The Romans would read a scroll the day before because they had much less punctuation than the Greeks, possibly often none at all!
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As far as looking strange...yes, they can, as I mentioned. I wish they would fix that. As I also said, you can get used to it. What I didn't mention was that, before I got used to it, I tended to be liberal with enforcing grammar rules in that respect. For the few first-paragraphs-in-the-chapter-that-also-start-with-punctuation... I just deleted the leading punctuation.
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Yes, that's what I was trying to write. If you have any kind of fancy lead-in, then I can't see how “They” can fix it. You either delete the opening quotes, don't special style it or never start with a quotation or dialogue.
If one person is speaking and a new paragraph is needed, then the rule is that there is no closing quote, yet the start of the next paragraph has an opening quote. I'd not do an initial drop cap or an initial large cap (works better on ereaders), but if I did, I'd add a rule to our style guide:
In the case of a first paragraph with an initial drop cap or an initial large cap there should be no opening punctuation mark. Various languages might have « ¡ ¿ etc. Only use an initial drop cap or an initial large cap at the start of a chapter, section or other major break where perhaps chapter titles are not used.
I don't know why you'd ask a Latin teacher anything about grammar or punctuation. Also its connection to current English is overstated.