Customer Reviews

Ecce Romani Book 1 and 2 Combined (Latin Edition)

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I have taught seventh and eighth graders from this textbook for over 12 years and this book has wonderful stories. It's emphasis is mainly on vocabulary and grammar. The Building the Meaning sections enforce grammar and it has declension and verb conjugation charts in the back, which are very helpful. The stories of Cornelius, Aurelia, Marcus, Cornelia, Sextus, Eucleides, Titus, Syrus, Geta, and many others are very interesting and make translating enjoyable.

This textbook is not perfect, but it comes pretty close! The only problem that I find with this textbook is that there are a huge number of variants of it (just search for "Ecce Romani" on this site and you'll find three editions with different artwork) and that you either love it or you hate it. Most people seem to fall on the "love it" side of the argument, but some people develop an aversion to it (aagh! Bad stories! Poor style of teaching! Overly didactic! Underly supportive!!! Aaagh! Let me go!). However, others develop a good deal of enjoyment. Hey, it had me going. Despite spending four chapters in a ditch. You know the stories are bad, but you MUST keep reading. You MUST. You WILL learn about the pluperfect tense. You WILL learn about the third declension. You WILL like those crazy pen and ink illustrations. There are lots of good moments, and despite the sterile integration it features, kids will still be able to make vague dirty jokes about it! But "A Restless Night" isn't all it's cracked up to be. Can't sleep? Read this. It's not depressing. It seems like that, but that's because you can't appreciate the biblical beauty of this composition.

If you buy this book, you will either be greatly disappointed or greatly pleased, and chances are the latter. It happened to me, and it can happen to you! Buy it today, and support the evolution of the only worthwhile Latin textbook in the world!

Learn Latin while following the adventures of the Cornelii, a Roman family. Read about Roman food, slavery, weddings, funerals, games, sanitary habits, and many other aspects of Roman culture. And learn what "Flavia et Cornelia sub arbore scribunt" means.

Read about Gaius Cornelius, the father, his wife (and something of a shrew) Aurelia, the daughter Cornelia, the son Marcus who can do no wrong, Sextus, the annoying boy who everybody loves to hate, and Eucleides, the Greek slave who follows the children pretty much everywhere.

This is a great set of books for anybody who wants to learn Latin.

"Ecce! In pictura est puella Romana, nomine Cornelia." I don't think I will ever forget the first line of this series. After using the books for three years in Latin classes I was pretty sick of them, but after moving on to Ovid and Vergil, I missed the simplicity and clear lessons of Ecce! The books really are a good introduction to Latin. The story can be a bit of an eye-roller, but you do learn.

This book follows an illogical sequence of introducing grammar and requires many teacher supplements. Vocabulary is obscure (many uncommon words that are not useful in teaching derivatives to students) and limited to specific story lines. The lessons are "watered down," weak on exercises and explanations. Teaching sixth and seventh graders as well as high schoolers with this text, I find that they think the stories are very silly. Rather than adapted texts of history and mythology, the boring adventures of the Cornelii do not inspire children to learn and to love it. Students taught by this method end up weak on grammar and thinking the text is goofy. I, as a teacher, agree.

The book follows the adventures of the entertaining Cornelii family and their lives in Rome. It is enjoyable and the easy to read style was very helpful in encouraging the younger reader to continue with the exploration of the Latin language.