AP Latin 2012

Advanced Placement (AP) Latin includes both prose and poetry, drawing from the writings of Vergil/Virgil and Caesar -- the Aeneid and the Gallic Wars. Some passages must be read in Latin; others, in English. You'll find links below for those Latin sections in the Aeneid and Gallic Wars that the AP exam site spells out explicitly. I'm including a public domain translation into English of the relevant sections. The translation is meant as a small aid, perhaps for a quick review. You're unlikely to find it offers what you need for a careful 21st century translation.

More useful will be books like Bolchazy and Carducci's new A Caesar Workbook, by Rose Williams [for her bio, see Pliny's A Haunted House] and Debra L. Nousek. It offers detailed questions (fill in the blank and multiple choice, like the sample question above) on the grammar, and probing comprehension questions to practice short answer/essays on. There are suggested times for the practice tests so students can build up to the speed they will need.

Also helpful for the Caesar section of the AP Latin -- presumably, since I haven't seen it yet -- will be a soon-to-be-released Caesar Legamus.

Meanwhile, you can consult A Caesar Reader, by W. Jeffrey Tatum, which has a broader focus than just AP Latin, with passages from not only Caesar's Gallic Wars, but also the Civil War, Caesar's letters, speeches, and, unusually, poetry. Tatum's work contains a very useful introduction to the politics behind Caesar's deeds, representative selections, useful grammatical notes, and copious vocabulary.

In the area of verse, which in the context of the modern AP Latin exam = Vergil, Rose Williams retells Vergil's epic (The Aeneid) in The Labors of Aeneas: What a Pain It Was to Fond the Roman Race with insight and humor. More on the bullseye for the AP is Barbara Weiden Boyd's Vergil's Aeneid (also from Bolchazy-Carducci). It covers just the selections for the AP, plus intro. A note to save possible frustration: in this edition, many vocabulary items you might expect on a given page are not in the section notes. There is a fold-out vocabulary at the back of the book where you should find them.

Okay. Enough summary of works you can buy from Bolchazy-Carducci and on to what you can try your hand at here:

• What You Need to Know About AP Latin and the Aeneid Passages
• Caesar Book I
• Caesar Book IV
• Caesar Book V
• Caesar Book VI