Ars Amatoria

Presented via the natural method by Hans Ørberg, Ars Amatoria (“The Art of Love”) allows students to read lightly altered Latin texts. The text is a poem in three books by Ovid. The first two books consist of instructions to men on the wooing of women of easy virtue; the third, of instructions to woman on seduction of men. The work is full of humor and charm, and contains interesting glimpses of Roman life and manners—the circus, the theatre, the banquet. It was perhaps partly on account of its immorality that Augustus banished the poet to Tomi by the Black Sea. These poems can be read by students who have completed the first five chapters of Ørberg’s second-year text Roma Aeterna. (Lingua Latina Pars II), also available from Focus.