Latin writing
I had to write a number of stories for my latin class, and I will post some of them here. this was from a project where we had to write about one day that happened close to B.C. 100. Choice 1 Person: General of an army in the first invasion of Britain. B.C. 55 I wake up to the sound of men running, water splashing, and boards creaking. I standup, but quickly fall to the ground. The ground is moving! It isn’t dirt it is planks, and nails. Ah! I remember! I stand up, and rush to the deck of the ship. There are men pulling on ropes, and men screaming to hurry. I turn to my assistant, “What are we doing?” He looks at me like I’m crazy. “Sir” he starts, “we are going to kill the final Britannia forces, remember?” “Ah yes, now I remember. Have we left shore?” I ask. Then, and arrow flew out of the sky, and hit a man beside me. “Yes, sir. In fact, we are at Britannia’s shore right now.” I look up. There are men lining the cliffs above me. They are screaming in a strange language, and they are blue!! “Maybe this is a magical island. This is not very wise.” I said. “Nonsense General, these men are barbarians, just like the men in Gaul. They are no mach for Roman steel.” I turn, and I bow down, before me stood Julius Caesar himself. “There is no time for formalities, general. There is no where to land here, and we are running out of time to land.” He said. Then, he waved his arm, and a group of men ran to the side of the ship, and pulled back on their bows. They let off a volley of arrows, but they came up about ten feet short, and they immediately retreated. “As you can see, we cannot do anything to them. Or even protect ourselves, from here. We need to do something now, or we will have to retreat.” Julius said. “Why don’t we move down the beach, and find a place to land?” I asked. He looked at me, turned around, and began to yell orders. The anchors were pulled up, the rowers started. We set off to find a “friendly” shore. 5 hours later “Get ready! Men to the side of the ship! Stop the rowers. Where are my men! Move!” I yelled. We were at the closest thing to a land able shore that we had seen for a few miles. The barbarians had followed us in chariots the whole way, and now had formed up on the beach. There must be about 16,000 of them I thought. We need to think this through. “SIR! Sir, we cannot attack from here. The water is too deep. We will be slaughtered. We need to move closer to the shore.” I said to Julius. He looked at me, and said, “Look here, General, I am in a tight spot here. I either have to attack here, and risk my men’s lives, or I can go back to Rome, and be known as Julius the coward. What do you think I am going to do, whether you are comfortable with it or not?” he asked me. I looked at him, and then said, “I will follow you even If you asked us to invade hell itself.” He turned away, and began to shout orders. I stood there for a moment, and then continued giving orders. About three minutes later, we jumped over the side of the ship. I hit the water. It was freezing. I started to swim. I could here the barbarians getting closer, but I could not see them. The spray from the ocean was getting in my eyes. I finally reached a place where I could stand, and looked up. What I saw could have scared a grown man to death. There were men with all kinds of heretical signs scrawled across their faces. They bore scars of countless battles, and wielded swords that could cut down a giant with a single stroke. They rode on horses, which were foaming at the mouth, and were decorated with men’s heads. I turned and looked at my men. They all saw what I saw, but they had never been confronted with these savage and insane adversaries. I turned to the barbarians and screamed, “You devils do not make the Roman Empire shudder! You will be struck down by the mighty Romans!!!!” I charged up the beach, and I heard my men behind me charge as well. I raised my sword, and brought it down on the head of one of the men. I yelled “They are no devils, they are merely men in flight!|” I began to hack away at the savages. They were very formidable. I joined my men, and we began to advance. That is, until their chariots arrived. They were very sturdy, and they simply charged through my men. They crushed people under their wheels, cut them with their blades, and trampled them with their horses. One of them headed for me, and I readied myself. It got within a foot of me when I finally moved. I stabbed my sword into the breast of one of the horses. The chariot bucked wildly to one side, and the men were thrown out of the chariot. I grabbed one of their huge swords, and swung it down upon them. The blade was not sharp, but it was heavy. It crushed their necks, and they stopped moving. I turned around and looked at the damaged chariot. It had pinned the other horse down. I swung the huge sword, or claymore, down on its harness. It sprung up, and I hopped onto its back. I rode into the enemy horde, and began to hack away. I realized, after about ten minutes, that we were being driven back. With the lack of cavalry, we are not able to strike at their weak points, but they can strike ours. I watched in amazement as we were driven back into the water. As we were about to be finished, a volley of arrows struck their cavalry, and killed their warlord. They stopped advancing, and began to retreat. Another volley of arrows took its toll on their troops, and they began a full-scale retreat. I rode onto the beach, dismounted, struck down the horse, and screamed, “FOR ROME!”

nice job. that's one good story. is it going to continue?

No. Here is another one, from about a month earlier. We were to write about bringing a blind friend to the arena. I awoke to the sound of cheering. I sat up, and walked to the door of my villa. When I opened the door, there was a large crowd going toward the arena. I rubbed my eyes, and remembered. Today was the day of the games! I immediately got dressed and ran down the street. I banged on the door of my friend, Ioannes’ house. “Ioannes! Ioannes, wake up!” I yelled. There was a slight moaning sound from inside, then a loud BANG! Ioannes opened the door, holding his head. ” Alright, alright, i'm up, can I sleep now?” He asked. “NO! Can’t you see?” I asked, knowing the answer. “ I might be able to, you know, IF I WASN”T BLIND!!!!” he yelled. Followed by another loud BANG, of his door being slammed in my face. I shook my head and yelled, “Come on Ioannes come with me! I’ll describe it for you!” There was a long pause then the door opened, and he stepped out, locked his door, and turned around. We set off in the direction of the coliseum. We arrived at the coliseum ten minutes later. We waited fort about five minutes, and started in. “Okay left… more… there you go. Now straight-ahead. Good. Now, sit down.” I said. He maid to sit down but first felt the bench. “ Oh, you don’t trust me?” I asked. His look answered all. It simply said no. “ The games are beginning!” I yelled. He simply looked foreword, in that usual empty stare. The crowed erupted into cheers, and he asked,” What’s happening, what’s happening?” I looked back out at the arena.” Well, the gladiators are coming out. The first match is, two retiarius vs. three secutor. The secutor are circling the two retiarius. They seem to be waiting for the retiarius’ reaction. OH! One of the retiarius used his net to catch one of the secutor! They both just stabbed him in the chest! It’s an even match now!” I said. With that, the entire audience erupted into a mix of cheers and boos. Ioannes looked kind of impressed, but still had that dazed, empty look on his face. (Probably because he is blind). “Well, the secutor are getting serious now, and, they are now changing directions randomly, and taking swings at them. Whoa, one of the retiarius just got his arm cut off! The other retiarius just threw him at the secutor! They cut him to ribbons!” Suddenly, the crowd went wild. Ioannes looked at me, curiosity spelled out on his face. Before he could talk, I said” The other retiarius ran behind them as they were cutting the other up, and he threw his trident into the secutor’s back! He went down! The other one just looked up, and got caught in the retiarius’s net! He is looking at the Emperor for his judgement. Yes! The emperor signaled for him to be killed! He picked up the secutor’s sword, and cut his head off! Now, he impaled it with his trident! He’s waiving it in the air like a flag!” The crowd still was cheering, even after he left. Then, I saw the guard rails go up around the arena. “Alright, now there will be a fight with animals. Here comes a, what is that?” Then, a small group of Tasmanian Devils ran out of the elavator, and they immediately began to run at the walls. “ Well, whatever they are, they look crazy. Oh, here are the gladiators are coming out. They are bestiarii. There are three of them, and whoa! One of those animals just jumped onto one of the bestiarii’s face! The others aren’t doing even doing anything to stop it. Wow, that looks like it hurt’s. He just pulled it off and, oh, half his face is gone. He’s so stunned, he isn’t moving.” The crowed went wild, as five of the Devil’s jumped on him. “He went down, and he’s wiggling around, now he’s stopped. He’s lying in a pool of blood. The other bestiarii are now attacking the ones eating him. They’ve got three, four, they got all of them and wow! Wow! The other Devils have realized that there is food around, and they all mobbed the bestiarii! They went down and, yes, it’s over! The handlers are coming out now. Ho, the devils just bit one! Now, the guards are moving in and they are killing them, all of them! I wonder how much they cost, maybe 250 denari? Well that’s that. Now, the railings are going down and the water pipes are flooding the arena. This will take a while, want to move up closer?” “Uh, sure” he said So we went down to the third row, and by that time, they had gotten the arena flooded, and the ships into the arena. The emperor stood up and introduced us to the situation. This was a practice for the military. They had one Bireme and the gladiators had two, larger and faster Quirentimes. The military had to board, or destroy both the boats. “Well, this will be good. The military boat has about 40 people, and the others have about 60 Thracian gladiators. That’s… different, well, I won’t complain. The military just took off, and they just rammed one of the bigger ships! It splintered the side of the bigger ship, and the other ship brushed its partner ship. The Bireme is trying to board, and the other ship, the bigger one, is boarding its partner ship, and now there is a huge battle, across three ships! The military is throwing them off, not even bothering to kill them! Oh! One of the military cohorts just stabbed one of the Thracian gladiators in the head! Now they are hacking through them like they were reeds! The military hasn’t lost a man yet and, oh! They are on the big ship, throwing their spears at the other ship! They are mowing them down! Now the gladiators are pulling the spears out of their companions, and throwing them back! They killed ten, eleven cohorts! Now they are charging the cohorts! They are being pushed back, and they got back onto their smaller bireme! Now the cohorts have taken off, leaving the few Thracian gladiators that dared try to board their ship to waver, and fall off. Now, the gladiators are giving chase! They are catching them! The Cohorts are turning, and the gladiators have hit them broadsided, and they are pushing them under! They are literally going over them! They are pushing them along! Oh! We better move they are heading right for this section.” The ship pushed the boat toward them, and the crowed from that area ran, as the rest cheered. They put up the guardrails, to try to stop them from hitting the people. The few cohorts that were left either jumped off the boat, or they climbed up the front of the boat that was ramming them. The boat hit the guardrails, and it shattered. The boat stopped suddenly, and the cohorts that were climbing the bow of the boat were thrown into the guardrails they were impaled, and the crowd went wild. “Huff, well if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t believe it!” I cried. ”What, What?!” Ioannes asked. “Ill tell you later, now, the cohorts that were in the water are being run over by the ships. Wow. The emperor looked surprised.” With that, the emperor declared the games for that day over. We walked back to Ioannes’s villa, and then I went to my villa. I was glad the day was over I was tired.