Colloquia Latina
A free library of short, neo-Latin plays.
Colloquia Omnia
A list of all the colloquiaAuctores
Colloquia by authorArgumenta
Colloquia by topicInitium
Colloquia to start withWhat are colloquia?
A “colloquium” is a literary form that reached its height in the Renaissance period. Each colloquium is a very
short play or dialogue, usually only a few pages long. Most commonly colloquia were written for pedagogical
purposes, intended to teach Latin, a moral lesson, or both.
Erasmus and other capable neo-Latinists wrote a large number of colloquia. These provide a delightful source of
high quality yet approachable Latinity in digestible chunks. They are of particular interest for anyone who
wishes
to speak Latin actively, as they provide excellent, useful examples of every-day conversations.
Colloquia can be enjoyed through solo reading, performed in a group, memorized, used as writing prompts, filmed
for short videos, etc. See this page for tips on profitably using colloquia as a student or teacher.
Where do these Colloquia come from?
The colloquia on this site are all collected from works in the public domain. We owe a debt of gratitude to ___
and the __ project at the University of Kentucky, who first started the collection and digital transcription of
colloquia. Unfortunately, after __’s death and subsequent migration updates to the Perseus website, those
colloquia were not easily available online. Additionally, they had never been formatted in a manner conducive to
enjoyable reading.
We have also sourced colloquia from X and Y.
Where do I start?
The list of colloquia can be a bit overwhelming. Luckily, you could pick one at random and be fine. On this site
you can search by author if you happen to be intrigued by a particular author.
Eventually we plan to add topic and difficulty tags to the colloquia, so you could find only colloquia having to
do with schoolwork or only easy colloquia.
We also have plans to produce in book form a florelogium (curated collection) of colloquia well suited for
students of Latin who are first dipping their toes into the world of colloquia.
Want to Help?
This website and its contents are a labor of love, a somewhat perverse love for the Latin language and
especially
active Latin.
To donate to the project, click here.
To assist with transcription, proof-reading, or formatting, email us at [email protected].