Hans Oerberg's Lingua Latina per se Illustrata is the world's premiere textbook for learning Latin via the Natural Method. Students first learn grammar and vocabulary intuitively through extended contextual reading and an innovative system of marginal notes. It is the only textbook currently available that gives students the opportunity to learn Latin without resorting to translation, but allows them to think in the language. It is also the most popular text for teachers, at both the secondary and collegiate levels, who wish to incorporate conversational skills into their classroom practice. Part II, Roma Aeterna, the subject is Roman history. Roma Aeterna includes a wide range of classical Latin literature. The main subject of the twenty-one long chapters is Roman history as told by Roman authors themselves.
A description of the monuments of Rome is followed by a prose version of Vergil's Aeneid I-IV, with extracts from the original, and Livy's Book I, supplemented by extracts from Ovid. At first, Livy's prose is gently adapted, but most of the book integrates unadapted texts by Livy, Aulus Gellius, Nepos, Sallust, Cicero and Horace with linguistic and historical information in a seamless narrative. The Indices is a supplement which contains lists of the Roman consuls and their triumphs (Fasti consulares and triumphales), as well as name and word indices covering the whole course.
