Description and Objectives

Pliny (the Younger) wrote over 300 letters, 247 of which survive and provide for us an interesting window into Roman life and politics at the turn from the first to the second century after Christ.

This is the first half of AP Latin. Between September and January we read, in Latin, ten letters of Pliny the Younger — the two great eyewitness accounts of the eruption of Vesuvius, a haunted-house story, his correspondence with the emperor Trajan about citizenship and aqueducts, and his letters to his wife Calpurnia — along with a set of further letters chosen to teach us how to read Roman prose before the required texts begin.

The College Board syllabus (read in this order):

• Epistulae 6.16 (the eruption of Vesuvius and Pliny the Elder), read in halves: 6.16.1–12 and 6.16.13–22
• Epistulae 6.20 (the eruption and Pliny the Younger), in halves: 6.20.1–10 and 6.20.11–20
• Epistulae 7.27.1–16 (ghosts and apparitions)
• Epistulae 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 (to Trajan: citizenship for Pliny’s doctor)
• Epistulae 10.37 and 10.90 (to Trajan: aqueducts)
• Epistulae 6.4 and 6.7 (to Calpurnia)

Teacher’s Choice readings (all Pliny, ≈1,650 words total): 1.1 and 1.6 (the collection announces itself; otium and the hunt); 9.6 (the races and the crowd); 8.16 (masters and slaves); 10.96–97 (Pliny, Trajan, and the Christians — with Trajan’s reply); 3.5, selection (Pliny the Elder’s working day, paired with 6.16); 4.19 (praise of Calpurnia, paired with 6.4 and 6.7).

Textbooks

A course reader containing all required and Teacher’s Choice letters, formatted with vocabulary and notes, is provided. Bring it daily, with a notebook dedicated to Latin. No dictionary is permitted on assessments, mirroring exam conditions; core vocabulary lists are issued per unit.

 

Course Requirements

We will run class with two quizzes per week—one translating and analyzing the previous week’s material, and the other focusing on important vocabulary and rhetorical/poetic devices.

Successful Students

The AP Exam at a Glance

Friday, May 14, 2027 · Afternoon Session · 3 hours

Section I — Multiple Choice	Section II — Free Response	Course Project
52 questions · 65 min · 50% Half of these involve passages read at sight — sight reading is a weekly habit in this course.	5 questions · 115 min · 50% Short answer; literal translation (15 scored segments); short essay; two short essays on the Course Project passages.	2 in-class checkpoints · 2% of AP score Four College Board passages beyond the syllabus; teacher-scored; scores entered by May 31.

What We Practice All Year

Three skill families run through every unit, because they are what the exam measures: reading and comprehending Latin poetry and prose; describing the style and context of what we read; and analyzing texts with evidence cited from the Latin. Alongside these, every week includes reading at sight — unfamiliar Latin, no notes — since roughly a quarter of the exam is sight passages.

Daily preparation means arriving able to read aloud, translate, and answer questions on the assigned Latin — reading Latin is a craft learned by daily contact, not by cramming. Keep a running vocabulary list; the exam allows no dictionary.

Translation software and AI tools are off-limits for assigned Latin. The point of this course is what happens in your head between the Latin and the English; outsourcing it defeats you, and it shows immediately in sight reading.

Friday classes normally include sight reading; a short weekly rhythm — new Latin, cold, every week — is the single best training for half the multiple-choice section.

Additional Resources

Every unit test mirrors the AP exam: a multiple-choice set on the syllabus text, a translation scored by segments, and a short essay answered with citations from the Latin.