Customer Reviews

Catullus and Horace (Latin Readers)

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This guide to Horace and Catullus poems is really good. I guess some people need to be warned that this does not help you learn Latin for the first time (you should get Wheelock's Latin or something similar in that case).
This guide makes the assumption that you already know your Latin essentials (but have trouble piecing things together when you actually deal with the real stuff), and serves as a guide to translation for advanced students. I found it to be really useful because it just about replaced my teacher in that it provides explanations in grammar and syntax. Translating poems can be rather difficult because the ancient poets often did not conform completely to the "rules of Latin" as we know it, such as omitting words that are simply "understood", using poetic devices that may be unfamiliar, and messing around with words to make them fit the meter - which can easily throw students off. And several times looking in a general Latin text won't aid you with the specific problem of the poem you are dealing with. That's why this book is so handy; it deals with those specific problems. It also throws in vocabulary so you don't have to always go looking things up. This thing made my life much easier as I was translating Catullus; I didn't have to run to my teacher as often or tediously try to look things up in another text for help that was usually of too general a nature.
The only drawback is that it covers a limited number of selected poems. Make sure you check out what poems are offered to see if it'll be of aid in the long run. OR if you simply enjoy translating, and any poem will do for you, this guide offers some of the most famous ones from the poets, in which case it will sure to be of help (given that you have already studied the grammar and basics of the language)!

I went through this book of poems after finishing the Ecce Romani series. It was a great way to see the language used in a different way, and it was a bit more enjoyable.

this book has many famous poems and writings of these people, but you don't learn any real latin in here.