Customer Reviews

Caesaris Bellum Helveticum: Caesar's Gallic Wars (Ntc Publishing Group Titles)

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For those who grew up savoring the Classics Illustrated version of Caesar's Gallic Wars, this book is a leap to the next level: a lavishly and accurately drawn comic book style history(vaguely--but only--reminiscent of the best details of the Asterix series comix--). This fascinating book allows the characters to 'speak' Caesar's Latin and the reader to make the translations, which come surprisingly easy, even to the moderatley proficient. To those who know the Gallic Wars, it would certainly add a further diminsion, and for those just discovering Caesar, it would provide helpful illustrations of the peoples and the military arts of both Gallic and Roman camps. If there is any drawback, it is in the fact that only Book I, Bellum Helveticum, is covered. Succeeding Books II-VII are extracted and included in the appendix, but having had the appetite whetted for dymanic illustrated story-telling, one can only hope that the remainding chapters be given the same fine treatment.

This comic book treatment of the first part of Caesar's Gallic War is a real treat for the beginning and intermediate Latin student who may want a break from the usual textbooks. The artwork is colorful and aids in understanding what the characters are saying on the page. The Latin is in short bits and is not too complex (or too simple). There are also a number of humorous touches in the details of some of the drawings which I only noticed after a couple of readings.

This book has turned out to be a surprisingly useful tool in my own beginning Latin studies.