Latin A2 Thread

yeah I forgot to mention acme and Septimius and poem 64 messed up that question majorly :' oh well

For the commentary questions how should the answers be structure? Would it be better to find three main points as the basis for three paragraphs or to just go through the passage from top to bottom and find as many style points as possible?

I'm not totally sure - for the poetry I chose three couplets and totally pulled them apart, but for the prose I'm personally more inclined to just go through the passage. I think both thematic and chronological approaches work well - but some extracts lend themselves more to one or the other. The most important thing is to make sure you cover the whole prescription rather than doing as I usually do, which is going into too much detail at the beginning of the extract and then running out of time for the second half. I think it's really a personal choice - whatever you feel most comfortable with.

In the past, there has typically been one question with more of a "style" angle and one with more of a "content" angle. Although you MUST mention both in each commentary, as others have pointed out you tend to get a "what impression do you get of PERSON'S NAME in this passage?" question, and a "how does AUTHOR make this a vivid description of THING?" one.

On the old Tacitus prescription it was usually "what impression do you get of Nero" and "how does Tacitus create a picture of corruption/vividly describe the fire of Rome" etc. I would guess you'll get a Sejanus/Tiberius/Agrippina question at least. Pliny is a bit trickier - character-wise it could either be one of the subjects of his letters (Corellius Rufus/Verginius Rufus/Macedo/Regulus) or even something on Pliny himself (chariot races, or one of the Rufus letters perhaps). I'm hoping the dolphin letter will come up for a style-focused question, but that's just because it's my favourite

The questions have always been based purely on what's in the printed passage in the past. I am assuming they won't rock the boat in this regard now - but of course you'll all know the whole prescription...

For the Tacitus can someone confirm I've got this right ; Tacitus mentions the murder of drusus, then details the result of it (Tiberius going to senate etc) and the aftermath (funeral) then an excursus back to look at the rumour of the time for an alternative version of events - the idea that drusus had planned to kill tiberius but ended up drinking the poison himself out of fear and shame, then tacitus refutes the rumour. Is there another rumour that tiberius killed drusus aswell? (chapter 11 where it says ; why would tiberius offer ruin to his son, with his own hand and with no opening for reconciliation etc?)

How is anyone proposing to tackle commentaries on Pliny? There doesn't exactly seem to be a copious amount of styling on his part

How is anyone proposing to tackle commentaries on Pliny? There doesn't exactly seem to be a copious amount of styling on his part

I think there is only one rumour (please someone correct me if I'm wrong). The fact that Tacitus says that Tiberius killed Drusus by his own hand refers to the fact that he supposedly handed Drusus the poisoned goblet (thus inflicting his death) rather than running an inquiry to discover who the true poisoner was.

Your absolutely right on all counts. How is everyone feeling for the prose as opposed to the Verse, i feel like the set text questions will be harder, but (hopefully) the comprehension easier and the Livy (as its adapted) hopefully not as hard as unadulterated stuff? Praying for a nice translation or en enjoyable story..

I think the Tacitus is much harder than the Aeneid and I'm nervous about the translation (doing prose comp). I had thought that the poetry paper would be the more difficult of the two but after the (I think) reasonable Ovid, this could be my downfall! I'm desperately hoping for managable vocab and no obscure constructions.

Oh god I'm exactly the same! Tacitus is FAR harder, and having found the Verse paper manageable i am now scared this one will be awful, and I've had less time to revise for it! And to top it all off, its in the morning!! Good luck doing prose comp, if I'm honest id rather do neither, hate translation but find prose comp even worse!

I'm having a last minute panic about whether I've made the right choice but I've got to stick with it now - I haven't practised any Livy. I think Livy is probably more difficult for me - if I don't know the vocab in Latin-English it totally throws me and in prose comp you can normally find a way around it. On the other hand, it's so easy to accidentally put a letter or two wrong and immediately lose a mark. I just want to get it over with now though - I have totally neglected my other subjects this week as I've been so focussed on the Latin. I will miss Latin though!

Im sat here feeling like i don't really know the Tactius and that I'm going to be stumped in the exam, as i knew the Aeneid already as i do classics too! You will be fine, I'm sure your prose comp is nailed. As long as you break it down chunk by chunk and work methodically it will be fine I'm sure! Im desperate to get it out the way but will miss Latin a lot, quite sad actually haha.

I'm sure it will all turn out fine but if the worst comes to the worst at least there's no direct translation. I'm planning to just pick out the few sentences I can remember if it all goes wrong and hopefully there'll be enough style and content to talk about. No doubt you've put the work in - so it will all come flooding back with the adrenaline in the exam room!