bible), and of administration throughout the empire.
Th e language’s extensive reach ensured that it would survive
within the Christian Church and remain the language of
learning and diplomacy for many centuries.THE AMERICAS
BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL
Unraveling the history of language development and disper-
sion in the ancient Americas is a daunting task for historians,
linguists, and archaeologists. Th e fi rst problem is the sheer
number and diversity of languages. Linguists have identifi ed
some 200 distinct language families in the Americas, many
with subfamilies and sub-subfamilies, but even that number
is in dispute. (A language family is a group of languages that
have important similarities, suggesting that they developed
from a common older language. Th ese languages can be
grouped into a family “tree.”) Eff orts to compare languages
that, in most cases, are long extinct or nearly extinct require
gathering and analyzing immense amounts of information,
and linguists have barely begun the process.language: The Americas 619