At the turn of the year, I finally acted on a longtime desire and started learning Latin, guided mainly via an online class supplemented by various web sites. It’s great to find a this community of fellow learners and enthusiasts!
To set a goal to work towards, I want to select a Latin author to read in the original language. I’m thinking of Lucretius (De Rerum Natura). Is this a reasonable goal, or is Lucretius too difficult? I could select a prose author instead, perhaps Livy or Tacitus? I’m partial to works of philosophy and history.
Every author you have listed presents a high level of difficulty. I would suggest Ovid for poetry or Caesar for prose. These are often the go to authors for university intermediate classes or Latin 4 & 5 at the secondary school level. Not that they don’t present challenges, but they are a better entry into “real” Latin than what you are suggesting above.
Congrats on your decision to learn Latin! It is a wonderful language.
Per your question, I have the following advice to give you: 1) pursue the writer you are most interested in (with lots of helps); and 2) balance that steep climb with something easier, like “Lingua Latina per se Illustrata” or “Wheelock’s Latin”.
In my own experience, I think I have finally learned the need to balance your end-goals with your current skills. If you jump deep into something like Lucretius or Tacitus without aids or without looking at translations for help, you might get bitter, like I did. However, if you just drill, drill, drill yourself on grammar and vocabulary, you might not feel a sense of satisfaction.
So, my advice, again, is to find commentary, translations and aids to assist you in reading/translating the author you are most interested in AND find a language-learning tool that can help you continue in strengthening your skill.
It is great that you have started to learn latin and I appreciate you want something to do look forward to, but if you have only been learning Latin for a month or so you need to learn to walk before you run.
As Barry has rightly pointed out you have chosen some very difficult authors. I think Tacitus would have been very difficult for his contemporaries to read. I think much the same could be said for Lucretius.
iamrian points out the importance of choosing materials which interest you, but there is enough in for example “Lingua Latina per se Illustrata” to keep you busy in the coming year without tying yourself in knots with difficult authors.
What textbook are you using? You could get some help here in choosing the right one. “Lingua Latina per se Illustrata” would get my vote these days and I am sure Barry would endorse that as he uses it to teach.
Thanks all for the great advice. I’ll certainly look for intermediate texts - I just wanted something hard for a future goal. Caesar sounds like an easier goal for now. I didn’t list him in the beginning only because I’ve already read him in translation (but it’s been quite a few years). Lucretius has been so highly praised (and is constantly quoted by Montaigne), he may remain my “5-year goal”.
I have placed an order for Orberg’s Lingua Latina. Everyone raves about it, so I’m really looking forward to reading and using it.
I’ll be happy to keep the community informed. And I’ll probably have plenty of grammar and usage questions along the way. Thanks!
Orberg has made a great course, textbooks are rich and high quality, but the 1st year story “Familia Romana” is so depressive. The only thing characters do is cheating, fighting, and scolding. Such books as Cornelia (Maxey, 1933) or Ora maritima (Sonnenschein, 1909) could be more inspiring for beginners.