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Leaving Certificate Latin (NCCA specification), Higher and Ordinary Level, with the SEC examination.
Overview
Leaving Certificate Latin (NCCA specification), Higher and Ordinary Level, with the SEC examination.
Complete topic map
Every topic recorded for this subject in the curriculum is reproduced below in its full hierarchy. The descriptions reflect the mapped scope without implying additional exam rules.
Systematic study of Latin forms: the five noun declensions, pronouns, adjective declension and comparison, and the full verb system (indicative, imperative, infinitive, participle, gerundive and subjunctive). Higher Level covers a broader range including deponents, more irregulars and wider subjunctive use; Ordinary Level follows a defined reduced list.
How Latin sentences are built: case usage, indirect statement (accusative and infinitive), indirect command and question, purpose, result, temporal, causal, concessive and conditional clauses, the ablative absolute, relative clauses and gerundive constructions. Higher Level requires the full range of subordinate clauses, Ordinary Level a defined subset.
A prescribed prose author studied in the original Latin, with set translation plus subsidiary comprehension and language questions. Prose authors set across the course include Cicero (speeches and letters), Livy, Caesar and Sallust.
A prescribed verse author studied in the original Latin, with attention to metre and poetic style. Verse authors set across the course include Virgil (Aeneid), Ovid, Horace and Catullus.
Reading the whole prescribed text in translation and studying its set literary, cultural and historical context — genre features and authorial style, Roman customs and values such as pietas, fides and fama, and the historical background to the text. Context is common to both levels.
Translation into English of an unprescribed prose passage, testing language competence against the prescribed grammar and syntax. Core at both levels, with Higher Level passages longer and more demanding.
Translation into English of an unprescribed verse passage drawn from named authors such as Virgil, Ovid, Horace and Catullus, applying knowledge of poetic vocabulary and constructions.
Translation of English sentences and passages into Latin, testing active command of grammar and syntax. The most challenging element of the language paper, requiring accurate handling of forms, agreement and word order.
Comprehension questions in English on an unseen Latin prose passage, testing the ability to understand Latin in context as an alternative to active composition.
Metrical analysis of Latin verse, principally the dactylic hexameter of Virgil and Ovid — identifying long and short syllables, feet, elision and the caesura. Assessed at Higher Level.
Roman political and military history of the Republic and Empire: the Punic Wars, the Late Republic (the Gracchi, Marius, Sulla and Caesar), the Augustan Principate and the Julio-Claudian emperors.
Roman visual culture: architecture (the Colosseum, the Pantheon, basilicas, aqueducts and triumphal arches), sculpture (portrait busts, relief and Trajan's Column), painting and mosaics, and the use of art as Augustan visual propaganda.
The lives, works, genres and literary significance of major Latin authors of the Late Republic (Cicero, Caesar, Catullus, Lucretius) and the Augustan Age (Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Livy), assessing each author's literary importance and influence rather than biography alone.
An independent, externally marked study on a significant but manageable aspect of the Latin language or a short text, carried out within an annual thematic brief issued by the SEC, with language-based analysis at its centre.
Where this subject applies
These pathways and regions are explicitly connected to the subject in the curriculum.
Higher Level
Higher Level — the more demanding level, with broader and deeper content and the H1–H8 grade scale.
Ordinary Level
Ordinary Level — the foundational level covering the core of the syllabus, graded O1–O8.
Official sources
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Public references
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