How old are you, Rome? 🐺

Plus, would you like to help with a vocabulary project?

Apr 21, 2025

Today is April 21st, 2025, or in traditional Roman notation, ante diem xi Kalendas Maias anno MMDCCLXXVIII ab urbe condita, that is, “the 11th day [counting inclusively] before the Kalends of May in the year 2,778th year from the founding of the city.” Historical Roman dating often used a.u.c., that is “ab urbe condita,” or “from the founding of the city,” to reckon the year. So, that makes Rome 2,778 years old today! Dies natalis sit faustus! (Here’s a handy Roman date converter.)

Designs and shirts that celebrate April 21st

Go to our Etsy store

Also, we’ve removed shirts printed on the Gildan and Hanes brands from our store since they are manufactured in El Salvador. We’ve redone a lot of shirts on different brands (most are Bella + Canvas, which are manufactured in the U.S.), but there are still a lot of designs missing which will be added back. Most were fall or holiday-themed designs.

AP Latin Vocabulary List

We’ve started a new project to help Latin teachers whose program culminates in AP Latin. The AP Latin syllabus (a test very roughly equivalent to the GCSE in the U.K.) was recently updated by the College Board. As part of this update, they added a required vocabulary list of 1,000 words with English definitions (and other useful info like where the words occur in the assigned texts). Additionally, I thought it would be useful for teachers who do a lot of rephrasing and CI instruction to have a list of Latin definitions, synonyms, and antonyms. (And also to have macrons on the words.) I also think Latin definitions like this will be helpful for resource creation, e.g. stories and videos in Latin. So, I’ve started a spreadsheet where I’m adding those things. However, since there are quite a few words, I could use some help. If you are interested in helping out, I can add you as an editor the the Google sheets file. There are instructions and resources to help you define words in Latin in the file. Email me at contact@lupusalatus.com to be added as an editor.