Hi everyone, I’m Phil.
I study Greek and Latin. I am looking forward to interacting with others on this forum.
Here is a bit about my background:
Latin: completed Grade 13 (see below) Latin in high school, then later on took three university courses: two second year courses and one third year course. Currently I’m reading a collection of Phaedrus’ fables. At the same time I’m doing a comprehensive review of Latin grammar by working through a Latin prose composition textbook with exercises based on Caesar’s Gallic War.
Greek: I’ve dabbled in it on and off over the years. Currently I’m working through The Beginner’s Greek Book by John Williams White. I’m going through the book lesson by lesson, doing all the exercises. I hope to finish the book this year, including the readings from the Anabasis.
I live in Ontario, Canada where they used to have Grade 13 (now high school ends at Grade 12).
Welcome to Textkit, Phil!
Hi Phil, nice to meet you! Welcome to Textkit! What is the Latin prose composition textbook you are working on?
Hi Varnenas, nice to meet you too!
The Latin prose composition textbook I’m using is “Latin Composition” (Gage, 1961) by David Breslove. It has exercises based on Caesar. The Caesar passages are in the book “Latin Prose Selections” (Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1948) by David Breslove et al. “Latin Prose Selections” is divided into three “cycles.”
I like this book because the sentences for translation into Latin are modeled closely on the relevant Caesar passages. The Caesar exercises in each lesson are divided into three sets: the first set is based on “cycle one” (the Helvetian War part of Book I of the Gallic War) of Latin Prose Selections. The second set of sentences are based on cycle two (part of Book V of the Gallic War)of the reader, and the third set is based on cycle three (part of Book 7 of the Gallic War).
I have already gone through the book once, doing the cycle two exercises. I’m going through the book again, doing the cycle one exercises. So I study each lesson, then read the relevant chapter of Caesar, then do the exercises.
There’s no key that I know of for this book but I don’t mind too much. (I do have other Latin composition books and keys, but I’m not working through those at present).
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Thank you for your reply! I was not familiar with this book. It sounds interesting. It’s a great idea to have translation exercises based on an author. It’s a pity that it’s a relatively recent book, and consequently, there are no electronic copies. But I saw some physical copies on sale.
I have more to say about this book (Latin Composition, Gage, 1961) so I’ll continue in the Learning Latin section.