Completely Parsed Cicero: The First Oration Of Cicero Against Catiline

Completely Parsed Cicero is an irreplaceable, primary resource for educators. The complete text of In Catilinam I, an interlinear translation, and an accompanying, more polished translation are just part of this goldmine. At the bottom of each page below the text, each Latin word is completely parsed and the commentary includes useful references to the revised grammars of Bennett, Gildersleeve, Allen and Greenough, and Harkness and delves into word derivations and word frequencies, making this volume helpful for the competent reader of Latin as well as the novice. A new introduction by Steven M. Cerutti of East Carolina University provides guidelines for the use of this resource by high school Latin teachers and educators at all levels. A new foreword by Steven Cerutti accompanies this tried and true resource. Cerutti shows that the commentary can be as useful to an educator teaching the First Catilinarian as to a graduate student studying the language of Cicero.

Those of us who studied Latin and Greek during the '50s and the '60s remember those old interlinear translations of the various Classical authors which were the staple of the high-school curriculum during the period; they were euphemistically called 'ponies' or 'trots.' Very often, if we relied on them too closely, our teachers would tell us to get off the pony, probably because they owned a copy of the text themselves. In any case, this reprint of MacLardy's interlinear edition of Cicero's First Catilinarian, first published in 1899, is rather interesting because it is more than an old interlinear translation; the book also includes a basic introduction about the events surrounding Cicero's term as consul, a detailed linguistic commentary, and a polished translation of the oration. The commentary alone, in my opinion, makes the book worth purchasing. The author parses every word in the text fully, and even the most advanced student will learn from MacLardy. The book was written in a bygone leisurely era, but still packs a real punch. One can only hope that Bolchazy-Carducci will reprint the remainder of the books in the Completely Parsed Classics Series, if they can be found. In other words, the book has aged well. --Michael DiMaio, Jr., Salve Regina University, Bryn Mawr Classical Review