The Latins learned letters and writing in 7th century BC from the Hellenistic colonies settled in Cumae in the Campania Region. Although it is known that the Etruscans brought the alphabet to the Italian Peninsula at an earlier date, the Romans developed an alphabetic system of 26 letters based on both Hellenic and Greek alphabets.
Once the Romans gained strength and captured first all of Italy and subsequently the entire Mediterranean world, Latin became the official language of conquered territories; Latin constitutes the basis of present-day Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Romanian. However, as there was a powerful Hellenistic writing system in the Eastern Mediterranean world, where Greece, Thrace, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt are located, Latin did not gain a foothold in this region and remained as a secondary language. Even after the fall of the West Roman Empire in 475 AD, Latin continued to exist as the language of the Church until present times.
Inscribed on the wall of the temple also known as the Temple of August located next to the Mosque of Hacı Bayram in Ankara, “Monumentum Ancyranum” is the longest, most important, and most intriguing of the Latin inscription tablets discovered to date. Written by Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire, shortly before his death in 14 AD this text was first read at the Senatus and was inscribed on two bronze columns erected in the city of Rome. Several copies were placed in various temples across other states of the Roman Empire. Today, the most intact copy of this inscription is preserved in Ankara.
