1. The Romans used all caps.
2. The vowels I and U had consonantal versions (pronounced like our Y and W, respectively); most Latin textbooks these days let students try to distinguish vocalic I from consonantal I, but they usually convert the consonantal U to V. You'll find words like INSULA ("island") and IUPPITER ("Jupiter") along with VACUUS ("empty") and VIVUNT ("they live") in those textbooks. Nowadays, of course, we've turned most instances of that consonantal I into a J.
3. The Romans, however, would
have written these words as INSVLA, IVPPITER, VACVVS, and VIVVNT. Deciphering these Vs takes a little practice, but you get used to it.
4. Ironically, some scholarly editions have gone in the opposite direction with the U/V problem, converting all those Vs back to Us in an attempt to be more authentic to the ancient Roman practice of writing them the same way — which leaves us with INSULA, IUPPITER, UACUUS, and UIUUNT.
https://youtu.be/VLbZVS66p84?si=Q_zAU4-KoiAVoC_x
