From ecce Romani to Suburani - why a school made the change
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
I was talking to one of my school teacher colleagues about the reasons why they chose to stop using ecce Romani and move to Suburani. of course, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with using ecce Romani, but the teacher felt like they needed an update. Suburani has what they thought they needed for teaching in their all-girls' school.
I include some teachers' tips to suggest how the reader of this blog might use Suburani too - and some of this is, obviously, applicable to other reading courses.
How the school began to rethink the Latin textbook they were using
They decided to retire ecce Romani partly because parents of children currently at the school still recognise it from decades ago, sometimes literally because their own names are written in the front. The textbook has become too iconic to feel fresh for new cohorts.
The shift to Suburani was driven by a desire for materials that reflect the actual diversity of a modern school community - cultural, socioeconomic and gender representation. It’s unusually explicit in Latin textbook selection.
For example, there are strong female protagonists.
Suburani features multiple central female characters with agency: Sabina, Katia, Rufina. This is something almost unheard of in earlier Latin courses, which tended to focus on elite Roman boys or men. The teacher noted that Suburani might not be “a feminist book,” but it had stronger female representation than any comparable coursebook they’ve seen.
Teaching tip: The teacher emphasised that Suburani’s cast - especially its strong female protagonists and culturally diverse characters - mirrors the school’s student body. This suggests a teaching approach that:
Uses characters as mirrors for students’ own identities, helping them feel seen and valued.
Invites discussion about representation, gender, and social class in the ancient world, linking ancient narratives to modern questions of equity.
Frames Latin as a subject that belongs to everyone, not just to traditionally privileged groups.
Suburani depicts a different Rome: not the villas, but the Subura.
Students encounter Rome from the perspective of poorer, working‑class residents, not just senators and patricians. This is a major shift from the traditional “noble Roman family” framing of older courses.
The setting in the Subura, which is a densely populated, multicultural district (and still visible today on a school visit to Rome itself) lets students see a more realistic social mix, including interactions across class boundaries.
Teaching tip: Because the course is set in the Subura and foregrounds working‑class life, teaching can:
Highlight social history, such as housing, labour, migration and inequality, rather than defaulting to patrician villas.
Use the interplay of rich and poor characters (e.g., Sabina and Lucilius) to explore social mobility, power and daily life.
Encourage empathy‑based historical thinking, asking students to inhabit the perspectives of ordinary Romans
The stories as engines of grammar learning.
Students often intuitively choose correct verb forms (e.g., imperfect vs. perfect) simply by understanding the story context, before formal grammar explanation is given. The teacher describes grammar learning as top‑down (context first) and bottom‑up (morphology) working together. This is an approach that mirrors modern language pedagogy more than some traditional Latin teaching which tends to focus on morphology without much consideration of meaning.
Teaching tip: The teacher repeatedly noted that students intuitively chose correct forms when reading stories. This supports a pedagogy that:
Begins with meaning and context, letting students predict or infer tense, case or number from the story’s logic.
Uses bottom‑up grammar only after top‑down comprehension, reinforcing patterns students have already noticed.
Frames grammar as choice-making, not memorisation - Why bat rather than bant? Why a dative rather than an accusative? - because the story demands it.
Prioritises extended reading over isolated sentences, since narrative coherence drives grammatical accuracy.
Suburani’s digital provision is unusually advanced.
The teacher described the online platform as “so advanced” that it feels surprising for a subject often seen as archaic. That’s a fun paradox: Latin teaching becoming one of the most technologically innovative parts of the curriculum.
Teaching tip: The teacher describes the online platform as unusually advanced for Latin. This opens space for:
Blended learning, where digital exercises reinforce classroom reading.
Immediate feedback loops, helping students test hypotheses about grammar.
Independent practice, especially for students who benefit from structured, game‑like progression.
Students are genuinely invested in the characters
Pupils reportedly say “I’m so invested in this book”, which is remarkable for a Latin coursebook and suggests that narrative design is truly motivating. They particularly enjoy the humour (e.g., the latrina scene), the romantic tension between Sabina and Alexander, and the cliff‑hangers (missing rent money, threats of enslavement). It’s like a serialised drama which works as a language‑learning tool.
Teaching tip: Students’ genuine interest in the characters and the storyline means that teaching can:
Leverage cliff‑hangers and character arcs to motivate reading.
Use prediction tasks (“What do you think will happen to Sabina?”) to deepen engagement.
Treat the narrative almost like a serial drama, making Latin lessons feel like story episodes rather than grammar units.
Suburani is available at Hands Up
Comments