For the second year, very young Orianini are obtaining the Latin Language Certification

The regional test to achieve the “Latin Linguistic Certification 2024” was held on Tuesday 16 April in the Aula Magna of the “Arcangelo Scacchi” Scientific High School in Bari, which involved, for the second year in a row, the students of the “A . Oriani”.

This year, unlike last year, not only the students of the three-year period of the Classical High School participated but also those attending the fifth year of secondary school. Specifically, the students Martina Paola Arbore, Camilla Cifarelli, Valeria De Sario, Giulia Oteri, Ettore Soldano (from class V of high school B), Marialuisa Cialdella, Simone Del Console, Luigi Mazzilli, Matilde Mencar (of class I of high school B), Flavia Fiore, Pia Fiore (from class II high school C) – who participated in the test to achieve a level A certification – and the student Margherita Cavallo (from class II high school C) to achieve level B1.

Guided by Professor Nicolò Spadavecchia, who trained them, the students had to understand, for level A, a passage by Eutropius concerning the war between the Romans and Macedonians, while, for level B1, a passage from Cicero’s oration written in defense of Roscio Amerino and subsequently carried out a series of exercises in both comprehension and logical and syntactic analysis. All this without the support of vocabulary and in a time of 60 minutes for level A and 75 minutes for level B1.

In this way, in fact, the interesting test that USR Puglia and the University Council for Latin Studies have been experimenting for some years now is structured to examine the skills of Latin students in a different way from the classroom test with the help of vocabulary, but approaching this classical language in the same way as the study of modern languages, thus requiring knowledge of a vast lexicon (about a thousand terms) and the basics of grammar.

Of the twelve participants, nine obtained certification, also reaching the very high scores of 49/50 and 50/50.

Particular credit goes to the teachers of the “Oriani” high school and to the director, prof. Francesco Catalano who offer numerous strengthening activities in every field of knowledge, thus making the school an open and constantly evolving place, capable of promoting the complete education of its students.

ETTORE SOLDANO

VB CLASSICAL HIGH SCHOOL