Questions tagged [roman-culture]
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65 questions
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What is the largest online Latin speaking community?
I noticed that many online places where Latin could be spoken are dead (unlike the language itself).
Where can I practice Latin online? Is there any chat or forum that is really active?
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Did the Romans have a Valentine's day?
The ancient Romans had many festivals, but did any of them celebrate friendship or love?
Wikipedia mentions similarity to Lupercalia, but I consider love to be very different from fertility.
I'm ...
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Does liberi only refer to free children?
This issue came up in an answer and comments to this earlier question about comparing liberi and filii, and I think it's important enough to be treated in a separate question.
Also, the answer to this ...
- 116k
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How did the Romans call their currency?
I wanted to make a kind of western-style WANTED-poster in Latin, and I got a few questions about it. My questions:
how did the romans say WANTED on a poster?
I was doubting between the words ...
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Is *Numidius* an Ancient Roman name?
Is Numidius an Ancient Roman name (probably a nomen gentilis) or is it spurious and caused by corruption of other names?
What I have found so far:
The name Ummidius (that is clearly and unmistakably ...
- 2,317
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Did the Romans use any swear words?
I was reading the book Lingua Latina, Per Se Illustrata by Hans H. Ørberg, and I often saw scenes in which persons were angry. In the book, the writer doesn't use any swear words or anything to that ...
- 1,629
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How did the Romans wish happy holidays?
The Roman year included many festive occasions.
In today's world it is customary to wish merry Christmas, happy Easter, and other such things.
Did the Romans do the same during their own festivals, ...
- 116k
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Why did Roman children call their father 'tata' instead of 'pappa'?
I was reading a text from Hans H. Øberg, and I saw in the text the following sentences:
Noli dicere 'tatam' et 'mammam', Iuliola! Ea nomina a te audire nolumus. Ita loquuntur parvuli infantes, nec ...
- 1,629
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Was the middle finger obscene in Ancient Rome?
I was recently reading a work where I became (re)acquainted with the fact that the middle finger can be referred to as the digitus impudicus -- the "shameful finger" -- in Latin.
My question is ...
- 42.9k
12
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Term for the water/wine ratio chooser?
What's the Latin word for the person at cena who decided whether more or less water was added to the wine to keep the party going steadily?
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How did Roman babies talk?
Following a chat discussion, I want to know if we have any written record or general indication of how Latin was spoken by young children.
Most languages that I know have several distinct ...
- 42.9k
17
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Did ancient Romans develop cryptography for Latin?
Did the Romans ever develop any form of cryptography, where either words were replaced with other words or letters were replaced with other letters? Do we have any remaining examples, and if so have ...
- 1,623
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Did the Romans use dictionaries to check what words mean?
Did Romans or other ancient users of Latin have lists of difficult words with explanations in Latin?
I mean dictionaries composed entirely in Latin, not dictionaries between Latin and another language....
- 116k
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How would a servus publicus be named - using the nominative or the genitive?
I was reading this encyclopedia entry on Roman naming, and it discusses the naming of Roman slaves. Originally, slave's name was the name of his master + "puer". During the age of the Roman Republic, ...
- 2,550
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Why would avoiding olive oil be a negative thing?
In Horace's Odes 1.8, Horace criticizes his ex's new boyfriend by saying, among other things, that:
...olivum sanguine viperino cautius vitat...
which, roughly, means
He avoids olive oil more ...
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