It is, famously, a dead language. But it seems that Latin is on the brink of an unlikely comeback. The conservative Pope Benedict XVI is poised to authorise wider use of the Latin mass. And, perhaps to ingratiate themselves with the boss, the managers of the Vatican bank have quietly put instructions in Latin on the cash dispenser at the back of St Peter's. Customers are told to put in their cards with the words: "Inserito scidulam quaeso ut faciundam cognoscas rationem." On Sicily, meanwhile, Latin is being heard in homes in the city of Catania   more »

Each time Oxford University Press sends its list of newly published Classical books I look through it to see which, if any, might be useful in school.   more »