The Aeneid, Book Twelve: Latin Text, with an Introduction and Latin Prose Version and English Summaries

by Sean Gabb

This book contains the complete text of Aeneid XII, together with a rendering into Latin prose and a running summary of the whole in English. Its main intended audience is International Baccalaureate students, for whom this is one of the set texts; as well as A-Level Latin students in England, for whom it will be a set text in 2022 and 2023. A larger and less easily defined audience is anyone, in any time or place, who wants to read Vergil, but whose Latin is not ready for the challenge.

I have reordered the words in a more obvious sequence. I have replaced many words with more natural alternatives. I have supplied pronouns and verbs and prepositions that could not be fitted into the metrical structure. I have broken up the paragraphs, and formatted the whole as if it were a novel.

The advantage is that the result is still Latin. It is Latin that most A-Level and IB students will be able to read without too much looking in a dictionary—and not too much headscratching thereafter. It is Vergil in a Latin no more difficult than an A-Level unseen. Unlike any English version, it is obviously related to the original, and is a fair key to understanding the original. It also gives students a piece of Latin that they can read at length, and that will be good practice for the unseen translation.

Sample of the Content

Original

Turnus ut infractos adverso Marte Latinosdefecisse videt, sua nunc promissa reposci,se signari oculis, ultro implacabilis ardetattollitque animos. Poenorum qualis in arvissaucius ille gravi venantum vulnere pectustum demum movet arma leo gaudetque comantisexcutiens cervice toros fixumque latronisinpavidus frangit telum et fremit ore secus adcenso gliscit violentia Turno.

Interpretation

Turnus, cum videt Latinos fractos bello infelici abiecisse animum, fidem suorum promissorum iam repeteti, et se designari oculis, sponte etiam implacabilis irascitur, et erigit animum.

Qualis leo aliquis, in agris Afrorum, sauciatus ad pectus duro vulnere venatorum, tunc denique exerit vires suas, et laetatur commovens toros iubatos colli, et interritus abrumpit iaculum venatoris infixum sibi, et frendet ore sanguinolento—non aliter ira crescit Turno inflammato.

Other Classical Texts by Sean Gabb on

Acts of the A Parallel Text - Greek, Latin, EnglishAeneid Text with Notes and English and Latin Prose VersionsAeneid Text with Latin Prose VersionArs GrammaticaStories from Paul the DeaconStories from the Life of ChristFrom the Amazon

This text is a great collection of passages from the life of Christ that perfectly fills the need for an intermediate reader, and has a great selective dictionary at the end with just the words used in the texts, so it is quick to use. This suited my level perfectly as the passages were not too complex, but beyond beginner level, and include enough repetition in the stories and dialogue to help memory retention.

Kindle Edition

Published December 25, 2019

About the author

Sean Gabb is the author of twenty books and around five hundred essays.

Under the name Richard Blake, he has written six historical novels for Hodder & Stoughton. These have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Greek, Slovak, Hungarian, Chinese and Indonesian.

Under his own name, he has written four novels. His other books are mainly about libertarian politics.

He is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance, a human rights and educational charity based in the United Kingdom.

He also teaches. His main experience has been in higher education. More recently, though, he has discovered a talent for teaching Latin to primary school children. This is a talent he intends to develop.

He lives in Kent with his wife and daughter.