Roma Aeterna: With Full Color Illustrations

Lingua Latina per se Illustrata

by Hans Henning Ørberg

Roma Aeterna (the main book of Pars II of the Lingua Latina per se illustrata series, entirely in Latin *) introduces some of the most celebrated authors of Roman antiquity through the lens of Roman literature and mythology. A vivid description of the city's monuments precedes a prose retelling of the first four books of Virgil’s Aeneid, with many of the most famous passages in their original verse form. The selection from Virgil is followed by Book One of Livy's engaging mythical history of Rome's foundation. The prose selections are judiciously chosen and, in the first few chapters, gently adapted to provide students with a text that is authentically Latin and yet not difficult. The unadapted selections, which make up the majority of the text, are taken from Aulus Gellius, Ovid, Nepos, Sallust, and Horace. These annotated selections make Roma Aeterna useful both as the next step after Familia Romana and as a survey of Latin literature in its own right.

Roma Aeterna incorporates the following 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
* Index of Roman rulers and of historical events arranged chronologically
* Now with full-color illustrations

Genres: Language, History, Ancient History, Linguistics, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Education

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A significant step up in difficulty from its predecessor, this book prepares one to read original works in classical Latin. It's not effortless, but I couldn't recommend a better method for self study, as it uses the target language to instruct. It is the method I used, and successfully. I couldn't say how it would work in a classroom. See the first book in the series for a more complete overview and description.

[Nick Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few strange typos and editing choices (e.g. leaning toward manuscripts of Sallust with '-und-' instead of '-end-' in gerunds which are not correct by modern manuscript tradition).

Beyond a few editing issues, the strange cut and paste nature leaves the reader with work to do to fill in the blanks (like most of sections of Livy, Eutropius, Sallust, and Cicero, but sentences are cut out for vocabulary limitations).

Overall a good book. I recommend Jenny's Third Year Latin as an overall better advanced reader for later high-school or intermediate college students (as Pliny, Ovid, etc. are somewhat more gripping than this boring history lesson, even better sections of Cicero there).

Basically, if you want to read consistently, this isn't bad. Geoffrey Steadman's series, Dickenson College Commentaries, and Faenum Publishing are also great, full-text resources like this (without the clipping out of full segments).

[Lanny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freaking hard.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three years and eight months to get through this. Just so you know what you’re getting into.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not think the 'natural' method is necessarily the best way to learn Latin: at some point one really must sit down and learn some actual grammar. Nonetheless, as a graded reader for the intermediate student, comprised of actual Latin texts, this is a very useful book. Orberg takes the history of Rome as a loose framework to tie together excerpts from numerous Latin authors, from the hazy tales of Aeneas and Romulus down to the blow by blow campaigns of Pompey and Caesar. Caesar himself is conspicuous in his absence, given his ease of style relative to other authors featured prominently here (Livy, Cicero).

[Eleanor Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

we only read through the first quarter of it, but I'm constantly impressed with Orberg's ability to infuse his latin text books with the real stuff while keeping his text simple and at a student's level of comprehension.

[Benjamin Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and exceedingly challenging. Very good selections in their own right and which—nicely arranged and explained—give a helpful survey of Rome from Aeneas to Pompey.
It took me a long time and helped a lot. If I had taken longer, it would have helped more. But I was busy and often read with the laziness borne of haste. The exercises will, perhaps, wait for a second read.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whereas Familia Romana is a Latin textbook that happens to be relatively enjoyable to use, Roma Aeterna, made up of extracts and adaptations of texts from classical authors, is closer to being a worthwhile read in its own right that just happens to improve one's Latin ability. I recommend it but not as the very next step after Familia Romana: the difference in difficulty is too great. It would be a good idea to use some other readers in between, like large parts of the Vulgate and especially Ad Alpes to bridge the gap.