Rūfus Lutulentus

Rūfus Lutulentus (Muddy Rufus) is a sheltered-vocabulary Latin novella published by Lance Piantaggini in 2017 as part of the Pisoverse series. It tells the story of Rufus, a Roman boy who loves nothing more than to be muddy and dirty, which conflicts with the Roman practices of bathing and cleanliness. It is notable for its very low core word count: only 18 words by the LNDb count.

Available from the author's website (bulk discounts available), from the CI Bookshop (Europe), or from Amazon.

Reading level

A blog post by the author states that this novella is intended for readers in the first half of their first year of study. Comprehensible Antiquity puts this novella at Level A, and gives a full review here. In his ranking of 13 novellas, John Piazza ranks it as the third-easiest.

Diverse & Multicultural Identities

For information about how representation of multicultural and diverse identities is analyzed in LNDb, see here.

Parallel cultures

No depictions identified.

Gender

There is one cis male main character (Rufus). There are no cis female main characters or transgender main characters.

Sexual identity

No depictions identified. (Though Rufus has a mother and a father in other stories in the Pisoverse series, only his mother is mentioned in Rūfus Lutulentus.)

SES/class

No depictions identified.

Religion

There is a depiction of Roman religion: Rufus is repeatedly reminded that it is nefās (blasphemy) to be muddy in a Roman temple, specifically the Pantheon.

Disability

No depictions identified.

Language Statistics

Vocabulary

Word counts may differ from the author's advertised figures. See here for information about how words are counted in LNDb.

Word List

A complete word list for Rūfus Lutulentus can be found here.

Glosses

This novella contains glosses in the form of both footnotes with English translations and pictures. It also features many illustrations. While they are not glosses of particular words, they are meant to depict the events of the story in a way that supports comprehension on a level broader than individual words.

Of the 28 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 10 of them (35.7%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 1189 total words in the text, 58 of them (4.9%) are glossed.

Glossary

This novella contains a Latin-English glossary, with every form of each word listed separately. The glossary is complete.

Syntax

The ratio of compound sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are compound sentences, on average. A compound sentence is defined as a sentence with multiple T-units.
The ratio of complex sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are complex sentences, on average. A complex sentence is defined as a sentence with one or more subordinate clauses or verb phrases.

See here for more information.

Summary

The graph above shows the vocabulary and syntax of the novella relative to the other novellas studied. A higher position on the graph means that this novella scores higher than average in this criterion. These scores are not necessarily tied to reading level; this graph is descriptive of the novella's language rather than predictive of its difficulty.

Genre & Sources

This novella is in the genre of historical (Classical).

It is not an adaptation of any particular piece of Classical literature.

Complete Plot Summary

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Rufus is a Roman boy who loves to be muddy. He wants to be muddy in all different places in Rome, no matter who is around. He tries to be muddy around his friend's mother Livia, in the Palatium, in the Circus Maximus, in the Forum, and at home, but it is not proper to be muddy in any of these places. Rufus is encouraged to go to the baths, because Romans are allowed to be dirty there, but he refuses to go because he does not like the baths. Then he goes to the gladiator school, and finds that the gladiators are allowed to be dirty, even though they still go to the baths every day. Rufus decides to go to the baths tomorrow.

First 100 Words

Underlined words are glossed in the text. See also the preview found here.

ecce, Rūfus!
Rūfus est Rōmānus.
Rūfus est lutulentus—fūfae!
Rūfus est Rōmānus lutulentus.
Rūfō placet esse lutulentum, et Rūfō placet esse Rōmānum.
Rūfō placet esse Rōmānum lutulentum.
Rūfus est lutulentus diē Lūnae.
Rūfus est lutulentus diē Mārtis.
Rūfus diēbus Mercuriī et Iovis est lutulentus…
et diēbus Veneris et Sāturnī et Sōlis est lutulentus!
Rūfus est lutulentus diēbus omnibus!
Rūfus est lutulentus cotīdiē!
Rūfō placet esse lutulentum cotīdiē!
Rūfus est Rōmae.
Rūfus vult lutulārī. Rūfus vult lutulārī Rōmae.
Rūfus vult lutulārī in Palātiō.
Rūfus vult lutulārī in Circō Maximō.
in Forō Rōmānō, Rūfus vult lutulārī…
et Rūfus vult lutulārī in Amphitheātrō Flāviō. ...

Studies show that a reader should understand 98% of the words in a text in order to have a good chance of comprehending it. One rule of thumb is to read the first hundred words and count the number of unfamiliar words. If there are two or fewer unfamiliar words, it can be read without much difficulty. Three to five unfamiliar words is possible to read, but may be difficult. If there are six or more unfamiliar words, the text may be too difficult.

Supplementary Materials

The author has created numerous supplementary materials, including a teacher's guide with expanded readings, an audiobook, and an add-on book (Rūfus et Lūcia: Līberī Lutulentī) with additional reading material based on the story.

Presentation

Illustrations?	yes
Illustrator	Lauren Aczon
Macrons?	yes
Font	Verdana, 11.5 pt
Pages of story	49
Total pages	73
Chapters	9

Key Information

Publication date	September 14, 2017
Publisher	Poetulus Publishing (Createspace)
ISBN	1548709581
ISBN-13	978-1548709581