What do you think?
Rate this book
Cloelia: puella Romana
Cloelia is only ten years old when she finds herself at the center of one of Roman history’s great turning points- the fall of the monarchy. Will she choose safety for herself, or risk losing everything she knows to save her city?Join Cloelia as she navigates the dangers and choices a Roman woman faces in a man’s world. Learn along with her from tales of courage, grief, and honor, including the stories of Camilla, Kallisto, Lucretia, Mucius Scaevola, and Horatius Cocles. This book was written using forms of only 208 Latin words, roughly half of which are drawn from the Dickinson College Commentary Top 200 Latin Words list. It is intended as a transitional reader between an elementary sequence and authentic Latin literature, and with instructional support should be accessible to late elementary and intermediate students of Latin.
- GenresEbooks
63 pages, Paperback
Published June 17, 2016
1 person is currently reading
27 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 7, 2018
I have read my first Latin novella! Other than Cicero’s Pro Archia Poeta, I have not read a Latin text in its entirety despite the fact that I am a Latin teacher. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that, yet at the same time intend to make a renewed commitment to read Latin texts beyond those I teach at school to improve my proficiency and comprehension. The scary truth is, as educators at the forefront of the comprehensible input movement in Latin can attest, very few Latin teachers read actual Latin outside of class (somewhere around twenty percent, surveys tell us), and very few Latin teachers can actually read. Unfortunately, like many other teachers, I can only decipher Latin texts (at a fairly fast pace, which contributed to my real successes in Latin at university). In other words, I can tell you quickly and easily what tense verbs are in, what cases nouns are in, where the perfect passive participles are, and whether a sentence follows primary or historical sequence. This is, in part, why I was hired to do my job. Yet it seems patently dishonest—to me, in any case—to teach students to read Latin when one cannot really read it oneself, at least not in the sense that people typically mean when they claim to read—that is, to understand what a sentence means, how it flows into the next sentence, and how it connects to the narrative as a whole, all in real time and without translation.
So I have decided to read more, and in particular to read Latin way below my proficiency level. This approach models one put forth by Justin Slocum Bailey and attested to by other Latin teachers who have considerably improved their real-time comprehension. The basic idea is that one reads (not deciphers!) a lot of easy, accessible Latin in Latin—that is, without translation. The voice in one’s head as one reads should be in Latin. While this may sound odd at first, it is easy for me to notice when I have started to slip into translation—when my eye skips ahead to the verb at the end of a sentence, for instance, or when I start to slow down to decipher a particular word or phrase.
To start this new “journey,” then, I picked up Ellie Arnold’s Cloelia: Puella Romana, which I also intend to read with my level three Latin students to ease their transition into authentic Latin texts next year. What I like most about Arnold’s novella is that it tells a real Roman story cherished by the Romans (recounted by Livy and Valerius Maximus)—that of Cloelia, whose bravery helped save the new Roman republic after Rome expelled its last rex, Tarquinius Superbus. The story starts with Cloelia in Lars Porsena’s Etruscan camp. “Cur in castris hostium sum?” Cloelia writes. “Rem totam tibi narrabo.” The subsequent flashback describes the rape of Lucretia by Sextus, Tarquinius Superbus’s son, the expulsion of Tarquin, his alliance with Lars Porsena, the bravery of Mucius Scaevola, and the peace treaty struck between the Etruscans and Romans that lands Cloelia in the Etruscan camp. Other flashbacks include the short tale of Callisto, a nymph assaulted by Jupiter, and the famous exemplum of Horatius Cocles, the brave Roman who fended off the Etruscans all alone across the Tiber River. Cloelia thus exposes the novice Latinist to many tales of early Rome in addition to that of Cloelia herself.
Arnold writes Cloelia with, I presume, a feminist theme in mind. There are a number of specific moments and repeated motifs that attest to the novella’s feminist perspective. First and most obviously, Cloelia tells the story from her own point-of-view as a parva puella. In the extant textual record, we have so few women writers; Perpetua, the third century Christian martyr, is the only other that I can think of off the top of my head from the classical period. Cloelia’s feminine viewpoint, then, immediately contests the normative masculine perspective favored by Roman authors. Second, Arnold inverts the typical association of virtus with men and pudicitia with women. “Quod virtus est viris, pudicitia est mulieribus,” her mother says at one point. Yet by the end of the novella, Collatinus tells Cloelia that Porsena “virtus tua ei placuit. Nunc decem captivas non vult, sed unam.” Cloelia not only embodies masculine virtus, she is also described as “fortissima et audacissima omnium Romanorum.” Note that the masculine Romanorum includes all the Romans, not just puellae. Finally, the repetition of Cloelia’s quintessentially Roman mantra, some version of “fortis sum, et audax, quia civis Romana sum” imbues her character with dignitas characteristically reserved for Roman men. Cloelia is uninterested in traditional feminine activities—“vestimenta mihi non placent!”—and therefore upends expectations of what she can and should accomplish as a parva puella.
Arnold’s Latin is suitable for elementary and intermediate Latin students. Insofar as she frequently uses subordinate clauses (relative clauses are abundant, and I spotted result clauses, fear clauses, and relative clauses of characteristic), a variety of verb tenses (almost all of them except for the pluperfect, by my count), and some participles, it may be most appropriate for intermediate Latin students who will soon read classical Latin. Arnold’s vocabulary is appropriately sheltered, with no more than 209 Latin words, and her repetition of phrases in different tenses and moods helps familiarize readers with similar fluidity in classical Latin texts. While there is less indirect discourse than I would have liked on account of its prevalence in Latin prose, Arnold frequently employs complementary infinitives with debeo and possum, which at least expose students to routine infinitives. Arnold also leaves out the passive voice in her prose, another syntactical feature often used by Roman authors. All in all, however, Cloelia is an excellent text to use in intermediate Latin classrooms. Skip the textbook articles about Tarquin, Lucretia, and Mucius Scaevola, and use this wonderful Latin novella to entertain your students instead.
So I have decided to read more, and in particular to read Latin way below my proficiency level. This approach models one put forth by Justin Slocum Bailey and attested to by other Latin teachers who have considerably improved their real-time comprehension. The basic idea is that one reads (not deciphers!) a lot of easy, accessible Latin in Latin—that is, without translation. The voice in one’s head as one reads should be in Latin. While this may sound odd at first, it is easy for me to notice when I have started to slip into translation—when my eye skips ahead to the verb at the end of a sentence, for instance, or when I start to slow down to decipher a particular word or phrase.
To start this new “journey,” then, I picked up Ellie Arnold’s Cloelia: Puella Romana, which I also intend to read with my level three Latin students to ease their transition into authentic Latin texts next year. What I like most about Arnold’s novella is that it tells a real Roman story cherished by the Romans (recounted by Livy and Valerius Maximus)—that of Cloelia, whose bravery helped save the new Roman republic after Rome expelled its last rex, Tarquinius Superbus. The story starts with Cloelia in Lars Porsena’s Etruscan camp. “Cur in castris hostium sum?” Cloelia writes. “Rem totam tibi narrabo.” The subsequent flashback describes the rape of Lucretia by Sextus, Tarquinius Superbus’s son, the expulsion of Tarquin, his alliance with Lars Porsena, the bravery of Mucius Scaevola, and the peace treaty struck between the Etruscans and Romans that lands Cloelia in the Etruscan camp. Other flashbacks include the short tale of Callisto, a nymph assaulted by Jupiter, and the famous exemplum of Horatius Cocles, the brave Roman who fended off the Etruscans all alone across the Tiber River. Cloelia thus exposes the novice Latinist to many tales of early Rome in addition to that of Cloelia herself.
Arnold writes Cloelia with, I presume, a feminist theme in mind. There are a number of specific moments and repeated motifs that attest to the novella’s feminist perspective. First and most obviously, Cloelia tells the story from her own point-of-view as a parva puella. In the extant textual record, we have so few women writers; Perpetua, the third century Christian martyr, is the only other that I can think of off the top of my head from the classical period. Cloelia’s feminine viewpoint, then, immediately contests the normative masculine perspective favored by Roman authors. Second, Arnold inverts the typical association of virtus with men and pudicitia with women. “Quod virtus est viris, pudicitia est mulieribus,” her mother says at one point. Yet by the end of the novella, Collatinus tells Cloelia that Porsena “virtus tua ei placuit. Nunc decem captivas non vult, sed unam.” Cloelia not only embodies masculine virtus, she is also described as “fortissima et audacissima omnium Romanorum.” Note that the masculine Romanorum includes all the Romans, not just puellae. Finally, the repetition of Cloelia’s quintessentially Roman mantra, some version of “fortis sum, et audax, quia civis Romana sum” imbues her character with dignitas characteristically reserved for Roman men. Cloelia is uninterested in traditional feminine activities—“vestimenta mihi non placent!”—and therefore upends expectations of what she can and should accomplish as a parva puella.
Arnold’s Latin is suitable for elementary and intermediate Latin students. Insofar as she frequently uses subordinate clauses (relative clauses are abundant, and I spotted result clauses, fear clauses, and relative clauses of characteristic), a variety of verb tenses (almost all of them except for the pluperfect, by my count), and some participles, it may be most appropriate for intermediate Latin students who will soon read classical Latin. Arnold’s vocabulary is appropriately sheltered, with no more than 209 Latin words, and her repetition of phrases in different tenses and moods helps familiarize readers with similar fluidity in classical Latin texts. While there is less indirect discourse than I would have liked on account of its prevalence in Latin prose, Arnold frequently employs complementary infinitives with debeo and possum, which at least expose students to routine infinitives. Arnold also leaves out the passive voice in her prose, another syntactical feature often used by Roman authors. All in all, however, Cloelia is an excellent text to use in intermediate Latin classrooms. Skip the textbook articles about Tarquin, Lucretia, and Mucius Scaevola, and use this wonderful Latin novella to entertain your students instead.
December 26, 2021
allora cloelia figlia mia un cazzotto alla tua amica che iniziava con la i che era un po' maschilista ci voleva
poi lucretia 😭💔💔💔💔💔
federico poteva scegliere meglio ma almeno non era difficile come lettura dai
poi lucretia 😭💔💔💔💔💔
federico poteva scegliere meglio ma almeno non era difficile come lettura dai
March 3, 2019
Love that this brings up substantive issues like rape to talk about even in a beginner Latin book. Also love the amount of Roman (mytho-) history packed in!
August 11, 2019
Level E (Intermediate Mid)
This story, narrated in the first person by the protagonist and legendary hero of early Rome, Cloelia, is well told by author Ellie Arnold. Through Cloelia’s story, we also learn the stories of other early Roman/classical figures including Camilla, Lucretia, Kallisto, Mucius Scaevola, and Horatius Cocles. Because there are so many characters and stories woven together in this novella, it may be a little more difficult for less experienced readers to follow than some of the others I’ve read so far. Author Ellie Arnold includes a list of personae with Latin descriptions in the back of the book along with a glossary of Latin words used in the book, which is helpful. I think my intermediate students will enjoy reading this suspenseful story, and it will spark discussions about what the Romans valued and the roles of men and women in Ancient Rome.
This story, narrated in the first person by the protagonist and legendary hero of early Rome, Cloelia, is well told by author Ellie Arnold. Through Cloelia’s story, we also learn the stories of other early Roman/classical figures including Camilla, Lucretia, Kallisto, Mucius Scaevola, and Horatius Cocles. Because there are so many characters and stories woven together in this novella, it may be a little more difficult for less experienced readers to follow than some of the others I’ve read so far. Author Ellie Arnold includes a list of personae with Latin descriptions in the back of the book along with a glossary of Latin words used in the book, which is helpful. I think my intermediate students will enjoy reading this suspenseful story, and it will spark discussions about what the Romans valued and the roles of men and women in Ancient Rome.
December 18, 2017
I'm just excited to have read a book in Latin! It was a relatively easy read considering it is in another language and the index in the back was immensely helpful in making sure I was translating the tenses of verbs correctly. The story plot, though simple, was interesting. It was not overly complicated and really could not have been due to the use of a limited vocabulary to ensure readability for early Latin learners. I took a year of Latin last year and have since forgotten some of what I learned, but was still able to make it through the text just fine.
August 24, 2017
What I really enjoyed about this is that we can talk about female characters in Roman legend. We don't get much of that. There is a Cloelia passage in the Latin for the New Millennium textbook, so this novella will be a suitable supplement. I can't wait to use it with my Latin II group in the next week or two to review!
February 11, 2018
I quite enjoyed it. It is a simple read, but still a nice story. I would appreciate it even more if the level of difficulty were to increase with each chapter. Still, it's excellent and I am very grateful to the author for making it free and accessible to all who want to learn Latin.
December 2, 2016
A great text for intermediate students of Latin. Compelling subject matter compared to other dryer readers.
February 23, 2019
Cute story and fairly easy to read for a beginner of Lingva Latina as it is also engaging.
September 14, 2021
'Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata' abhinc trigintā diēs incipī, et fabulam ipsam legere possum!
December 17, 2021
It’s my first time reading a latin novella and i’m pretty proud of myself since i success to understand everything !
December 29, 2023
A very fun read.
September 22, 2024
I READ MY FIRST LATIN NOVELLA :3!!! this was so much fun but the ending made me sad, excited to read more novellas
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews