What It Means to be Roman: Uncovering Identity through Biography and and Burial in Ancient Rome (A Primary Source Investigation

Uncover What It Really Meant to Be Roman Through Authentic Voices

What It Means to Be Roman: A Primary Source Investigation is a homeschool history curriculum guide for grades 6-12 that teaches students to think like historians using real ancient Roman primary sources. Instead of reading about Roman values in a textbook, your student will discover them firsthand through the actual words Romans left behind — carved tomb inscriptions, a husband's funeral speech for his wife, and a Greek biographer's portrait of Rome's most famously virtuous citizen. Ancient Roman history stops being something that happened to other people and starts feeling human and real.

Why Choose This Ancient Rome Homeschool Guide?

• Authentic Ancient Roman Primary Sources: Explore carefully selected documents including Plutarch's Life of Cato the Elder, funerary inscriptions from the Tomb of the Scipios and others, and the remarkable Laudatio Turiae — a Roman husband's tribute to his extraordinary wife. Each primary source comes with background introductions written specifically to prepare your student to analyze them like a historian.
• Engaging Historical Investigation: Students become historical detectives, analyzing what Romans chose to carve in stone, who they praised and why, and what those choices reveal about ancient Roman values and culture. What did it really mean to be Roman? Let them discover the answers themselves through primary source analysis.
• Flexible Homeschool Curriculum: This digital homeschool history guide includes 9 structured lessons with activities, discussion prompts, and writing assignments tailored for solo or group learning. Suitable for middle school and high school students ages 11-18. Sources can be divided among multiple students for a collaborative investigation, or worked through individually at whatever pace fits your family.
• Historical Thinking Skills: Built around Sam Wineburg's historical thinking framework from the Digital Inquiry Group, this homeschool curriculum develops essential skills including sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, close reading, and rhetoric analysis — transferable critical thinking skills for history and beyond.
• Charlotte Mason Homeschool Compatible: Includes a special note for Charlotte Mason homeschool families who have studied Plutarch's Parallel Lives, explaining how primary source analysis complements living books narration and enriches your existing classical studies curriculum.

Perfect For: Homeschool families studying ancient Rome, classical civilizations, or world history — middle school history curriculum — high school history curriculum — Charlotte Mason homeschool — classical homeschool — digital history resources — primary source analysis curriculum — critical thinking for homeschoolers

Get Started Today!

Transform your homeschool ancient Rome unit with What It Means to Be Roman. Buy now and let your student uncover the values, virtues, and very human voices that built an empire — and practice the historical thinking skills that will serve them for life.