Roma Aeterna (the main book of Pars II of the Lingua Latina per se illustrata series) introduces some of the most celebrated authors of Roman antiquity through the lens of Roman literature and mythology. A vivid description of the city’s monuments precedes a prose retelling of the first four books of Virgil’s Aeneid, with many of the most famous passages in their original verse form, followed by Book One of Livy’s engaging mythical history of Rome’s foundation. The prose selections are judiciously chosen and, in the first few chapters, gently adapted to provide students with a text that is authentically Latin and yet not difficult. The unadapted selections, which make up the majority of the text, are taken from Aulus Gellius, Ovid, Nepos, Sallust, and Horace. These annotated selections make Roma Aeterna useful both as the next step after Familia Romana and as a survey of Latin literature in its own right.
