The AP Latin Selections from Caesar's Gallic Wars

Welcome to one part of the the most popular Latin AP curriculum on Udemy!

These materials are designed to help students prepare for the AP Latin exam, which consists of selections taken from Vergil's Aeneid and Caesar's Gallic Wars. The particular course takes up the passages required by the AP exam from Caesar's Gallic Wars.  

As such, please keep in mind that this isn't for beginning Latin students, or even those who are just entering the intermediate level. The course is for students who've put in a couple of years of Latin grammar and elementary to intermediate Latin reading, and who are now ready for the next level: the prestigious Latin AP exam.

I mention this because occasionally a student without adequate preparation will attempt to take the class, only to find it's not at his/her level. This causes hard feelings, as you can detect in a recent review posted to Udemy: "difficult to follow a clear single line translation, he just gives parts of it and jumps to another part and jumps to another part, very unclear."

That's because this isn't a translation class. There are translation aplenty of the Gallic Wars. The purpose of my method is to get students so good at Latin that they aren't really "translating" most of it anymore, but just reading it. That takes time, but it is an achievable goal.

On the exam, you will be mostly tested on you ability to translate literally, to analyze, and to interpret the text. You will practice sight-reading and  translating literally so that your translations not only are accurate and precise, but also make sense in English. Other specific skills that will be required for the AP examination include the ability:

• To write a literal English translation of a Latin passage on the syllabus

• To explicate specific words or phrases in context

• To identify the context and significance of short excerpts from texts listed in the chosen syllabus

• To identify and analyze characteristic or noteworthy features of the authors' modes of expression, including their use of imagery, figures of speech, sound effects, and metrical effects, as seen in specific passages

• To discuss particular motifs or general themes not only suggested by passages but also relevant to other selections

Recent Review

I recommend this to anyone who wants to take up reading Caesar's Commentarii De Bello Gallico in Latin. For first time readers it is a must; for those who have read it in Latin before it is great to hear how a skilled Latin teacher translates it. For anyone who is taking the AP exam there is no better preparation. The way he builds a more Englished version from a literal translation is a joy to behold. Don S