Agrippīna aurīga

Agrippīna aurīga is a level 1 novel in Latin. This is a tale written with 24 cognates and 33 other Latin words (excluding different forms of the same word, names, and meaning established within the text), and over 1800 total words in length. Scroll down to preview.
​
Fall 2020 was…interesting…to say the least. With an adjusted COVID-19 remote learning schedule in a virtual classroom environment, it became clear that we weren’t reading novellas as quickly as we had been the past few years in Latin I. The most enjoyable classes during that time were those reading the couple of action/adventure early beginner (Level AA) books that had accompanying audiobooks, keeping the pace moving along, and providing students with a novel novella experience all within the limited world of Zoom. Therefore, to join the creepy content of Quīntus et nox horrifica, and sword-slinging saga of Rūfus et arma ātra, this equine escapade is exactly what I was looking for as another exciting intro to the ancient Roman world.

For years, I had been naming my four class sections of first year Latin after the chariot racing factions: Albāta, Russāta, Prasina, and Veneta. Not only did this help color-code resources for quick identification, but different class cultures emerged, too. The class names acted almost like mascots, and our Latin program had devout fans routing for their own…team…as it were. So, it only made sense that one of the first books about ancient Romans these students read should
include the more familiar faction names. Could the competitive narrative also traverse the page, with classes actually cheering during the races in the book each year? We’ll see.

In De Spectaculis (1.9.5), Tertullian wrote that in later times, the racing team factions were dedicated to deities, also representing elements. I found this serendipitous coming off the heels of completing the sīgna zōdiaca series, what with each sign’s association with an element. Apart from naming Mars and Zephyrs, Tertullian used the Latin words for the
deification of “mother earth,” “sky,” “sea,” and “autumn.” I’ve chosen to standardize this as The Greens honoring Gaia, and The Blues honoring Neptune, that both join The Whites honoring Zephyrs, and The Reds honoring Mars.

This is a tale written with 24 cognates and 33 other Latin words (excluding different forms of the same word, names, and meaning established within the text), and over 1800 total words in length. The Pisoverse novellas now provide over 66,500 total words for the beginning Latin student to read! That’s with a vocabulary of under 830 unique words.

See ebook sample below.

Each eBook subscription is for one teacher and all their students. All subscriptions expire on July 1, 2023.

Expect a delay of up to 48 hours before receiving access passwords.