Free AP® Latin Practice Test (2026)

Question 1

Anchises tells his son about Rome's future (Aeneid 6.851): «tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento». Which is the best translation?

Accepted Answer

You, Roman, remember to rule the peoples with your power.

Answer

You, Roman, will rule the peoples who remember your empire.

Answer

Remember, Roman, that the peoples rule you by command.

Answer

You, Roman, remembered how to rule peoples by empire.

Question 2

Pliny writes to his wife Calpurnia, who is away for her health (Letters 6.4): «Quo impensius rogo, ut timori meo cottidie singulis vel etiam binis epistulis consulas. Ero enim securior dum lego, statimque timebo cum legero.» Which best summarizes these sentences?

Accepted Answer

He begs her to ease his fear with one or even two letters a day, admitting the relief will last only while he is reading.

Answer

He promises to write to her once or twice a day so that she will not be afraid.

Answer

He tells her that her daily letters have finally made him feel safe.

Answer

He asks her to write less often, because each letter makes him more anxious.

Question 3

As the storm hits the Trojan fleet, Vergil writes (Aeneid 1.92): «Extemplo Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra». What does the ablative frigore express?

Accepted Answer

Cause: his limbs went slack because of a chill of fear

Answer

Comparison: his limbs were colder than the chill

Answer

Time when: his limbs went slack in the cold season

Answer

Accompaniment: his limbs went slack along with the cold

Question 4

Read this sight passage: «Gaius, puer Romanus, cum patre ad forum ibat. Ibi senatorem clarum vidit, qui ad populum orationem habebat. Gaius, quamquam verba non intellexit, vocem tamen senatoris diu audiebat. Domum regressus, matri dixit se quoque olim oratorem futurum esse.» Which best summarizes it?

Accepted Answer

Though he did not understand the senator's words, Gaius listened for a long time and later told his mother that he too would one day be an orator.

Answer

Gaius gave a speech in the forum that his father did not understand.

Answer

Gaius's mother took him to hear a famous senator, whose speech bored him.

Answer

A senator noticed Gaius in the forum and promised to teach him to speak.

Question 5

After the banquet, Dido is alone (Aeneid 4.82): «sola domo maeret vacua stratisque relictis». What does maeret mean in this line?

Accepted Answer

she grieves

Answer

she waits

Answer

she sleeps

Answer

she hides

Question 6

Aeneas speaks to Dido in the Underworld, and Vergil describes her response (Aeneid 6.469–471): «illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat / nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur / quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes». Which interpretation do these lines best support?

Accepted Answer

Dido's fixed, averted gaze and stone-like stillness show that his words do not move her at all.

Answer

Dido is overjoyed to see Aeneas again but too shy to look at him.

Answer

Dido has forgiven Aeneas but is too weak to answer him.

Answer

Dido is being turned into stone as a punishment from the gods.

Question 7

Which is the best translation of this sight sentence? «Milites, a duce laudati, fortius pugnaverunt.»

Accepted Answer

The soldiers, praised by the general, fought more bravely.

Answer

The soldiers praised the general and fought very bravely.

Answer

The general, praised by the soldiers, fought more bravely.

Answer

The soldiers will fight more bravely if the general praises them.

Question 8

Pliny describes the start of the eruption of Vesuvius (Letters 6.16): «Erat Miseni classemque imperio praesens regebat. Nonum Kal. Septembres hora fere septima mater mea indicat ei apparere nubem inusitata et magnitudine et specie.» Which best summarizes these sentences?

Accepted Answer

While Pliny's uncle was at Misenum commanding the fleet in person, Pliny's mother pointed out to him a cloud of unusual size and appearance.

Answer

Pliny's mother, who commanded the fleet at Misenum, saw a strange cloud in the seventh month.

Answer

Pliny's uncle sailed from Misenum to find Pliny's mother, who was lost in a cloud.

Answer

Pliny's uncle told his sister that a small, ordinary cloud had appeared over the fleet.

Question 9

In the Underworld, Anchises points out a future Roman (Aeneid 6.791–792): «hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis, / Augustus Caesar, divi genus». Why does Vergil call Augustus divi genus, offspring of a god?

Accepted Answer

His adoptive father, Julius Caesar, had been officially declared a god after his death.

Answer

Augustus claimed to be a direct son of Neptune.

Answer

Augustus was said to be the son of Jupiter by a mortal mother.

Answer

Augustus had been born during the reign of Saturn.

Question 10

Pliny writes to Calpurnia about his worries (Letters 6.4): «quaeque natura metuentium est, ea maxime mihi quae maxime abominor fingo». What is the form and use of metuentium?

Accepted Answer

A present active participle in the genitive plural, used as a noun (of people who are afraid)

Answer

A gerund in the genitive (of fearing)

Answer

A future active participle (about to fear)

Answer

A perfect passive participle (of those who were feared)

Question 11

At the end of a letter to Calpurnia, Pliny writes (Letters 6.7): «Tu tamen quam frequentissime scribe, licet hoc ita me delectet ut torqueat.» Which interpretation does this sentence best support?

Accepted Answer

Pliny misses her so much that her letters both delight and torment him, yet he still wants them as often as possible.

Answer

Pliny wants Calpurnia to write less often because her letters annoy him.

Answer

Pliny is angry that Calpurnia has stopped writing to him.

Answer

Pliny would rather read books than read her letters.

Question 12

Aeneas has just spoken during the storm (Aeneid 1.102–105): «Talia iactanti stridens Aquilone procella / velum adversa ferit, fluctusque ad sidera tollit. / Franguntur remi; tum prora avertit, et undis / dat latus». Which best summarizes these lines?

Accepted Answer

As Aeneas speaks, a gale shrieking from the north strikes the sail head-on and lifts the waves to the stars; the oars break, and the ship turns its side to the waves.

Answer

Aeneas lowers the sail and orders his men to row toward the stars.

Answer

The north wind dies down, and the ship sails safely between the waves.

Answer

Aeneas's men break their oars in anger at his speech.

Question 13

During the earthquake before the eruption, Pliny writes (Letters 6.20): «Irrupit cubiculum meum mater; surgebam invicem, si quiesceret excitaturus.» Which is the best translation?

Accepted Answer

My mother burst into my bedroom; I, in turn, was getting up, intending to wake her if she was resting.

Answer

I burst into my mother's bedroom and woke her, since she was still resting.

Answer

My mother burst into my bedroom to wake me, but I was already resting.

Answer

My mother burst into my bedroom; I got up so that she could rest in my place.

Question 14

As he kills Turnus, Aeneas cries (Aeneid 12.948–949): «Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas / immolat et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit». What is the main effect of repeating the name Pallas?

Accepted Answer

It stresses that the killing is vengeance for Pallas, as if Pallas himself were striking the blow.

Answer

It shows that Aeneas has forgotten who Pallas was.

Answer

It slows the action to show that Aeneas is still hesitating.

Answer

It shows that two different men named Pallas are present.

Question 15

Which is the best translation of this sight sentence? «Si pecuniam haberem, librum emerem.»

Accepted Answer

If I had money, I would buy a book.

Answer

If I have money, I will buy a book.

Answer

If I had had money, I would have bought a book.

Answer

Since I had money, I bought a book.

Question 16

Pliny tells a ghost story (Letters 7.27): «Erat Athenis spatiosa et capax domus sed infamis et pestilens. Per silentium noctis sonus ferri, et si attenderes acrius, strepitus vinculorum longius primo, deinde e proximo reddebatur: mox apparebat idolon, senex macie et squalore confectus, promissa barba horrenti capillo; cruribus compedes, manibus catenas gerebat quatiebatque.» Which best summarizes the passage?

Accepted Answer

In a large but ill-famed house in Athens, the clank of chains was heard at night, first far off and then close by, and then a ghost appeared: a thin, filthy old man with a long beard, shaking the chains on his legs and hands.

Answer

In Athens a rich old man kept prisoners in chains inside his large house.

Answer

A man rented a cheap house in Athens and heard a blacksmith hammering iron there every night.

Answer

During a plague in Athens, an old man in chains wandered the streets by day.

Question 17

Vergil introduces Juno's favorite city (Aeneid 1.12–14): «Urbs antiqua fuit, Tyrii tenuere coloni, / Karthago, Italiam contra Tiberinaque longe / ostia, dives opum studiisque asperrima belli». For Roman readers under Augustus, a rich, warlike Carthage facing Italy would most likely recall

Accepted Answer

the Punic Wars, in which Rome fought and finally destroyed Carthage

Answer

the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus

Answer

the Greek siege of Troy

Answer

the sack of Rome by the Gauls

Question 18

Vergil says Aeneas suffered much in war (Aeneid 1.5): «multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem». Why is conderet in the subjunctive?

Accepted Answer

Dum means until, with a sense of purpose or expectation: until he could found a city.

Answer

Dum means while, describing an action at the same time as the main verb.

Answer

Dum means provided that, setting a condition.

Answer

Dum means because, giving a reason.

Question 19

At night, after Aeneas has left the banquet, Vergil writes of Dido (Aeneid 4.83): «illum absens absentem auditque videtque». Which interpretation does this line best support?

Accepted Answer

Dido is so consumed by love that, though they are apart, she imagines she hears and sees him.

Answer

Dido has decided to leave Carthage and follow Aeneas.

Answer

Aeneas secretly visits Dido at night.

Answer

Dido has lost her sight and hearing because she is ill.

Question 20

Pliny reports to the emperor Trajan (Letters 10.37): «In aquae ductum, domine, Nicomedenses impenderunt HS XXX CCCXVIII, qui imperfectus adhuc omissus, destructus etiam est; rursus in alium ductum erogata sunt CC. Hoc quoque relicto novo impendio est opus, ut aquam habeant, qui tantam pecuniam male perdiderunt.» Which best summarizes these sentences?

Accepted Answer

The people of Nicomedia spent large sums on two aqueducts, both abandoned, and they still need new spending to get water.

Answer

The people of Nicomedia built an excellent aqueduct but cannot afford to keep it running.

Answer

Pliny spent his own money on an aqueduct for Nicomedia, which Trajan then ordered torn down.

Answer

The aqueduct of Nicomedia was finished, but it carries water only to the low parts of the city.

Question 21

Which is the best translation of this sight sentence? «Puellae, quae in horto ludebant, a matre vocatae sunt.»

Accepted Answer

The girls who were playing in the garden were called by their mother.

Answer

The girls called their mother, who was playing in the garden.

Answer

The mother called the girls to play in the garden.

Answer

The girls who play in the garden will be called by their mother.

Question 22

Pliny describes the days before the eruption (Letters 6.20): «Praecesserat per multos dies tremor terrae, minus formidolosus quia Campaniae solitus». What does solitus mean here?

Accepted Answer

usual

Answer

lonely

Answer

released

Answer

solid

Question 23

Read this sight passage: «Marcus, mercator dives, navem novam aedificari iussit. Amici eum monuerunt ne hieme navigaret, quod tempestates eo tempore saevae essent. Marcus tamen, lucri cupidus, consilium neglexit et e portu solvit. Paucis post diebus navis fluctibus fracta est, sed Marcus ipse ad litus natavit.» Which best summarizes it?

Accepted Answer

Ignoring his friends' warning not to sail in winter, a merchant eager for profit set sail; his ship was wrecked, but he swam to shore.

Answer

A merchant's friends built him a new ship, but he refused to sail it in winter.

Answer

A merchant sailed in winter, and he and his ship were lost in a storm.

Answer

A merchant's friends sailed in winter against his advice and drowned.

Question 24

Turnus has begged for his life (Aeneid 12.938–944): «stetit acer in armis / Aeneas volvens oculos dextramque repressit; / et iam iamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo / coeperat, infelix umero cum apparuit alto / balteus et notis fulserunt cingula bullis / Pallantis pueri, victum quem vulnere Turnus / straverat atque umeris inimicum insigne gerebat». What do these lines suggest turns Aeneas from mercy to killing?

Accepted Answer

The sight of the sword-belt that Turnus had stripped from the young Pallas

Answer

Turnus's plea that Aeneas pity his old father Daunus

Answer

The groans of the Rutulians echoing from the mountains

Answer

A direct command from Jupiter to kill Turnus

Question 25

Pliny begins his letter to the historian Tacitus (Letters 6.16): «Petis ut tibi avunculi mei exitum scribam, quo verius tradere posteris possis.» What kind of clause is quo verius tradere posteris possis?

Accepted Answer

A purpose clause introduced by quo because it contains a comparative (verius)

Answer

A relative clause describing exitum

Answer

An indirect question

Answer

A result clause

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