Kids Learning Zone

Language 

The Romans were great orators and spoke Latin, to this day many words we use are from ancient Latin. They liked to write down their language and the subsequent writings have formed the knowledge that we now use to understand who the Romans were.

They used just 23 letters to write The Romans were great orators and spoke Latin, to this day many words we use are from ancient Latin. They liked to write down their language and the subsequent writings have formed the knowledge that we now use to understand who the Romans were. Latin:

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z

A Roman tomb stone found in Inveresk, East Lothian showing the Latin inscription to a bodyguard called Cresens

There were no lower case letters only capitals,and K,Y and Z were only used to write words of Greek origin.

The letters J, U, and W were added to the alphabet at a later stage to write languages other than Latin. J is a variant of I, U is a variant of V and W was introduced as a 'double V' to make the distinction between the sounds we know as V and W which was unnecessary in Latin.

Writing ancient Latin often involved the use of abbreviations to shorten the script often seen on buildings and coins an example below demonstrates this.

VOTUM SOLVIT LIBENS MERITO

Meaning - Willingly and deservedly fulfilled their vows is written as V.S.L.M. This phrase is often found on dedication stones like that found on Hadrian's wall. Understanding ancient Latin can be difficult and requires a lot of practice to be able to read and speak the language.

Below I have written some common commands used in army foot drill which I use during my visit when marching and battling.

As with modern army commands and instructions they were clear, precise and loud. If you wanted an army to do something you had to make sure the commands are heard and understood then acted upon. Orders were broken down into syllables just like they are today in the modern military. An example would be a drill instructor shouting ATTEN.......TION. The first bit gives the warning and gains the troops attention and the second bit is when the command is executed.

The same rule applied to the Romans in this example the centurion would shout INTEN........TE with the same rule of warning and execution of the command. Again this means stand to attention in Latin.

The following lists are basic marching foot drill commands spoken in Latin with a pronunciation and translated into English

Basic Foot Drill

Miles dexter (meelez dexter) right marker

Ad signa (Add signah) fall in

Otiose (ohteeoh-say) stand easy

Quiete (quee-ay-tay) stand at ease

Intente (inten-tay) attention

Dextrorsum vertite (dextrorsoom wertee-tay) right turn

Sinistrorsum vertite (sinistrorsoom wertee-tay) left turn

Ad tergum vertite (add tergoom wertee-tay) about turn

Procedite (prockaydee-tay) march on

Consistite (consistee-tay) halt

A basic rule is when ever you hear the word 'DEX' then this means something will be happening to the right, if you hear 'SIN' then the opposite is true and something will be happening to the left. When marching you will hear SIN-DEX-SIN-DEX-SIN-DEX meaning left-right-left-right-left-right.

Battle Formation Commands

Scuta tollite (skootah tollee-tay) shields to battle position

Gladios destringite (gladeeows daystringee-tay) draw swords

Testudinem facite (testoodeenem fackee-tay) form the tortoise

Contra equites ordines facite (contra-ekwitays ordeenays fackee-tay) prepare to receive horse

Cuneum facite (coonayum fackee-tay) form the wedge

These are just a small selection of the most common commands used during the performance to give you an idea of the use of Latin in the Roman army, there are others which will be explained if used.

The battle formations are best seen rather than me try to explain the sequence of movements that form the manouvre.