Imperium is a Latin course for the 21st century; unique, highly resourced and written to make fullest use of modern technology. Its texts follow the life of the Emperor Hadrian from his early childhood to his later years, as he became the most powerful man in the Roman world.
Book 1 follows the young Hadrian through his childhood in Spain and Rome. His early interests in horses, hunting and the amphitheatre are all explored, as he becomes the ward of Trajan and eventually makes his way to Rome. The historical material is close to accurate throughout, though some characters have been invented to make life challenging, such as the rather nasty little donkey who bullies Hadrian’s first horse.
This full text of Book 1 can be used freely by students and teachers, though copying and pasting has been disabled. Users are encouraged to deploy other resources alongside the text, such as the Site Support Pack or other files.
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I am really enjoying these books - I have all 3. I am trying to help my daughter prepare for her Latin GCSE and I really wanted a resource with a different approach - highly recommended.
imperiumlatin
10 months ago
Thanks very much for these kind words. I am using the course to teach my own grandson at the moment and I have to say, I am still very happy with it ten years on from when I first published it.
Good luck to your daughter in her GCSE and if you need any individual advice along the way, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me through the website.
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Good to have the MP3 to go with Book 1. The material seems fine, but a bit disappointed that no macrons are used, i.e. familia (N) and familiā (Abl.)
imperiumlatin
4 years ago
Thanks very much for this and I am glad you have bought the mp3 files, as so many people seem to miss out on them. Do please let me know how you get on with them. I chose not to use macrons in the course because in over 30 years of teaching I found that around 99% of students ignored them and around 80% thought they were accents! It also speeds things up not to use them, of course. There are certain exercises where I talk about syllable length, however, and these include a playlet designed to be performed with accurate observation of syllable lengths by students. You will find this on pages 38 and 39 of the Scheme of Work, which you can download from the Teacher Area of the website. There is also a lot of material about syllable quantities in the Imperium Latin Unseens book, where I felt it belonged more properly. Please email me if you need further help.
imperiumlatin
4 years ago
Just a little more, actually, if I may. One thing the Imperium Word Tools app is designed to do is to show visually that things such as puella may be Nominative or Ablative (even Vocative). This is something I have often used to make students pause during translation and I think it is visually more powerful than a macron, especially due to the use of colour. The other reason I made the decision not to use macrons is that I think they are actually rather bad training if your end target is to read real texts. You won't see them there at all!
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