The higher-level Latin paper required students to translate and answer questions on a passage about the Cyclops and another about Mausolus – from which we get the word “mausoleum”.
“The first translation was fine,” said ASTI representative Jim O’Dea. “The Latin in the second was a bit tricky.” Further translation and a section on Roman history were described as “straightforward”. “Students’ heads would have sunk at the sight of the diagram of a fasces (an implement carried by the bodyguards of a magistrate in ancient Rome) on question six,” Mr O’Dea said. “The question looked worse than it was, however.”
The classical studies exam running at the same time as Latin was a “very fair” paper, he believed. Gráinne Faller