Selections from Viri Romae

Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū ā ē ī ō ū ȳ (long y is rare)
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There is no Greek in this book.
For this e-text, the Selections are given twice, in “stripped” and as-printed form. In the stripped form, all footnote anchors, page and line numbers have been omitted, along with macrons, illustrations and sidenotes, leaving only the original Viri Romae text.
The book as printed includes several hundred cross-references to footnotes identified by page number, and to text passages identified by line number. Line numbers (by multiples of 5) are shown in the left margin; footnote numbering starts from 1 on each page. Words split across line or page breaks may appear on either the first or second line, depending on space.
The map of the Mediterranean area, shown here at the end of the Exercises, was printed as a foldout facing page 68 (middle of selection XXIII).

Upon the reviving perception of the true scope of Latin teaching has followed a return to some of the methods of former times, which, with all their faults, were yet imbued with the true spirit of the Classics. Since for many years the study of Latin lay in bondage to the spirit which regarded the language merely as a corpus vile for grammatical dissection, and ignored the rich literature lying beyond the classical trinity of authors, it is not surprising that it fell into disfavor as unsuited to the requirements of the times. The revival upon which the study has now entered is due largely to a recognition of the fact that mental culture rather than mere mental training is its true aim, and that, with this aim kept steadily in view, the study of Latin is not a barren waste of time and energy, but a most potent agency in securing that broad and sympathetic culture which must ever remain the mark of the educated man. The results of classical study most valuable to the character are surely not to be found in the ability, usually lost after a few years, to recite paradigms faultlessly, to give the principal parts of verbs, and to enumerate the various kinds of cum -constructions and the subdivisions of the ablative. Of far greater worth are the mental breadth and sympathy, the weakening of prejudice and Philistinism, and the increased power of entering into higher forms of enjoyment which must inevitably flow from the study of the life of a great people as revealed in its literature and art.