There were innumerable scholars (and pseudoscholars) employed as rhetors, orators, and teachers of rhetoric (St. Augustine was one) and some of them wrote books. Needless to say, correct pronunciation was covered in such teaching and some has survived
Hi Bob.
Let me play the devil’s advocate on this one.
Let’s say some of these books have survived. How do you know that your (or whichever scholor you believe) interpretation of the pronunciation is correct? Without a pronunciation “Rosetta stone” to give you parallel inscription in modern languages, everything is subject to interpretation by the reader.
For example, if you cannot speak English and I write that the EA in beaker is pronounced like the EE in feel, reek, seek, it is utterly useless – you have nothing to compare it to. But if you speak French, and I write that the EA in beaker is pronounced like the IE in calomnie, THEN you have something to compare it to and you know that your interpretation is correct. It is a bit of a catch22 situation, in order to correctly interpret the books you speak of, the reader would have to speak Latin.
Thus the changes in pronunciation of the C as time goes by; or as fashion would have it.
