Caesar
- Thread starter Symposion
- Start date
I would myself began reading from books I and II. We read instead book VI in class. We use an edition by E. C. Kennedy. It is published by Bristol Classical Press. Do you know this edition?
We have a forum dedicated exclusively to Cæsar's De Bello Gallico, if you are interested in checking it out:
FORUM: de-bello-gallico.83
FORUM: de-bello-gallico.83
Hi Symposion, I have seen that edition on Amazon, however I prefer to use one of the freely available ones. I am using the 1907 edition by Lowe, Ewing and Thomas, which has extensive historical, grammar and vocabulary notes throughout the first five books, plus a vocabulary and a grammar appendix at the back. It's almost a Latin grammar written around Caesar's book. I am also using George Long's 1875 edition, which has mostly historical and geographical notes. Occasionally I consult other editions, such as the 1840 one by Schneider, which is written entirely in Latin, including the notes, and on each page compares the versions of the text across different manuscripts. If anyone is interested, the PDF files for these books can be downloaded here.
Long's ed.: I've just read chapters II.X & II.XI, and from what I see, this seems like a great book for helping one to understand the sentence as a whole—so far, a gold mine in that respect! I'll read a couple more chapters and comment further.
I often read the Lowe/Ewing ed. before I go to sleep, as I find the same page vocabulary convenient when I'm feeling lazy.
Wish the Sheinder ed. had better text; would be nice to have an all latin version to dabble with.
I just had a reading course where we read Pro Archia poeta oratio by Cicero. I was not that keen at all in reading this work. I would have read something else instead. I noticed at the exam that my Latin is definitely not at all as good as it should be at this moment! I have therefore been thinking about returning back to Caesar to read De bello gallico from book I to VIII. I hope that will help. What do you think?
I have therefore been thinking about returning back to Caesar to read De bello gallico from book I to VIII. I hope that will help. What do you think?
I think that Latin is thought in the wrong way at University of Helsinki. We learn to translate texts from Latin into especially Finnish. Instead Latin should be thought as a modern language. That would increase the knowledge of the language in a completely different way. Latin is not a dead language just because there are no native speakers anymore!
Not everyone has the same ability to fantasize.
I suspect you would have to be born again to understand.
I agree that the modern focus of only translating from Latin is a mistake.I think that Latin is thought in the wrong way at University of Helsinki. We learn to translate texts from Latin into especially Finnish. Instead Latin should be thought as a modern language. That would increase the knowledge of the language in a completely different way. Latin is not a dead language just because there are no native speakers anymore!