Is there a translation of Familia Romana?

I have been teach­ing Latin using a com­bi­na­tion of spo­ken Latin and tra­di­tion­al meth­ods for over twelve years, both in pri­vate lessons and at uni­ver­si­ty. The text­book I use and always rec­om­mend is Famil­ia Romana by Hans Ørberg. The book is writ­ten entire­ly in Latin, and many online ask whether there is an Eng­lish trans­la­tion avail­able or not.

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The Latin text­book Famil­ia Romana does not have an offi­cial trans­la­tion into Eng­lish or any oth­er lan­guage. This is by design. Famil­ia Romana is writ­ten entire­ly in Latin and con­struct­ed in such a way as to lead the read­er from the eas­i­est Latin such as Roma in Italia est (“Rome is in Italy”) to more com­plex nar­ra­tive texts. 

How to not need a translation

If you strug­gle and feel like you need a trans­la­tion when read­ing Famil­ia Romana, you are not alone: many stu­dents say this. How­ev­er, this is usu­al­ly because they are mov­ing too fast through the book. They might say, “I get this, I under­stand this,” and move on. But it’s very easy to miss the lit­tle things that pile up, and before long, the text is “too dif­fi­cult,” and you need a translation.

To com­bat this, I have my stu­dents work on one chap­ter dili­gent­ly: they re-read it care­ful­ly at least five times and do all the exer­cis­es in the Famil­ia Romana book and the exer­cise book Exerci­tia I, at least two times prefer­ably more. In addi­tion, dur­ing our ses­sions, we dis­cuss the text, and I ask ques­tions and cre­ate a con­ver­sa­tion using the chap­ter’s vocab­u­lary— in Latin.

To help you get going, you can read this step-by-step method of study­ing Famil­ia Romana, or if you are pressed for time, below you’ll find a short­er ver­sion of the same method:

• Read the first chap­ter sec­tion (Lec­tio I) look­ing at the mar­gin­al notes and images
• Reread the lec­tio two more times aloud
• Using pen and paper, do the exer­cis­es for that lec­tio in the Exer­cise book twice
• Reread the lec­tio again, try­ing to pic­ture every­thing that is happening. 
• Repeat the process for the next section.
• When you come to the end of the chap­ter, read the whole chap­ter in one go, pic­tur­ing every­thing described.
• Do the exer­cis­es (Pen­sum A, B, and C) in the Famil­ia Romana book, which per­tain to the whole chapter.

This might seem bor­ing and take much time. That could be true, but what is a guar­an­tee is that with this method, you will mas­ter the vocab­u­lary, turns of phras­es, and the gram­mar step-by-step, ever build­ing on it as you progress.

After doing this, you will most like­ly not require a trans­la­tion, as you will under­stand every­thing perfectly.

What if I still need a translation?

None of my stu­dents who dili­gent­ly fol­low this method has felt the need to use a trans­la­tion with Famil­ia Romana. There might be a word or two here or there where you might be unsure: it’s fine to look up that word (after fol­low­ing the method above!) in a Latin dictionary.

Be sure to use a suit­able dic­tio­nary, such as The Ban­tam New Col­lege Latin & Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary, and not a schol­ar­ly dic­tio­nary like Lewis & Short or the Oxford Latin Dic­tio­nary. These lat­ter two are too detailed and will give you every pos­si­ble mean­ing and def­i­n­i­tion across cen­turies of authors. At the start, stick with a small­er, more acces­si­ble dictionary.

Check out this guide to find the best Latin dic­tio­nary for your lev­el.

Why you should avoid using a translation with Familia Romana

Using trans­la­tions when read­ing lit­er­ary works is often a use­ful tool to clear up any dif­fi­cul­ty or get a bet­ter sense of the nuances of the Latin words. But, when study­ing a text­book such as Famil­ia Romana, trans­la­tions can eas­i­ly become a crutch, where you always doubt your­self until you check the trans­la­tion. The trans­la­tion becomes a sort of sooth­say­ing oracle. 

This habit usu­al­ly fol­lows stu­dents for years into their stud­ies, who become depen­dent on trans­la­tions and nev­er being com­fort­able with rely­ing on their own abil­i­ties and judg­ment, always defer­ring to some­one else.

Don’t do that.

Spend more time in the begin­ning, devel­op­ing a strong foun­da­tion in the lan­guage (with the method above) and devel­op a strong con­fi­dence in your own abil­i­ty to under­stand and inter­pret Latin cor­rect­ly. Lat­er when read­ing lit­er­a­ture, you can then use a trans­la­tion spar­ing­ly when you need to, with­out feel­ing the need to con­stant­ly con­sult it. 

You will be a con­fi­dent and bet­ter read­er if you do.

Good luck!

—Daniel Pet­ters­son