Lucubra
Lucubra is an iPhone and iPad app for reading Caesar, Virgil and Cicero, with every word one tap from its form, meaning and table.
dīvīsa
dī·vī·sa /diːˈwiːsa/
dīvidō, dīvidere, dīvīsī, dīvīsum verb, third conjugation
In this sentence divided
Perfect passive participle, nominative singular feminine
divide, separate
| Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | dīvīsus | dīvīsa | dīvīsum |
| Acc. | dīvīsum | dīvīsam | dīvīsum |
| Abl. | dīvīsō | dīvīsā | dīvīsō |
With est: is divided.
“Gaul, as a whole, is divided into three parts.” Caesar, The Gallic War 1.1
Every Latin word in Lucubra, in lessons, texts and games, opens a card: its form in plain English, its meaning in this sentence, the dictionary line, its syllables and accent, and the full table with your form outlined.
Turn on meanings and every word carries its English underneath. Add the forms when you want them, or switch it all off and read clean.
Armaarmsvirumqueand the mancanō,I singTrōiaeof Troyquīwhoprīmusfirstabfromōrīsthe shoresĪtaliam,to Italyfātōby fateprofugus,an exileLāvīniaqueand Lavinianvēnitcamelītorashores
I sing of arms and the man who first, an exile by fate, came from the shores of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian shores. Virgil, Aeneid 1.1–3
Read with every aid switched on, then turn them off one by one as you grow. Each one is a setting, never a lesson you have to pass.
Every word carries its English underneath, an interlinear you can switch off.
Add each word’s form under its meaning when the grammar is the hard part.
The Latin and its English translation, sentence by sentence, every word still tappable.
Macrons on to learn the sounds, off to read as the Romans wrote.
Restored Classical or Ecclesiastical, in IPA, spoken by your device’s Italian voice.
Every word divided into syllables, with the stressed one marked.
The senses of the great Latin dictionary on every card, then the full entry.
The whole declension or conjugation, your form outlined, with principal parts.
Keep a word from any card; spaced repetition brings it back in your daily review.
A young woman with wax tablets and a stylus, fresco from Pompeii, before AD 79. Naples, National Archaeological Museum.
A light theme like a Pompeian wall, a dark one like a study lit by a clay lamp. Lucubra follows your iPhone or iPad, or keeps the one you choose in Settings.
Armaarmsvirumqueand the mancanō,I singTrōiaeof Troyquīwhoprīmusfirstabfromōrīsthe shoresĪtaliam,to Italy
I sing of arms and the man who first, an exile by fate, came from the shores of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian shores.
Armaarmsvirumqueand the mancanō,I singTrōiaeof Troyquīwhoprīmusfirstabfromōrīsthe shoresĪtaliam,to Italy
I sing of arms and the man who first, an exile by fate, came from the shores of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian shores.
The wall: Casa dei Bronzi, Pompeii, as Wilhelm Zahn drew it in 1833.
90 topics
From the first letter to Virgil’s hexameter. Each topic has a clear lesson with full tables, explained practice, and a reading written to use exactly that grammar. Nothing is locked behind earlier lessons, and Units 1 and 2 are free.
The Roman alphabet, long and short vowels, the accent, and how Latin sounded.
Litterae et sonīFree
Nouns and their cases, the first two declensions, and the verb “to be”.
Prīma verbaFree
Principal parts, the present tense, commands, questions and word order.
Verbum
Describing words, words of place and direction, and what the ablative can do.
Adiectīva et praepositiōnēs
The largest family of nouns, its adjectives, and the two small declensions.
Dēclīnātiōnēs reliquae
Past and future: the imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect and future perfect.
Tempora
I and you, this and that, who and which, self and same.
Prōnōmina
Being done to, verbs with passive forms and active meanings, and the irregular verbs.
Passīvum et verba anōmala
Verbal adjectives and nouns, the ablative absolute, and reported speech.
Participia et īnfīnītīvī
The mood of wishes, purposes and possibilities, and the clauses it governs.
Coniūnctīvus
Cum clauses, indirect questions, conditions and the subtler subordinate clauses.
Sententiae compositae
How Roman authors use every case, comparison, numbers and impersonal verbs.
Cāsūs et comparātiō
Reading Virgil and Ovid aloud, inscriptions, and the Latin of the Church and the Middle Ages.
Poēsis et ultrā
A library of Roman authors in Latin, from Caesar and Cicero to Virgil, Ovid and the Vulgate. Every word opens its card, and every sentence its English where a free translation exists. Six fables of Phaedrus and the first chapter of John are free.
Rounds of a minute or two, drawn from the texts you can open. Save words from any card for daily review, too.
How do Romans write this?
1994
MMXXVI
M is 1,000, D 500, C 100, L 50, X 10, V 5 and I 1, added from left to right; a smaller numeral before a larger one is taken away: CM 900, XC 90, IV 4. Numerals, one of the two free games, drills it against the clock.
Lessons, right answers, readings, games and reviews earn XP. Climb thirty levels along the Roman course of honours, from Tīrō, Recruit, to Prīnceps, First citizen. Meet your daily goal and the lamp stays lit; every seven days in a row earns a flask of oil that keeps it burning through a missed day.
47 honours are struck as Roman phalerae, the medals soldiers wore: 17 bronze, 20 silver and 10 gold.
For your first months of Latin, and for good.
Units 1 and 2 (letters, sounds, the cases, the first two declensions and the verb “to be”, with their lessons, practice and readings), six fables of Phaedrus, the first chapter of John in the Vulgate, two games (Numerals and Forum Pairs), daily review, and the dictionary with word cards everywhere.
$0
for good
For the whole course, the whole library and every game.
Pro opens Units 3 to 13, from the verb and its tenses to the subjunctive, conditions and Virgil’s hexameter; every work in the library; and all six games on every unit.
The yearly plan begins with a free week. Or pay $7.99 a month, $2.99 a week, or $79.99 once for life.
$39.99
a year, after a free week
US prices; local prices are set by the App Store and shown in the app before you buy. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your Apple Account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before it ends. Manage or cancel them in your Apple Account settings. Any unused part of the free week is forfeited when you buy a subscription. See the terms of use.
No account, no ads, no tracking. Everything is inside the app and works offline, and your progress stays on your device.
Terentius Neo and his wife with tablets, stylus and scroll, Pompeii, 1st century AD.
No. Unit 1 starts with the alphabet and how Latin sounded. If you already know some, start anywhere: nothing is locked behind earlier lessons, and onboarding suggests where to begin.
Restored Classical, as Cicero and Caesar spoke, is the default; Ecclesiastical, the Latin of the Church and choirs, is a setting away. Every word shows its IPA. No device has a Latin voice, so Lucubra drives your device’s Italian voice with that IPA; if the Italian voice isn’t installed, the app explains how to add it.
Units 1 and 2 (letters, sounds, the cases, the first two declensions and the verb “to be”, with their lessons, practice and readings), six fables of Phaedrus, the first chapter of John in the Vulgate, two games (Numerals and Forum Pairs), daily review, and the dictionary with word cards everywhere. Lucubra Pro opens every topic, the whole library and every game.
From open scholarship: the Latin texts and public-domain English translations of the Perseus Digital Library, the Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary, Wiktionary and Whitaker’s Words. Every source is credited in the app under Sources & credits.
Yes. Lessons, texts, the dictionary and games are all inside the app. The internet is needed only to buy or restore Pro, and to open a word in Logeion, Wiktionary or Perseus.
No. There is no sign-in, no ads and no tracking. Your progress stays on your iPhone or iPad.
No. Exercises and games use choices, taps and word tiles, so you never need a Latin keyboard.
iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later. On iPad, Lucubra uses a sidebar and the larger screen for reading.
In your Apple Account settings, at least 24 hours before the current period ends. You keep Pro until then. The lifetime purchase never renews.
Romans read late by the light of a clay lamp and called the work lucubration. Lucubra is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later; Units 1 and 2 are free.
How should Latin sound?
Choose the pronunciation the app speaks and transcribes. You can switch at any time.
Cicerō /ˈkɪkɛroː/ · Caesar /ˈkae̯sar/