Last week, I came across a playlist of vintage Halloween animations on Youtube. At first, I thought about doing a Latin narration over top of the soundtrack, but I generally dislike narrations over top of busy scores and find them difficult to listen to. I didn’t want to strip the musical score from the animation because films like these really are made to go with their scores, so I decided to do narrative captions in Latin. These captions are intermediate-level. I made a vocabulary list from the captions, which I will attach below. In the list, words are in order of appearance and some very basic conjunctions and adverbs are omitted.

’Skeleton Frolic’ (1937) with Latin captions:

Vocabulary List for ‘Lascivia Larvarum’:

Lascivia Larvarum 💀

49.2KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

It’s quite a few words, but the video is seven minutes, and virtually all of the words are demonstrated by the action in the video.

What do you think of videos like this in Latin? Do they help you learn? How could you make use of the vocabulary list? Comment below if you have any ideas!

Don’t order from our shop after today or tomorrow for Halloween

At the end of last week, I had a spate of Halloween orders from our Etsy store of Halloween-themed Latin shirts and posters. First of all, thank you. But second of all, because of “factors outside of our control,” the supply chain for our printers has been the weirdest and most disrupted I’ve seen it in the three years I’ve had the shop. The orders that I processed this weekend should ship in time to arrive (in the U.S.) for Halloween. However, based on the production times for these orders—and these issue more than the shipping times—I’m not sure that any orders placed after Monday or Tuesday (the 19th and 20th of October) could really hope to be delivered before Halloween in the U.S. In Europe, it’s definitely not happening. And to clarify, I make all of the designs, but they are print on demand because we are a niche shop.

Order soon!

After Halloween, I’ll turn the shop over to Saturnalia season, and that should be plenty to order before the December holidays. 🎄

Don’t forget our Halloween reading list!

If you are still looking for eerie, haunted, criminal, or spooky Latin readings, check out our list we published earlier this month:

Curate ut valeatis!

We’ve compiled a “seasonal” list of excerpts and stories from Classical and later Latin literature. Topics range from Ciceronian murder-mystery stories, to the sorceress Medea, to the Thessalian necromancer Erictho, to werewolves, to medieval zombies. Many of the titles used in this list are from R.C. Reeves’s Horrenda, 1958. If you are still a beginning reader, the easiest stories here are the tiered text from Olaus Magnus about werewolves and the Byland Abbey ghost stories.

The Haunted House

Plautus, Mostellaria, 431-531

The Werewolf

Petronius, Satyricon, 61-62

The Vampires

Petronius, Satyricon, 63

Ghost Stories

Pliny the Younger, Epistolae VII.27

The Cheesemonger’s Tale (Aristomenes and Socrates and the witches)

Apuleius, Metamorphoses, I.5-19

Appleton’s retelling. Starts at beginning of book.

The Corpse-Watcher

Apuleius, Metamorphoses, II.21-30

The Fretful Elements (the portents that followed Julius Caesar’s assassination)

Vergil, Georgics, I.463-488

The Death of Orpheus

Vergil, Georgics, IV.507-527

Witches of the Campus Esquilinus

Horace, Satires, I.8

The Sorceress (Medea)

Ovid, Metamorphoses, VII, 159-349

The Thessalian Witch (Erictho)

Lucan, Pharsalia sive Bellum Civile, Book VI (see selections in our book, starting at line 413)

Mass Murderer of Larinum

Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 7-11, 13-14

The Traveling Companions

Cicero, De Inventione Rhetorica, II.4

Murder Will Out

Cicero De Divinatione, I.27

Murder in the Balneum

Pliny the Younger, Epistolae, III.14

Byland Abbey Medieval Ghost Stories

12 short ghost stories from medieval northern England

William of Newburgh’s Prodigies and Omens

12th century Historia Rerum Anglicarum, Chapters 22-25

Olaus Magnus on Werewolves

Tiered excerpt from Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, 16th century

Would you like a more guided tour of ancient magic and necromancy?

There are still spots left in Victor’s class, Echoes from the Grave: Erictho and the Voice of Latin Epic. The class uses our graded reader, Erictho: Tartarorum Terror, that we wrote with Victor. The course will be taught via guided reading and engaging discussion of the linguistic, cultural and historical aspects of Book VI of Lucan’s Pharsalia (sive Bellum Civile) in order to develop the participants' active use of the Latin language. As the course and the reader are designed to accommodate students’ first foray into hexameter poetry, there will be a deep dive into Latin phonology and metrics — naturally, all done in Latin.

15% discount on this class with code: LUPUSALATUS15

The subject of much of book VI of Pharsalia, Erictho, is perhaps the most fearsome witch of antiquity. She’s so unholy that she cannot enter into places of human habitation but must dwell in defiled and emptied tombs in remote cemeteries. Her breath itself is poisonous and magical. She can create zombies that can see the future. She can open fissures in the Earth to yell down into the Underworld!

Class starts very soon: October 3rd!

Learn More or Register

Curate ut valeatis!

If you follow us on social media, you know we post a lot of Latin proverbs. When we started doing this, our two main sources were the Adagia of Erasmus and Publilius Syrus’s Sententiae. Last year, one of my friends shared “Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sinnsprüche des Mittelalters, aus Handschriften gesammelt,” Werner, Jacob, (1912). This is a collection of a couple thousand medieval proverbs sourced from 20 different manuscripts. We find that our favorite proverbs are about animals, and we probably post those most frequently. As such, we had a few requests from teachers who follow us to make a classroom resource that features some of these medieval proverbs. Additionally, most of these proverbs, including all of them on our poster, present a unique way (to most Classicists) to teach hexametric verse!

See our Latin posters!

Lupi

As far as animals go, just as in Greco-Roman proverbs, wolves are prominently featured in the sayings and aphorisms of the Middle Ages. When I was looking for medieval images of wolves for this project, I finally came upon an explanation for something peculiar I had noticed: wolves are often depicted biting their legs or paws in medieval illustrations …

Wolves are supposed to be cunning and stealthy. If they alert their prey to their presence, they often lose the advantage of surprise and risk retribution from a protective sheepdog or armed farmer. In these medieval drawings where wolves are biting their paws, that paw has made a noise by snapping a branch vel sim., and the wolf is punishing the offending, noisy paw with a bite. These images were downloaded from The Medieval Bestiary website, which is a wellspring of links to and information on medieval bestiary manuscripts. Bonus wolf proverbs at the end of this post!

Horrenda

We’re working on two projects right now. The first is finally preparing a manuscript of Reeves’s Horrenda, an anthology of lightly adapted criminal, ghostly, or just simply strange stories from antiquity. The goal is to have this book available on KDP by the beginning of October a.k.a. the start of Spooky Season. Currently, the book, which was published in the mid-20th century by a now defunct publisher, is only available if you get really lucky in a used bookstore, mainly in the U.K. We are in the process of reviewing the text itself and correcting some errata, adding macrons, updating the English introductions, notes, and glossary, and finally, putting the manuscript in LaTeX to make a printable pdf.

The other project is a Latin translation of a well known work that Victor and I are working on — we won’t say more than that for now, but we are hoping to have it available in November.

Tartarorum Terror

And speaking of spooky season, don’t forget about our favorite witch Erictho. Our tiered reader of selections of book VI of Lucan’s Pharsalia is designed for approximately the same level of learner as Horrenda, though the pedagogical approach is quite different.

See more pages from Erictho

Get the news in Latin again!

Nuntii Latini are back! Some of you may remember the monthly publications of current events in Latin from the National Finnish Broadcasting Network. After a hiatus the Academia Latinitati Fovendae is once again publishing the news in Latin — this time weekly on Substack instead of monthly. Here’s their latest post.

Nuntii Latini - ALF

Mensis Iulius A.D. MMXXVII (26/VII - 31/VII)

Novi impetus in Jordanià Citeriore…

Read more

3 months ago · 6 likes · Nuntii Latini - ALF

Drop them a subscription!

Bonus medieval wolf proverbs that didn’t make the poster:

A cornice lupus turbabitur inveteratus.

The old wolf will be annoyed by the crow.

Si lupus est agnum, non est mirabile magnum.

If the wolf eats the lamb, it’s not really surprising!

Si sapit, oblatum gratis lupus accipit agnum.

If he’s wise, the wolf accepts the lamb that’s offered up.

Vulpes vult fraudem, lupus agnum, femina laudem.

The fox wants a stratagem, the wolf a lamb, the woman praise.

Assumat gladium, quicumque lupo sociatur.

Whoever associates with a wolf should pick up a sword.

Aure lupi visa sequitur certissima cauda.

After the ear of the wolf is seen, the tail most certainly follows.

Consonus esto lupis, cum quibus esse cupis.

Be in accord with the wolves with whom you want to eat.

Dum canis egressit, lupus ad nemorosa recessit.

When the dog ventures forth, the wolf retreats to the woods.

Fit rumor magnus, lupulum si vicerit agnus.

It becomes a big deal if the lamb overcomes the wolf.

Gutture clausa lupi raro solet esca relabi.

Food rarely escapes the jaws of the wolf once they have closed.

Curate ut valeatis!

Idus Martiae appropinquant!

The Ides of March are almost here. If you’d like to gear up in honor of the occasion, Lupus Alatus is having a 20% off sale on Caesar-themed shirts.

Shop the Sale!

Something New in the Public Domain

On January 1st of this year, creative works from 1930 entered the public domain, including Watty Piper’s retelling of the story of the determined Little Blue Engine that could (illustrated by Lois Lenski). This is one of my favorite books from early childhood, though I’m reasonably certain I had a later edition. You can see both the 1930 and a 1954 edition here.

But what does this have to do with Latin? Well, nothing yet! But we are hoping to change that. This is a short and repetitive work, and I’m almost finished with translating it. I plan to publish the Latin text with the 1930 illustration by Lenski. I will likely sell it as a paperback on Amazon (KDP) and publish a pdf here or on Etsy at the same time. The translation is just about ready to go to an editor but …

I’m struggling with train onomatopoeias in Latin. In English, “chug, chug; puff, puff; ding-dong” are used in the text. The verbs “to puff” and “to chug” are also used.

I would be happy with any suggestions on how to render these words into Latin.

For “chug, chug” (remember: Classical Latin has no “ch” sound like in English, ecclesiastical Latin, or Italian):

—I have no idea what I verb in Latin would be for “to chug.”

Sound effects:

—Tut, tut

—Tucutun, tucutun (sound horses make in Spanish, I believe)

What I’m looking for: a sound that starts with a dental consonant that resembles the repetitive mechanical sound of a steam locomotive train moving down the track. I would prefer there to be some attestation of a similar sound in a Romance language.

For “puff, puff” or “to puff” :

—sufflare is the right verb, I’m fairly certain.

Sound effects:

—suff, suff; uff, uff; huff, huff; pff, pff

I’m unsure what the actual “sound effect” would be here. Any suggestions?

For “ding, dong”:

—tintinnare is the verb

Sound effects:

–tin, ton; din don.

These sound effects are similar to those or the same as in other Romance languages. If anyone has an attestation for the actual sound in Latin, that would be wonderful!

Gratias multas! Curate ut valeatis!

P.S. Other translations of fables I’ve worked on: Three Goats Gruff (Tres Capri Asperi) and Country Mouse and Town Mouse (Mus Rusticus et Mus Urbanus). 🐐🐁

We have many new items in our store this Saturnalia season!

• ornaments

• scarves

• blankets

• postcards

and more!

Discount codes 💸

Use the code SATURNALIA5 to get $5 off $25+ and SATURNALIA10 to get $10 off $50+.

Shop Using Discount Code

Stock the pantries 🥫

We’ve already made several sales out of our 100% to Food Charity Category. 100% means that 100% of the profits for these items go to stocking my neighborhood’s little free pantries or as donations to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. Between the sales in this category and our Halloween sales, we’ve been able to donate about $175 worth of food!

New items coming!

A few weeks ago, I found some cool resources for learners that I’m going to add to our shop the first week in December — I’m traveling until then! For example, I now have this vintage set of 1,000 Latin vocabulary cards for learners. The box is a little dinged up, but the cards themselves are in excellent condition. I like these cards because they provide not only Latin vocabulary with English definitions, but also related Latin words and synonyms. Keep an eye out for these cards, an OCT of Livy, and some other books that will be coming soon!

Our book, Erictho: Tartarorum Terror, is now on our store!

Good news is that you now don’t have to order our book on Amazon — you can buy it directly from our store. It will still be printed by KDP, but you can order directly from us. Less good news is that this option isn’t available outside of the U.S. But, it is possible it can be arranged if you live in certain countries. You can message us on Etsy if you live outside of the U.S. and would prefer not to buy from Amazon.

Get Erictho!

Krampus is also coming!

Krampusnacht is December 5th, on the eve of St. Nicholas Day. It’s likely we won’t write another newsletter until after then, so we wanted to remind you we have a Latin video all about Krampus! The Latin text of the video is shown on the screen, and it has English subtitles. Cavēte Crampum!

Cūrāte ut valeātis!

Our e-mail: contact@lupusalatus.com

In Petronius’s Satyricon, there is a very well-known story about werewolves. But just after Niceros tells this story, Trimalchio follows it up with his own Halloween-worthy short story: the tale of the strigae. Petronius’s discussion of the strigae brings me back to a question that I had when writing Erictho: Tartarorum Terror: what is the “right” Latin word for “witch?” If you think about all the modern languages that have a word for “witch” like strega in Italian that derives from striga, you might thing striga is the best choice. However, when we say “witch” in English, we usually mean something closer to sāga or maga. Sāgae and magae are the spell-chanting, potion-making, fortune-telling witches that are closer to what we think of when we picture a witch standing besides her cauldron. But what are strigae? Even in Petronius, what they are is a little murky: some sort of female, wailing creature that lurks outside and steals the bodies of children. Strigae are decidedly more monstrous than sāgae, even one like Erictho.

I realized when making this video that Francisco Goya’s paintings of witches depict something closer to strigae than sāgae:

Goya has depicted these witches as nocturnal and barely human, and the title and basket let us know they are engaged in the same activities of the strigae in the Satyricon.

In his book Horrenda, R.C. Reeves titled Trimalchio’s story about strigae “The Vampires,” which is his interpretation of what strigae were. I’m not sure I exactly agree with this, but it illustrates the problem with simply translating striga as “witch.”

Watch the video and decide for yourself what they were!

The video has Latin captions. I had issues uploading the English captions, so here is a file with a translation:

Vampire Witches English Captions

55KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Here is the text of Trimalchio’s story about strigae with macrons added, notes and glosses in Latin, and comprehension questions:

Strigae In Petronius

106KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Saturnalia season is coming!

Tomorrow is the last day of the Halloween sale in our Latin store. At the beginning of November, we will change our store over to Saturnalia season. Just fyi, I won’t run a sale in November or December. That’s because I’m going to use nearly all the profits from our sales to stock up the little free pantries in my neighborhood. Also, if you donate on our support page on our website through the end of the year, I will commit 100% of of these donations to stocking up our little free pantries and giving to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.

Shop the Halloween Sale

Help Us Stock Our LFPs

Donate Directly to CENC Food Bank

Curate ut valeatis!

(I would rather you donate to the above right now than consider a paid subscription! Gratias!)

Duae Somnia Prodigiosa

I found the second story in our video in R.C. Reeve’s book Horrenda, which we wrote about here. Since the Latin is slightly adapted I wanted to look at the original Latin of Cicero in De Divinatione, and I saw there was an additional dream which was discussed, so I also included that story in the video.

You might infer from the title of Reeves’s book that these dreams are nightmares, but they aren’t. Many of the stories in his book are more prodigiosae — just weird or strange — than really horribiles. With these two stories, Cicero’s brother Quintus is advocating in De Divinatione that ominous dreams whereby humans can divine the future are real. It’s not covered in the video, but Cicero disagrees with this viewpoint and goes on to refute it in De Divinatione.

Listen to the stories here (with Latin subtitles + English translation):

Text of the Stories

To make this video more useful to learners and teachers, I’ve prepared the text of the dreams with macrons and a Latin-Latin glossary and notes. There are also included some exercises in Latin that are comprehension-focused.

Horrenda Cicero De Divinatione Texts

117KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

In the pdf, I also made lists of words from the stories that have words that are useful for Halloween-ish activities:

Halloween Sale

We have 30 different Halloween designs up in our store that feature Latin, including t-shirts, trick-or-treat bags, and classroom posters. Here are some of our favorites:

Shop the Sale! 👻

Erictho is Also a Good October Read

If your desire for the prodigiosa and horrenda in Latin is not yet sated by our newest video or t-shirt designs, you can check out our intermediate-advanced tiered reader about Erictho! In Erictho: Tartarorum Terror you’ll find

• Two tiers of Latin that retell the verses of Lucan and help you read “real” Latin.”

• A Latin guide on how to understand hexameter.

• The scariest witch, Erictho, in the spookiest place in the ancient Roman world, Thessaly.

• The ingredients for a potion that teaches you how to make a zombie in Latin 🧟‍♂️.

See a Sample Page 📃

Curate ut valeatis!

In a little over a week, I'm starting my second season of classes with the amazing Latinitas Animi Causa. The 4 courses I taught over 5 weeks of last summer were some of the most fun I've had in years, and it seems my students enjoyed them just as much I did. Inspired by this, I decided to redouble my efforts together with both of those numbers. From the end of September to the end of November, I'll be teaching 7 different courses, with one repeated for American and European time-zones. Whether you’re starting from scratch, bridging the infamous “intermediate gap,” or ready to dive into poetry and prose, my courses will help you read, speak, and think in Latin with confidence.

—Victor K.

Victor’s Fall Latin Courses:

On weekdays:

• Active Latin from Scratch (from LLSPI: FR cap. 1) — beginner courses for American & European time zones, meeting twice a week.

• Intensive Familia Romana (LLPSI: FR cap. 16+) — pick up beyond the basics, ideal for motivated autodidacts or flexible schedules.

• Bridging to Intermediate — consolidate your passive and develop your active skills with Sermones Romani and Fabulae Syrae.

On weekends:

• Latin Poetry Courses — read Phaedrus’ fables and Lucan’s Erictho (from a reader co-authored by us) with a focus on pronunciation, performance, and discussion.

• Advanced Literature Seminars — dive into Catullus’ love poetry (Catullus +/- Lesbia and Virgil’s Eclogues (Bucolic Arcadia and the Roman World).

Sign Up!

No Human Author Needed

In the past two years, there has been a proliferation of self-published, A.I.-generated Latin readers on Amazon KDP. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish these books from ones that people write. However, they always have A.I.-generated covers, generally read like Latin mapped directly on top of English, lack idiomatic expression, and contain mistakes in spelling and morphology. Now, some of these issues are present in human-generated materials. However, the combination of the three, especially the frequency of morphological errors in the A.I.-generated materials makes them pretty easy for me to spot. But these are books targeted at learners. Beginning learners cannot spot these issues, especially with the Latin.

Is it worth it to try to address this?

Since the Latin community online is relatively small and we know a lot of the people who moderate these communities, it seems possible we could make an effort to make people aware of these A.I.-generated books. I have long hesitated, despite being asked on many occasions, to make “approved lists” of the novellas and other similar resources I think are better (or those I think aren’t so good) or even review them for political reasons within the American Latin teacher community. So, I think least controversial way to address this is to make a “no buy” A.I. list and distribute it in the larger communities on Reddit and Facebook. I understand this is, at best, a partial remedy for the issue. However, dozens of new learners join these communities with hundreds of thousands of users each day, so this information would reach some people. Also, there is, for now, a relatively small number of these A.I. authors on Amazon. It’s not an insurmountable task to identify them.

I’m also interested in your feedback in the comments. Additionally, I think this affects people who want start writing and selling resources for Latin learners the most. Lupus Alatus, for instance, has established sales channels and an internet presence, and people know we are people. New authors can more easily get flooded out of the market by the sea of A.I. books.

Curate ut valeatis!

A few weeks ago, I found this listing online in a catalogue of Latin readers:

Upon searching around the internet, my friend found a couple reviews for Horrenda by R. C. Reeves. These are excerpts from those reviews:

Despite the “judginess” of Brian and John, I still wanted to find a copy of this book because I apparently have the Latin tastes of a pupil. I was expecting the stories to be highly adapted or simplified based on the attitudes of the above reviewers. There is no pdf of Reeves’s Horrenda online and scant information aside form the above reviews, but my friend was able to find a used copy of this book. And I received it his week!

I have no idea why using this book would not be beneficial. The stories in Horrenda are either unadapted or barely adapted selections of Pliny, Apuleius, Plautus, Petronius, and even Cicero. If you are to the point where you can read at this level, the selections are great! Maybe the reviewers thought the subject matter too unserious and ghastly?

Tables of contents:

De Divinatione

In a story which Reeves titles “Murder Will Out,” a prodigious dream is recounted. This story is taken from Cicero’s De Divinatione, the two-book-long debate he has with his brother Quintus about whether auguries, prophecies, divination, and the like are mere superstition or valid ways whereby the truth or the future is revealed to humans. To support his argument in favor of these practices and portents, Quintus relates the story of two dreams which were apparently often cited by the Stoics as evidence in support of divination or revelation via dreams.

Reeves omits the text of the first dream, which I will add here:

Quid? Illa duo somnia, quae creberrume commemorantur a Stoicis, quis tandem potest contemnere? Unum de Simonide: Qui cum ignotum quendam proiectum mortuum vidisset eumque humavisset haberetque in animo navem conscendere, moneri visus est, ne id faceret, ab eo, quem sepultura adfecerat; si navigavisset, eum naufragio esse periturum; itaque Simonidem redisse, perisse ceteros, qui tum navigassent.

"And who, pray, can dismiss the two following dreams which are very often recounted by Stoic writers? The first one is about Simonides, who after he ad seen the dead body of some unknown man lying exposed and buried it, and when he had it in mind to go on board a ship he was warned in a vision by the person to whom he had given burial not to do so and that if he did he would die in a shipwreck. Therefore, he turned back and all the others who sailed were lost.”

Here’s the page from Horrenda with the story of the second dream. The text has been lightly adapted by Reeves.

This is very close to the actual text from Cicero:

Cum duo quidam Arcades familiares iter una facerent et Megaram venissent, alterum ad cauponem devertisse, ad hospitem alterum. Qui ut cenati quiescerent, concubia nocte visum esse in somnis ei, qui erat in hospitio, illum alterum orare, ut subveniret, quod sibia caupone interitus pararetur; eum primo perterritum somnio surrexisse; dein cum se conlegisset idque visum pro nihilo habendum esse duxisset, recubuisse; tum ei dormienti eundem illum visum esse rogare, ut, quoniam sibi vivo non subvenisset, mortem suam neinultam esse pateretur; se interfectum in plaustruma caupone esse coniectum et supra stercus iniectum;petere, ut mane ad portam adesset, prius quam plau-strum ex oppido exiret. Hoc vero eum somnio commotum mane bubulco praesto ad portam fuisse, quaesisse ex eo, quid esset in plaustro; illum perterritum fugisse, mortuum erutum esse, cauponem re patefacta poenas dedisse.

“Two friends from Arcadia who were taking a journey together came to Megara, and one traveller stayed at an inn and the second went to the home of a friend. After they had eaten supper and gone to bed, the second traveller, in the dead of the night, dreamed that his companion was imploring him to come to his aid, as the innkeeper was planning to kill him. Greatly frightened at first by the dream he arose, and later, regaining his composure, decided that there was nothing to worry about and went back to bed. When he had gone to sleep the same person appeared to him and said: 'Since you would not help me when I was alive, I beg that you will not allow my dead body to remain unburied. I have been killed by the innkeeper, who has thrown my body into a cart and covered it with dung. I pray you to be at the city gate in the morning before the cart leaves the town.’ Thoroughly convinced by the second dream he met the cart-driver at the gate in the morning, and, when he asked what he had in the cart, the driver fled in terror. He then removed his friend's dead body from the cart, and when the crime was made clear, the innkeeper was punished.”

What will we be doing with the stories in Horrenda?

I’ve shown you the above story about prophetic dreams so that you can see an example from the book and how close it is to the original text of Cicero. But also, we plan to make a Youtube video about this story — and many others! — from Horrenda. Since the text is very high intermediate to advanced, I have in mind to not only recite the stories, but to explain them in Latin.

What if you can’t get enough of scary Latin?

There’s still one spot left in Victor’s course on our book Erictho: Tartarorum Terror, which starts July 1st! If the last spot is taken or you don’t fell comfortable being a full participant in the course, you can audit the course at a 50% discount.

Register or Learn More

In addition to the course on Erictho in book VI of Lucan’s “Pharsalia”, Victor is teaching a series of less scary (we hope) courses built around extensive reading and discussion to develop your passive and active proficiency, with minimal English. These courses begin on June 29th or July 1st, depending on the course, and will last for 5 weeks:

• The not-really-a-novice (2 days a week) – this intensive course starts at chapter 1 of the book Familia Romana and is perfect for those folks who learned Latin via the grammar-translation method, but still can't read it with fluency and without relying on translation. Also suitable to those who have reached fluency in at least one foreign language.

• The lower-intermediate (2 days a week) – picks up at chapter 19 and the introduction of the various verbal tenses. It's designed for those who are more confident in their passive knowledge, but want to solidify it as well as develop their active ability with the language.

• The supplementary reading (2 days a week) – offers guided extended reading and discussion (in Latin!) from novice to intermediate level including stories and acted-out dialogues. Perfect for those who want to supplement their LLPSI curriculum and pick up some active Latin along the way.

Read More About Victor's Classes

All classes are 90 minutes, late morning to early afternoon EDT. If you want to take a course but don't feel comfortable participating actively, you can enroll as an auditor at a 50% discount. Listen, work through the book and gain confidence. You'll also have access to recordings of the classes. It's possible to enroll after the classes start!

Curate ut optime valeatis!

You feel good about your progress, but you want more. You want to finally progress from textbook Latin and on to authentic classical-era texts. And you don’t just want to read – you want to enjoy.

You understand poetry to be the ultimate expression of literary art, and Latin poetry to be one of world literature’s crowning jewels. You dread it somewhat, but you want to get it. Not do scansion exercises, really get it: the meter, the syntax, the performance.

In short, you've found yourself staring at the intermediate gap and struggling to find the bridge.

You aren’t alone. We’ve all been there. And now there is an exciting new way to get to the other side.

Latin Poetry with No Translations and No Apologies

This summer, step into the shadow of civil war and Rome’s most unholy unravelling. While everyone else is reading Fābulae Facilēs or talking about unguentum contrā sōlem, you’ll be conjuring the dead with the most powerful witch of Antiquity.

Take the Path. Join the Course.

In Echoes from the Grave: Erictho and the Voice of Latin Epic, we’ll read one of the most haunting episodes in Roman poetry: the necromantic rites of Erictho, Thessaly’s most feared witch, as told by Lucan in Dē Bellō Cīvīlī aka Pharsālia. But this will be no lecture, no commentary crawl and no English summary. We’ll be reading selections from the poem, interpreting and discussing them with the help of two prose paraphrases. All in in Latin.

Using the graded reader I co-wrote with my friend and colleague Jessica McCormack, you will:

• work through and discuss the original text and its two paraphrases in Latin;

• learn to understand and rephrase Latin on its own terms, without recourse to English;

• get to grips with Latin’s notoriously flexible poetic syntax;

• practice your pronunciation and master your understanding of the Latin prosody;

• learn about the Romans' conceptions of fate, magic and the divine;

• peer into the Underworld… or even beyond!

The course will take place over 10 1.5-hour sessions, on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM EST, and will last for 5 weeks (from July 1st to August 2nd). Course participants with access to Amazon’s on-demand printing shipments will receive a free copy of the book, Erictho: Tartarorum Terror.

Will you dare tackle Latin poetry on its own terms? Will you have the courage to face the ghosts of Roman past?

No translations. No apologies. Join us in the Underworld.

The course has been made possible by the small but awesome team at Latinitas Animi Causa. This summer, I will also be offering three courses based around the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata textbook series: two intensive introductory Latin courses for those familiar with Latin grammar, and one lower-intermediate course for those wishing to consolidate their knowledge and develop their active abilities before moving on to greater things. Head over to LAC to check out the courses on offer, inclding those by other instructors.

Thank you for reading this newsletter! This is a bit of a new experience for me, and I’ll be very thankful for any thoughts and feedback. Should you have questions or suggestions about my courses, Latin poetry, learning Latin or editing a Latin book you’re writing, you can dispatch a nūntius rētiālis to me by clicking the button below:

Send Victor an Email

Finally, here’s a little poll, made especially but not exclusively for those readers who aren’t able to take the course right now:

Is it a mini-podcast?

I decided to record a little of what I think about Latinitas and when it’s useful to think about it, announce that I’m writing a new novella, and discuss resources I use when I write:

Topics in this discussion:

• What is Latinitas to me in the 21st century.

• When is it useful to think about Latinitas or try to use “correct Latin.”

• How to approach vocabulary when writing resources for students.

  • Avoiding assigning modern English meanings to Latin roots [of English words].

  • Prioritizing high frequency words from historical literature in didactic materials.

• I’m writing a new intermediate novella about Erictho!

• Resources I use when writing Latin:

  • PHI Latin texts (a searchable corpus of Classical Latin)

  • Morcus.net or the dictionaries on Latinitium

  • Wagner’s thesaurus

  • Forcellini’s Latin-Latin dictionary

  • Thesaurus Linguae Latinae

  • Walter Ripman’s “A Handbook of the Latin Language” (with a classified vocabulary; just added to Google books and Archive)

Useful animal sayings in Latin

If you follow us on social media (IG, FB), you may have noticed we like to learn and share proverbs or sayings in Latin. And while we generally like paremiology, our favorite proverbs involve animals. Recently, we created a poster with some of our favorite animal proverbs that mostly originate in Classical Latin:

We also have many other posters that are helpful for the Latin classroom:

Shop Posters

Sources of the sayings on the posters above:

1. Ne bestiae quidem ferre possent. Cicero, In Verrem.

2. Sus Minervam. Also a very common proverb in the ancient word. Cicero in his Epistulae.

3. Caninum prandium. Aulus Gellius discusses it in his Noctes Atticae.

4. Aquila muscas non capit. I think this might be originally Greek. Erasmus translates it here.

5. Piscis a capite foetet. Eramus is just like, yeah this is really common, and gives it in Latin and Greek. I've heard this before in English too. I don't know what the original ancient source is.

6. Lac gallinaceum. Probably originally in Greek. It's in Aristophanes's Wasps. Pliny makes mention of it in his Naturalis Historia.

7. Asinum tondere. Erasmus gives its original source as Aristophanes's Frogs, so it was Greek.

8. Crabrones irritare. Plautus, Amphitruo.

9. Hamum vorare, Plautus, Curculio.

10. Lupus in fabula. This is in both Terence and Cicero. It appears to have been a very common proverb in Latin and ancient Greek.

11. Sine pennis volare haud facile est. Plautus, Poenulus. Erasmus says this proverb was common in Europe even during his lifetime.

12. Uno saltu duos apros capere. Plautus, Casina.

Summer reading!

Are you looking for some not-so-light summer reading? Would you like ensure your personal space on the beach with chthonic curses? To terrifying your fellow beach-goers by spicing up your morning walks with a side of necromancy? This summer might be the time to try our tiered Latin reader of the Roman poet Lucan that features the Greek witch Erictho.

Get Our Book!

Erictho, Tartarorum Terror features:

• Over 12,000 words of Latin

• A Latin-Latin glossary and notes on each page

• Lucan’s verses explained and retold in two different levels of Latin

• Tips for reading hexameter

• A Latin introduction to prosody and metrics

• See a sample page here

Curate ut optime valeatis!

Today is April 21st, 2025, or in traditional Roman notation, ante diem xi Kalendas Maias anno MMDCCLXXVIII ab urbe condita, that is, “the 11th day [counting inclusively] before the Kalends of May in the year 2,778th year from the founding of the city.” Historical Roman dating often used a.u.c., that is “ab urbe condita,” or “from the founding of the city,” to reckon the year. So, that makes Rome 2,778 years old today! Dies natalis sit faustus! (Here’s a handy Roman date converter.)

Designs and shirts that celebrate April 21st

Go to our Etsy store

Also, we’ve removed shirts printed on the Gildan and Hanes brands from our store since they are manufactured in El Salvador. We’ve redone a lot of shirts on different brands (most are Bella + Canvas, which are manufactured in the U.S.), but there are still a lot of designs missing which will be added back. Most were fall or holiday-themed designs.

AP Latin Vocabulary List

We’ve started a new project to help Latin teachers whose program culminates in AP Latin. The AP Latin syllabus (a test very roughly equivalent to the GCSE in the U.K.) was recently updated by the College Board. As part of this update, they added a required vocabulary list of 1,000 words with English definitions (and other useful info like where the words occur in the assigned texts). Additionally, I thought it would be useful for teachers who do a lot of rephrasing and CI instruction to have a list of Latin definitions, synonyms, and antonyms. (And also to have macrons on the words.) I also think Latin definitions like this will be helpful for resource creation, e.g. stories and videos in Latin. So, I’ve started a spreadsheet where I’m adding those things. However, since there are quite a few words, I could use some help. If you are interested in helping out, I can add you as an editor the the Google sheets file. There are instructions and resources to help you define words in Latin in the file. Email me at contact@lupusalatus.com to be added as an editor.

The mauve highlighting is there because we’re still working on that one!

Curate ut valeatis!

Cavete Idus Martias!

What did Caesar do that supposedly provoked the conspirators into action on the Ides of March in 44 B.C. ? We’ve made an intermediate-advanced Latin video detailing the reasons given in Roman sources. We chose to cover the Periocha, a paraphrase by an anonymous author, of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita because 1) this book of AUC itself is lost and 2) the Periocha is more intermediate-level than Suetonius or Cicero, though we do discuss an excerpt from Cicero’s Philippics in the video.

In the Periocha, we are given three ways that Caesar inflamed the hatred of the the conspirators and his opposition. The first reason given in the Periocha is also the most significant reason that Suetonius gives in his biography of Caesar for the deadly hatred that was aroused against him. Interestingly, this reason is purely symbolic.

From the Suetonius Vita Divi Juli:

Verum praecipuam et exitiabilem sibi invidiam hinc maxime movit: adeuntess se cum plurimis honorificentissimisque decretis universos patres conscriptos sedens pro aede Veneris Genetricis excepit.

“But it was from this especially action that he caused deadly hatred towards himself: he received the senators approaching him with very many highly honorary decrees sitting in front of the temple of Venus.”

The most important word here is “sitting,” and we read the same in the Periochia: Caesar remained seated when the Roman senators approached him acting in their official capacity. This was interpreted as a flagrant display of disrespect.

Watch our video to learn what else Caesar did to inspire hatred in the senatorial faction and what Cicero thought about Mark Antony’s hijinks during the festival of Lupercalia:

Check out the sale!

He said what??

The following things that Caesar allegedly said were, according to Suetonius, recorded by Titus Ampius, who was a contemporary of Caesar. However, it should be noted that Ampius was a staunch pro-Pompeian and Roman senator and proconsul. Therefore, his harsh portrayal of Caesar should not be surprising.

Nec minoris inpotentiae voces propalam edebat, ut Titus Ampius scribit:

“And no less arrogant were the things he said publicly, as Titus Ampius writes:”

1) Nihil esse rem publicam, appellationem modo sine corpore ac specie.

“The Republic is nothing: it’s a name without a body or appearance.”

2) Sullam nescisse litteras, qui dictaturam deposuerit.

“Sulla was ignorant since he renounced his dictatorship.”

3) Debere homines consideratius iam loqui secum ac pro legibus habere quae dicat.

“People ought to speak with him more carefully to consider his word to be the law.”

4) Eoque arrogantiae progressus est, ut haruspice tristia et sine corde exta quondam nuntiante futura diceret laetiora, cum vellet; nec pro ostento ducendum, si pecudi cor defuisset.

“He went so far in his arrogance that when a haruspex announced that the innards were unfavorable and without a heart, he said that they would be more favorable in the future when he wished it and that it shouldn’t be taken as portent if a beast had no heart.”

Curate ut valeatis!

It was time for an update!

Two years ago, I compiled a list of Latin Youtube channels primarily in Latin. Unfortunately, quite a few of those channels have stopped making content, but we’ve gained several high quality channels. I’ve updated the list to include those channels, removed a couple channels that have been taken down, and noted which channels are no longer uploading. If you have any suggestions for Youtube channels that are primarily in Latin, that is either Latin discussion or recitation, please comment below!

Shop The Ides Sale!

Highlighting new channels

Here are several new channels that have been created since the last list:

Amīca Certa ⭐

Intermediate, high-intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10 minutes. 50+ videos. Subtitles: none. Last upload: still active.

Various topics about daily life and the ancient world; travel vlogs; latin grammar and expressions. Highly recommended for intermediate-level learners.

Latin Everywhere ⭐

High-intermediate, literary. Video length on average: 5 minutes. 40+ videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: end of 2024; possibly still active.

Reading Latin everywhere, from everywhere, by an experienced Latin teacher. Reading Latin inscriptions and lesser known Latin authors from everywhere around the world from any era.

The Modern Hermeticist

Intermediate. Video length on average: 15-20 minutes. 3 videos in Latin on a larger channel mostly in English. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: still uploading.

A Latin only podcast, De Arte et Mysteriis, which serves to provide brief explanations of concepts and texts in the history of western esotericism in simple, comprehensible Latin.

Parva Hinnula ⭐

Intermediate. Video length on average: 3-5 minutes. 40+ videos. Last upload: summer 2024; possibly on hiatus.

Elzbieta Gorka’s channel where she explains Latin sayings and locutions. Very good for those in the “intermediate plateau.”

Vincentius Nguien ⭐

Intermediate. Video length on average: 3-5 minutes. 40+ Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin and English. Last upload: still uploading.

Vlogs and excursions in Latin. Some explanations and holidays and cultural events and recitations from literature.

Why did I make this list? 

In order to help you find Latin content, I’ve listed most of the Youtube channels that have been or are dedicated to producing mostly Latin videos or a substantial number of them. I’ve tried to give you an idea of the level of the content in each channel and the topics of the videos. I also think it’s important to note which channels have subtitles or display the text on screen as this can be helpful for learners, so you’ll find that information as well. I hope you find this list useful in your studies and enjoyment of the Latin language!

Read the original post here.

*This list is in alphabetical order. You’ll see a ⭐ by the channels I consider the “core” or “essential,” especially for learners.

Latin YouTube 2023 (update 2025)

Amīca Certa ⭐

Intermediate, high-intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10 minutes. 50+ videos. Subtitles: none. Last upload: still active.

Various topics about daily life and the ancient world; travel vlogs; latin grammar and expressions. Highly recommended for intermediate-level learners.

Alexander Vērōnēnsis ⭐

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5-20  minutes.  Over 100 Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin, Italian (select videos only). Last upload: unfortunately, doesn’t seem to be uploading in Latin any longer.

Quite a few videos in Latin, Italian, and Greek, as well as the Sermōnēs Raedāriī podcast, and the beginner podcast Capite Censes from Alessandro Conti. 

Alexius Cosānus

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 10 minutes. Dozens, probably 100s of Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Many introspective monologues, poetry (original and otherwise), music, and teaching.

AncientRomeWithAmy

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 15 minutes. 100+ Latin videos. Subtitles: English. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Vlogs, beginner conversation topics, and gaming in Latin including Silent Hill and Tomb Raider.

András Alkor 

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10 minutes. Over 15 Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: uploads intermittently.

Vlogs, live streams, and several topical videos. 

Aprīlis Albuquerquēnsis 

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 5 minutes. Over 100 Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: no longer active. 

Recitations of many ancient Roman poems, mainly Catullus and Vergil. Often set to music by accompaniment with a lyre. 

Athēnaeum Illūstre  

Advanced. Video length on average: 30-60 minutes. 20 videos. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: 2016 years ago/no longer active. 

Academic topics, mostly concerning neo-Latin literature and the historical teaching of Latin. 

Beātus Helvētius ⭐

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10 minutes. 55 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Different topics (mainly nature, education and history) discussed in clear Latin with accompanying visuals and props. A must watch channel for learners. 

Bhasa Devi 

Intermediate. Video length on average: <5 minutes.  5 Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: 2019/no longer active. 

A handful of short videos about varying topics. 

Borekius Mārcus 

Intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10 minutes.  20 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2012/no longer active. 

Plays skillfully acted by theatrical group LVPA from Prague. 

Caesō Vincentius Lentulus 

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes. 11 Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin, English. Last upload: 2017/no longer uploading Latin content. 

Several videos about daily activities in Latin with a few vlogs in Latin and a music playlist.

Cathedra linguārum antīquārum 

Advanced. Video length on average: 60 minutes.  11 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2018/no longer uploading Latin content. 

Mostly lectures by Stroh on Latin style. 

Classics at Home

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 60+ minutes.  Over 100 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Several dozen Latin audiobook videos (including Augustine’s Confessions), many online class recordings, recordings of Roma Aeterna, many student/teacher-aimed videos in Spanish, and a lot of Greek.

This channel has been deleted but some of their content is available here.

Collēgium Latīnitātis 

Intermediate, high intermediate. Video length on average: 30 minutes.  30 videos. Subtitles: None. Still active and uploading. 

All-Latin class sessions on ancient works demonstrating the natural method of teaching, as well as a couple lectures by Petterssen and Carfagni. 

Coquāmus 

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 20 minutes. About 20 Latin videos. Subtitles: English, Latin. Last upload: 2020/no longer active. 

A cooking channel in Latin! Mostly modern recipes. Tim Smith as chef with his daughter sometimes assisting.

David Amster 

Intermediate, Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 5 minutes.  75+ Latin videos. 

Subtitles: Latin text on screen plus an English translation. Last upload: still active and uploading.  

Metrical recitations of Roman poetry, mainly Catullus, as well as explanatory notes and comments which makes the poems more accessible to learners.  A very nice collection!

Dīvus Magister Craft ⭐

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10 minutes. 65+ Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin, English. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

The award-winning project to teach Latin through Minecraft created by Iūlus Craft. Many videos on Roman history, architecture, literature, and mythology told in comprehensible Latin with accompanying animations, often from Minecraft. Highly recommended channel for beginners!

Evan der Millner - Latīnum 

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 5-60 minutes.  100s of Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

A mind-numbing collection of readings. Basic and not so basic dialogues, phrasebooks, authentic texts, even grammars. 

Fīat Lapidēs 

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 1-20 minutes.  100+ Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Mostly recitations of poetry with some analysis and translation into English. Also some other readings e.g. Robert Fludd and Winnie Ille Pu. 

Found in Antiquity ⭐

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Literary. Video length on average: 10 minutes. 100+ videos in Latin. Subtitles: Latin. Latin text sometimes on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Fun and learner-friendly videos including gaming in Latin, introductory level conversational topics, guided readings, and grammar. Also discussions of pedagogy and ways to learn Latin in English. 

Gāius Annaeus Iacōbus 

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 5 minutes.  About 100 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2021/no longer active. 

Teaching and demonstrating how to recite poetry using the poems of Catullus. 

GrecoLatinoVivo

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: variable.  17 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: intermittently uploads in Latin still; most Latin videos from 2023 and before.

A lot of different types of content including interviews, conferences, and the beginner series “Silas et Maria.”

HI PAWS

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: <5 minutes.  5 Latin videos. Subtitles: English with Latin text on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Most of this channel’s videos are focused on memorization of grammar paradigms (but set to music). However, there is a small “texts” playlist that is Latin literature set to synth pop. Too cool to omit!

Iōannēs Oculus 

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10 minutes. 40 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: not uploading much in Latin anymore; most Latin videos from 2021 and before.

Readings of vocabulary sets for beginners as well as recitations of the Christian gospels. Very clear and precise pronunciation.

Itinerario: cultura grecorromana en latín 

Intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10  minutes.  16 videos. Subtitles: Latin, Spanish, English. Last upload: 2018/no longer uploading to this series. 

Jorge Tárrega Garrido, Esteban Bérchez Castaño, Guillermo Palao, Carles García &  María Luisa Aguilar give lectures in Latin on art pieces on Greco-Roman mythology in Madrid’s Museo del Prado. 

Latīnē Audiō -  Ἑλληνιστὶ ἀκούω 

Beginner. Video length on average: 5 minutes.  75+ Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still/uploading active. 

Youtube shorts for beginners, some longer Latin videos, and a lot about how to approach learning Latin through speaking and reading.

Justin Slocum Bailey

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes.  About 100 videos. Subtitles: Latin on the listening project videos. Last upload: 2021/no longer uploading. 

Check out the “Latin Listening Project” and “Itinera-Latin travelogue” playlists for learner friendly content. Very clear pronunciation and subtitles make comprehension easier.

Latin Everywhere ⭐

High-intermediate, literary. Video length on average: 5 minutes. 40+ videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: end of 2024; possibly still active.

Reading Latin everywhere, from everywhere, by an experienced Latin teacher. Reading Latin inscriptions and lesser known Latin authors from everywhere around the world from any era.

Latinitas Animi Causa

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: it varies.  Over 50 Latin videos and shorts. Subtitles: None. Latin text is sometimes on screen. Last upload: still/uploading active. 

Many vlogs and conversational prompts in Latin. A lot of video game play that was originally streamed on Twitch. The shorts are great for “small bites” of daily Latin! Clear communication for beginner and intermediate students.

Latīnitium - Daniel Pettersson ⭐ 

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 5-20 minutes.  132 Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin, English. Last upload: last upload from the beginning of 2024.

Videos in Latin on a variety of subjects, ranging from idioms, to literature, myths and legends as well as tips for learning Latin. In the videos where Daniel reads literature, he always explains it in Latin.  On Latinitium.com’s podcast you can find transcriptions of the videos with further information. The audio of many videos is also available on iTunes as a podcast (Latinitium Podcast). Very high quality channel for intermediate to advanced learners. 

Legiō XIII

Intermediate. Video length on average: 45 minutes. 90 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading.

One of the first Latin podcasts featuring Luke Ranieri and friends. It has just celebrated its fifth anniversary. Good listening for intermediate-level conversation.

Leucomustāceus: parerga ōtiōsa 

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 10-15 minutes. 10 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: doesn’t seem to be uploading in Latin anymore. 

A handful of videos about daily life as well as Latin literature. 

Litterae Chrīstiānae by Matthēus Brasīliēnsis ⭐ 

Intermediate, advanced, Literary. Video length on average: 25 minutes. 55+ Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading.

A channel for Fr. Matthēus’s podcast about historical Christian literature. Very well done and informative and entertaining for the non-Catholic student of history, Latin, and literature as well. 

Lupus Alatus

Intermediate. Video length on average: 10 minutes. 20+ Latin videos. Subtitles: English with Latin text on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading.

Fables, scary stories,  and descriptions of mythological and fabulous creatures in intermediate-level Latin. 

Mārtīnus Loch 

Intermediate, advanced, Literary. Video length on average: 5-45 minutes.  10 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading.

A view vlogs in Latin about Poland as well as several Latin videos about literature. 

Magister Berolīnēnsis 

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5-10 minutes.  10+ Latin videos. Subtitles: None/Latin text sometimes on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading.

Vlogs in Latin, topics related to Latin that are discussed in German, readings of intermediate-level Latin stories. A great channel, especially for German speakers. 

Magister Mārcus 

Beginner. Video length on average: 5 minutes. 25 Latin videos. Subtitles: Spanish, English, French, Italian, Portuguese! Latin text on screen. Last upload: mid-2024.

Very well done cartoons for beginners. Pairs very well with the beginning of LLPSI. 

Magistra Parmasan Cheese by Magistra PC 

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 10 minutes. About 60 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: beginning of 2024.

Many Sims videos divided into thematic playlists. Lots of everyday vocabulary!

Magister Piazza - John Piazza

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 10 minutes, but it varies.  About 60 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Latin text often on screen. Last upload: still intermittently uploading.

Latin songs, demonstrations of basic Latin conversation, and recitations and discussions of Latin literature that are mostly in Latin. 

Melētus Suāvis 

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes. About 80 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2022/no longer active. 

Many vlogs in Latin, including some from Jerusalem when Melētus was at the Polis Institute. Lots of vocabulary for discussing your everyday surroundings. Some explanations of literature in Latin as well. 

Menelmacar - Loganus Kilpelä 

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 60 minutes.  2 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2020/no longer active. 

Only two videos, but they’re good ones: recitations of the first two books of the Aeneid with vowel quantities well-observed and preserved. 

Michael Stephanus Tranquillus

Beginner, intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 5 minutes. 31 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Readings from Familia Romana, recitations of literature, and a few vlogs.

The Modern Hermeticist

Intermediate. Video length on average: 15-20 minutes. 3 videos in Latin on a larger channel mostly in English. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: still uploading.

A Latin only podcast, De Arte et Mysteriis, which serves to provide brief explanations of concepts and texts in the history of western esotericism in simple, comprehensible Latin.

Mūsa Pedestris ⭐

Beginner, intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 10 minutes, but it varies. Over 125 videos in Latin. Subtitles: Latin on some videos. Last upload: still intermittently uploading.

A wide variety of content, but one of the best places on Youtube for explanations of all things related to Latin meter. Vlogs, recitations of literature, explanations in German of Latin-related topics, and really good live streams with Rumak et al. 

Nagoridion Briton

Intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes. About 25+ Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin, French, English, Spanish. Latin text often on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Translations of pop songs and soundtracks into Latin. Vocals over the original music. Great source for truly contemporary music in Latin. 

Nicholas van Laerhoven

Intermediate. Video length on average: <5 minutes. Over 150 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: last Latin upload in 2021.

Readings with accompanying illustrations from what I believe is Comenius’s Orbis Pictus from the 17th century. Good for learning vocabulary about the natural world.

Nikos Papageorgiou

Intermediate. Video length on average: <5 minutes. 7 videos in Latin. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: 2024/no longer active.  

Several videos of the news in Latin as well as a few other videos including a Latin translation of a Greek folk poem and a narration about Persephone.

Nivēs Ursa  Channel no longer exists; if you know where this content has been movedto, let us know.

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 5 minutes.  11 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2019/no longer active. 

Several Classical Latin poems turned into songs. Pulchrē canit. 

Noctēs Wratislaviēnsēs - Katarzyna Ochman

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 10 minutes. 40 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2024; might upload intermittently.

A variety of types of content from literary recitations, to vlogs, to Polish Pconferences and classes in Latin. 

Latin with Olli

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes.  32 Latin videos. Subtitles: None but Latin text is on screen. Last upload: 2023/no longer uploading. 

Readings of Fabellae Latinae, the original accompanying stories with LLPSI. 

Onagrus

Literary. Video length on average: 10 minutes. Over 100 Latin videos. Subtitles: English but Latin (and Greek) text is on screen. Last upload: still uploading.

Copious recitation of mostly post-Classical literature including Catholic Church Fathers, Erasmus, Comenius, Mirandola, and many other humanists.

Open Latin by Open Latin - open-licenced translations

Intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes. 10 videos in Latin. Subtitles: English and Latin. Last upload: maybe still active and uploading. 

Videos about historical cities in Latin with a variety of narrators. 

Óscar Ramos Rivera quī et Ānsgarius Legiōnēnsis

Intermediate. Video length on average: 10 minutes, but it varies. Over 100 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2023/no longer active.

Videos on various subjects, including LLSPI, conversational Latin, conferences, and classes from Roberto Carfagni. A good collection, but the sound quality is often lacking. 

Ōtia Mea

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 20  minutes.  About 55 videos. Subtitles: None but sometimes Latin text on screen.. Last upload: still active and uploading.

Interesting and well-made videos about various topics including whether Caesar invaded Mars and the Berlin wall. There are also explanations of Latin literature in Latin.

Paideia Institute ⭐

Intermediate, high intermediate. Video length on average: 30  minutes.  About 30 videos. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: A year ago/most Latin videos seem to be uploaded annually after the Living Latin in New York conference. 

Various lectures in Latin by Tunberg, Tárrega, Minkova, Owens, Llewellyn, et al. mostly on topics concerning philosophy, academics, and the Latin language. Most lectures are from the annual LLiNY conference. 

Parva Hinnula ⭐

Intermediate. Video length on average: 3-5 minutes. 40+ videos. Last upload: summer 2024; possibly on hiatus.

Elzbieta Gorka’s channel where she explains Latin sayings and locutions. Very good for those in the “intermediate plateau.”

Pernox 

Beginner, Intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes. 15 videos in Latin. Subtitles: English and Spanish. Last upload: still uploading.

Songs translated into Latin and other Latin content about culture and everyday life.

Quandō Alia Agētur 

Beginner. Video length on average: less than 5 minutes. 40 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None but some text on screen. Last upload: 2021/no longer active.

Mostly very short vlogs on various topics. Some Chinese and Latin videos. 

Quōmodo Dīcitur? - not the full podcast.

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes. About 30 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2021/no longer active.

Some short readings on Classics-related topics and history as well as some introductions to episodes of the podcast. 

Refugium Fābulārum

Intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes. 5 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Latin text sometimes on screen. Last upload: 2023/no longer active. 

A few videos about various Classics-related topics. 

Satura Lānx - Irene Regini ⭐

Beginner, intermediate, literary. Video length on average: 10 minutes, but it varies. Over 100 videos in Latin. Subtitles: Latin. Last upload: still active and uploading.

Vlogs about everyday life, introductory-level videos about Latin phrases and conversation, explanations of literature in intermediate-level Latin. A very beginner friendly channel and one of the best!

Schola Hūmānistica

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: it varies. About 25 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: still active and intermittently uploading. 

A collection of a few lectures, classes, and vlogs in Latin. Very nice class on Apuleius. The most recent addition to the channel are Ancient Greek.

Schola Latīna 

Beginner, intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 60 minutes but it varies. 70 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None, but sometimes the Latin text is on screen. Last upload: still active and intermittently uploading.

Examples of their spoken Latin classes from beginner to advanced level as well as conferences and academic presentations in Latin from some of most experienced Latin speakers. 

Scorpiō Mārtiānus - Luke A. Ranieri ⭐

Beginner, intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: variable. 100s of videos in Latin and probably the most extensive collection on Youtube. Subtitles: None, but sometimes the text is on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading.

Readings of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, pronunciation guides for beginners, songs in Latin, interviews, vlogs, conversational Latin, recitations of literature — you name it, and you’ll find it here! The best channel for learners using LLPSI, but it’s pretty much a must watch for everyone. 

Scott Meadows

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 60 minutes. 30 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2017/no longer active.

Robert Carfagni instructing Josiah Meadows and demonstrating how to teach Latin in Latin.

Sermō Multifārius This channel no longer exists. If you know where this content has been moved, let us know.

Intermediate, advanced. Video length on average: 25 minutes. 4 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Sometimes Latin text is on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading.

Discussions of various topics and literature in intermediate-level Latin.

Sergio Antonini 

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 50 minutes. About 35 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Last upload: mid-2024; maybe on hiatus.

Latin literature skillfully set to music and sung. 

Societās Philologa Polonōrum 

Intermediate, high intermediate. Video length on average: 45 minutes. 5 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2018/no longer active. 

A handful of lectures on the Latin language and other related academic subjects, including presentations by Čepelák and Ochman.

Stephanus Victorius/Rumak 

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: variable. About 20 videos in Latin. Subtitles: Latin. English and Italian as well on Medea. Last upload: last upload mid-2024 but probably just on hiatus.

Recitations of Latin literature, a full-length Latin performance of an original version of Medea, lessons about Ancient Egyptian in Latin, as well as translations of songs into Latin. A very unique channel with beautiful Latin pronunciation. 

ThePrinceSterling  

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 10 minutes. 100+ videos in Latin. Subtitles: English and Latin. Latin text often on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading.

A lot of dramatic recitations of various genres of Latin literature. Good inflection and dramatization. 

t. Miura

Advanced, literary. Video length on average: 10 minutes. Over 100 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Latin and Japanese text often on screen. Last upload: still active and uploading. 

Recitations of Classical literature with information on metrics. Good channel if you know Japanese. 

Vēr Latīnum 

Intermediate, advanced, literary. Video length on average: 10 minutes. About 40 videos in Latin. Subtitles: None. Latin text sometimes on screen. Last upload: mid-2024/possibly on hiatus.

Some vlogs, recitations of literature, as well as explanations of Latin poetry, mainly Catullus, in clear and understandable intermediate level Latin. 

La vía de los humanistas : LLPSI in AVN 

Beginner, intermediate. Video length on average: 5 minutes.  30 Latin videos. Subtitles: None. Last upload: 2011/no longer active. 

Featuring Llwellyn, Miraglia, Stroh, Miraglia, Carfagni. Historical videos of teaching Latin via immersion or the natural method as well as short discussions of humanitas.

Vincentius Nguien

Intermediate. Video length on average: 3-5 minutes. 40+ Latin videos. Subtitles: Latin and English. Last upload: still uploading.

Vlogs and excursions in Latin. Some explanations and holidays and cultural events and recitations from literature.

Vīta Latīnē : Life in Latin 

Beginner. Video length on average: 10 minutes. About 40 videos in Latin. Subtitles: English and Latin. Latin text sometimes on screen. Last upload: 2021/no longer active. 

Beginner videos that feature the adorable Julia, who has been learning Latin her entire life. Often has culinary and food related content.

Curate ut valeatis!

Special edition

I’ve recorded a special video this week that is new for the newsletter! As you may have noticed, I post a lot of Latin sayings and proverbs. (This is probably an understatement.) This video, though it contains some discussion, is an abbreviated version of a longer form video I’ll release later this week on Youtube, which will be a more detailed discussion of Latin quotes and ideas about love.

Review us!

It would very helpful to us if you could rate or review Erictho: Tartarorum Terror. So, if you’ve gotten your hands on a copy, please let us know what you think on Amazon.

Review Our Book

Latin Basics

This week, we experimented with something on social media and Youtube shorts: Latin basics. We won’t replace our normal, more intermediate content with “Latin basics” shorts, but we would publish them in addition to it. The “Latin basics” videos would cover little bits of more elementary Latin syntax and grammar in Latin. The idea is to help learners talk about basic features of Latin in Latin. What do you think about this?

Example of a “Latin basics” video:

Or watch the short on Youtube.

Valentine’s Sale

We’ve added a discount so you can get your favorite Latin shirt for a little cheaper. Use code AMOR5OFF to get a discount of $5 on orders of $25 or more. The sale runs through Friday, February 15th!

Shop the Sale!

Curate ut valeatis!

De Animalibus Callidis

So, they aren’t exactly new, but they are new to Youtube! We present three tales about cunning animals in intermediate Latin with delightful illustrations. You can be entertained by these stories about a resourceful rat, a quick-witted bat, and a nimble mouse while practicing your Latin listening skills. To make the stories even more comprehensible, we’ve glossed difficult words in Latin. Two of the stories (fābula prīma et tertia), which were translated into Latin by Ugo E. Paoli, are even in hexameter! These short stories are a great way to introduce students to epic meter before reading Ovid or Vergil. Fābula secunda was translated by François Fénelon.

Listen to the fābulae:

Classroom sets of Erictho, Tartarorum Terror

If you are interested in teaching your advanced Latin students to read Lucan, we’ve got an update for you! If you are in the U.S., you can now purchase classroom sets of 8 books or more of our tiered Latin reader of Lucan at about a 20% discount directly from our store. If you are not in the U.S., it’s still very likely you can receive a similar discount, but please email at contact@lupusalatus.com so we can check printing prices in your country and give you a quote.

Buy a Class Set

More sample pages from Erictho, Tartarorum Terror, including the full table of contents:

Valentine’s, Lupercalia, and the Ides

Our Etsy shop has been reorganized and now features designs on amor, Lupercalia, and the dreaded Ides of March.

Shop Shirts

Curate ut valeatis!

P.S. If you’ve gotten your copy of Erictho, Tartarorum Terror, it would really help us out if you left a review. Thank you so much!

We wanted to make something Christmas-y, and we chose to record a Latin version of a Christmas classic. When we went to record it, we noticed that it needed a few updates, so what you hear in the video isn’t exactly the same as the original translation, but it is a version of this edition of “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” in Latin, which is also available to borrow (at least in the U.S.) on Archive.org. (Fyi, our video below also has English subtitles.)

What is “Yes, Virginia, …”?

It’s entirely possible that if you aren’t “of a certain age” or live outside the U.S. that you aren’t acquainted with the source material for our video. In 1897, a young girl name Virginia living in N.Y.C. had a very important question: is there a Santa Claus?

So, she wrote a short letter to the most trustworthy source she could think of, the editor of the newspaper The Sun. The editor’s (later revealed to be Francis Pharcellus Church) heartfelt reply to young Virginia became the most widely circulated editorial in the English language. It was republished throughout the 20th century during the Christmas season and became known under the title “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.”

Watch the Video

Shipping updates and classroom sets

First, thank you to everyone who has purchase our new Latin reader, Erictho: Tartarorum Terror. When we first published Erictho a couple weeks ago, there was some lag time in the books’s availability outside of the U.S. and France. However, it now looks like it is available for purchase throughout Europe, North America, South America, and some parts of Asia. If your shipping price for Erictho is still usually high, please let us know. Also, we can offer discounts for classroom sets in the U.S.! If you would like to buy 10 or more copies of Erictho for your classroom, please email us at contact@lupusalatus.com.

Buy Erictho

Curate ut optime (et festive) valeatis!

She’s here!

We’re not sure if she’s made a list or has checked it twice — and we do not want to be on it at all if she has — but Erictho has finally come to town! Our tiered Latin reader about Erictho in Lucan’s Pharsalia is now available on Amazon in the US, UK, and large EU markets. We will continue to expand availability of Erictho: Tartarorum Terror by adding it to Ingram Spark and their distributors. If you have questions about availability, please email us: contact@lupusalatus.com.

Order Erictho now!

Bridging the “intermediate gap”

Many learners find that despite having attained a solid grasp of grammar, reading authentic Roman literature is still too often a struggle, and doubly so when it comes to poetry. The grammar and vocabulary gap between the texts they're used to from their textbooks and readers, on the one hand, and unadapted classical-era Latin, on the other, is simply too large. Yet the resources to bridge this gap are almost non-existent: learners are simply told to force their way towards literature using a dictionary, or at best a bilingual edition.

The tiered reading approach that we used to write Erictho: Tartarorum Terror is a great way to bridge the intermediate gap, as it's commonly called. A target text is picked and then rephrased at two or more lower levels of difficulty, ideally supplied with a monolingual glossary using vocabulary commonly found in textbooks. The amount of input is thus greatly amplified, and the learner is able to start at a comfortable level and progress to the original text while staying in the target language. Watch our demonstration of the tiered reading approach!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

The most reprinted newspaper editorial in the English language is a response to eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon’s question about the existence of St.Nick. The Sun’s editor Francis Pharcellus Church first published his thoughtful response in 1897, which was widely reprinted during the holiday season throughout the 20th century. And a Latin translation exists! Before Christmas, we will edit the Latin version of this timeless Classics and post a recitation of in on Youtube. We’ll also make a pdf of the text available here for you!

Curate ut optime (et festive) valeatis!

We finally did it!

Yesterday, we hit “publish” on our tiered Latin reader, and we are just waiting for Amazon to let our book go live. We think that tiered readers like Erictho, Tartarorum Terror are the best way for intermediate-level learners to start reading authentic Latin poetry. And, they might just be the most helpful thing for instructors teaching their students Latin poetry in Latin.

We’ve just released a new video that:

• demos the different tiers or levels in our new book with beautiful recitations

• helps you decide what level of spoken Latin you can understand

• details how learners can read Latin poetry while thinking and deducing meaning in Latin. And we mean really read — not translating!

• shows how our book helps you read authentic Latin without constantly inspecting a dictionary

• explains how our book can help streamline lesson prep for teachers teaching in Latin

Etsy flash sale

Etsy announced another flash sale yesterday that is good through today. You can use their code LASTCHANCE24 to get a $5 discount off $30+. We have dozens of Latin designs and gifts available in our Etsy shop!

Take advantage of the sale!

Gratias vobis agimus!

Thank you for all the support you’ve shown us. We’ll let you know when Amazon approves our listing for Erictho, Tartarorum Terror and it goes live!

Curate ut optime valeatis!

Erictho is coming!

Our proof copy is in the mail! We can’t wait to get our hands on the first copy of Erictho: Tartarorum Terror, our intermediate-advanced Latin reader that is entirely in Latin! If the proof copy is in decent shape, E: TT should be on sale by the end of the week. We will let you know this week when that happens, so this might actually be a two-email week from us.

What’s next?

We asked our followers on other platforms, and there was a clear winner. We are curious if our newsletter subscribers agree. What do you think we should work on next?

• The novella about Erictho would be an intermediate-level story from her childhood;

• the workbook for The Lover’s Curse would be reading comprehension focused;

• the medieval cookbook would be a Latin edition + a translation;

• the proverbs would all be about animals in Latin with English translations.

Flash Etsy sale

We forget every year that Etsy does this without notifying its sellers. So, this is only for today, and we would’ve emailed earlier … but we didn’t know! $5 off $25 with the code CYBER24 but it’s only good for today. We have dozens of Saturnalia and generally Latin-themed gifts in our store.

Shop Latin Gifts!

Curate ut optime valeatis!