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Cicero

Cicero

: For other uses see Cicero (disambiguation) Marcus Tullius Cicero (standard English pronunciation ; Classical Latin pronunciation ) (January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC) was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin orator and prose stylist. prose

Biography

Cicero was born in Arpinum and killed at Formia, fleeing from political enemies. "It is no exaggeration", wrote Taylor (as cited in "References"), "to say that the most brilliant era of Roman public life was ushered in by Cicero and closed by his death—he stood at its cradle and he followed its hearse." His family, the Tullii, were one of the landed gentry in Arpinum and resented the fame and fortunes of the other great Arpinate families, the Marii. Throughout his life, the conservative Cicero loathed being compared to the then more famous Marius. The name "Cicero" is derived from cicer, the Latin word for "chickpea." Plutarch explains that the name was originally applied to one of Cicero's ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose, which resembled that of a chickpea. In fact (Plutarch continues), Cicero was urged to change the theretofore-ignoble name when he entered politics, but he refused.

Early life

According to Plutarch, he was an extremely adept student, learning so well and rapidly that he attracted attention from all over Rome. He was especially fond of poetry, although he shied away from no scholarly field. In 89 BC-88 BC, Cicero served on the staffs of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and Lucius Cornelius Sulla as they campaigned in the Social War, though he had no taste for war. Cicero also had a love for almost everything Greek, and even stated in his will that he wanted to be buried in Greece. He found the ancient philosophers such as Plato very thought provoking. Cicero served as quaestor in western Sicily in 75 BC. He wrote that in Sicily he saw the gravestone of Archimedes of Syracuse, on which was carved Archimedes' favorite discovery in geometry, that the ratio of the volume of a sphere to that of the smallest right circular cylinder in which it fits is 2:3. He built an extremely successful career as an advocate, and first attained prominence for his successful prosecution in August 70 BC of Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily. Despite his great successes as an advocate, Cicero suffered from his lack of reputable ancestry; as no Tullius had been consul before him, he was neither noble nor patrician, and his family was considered unimportant. He was further hindered by the fact that the last man to have been elected to the consulate without consular ancestors (i.e., the last "New Man", or Novus Homo) had been the political radical and militarily innovative Marius.

Consul

In 63 BC, Cicero became the first novus homo in more than thirty years by being elected consul. His only significant historical accomplishment during his year in office was the suppression of the Catiline conspiracy, a plot to overthrow the Roman Republic led by Lucius Sergius Catilina, a disaffected patrician. Cicero procured a senatus consultum de re publica defendenda (a declaration of martial law, also called the senatus consultum ultimum) and drove Catiline out of the city by a philippic in which he described the debauchery of Rome and especially Catiline. Catiline fled but left behind his 'deputies' who would start the revolution from within whilst Catiline assaulted it from without with an army recruited among Sulla's veterans in Etruria. Cicero managed to have these 'deputies' of Catiline confess their crime in front of the entire Senate, after ambushing an embassy they had sent to a Gaulish tribe. The Senate then deliberated upon the punishment to be given to the conspirators. As it was a legislative rather than a judicial body, there were limits on its power to do so; however, martial law was in effect, and it was feared that simple house arrest or exile - the standard options - would not remove the threat to the State. At first most in the Senate spoke for the 'extreme penalty'; many were then swayed by Julius Caesar who spoke decrying the precedent it would set and argued in favor of the punishment being confined to a mode of banishment. Cato then rose in defense of the death penalty and all the Senate finally agreed on the matter. Cicero had the conspirators taken to the Tullianum, the notorious Roman prison, where they were hanged. He received the honorific "Pater Patriae" for his actions in suppressing the conspiracy, but thereafter lived in fear of trial or exile for having put Roman citizens to death without trial. He also received the first public thanksgiving for a civic accomplishment; heretofore it had been a purely military honor. Cicero's Pro Flacco oration provides a uniquely early and clear example of anti-Semitism; in this speech, Cicero plays upon several stereotypical themes which have been echoed throughout the last two millennia. The case involved the defense of Lucius Valerius Flaccus, a Roman aristocrat, who was accused of (among other things) unlawfully confiscating Jewish funds which had been collected for the maintenance of the Temple at Jerusalem. In defense of Flaccus, Cicero made arguments regarding the public site which had been selected for the open-air tribunal: "Now let us take a look at the Jews and their mania for gold. You chose this site, [chief prosecutor] Laelius, and the crowd which frequents it, with an eye to this particular accusation, knowing very well that Jews with their large numbers and tendency to act as a clique are valuable supporters to have at any kind of public meeting."

Exile and return

In 58 BC, the populist Publius Clodius Pulcher introduced a law exiling any man who had put Roman citizens to death without trial. Although Cicero maintained that the sweeping senatus consultum ultimum granted him in 63 BC had indemnified him against legal penalty, he nevertheless appeared ragged in public and began to beg for support from the people. Seeing that he could not go out in public without being lambasted by Clodius's heavies, he dedicated a statue to Minerva in the Forum and left Italy for a year and spent his quasi-exile setting his speeches to paper. In letters to his friend Atticus, Cicero maintained that the Senate was jealous of his accomplishments which was why they did not save him from exile. Cicero returned after over a dozen months from his exile to a cheering crowd, much in the manner of Demosthenes, which the historian Appian pointed out. During the 50s, Cicero supported the populist Milo to use as a spear head against Clodius, who continued to use his popular support to establish terror in the streets. During the mid-50s, Clodius was killed by Milo's gladiators on the Via Appia. Cicero defended Milo on counts of murder from the relatives of Clodius, yet failed. Despite this failure, Cicero's Pro Milone was considered by some as his ultimate masterpiece. Cicero argued that Milo had no reason to kill Clodius and had all to gain from his living, pointing out that Milo had no idea that he would encounter Clodius on the Via Appia. The prosecution, however, pointed out that Milo had freed his slaves who were with him during the bout with Clodius so that they could not testify against him in court on charges that he had ordered the killing of Clodius. Cicero rejected this, saying that Milo's slaves had defended him honorably and deserved to be free, seeing as how they had saved their master from an attack by Clodius. Milo fled into exile and continued to live in Massilia until he returned to stir up further trouble during the Civil War. As the struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar grew more intense in 50 BC, Cicero favored Pompey but tried to avoid turning Caesar into a permanent enemy. When Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BC, Cicero fled Rome. Caesar attempted vainly to convince him to return, and in June of that year Cicero slipped out of Italy and traveled to Dyrrachium (Epidamnos) .In 48 BC, Cicero was with the Pompeians at the camp of Pharsalus and quarreled with many of the Republican commanders, including a son of Pompey. They in turn disgusted him by their bloody attitudes. He returned to Rome, however, after Caesar's victory at Pharsalus. In a letter to Varro on April 20 46 BC, Cicero indicated what he saw as his role under the dictatorship of Caesar: "I advise you to do what I am advising myself – avoid being seen, even if we cannot avoid being talked about... If our voices are no longer heard in the Senate and in the Forum, let us follow the example of the ancient sages and serve our country through our writings, concentrating on questions of ethics and constitutional law." In February 45 BC, Cicero's daughter Tullia died. He never entirely recovered from this shock.

Opposition to Mark Antony, and death

Cicero was taken completely by surprise when Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44 BC. In a letter to the conspirator Trebonius, Cicero expressed a wish of having been "...invited to that superb banquet" Cicero became a popular leader during the instability and was disgusted with Mark Antony, Caesar's former Master of the Horse who was hoping to take revenge upon the murderers of Caesar by first having him not outlawed a tyrant so that the Caesarians could have lawful support, in exchange for amnesty for the assassins which the Senate agreed to. Cicero and Antony, Caesar's subordinate, became the leading men in Rome; Cicero as spokesman for the Senate, and Antony as consul and as executor of Caesar's will. But the two men had never been on friendly terms, and their relationship worsened after Cicero made it clear he felt Antony to be taking unfair liberties in interpreting Caesar's wishes and intentions. When Octavian, Caesar's heir, arrived in Italy in April, Cicero formed a plan to play him against Antony. In September he began attacking Antony in a series of speeches he called the Philippics. Praising Octavian to the skies, he labeled him a "God-Sent Child" and said he only desired honor and that he would not make the same mistake as his Uncle. Meanwhile, his attacks on Antony, whom he called a "sheep," rallied the Senate in firm opposition to Antony. During this time, Cicero became an unrivaled popular leader and, according to the historian Appian, "had the power any popular leader could possibly have." He was at the height of his fame. As popular leader, Cicero heavily fined the supporters of Antony for petty charges and had volunteers forge arms for the Republicans. It turned out to be so insulting that a right hand man of Antony was preparing to march on Rome to arrest Cicero. Cicero fled the city and the plan was abandoned. Appian is the only one to give this tale of a march on Rome for the arrest of Cicero. Cicero supported Marcus Junius Brutus as governor of Cisalpine Gaul (Gallia Cisalpina) and urged the Senate to name Antony an enemy of the state. One tribune, a certain Salvius, delayed these proceedings and was "reviled," as Appian put it, by Cicero and his party. The speech of Lucius Piso, Caesar's father-in-law, delayed proceedings against Antony. Antony was later declared an enemy of the state when he refused to lift the siege of Mutina, which was in the hands of one of Caesar's assassins, Decimus Brutus, who also was named a second son in Caesar's will. Cicero described his position in a letter to Cassius, one of Caesar's assassins, that same September: "I am pleased that you like my motion in the Senate and the speech accompanying it... Antony is a madman, corrupt and much worse than Caesar - whom you declared the worst of evil men when you killed him. Antony wants to start a bloodbath..." Cicero's plan to drive out Octavian and Antony failed, however. The two reconciled and allied with Lepidus to form the Second Triumvirate after the successive battles of Mutina. Immediately after legislating their alliance into official existence for a five-year term with consular imperium, the Triumviri began proscribing their enemies and potential rivals. Cicero and his younger brother Quintus Tullius Cicero, formerly one of Caesar's legates, and all of their contacts and support were numbered among the enemies of the state. Antony hunted for Cicero most viciously among the proscribed. Many men fell bravely, with many stories of bravery and virtue according to historical accounts. One victim turned out to be the tribune Salvius, who, after siding with Antony, moved his support directly and fully to Cicero. Salvius held a dinner party for his friends because he knew he would not be around for long and wished to have one last gathering to say goodbye. The legionaries burst into the party and beheaded Salvius in front of his friends. Cicero was viewed with pity by many, and many claimed not to have seen him. He fled, but was caught at one of his villas after going to retrieve money. He fled by the coast of the nearby villa. When the executioners arrived, his slaves said they did not see him, yet a dependent of Clodius said otherwise. His last words were said to have been "there is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly." He was decapitated by his pursuers on December 7, 43 BC; his head and hands were displayed on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum according to the tradition of Marius and Sulla, both of whom had displayed the heads of their enemies in the Forum. He was the only victim of the Triumvirate's proscriptions to have been so displayed after death. According to Plutarch, Antony's wife Fulvia took Cicero's head, pulled out his tongue, and jabbed the tongue repeatedly with her hatpin, taking a final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.

Works

Speeches

Of his speeches, eighty-eight were recorded, but only fifty-eight survive. (Some of the items below are more than one speech.)

Quotes


- "What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious."
- "Freedom is participation in power."
- Famously said that Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was a boring woman.
- "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."

Judicial speeches


- (81 BC) Pro Quinctio (On behalf of Publius Quinctius)
- (80 BC) Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino (On behalf of Sextus Roscius of Ameria)
- (77 BC) Pro Q. Roscio Comoedo (On behalf of Quintus Roscius the Actor)
- (70 BC) Divinatio in Caecilium (Spoken against Caecilius at the inquiry concerning the prosecution of Verres)
- (70 BC) In Verrem (Against Gaius Verres, or The Verrines)
- (69 BC) Pro Tullio (On behalf of Tullius)
- (69 BC) Pro Fonteio (On behalf of Marcus Fonteius)
- (69 BC) Pro Caecina (On behalf of Aulus Caecina)
- (66 BC) Pro Cluentio (On behalf of Aulus Cluentius)
- (63 BC) Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo (On behalf of Rabirius on a Charge of Treason)
- (63 BC) Pro Murena (On behalf of Lucius Murena)
- (62 BC) Pro Sulla (On behalf of Sulla)
- (62 BC) Pro Archia Poeta (On behalf of the poet Archias)
- (59 BC) Pro Flacco (On behalf of Flaccus)
- (56 BC) Pro Sestio (On behalf of Sestius)
- (56 BC) In Vatinium (Against Vatinius at the trial of Sestius)
- (56 BC) Pro Caelio (On behalf of Marcus Caelius Rufus)
- (56 BC) Pro Balbo (On behalf of Cornelius Balbus)
- (54 BC) Pro Plancio (On behalf of Plancius)
- (54 BC) Pro Rabirio Postumo (On behalf of Rabirius Postumus)

Political speeches

Early career (before exile)

- (66 BC) Pro Lege Manilia or De Imperio Cn. Pompei (in favor of the Manilian Law on the command of Pompey)
- (63 BC) De Lege Agraria contra Rullum (Opposing the Agrarian Law proposed by Rullus)
- (63 BC) In Catilinam I-IV (Catiline Orations or Against Catiline) [http://www.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/SAL/claslattexts/cicero/incatilinam.html]
- (59 BC) Pro Flacco (In Defense of Flaccus)
Mid career (after exile)

- (57 BC) Post Reditum in Quirites (To the Citizens after his his recall from exile)
- (57 BC) Post Reditum in Senatu (To the Senate after his his recall from exile)
- (57 BC) De Domo Sua (On his House)
- (57 BC) De Haruspicum Responsis (On the Responses of the Haruspices)
- (56 BC) De Provinciis Consularibus (On the Consular Provinces)
- (55 BC) In Pisonem (Against Piso)
Late career

- (52 BC) Pro Milone (On behalf of Titus Annius Milo)
- (46 BC) Pro Marcello (On behalf of Marcellus)
- (46 BC) Pro Ligario (On behalf of Ligarius before Caesar)
- (46 BC) Pro Rege Deiotaro (On behalf of King Deiotarius before Caesar)
- (44 BC) Philippicae (consisting of the 14 philippics Philippica I-XIV against Marcus Antonius) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0021] (The Pro Marcello, Pro Ligario, and Pro Rege Deiotaro are collectively known as "The Caesarian speeches").

Philosophy

Rhetoric


- (84 BC) De Inventione (The composition of arguments)
- (55 BC) De Oratore (The orator)
- (54 BC) De Partitionibus Oratoriae (The subdivisions of oratory)
- (52 BC) De Optimo Genere Oratorum (The Best Kind of Orators)
- (46 BC) Brutus (The Brutus, a short history of Roman oratory)
- (46 BC) Orator ad M. Brutum (The Orator, also dedicated to Brutus)
- (44 BC) Topica (Topics of argumentation)
- (?? BC) Rhetorica ad Herennium (traditionally attributed to Cicero, but currently disputed)

Other philosophical works


- (51 BC) De Republica (On the Republic)
- (45 BC) Hortensius (Hortensius)
- (45 BC) Lucullus or Academica Priora (The Prior Academics)
- (45 BC) Academica Posteriora (The Later Academics)
- (45 BC) De Finibus, Bonorum et Malorum (About the Ends of Goods and Evils). [http://www.epicurus.info/etexts/De_Finibus.html] Source of Lorem ipsum
- (45 BC) Tusculanae Quaestiones (Questions debated at Tusculum)
- (45 BC) De Natura Deorum (The Nature of the Gods)
- (45 BC) De Divinatione (Divination)
- (45 BC) De Fato (The Fate)
- (44 BC) Cato Maior de Senectute (Cato the Elder On Old Age)
- (44 BC) Laelius de Amicitia (Laelius On Friendship)
- (44 BC) De Officiis (Duties)
- (?? BC) Paradoxa Stoicorum (Stoic Paradoxes)
- (?? BC) De Legibus (The Laws)
- (?? BC) De Consulatu Suo (His Consulship)
- (?? BC) De temporibus suis (His Life and Times)
- (?? BC) Commentariolum Petitionis (Handbook of Candidacy) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0022:text=Pet.:section=1] (attributed to Cicero, but probably written by his brother Quintus)

Letters


- (68 BC-43 BC) Epistulae ad Atticum (Letters to Atticus)
- (59 BC-54 BC) Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem (Letters to his brother Quintus)
- (43 BC) Epistulae ad Brutum (Letters to Brutus)
- (43 BC) Epistulae ad Familiares (Letters to his friends)

See also


- Marcus Tullius Tiro
- Cicero and the Roman Republic

References

# Everitt pp. 215 see sources below

Sources


- Anthony Everitt (2001), Cicero: the life and times of Rome's greatest politician, Random House, hardback, 359 pages, ISBN 0-375-50746-9
- Taylor, H. (1918). Cicero: A sketch of his life and works. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.

Further reading


- Francis A. Yates (1974). The Art of Memory, University of Chicago Press, 448 pages, Reprint: ISBN 0226950018
- Taylor Caldwell (1965), A Pillar of Iron, Doubleday & Company

External links


- General:
  - [http://gracie.smsu.edu/cicero.htm Links to Cicero resources]
  - [http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/documents/Cic.html University of Texas Cicero Homepage]
- Works by Cicero:
  -
  - Perseus Project (Latin and English): [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html Classics Collection (see: M. Tullius Cicero)]
  - Latin Library (Latin): [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cic.html Works of Cicero]
  - UAH (Latin, with translation notes): [http://www.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/SAL/claslattexts/cicero.html Cicero Page]
  - [http://www.constitution.org/rom/de_officiis.htm De Officiis], translated by Walter Miller
- Biographies and descriptions of Cicero's time:
  - At Project Gutenberg
    - Plutarch's biography of Cicero contained in the [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/674 Parallel Lives]
    - Life of Cicero by Anthony Trollope, [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8945 Volume I] - [Volume II]
    - [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11448 Cicero by Rev. W. Lucas Collins (Ancient Classics for English Readers)]
    - [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13481 Roman life in the days of Cicero by Rev. Alfred J. Church]
    - [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11256 Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero by W. Warde Fowler]
  - [http://www.heraklia.fws1.com/contemporaries/cicero At Heraklia website]
  - [http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/cicero.html Dryden's translation of Cicero from Plutarch's Parallel Lives]
  - [http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/LatinAuthors/Cicero.html At Middlebury College website]
  - [http://freewebs.com/praetorbrutus]

Notes

1- Official full name of Cicero. The meaning in English is "Marcus Tullius Cicero, son (filius) of Marcus, grandson (nepos) of Marcus, great-grandson (pronepos) of Marcus, of the tribe Cornelia". Category:106 BC births Category:43 BC deaths Category:Roman era rhetoricians Category:Roman era philosophers Category:Roman era writers Category:Natives of the Lazio Category:Roman jurists Category:Rhetoric Category:Rhetoric Category:Executed writers Category:Executed Romans Category:Classical Humanists ko:키케로 ja:マルクス・トゥッリウス・キケロ

Cicero (disambiguation)

Marcus Tullius Cicero was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin prose stylist. He had a younger brother, Quintus Tullius Cicero, who served in government and was an author. Cicero is or was also
- the name of some places in the United States of America, probably named for the Roman orator: :
- Cicero, Illinois :
- Cicero, Indiana :
- Cicero, New York
- the code name of Elyesa Bazna, a German spy during World War II.
- the name of the racehorse owned by Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, which won the Epsom Derby in 1905.
- the name of a soccer player from Portugal playing for Dynamo Moscow.
- a European unit of measure in typesetting. See Cicero (unit of measure)
- A character on the HBO/BBC television series Rome, based on the historical Cicero.
- the name of a monthly German magazine on political culture. See Cicero (magazine). [http://www.cicero.de]
- David Cicero is a Scottish singer who was discovered by Pet Shop Boys and he was signed to their record label where he enjoyed minor success in the UK singles chart in early 1990s.
- David Cicero is also the name of an abstract painter working from Scottsdale, Arizona. He has participated in the Laguna Beach and Westheimer art festivals.

Latin

Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages, those being most notably Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian, are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The Latin alphabet, derived from the Greek, remains the most widely-used alphabet in the world. It is said that 80 percent of scholarly English words are derived from Latin (in a large number of cases by way of French). Moreover, in the Western world, Latin was a lingua franca, the learned language for scientific and political affairs, for more than a thousand years, being eventually replaced by French in the 18th century and English in the late 19th. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the formal language of the Roman Catholic Church to this day, and thus the official national language of the Vatican. The Church used Latin as its primary liturgical language until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Latin is also still used (drawing heavily on Greek roots) to furnish the names used in the scientific classification of living things. The modern study of Latin, along with Greek, is known as Classics.

Main features

Latin is a synthetic inflectional language: affixes (which usually encode more than one grammatical category) are attached to fixed stems to express gender, number, and case in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns, which is called declension; and person, number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect in verbs, which is called conjugation. There are five declensions (declinationes) of nouns and four conjugations of verbs. There are six noun cases: #nominative (used as the subject of the verb or the predicate nominative), #genitive (used to indicate relation or possession, often represented by the English of or the addition of s to a noun), #dative (used of the indirect object of the verb, often represented by the English to or for), #accusative (used of the direct object of the verb, or object of the preposition in some cases), #ablative (separation, source, cause, or instrument, often represented by the English by, with, from), #vocative (used of the person or thing being addressed). In addition, some nouns have a locative case used to express location (otherwise expressed by the ablative with a preposition such as in), but this survival from Proto-Indo-European is found only in the names of lakes, cities, towns, small islands, and a few other words related to locations, such as "house", "ground", and "countryside". Latin itself, being a very old language, is far closer to Proto-Indo-European than are most modern Western European languages; it has, in fact, about the same relationship with PIE as modern Italian or French has to Latin. There are six general tenses in Latin (technically they are tense/aspect/mood complexes). The indicative mood can be used with all of them. The subjunctive mood, however, has only present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses. These tenses in the subjunctive mood do not completely correlate in meaning to the tenses in the indicative. The following examples are of the first conjugation verb "laudare" ("to praise") in the indicative mood and the active voice:

Primary sequence tenses

# present (laudo, "I praise") # imperfect (laudabam, "I was praising") # future (laudabo, "I shall praise," "I will praise")

Secondary sequence tenses

# perfect (laudavi, "I praised", "I have praised") # pluperfect (laudaveram, "I had praised") # future perfect (laudavero, "I shall have praised," "I will have praised") The future perfect tense can also imply a normal future idea (like in "When I will have run...") and so may also sometimes be included in the primary sequence.

Latin and Romance

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Latin evolved into the various Romance languages. These were for many centuries only spoken languages, Latin still being used for writing. For example, Latin was the official language of Portugal until 1296 when it was replaced by Portuguese. The Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin, the spoken language of common usage, which in turn evolved from an older speech which also produced the formal classical standard. Latin and Romance differ (for example) in that Romance had distinctive stress, whereas Latin had distinctive length of vowels. In Italian and Sardo logudorese, there is distinctive length of consonants and stress, in Spanish only distinctive stress, and in French even stress is no longer distinctive. Another major distinction between Romance and Latin is that all Romance languages, excluding Romanian, have lost their case endings in most words except for some pronouns. Romanian retains a direct case (nominative/accusative), an indirect case (dative/genitive), and vocative. In Italy, Latin is still compulsory in secondary schools as Liceo Classico and Liceo Scientifico which are usually attended by people who aim to the highest level of education. In Liceo Classico Ancient Greek is a compulsory subject.

Latin and English

See Latin influence in English for a more complete exposition. English grammar is independent of Latin grammar, though prescriptive grammarians in English have been heavily influenced by Latin. Attempts to make English grammar follow Latin rules — such as the prohibition against the split infinitive — have not worked successfully in regular usage. However, as many as half the words in English were derived from Latin, including many words of Greek origin first adopted by the Romans, not to mention the thousands of French, hundreds of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian words of Latin origin that have also enriched English. During the 16th and on through the 18th century English writers created huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek roots. These words were dubbed "inkhorn" or "inkpot" words (as if they had spilled from a pot of ink). Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some remain. Imbibe, extrapolate, dormant and inebriation are all inkhorn terms carved from Latin words. In fact, the word etymology is derived from the Greek word etymologia, meaning "true sense of the word." Latin was once taught in many of the schools in Britain with academic leanings - perhaps 25% of the total [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/teachem2/thennow/]. However, the requirement for it was gradually abandoned in the professions such as the law and medicine, and then, from around the late 1960s, for admission to university. After the introduction of the Modern Language GCSE in the 1980s, it was gradually replaced by other languages, although it is now being taught by more schools along with other classical languages.

Latin education

The linguistic element of Latin courses offered in high schools or secondary schools, and in universities, is primarily geared toward an ability to translate Latin texts into modern languages, rather than using it in oral communication. As such, the skill of reading is heavily emphasized, whereas speaking and listening skills are barely touched upon. However, there is a growing movement, sometimes known as the Living Latin movement, whose supporters believe that Latin can, or should, be taught in the same way that modern "living" languages are taught, that is, as a means of both spoken and written communication. One of the most interesting aspects of such an approach is that it assists speculative insight into how many of the ancient authors spoke and incorporated sounds of the language stylistically; without understanding how the language is meant to be heard it is very difficult to identify patterns in Latin poetry. Institutions offering Living Latin instruction include the Vatican and the University of Kentucky. In Britain the Classical Association encourages this approach, and there has been something of a vogue for books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus. In the United States there is a thriving competitive organization for high school Latin students, the National Junior Classical League (the second-largest youth organization in the world after the Boy Scouts), backed up by the Senior Classical League for college students. Many would-be international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin, and the moderately successful Interlingua considers itself to be the modernized and simplified version of the language (le latino moderne international e simplificate). Latin translations of modern literature such as Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Le Petit Prince, Max und Moritz, and The Cat in the Hat have also helped boost interest in the language.

See also

About the Latin language


- Latin grammar
- Latin spelling and pronunciation
- Latin declension
- Latin conjugation
- Latin alphabet
- List of Latin words with English derivatives
- Latin verbs with English derivatives
- Latin nouns with English derivatives
- ablative absolute
- Word order in Latin

About the Latin literary heritage


- Latin literature
- Romance languages
- Loeb Classical Library
- List of Latin phrases
- List of Latin proverbs
- Brocard
- List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
- List of Latin place names in Europe
- Carmen Possum

Other related topics


- Roman Empire
- Internationalism

References


- Bennett, Charles E. Latin Grammar (Allyn and Bacon, Chicago, 1908)
- N. Vincent: "Latin", in The Romance Languages, M. Harris and N. Vincent, eds., (Oxford Univ. Press. 1990), ISBN 0195208293
- Waquet, Françoise, Latin, or the Empire of a Sign: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries (Verso, 2003) ISBN 1859844022; translated from the French by John Howe.
- Wheelock, Frederic. Latin: An Introduction (Collins, 6th ed., 2005) ISBN 0060784237

External links


- [http://www.jambell.com/latin.html Latin Phrases for after dinner conversation (Thanks to Elaine Poole)]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=lat Ethnologue report for Latin]
- [http://forumromanum.org/literature/index.html Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum] is a comprehensive webography of Latin texts and their translations.
- [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ The Perseus Project] has many useful pages for the study of classical languages and literatures, including [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=Latin an interactive Latin dictionary].
- [http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe words by William whitaker] is a dictionary program online capable of looking up various word forms.
- [http://retiarius.org/ Retiarius.Org] includes a Latin text search engine.
- [http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm Latin-English dictionary and Latin grammar from U of Notre Dame]
- [http://latin-language.co.uk/ Latin language] History of Latin language, Latin texts with English translation and a collection of dictionaries.
- [http://augustinus.eresmas.net/scl/ Societas Circulorum Latinorum] gathers together Latin Circles all over the world.
- [http://www.learnlatin.tk LearnLatin.tk] - Free online course in Latin
- [http://www.latintests.net/ LatinTests.net] - Lets Latin learners test their grammar and vocabulary with self-checking quizzes.
- [http://thelatinlibrary.com/ The Latin Library] contains many Latin etexts
- [http://www.textkit.com/ Textkit] has Latin textbooks and etexts.
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Latin-english/ Latin–English Dictionary]: from Webster's Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.language-reference.com/ Language reference] Cross-foreign-language lexicon powered by its own search engine. All cross combinations between Latin and French, German, Italian, Spanish.
- [http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/rhetor.html Rhetor by Gabriel Harvey] was originally published in 1577 and never again reprinted.
- [http://freewebs.com/omniamundamundis omniamundamundis] Latin hypertexts from fourteen ancient Roman authors.
- [http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm Pronunciation of Biological Latin, Including Taxonomic Names of Plants and Animals]
- [http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii Nuntii Latini (News in Latin)], written and spoken (RealAudio) news in latin. Weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
- [http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?url=http%3A%2F%2F&type=text&text=Replace%20Me&from=eng&to=ltt InterTran Latin], Translate from Latin to ENGLISH or vice versa.
- [http://www.latinvulgate.com Latin Vulgate] The Latin and English of the Old & New Testaments in parallel, along with the Complete Sayings of Jesus in parallel Latin and English. Category:Classical languages Category:Ancient languages Category:Fusional languages Category:Languages of Italy Category:Languages of Vatican City als:Latein zh-min-nan:Latin-gí ko:라틴어 ja:ラテン語 simple:Latin language th:ภาษาละติน

January 3

January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 362 days (363 during leap years) remain in the year after this day.

Events


- 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
- 1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine
- 1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
- 1749 - Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
- 1777 - Battle of Princeton. American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis.
- 1815 - Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.
- 1823 - Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico
- 1833 - Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
- 1834 - The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City
- 1840 - One of the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia's predecessor papers The Port Phillip Herald is founded by George Cavanaugh.
- 1852 - First Chinese arrive in Hawaii.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States
- 1868 - The Japanese Meiji dynasty is restored and the Shogunate is abolished.
- 1870 - The Brooklyn Bridge begins construction.
- 1888 - The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
- 1899 - The first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in the New York Times.
- 1920 - Curse of the Bambino: The Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a sum of $125,000 and a loan of more than $300,000.
- 1921 - Turkey makes peace with Armenia.
- 1925 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
- 1926 - General Theodorus Pángulos names himself dictator of Greece.
- 1938 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- 1947 - Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
- 1951 - Dragnet airs on television for the first time (NBC).
- 1957 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
- 1958 - The West Indies Federation is formed.
- 1959 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- 1961 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
- 1961 - The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho leaks radiation, killing three workers at the installation. The radiation is contained.
- 1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
- 1966 - The first Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco, California.
- 1973 - Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $12 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner.
- 1987 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- 1990 - Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
- 1991 - Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky scores his 700th goal.
- 1993 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
- 1994 - An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkhutsk, Russia killing 125 including 1 on the ground
- 1997 - NBC's Today show host Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time.
- 1999 - The Mars Polar Lander launched.
- 2000 - The last "Peanuts" comic strip is created by Charles Schulz.
- 2004 - Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 aboard.

Births


- 106 BC - Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher (d. 43 BC)
- AD 1196 - Emperor Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1231)
- 1710 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (d. 1796)
- 1719 - Francisco José Freire, Portuguese historian and philologist (d. 1773)
- 1722 - Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist (d. 1752)
- 1778 - Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish bishop (d. 1861)
- 1793 - Lucretia Mott, American women's rights activist and abolitionist (d. 1880)
- 1803 - Douglas William Jerrold, British playwright and satirist (d. 1857)
- 1840 - Father Damien, Belgian missionary in Hawaii (d. 1889)
- 1855 - Hubert Bland, English socialist (d. 1914)
- 1879 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)
- 1883 - Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1967)
- 1887 - August Macke, German painter (d. 1914)
- 1892 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer and philologist (d. 1973)
- 1894 - Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)
- 1894 - ZaSu Pitts, American actress (d. 1963)
- 1897 - Marion Davies, American actress (d. 1961)
- 1901 - Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam (d. 1963)
- 1905 - Anna May Wong, American actress (d. 1961)
- 1907 - Ray Milland, Welsh actor (d. 1986)
- 1909 - Victor Borge, Danish entertainer and humorist (d. 2000)
- 1911 - John Sturges, American director (d. 1982)
- 1912 - Armand Lohikoski, Finnish director (d. 2005)
- 1916 - John Joseph Allen, Staten Island NY
- 1916 - Betty Furness, American actress and consumer activist (d. 1994)
- 1917 - Roger W. Straus, Jr., American publisher (d. 2004)
- 1920 - Renato Carosone, Italian musician and singer (d. 2001)
- 1924 - Nell Rankin, American soprano (d. 2005)
- 1924 - Hank Stram, American football coach and broadcaster
- 1926 - George Martin, English producer of The Beatles' records
- 1929 - Sergio Leone, Italian director (d. 1989)
- 1930 - Robert Loggia, American actor
- 1932 - Dabney Coleman, American actor
- 1932 - Coo Coo Marlin, American race car driver (d. 2005)
- 1936 - Georgina Spelvin, actress
- 1939 - Bobby Hull, Canadian hockey player
- 1941 - Van Dyke Parks, American musician, composer
- 1942 - John Thaw, British actor (d. 2002)
- 1945 - Stephen Stills, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist
- 1946 - John Paul Jones, English bassist (Led Zeppelin)
- 1946 - Victoria Principal, American actress
- 1956 - Mel Gibson, Australian actor and director
- 1957 - Bojan Križ, Slovenian skier
- 1960 - Joan Chen, Chinese actress
- 1969 - Michael Schumacher, German race car driver
- 1975 - Jason Marsden, American actor
- 1975 - Danica McKellar, American actress
- 1976 - Nicholas Gonzalez, American actor
- 1981 - Eli Manning, American football player
- 1989 - Alex D. Linz, American actor

Deaths


- 722 - Empress Gemmei of Japan (b. 661)
- 1322 - King Philip V of France (b. 1293)
- 1437 - Catherine of Valois, queen of Henry VI of England (b. 1401)
- 1543 - Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, Portuguese explorer (b. 1499)
- 1641 - Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomer
- 1656 - Mathieu Molé, French statesman (b. 1584)
- 1670 - George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English soldier (b. 1608)
- 1690 - Hillel ben Naphtali Zevi, Lithuanian rabbi (b. 1615)
- 1779 - Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon (b. 1712)
- 1785 - Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (b. 1706)
- 1795 - Josiah Wedgwood, English potter (b. 1730)
- 1826 - Louis Gabriel Suchet, French marshal (b. 1770)
- 1875 - Pierre Larousse, French editor and encyclopedist (b. 1817)
- 1923 - Jaroslav Hasek, Czech novelist (b. 1883)
- 1927 - Carle David Tolmé Runge, German physicist (b. 1856)
- 1933 - Jack Pickford, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
- 1945 - Edgar Cayce, American psychic (b. 1877)
- 1946 - William Joyce, American Nazi propagandist (executed) (b. 1906)
- 1950 - Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (b. 1884)
- 1956 - Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (b. 1864)
- 1963 - Jack Carson, Canadian actor (b. 1910)
- 1967 - Mary Garden, Scottish soprano (b. 1874)
- 1967 - Jack Ruby, American killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (b. 1911)
- 1979 - Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
- 1980 - Joy Adamson, Czech conservationist and author (b. 1910)
- 1981 - Princess Alice of Albany (b. 1883)
- 1988 - Rose Ausländer, German poet (b. 1901)
- 1992 - Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (b. 1897)
- 2001 - José Greco, Italian-born flamenco dancer (b. 1918)
- 2002 - Esquivel, Mexican band leader and composer (b. 1918)
- 2002 - Freddy Heineken, Dutch beer executive (b. 1923)
- 2003 - Sid Gillman, American football coach (b. 1911)
- 2004 - Leon Wagner, baseball player (b. 1934)
- 2005 - Koo Chen-fu, Chinese negotiator (b. 1917)
- 2005 - JN Dixit, Indian government official (b. 1936)
- 2005 - Will Eisner, American comic book artist (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances


- Feast day of St Genevieve
- Roman Empire - Festival in honour of Pax
- The ninth day and tenth night of Christmas in Western Christianity
- In astronomy the best date to view the Quadrantids meteor shower.
- In astronomy the approximate date of Earth's perihelion.  

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/3 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 2 - January 4 - December 3 - February 3 — listing of all days ko:1월 3일 ja:1月3日 simple:January 3 th:3 มกราคม

December 7

December 7 is the 341st day (342nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 24 days remaining.

Events


- 1732 - The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.
- 1776 - Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general.
- 1787 - Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1815 - Michel Ney, Marshal of France, is executed by firing squad, after having been convicted of treason for his support of Napoleon Bonaparte.
- 1917 - World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- 1941 - World War II: Attack On Pearl Harbor - The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the U.S. Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Corps and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
- 1946 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people.
- 1949 - Chinese Civil War: The government of the Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei.
- 1962 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.
- 1965 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.
- 1966 - A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.
- 1970 - The first ever general election on the basis of direct adult franchise are held in Pakistan for 313 National Assembly seats.
- 1971 - Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces formation of a Coalition Government at Centre with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as Vice-Prime Minister.
- 1972 - Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew take the photograph known as "The Blue Marble" as they leave the Earth.
- 1975 - Indonesia invades East Timor.
- 1982 - In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
- 1983 - Two jetliners collide at Madrid Barajas International Airport, Madrid killing 93 people.
- 1987 - PSA Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
- 1988 - Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills nearly 25,000, injures 15,000 and leaves 400,000 homeless.
- 1988 - Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
- 1989 - In their third and final fight, Sugar Ray Leonard retains the WBC Super-Middleweight Championship of the World , defeating Roberto Duran.
- 1993 - In South Africa, the Transitional Executive Council is established.
- 1995 - The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
- 2003 - The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
- 2004 - Hamid Karzai is inaugurated as President of Afghanistan.
- 2004 - John Kufuor is re-elected as President of Ghana.
- 2005 - Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.

Births


- 521 - Saint Columba, Irish Christian missionary to Scotland (d. 597)
- 1545 - Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, consort of Mary I of Scotland (d. 1567)
- 1561 - Kikkawa Hiroie, Japanese politician (d. 1625)
- 1598 - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian artist (d. 1680)
- 1637 - Bernardo Pasquini, Italian composer (d. 1710)
- 1670 - John Aislabie, English director of the South Sea Company (d. 1742)
- 1761 - Marie Tussaud, French-born museum proprietress and waxwork modeller (d. 1850)
- 1764 - Claude Victor-Perrin, duc de Belluno, French marshal (d. 1841)
- 1784 - Allan Cunningham, British poet (d. 1842)
- 1801 - Johann Nestroy, Austrian dramatist and actor (d. 1862)
- 1810 - Theodor Schwann, German physiologist (d. 1882)
- 1810 - Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist (d. 1894)
- 1823 - Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician (d. 1891)
- 1847 - George Grossmith, British actor and comic writer (d. 1912)
- 1860 - Sir Joseph Cook, sixth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1947)
- 1863 - Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer (d. 1945)
- 1863 - Richard Sears, American department store founder (d. 1914)
- 1873 - Willa Cather, American novelist (d. 1947)
- 1879 - Rudolf Friml, American composer (d. 1972)
- 1887 - Ernst Toch, Austrian composer (d. 1964)
- 1888 - Joyce Cary, Irish author (d. 1957)
- 1888 - Hamilton Fish, American politician (d. 1991)
- 1903 - Danilo Blanuša, Croatian mathematician (d. 1987)
- 1904 - Konstantin Sokolsky, Russian singer
- 1905 - Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-born American astronomer (d. 1973)
- 1910 - Louis Prima, American musician (d. 1978)
- 1912 - Daniel Jones, British composer (d. 1993)
- 1915 - Eli Wallach, American actor
- 1922 - Howard Zinn, American historian and activist
- 1924 - Mário Soares, President of Portugal
- 1927 - Helen Watts, British contralto
- 1928 - Noam Chomsky, American linguist and political writer
- 1932 - Ellen Burstyn, American actress
- 1942 - Harry Chapin, American singer and songwriter (d. 1981)
- 1942 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host
- 1943 - Bernard C. Parks, former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.
- 1944 - Daniel Chorzempa, American organist
- 1945 - Marion Rung, Finnish singer
- 1947 - Johnny Bench, American baseball player
- 1948 - Gary Morris, American singer and actor
- 1948 - Mads Vinding, Danish bassist
- 1949 - Tom Waits, American singer, composer, and actor
- 1954 - Mark Hofmann, American forger and bomber
- 1956 - Larry Bird, American basketball player and Olympic gold medalist
- 1958 - Tim Butler, British bassist (Psychedelic Furs)
- 1966 - C. Thomas Howell, American actor
- 1967 - Tino Martinez, American baseball player
- 1971 - Vladimir Akopian, Soviet-born Armenian chess player
- 1971 - Chasey Lain, American adult film actress
- 1972 - Hermann Maier, Austrian skier, Alpine Skiing World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist
- 1972 - Tammy Lynn Sytch, American professional wrestler
- 1973 - Terrell Owens, American football player
- 1974 - Nicole Appleton, Canadian-born singer
- 1975 - Jamie Clapham, British footballer
- 1980 - John Terry, English international footballer
- 1987 - Aaron Carter, American singer
- 1988 - Emily Browning, Australian actress
- 2003 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

Deaths


- 43 BC - Cicero, Roman politician and author (b. 106 BC)
- 283 - Pope Eutychian
- 1254 - Pope Innocent IV
- 1279 - King Boleslaus V of Poland (b. 1226)
- 1295 - Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, English politician (b. 1243)
- 1498 - Alexander Hegius von Heek, German humanist
- 1562 - Adrian Willaert, Flemish composer
- 1632 - Emperor Sissinios of Ethiopia (b. 1607)
- 1649 - Charles Garnier, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1606)
- 1672 - Richard Bellingham, English-born Massachusetts colonial magistrate (b. 1592)
- 1683 - John Oldham, English poet (smallpox) (b. 1653)
- 1683 - Algernon Sydney, English politician (b. 1623)
- 1723 - Jan Santini Aichel, Bohemian architect (b. 1677)
- 1725 - Florent Carton Dancourt, French dramatist and actor (b. 1661)
- 1775 - Charles Saunders, Ontario-born British admiral
- 1793 - Joseph Bara, French revolutionary (b. 1780)
- 1815 - Michel Ney, French marshall (executed) (b. 1769)
- 1817 - William Bligh, British naval officer (b. 1745)
- 1874 - Constantin von Tischendorf, German biblical scholar (b. 1815)
- 1902 - Thomas Nast, German cartoonist (b. 1840)
- 1906 - Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1833)
- 1941 - Isaac C. Kidd, American rear admiral (b. 1884)
- 1943 - Per Imerslund, Norwegian "det ariske idol" (The aryan idol) (b. 1912)
- 1947 - Nicholas M. Butler, American president of Columbia University and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
- 1956 - Huntley Gordon, Canadian actor (b. 1887)
- 1970 - Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist (b. 1883)
- 1975 - Thornton Wilder, American playwright (b. 1897)
- 1978 - Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist (b. 1886)
- 1985 - Robert Graves, British author (b. 1895)
- 1985 - Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1915)
- 1990 - Joan Bennett, American actress (b. 1910)
- 1993 - Félix Houphouët-Boigny, President of Côte d'Ivoire (b. 1905)
- 1993 - Wolfgang Paul, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
- 1998 - Martin Rodbell, American scientist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1925)
- 2003 - Carl F. H. Henry American theologian and publisher (b. 1913)
- 2003 - Azie Taylor Morton, Treasurer of the United States (b. 1936)
- 2003 - Raúl Vale, Venezuelan entertainer (b. 1944)
- 2004 - Frederick Fennell, American conductor (b. 1914)
- 2004 - Jerry Scoggins, American singer (b. 1913)
- 2005 - Devan Nair, 3rd President of Singapore (b. 1923)
- 2005 - Bud Carson, American football player/coach (b. 1931)

Holidays and observances


- R.C. Saints - Saint Ambrose: Memorial
- Also see December 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- United States - Pearl Harbor Day (observance)
- International Civil Aviation Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/7 BBC: On This Day] ---- December 6 - December 8 - November 7 - January 7 -- listing of all days ko:12월 7일 ms:7 Disember ja:12月7日 simple:December 7 th:7 ธันวาคม

Orator

Orator is a Latin word for speaker (from the Latin verb oro, meaning "I speak" or "I pray"). In ancient Rome, the art of speaking in public (Ars Oratoria) was a professional competence especially cultivated by politicians and lawyers. It later was developed into rhetoric. In the 18th century, 'Orator' John Henley was famous for his eccentric sermons. In the young revolutionary French republic, Orateur (French for Orator, but compare Speaker) was the term for the delegated members of the Tribunat to the Corps législatif to motivate their ruling on a presented bill. In the 19th century, orators and lecturers, such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Col. Robert G. Ingersoll were major providers of popular entertainment. Adolf Hitler is widely regarded by historians as a master orator; his speeches would begin very slowly and gradually build up to an almost ecstatic and frenzied climax that would drive the massive audiences absolutely berserk. One can witness first hand the hypnotic and mesmerizing power of Hitler's speeches by watching the famous Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will which was released in 1934, one year after Hitler ascended to power and established Nazi Germany. In some universities the title 'Orator' is given to the official whose task it is to give speeches on ceremonial occasions, such as the presentation of honorary degrees.

Famous orators


- Abd-el-Kader (Algerian)
- Attic orators (Greece)
- William Jennings Bryan
- Fidel Castro
- Winston Churchill
- Cicero (Roman)
- Lucius Licinius Crassus (Roman)
- Frederick Douglass
- John Henley
- Patrick Henry
- Adolf Hitler (Austrian)
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Abraham Lincoln
- Daniel Webster Category:Public speaking

Statesman

The term statesman is a respectful term used to refer to diplomats, politicians, and other notable figures of state. It is often used in the context of international or foreign affairs, for example, "a meeting of statesmen." Foreign ministers are often called statesmen, for example, while more local level officials, such as mayors are not.