The book
The bridge between a first reader and a real author.
R. B. Appleton and W. H. S. Jones published Puer Romanus with the Clarendon Press in 1913. Their preface says it is meant to fill the gap between a first-year reader such as Primus Annus and reading an actual Latin author, and suggests starting it in the second year of Latin.
Lucius tells it himself. His father is Sextus Cornelius Pollio, and Lucius explains the three Roman names at once. He tells us about school, where (mīrābile dictū) he doesn’t play but learns. Then come a dinner, a journey and Rome; the Lemuria and the spirits of the dead; true dreams and comic ones; the schoolmaster caught in his own trap; a funeral and the lawsuit over the will. Later chapters cover Regulus, the theatre, the Circus Maximus, a lion in the arena, boxers, gladiators and boys in the Senate. The book ends with a letter from Lucius to his father.
What you get
Forty-five chapters, about 13,600 words.
What you get is the reading: every chapter, with a definition, lemma and form on every word and long vowels marked. What you don’t get is the exercises printed at the end of the book. At 13,600 words, it is the biggest single block of easy-intermediate reading in this set of books.
Puer Romanus
A complete, varied reader of Roman stories, daily life, history, and culture.
A taste of the Latin
At school, he doesn’t play.
Tap any word for its meaning, lemma and form. The joke is that lūdus means both “school” and “game”, and lūdō is “I play”:
Puer Romanus · Ego et Vīta Mea
Tap a word — or reveal the translation.
Difficulty
Intermediate, and long.
Puer Romanus scores 4.3 on Librorum Capsula’s 1–11 scale. It opens at 3.4 and its hardest chapters reach 5.8. Read Pons Tironum (4.05) first if you want a shorter step. After Puer Romanus you are ready for real authors: Ad Alpes (4.4) is another long Roman family story, and Latin books lists where to go from there.
Pons Tironum
A 15-chapter graded reader following a Roman boy through daily life, school, travel, and storytelling.