AP Latin Summer 2023
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School
Laramie County Community College *
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Course
2010 500
Subject
English
Date
Nov 24, 2024
Type
Pages
3
Uploaded by computerwizard697
AP Latin Syllabus 2023-24
Summer Assignment overview:
Your summer work should be in two parts: practicing Latin vocabulary and grammar (to help
you maintain and even improve your fluency in reading and translating our authors), and
background reading in English about both the
Gallic Wars
and the
Aeneid
.
Vocabulary practice:
Caesar and Vergil Core Vocabulary List
Flashcards app with core vocab
(you’ll need to register for a free account to use this app)
Grammar practice:
Play with the different settings, to see what you can practice!
Magistrula declension charts
Magistrula verb synopsis charts
Identification / formation
(not in charts, choose from this list what you want to practice)
Sentences - translate into English or into Latin
(choose the grammar topic to focus on:
participles and ablative absolutes, cum clauses and indirect questions are all recommended.
Background readings:
The first quizzes of the year will be open-note, based on the background readings, so take
notes!
Caesar
(focus your notes on the information about Caesar’s life, the organization and titles of
officers in the Roman army, and the important individuals of the Gallic Wars)
Mueller introduction part 1 (pdf)
Mueller introduction part 2 (pdf)
These are two pdf documents because they were too
long for my scanner to handle at once! This is the introduction found in the textbook we’ll be
using for reading Caesar next year. Good information about Caesar’s life and political situation,
the historical context of the Gallic Wars, and some information about the army organization is
found here.
Roman War Machine (pdf)
This is a brief document from the 3rd book of Ecce Romani,
which gives background information about the organization and equipment of Caesar’s army.
Names to Know for the
Gallic Wars
Vergil
(focus your notes on the information about Vergil’s life and poetic works, contents of the
Aeneid - especially books 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12, and major characters of the Aeneid.)
Williams - Vergil introduction (pdf)
This has good information about Vergil’s life (such as
we know it) and his works, including summary information about the Aeneid.
Perkell - Vergil introduction (pdf)
This is a tougher read, it’s designed for graduate
students and professors. It is a very good introduction to the way the Aeneid has been
interpreted as an essential work of Western literature for the last two thousand years, it
introduces many of the important issues that scholars still argue about today. If you find the
language is incomprehensible in parts, that’s because it occasionally drifts into “High Academic”
jargon. Skim paragraphs if you need to.
Names to Know for the
Aeneid
- find reference sources online to fill this out!
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/books/review/Leithauser.t.html
- this is a book
review from 2007 of the Robert Fagles translation of the Aeneid (which I use in class for the
English reading sections). It discusses some of the challenges of translation, and also is a nice
introduction to the poem itself.
Suggested additional background reading
:
Familiarity with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey is valuable for reading the Aeneid! Specific
events in Homer’s epics are frequently referenced by Vergil, and comparing Vergil’s epic and his
Greek models is a fascinating element of analysis and interpretation. A less famous Greek epic
which was also one of Vergil’s inspirational models is the Argonautica by Apollodorus, which
tells the story of Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece.
If you don’t have time to read the complete epics, you can read the Cliff Notes or
Sparknotes online summaries, or any of a variety of retellings (don’t bother watching the movie
Troy, though - too many inaccuracies!)
For both authors, a familiarity with the history of Rome in the last century BCE is
particularly useful. Vergil was writing in the early years of Augustus’s principate, and he makes
frequent reference, both explicit and implicit, to the events of history that led to this point. Julius
Caesar, of course, was himself a key figure in the events of this tumultuous century, and we will
discuss how his campaigns in Gaul fit into the larger picture of this era of Roman history. You
can find numerous online summaries, in varying degree of detail, about this era.
There are a lot of youtube videos for Roman history.
I recommend the Extra History videos for:
●
the Trojan War (Aeneid background),
●
the Punic Wars (not directly relevant to the AP reading but very important for the
expansion of Roman power over the mediterranean),
●
the Gracchi Brothers (also not directly relevant, but it sets up the
aristocrat-vs-populist political conflicts that ultimately led to Caesar’s rise),
●
Cleopatra (directly connected to Caesar’s career and the rise of Augustus, and a
good look at 1st century BCE Rome from the outsider’s perspective)
Historia Civilis is also a very good youtube channel for all sorts of Roman things - there’s
a lot of detailed videos about Caesar’s career and the history of the 1st century BCE.
Animations are minimalist and abstract, but the content is highly accurate and well narrated.
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