Course Description
Living Latin in Rome is an intensive Latin experience set in the city of Rome. In two seminar-style meetings every day, participants read and discuss Latin literature and Roman history and culture. To the extent possible, the language of instruction in these seminars is Latin.
In addition to the daily seminar sessions, the program includes a variety of optional programming designed to build students’ facility in speaking and understanding Latin, as well as lectures on topics relating to Roman history and culture, and visits to historical sites in Rome. The program also features a trip to an important site outside of Rome that is relevant to the program’s theme.
In 2025, Living Latin in Rome will focus on Pliny and the Tradition of Latin Letters, reading selections from the letters of Pliny the Younger and others in the rich tradition of Latin epistolography. On the middle weekend, the program will visit the Bay of Naples area.
Prerequisites
Participants should know the basics of Latin grammar. This usually means the equivalent of one year of college, two years of high-school Latin, or completing Paideia’s self-paced online Living Latin course. No experience speaking Latin is required, but experienced Latin speakers are also encouraged to apply. Paideia alumni and Nexus members are particularly encouraged to apply.
Participants must be 18 years or older. Students under the age of 18 should consider Living Latin in Rome High School.
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Interested in this program?
More information about Living Latin in Rome 2025 will be posted here in October. To receive an application as soon as it becomes available, please fill out the form below. For any questions, please email [email protected].
What People Are Saying
“This has been the best summer school I have ever attended. Latin came to life in a way that it never has before, and I was able to experience it as a living language that can be used for textual exegesis and for everyday communication. This program has reminded me why I became interested in Latin in the first place, and I look forward to continuing my study of the Latin language and its amazing epic tradition.” -Sam Lewis ‘24
“Reading Virgil at sight, discussing him solely in Latin, and doing so before sights that his own eyes may well have beheld -- all sweet delights afforded me by the Institute this summer, over which presided three professors matched in energy only by their erudition. Paideia succeeds in offering an experience delicately poised between labour and leisure: in the classroom rigorous devotion to language and poet feed the mind, while thematic expeditions -- Palatine vistas and Avernal depths -- nourish the soul. All this, too, is enjoyed alongside the hearty camaraderie of newfound friends. Not the most academic of courses -- one does more than sit in a classroom from dawn till dusk -- but sincerely recommended to any who wish to know a work as much through ('lived') context as through text itself.” -Marko Trandafilovski ‘24
“My teaching in general, and of Vergil for AP Latin in particular, has been reinvigorated and energized. We got through a lot of the Vergil curriculum and visited associated places like Cumae, and discussed all of that in Latin extensively, and intensively! I will be a better teacher because of the program.” -James Hunt ‘24