Poenica is an immigrant from Tyre, the Phoenician city known for its purple. She’s an extraordinary purple-dyer who wants to become a tightrope walker! In this tale, her shop is visited by different Romans looking to get togas purpled, as well as an honored Vestal in need of a new trim on her sacred veil. Some requests are realistic—others ridiculous. Is life all work and no play? Can Poenica find the time to tightrope walk?

On Magister P's website there is also an online audioversion available.

Features

• 16 cognates, 19 other words words (excluding different word forms)
• total word count: 1,600+
• 52 pages of text
• written in present tense with some use of other tenses
• with clarifying illustrations

Information for teachers

Poenica purpurāria seriously unshelters (i.e. unleashes, doesn’t limit, etc.) its grammar. In this novella, there are indirect statements, passive voice, gerundives of purpose, perfect and future tenses, ablative absolute, and the future periphrastic. Considering it’s able to be read within the first months of Latin, that’s a lot of grammar exposure for the beginning student.

Regarding target culture, Poenica purpurāria can serve as an introduction to quite a variety of topics for a book of its small scope, including the process of dyeing clothes itself, multicultural Rome, women in antiquity, Phoenicians, trade, not to mention Vestals and the broad topic of religion. Teachers are encouraged to make note of what students find compelling, and consider exploring more of that in class. 

Would you like to order a class set? We will give you a 10% discount on 25 or more copies of the same title. Please, order the novels via e-mail. Due to relatively small stock numbers, please allow 2-3 weeks for your order.

*All books and novels are copyright protected, which means that copying this book for use in your classroom is not permitted.