Latin A2 Thread

I am so worried about the Ovid translation - it seemed so weirdly easy that I think the board will be really nitpicky about small thing. I know I made a bunch of small mistakes, like making longi agree with sono (I didn't think it could agree with Hellesponti because I didn't see how a country could be 'long' and also didn't know the vocab "infestas".

I had no idea at all how to handle "quo vectus erat" - how did everyone else translate that? The translation I found online suggests it is the donkey "which he had ridden" (which he had been carried by, so, which he rode) but I'm hoping that if everyone found that bit really tricky it won't be so terrible that I was completely stumped by it..

If anyone wants to check their work you can just google Ovid Fasti book 6 and find a translation online - so you can see how you did I found it quite reassuring to read a translation online after the exam was over, so I know I got the gist of it basically correct.

As for amount, I filled up 3 answer booklets.... I'm not sure how much that is. I think the regular answer booklets are 5 sides and the supplement ones are 4 sides, so maybe 13 pages? That includes a LOT of scribbling out though... What about y'all?

I feel quite lucky that my teacher happened to mention a few weeks ago that 'veho' in the passive can mean 'to ride'!

I certainly took some rather extensive liberties with the English, but literal translation is always going to fail at some point. The poet in me overcame the grammarian...

Is anyone doing the prose composition in Friday's paper?

No...not brave enough! Are you?

Yes - I was just wondering how everyone was learning vocab. The Livy just looks so difficult - at least with prose comp if you don't know the exact vocab you can find a way around it!

How did people do the second Catullus 25 marker?

I have attempted to learn every word I don't know as I come across it...which I've sometimes kept on top of and sometimes haven't! :/

So I've also used this vocab list as a back-up (it's the one AQA used to provide):
http://www.cambridgescp.com/downloads/aqa2.pdf

I've also used this one, since I was worried that there seemed to be far too many easy words on the AQA list:
http://vle.worth.org.uk/classics/documents/a%20level%20latin/AQA%20A2%20Latin%20vocabulary.pdf

This looks good too, though I haven't used it:
http://www.memrise.com/course/80832/livyovid-vocabulary/

Thank you so much! I've got some major cramming to do now though

Don't worry, I never have time for a conclusion. I only just scraped enough time to write about Augustus and the future of Rome - added them in in the very last five minutes! It was quite an open question and there was so much that could be included - just hope I've covered enough topics. I mainly covered Marcellus, Dido, Tartarus, the river, the entrance to Hades, Elysian Fields, Augustus and Brutus a little. I was hoping for an extract question from the first half but that section was ok - it was quite nice to be able to write a commentary for the similes.

Mostly disagreed, but gave a case for his more light-hearted poems.

Which prose author is everyone doing by the way? I'm studying Tacitus - anyone have any predictions on what may come up?

Im doing tacitus too, awful isn't it! The Themes i have (of which i feel confident on none..) are:
Motivation and Ambition,
Deception and Dissimulation
Character of Sejanus
Character of Tiberius
Character of Agrippina
Emperor, Senate and Res Publica
Tacitus' Historical Technique
Forward Planning vs Opportunism

I hate the Tacitus set text, they style is really hard to spot and its just not easy to follow (everyone being called the same thing the whole time)

Oh well!

was this the question - 'catullus' Poems are as much about joy and happiness as they are about sadness and tears' to what extent do you agree? - I said I agree as there are happy poems (e.g. licinius, sirmio, travel poem) and sad poems as well (lesbian, brother) is that right? because after the exam I was thinking did they mean that each poem is both happy and sad? And also we didn't need latin quotes for that one did we?

Wow, you seem really prepared! I don't have any themic notes although my teacher has given us a tonne on style which I'm desperately trying (and failing!) to learn. It's only two commentaries for this paper, right? I would do terribly if we had to write a synoptic essay! I definitely struggle to identify which chapter the extract is from - so much vocab is repeated and the chapters all look so similar. I'm hoping an extract might be taken from one of the letters - I think there's more style to comment on compared to elsewhere in the text.

Yes, that's the one. That's pretty much what I did - obviously the given one (Sirmio) is one of joy, so I discussed that in some detail using quotes from that passage and explaining a little bit, but that may have been a waste of time since that wasn't the main focus of the question. From there, I made a case mainly for "It's not all despair and sadness", talked about Acme and Septimius and how that is a positive portrayal of love, mentioned his "glad feet" and general traveller's spirit in his main travel poem. Then presented the other side, which I then agreed with in my conclusion, that his poetry treats more frequently the negative themes, giving examples there, then rounded it off in that way.

I'm pretty sure that would be what they would look for, I doubt I'll get very high marks since I wasn't entirely happy with it, I felt the commentary question was much better and easier, but I don't see how it could be a question of examining individual poems in terms of their positive/negative balance, since generally (with the exception perhaps of the Licinius poem, where he begins fairly positive then turns it into a discussion of his subsequent grief) each poem is either 'happy' or 'sad'.

And no, don't think Latin quotes are needed, it'd be very harsh for them to expect that; I think evidence that you know of works other than the one given and that you know their content in reasonable detail would what is required.