Ad Alpēs: A Tale of Roman Life

by Herbert Chester Nutting, Latinitium (Editor)

Lets face it, learning Latin takes time. It also demands a great amount of reading. Anyone setting out to read a lot of Latin is immediately faced with a special there are very few full-length intermediate-level Latin stories even faintly resembling a modern novel with its continuous story pulling the reader through to the last page. We are thus pleased and honored to be able to present this almost forgotten gem, Ad Alpes a Tale of Roman Life by H. C. Nutting. It is a long, continuous and varied narrative in excellent Latin, tracing the journey of a Roman family through the ancient world. Its overarching frame story contains within it many shorter stories, each of which is full of interest. This delightful book is a valuable supplement to any intermediate course because it provides the learner with what is often missing lots of extensive reading. It helps build language ability and confidence and, above all, it is fun!

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Nutting was perhaps the last major writer on Latin grammar of our time. In addition to his many articles and numerous notes on grammatical usage, he wrote a number of teaching texts, yet was a boring and repetitive teacher, especially in his elementary classes. His student Joseph Fontenrose gives an account: "The Latin text was never read; there was no discussion of a play or poem or essay nor of the author's literary art. The routine was invariable: Nutting called on a student to translate; the student translated a few lines or sentences, and then at a convenient stop Nutting would say, 'Sufficient for the translation,' make any necessary corrections, and occasionally point out some syntactical feature. Then he called on the next person to translate, and the cycle was repeated, and so on through the hour." He also wrote short Latin plays modeled on Plautus, which he would assign his students as an introduction to the author, before reading his edition of the Trinummus. He worked hard in the losing battle to keep Latin in California high schools and, though not warm, was kindly, helpful, calm, and proper.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nihil profecto utilius discipulis cuiusvis linguae est quam multum legere. Quae cum ita essent, opus est aditus multo facilior permultis scriptoribus antiquis, qui summa arte opera sua confecit. Quem aditum H. C. Nutting praebuit, hunc libellum lepidum fabularum antiquarum plenum.

[Edragone · Rating 4 out of 5]

4

Excellent ouvrage écrit dans un très bon latin qui suit les aventures d'une famille romaine voyageant "Ad Alpes". L'ouvrage est composé de 40 chapitres, d'environ 100 à 150 lignes chacun. Dans chaque chapitre, on retrouve des éléments de la culture romaine ou de la littérature romaine. Sont ajoutés des vers de différents auteurs qui permettent de se frotter directement à des passages purs. L'usage récurrent du procédé "raconte-moi une histoire", qui rappelle le Père Castor, devient parfois ennuyant mais puisque les chapitres sont rapides, ça va vite. A lire gradatim puisque sinon, c'est l'overdose

Très intéressant à lire, mais ce qui était de "l'intermediate level" à l'époque de l'écriture relèverait probablement du niveau avancé aujourd'hui : le latin est quand même difficile et tous les mots ne sont pas glosés infra, il faut soit les connaître, soit les chercher directement dans le glossaire à la fin.

Je relirai des chapitres de temps en temps parce qu'il faut avouer que c'est agréable de lire quelques vers çà et là !

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad my daughter suggested I read this, because it's a fun way to get some Latin practice. The chapters are not long and the story is pleasant. I think putting the family-on-a-journey wrapper around the dozens of short stories added a lot. My daughter (who started Latin with the somewhat similar Minimus books) also really liked it.

[Martina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raamvertelling van een familie die door de Romeinse wereld reist. Het Latijn is prachtig en er is nauwelijks verschil in moeilijkheid tussen de teksten in de hoofdlijn en de verhalen in de raamvertelling. De hoofdstukken zijn +/- 130 regels Latijn per stuk. Onder de tekst staan in voetnoten aanwijzingen, achterin staat een volledige woordenlijst Latijn-Engels.

De verhalen in de raamvertelling zijn gebaseerd op de Bijbel, Plinius, Livius, Suetonius, Ovidius, Vergilius (en anderen?) en zijn gegoten in het vocabulaire van het origineel. Passages uit sommige hoofdstukken zouden voor leerlingen in klas 3-5 als "embedded readings" kunnen fungeren om over te stappen naar het origineel. Zeker, omdat het gaat om het allerbeste van de Latijnse verhalen en teksten.

Zelf vond ik de Livius-verhalen het lastigst, omdat die mij het minst interesseren en ik er het minst van weet.

Het grote verhaal zelf is niet zo spannend: familie reist met kinderen en slaven door de wereld. Kinderen zijn over het algemeen braaf (met enkele uitzonderingen) en uiteraard wil een jongetjes bloederige verhalen en het meisje zoete verhalen. (cliché!) Verder is er een slaaf een beetje stout en worden gehandicapten en ouderen regelmatig bespot. Aan de spannendste stukken van de hoofdlijn, een ontvoering van de dochter en twijfel van vader waar de keizer hem detacheert zijn weinig emoties verbonden. Wel leuk is de dynamiek met de Joodse slavin en de link die tussen bijbelverhalen en mythologische verhalen wordt gelegd.

[caracolquiscol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narra, sis...

[Hayden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros: it's a lot of Latin to read. Much is taken from original sources or adapted well.

Cons: It's definitely not readable as extensive reading by students.
Not much interesting happens as the family travels. The basic story loop is the family going to a place, and either on the way or at the place or both, somebody tells a story or stories connected to the place. Rinse, repeat for 250 pages. There were a couple interesting or humorous vignettes, like the daughter getting kidnapped and ransomed by bandits or the family's irreverent slave getting treed by a dog, but they are the exception. I found most of it to be uninteresting, to the point that I put it down for a long time before deciding to grind to finish it.


A question I wasn't sure about: This book takes place after the destruction of the second Temple. Would the Roman family have been accepting of their Jewish slave Anna telling stories of heroes from the Hebrew Bible to the kids? My understanding is that after the Jewish revolt, Judaism was treated with essentially a damnatio memoriae. I could be wrong, though.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really and ideal choice for an intermediate student of Latin. The frame story of the family traveling from Asia Minor to the Alps is so flimsy that it hardly seems worth bothering with it at all. Apart from those short interludes, the rest of the book is composed of stories told by the various characters to each other during the long journey. The book includes a wide range of myths, historical events, and Biblical stories (thanks to a few Jewish slaves traveling with the family), all told in very readable Latin. The benefit of telling stories that the reader is already familiar with gives the added benefit of helping a student understand a confusing portion of text when they know what must be going on at that point in the story. Comendandum est.

[Drianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

N.b., I read the original, not Latinitium's edition.

I enjoyed this, overall, although I began to get really irritated with the 'tell us another story' device about halfway through. The many digressive stories included were interesting, certainly, but I wanted more things to *happen*. The ending was incredibly abrupt, as though the author had simply had satis superque?

The Latinity was very good, overall, although the author used a lot of Plautine expressions that were not appropriate to the time period the book is set in (such as the various words for 'please'). Mostly the adapted stories were well woven in.

Way too hard for students to read at speed, though.

[Benny Hinrichs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mihi placuit hic liber. Difficilis erat multis locis, ac frequentissime opus erat glossarium uti, sed operae pretium erat id legere. Aestimo hoc glossarium magnum valorem esse. Ipsa historia non valde excitans erat, tamen non possum nimis queri quia hic eram linguam discere, et nunc habeo scientiam maioram.

[Jørgen Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good choise to practise latin for internediate students, though you should expect to look up quite a lot of words. However, the book does contain a very nice and to-the-point dictionary. (write down all the words you look up for practise)

I recommend this book for students, who have finished LLPSI pars l and gotten a little more practise from Fabulae Syrae and other beginner-friendly sources.

This book does vary quite a lot in difficulty, but hang in there and take small bites.

Main story is rather bland, but it also tells a lot classical stories from mythology and history that are interesting. aas a practise book, it does the job well.

[Clement Crossthwaite · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is good as far as it goes: not so difficult and shortish chapters that make it easy to get ahead and improve your Latin. But the plot is not very interesting, in fact it is almost more like individual short stories of everyday life without much happening. If you are up to something slightly more advanced Gens et Gloria is much more rewarding both in terms of authentic Latin and as a real novel - or series actually - with an engaging and exciting plot.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent reader.

[Artzmeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for receiving more latin input, but gets repetitive after the first half. Still, the stories are interesting and well worth a read.

[Cécile de Rousiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perveni demum ad finem ! Multa didici, saepe oblecta sum. Mea sententia, hic liber magni ponderis ad discendum latinum sermonem.
Valde placebit satis peritis lectoribus !

[Trinity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obsecro, sis, legere librum!