Latin majors acquire the ability to read, analyze, and discuss standard works in Latin, a language with an extremely long surviving literary history, from the 3rd century BCE to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and even into the early modern period, when it continued to be used in fields such as law, philosophy, and theology. Its practitioners include writers of key importance to the humanistic tradition, such as Cicero, Caesar, Catullus, Vergil, Livy, and Tacitus, and its linguistic importance continues as the source of the Romance languages (e.g., Italian, French, and Spanish) and of more than 50% of words in English.