Sāturnālia
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© The Classical Couple. Licensed for single-classroom/purchaser use only — not for resale or redistribution.
It is December, and for one wild week the whole city turns upside down: the law courts close, gambling is legal in the street, and — strangest of all — masters wait on their own slaves at table. In this house, the dominus himself is about to hand out the very first gift of the day.
Seven puzzles stand between you and the gift itself. Solve one, and the day comes into focus — until, at the end, one final word reveals what everyone in the house is thinking.
Crossword — the vocabulary of a Roman household at Saturnalia.
Anagrams — unscramble seven words for the people who make their living outside this house.
Cipher — decode a message, then answer the riddle it asks.
Matching — two verbs, dō and amō ("to give," "to love"), in every tense you know.
Picture Count — reassemble a scattered scene, then count what you see.
Odd One Out — find the mismatched word in each row to reveal what happens in the house, then answer questions about it.
Final Rebus — one clue from every lock. Their first letters, rearranged, spell the final word.
Every answer box checks itself instantly. Spelling and capitalization are forgiving — macrons are never required.
Fifteen words from a Roman household at Saturnalia. Every clue gives the English meaning; you supply the Latin. Fill the grid — every crossing letter must agree both ways. Seven cells are marked in red: once the grid is solved, their letters unscramble into one more word.
The grid is correct. Unscramble the seven red letters:
Seven words for the people making their living in the streets outside. Unscramble each one.
A message has been shifted 3 letters forward through the alphabet. Shift each letter back 3 to decode it — the message speaks for itself. Answer the question it asks, in Latin.
Decode the message — it already asks its own question at the end.
Two verbs, dō, dare ("to give") and amō, amāre ("to love") — everything a Saturnalia gift means — in every tense you know. 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, five 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 15 to learn what happens in the house.
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:
facile — "easily." The gift is given, the house is happy, and for one week the whole world is upside down.