College Caesar: Latin Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary

by Geoffrey Steadman

In 35 short lessons, this book includes the Latin text for the following selections from Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War with all of the corresponding vocabulary and grammatical notes on the same or facing page: Book 1.1-7, Book 4.24-35, Book 5.24-48, and Book 6.13-20. This volume is an excellent value for intermediate and advanced-level Latin students who wish to read all of the passages in Caesar's Gallic War required as part of the high school Latin curriculum.

Genres: History, Ancient History, Nonfiction, Classics

90 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2011

Reviews

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can highly recommend these Steadman editions for intermediate (or higher!) level Latin students. These editions hold your hand, but not totally. These editions do have a facing vocabulary but they don't include all of the words in the main text, only the less common ones.

But this is good! It keeps the vocabulary list from getting too long, and it omits the words that an intermediate learner is most likely to have already committed to memory. In general, both the vocabulary and the commentary are invaluable, and make the process of reading and analysing the text much faster and easier.

Caesar is not a dificult author, but I sometimes think his 'easiness' is slightly exaggerated. He's not going to be throwing much in the way of wacky or unexpected grammar at the reader, but he does sometimes employ obscure vocabulary, particularly military terminology. This is where Steadman's running vocabulary definitely comes in handy. This edition is great for improving reading speed and confidence.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for any advanced beginner/intermediate Latin reader such as myself. On the left page is an unedited section of Caesar, with a vocabulary containing any words the student may be unfamiliar with. On the right are glosses of some of the trickier sections with brief grammatical explanations. The great advantage here is that one doesn't need recourse to a dictionary but can find everything necessary for the understanding of the text (without excessive hand-holding) on the page, making for a much more pleasurable reading experience. Thoroughly recommended as a build up to reading the actual text.

[Mallika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caesar hooray!

[Jiji (=^ェ^=) · Rating 4 out of 5]

helpful commentary but sometimes missing notable context. for example, steadman fails to explain "amicus" as not just a "friend", but a special political designation indicating positive relations and status.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as group - each page multiple times.