HAMPDEN – Climbing the winding stairs to the top floor of the high school, Latin teacher Ben Johnson said he often reminds students that the language has been around about 10 times as long as the 1830s section of Hampden Academy that houses his classroom.

“They think this building is old!” he said with a smile.

But Johnson’s students already are impressed with the subject they have been studying for several years.

“Latin is like the father of most European languages,” Alex Bethony, 17, said Friday morning as he waited for class to begin.

Preparing for the Advanced Placement test next spring, Johnson’s class of seniors is reading Virgil’s “Aeneid,” a complicated, 12,000-line poem that describes the adventures of Aeneas, a Trojan prince who is sailing to Italy. Meanwhile, Juno, queen of the gods, is trying to overturn his boat and drown him by stirring up the wind.

The students were thoroughly entertained by the epic poem, which includes action and adventure, lost love, sports and tragedy.

“It’s like a modern-day movie. It’s got a little bit of everything,” said Johnson, who has students read aloud so they can “hear the music of the poem and feel the drama.”

“The meaning isn’t necessarily in the words themselves but in the sounds of the words,” the teacher said.

Urging his class to “look at how Virgil aligned the meaning of the lines with the beat,” Johnson demonstrated:

“Magno cum murmure montis,” he said, noting the alliteration in the sentence which means, “with the great murmur of the mountain.”

“Whoa, that’s some good Latin!” Johnson said, eliciting smiles from the young people.

When Johnson started teaching at Hampden Academy in 2002, there were 50 students taking Latin. Now there are 170 participating in four levels of Latin, including Advanced Placement, making Hampden Academy’s one of the largest Latin programs in the state, according to Johnson. The school hired a second instructor this year.

“Translating Latin is like doing a puzzle,” Joan Howson, the new teacher, said Friday. “It’s so incredibly logical.”

Noting the broad cross-section of students who take Latin at Hampden Academy, Principal Ruey Yehle said parents have told her they encourage their youngsters to take the subject so they can improve their vocabulary and reading skills and as a steppingstone to a medical career.

Some parents like the idea of their children learning about Roman culture so they can get an understanding of the “development of democracy,” she said.

Johnson’s students said the class is one of their favorites. They like its inclusion of mythology as well as the history and culture of ancient Rome.

“It’s a different way of living and looking at the world,” said James Faulkner, 17.

The students said that translating is challenging but fun, and that learning Latin helps them grasp other subjects.

“It helps you think logically so you can remember concepts better and understand how to apply them,” said Nate Brown, 17.

“It’s hard, but you’ve got to get through it, and it turns you into a better learner,” said Catie Gould, 17.

Hampden Academy students are so fired up about the subject that many have joined the Latin club, known as the Junior Classical League. The school has the largest JCL, with 103 members last year, in the state.

At the club’s first meeting this week, 130 students showed up, Johnson said.

In November, Hampden will host the league’s annual state convention in which 500 students from 15 schools are expected to participate. Among other things, students will don togas and take tests on Latin grammar, history and mythology.

According to the latest numbers from the Maine Department of Education, there are 57 Latin teachers in the state.

The number of Latin teachers, however, is declining nationwide, according to Johnson, who said he rarely misses an opportunity to encourage students to go into the profession.

“They laugh, but maybe I’ll get through,” he said.