Chaos and Art - Latin Refresher

Today's Quote

Chaos in Latin

Chaos theory as we know it today emerged somewhere in the 1970s, depending upon which authority you choose to believe. The ideas are not new, however. From the minds of ancient philosophers, orators, even emperors, came:

In bello parvis momentis magni casus intercedunt. (Julius Caesar)
In war great events are caused by small things. (parameter is king)
Munditiis capimur. (Ovid)
We are captivated by neatness. (chaos is in fact ordered)
Nota notae est nota rei ipsius.
A known component of a thing is known by the thing itself. (fractal self-similarity)

Incidentally, the term "fractal" was coined in 1975 by Benoit Mandelbrot, and comes from the Latin word fractus, the perfect participle passive of the verb frangere, meaning "to break, shatter, or break down".

Lessons

Lesson I The Alphabet

Lesson II Pronunciation

Lesson III Accent

Lesson IV Declensions of Nouns

Lesson V Conjugations of Verbs

Lesson VI Irregular Verbs

Lesson VII Vocabulary

Lesson VIII Roman Numerals

Lesson IX Dates

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Pop Quiz

High school and college Latin were similar for me in that every day, without fail, we would be assaulted with a pop quiz. Back then, I failed to see the humor in hearing the words "It's time for the POP quiz!" every morning at 8:00 a.m. There was no pop, just the terrifying quiz part. We knew it was coming and it was still too hard.

In retrospect, being thrown so many "surprise" challenges was a great character-building experience. I thought I'd share that experience with you with a short quiz you can take without the fear of having an eraser hurled at your head.

Take the quiz

Remember When

Coming soon: a place to post your favorite tales of Latin triumphs and traumas. Let's all laugh and cry about it together.
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References and Links

Check these out:

Beginner's Latin: An Easy Introduction, G.D.A. Sharpley, 2d Ed., 1998
Intensive Latin First Year & Review: A User's Manual, Carl A.P. Ruck, 1997
Cicero: Pro Archia Poeta Oratio, Steven M. Cerutti, 1998

Brush up on your Latin:

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E-mail me at webmeister@jessiegietl.com.
Please teach Latin to your children.
You'll never regret it, even if they forget it.

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