Poland Liceum ogólnokształcące, klasa I Latin and ancient culture

1. Language competence

Basic morphology · Basic syntax and reading

Coming soon

2. Cultural competence

Latin among Indo-European languages · Why antiquity matters today · Rome: ancient, new, eternal · Greek myth from antiquity to pop culture · Athenian democracy · The body in Greco-Roman culture · Classical aesthetic values · Roman role models and memory · From early Christians to the papal Church · Roman imperial civilisation · Roman form of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

• Mythology: Gods, Heroes and Stories That Still Shape Us – Myths are very old traditional stories about gods, heroes and how the world began. Greek and Roman myths show powerful but flawed gods, heroes tested on long journeys, hard questions about justice, and magical changes of shape. Similar story patterns appear in cultures across the world, and classical myths still live on in our words, art, science names and films.
• Athenian Democracy: Rule by the Citizens of Athens – Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE was a direct democracy: adult male citizens met in the Assembly (ekklesia) and voted on laws, war and peace themselves. A Council of 500, chosen by lot, 50 from each of ten tribes, prepared the agenda. Large juries chosen by lot judged cases. Most officials were picked by lot for one year; only generals and a few experts were elected. Ostracism could send a too-powerful man away for ten years. Women, enslaved people and foreign residents had no vote. Thinkers such as Plato criticised it, yet its ideas (citizen vote, juries, accountability) shape democracy today.
• Ancient Greece: City-States, Democracy and a Lasting Legacy – Ancient Greece grew up around the Aegean Sea, in a land of mountains, small valleys and many islands. Mountains kept communities apart, so Greeks lived in hundreds of independent city-states (poleis), each with its own laws, army and gods, while the sea linked them through trade. The two best known were Athens, a trading city that developed the first democracy around 508 BCE, and Sparta, a military state. The Greeks united to defeat Persian invasions in 490 and 480 BCE, then fought one another in the Peloponnesian War. Alexander of Macedon later led an army from Greece to Egypt and as far as the Indus, spreading Greek culture in the Hellenistic age. Greek ideas in politics, philosophy, history writing, science, mathematics, theatre, sport and architecture still shape the world.
• Ancient Greek Art – Ancient Greek art grew over about 900 years in four periods: Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. Painted pottery moved from black-figure to red-figure. Sculpture moved from stiff kouros statues to the relaxed contrapposto of the Classical age and the drama of the Hellenistic age. Temples used three column orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) and careful proportion. These ideals of balance and beauty shaped Roman, Renaissance and even Gandhara art.
• The Roman Republic: How Rome Ruled Itself Without a King – From 509 to 27 BCE Rome was a republic. Power was shared: two consuls elected for one year, a Senate of experienced former officials, and assemblies of citizens who voted on laws and elected officials. Tribunes protected ordinary people (plebeians). Politicians climbed a fixed ladder of offices. Wars brought wealth and huge armies, and powerful generals such as Sulla and Caesar broke the rules. After civil wars, Augustus became sole ruler in 27 BCE and the Republic ended.

3. Social competence

Attitudes

Coming soon