Latin Course Descriptions and Requirements

Format: The Latin courses on SeniorLearn.org are offered in a virtual classroom discussion or "bulletin board"-style format with other students and the instructor.

  • This means you post as a message your own input to the subject at hand. It's comparable to contributing to a class discussion in a regular classroom. This classroom work can include translating, contributing a vocabulary word to an in-class drill, to making a sentence with words that have been assigned, etc.


  • The class meets three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Since our student body is international, there is no set hour when the class meets. The student can come in any time of the day and find the instructor, and motivated fellow students participating in the classroom. This is not live chat. Your messages and those of other students and the Instructor remain as long as the class does.


  • There are written assignments to be emailed to the instructor which are returned with comments. We attempt to make the classroom experience as close as possible to what you would encounter in a physical bricks and mortar classroom.


  • Latin is a discipline. It's vital, therefore, that you keep up with these assignments and with the classroom work, if you wish to learn Latin. Each lesson the Instructor explains, each classroom drill, each homework assignment builds upon what was done previously.


    • We assume, in Latin 101, that you have no prior Latin learning. Some people may have had classes 50 years ago, but the assumption of the Instructor is that everyone is starting brand new.

    Cost: The cost is only $40 per year (Sept.-May) plus the purchase of a text, which must be in hand on the first day.

    Description of Courses and Texts

    Students select from a broad range of courses.

    Latin 101: Beginning Latin

    Prerequisite: None

    Latin 101 introduces the language, history, culture, derivatives and influence of the Romans. An engaging "You Are There" format takes the student to Pompeii in A.D. 79, and you will read in Latin about the life and death of a real resident of Pompeii. You'll be reading Latin from the very first day! If you've always wanted to take Latin or you remember it fondly, join us for a trip back in time. You'll be amazed at the extent of the influence of the Romans in our lives.

    In addition to the reading based text which is rich in up to date cultural and historical detail, the course is augmented by a thorough background in grammar. Because the courses are enjoyable and fun, the students at the end of the Latin 101 course are amazed to discover they

      • are able to read and understand Latin sentences and passages,  and do basic English-Latin composition. 
      • are able to conjugate any verb in all four conjugations in the Present, Imperfect and Perfect Tenses, and the irregular verb to be.   [Also covered are Present and Perfect stems, the Four Principal Parts, and Imperatives.]
      • are able to decline any noun in the first three declensions and
      • know the Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative and Ablative Cases and their basic uses.
      • know adjectives of the first two declensions, as well as selected personal pronouns
      • have been introduced to Roman numerals and selected cardinal numbers as well as mottoes, abbreviations and common expressions.


    Our courses exceed the requirements of the Standards for Classical Language Learning,  and our students for the two past years in a row have excelled on the National Latin  Exam.

    Text: Our text is the new lavishly illustrated Cambridge Latin Series Unit I North American Fourth Edition, paperback ISBN: 978-0-521-00434-3, which is available in all prices on bookfinder4u.com
    Please do not,if buying a used paperback,(since Amazon has them for about $15 new), accept one with any writing in it at all.

    Latin 102

    Prerequisite: Successful completion of Latin 101 or permission of instructor

    Latin 102 introduces students to the intricacies and fascination of Latin grammar and Roman culture and history. Readings in Latin include Ceres and Proserpina, Niobe, Spartacus, a graded Aeneid and end with the Journeys of Ulysses. Students also read about the Roman colonization of Britain, Fishbourne Palace, and Roman Alexandria in the supplemental reading.

    Text: Ullman Henry: Latin for Americans I, a grammar-based controlled vocabulary text. NB: We use specific, used, very affordable editions of the text. Please check with the Instructor before purchasing any edition. The Cambridge Latin Course, Unit 2, North American Edition is also used as a supplementary reader.

    Latin 104

    Prerequisite: Successful completion of Latin 102 or permission of instructor

    Latin 104 continues with grammar and readings on the old Roman heroes. Highlights are the stories of Dentatus, Cincinnatus, Caedicius, Coriolanus, and Horatius at the Bridge. Also included are the stories of Pyrrhus, Regulus, the Gracci, and Romans Marius and Sulla, and myths including Arachne, Baucis et Philemon, Midas, Daedalus et Icarus, and many others recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

    Texts:
    --- Ullman Henry: Latin for Americans I, second half.

    ---Latin Via Ovid: by Norma Goldman, 2nd edition 1982 0-8143-1732-4;

    Latin 200

    Prerequisite: Successful completion of 104 or permission of instructor.

    Latin 200 Readings include adaptations from  Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, including   "Lefty" Scaevola, Hannibal,the Battle of Cannae,  and the Civil War. Other reading selections include  Jason and the Argonauts,  Caesar's Invasion of Britain, De Bello Gallico, Pliny's Letters, readings from Ovid's Metamorphoses,  and a variety of authors including Gellius, Horace, Catullus, Cicero,  and many more.  Grammar continues with Subjunctive constructions such as Purpose and Result Clauses, the Sequence of Tenses, Dative of Purpose and Reference, Volitive Noun Clauses, Noun Clauses of Result, Indirect Questions,  Latin Composition, Infinitives and Infinitive constructions,  the Gerund and Gerundive, and the Conditions.

    At the end of this course students will select future readings from a selection of authors including Cicero, Pliny, Nepos, Catullus, Horace, Livy, Tacitus, Martial, Ovid and Vergil.

    Texts:
    --- Latin for Americans, Second Book, 1997, Ullman, Henderson Henry, 1997, 0-02-640913-5

    ---Latin Via Ovid: by Norma Goldman, 2nd edition 1982 0-8143-1732-4;

    ---Invasion of Britain, Welch, Duffield, ISBN 13: 978-0-86516-334-8, ISBN 10: 0-86516-334-0

    Latin 203

    Prerequisite: Successful completion of Latin 202 or permission of instructor.

    Readings continue Caesar's De Bello Gallico,including Books 5-7, and the Cupid and Psyche selection from Apuleius's Metamorphoses. At the end of this course students will select future readings from a selection of authors including Cicero, Pliny, Nepos, Catullus, Horace, Livy, Tacitus, Martial, Ovid and Vergil.

    Texts:
    --- Latin for Americans, Second Book, 1997, Ullman, Henderson Henry, 1997, 0-02-640913-5

    ---Latin Via Ovid: by Norma Goldman, 2nd edition 1982 0-8143-1732-4;

    Latin 301

    Prerequisite: Latin 300 or permission of instructor

    Latin 301 concentrates,  after a brief introduction to Pliny's letters, and Aulus Gellius,  on Cicero. Students will read from the four orations against Catiline, (and some from Sallust's Catiline), the entire Pro Archias,  and selections  from Verres and Antony. Selections from Cicero's letters and philosophical works will also be included.  The course concludes with selections of Ovid and  "Two Thousand Years of Latin." The class will also read  from Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars.

    Texts:
    ---Latin For Americans, Latin 3: BL Ullman, Albert I. Suskin, 2002, ISBN:ISBN-10: 0078281784 ~~ ISBN-13: 978-0078281785

    ---Latin Via Ovid: by Norma Goldman,  2nd edition 1982  0-8143-1732-4;

    --- A Suetonius Reader by Josiah Osgood, 2011, ISBN:  978-0-86516-716-2


    Course Projects

    Students also enjoy participating in several opportunities related to the classics including meetings at classical conventions or trips, contributing to our well-respected Classics Magazine, Ecce, and fun projects including Latin lyrics for popular songs (Let it Snow) and etymological projects (Flowers, etc.)

    Questions? Email: janeiowaLatin@gmail.com .

    Instructor: Ginny Anderson: BA Latin, MA, Furman University

    Ginny Anderson formerly taught Latin at Furman University where she now teaches two courses in Latin at Furman's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

    We are honored to have Dr. Dale Grote of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, as Consultant to this project.