This text provides busy teachers with resources to facilitate the incorporation of active Latin in their classrooms.

This reader contains the prescribed passages for the Social Criticism and Villains portions of the IB Latin syllabus with examinations in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Same- and facing-page notes provide historical background, cultural context, and grammatical assistance. Introductions to each selection orient students to significant themes and events. The reader includes introductions to each author, appendices on meter and on literary terms, and a historical timeline. The prescribed passages for Vergil, History, and Love Poetry can be found in Lectiones Memorabiles: Volume III.

We know almost nothing of the Roman author Lucretius, except that he gave to the world a didactic poem that is the oddest of ducks: a passionate, philosophic/scientific treatise that explains Epicurus's theory of atoms and touts reason and exacting knowledge of the way things are as antidotes to uncertainty and the fear of death. In six books that teeter between celebratory creation and total annihilation, its narrative is driven by pounding logic and determined pedagogical prodding. Studded as it is with vivid stories and meticulous observations of natural phenomena, The Nature of the Universe is an ancient work still able to grab hold of modern readers and not let go. As timely today as it was 2,000 years ago, it proves that the humanities and sciences can inspire and complete one another.

There are few ancient authors as compelling as Lucretius: scientist, poet, philosopher, passionate observer of nature. While Caesar, Cicero, and Vergil have long vied for first place in the classical curriculum, Lucretius' treatment of universal human matters rightfully earns him a place in their company.

These informative and entertaining selections build a brilliant mosaic that depicts the thought, theology, history, and spiritual lives of an array of people living in the fourth through fifteenth centuries C.E., from early Christianity to the Renaissance.