Escape from the Forum
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© The Classical Couple. Licensed for single-classroom/purchaser use only — not for resale or redistribution.
You have arrived in the heart of Rome. Cranes creak overhead; masons shape blocks of stone; a crowd moves between the great arches and the rising Colosseum. Somewhere in this bustle, seven puzzles stand between you and understanding what is really happening here.
Each puzzle checks itself. Solve one, and the way opens to the next — until, at the end, one final word will let you leave the city.
Crossword — the buildings of the Forum, in Latin.
Anagrams — unscramble five words from the crowd.
Cipher — decode a message, then answer the riddle it asks.
Matching — one verb, every tense, active and passive.
Picture Count — reassemble a scattered scene, then count what you see.
Odd One Out — find the mismatched word in each row to reveal a story, then answer questions about it.
Final Rebus — one clue from every lock. Their first letters, rearranged, spell your way out.
Every answer box checks itself instantly. Spelling and capitalization are forgiving — macrons are never required.
Fifteen words from the heart of Rome — buildings and vocabulary alike. Every clue gives the English meaning; you supply the Latin. Fill the grid — every crossing letter must agree both ways. Six cells are marked in red: once the grid is solved, their letters unscramble into one more word.
The grid is correct. Unscramble the six red letters:
Eight words about city life have been scrambled. Unscramble each one.
A message has been shifted 3 letters forward through the alphabet. Shift each letter back 3 to decode it — then answer the question it asks.
Decode the message — the last part speaks for itself in the first person. Answer in Latin: what is it?
One verb, appellō, appellāre ("to call, name"), in every tense — active and passive. Drag each English meaning onto its matching Latin form.
The picture below has been scattered into 24 pieces — click two to swap them. Each piece locks in place once it's correct. When the whole picture is assembled, six counting questions will appear — in Latin, they ask quot ("how many") of each thing you can find.
Click two pieces to swap them. Correct pieces lock in place — keep going until the whole picture is assembled.
In each row, three tiles belong together and one doesn't. Drag out the odd tile. Find all 17 to learn what's happening in the Forum today — the whole thing is a single sentence, with a cum-clause and an ablative absolute.
Now that the story is whole, answer these in Latin:
One clue from every lock you solved. Answer each in Latin — the first letter of each answer will reveal itself, in the order the locks appeared.
You're almost there! Arrange these letters to make a word.
The password was:
statim — "at once, immediately." The crowd parts, and the way out of the city is clear.