Lesson Thirteen : Imperium Rōmānum /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

Up until now, I haven’t commented on the name of Capitulum Prīmum, which is Imperium Rōmānum. It may surprise you to know that imperium in ancient Rome was a type of authority, and only gradually came to mean ‘empire’.

Similarly, a prōvincia began life as a realm of responsibility (it could be for water supply to Rome, for example), and only gradually came to mean ‘province’ after magistrates where given geographical regions as their prōvinciae. You may already know that the French region of Provence takes its name from its earlier role as a prōvincia Rōmāna.

All of which I mention as a preamble to today’s reading, lines 55-61 of Capitulum Prīmum.

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata : Capitulum Primum : lines 55-61. To be fair to the publisher, after Capitulum Secundum extracts will not be given - you will need a copy of the textbook of your own.

Note: Way back in Lesson Six, we saw that nouns change their endings when following the word in; Italia became in Italiā and Eurōpa became in Eurōpå. This is true of all -a nouns. Here we learn that -um nouns (and the adjectives describing them) also change their endings after in, but to -ō. In imperiō Rōmānō multae sunt prōvinciae.

Well, this brings us to the end of the geographical outline contained in Capitulō Prīmō. Capitulum Prīmum continues, however, with an introduction to litterae (letters) and numerī (numbers). We’ll get to that in a few lessons time. For now, I recommend rereading the sections on geography as often as you are able.

Satis est. See you next time.

Lesson Twelve : A Little About Questions /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

On page 8 of Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima there is a list of the question words that you will meet in Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, Chapters 1-5. These question words include most of the big 5 - who, what, why, (not) when and where - along with a few others. So far you have met only ubi (where). As in Ubi est Rōma? Ubi sunt Sparta et Delphī? In today’s reading you will also meet quid (what). As in Quid est Sparta? Sparta oppidum Graecum est. Finally, you will learn the Latin root of the English word ‘ocean’.

from Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima, page 8.Only ubi and quid are relevant to you at the moment.

You have also seen that the addition of -ne to the end of the first word of a sentence indicates that the sentence is a yes/no question. Esnte Rōma in Italiā? Suntne Sparta et Delphī in Germāniā? (The answers to which are yes and no).

Sometimes, however, we like to ask a yes/no question indicating that we think the answer should be NO. To make this clear, we begin the sentence with the word num. Find the two uses of num in this example:

Līvia: Where are the Nile and the Tiber? Ubi sunt Nīlus et Tiberis?

Scīpio: The Nile and the Tiber are in Africa. Nīlus et Tiberis in Africā sunt.

Līvia: Is the Tiber in Africa? (Making it clear that she is expecting a NO answer.) Num Tiberis in Africā est?

Scīpio: The Tiber is not in Africa but in Europe. Tiberis nōn in Africā sed in Eurōpā est.

Līvia: Is the Tiber a big river? (Making it clear that she is expecting a NO answer.) Num Tiberis fluvius magnus est?

Scīpio: The Tiber is not a big river. Tiberis fluvius magnus nōn est.

Līvia: What is the Tiber? Quid est Tiberis?

Scīpio: The Tiber is a small river in Italy. Tiberis est parvus fluvius in Italiā.

With all this in mind, I hope you enjoy reading lines 49-54 of Capitulum Primum.

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata : Capitulum Primum : lines 49-54. To be fair to the publisher, after Capitulum Secundum extracts will not be given - you will need a copy of the textbook of your own.

Satis est. See you back here again tomorrow.

Lesson Eleven : Paucī Fluviī et Multae Īnsulae /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, Sodālēs.

Paucī and multī are two adjectives that appear for the first time in this lesson’s reading. You may notice by the endings, that these words only appear in the story in the plūrālis. Once you determine the meaning of these words, you’ll understand why. Note: In the margin, paucī and multī are separated by a double headed arrow. This means they are opposites.

Now, enjoy the reading. As always, the less you think about words in any other language than Latin, the better.

from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata (page 6)

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata : Capitulum Primum : lines 38-48. To be fair to the publisher, after Capitulum Secundum extracts will not be given - you will need a copy of the textbook of your own.

  • multī : many, a lot of

    paucī : few, not a lot of, not many

How are you finding the lessons so far? If you have time to write a comment - anything at all - I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Satis est. See you again soon.

Lesson Ten : Parvī Dī /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

In the previous lesson, you met two adjectives - magnus (big) and parvus (small). You may have noticed that the ends of these adjectives changed regularly. There is a perfectly good reason for this : adjectives change their endings to match the nouns they are describing. Let’s look at the noun and adjective pairs that you saw last lesson in lines 22-37; fluvius magnus, fluvius parvus, fluviī parvī, fluviī magnī, īnsula magna, īnsula parva, īnsulae parvae, īnsulae magnae, oppidum magnum, oppidum parvum, oppida magna, oppida parva. Note how the ends of the adjectives (magnus et parvus) change to match the noun they are describing.

Let’s learn two more adjectives; Graecus (Greek) and Rõmānus (Roman). Below are some of my Parvi Di (Little Gods), and a few sentences about them. Be sure to pay attention to the endings of the adjectives as they change.

The Greek deities are Ἀθηνᾶ (Athenα), Ἀφροδίτη (Aphrodite) and Ἄρης (Ares).

The Greek deities are Ἥρα (Hera), Ποσειδῶν (Poseidon) and Διόνυσος (Dionysos).

Minerva est dea Rōmāna. Venus quoque dea Rōmāna est. Iūnō et Minerva et Venus deae Rōmānae sunt.

Ἀθηνᾶ dea Graeca est. Ἀφροδίτη quoque est dea Graeca. Ἀθηνᾶ et Ἀφροδίτη et Ἥρα sunt deae Graecae.

Mars est deus Rōmānus. Neptūnus quoque deus Rōmānus est. Mars et Neptūnus et Bacchus deī (dī) Rōmānī sunt.

Ἄρης deus Graecus est. Ποσειδῶν quoque est deus Graecus. Ἄρης et Ποσειδῶν et Διόνυσος sunt deī (dī) Graecī.

Now let’s do the same with the -um noun monstrum, which I’m using in the narrow sense of ‘mythical beast’ or ‘monster’.

The Cyclops and the Minotaur (in Greek in Latin).

Κύκλωψ (Cyclōps) nōn est monstrum Rōmānum sed monstrum Graecum. Μινώταυρος (Mīnōtaurus) quoque monstrum Graecum est. Κύκλωψ (Cyclōps) et Μινώταυρος (Mīnōtaurus) nōn monstra Rōmāna sed monstra Graeca sunt.

Estne Mīnōtaurus in Italiā? Mīnōtaurus nōn est in Italiā. Mīnōtaurus nōn monstrum Rōmānum sed monstrum Graecum est. Ubi est Mīnōtaurus? Mīnōtaurus est in Crētā. Crēta est magna īnsula. Crēta est īnsula Graeca. Estne Cyclōps quoque in Crētā? Cyclōps nōn in Crētā sed in Siciliā est. Estne Sicilia īnsula parva? Īnsula parva Sicilia nōn est. Sicilia quoque īnsula magna est. Sicilia et Crēta īnsulae magnae sunt. Mīnōtaurus et Cyclōps sunt monstra Graeca.

Satis est. Come back soon to read the read the next 11 lines of Capitulum Primum.

Lesson Nine : A Tale of Four Rivers, Five Islands and Four Towns /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

If you have completed Lesson Eight, then you’ll find Lesson Nine somewhat familiar, with a few extra challenges thrown in. I’d like you to do the following, all at once. Then, once you are fairly confident, check your understanding.

  1. Read through Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, lines 22-37

  2. Determine the relationship between īnsula and īnsulae. (The -ae in īnsulae is pronounced like the -igh in high or the -y in my.)

  3. Determine the relationship between oppidum and oppida.

  4. Determine the meaning of magnus and parvus. Hint: The double headed arrow between parvus and magnus in the margin tells us that these two words are opposites.

  5. Note that the endings of parvus and magnus are always changing. We will discuss WHY in the next lesson.

Before you start, here is a list of the islands and towns mentioned in the text. Islands; Corsica, Sardinia, Sicilia, Britannia and Melita. And towns; Brundisium, Tūsculum, Sparta and Delphī. Note: Rōma is too large to be considered an oppidum. Instead, it is an urbs, a word you will meet in Chapter Thirteen.

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata : Capitulum Primum : lines 22-37. To be fair to the publisher, after Capitulum Secundum extracts will not be given - you will need a copy of the textbook of your own.

  • Īnsula is singulāris (island).

    īnsulae is plūrālis (islands).

What is the relationship between īnsula and īnsulae?

  • Oppidum is singulāris (town).

    Oppida is plūrālis (towns).

What is the relationship between oppidum and oppida?

  • Magnus and parvus are adjectives. Magnus means ‘big’ and parvus means ‘small’.

What are the meanings of magnus and parvus?

How did you do? Remember to return soon to learn WHY the ends of magnus and parvus keep changing. And to see some Parvi Di - Little Gods.

Satis est. See you shortly.

Lesson Eight : A Tale of Four Rivers /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

Today’s lesson will be a short one. Begin by locating these four rivers on the map on page 6; Nīlus, Rhēnus, Dānuvius et Tiberis.

from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata (page 6)

Now I want you to read Capitulum Primum lines 19-21. As you read, try to determine the relationship between fluvius and fluviī. Once you think you have it, click below to test your understanding. (The ī with the macron (line) over it is pronounced like a normal i but dragged out a little longer. The same is true of the ē in Rhēnus and the ā in in Germānia and in Italiā.

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata : Capitulum Primum : lines 19-21. To be fair to the publisher, after Capitulum Secundum extracts will not be given - you will need a copy of the textbook of your own.

  • Fluvius is singular (river).

    Fluviī is plural (rivers).

    From now on, I will be using the Latin for singular and plural (singulåris et plūrālis).

What is the relationship between fluvius and fluviī?

Now it’s time for you to practise. Choose any river and say to yourself, for example, Rhēnus fluvius est. Then choose any two rivers and say to yourself, for example, Nīlus et Tiberis sunt fluviī. Try it with different rivers and different word orders. Enjoy.

Satis est. Until next time.

Lesson Seven : Estne Gallia in Eurōpa? Ubi est Italia? /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

Read the reminder of the first page of Capitulum Primum (First Chapter) (lines 11-18). Looking at the punctuation, you will see that we have a mixture of questions and statements. Read it through a couple of times, paying special attention to two new features - estne and ubi. Can you determine what they mean?

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata : Capitulum Primum : lines 11-18 To be fair to the publisher, after Capitulum Secundum extracts will not be given - you will need a copy of the textbook of your own.

  • Estne is the word est with -ne added to the end. The addition of -ne to the first word of a sentence indicates that the sentence is a yes-or-no question. You may notice that the verb - est - has been moved to the question’s start. That is quite common for questions.

    ubi means where.

Congratulations. You have read an entire page of Latin. I encourage you to read the page several times. Try NOT to think about English words as you are reading.

Satis est. See you again soon.

Lesson Six : Rōma in Italiā est. /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte sodālēs.

The first three sentences of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata introduce the Latin word in. Read those sentences now. Rōma in Italiā est. Italia in Eurōpā est. Graecia in Eurōpā est. The textbook hopes that, by reading through these three sentences, you will be able to determine the meaning of in for yourself.

Reread those three sentences now, and decide what YOU think the Latin word in means. Once you have done that, click below to reveal the meaning of the word.

  • The Latin word in means ‘in’.

You should also note that words following in change slightly. The words for ‘Italy’ and ‘Europe’ are written Italia and Eurōpa. But when these words follow in, there is a line placed above the final -a; in Italiā and in Europā. This line is called a macron, and it tells us that when we say these words we should lengthen the sound of that vowel. (Some word always have a macron somewhere in their spelling, such as Rōma and Eurōpa.)

I now want you to read as far as line 10. These lines include another five new words. These are et, sunt, quoque, nōn and sed. Again, the textbook hopes that you will determine the meaning of these words for yourself. Read through these lines until you feel that you have determined their meaning. Once you feel that you understand these words, click below to confirm your understanding.

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata : Capitulum Primum : lines 1-10. To be fair to the publisher, after Capitulum Secundum extracts will not be given - you will need a copy of the textbook of your own.

  • The meaning of these words are:

    et - and

    sunt - are (this is the plural of est) : Graecia in Eurōpā est. Graecia et Italia in Eurōpā sunt.

    quoque - also

    nōn - not

    sed - but

Now that you confidently know the meaning of these words, reread lines 1-10 a couple more times. Try NOT to think about the English meaning as you read. Congratulations. You are reading Latin.

Satis est. See you again soon.

Lesson Five : īnsula fluvius oppidum /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

Open up Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata to page 7, Capitulum Primum.

(A capitulum, by the way, is a ‘chapter’. Primum has a primary meaning of ‘first’, but its meaning can range from ‘the beginning’ to ‘the most important.’ Here it means ‘first’. Capitulum Primum is ‘the First Chapter’.)

from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata (page 7)

The chapter begins with a lovely illustration, with three features labeled - īnsula, fluvius and oppidum. These words, which identify an island, river and town, have been careful selected by the textbook’s author, Hans H. Ørberg. Each one is an example of a different type of noun.

The four types of nouns met in Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata Chapters 1-8

For completeness, I’ve added nouns that end in -r. We can arrange these four noun types into families. Think of all the nouns that end in -us (fluvius, amīcus, equus, deus) as one type of noun. We will call them -us nouns. These nouns are closely related to the -r nouns (vir, puer). They are so closely related, that we might consider them siblings. -us nouns and -r nouns are masculine*. -um nouns like oppidum belong to the same family as -us and -r nouns, but are not quite so closely related. Lets think of them as cousins. -um nouns are neither feminine nor masculine. The grammatical term for that is ‘neuter’. Lastly, -a nouns (īnsula, amīca, equa, dea) belong to a totally different family. And -a nouns are feminine*.

* Usually. There are exceptions, but we won’t be seeing any for quite a while.

So, what does it mean that -a nouns and -us -r -um nouns belong to two different families? Nothing for now. But I’d like you to remember it for when I bring it up again later. Mostly I’d like you to appreciate that Ørberg has chosen these three words with great care.

Before you go, take a look at the map on page 6 (also below) and create a few Latin sentences of your own using īnsula, fluvius and oppidum. I’ll start: Corsica īnsula est. Nilus est fluvius. Oppidum est Sparta. Enjoy!

Lesson Four : The Rest of the Familia /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

The time has come to introduce the remainder of the husehold and two more Latin words; puer and puella.

Parents and their children from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. Figures by Playmobil.

Puer, like vir, is a noun that ends in -r but is closely related to those nouns that end in -us (more on this next lesson). A puer is a young human male. A puella is a young human female. See how you go reading the following sentences. If you have any trouble, ask for help in the comment section.

  1. Iūlius est vir.

  2. Aemilia fēmina est.

  3. Mārcus est puer.

  4. Puer est Quīntus.

  5. Iūlia est puella.

A little on Roman family names. Mārcus and Quīntus are both praenomina. Their full names would be Mārcus Iūlius and Quīntus Iūlius. Their father, who is called Iūlius in the book, would also have a praenomen. The famous Iūlius Caesar, for example, was Gaius Iūlius Caesar. Gaius was his praenomen, Iūlius his nomen and Caesar his cognomen. Every girl born into the family is given the feminine form of the family’s nomen - hence Iūlia. Aemilia’s father must have been named Aemilius.

Before you go, repeat the exercise from yesterday. Think of a puella and puer you know, and put them into a Latin sentence. I’ll go with the Simpsons - Lisa est puella. Bartus puer est.

Satis est. See you soon.

Lesson Three : The Enslaved /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodāles.

In the previous lesson, we saw that nouns and names that end in -a (dea, amīca, Minerva, equa) are feminine, and nouns and names that end in -us (deus, amīcus, Mercurius, equus) are masculine. While this rule is not followed 100% of the time, it is followed in the opening chapters of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata - so we will take it as a rule for now.

The Latin word familia describes something different to our modern concept of ‘family’. A better translation is ‘household’. The familia introduced in the textbook contains a wife and her husband, three children, and a terrifying one hundred (!) enslaved men and women. A few of these enslaved men and women are seen living in the house - most of them go unnamed and unseen.

Two enslaved women and two enslaved men from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. Figures by Playmobil.

Beneath Syra and Dēlia you see the word fēmina. A fēmina is a female human aged around 30-50. Ending in -a it is, of course, feminine.

Beneath Dāvus and Mēdus you see the word vir. A vir is a human male aged around 30-50. There are several nouns - like vir - that end in an -r instead of an -us. These are also masculine. We will meet another - puer - in our next lesson.

Here are some sentences for you to read (est, you may remember, means ‘is’) :

  1. Syra est fēmina.

  2. Dēlia fēmina est.

  3. Dāvus est vir.

  4. Mēdus vir est.

Lastly, try to internalise these two new words. Think of a fēmina or vir that you know, either personally or otherwise, and throw their name into a Latin sentence. I’ll go first. Natalie Haynes est fēmina. Tom Holland vir est.

Satis est (This is enough). I’ll see you back here soon for Lesson 4.

Lesson Two : OMD! /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs. And welcome back.

Let’s take a look at the front cover of Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima. You will see two Roman gods with their Latin names, Minerva and Mercurius. Remember that the ‘v’ in Minerva is pronounced like a ‘w’ and I’ll put in caps the syllable that you want to stress. miNERva and merCUrius.

From Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima (front cover)

Take your attention to the fact that Minerva ends in an -a and Mercurius ends in a -us. When we meet the characters of our textbook next lesson, we are going to find that all the girls and women have names that end in -a and that all the boys and men have names that end in -us.

In Lesson One I mentioned that the Romans have two words for friend, amīca and amīcus, that are gender specific. The word for a female friend ends in -a and the word for a male friend ends in -us. The same is true for equa (female horse) and equus (male horse).

More relevant here, however, are the words dea (goddess) and deus (god). With this in mind, I’m going to show you your first Latin verb and give you some sentences to read. Your first verb is est, often translated as ‘is’. I’m also going to show you that Latin word order is more flexible than English word order; all four of the following sentences are grammatically correct.

  1. Minerva est dea.

  2. Minerva dea est.

  3. Mercurius deus est.

  4. Mercurius est deus.

This is enough (satis) for today. Satis est. See you tomorrow.

By the way - if you have any questions or comments about the course, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Lesson One : Hello Hello(s)! /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs.

Surely we have to start with ‘Hello’. Or, as we say in Latin, ‘Be well!’. Yes, that’s right! The Latin way to greet somebody is to order them to be well.

To order one person to be well we say salvē. To order more than one person to be well we say salvēte. The ‘v’ in Latin is pronounced like a ‘w’ and I’ll put in caps the syllable that you want to stress. SALvē. salVĒte.

This brings us to an important concept: Latin word endings change a lot (salvē vs salvēte for example). We can worry about how and why later on, but it helps to know this as you’re going in.

I’ll begin most of my posts by saying ‘Salvēte, sodālēs.’ Sodālis is a Latin term for a friend and sodālēs is its plural, friends. Salvē, soDĀlis and Salvēte, soDĀlēs.

The textbook uses amīca (female friend) and amīcus (male friend), so these are the words that you’ll see there. I use sodālis because it’s gender non-specific.

Do you have some people in your life that would be happy to be greeted in Latin? If you do, let them know you are telling them to be well and try it out. If not, practise on animals you see throughout the day. I am forever saying ‘Salvēte’ to my students and my cats.

From Legonium Disco, lesson one.

Prologue : Learn Latin Here! /  by Anthony Gibbins

Salvēte, sodālēs. Would you like to learn Latin with the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata textbook? Then you have come to the right place. Starting soon (if not already) I will posting short lessons here every couple of days, to assist learners making their way through the first 8 chapters of the book (and maybe further if it all goes well).

You will need a copy of the textbook, and I recommend printing out Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima. Simply click on ‘Downloads’ under LLPSI and ‘buy’ a free copy.

More soon!

The LLPSI textbook and Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima.