Cicero's First Catilinarian: Latin Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary

I first encountered unadapted Cicero aged 17, commencing my Latin A-Level. Cicero's Pro Roscio was one of my set texts for A-Level and, having not touched Cicero for 20 years or so, I came to him again with trepidation. Thanks, then, to Dr Steadman, for this edition of one of Cicero's most famous speeches: a fascinating topic, presented in such a fashion that newcomers to unadapted Latin, or those returning after a long absence, can cope with it. Dr Steadman's "house style" undergoes something of a change to cope with Cicero: there are fewer lines of text per page, which enables the supplementary vocabulary and grammatical commentary to fit snugly underneath. On the facing page, reserved for the commentary in College Caesar, is a reproduction of the text, analysed as one clause per line, with the governing verbs in bold. This is a marvellous teaching tool for those taking their first steps in Cicero, and one which I wish I'd had aged 18. It is a device which assists the learner in unpacking and understanding Cicero's periods and, coupled with the dramatic subject matter, there is unlikely to be a better, or more affordable, introduction to the works of the man who is said to have defined not just the writing style of Rome, but Western Europe.Background to the Review:By way of background: I am now in my late 30s, hurtling towards 40. As my new year’s resolution in 2018, I resolved to improve my Latin to the level at which it had been when I was 18, before I went to University. I studied Latin between the ages of 11 and 18, up to and including A-Level (the academic pre-University exams in England and Wales). After a couple of months of relentlessly drilling noun, pronoun, adjective and verb endings, recommitting “hic, haec, hoc” and the imperfect subjunctive to memory, I started casting around for things to read. I knew I wasn’t ready for an Oxford Classical Text, but happily, there are far more accessible Latin textbooks, far more readily available than there were in 1998. These reviews deal with what I discovered, and what I thought of it.

Steadman provides not only vocab and grammar aids on every page, but pdfs are available on his website, meaning that vocab is easy to copy to create flashcards. If you just completed your introductory course in Latin and want to proceed to authentic readings, I would say the Steadman series progresses in difficulty as follows: 1) fabulae faciles, 2) fabulae ab urbe condita, 3) college caesar, 4) cicero's first catilinarian

This seems a good way to tackle undoctored Latin. I couldn't do it without the good glossary and the even better grammatical notes. Definitely 10/10.

Geoffrey Steadman has specialised in books which take Greek and Latin texts and present them in a way which helps to build up the reading skills of those less expert in the languages, with the most common words in a vocabulary list and other words glossed on the page, saving the need to consult a dictionary, and with helpful explanatory notes. This book is as good as others he has produced. The First Catalinarian itself is an interesting example of Cicero's rhetorical style, a speech condemning a senator who was engaged in a major conspiracy - though one needs to allow for a degree of bias and overstatement in the way Cicero presents his case.

Very good handbook.