Not long ago, I came across Tore Janson's A Natural History of Latin: The story of the world's most successful language (2004) – and I thought: ‘That's an odd claim.’ Then four things came to mind: the Roman Empire, which lasted for centuries; the Roman Catholic church, which has lasted longer; Latin as Europe's international language, and the Romance language family (‘Latin’ under other names). In the later twentieth century, the teaching of Latin itself fell on hard times, which for me – a teacher of the language some decades ago – is a matter of regret. It was a pleasure therefore to encounter Janson's book, which (mirabile dictu) came out first in Swedish then in English.