Resources for De Bello Gallico

bedtime

Active Member

It would be nice to have a one-stop resource thread just for Cæsar's De Bello Gallico.

Here are some of the resources I use, and if anyone has others, please post them here:


The online Perseus Text

This online text has latin on the left side and the english translation, as well as a seperate grammar help, on the right side. (Please note that the reader MUST be in chapter mode and NOT section mode in order to use the side-by-side latin/english functionality). The words are clickable and linked directly to the Perseus dictionary—quite a convience!

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.perseus-lat1:1.1


Cæsar's Gallic War: Allan & Greenough's Edition

This is the complete latin text as well as notes for dechipering its grammar and understanding the book. There are illustrations, maps, explanations, lists...; it's the most complete I've found so far and is the exact same text and grammar help as in the link above. I have a paper version of this book and find it handy:

https://archive.org/stream/comedyofmerchant00shakuoft#page/250/mode/2up *

* This link apropriately brings you to the page where the grammar help begins (Book I, Chapter I.)


Allen & Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges

The book linked above (Cæsar's De Bello Gallico: Allan & Greenough's Edition) gives hundreds of references which can easily be found in this book.

Here is an example of the text on the first page of the book posted above.

"—est divisa, is divided: the adjective use of the participle, not the perfect passive (§ 495 (291. b); B. 337. 2; G. 250. R. 2; H. 640. 3 (550. N. 2))."

The first link, that is, § 495 (the other links are in reference to different grammar books) is the one you would flip to in the book. You would see:

https://archive.org/stream/allengreenoughsn00alleiala#page/310/mode/2up

This grammar book is easily among the best grammar references available for latin and can be used as a grammar reference for any ancient latin texts. It gives true ancient latin examples for every rule. This book is available in paper format as well and is higly recommended.


College Caesar: Latin Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary by Geoffrey Steadman

The book can be downloaed free in pdf or bought in paper form. Since it is print-on-demand it's always being updated.

The advantage of this book is the facing vocab and notes; there is no need to flip back and forth as in other books—makes vocab preperation much easier too!

https://geoffreysteadman.com/college-caesar/


Vocabulary list on Quizlet

There are dozens of lists for Cæsar's De Bello Gallico; I merely chose this one as an example):

https://quizlet.com/108889961/core-caesar-vocab-from-steadman-flash-cards/

An app can be downloaded for convenient use on tablets. I use it and find it very helpful to first study the vocab before I attempt the text.


YouTube Tutorials

Covers Chapter 1 - 4 in great detail:
AP Latin: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGlG3j5usdNfrzwoXvfCaAUrVkRuhP8pM

Covers chapters 2-12:
De Bello Gallico Book 1: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg2huh4FYZRleCLXJQfYZhKmKGi2KXHWb

A straight reading of the latin text with proper pronunciation by Evan De Millner:


That's all for now—again, please feel free to add to this list.
 

bedtime

Active Member

A Latin reader for the second year, with notes, exercises for translation into Latin, grammatical appendix, and vocabularies
by
John Carew Rolfe & Walter Dennison

https://archive.org/stream/cu31924006242519#page/n239/mode/2up

This is a monster of a book with near 1000 pages (with a title that long, it better be!). It contains all 7 books of De Bello Gallico as well as some introductory texts to help guide the process. Grammar tips are on the same page, and there is a grammar reference and vocabulary section built in—so it's all there in one book!

I have the paper copy and I enjoy it; it's about the size of a telephone book! :eek:
 

bedtime

Active Member

This is a dissertation, and I am not able to attest to it's accuracy, but I can say that it has an excellent vocab setup, several concise grammar references to Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar, and a special method of breaking down the sentences to make them more understandible.



http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3644/


Download the file at the top of the page and change the .CGI extension to .PDF—yes, I understand this seems suspect, but that is how I got it to run.
 

bedtime

Active Member

This book contains chapters I to IV of Caesar's De Bello Gallico—the title is all that differs; the latin text itself is the same:

C. Iulii Caesaris Commentarii rerum gestarum. Caesar's Commentaries: the Gallic war, books I-IV, with selections from books V-VII and from the civil war;
Published [c1918]
930 pgs.
Revised Edition (2012):​


This book includes all required vocabulary, extensive notes (more notes than the aforementioned books), and a grammar section which elaborates on the grammar mentioned in the notes.

This book uses only references from Caesar's De Bello Gallico to explain the grammer (the previous texts do not)—a handy touch since you likely already know the words in the examples!

I have not located the remaining books, V-VIII, nor do I know if they exist.
 

bedtime

Active Member

Caesar Completely Parsed:
Completely Parsed Caesar's Gallic War (Book I)
with interlinear and marginal translations
by James B Finch

https://books.google.ca/books?id=BrWqZqXkYE0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true

I have not been able to locate a PDF archive of this book. If anyone finds it, please let me know.


Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic war : literally translated, with explanatory notes

https://archive.org/stream/caesarscommentar00caes#page/n11/mode/2up

This is the english version which is used on the Perseus website alongside the latin translation. It has several notes that contain literal translations of idiomatic and other such phrases. A great book to check your translation.


De bello gallico libri VII : Caesar's Gallic war, with a life of Caesar, geography and people of Gaul, history of the military art in Caesar's Commentaries; historical and grammatical notes; vocabulary and an index
https://archive.org/stream/debellog00caes#page/68/mode/2up

I would like to make it clear that this book contains all seven of Caesar's De Bello Gallico books. It has same page grammar and vocab support, and it has a lengthy intro which introduces you to just about all you would need to know about war, Caesar, and life, in the time it was written.
 

bedtime

Active Member

Caesar's De Bello Gallico
read by
The PrinceSterling on YouTube


Includes all seven books. The voice is absolutely beautiful—the best I've heard so far: excellent sound quality, deep, clear, and read at a good pace (not too fast.) It also includes optional subtitling for english or latin allowing you to read along.


Liber I

Liber II

Liber III

Liber IV

Liber V


Max embeded videos is 5. The rest are on the YouTube Channel.
 

bedtime

Active Member

Julius Caesar, James B. Finch
1898, 421 pgs.


"This book contains the complete text of De Bello Gallico, Book I; an interlinear translation; and an accompanying, more polished translation are just part of this reference work. At the bottom of each page below the text, each Latin word is completely parsed and the commentary includes useful references to the revised grammars of Bennett, Gildersleeve, Allen and Greenough, and Harkness and delves into word derivations and word frequencies, making this volume helpful for the competent reader of Latin as well as the novice."


I just uploaded it to archive.org for your pleasure. You may be hard-pressed to find a free version anywhere else on the web—enjoy!


Also, please note that it does not have a preview feature, as I have only uploaded the pdf, but the pdf works fine, and for a facsimile of its age, it is extrememly readable.

The file is now available to read online! :)
 

AoM

nulli numeri

  • Civis Illustris

It seems that copy is at a library from my alma mater. :)
 

bathtime

Member

It seems that copy is at a library from my alma mater. :)
Jupiter bless the library that still has good Latin literature!; my library is HUGE, and has perhaps a dozen books at most in Latin. :(

Here is another addition that may be a blessing to those who wish to improve their colloquial Latin:

Talks with Caesar - De Bello Gallico
by
I. Sauvuer

Can be viewed and downloaded here.

It takes a different approach in that it will give a sentence in Latin, and then ask several questions about that sentence in Latin in such a manner that it instinctively reinforces ones colloquial Latin. It does this for the first 12 chapters of the first book.

The first 4 books are included, and there is a very decent literal English translation of those 4 books as well.

Enjoy! :)
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
There was a new translation of the complete works of Caesar published just last month, along with a ton of explanatory notes (talking about geographical/historical background, analysis of the work, choices the translator made, etc.), maps/other images, an index + glossary, and several "web essays" (although a lot of Amazon reviewers complain about the choice to put these online rather than publishing them in physical form). We're using this translation in class to read the first 76 chapters of book 7 and although I intend to read it in the original Latin, I may consult the maps and some of the notes because they seem really useful.
 

AoM

nulli numeri

  • Civis Illustris

Oh, looking at the title, I thought for a second there that they were attributing the other three works to Caesar.
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
That would be bad if they did that.
 

bathtime

Member

There was a new translation of the complete works of Caesar published just last month, along with a ton of explanatory notes (talking about geographical/historical background, analysis of the work, choices the translator made, etc.), maps/other images, an index + glossary, and several "web essays" (although a lot of Amazon reviewers complain about the choice to put these online rather than publishing them in physical form). We're using this translation in class to read the first 76 chapters of book 7 and although I intend to read it in the original Latin, I may consult the maps and some of the notes because they seem really useful.
The information seems quite extensive. The book's look and feel at first glance—beautiful...

But one thing that turns me off is the numbering structure for the books and chapters—referring to chapters as [1], [2], [3]... How confusing to have two [1]'s on a page... And, to look up a footnote you have to memorize the alphabetical footnote marker, look to the side of the page to see what chapter and book you are on, and search at the bottom of the page through a heap of similiar looking numbers. Many people have complained about this. I understand that it's supposed to be a professional way of marking footnotes, but I gather that it was made this way for the sake of making the writer and editor's job more easy.

Also, there are no chapter indicators on the top of the page. Instead, it just repeats Landmark Julius Caesar <book number> / Gallic War <book number>. How to easily flip to your chapter? And no chapter descriptions? Just book 1, 2, 3...? Clearly people will be using this book for a quick reference, and now that is not happening.

This is all really easy stuff to add to the book. I know, because I did it myself with Caesar's Gallic War.

Seems like a very literal translation and extremly choppy one; more so than I have ever seen, as most Latin sentences seem to be cut up in many pieces instead of having one long flowing sentence (as in the Latin). The effect is a stop/go, stop/go, stop/go, which I detest.

Sorry to rant. It's just that this could be such an awesome book if they made just a few small changes, and yet they are not willing to bend.
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
Also, there are no chapter indicators on the top of the page. Instead, it just repeats Landmark Julius Caesar <book number> / Gallic War <book number>. How to easily flip to your chapter? And no chapter descriptions? Just book 1, 2, 3...? Clearly people will be using this book for a quick reference, and now that is not happening.
Chapter numbers and descriptions are in the margins, so I don't think they're too hard to see.


Anyway, despite the layout issues which you mentioned (many of which I do agree with) the information itself (notes, diagrams, etc.) is really helpful.
 
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