When people ask me "Why Latin?" there are a number of answers, but I like to throw in that fact that Latin (and ancient Greek) give us intimate access to the writings and minds of two great Slave Empires upon which our present Society is largely based.
O.K. Then what? I mean, what does this intimate knowledge show us?
It shows us that even after the articles of manumission, the ex-slave was a libertus, or a free man. In this, there is a parallel to our own history where such freed men existed after their liberation by their owners. Notice, however, that it is our habit, just as it was the Romans, to ever afterwards call them "freed men" or "liberti"; they are never merely "men" and "women"; they do not exist without the predication of "having been freed".
Their one time servitude is a mark of Cain that they never escape. Now matter how greatly they enjoy the delights of freedom, they still are not just men and women, but remain "liberti", and as such remain susceptible to being singled out bu that peculiar characteristic that they possess.
Nor was the passage from slave to free man so quick and precise as we tend to think of it: in various discussions of the laws of Rome, we see a scale of slave, inquilinus, tribute-paying subject, client, colonus, and plebeian, all different legal personalities. Succinctly, "Freed Men" were not "Free Men". Free men were born such.
One cannot legally deal with an ex-slave or freed-man the same way one deals with a free man; it is more complex. So it is with all our dealings: they are complex and not simple. The mentality of the Slave Empire leaves us divided in mind, in soul, and in body. It rarely is a laugh-riot like "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum". It is more like "The Danaides" where families are murderously turned against themselves.
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