Essential books for learning Latin

Frank Ritchie

This is a real­ly fun book to read with sto­ries about Her­cules, Odysseus, and Perseus in a rather Cae­sar­i­an Latin. Read and reread this to build your vocab­u­lary and knowl­edge about the myths in which Roman authors were steeped.

This edi­tion has Latin text with fac­ing vocab­u­lary and com­men­tary.   

Daniel Pet­ters­son, Amelie Rosengren

• Paper­back
• Audio­book
• Online video course

When Terentia’s father dies he leaves her with a dag­ger and the words ”It will lead you to…”. Alone in Rome, Ter­en­tia goes out to find the secret behind her father’s dag­ger. But she is not the only one, and soon she is fight­ing for the dag­ger, its secret and her own future. 

Pugio Bru­ti – A Crime Sto­ry in Easy Latin is writ­ten with two things in mind: To be a page-turn­ing enjoy­able book and to be a great study com­pan­ion to Latin learn­ers. The unique word count is less than 350 words, giv­ing you easy Latin with­out com­pro­mis­ing the excit­ing story.

It is writ­ten as true to clas­si­cal Latin as pos­si­ble with styl­is­tic fea­tures, phrase­ol­o­gy and dia­logue pat­terns from Plau­tus, Ter­en­tius and Petro­n­ius, while still being an acces­si­ble book to learn­ers of Latin. It is set in a his­tor­i­cal­ly authen­tic con­text and con­tains full Latin-Eng­lish vocabulary.

Charles Lhomond, Rober­to Carfagni

Epit­o­me His­to­ri­ae Sacrae is a 17th cen­tu­ry read­er all in Latin (with long vow­els marked) with sto­ries from the Bible in an inter­me­di­ate Latin. This edi­tion has mar­gin­al notes explain­ing new or dif­fi­cult words all in Latin. It has also  exer­cis­es, includ­ing cross­words and matching.

The text will expand your vocab­u­lary greatly.

When can you read it? You should fin­ish Lin­gua Lati­na Part I: Famil­ia Romana first to be able to read Epit­o­me His­to­ri­ae Sacrae with­out too much trouble.

H. C. Nutting

• Paper­back
• E‑book
• Audio­book

Ad Alpes is the best Latin read­er out there. It is both a nov­el with its over­ar­ch­ing nar­ra­tive and a Latin read­er with over 200-pages of sto­ries in Latin from the ancient world.

• Improve your Latin: 200 pages in a clas­si­cal Latin style for exten­sive reading.
• Read and enjoy Latin: Inter­est­ing sto­ries from clas­si­cal authors and the Bible.
• Read with­out the dic­tio­nary: Full Latin-Eng­lish vocabulary.

Read­ing (or lis­ten­ing) to this book over and over again will give you a vast vocab­u­lary and a good grasp of more advanced grammar.

Who can read it Ad Alpes? It is best to have a good ground­ing in Latin gram­mar and vocab­u­lary before read­ing it.

Hans Ørberg

Roma Aeter­na (the sec­ond main vol­ume of the Lin­gua Lati­na per se illus­tra­ta series) takes the read­er through Roman his­to­ry and myth via pas­sages from Roman his­to­ri­ans and poets such as Livy, Sal­lust, and Ovid. 

Before div­ing into Roman lit­er­a­ture, Roma Aeter­na first retells the first four books of Virgil’s Aeneid

Fea­tures:

• Latin immer­sion with vow­el lengths marked
• Approx­i­mate­ly 3,000 vocab­u­lary words
• Short dis­cus­sions of gram­mar and exer­cis­es for each chapter
• Select­ed read­ings that cov­er the mate­r­i­al in a Roman his­to­ry course

Who can read Roma Aeter­na? Although the book is meant to be read after Famil­ia Romana (and the ancil­lary books of the lin­gua Lati­na per se illus­tra­ta series, our stu­dents often find that there is too large a gap. We sug­gest read­ing and mas­ter­ing Ad Alpes before read­ing Roma Aeter­na.

Charles Per­rault (author), Lau­rent d’Au­male (trans­la­tor)

• Paper­back
• E‑book

Fab­u­lae Gal­li­cae is a Latin trans­la­tion of Charles Per­rault’s world of fairy­tales from 1697. It has a glos­sary in three lan­guages: French, Eng­lish, Spanish.

In the book, you’ll read eight clas­si­cal fairytales:

Who can read Fab­u­lae Gal­li­cae? You need to be at a rather advanced lev­el to read it with ease, as it is writ­ten in a high­ly clas­si­ciz­ing style.