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 Latinos
defecisse videt, sua nunc promissa reposci,
se signari oculis, ultro implacabilis ardet
attollitque animos. Poenorum qualis in arvis
saucius ille gravi venantum vulnere pectus
tum demum movet arma leo gaudetque comantis
excutiens cervice toros fixumque latronis
inpavidus frangit telum et fremit ore cruento:
haud 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 Amazon:
- Acts of the Apostles: A Parallel Text - Greek, Latin, English
- Aeneid VI: Text with Notes and English and Latin Prose Versions
- Aeneid XI: Text with Latin Prose Version
- Ars Grammatica
- Stories from Paul the Deacon
- Stories from the Life of Christ
From the Amazon Reviews:
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. (Stories from the Life of Christ)
[G]oing from Latin lessons to real Latin texts is a huge jump. Here the author has chosen later texts written by Paul the Deacon.... The Latin is simpler as a result and it makes the book a very useful stepping stone.... [My Latin has now] gone rusty, and this book looks an ideal way for me to recapture some of that lost prowess. Also it has a vocabulary.... Yes I have a Latin dictionary, but experience... has shown me the value of having a vocabulary or dictionary at the back. (Stories from Paul the Deacon)
