Cicero A Legamus

Cicero A Legamus Transitional Reader, by Judith Sebesta and Mark Haynes, is a 2010 addition to the Latin transitional teaching tools from Bolchazy-Carducci. Like the volumes for Catullus, Horace, Ovid, and Vergil, it is designed as a bridge between beginning Latin and the reading of the actual Latin authors. Unlike the other four, this one is for prose, specifically Cicero's Pro Archia, in which the orator defends the defendant, Aulus Licinius Archias, against a charge of having obtained Roman citizenship illegally.

The Cicero Legamus is full of material to help readers understand how Latin texts were written. The authors show the division of the oration into 6 component parts and give some information about Cicero and Archias in the introduction. The chapters contain culture, grammar, vocabulary, related English words, terms for Cicero's stylistic conventions, and exercises, as well as tips, both verbal and visual, to help the student overcome Cicero's convoluted style, with each chapter containing progressive "pass throughs." The first chapter contains the following pass throughs:

1. Nam, Archias contulit se ad scribendi studium
2. Nam, Archias ut primum excessit ex pueris atque ab eis artibus contulit se ad scribendi studium.
3. Nam, Archias ut primum excessit ex pueris atque ab eis artibus quibus aetas puerilis ad humanitatem informari solet se ad scribendi studium contulit.

Following the selections from the Pro Archia (semicolons divide the passages in each of 12 chapters: 4.2-4; 5.1-3; 5.4-6, 6.1; 6.2-3. 7.1-3; 12, 13.1; 14.1-4; 18.4-5. 19; 23, 24.1-3; 28, 29; 31; 1,2; 3) are a grammar review, an appendix of figures of speech, and a pull-out vocabulary list. Once again, it looks as though Bolchazy-Carducci has come up with a very useful tool for (intermediate) Latin classes.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.