Pugio Bruti is now online!

Shortly after the release of their much needed and most excellent Latin text Pugio Bruti, Daniel Pettersson and Amelie Rosengren of Latinitium created a comprehensive and supplemental Online Course for their text. I am a high school Latin teacher in the United States of America and have used Pugio Bruti once since its publication with my Latin 4 class. We worked cover to cover through the text with great enjoyment and came out in the end having improved our Latinity by acquiring authentic phrases and constructions. When I learned of the publication of the online course, I immediately purchased a license and began working through it. Having completed 100% of the course, here are my thoughts about it.

First, about the presentation of the material. Daniel and Amelie have put together a visually splendid course with equally pleasant and appropriate audio. The website is easily navigable and clearly understood. Daniel and Amelie have included Latin and English translations for instructions ensuring for a majority of participants full comprehension. They have graciously included PDF downloads for all documents including texts, activities, vocab lists, and more. 📷Everything has been created in a very neat and clean style and is logically organized.

The one thing about the website I might draw readers attention to is that upon the completion of each section, your progress is not automatically recorded. Instead, you will need to click the ‘Complete and continue’ button at the top right of the screen. 📷 This is not a problem and does not prevent you from moving on to the next activity, but for those of you used to this process being automatic, just know you will need to intervene to mark your progress.

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The quality of the material is exceptional. The audio is always crisp and clear. Each video’s speed can be adjusted according to the viewer’s comprehension abilities / preferences. Daniel delivers his Latin in a relatively slow and plainly enunciated manner suitable for lower level learners. For more advanced learners or for a challenge, you can speed up the audio to your liking.

Luckily for viewers Daniel has a charming and welcoming presence on camera making watching easy and delightful. He gesticulates, moves about, illustrates and modulates his voice in such a way as to prevent monotony and facilitate comprehension. 📷

I only found one minor issue with the videos. Sometimes there is glare which makes seeing some of his sketches a little difficult. 📷

The activities such as crossword puzzles, quizzes, image descriptions, supplemental dialogues, historical asides, and all others help add a depth to the course not easily found in other similar online courses. It is most evident that these materials were created with passion by a learned and experienced educator for the benefit of the learner and teacher alike. The commentaries and classroom exercises coupled with everything else offered in convenient and ready-to-print PDFs make this a standalone class. There is really little left to do for the teacher other than facilitate class discussion, print off PDFs, distribute worksheets and perhaps create a summative assessment for the end of the course. Daniel and Amelie have done such a thorough job that the teacher could sit back and either participate in the lessons along with their students or work on research or other materials for students to study after they finish the course. The course is so complete and so well done that in the event a substitute teacher should be needed for a day or series of days off, I would, without reservation or hesitation, gladly leave my students in the virtual and capable hands of Latinitium’s Pugio Bruti Online Course.

I highly recommend both the text Pugio Bruti and the Pugio Bruti Online Course.

-Jessie "Magister" Craft