Latin is not such a dead language after all.

In fact, more than 149,000 American students took the National Latin Exam in 2007 -- up from just 6,000 in 1977.

Why should anyone care whether more people are studying Latin in the Age of the iPhone?

For one thing, says Harry Mount, author of "Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life," reading Roman history in the original Latin "provides a fuller, richer view of the present" and it sharpens your mind and your English prose.

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