Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the modern term used to describe the form of the Latin language recognized as standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. In some later periods it was regarded as "good" Latin, with later versions being seen as debased or corrupt. The word "Latin" is now taken by default as meaning "Classical Latin", so that, for example, modern Latin text books describe classical Latin. Marcus Tullius Cicero and his contemporaries of the late republic, while using
lingua Latina and
sermo Latinus to mean the Latin language as opposed to the Greek or other languages, and
sermo vulgaris or
sermo vulgi to refer to the vernacular of the uneducated and less-educated masses, regarded the speech they valued most and in which they wrote as
Latinitas, "Latinity", with the implication of good. Sometimes it is called
sermo familiaris, "speech of the good families",
sermo urbanus, "speech of the city" or rarely
sermo nobilis, "noble speech", but mainly besides
Latinitas it was
Latine, "in good Latin", or
Latinius, "good Latin."
Latinitas was spoken as well as written.