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2. Course Overview
Abstract: This advanced intermediate course helps students transition from structured narrative to reading unadapted classical texts. You will build a reliable understanding of the remaining subjunctive structures, conditional clauses, gerundives, and the rhythmic rules of Latin poetry. By reading authentic poems and historical grammatical treatises, you will experience the language exactly as the Romans wrote it.
Comprehensive Description: This final module completes your journey through the foundational grammar of the Lingua Latina per se Illustrata series. Here, you will explore the full expressive capacity of the language, moving from advanced syntax to the appreciation of raw, unadapted literature. The curriculum focuses on the complete subjunctive framework—including deliberative, optative, and perfect forms—alongside the passive periphrastic conjugation, future imperatives, and counterfactual conditional sentences. Rather than looking at these elements as isolated rules, you will see how they function naturally within varied contexts: from stories of maritime travel and imperial legions to the elegant setting of a Roman banquet. The course culminates in a milestone experience: stripping away the protective layer of adapted texts to read authentic, unaltered classical poetry and historical grammar. This process turns your acquired vocabulary into a practical tool for directly exploring ancient Roman thought.
3. Methodology & General Description
This course utilizes Hans Ørberg's Lingua Latina per se Illustrata: Familia Romana. Each twelve-week term consists of bi-weekly sessions comprising two academic hours (90 minutes total).
To ensure a high volume of quality reading and reinforce these advanced structures, our active methodology incorporates supplementary readings from the Colloquia Personarum and Fabulae Syrae. Class time is treated as a dynamic space where intermediate syntax is anchored naturally through target-language interaction:
Active Class Disputation: Students engage in structured discussions entirely in Latin, practicing advanced conditional sentences and expressing wishes or doubts using the appropriate subjunctive tenses.
Textual and Metrical Analysis: Guided exercises in scanning classical meters aloud, learning how vowel lengths, elisions, and word order create the unique musicality of Roman poetry.
Linguistic Paraphrase: Re-engineering complex poetic syntax and historical prose into direct, spoken Latin to build immediate comprehension without mental translation.
Internalization: Memorizing and reciting selected unadapted stanzas and traditional grammatical formulas to internalize the natural rhythm and idiom of the classical language.
Through these immersive practices, you will develop both the reading stamina and the metalinguistic vocabulary needed to discuss literature and language mechanics entirely in Latin.
4. Proficiency & Requirements
Language Level:
Framework Reference: Advanced Intermediate — Level 4 (Familia Romana, Capitula XXVIII–XXXV).
General Description: Designed for students who have completed Level 3 or its equivalent. You should feel comfortable with basic deponent verbs, participles, initial subjunctive uses, and reading continuous narrative prose in an immersive environment.
Estimated Self-Study Time:
Time Commitment: Approximately 3–4 hours per week (including a mandatory 20 minutes of daily retention review).
Preparation: Independent reading, structural tracking of advanced verbal structures, and vocabulary preparation of 15–20 lines from the assigned chapter are required before each live session.
5. Thematic Extensions & Classical Intertextuality
As you reach the final chapters of this volume, you will explore themes that reflect the vibrant, complex realities of the Roman world, such as naval travel, military organization, and elite social gatherings. For those looking to broaden their reading or explore literature beyond the classroom, these topics offer an excellent bridge to the following classical authors:
The Sea, Maritime Law, & Epic Storms:
Plautus (Rudens), Virgil (Aeneid, Book I) & Ovid (Tristia): The challenges and hazards of sea travel introduce you to the terminology of ancient seafaring, early maritime customs like the Lex Rhodia, and the emotional weight of historical shipwrecks. To see how these themes operate in literature, you can read the dramatic comedic setups of Plautus, the famous opening storms of Virgil’s epic poetry, or Ovid’s moving poems written during his journey into exile.Banquets, Gastronomy, & Social Satire:
Petronius (Satyricon: Cena Trimalchionis), Horace (Sermones) & Martial: The vocabulary surrounding a formal Roman dinner (convīvium) provides a fascinating look into the social customs, dining layouts (trīclīnia), and dining protocols of the elite. To explore the humor and critiques of Roman wealth, you can look into Petronius’s famous satirical description of Trimalchio’s feast, the everyday observations in Horace’s satires, or the sharp epigrams of Martial.Imperial Tactics & Military History:
Julius Caesar, Livy, & Vegetius (Epitoma rei mīlitāris): The administrative and structural vocabulary of the Roman legions and naval fleets (classis) offers a natural transition to classical historiography. Students interested in military history can use these themes as a background to explore the actual campaign commentaries of Caesar, the sweeping narratives of Livy, or the tactical manuals of Vegetius.Authentic Elegiac & Lyric Poetry:
Catullus, Ovid, Martial, & Horace: The study of poetic word order, elisions, and classical meters (such as the dactylic hexameter and the elegiac couplet) opens the door to unadapted literature. You can deepen your experience by reading Catullus's moving poems to Lesbia, Martial's biting social wit, Ovid’s mythological storytelling, or Horace's reflective verses in their original, unaltered forms.The Tradition of Grammar & Philology:
Aelius Donatus (Ars Minor): The abstract terminology used to classify the parts of speech (partēs ōrātiōnis) allows you to engage with the text just as historical students did. Reading the authentic, 4th-century grammatical manual of Donatus offers a unique historical experience, allowing you to study Latin syntax using the exact definitions that guided students throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
6. Materials & Bibliography
Required Textbooks:
Hans H. Ørberg, Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, Pars I: Familia Romana (Hackett Publishing).
Hans H. Ørberg, Exercitia Latina I (Hackett Publishing).
Recommended Auxiliary Materials:
Hans H. Ørberg, Colloquia Personarum, Colloquia Secunda, & Fabulae Syrae.
Roberto Carfagni, Nova Exercitia Latina, Vol. 1.
Jeanne Marie Neumann, A Companion to Lingua Latina (Hackett Publishing).
7. Grammatical Syllabus
Morphology: Completion of the Subjunctive Mood paradigms (Imperfect, Perfect, and Pluperfect tenses, active and passive voices); introduction to the Future Perfect tense; perfect system of deponent verbs and regular semi-deponents; formation and implementation of the Gerundive; morphology of the Future Imperative; common poetic contractions, variations, and syncopated verb forms (such as mī, nīl, -āsse, -īsse).
Syntax: Advanced subjunctive mechanics in subordinate clauses: Purpose (ut/nē) vs. Result (ut/ut nōn), Deliberative/Exhortative uses, Optative expressions (utinam), Indirect Questions, and iterative vs. historical/causal Cum clauses. Syntactic comparison between verbs of saying (verba dīcendī) and verbs of demanding (verba postulandī); syntax of clauses following verbs of fearing (timēre nē); full integration of factual and counterfactual conditional sentences; the syntactic transition from gerund constructions to the gerundive framework.
Prosody & Metrics: Structural foundations of classical Roman verse; rules of vocalic quantity, syllable scanning, and elision; metrical structures of the dactylic hexameter, the elegiac couplet, and the hendecasyllable.
8. Chapter Coverage & Readings
This module covers approximately 1,600 verses of advanced narrative, poetic, and technical text (~64 verses per instruction unit):
XXVIII. Perīcula maris: Active integration of the imperfect subjunctive in purpose and consecutive clauses within maritime settings.
XXIX. Nāvigāre necesse est: The mechanics of the deliberative subjunctive, indirect questions, and causal cum clauses.
XXX. Convīvium: Implementation of distributive numerals, exhortative subjunctives, and the active/passive future perfect system.
XXXI. Inter pōcula: Syntactic mastery of the optative subjunctive, semi-deponent verb frameworks, and introductory gerundive structures.
XXXII. Classis Rōmāna: The perfect subjunctive paradigms, negative imperatives via nē, and the syntax of expressions following verbs of fearing.
XXXIII. Exercitus Rōmānus: Mastery of the pluperfect subjunctive, historical cum clauses, and the complete syntax of unreal conditional sentences.
XXXIV. Dē arte poētica: Core rules of classical prosody and direct, unadapted readings of Catullus, Ovid, Martial, and Horace.
XXXV. Ars grammatica: Direct interaction with the original, unadapted text of Donatus’s Ars Minor, tracking classical grammatical terminology.
