The Roman Research Trust has on two separate occasions given donations to the Primary Latin Project. This Project administers the production and promotion of Minimus (CUP, 1999), written by Barbara Bell. It is a Latin course book for use in primary schools (both state and independent). The narrative line by which the primary school children are introduced to Latin is based on the fort at Vindolanda and tells episodes from the life of the commander Flavius Cerialis, his wife Lepidina, their three children, and the cat (ÔVibrissaÕ) and mouse (ÔMinimusÕ). The first course book was highly successful, has sold over 42,000 copies and is taught in over 1500 schools. The sequel, Minimus Secundus, has the family move to York five years later (AD 105) and is now in production with the CUP, for publication in early 2004. Both books are fully illustrated, both with drawings and with photographic images of Roman material from Vindolanda (tablets, chamfron, socks, etc.) and elsewhere (e.g. tombstones, pottery, bronzes, rings, mosaics).

Website: www.minimus-etc.co.uk