古典拉丁语（拉丁语：Latina Classica）为罗马帝国的官方语言与标准语，盛行于公元前1世纪至公元2世纪。

在古典拉丁语，C和G总是发 [k]和[g]的音，和现代的罗曼语族诸语言有所不同，但相对于意大利语频繁使用K字母来说，法语、西班牙语，葡萄牙语几乎以C来取代K字母，可以说仍然保留了相当程度的古拉丁文特色。

在此时期，大致相当于拉丁语文学史上的黄金时代（前90年～公元14年屋大维去世）。拉丁语已经形成有统一规范的标准语，词汇丰富，句法完善，表现力强。

Classical Latin is the modern term used to describe the form of the Latin language recognized as standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. In some later periods it was regarded as "good" Latin, with later versions being viewed as debased or corrupt. The word "Latin" is now taken by default as meaning "Classical Latin", so that, for example, modern Latin textbooks describe classical Latin. Marcus Tullius Cicero and his contemporaries of the late republic, while using lingua Latina and sermo Latinus to mean the Latin language as opposed to the Greek or other languages, and sermo vulgaris or sermo vulgi to refer to the vernacular of the uneducated and less-educated masses, regarded the speech they valued most and in which they wrote as Latinitas, "Latinity", with the implication of good. Sometimes it is called sermo familiaris, "speech of the good families", sermo urbanus, "speech of the city" or rarely sermo nobilis, "noble speech", but mainly besides Latinitas it was Latine (adverb), "in good Latin", or Latinius (comparative degree of adjective), "good Latin."