Intensive Latin Summer School

About the courses

We offer an Intensive Course in Latin. These courses offer students who have not previously had the opportunity to study Latin intensive training designed to bring them from complete beginners to a point where they are able to read simple texts in Latin. 

These courses are six weeks long, with the option to study either the first three week block (for absolute beginners) or the second three week block (for students at intermediate level).

Dates

• Session 1: Beginner’s Latin: Monday 30 June - Friday 18 July 2025
• Session 2: Intermediate Latin: Monday 21 July - Friday 8 August 2025

They are ideal for students who intend to study for a Masters or Doctoral degree to get ahead during the summer, thus acquiring an essential skill for their future research. They are also appropriate for Y12 and Y13 school pupils, teachers, undergraduates, mature students and anyone with an interest in the Roman world.

Students work through the JACT Reading Latin course in daily language classes and are expected to put in a number of hours of private study to consolidate class work and to complete homework assignments. Staff are on hand to offer private tutorials and surgery hours, as required. Assessment is by three in-class tests.

Lectures & Visits

However, as well as being highly intensive, the courses offer a friendly and supportive environment. There are workshops by guest lecturers offering an introduction to skills such as epigraphy, and we also hope to offer guided tours or behind-the-scenes sessions at the British Museum.

Session 1: Beginner’s Latin (Monday 30 June - Friday 18 July 2025)

Week One

Part One Grammar:

• Present tense
• Common irregular verbs
• Cases
• 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd declension nouns
• 1^st , 2^nd, 3^rd declension adjectives
• Prepositions

Part One Texts: Plautus and the Roman comic tradition

Extracts based on Plautus, Aulularia

Week Two

Part Two Grammar:

• Future and perfect tense
• Numerals
• 4^th and 5^th declension nouns
• Deponent verbs
• Further uses of cases

Part Two Texts: Plautus and the Roman comic tradition

Extracts based on Plautus, Bacchides

Week Three

Part Three Grammar:

• Comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs
• More deponent verbs
• Unpredictable principle parts
• Further uses of cases, expressions of time

Part Three Texts: Plautus and the Roman comic tradition

Extracts based on Plautus, Amphitruo

Session 2: Intermediate Latin (Monday 21 July - Friday 8 August 2025)

Week One

Part Four Grammar:

• Imperfect and pluperfect tenses
• Indirect Statements
• Uses of the genitive and ablative
• Relative pronouns
• Ablative absolute
• The locative
• The passive
• The subjunctive
• Indirect commands
• Conditions

Part Four Texts: The Demise of the Roman Republic

Provincial Corruption: the Verres scandal 73-71

Extracts from Cicero, In Verrem II

Week Two

Part Five Grammar:

• Result clauses
• Purpose clauses
• An introduction to Roman poetry
• Jussive subjunctives
• Wishes
• Impersonal verbs
• Gerunds and Gerundives
• Verbs of fearing
• Uses of the perfect subjunctive
• Indirect questions
• More conditions

Part Five Texts: The conspiracy of Catiline in Rome 64-62

Extracts from Sallust, Catilinae coniuratio and Cicero, In Catilinam IV

Week Three

Part Six Grammar:

• An introduction to scansion and metre

Part Six Texts: Poetry and Politics: Caesar to Augustus

Extracts from the poems of Catullus, letters of Cicero, Caesar, de Bello Civili, Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Virgil, Aeneid, Horace, Odes, Ovid, Amores

You will be following the JACT Latin course books (CUP second edition). You will be provided with a copy of the textbooks for the duration of the course, but if you would like to buy your own copy to keep, then these are available to buy through Amazon, Waterstones and many other bookshops.

This Latin summer school is an intensive language learning courses.  It offers students who have not previously had the opportunity to study Latin intensive training designed to bring them from complete beginners to a point where they are able to read simple texts.

It is important to attend all classes. Please tell your tutor in advance if you know that you will be absent, and please get in touch as soon as you can if you are ill or if you have to miss a class for any other reason. Your tutor will keep an attendance register and the Summer School requires an attendance rate of 80%.

If you have opted to take the Examination Route, or if you are a BA Classics Access Pathway student, please read the following notes:

• There will be 2 half-hour tests at the end of the weeks 1 and 2 of each 3-week Session. These tests will be worth 10% each.
• At the end of the 3rd and final week of each Session, there will be a 1-hour test. This test is worth 80% of the final mark.
• The tests will be marked by your tutor and also by the course director. The results are passed by a College examination board which includes an external examiner.

Your tutors will give you plenty of advice about these tests and plenty of practice in advance. If you are worried about them, then please ask for extra help: your tutor will be available for one-to-one tutorial tuition in the afternoons. It is essential that you seek extra help as soon as you think you need it. If you find the work difficult in the first week, your tutor will recommend that you attend the afternoon sessions. If you do not achieve the passmark of 40% in the first test, it will be compulsory to attend extra sessions online in the second week, or to discuss the options with your tutor and agree a suitable plan of study.

Learning a new language or improving your language skills can be great fun. However, it is also hard work and as these courses cover a huge amount of material and are very intensive, there will doubtless be times when you may struggle a little! Please don’t worry about this. Your tutors are there to help you, so please ask them for extra help; they can arrange individual tuition for you. But also do ask questions in the group sessions if you are not sure: if you don’t understand something, it is likely that your fellow students have not understood it either and they will be pleased that you have asked!

Apart from the classes, you should also be aware that there will be a substantial amount of homework to do. Try to make sure that you keep up with this; again tell your tutor if you are having problems.

It is much easier to get to grips with Greek and Latin if you have a good grasp of English grammar. If you have not studied English grammar formally before, you may find it helpful to have a look at a grammar book in advance so you are familiar with the terminology. The Chambers English Grammar is a useful one to start with.

Please feel free to contact the Ancient Languages Co-Ordinator, Fiona Haarer (fiona.haarer@kcl.ac.uk) , if you have any questions.