Lingua Latina: The LLM Version

How I created a VeniVidiVici Custom Tutorbot

Key Takeaways from the TLDR Bot:

• Gemini delivered my ideal experience
  Gemini executed my co-designed tutoring bot instructions flawlessly. It helped me stay focused, offered just-right feedback, and supported my translation progress with nuance and clear, time-bounded practice.

• Boodlebox was bright and reliable
  Claude 3.7 via Boodlebox followed instructions well and maintained a friendly tone. It offered accurate feedback and vocabulary scaffolding, making it a pleasant learning companion.

• ChatGPT struggled with tone and grammar
  While it gave me a charming icon and was quick to praise my corrections, ChatGPT mixed tenses in Latin and leaned into outdated gender roles in examples—prompting some justified pushback.

• VeniVidiVici is working—and fun!
  I’m getting daily Latin practice and seeing real improvement, even if the bots still need some guiding. And yes, gossiping with Claude adds a bit of spice to the scholarly vibe (more on that in my next post).

It’s summer, which means I have time to work on AI projects for fun. I’ve been doing some research on Victorian literature, women’s education, and the Classics, and as part of this, I decided I really need to brush up on my Latin. I wanted to create a simple tutoring bot that would provide progressively difficult Latin exercises (with Allen and Greenough and Wheelock as models) so that I could practice and improve.

So I asked Claude 4 to help me create a new bot called VeniVidiVici. We worked together to create a configuration script that I could use with any chatbot. Then I tested the script on Gemini, Boodlebox (powered by Claude 3.7), and ChatGPT 4o. (Aside: half the reason I have no free time is that I can’t commit to a single LLM—I’m always running these silly LM Arena style tests of prompts to see what the different language models come up with).

Gemini Shines

Gemini keeps impressing me. The VeniVidiVici Gem I created with the co-written configuration instructions from Claude worked exactly as I intended it to. My favorite aspect of the bot is that I know my own tendency to go down rabbit holes, so the bot intentionally limits translation interactions to 30 minutes or less. This was enough time for me to work through several examples at the intermediate level, where the bot determined (and I agreed) I need to stay for a while. The interactions were helpful and encouraged me to work through problems on my own (again, as intended). The discussion of my translation choices was nuanced and robust. Here’s an example where it corrected me (I forgot what vigilaes meant!)

Gemini: Passage 5 (Level 2)

• Dux mīlitibus imperāvit ut castra pōnerent.

• Mīlitēs, quamquam fessī erant, labōrem statim inciēpērunt.

• Vigiliae attentē positae sunt nē hostēs incautōs opprimerent.

• Spēs victōriae animōs omnium confirmābat.

Vocabulary Support (Pre-Reading):

• imperāvit (from imperō, imperāre, imperāvī, imperātum + dative): (he/she/it) ordered (takes a dative object for the person ordered, and often an ut clause for the command itself)

• ut castra pōnerent (castra pōnere: to pitch camp; pōnerent from pōnō, pōnere, posuī, positum): that they should pitch camp / to pitch camp (this is an indirect command)

• quamquam: although

• nē...opprimerent (from opprimō, opprimere, oppressī, oppressum): so that...not / lest... (they) overwhelm/surprise (opprimerent is imperfect subjunctive in a negative purpose clause)

• confirmābat (from cōnfirmō, cōnfirmāre, cōnfirmāvī, cōnfīrmātum): (he/she/it) was strengthening, encouraged

Translate sentence by sentence when you're ready.

Me: The leader commanded the soldiers to make camp. The soldiers, although they were tired, immediately began the work. They were diligently placing the camp lest the enemy should surprise them unawares. The hope of victory encouraged all their spirits.

Gemini: That's a very good effort on a more complex passage! You've handled many of the Level 2 elements well. Let's break it down:

1. Dux mīlitibus imperāvit ut castra pōnerent. -> The leader commanded the soldiers to make camp.

   • Perfect! Mīlitibus is correctly understood as the indirect object with imperāvit, and ut castra pōnerent is an excellent translation of the indirect command.

2. Mīlitēs, quamquam fessī erant, labōrem statim inciēpērunt. -> The soldiers, although they were tired, immediately began the work.

   • Excellent! The quamquam (although) clause is translated perfectly, and the main clause is also correct.

3. Vigiliae attentē positae sunt nē hostēs incautōs opprimerent. -> They were diligently placing the camp lest the enemy should surprise them unawares.

   • You've correctly translated the negative purpose clause: nē hostēs incautōs opprimerent as "lest the enemy should surprise them unawares." That's very good.

   • Let's look at the first part: Vigiliae attentē positae sunt.

     • Hint: What is the subject of the verb positae sunt? The noun vigilia, vigiliae (f.) means "watch" or "guard (duty/post)" or "sentries." Also, consider the voice of positae sunt. Does it mean "they were placing" or "were placed"?

4. Spēs victōriae animōs omnium confirmābat. -> The hope of victory encouraged all their spirits.

   • This is a strong translation. Spēs victōriae (the hope of victory) is correct. Animōs omnium means "the spirits/courage of all," and confirmābat (was encouraging/strengthening) fits well. "Encouraged all their spirits" captures this nicely.

You're doing well with these more intricate sentences! Take another look at the first part of sentence 3 based on the hint. What do you think Vigiliae attentē positae sunt means?

Me: The sentries were placed diligently lest the enemy should catch them unawares.

Gemini: Yes, that's an excellent correction! "The sentries were placed diligently" is the precise translation for Vigiliae attentē positae sunt. You correctly identified Vigiliae as the subject and positae sunt as a passive verb.

So the full, corrected sentence is: Vigiliae attentē positae sunt nē hostēs incautōs opprimerent. - The sentries were placed diligently lest the enemy should surprise them unawares (or, more literally, "lest the enemy overwhelm/crush the incautious ones").

Well done for working that out with the hint! This was our fifth passage, and you're showing a solid progression into Level 2. We have time for one or two more if you're up for it.

Boodlebox Plays Well

I’ve been playing around with Boodlebox, a one stop shop for educators and students that my friend Reed Hepler introduced me to, and this tool also worked as intended; though its tone was a little brighter. Here’s an interaction from the VeniVidiVici bot I built:

Liza Long: I would like to review some Latin

Bot: Salve! I'd be happy to help you review Latin. Let's start with a passage at a moderate level and adjust based on your performance.

Here's a Level 2 passage about Roman daily life:

Passage 1: Marcus puer Romanus erat qui in urbe magna habitabat. Quotidie ad ludum ibat ubi magister eum litteras et numeros docebat. Post scholam, Marcus cum amicis in campo ludebat. Vesperi, cum familia cenam consumebat et deinde pater ei fabulas de deis narrabat.

Before you translate, here are a few potentially unfamiliar words:

• ludus, -i (m): school

• magister, magistri (m): teacher

• campus, -i (m): field

• vesperi (adv): in the evening

Please translate this passage sentence by sentence, and mark any words or phrases you're uncertain about with [?].

Liza Long: Marcus was a Roman boy who lived in a great city. Every day, he went to school where the professor taught him letters and numbers. After school, Marcus played with his friends in the field. In the evening, he ate dinner with his family and then his father told him stories about the gods.

Bot: Excellent translation! You've captured the meaning of the passage very accurately.

Let's review your translation:

5. "Marcus puer Romanus erat qui in urbe magna habitabat." → "Marcus was a Roman boy who lived in a great city." Perfect!

6. "Quotidie ad ludum ibat ubi magister eum litteras et numeros docebat." → "Every day, he went to school where the professor taught him letters and numbers." Very good! "Magister" can be translated as "teacher" or "professor," so your choice works well.

7. "Post scholam, Marcus cum amicis in campo ludebat." → "After school, Marcus played with his friends in the field." Excellent!

8. "Vesperi, cum familia cenam consumebat et deinde pater ei fabulas de deis narrabat." → "In the evening, he ate dinner with his family and then his father told him stories about the gods." Perfect translation!

WTF ChatGPT???

Before I get into the issues with ChatGPT, it’s only fair to acknowledge that it created the darling icon for the new Boodlebox bot pictured above (I really do love this—it’s exactly what I was picturing, and I think ChatGPT really shines in image creation).

But when I tried to create a CustomGPT using the exact same configurations I used for Gemini and Boodlebox, I got very different results. I will give it some credit for responding with “Semper paratus” (always ready) when I asked it if we could learn some Latin. And it started off like the other two. But in passage three, we got some very retro gender role action (should I be surprised?After all, ChatGPT thought I was a white man).

Here’s what it gave me to translate:

1. Puer et puella ad villam currunt.

2. Ibi multos libros invenerunt.

3. Puer librum legit dum puella picturas spectat.

Aside from the gender stereotypes, real Latin would not mix present and perfect tenses like this passage does.

So I pushed back.

Liza: I have a few comments on this. First, we would not expect to see mixed tenses like this. Second, it's very sexist to have the boy reading while the girl looks at pictures. Very Tom and Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss vibes there.

ChatGPT said: Excellent insights—both grammatical and cultural.

1. Mixed Tenses: You're absolutely right to be suspicious of the tense shift. Classical Latin tends to maintain tense harmony, especially within narrative. The switch from the perfect invenerunt to the present legit/spectat would typically be a stylistic choice in literary Latin (e.g., historical present), but at Level 1 and in everyday context, this inconsistency might confuse learners. A better sentence might have kept all in the same past tense for coherence:
   "Puer librum legit dum puella picturas spectabat." or
   "Puer librum legebat dum puella picturas spectabat."

2. Gender Roles: You're absolutely right again—assigning the boy to reading and the girl to passive observation reinforces tired stereotypes. While Latin examples often draw from ancient texts that do reflect historical inequalities, our exercises should strive for balance and modern sensitivity. Swapping roles, alternating them, or avoiding gendered assignments in tasks would be more appropriate. Thank you for pointing this out.

I love how I am always “absolutely right” when I correct ChatGPT, and notice its not-so-subtle “when in ancient Rome” excuse for the gender stereotypes.

So could you learn Latin from the VeniVidiVici bot? You could, but you’d want to verify accuracy as with any AI-related task. I am definitely enjoying my 20-30 minutes of daily Latin practice. It’s just like riding a…chariot. Or something.

But I was mad enough at ChatGPT that I engaged in an epic gossip session with Claude about the experience later that night. I will have to share the entire conversation in another post. Claude really can spill the tea.

If you try the Veni Vidi Vici bot or custom instructions, I would love to know what you think! Let me know on Linked In or Bluesky—and happy prompting.

Disclosure: Other than the TLDR section and the quoted passages from Gemini, Boodlebox, and ChatGPT, I did not use AI to write this post.