From Augustus to Nero
An Intermediate Latin Reader

Reader on the first five Roman emperors aimed at students who have completed an introductory Latin course.

Garrett G. Fagan (Author), Paul Murgatroyd (Author)

9780521821209, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 March 2006

224 pages, 32 b/w illus. 1 map
25.4 x 17.9 x 2 cm, 0.607 kg

'… students and instructors who choose this book as a post-beginners text will find much to engage with. It is not easy to learn Latin as an adult and there is no way to make it easy, but the more interesting and helpful we can make it the better, and this volume certainly does that.' Classics Ireland

This reader contains selections from Tacitus, Suetonius and Seneca on the first five Roman emperors. They present a dark world of murder, mayhem, debauchery and palace intrigue: Augustus with his firm moral policies and secret adulterous affairs; the sour and depraved Tiberius; the extravagance and madness of Caligula; the slobbering and ineffective Claudius; and Nero with his absurd artistic pretensions. Exciting, horrific and moving, the selections are also valuable for studying style and rhetoric, human nature and the roles of women, imperialism and corruption. The book is aimed at students moving on to genuine, unsimplified Latin prose after completing an introductory Latin course. It contains a useful introduction, detailed notes providing a lot of help with grammar, expression and translation, a full vocabulary, and an appreciation offering historical comment for context and analysis and literary criticism to make the passages come alive as literature and enhance students' perception and enjoyment.

Introduction
1. Augustus
2. Tiberius
3. Caligula (Gaius)
4. Claudius
5. Nero
Vocabulary.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]