Immersive Spoken Latin Events

Come be immersed in Latin for a full week, either in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains or in the Michigan lake country! Whether you are trying out the spoken method for the first time or are already a well-versed veteran, you can benefit from our program. You’ll be placed in a group with others who have a similar level of experience speaking (among Tirones, Peritiores, or Veterani). Each year, we choose readings that allow participants to grow in understanding of a certain author, genre, or topic. Here are some highlights of what we’ve done in the past, ever since our ‘pilot project’ in 2021:

2021 Triduum Virginiense: Vergilii Ecloga IV (Tirones read and discussed much of the eclogue; Peritiores read the full poem. We all made use of the poem’s vocabulary while describing pictures and taking nature walks.)

2023 Conventiculum Virginiense: Bella Civilia (Tirones read excerpts from Eutropius, as well as some Caesar & Suetonius; Peritiores focused on Caesar & Suetonius. We all visited the battlefield of Manassas.)

2024 Palaestra Virginiensis & Michiganensis: De Theatro Antiquo (Tirones read and staged dialogues from Oerberg’s Colloquia Personarum; Peritiores & Veterani read and staged an abridged farce called Vitulus by the famed Renaissance author “Terentius Christianus.”)

2025 Palaestra Virginiensis & Michiganensis: De Didone Regina Carthaginiensi (Tirones read excerpts from Carla Hurt’s The Lover’s Curse:A Tiered Reader of Aeneid 4 & acted out Dido’s death scene from the Aeneid. Peritiores & Veterani read excerpts from Vergil & Ovid, as well as from several Renaissance tragicomedies, which we stitched together with Vergil to make for a brief play about Dido and Aeneas.)

2026 Palaestra Virginiensis & Michiganensis: De Arte Rhetorica (Everyone (including Tirones) read excerpts from the Rhetorica ad Herennium, discussed the praecepta of rhetoric, and imitated ancient progymnasmata, looking at excerpts from Renaissance textbooks such as a Latin translation of Aphthonius. Peritiores and Veterani read excerpts from Cicero's 2nd Philippic, discussed the history of rhetoric, the three genera dicendi, tropes, and figures. All participants wrote and performed a speech on the final day!)

Information about our 2027 programs will be coming soon!