You've Been Called Up by Rome's Toughest Legion
Every Roman legion ran on specialists — standard-bearers, engineers, scouts, and a battlefield doctor (a medicus) patching up the wounded. Latin is the password into all of it: gladiators, generals, myths, ruins you can actually read — and a language most people think is dead.
Standard issue: this page. No membership, no separate app — all twenty-two training lessons (plus a full mythology reference) live right here, offline once loaded. Standard tour of duty: 12 weeks to your first promotion — the campaign keeps going well past that.
Today's Orders
Your next assignment is waiting in the Training tab. Each lesson runs about 10–15 minutes.
Started the wrong day, or just testing?
The Training Ground
Twenty-two lessons, unlocked in order — the last seven move from famous Latin mottos into longer, more connected sentences and reading passages, plus a bonus lesson of everyday Latin phrases hiding in plain sight — with a Refresher checkpoint woven in every three lessons to drill words from what came right before. Each one starts with a word-by-word introduction — definition, pronunciation, and a couple of quick multiple-choice checks right after each new word — then a matching round, then a mixed quiz (multiple choice, picture matching, typed recall). Get something wrong in the quiz and it comes back around later in the same lesson — no skipping past words you don't actually know yet.
The Campaign Route
Twelve weeks from raw recruit to legion commander. Aim for 4–5 duty days a week, not seven — a rested soldier learns faster than an exhausted one.
Lessons 1–3: Greetings & Everyday Words, Numbers 1–10, Family & Friends
Three lessons, then your first Refresher checkpoint — hello and goodbye, counting to ten, and family vocabulary, reviewed together before moving on. Goal: don't worry about speed — worry about showing up.
Lessons 4–6: Animals & Colors, The Body, Being & Feeling
Animals, colors, body parts, and basic feelings, capped off with a second Refresher. This is where the streak either becomes a habit or falls apart — keep sessions short so it stays a habit.
Lessons 7–9: Action Words, Simple Sentences, The Roman World
Single words become full sentences, then soldier and legion vocabulary, with a third Refresher pulling it all back together. It gets harder here — that's normal. A rank-up right around now helps a lot.
Mixed Word Quiz, quiz duel, promotion
Run the Mixed Word Quiz for practice, then try a full quiz duel for a real challenge (a certamen is literally a Roman quiz contest). Cross 750 XP and the Legatus rank — commander of the whole legion — is yours. (Rome's not done with you yet, either — see the Ranks tab for what's still ahead.)
Lessons 10–12: Gods & Myths, Food & Drink, Weather & Nature
The Roman pantheon — browse the Pantheon tab for the myths behind the god names — then two more everyday-vocabulary lessons, with a fourth Refresher along the way. No deadline here — just more ground to cover.
Lessons 13–15: Time & Calendar, Clothing & Objects, More Sentences
Telling time, everyday objects, and a second round of full sentences, plus a fifth and final Refresher. Clear these and just two lessons remain, though the ranks above Legatus keep going for as long as there's XP left to earn.
Lessons 16–17: Latin Mottos, More Latin Mottos
A change of pace: fourteen famous Latin phrases and mottos still quoted today — carpe diem, semper fidelis, and a dozen more — rather than everyday vocabulary. One more waypoint after this, where the sentences get longer and more connected.
Lessons 18–21: Joining Ideas, Saying No, Describing People, A Longer Story
Back to building sentences from scratch, only longer ones this time — joining two clauses with et (and) or sed (but), saying what someone does not do with non, and pairing an adjective straight onto its noun instead of only ever using "is." No new vocabulary, no accusative case — just the same words from every earlier lesson, combined into fuller sentences, ending in the longest connected Latin passage in the whole course. Clear these and there's just one more, for fun.
Lesson 22: Everyday Latin Phrases
A bonus lesson, not more grammar: seven Latin phrases hiding in plain sight in everyday English and German — et cetera, vice versa, status quo, and a real legal principle, in dubio pro reo, among them. Clear this one and all twenty-two lessons are done.
Ranks & Offices
Your rank tracks experience points (XP) — earned by finishing lessons and by keeping your streak alive — not the calendar. Streak and rank are separate: missing a day resets your streak, but never takes back XP you've already earned. Every rank is split into three tiers — Bronze, Silver, Gold — except the very last one. Reach Legatus and the legion promotes you into Rome's civil government (real Romans called this ladder the cursus honorum) for four more ranks: Quaestor, Aedile, Praetor, and finally Consul — the highest office in Rome.
Tiro
Miles
Decanus
Centurion
Legatus
Quaestor
Aedile
Praetor
Consul
The Pantheon
Twelve Roman gods to know, with the myth attached. Free reading, no quiz required — Lesson 10 in the Training Ground tests eight of them if you want the rank credit too.
Iuppiter (Jupiter)
King of the godsRuler of sky and thunder. Roman generals wore purple togas because purple was his color — a bit of him rode into every battle.
Iuno (Juno)
Queen of the godsProtector of marriage and the Roman state. The month of June is named for her.
Neptunus (Neptune)
God of the seaAlso rules earthquakes and horses. Carries a three-pronged spear called a trident.
Mars
God of warOddly, also a god of farming. Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus, were said to be his sons.
Minerva
Goddess of wisdomAlso strategy and crafts. Her symbol, the owl, still means "wise" today.
Venus
Goddess of loveThe Romans believed their whole city descended from her, through her son Aeneas.
Apollo
God of the sunAlso music, poetry, and prophecy. One of the only gods with the same name in Latin and Greek.
Diana
Goddess of the huntAlso the moon and wild animals. Apollo's twin sister.
Mercurius (Mercury)
Messenger of the godsGod of travelers, trade, and — be honest — thieves. His snake-wrapped staff gets confused with medicine's real symbol so often that even some actual ambulances have the wrong one painted on the side.
Vulcanus (Vulcan)
God of fireBlacksmith to the gods, working at the forge. Volcanoes are named after him.
Pluto
God of the underworldRules the land of the dead. Not evil in Roman myth — just busy.
Bacchus
God of wineGod of festivals and letting loose. His Roman parties got so wild the Senate eventually banned them.
The Armory
Everything here is free — no membership, no separate app. The Training tab is the whole course.
The Training Ground
Twenty-two lessons, five Refresher checkpoints, and an unlimited Mixed Word Quiz, saved to this browser. No login, no daily cap, no ads — everything you need is already loaded in the Training tab.
Mixed Word Quiz
Once Lesson 1 is done, this unlocks: a shuffled quiz pulling from every word learned so far, worth its own 10 XP each time. Free, unlimited replays — the natural thing to reach for between lessons.
Optional: a physical book
If you want something to hold, Minimus: Starting Out in Latin is a well-loved beginner book built for this level, with a mouse mascot and comic-strip stories. Not required — just a low-cost option if the screen-only format wears thin.
Latin Battle
Challenge another account to a 10-question duel, drawn from vocabulary you've both learned. Answer whenever suits you — results reveal once you're both done.
You
Your profile and field kit.
Your Sarcina (a soldier's field pack)
Earned when you level up — 1 per tier, 2 per full rank. Spent automatically to protect your streak if you miss a day, as long as you've saved enough to cover it.
Tester Mode
Unlock every lesson instantly for testing — always free, always zero XP, never touches your real progress. No account needed.
🧪 Every lesson is unlocked for testing. Progress and XP are unaffected.
Feedback
Everything sent through the 💬 button, newest first.