Reading Latin in Scripta Continua format for Understanding

Latin as the Romans saw it was written without spaces or punctuation. Given that premise that much classical Latin was indeed written in the form of scriptio (scripta) continua even after the acceptance of the interpunct as a word separator, this exercise gives practice in visualizing what the written language might have looked like if only sentences were written in scripta continua. There is evidence in Latin literature that whole passages were written thusly. Included here are three passages which, with basic knowledge of Latin vocabulary, declension construction, and tense formation, can be used as an analytical tool to assess students' ability to read original Latin literature as it was written, to recognize elementary grammatical units (like the enclitic -que), declension endings, and verb formation and position in sentences.

The passages include those from Ovid's Baucis and Philemon and basic stories about the agrarian life of the Roman people. It also touches on some of the gods and goddesses and how they were involved in the lives of the Greeks and Romans.