AP Latin - Literary Analysis & Translation

Front

Dactylic Hexameter

Back

The standard meter of epic poetry like Vergil's *Aeneid*. It consists of six feet, predominantly dactyls (long-short-short) and spondees (long-long), with the fifth foot usually a dactyl and the final foot a spondee or trochee.

Front

Epistolary Genre

Back

A literary form represented by Pliny's Letters, characterized by a distinct style: first-person narrative, polished rhetoric, and a focus on personal observation, historical documentation, or social exchange.

Front

Ablative Absolute

Back

A grammatical construction consisting of a noun (or pronoun) in the ablative case modified by a participle, which grammatically stands separate from the rest of the sentence. It indicates time, cause, or circumstance.

Front

Historic Infinitive

Back

The use of the infinitive (often with a subject accusative) to narrate a sequence of events in the past, typically found in *ecce* phrases or to vividly describe a specific historical moment.

Front

Elision

Back

In Latin poetry, the omission of a final vowel (or syllable ending in a vowel) when the next word begins with a vowel or an 'h'. This is crucial for scanning dactylic hexameter correctly.