Learn Latin with Gens et Gloria 1. Principatus Novus (en Inglés) - Rowan X. Adler

Learn Latin by Reading a Real Novel

You have learned the grammar. You have built your vocabulary. Now it is time to read a complete novel in Latin.

Learn Latin with Gens et Gloria 1: Principatus Novus is an advanced Latin novel set in the Roman Empire at the beginning of Trajan’s reign. Written for readers ready to move beyond graded texts, it combines an absorbing historical story with sustained, idiomatic Latin at approximately the C1 stage within the Latina Laeta progression.

If you have followed Latina Laeta from A1 through B2, this is where the journey continues. If you already have a strong foundation in Latin from another course, you can begin here.

Rome, AD 98. A new emperor and a new age.

Senator Spurius Vibius Florus must navigate a world of patronage, ambition and betrayal in Rome, while his son Lucius faces the realities of military command on the German frontier.

As conspiracies develop in the capital and violence threatens the provinces, the story moves between the affairs of the Empire and the intimate life of a Roman household. Family tensions, legal manoeuvring, slaves with ambitions of their own, witty exchanges and domestic comedy unfold alongside questions of loyalty, justice, vengeance and power.

This is not Latin presented as a series of exercises. It is Latin carrying a complete historical novel.

From Latin Learner to Latin Reader

Principatus Novus is the first novel in Gens et Gloria, the advanced continuation of the Latina Laeta reading programme. An extensive English introduction helps readers make the transition from graded Latin to sustained narrative, introduces the historical setting, and offers practical guidance for reading longer Latin fiction without stopping to translate every sentence.

The novel builds on the Latin developed throughout Latina Laeta, while allowing richer description, longer sentences, more varied dialogue and a broader Classical vocabulary. The aim is not simply to study Latin, but to become absorbed in a story told in Latin.

Learn Latin with Gens et Gloria 1 is particularly suitable for advanced Latin students, independent learners seeking extensive Latin reading, teachers looking for sustained Latin fiction beyond textbook passages, readers who have completed Latina Laeta B2, and experienced Latinists who simply want an entertaining Roman historical novel in Latin.

Professor Terence Tunberg, University of Kentucky, writes:

Litterarum Latinarum rerumque Romanarum studiosos magno opere hortor ut hanc mythistoriam splendide scriptam perlegant. Quicumque hanc narrationem veri simillimam legere coeperit, se non tantum in urbe Roma et inter Romanos veteres versari, sed etiam illo aevo vivere et vigere, quo imperium Romanum maxime viguerit, paene pro certo habebit!

The exercises are behind you. The story is waiting.

Begin Gens et Gloria.