Reading Livy's Rome: Selections from Books I-VI Of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita

A very good introduction to Livy, far better I think than the title the reviewer below recommends.

STUDENTS AND I HAD A GREAT TIME TRANSLATING. WOULD USE AGAIN. DICTIONARY IN THE BACK LACKED MANY WORDS AND CAUSED SOME CONFUSION IN TRANSLATIONS.

This is the only book of its kind I've ever found, i.e., one which has paraphrases side-by-side with the original text (or graduated versions of the original, to be more precise). I would love to find other books with a similar format.The subject matter is, of course, quite interesting in its own right which makes reading it enjoyable rather than it feeling like an exercise.My only complaint is that of the limited glossary. If your vocabulary is still growing you will certainly need to have a dictionary handy, even with the paraphrased texts.I would happily recommend this book to the student or to one who is teaching himself or herself this marvelous language.

I regret to say that I cannot recommend this textbook. It seems intended as a competitor to Fabulae Romanae, which is a far superior reader in the Livian tradition. The choice of Livy is not a bad one, given the interest of his stories. But his "nutritional copiousness" (lactea ubertas, Quint. inst. orat. 10. 1. 32) may not seem so alimentary to "those who are beginning to read Latin prose" (p. x). Livy's superabundant variety does not much help students at this level, who need a reinforcing repetition of words, phrases, and structures. One does not build vocabulary by meeting a mass of new words, often for one time only, with each lesson.The authors assume that students using their textbook will have at hand or will acquire -- for this purpose alone -- Wheelock's Latin (2000). They base their Glossary on this assumption, defining only those words that do not appear in Wheelock's Vocabulary. My guess is that this was a cost-cutting measure by the publisher. It is not at all helpful to a beginning student. And what is to say that definitions given in Cicero-based Wheelock's will be appropriate for Livy? On page 3, for example, the authors present Liv. 1. 4, where student users will encounter the phrase imperii principium. Neither word is in the Glossary, so a student is expected to turn to Wheelock's, where she will find these options for imperium: "power to command, supreme power, authority, command, control." How will these aid her understanding of Livy's meaning in this context?Two simple editorial concessions would have served intended users well: macra and clause/phrase separators. To take the first passage again, the student finds crudelitate regia. It must be explained in a note that the adjective modifies the noun, since the student has no macron for clarification. And again, this deficiency seems a publishing economy, not a well-reasoned pedagogy. Beginning students have a great deal of difficulty with phrasing. Commas, dashes, and parentheses are of much assistance, especially where clause- or phrase-nesting occurs, as in maximique secundum deorum opes imperii principium. A student who has just barely "learned the essentials of Latin grammar" but who still has much to learn about style will have a hard time connecting maximi with imperii. Why not simply set off secundum deorum opes with dashes or in parentheses? This consideration will be particularly beneficial with participial constructions and ablatives absolute.The authors also assume that a student will have at hand the Latin Grammar of Gildersleeve and Lodge and will consult it regularly when so directed in their notes. This is a generous assumption. Let us see how it might go.In the first passage, on page 3, a student encounters the clause cum ... edidisset. This is explained in a same-page note as a "temporal clause." Reference is made to Gildersleeve/Lodge, p. 374, but that reference itself is only explained afterward, in a later note on that page. Our student sorts it out and turns to G&L p. 374. He there finds himself in a gnarly thicket of numbers, notes, remarks, and quotations, none of which help him much, especially because the explanations there are for circumstantial, not pure temporal, clauses. The authors make no distinction on this point anywhere in their book, so far as I can find.He next encounters the phrase vi compressa. He is told in a note that vi is "ablative of means or instrument, from the noun vis" and is advised to consult G&L pp. 257-59. If reference to G&L is really best, why not instead point him directly to the top of p. 257, Note 1, where this very noun, under the correct classification, Ablative of Manner, is explained and translated? Without that help, he must then turn to Wheelock's to find "force, power, violence" given as definitions of vis (he will probably not notice that "strength" defines the noun in the plural only). He does indeed find the definitions "press, suppress, restrain" for comprimo on page 3 of his textbook. But he does not know, since macra are not used, whether compressa is nominative or ablative. Lacking commas, he will have unnecessary difficulty seeing that vi compressa is a phrase. How will any of this lead him to understand that Rhea Silvia was raped by Mars?Finally, our student is surprised to find the phrase pueros ... mitti explained in the last note on page 3 as "an indirect command." Properly taught, he will have learned that this is a finite verb construction, a special type of purpose clause introduced by ut or ne and having a finished verb in the subjunctive mood. He will not have learned it as a non-finite object accusative-with-infinitive phrase. We will have to pardon his confusion.To conclude, the authors have intended well. Livy can be a good author for beginners. But they have apparently proceeded in the interest of pedagogical theories rather than in consideration of what a real student these days will actually do. And the publisher seems to have preferred lower printing costs to student accessibility, comprehension, and enjoyment. For these and other reasons, I cannot recommend Reading Livy's Rome.

good info as back up to college class