Wheelock's Latin Reader, 2e: Selections from Latin Literature (The Wheelock's Latin series)

437 Pages·2001·39.42 MB·English

by  Richard A. Lafleur

w I LOCK'S
Selections from Latin Literature
Frederic Wheelock
Revised by Richard A. LaFleur,
Editor of Wheelock!r Latin
The WHEELOCK'S LATIN Series
WHEELOCK'S LATIN
Frederic M. Wheelock, revised by Richard A. LaFleur
WORKBOOK FOR WHEELOCK'S LATIN
Paul Comeau, revised by Richard A. LaFleur
WHEELOCK'S LATIN READER:
SELECTIONS FROM LATIN LITERATURE
Frederic M. Wheelock, revised by Richard A. LaFleur
WHEELOCK'S LATIN READER
Selections from Latin Literature
WHEELOCK'S LATIN READER
Selections from Latin Literature
Frederic M. Wheelock
Revised by
Richard A. LaFleur
2nd Edition
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Collins Reference
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
A paperback edition of this book was published in 2001 by HarperResource.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Maps
pp. xxiii-xxv, 7, 257: All maps copyright by Richard A. LaFleur, Tom Elliott, Nicole
Feldl, Alexandra Retzleff, and Joyce Uy. Copyright 2001, Ancient World Mapping
Center (http://www.unc.edu/depts/awmc)
Photographs
cover and pp. 2, 15, 23, 27, 45, 53, 57, 63, 79, 81, 96, 109, 115, 117, 141, 161, 165,
171, 175, 177, 181, 198, 203, 223, 233, 237, 247, 248, 253, 255, 259, 285, 290, 292,
293, 316, 318, 322, 326: Scala/Art Resource, NY; pp. 4, 47, 59, 139, 157, 191, 196,
281: Alinari/Art Resource, NY; pp. 11, 13, 19, 20, 25, 29, 61, 65, 67, 83, 100, 107,
135, 145, 147, 173, 207, 221, 225, 229, 314, 324, 327: Erich Lessing/Art Resource,
NY; pp. 17, 42, 169: James C. Anderson, jr.; pp. 35, 277: Robert I. Curtis; pp. 49,
111, 137, 163, 235, 275, 283: Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY;
p. 69: SEF/Art Resource, NY; pp. 76, 149, 153, 193, 205, 217, 219, 239, 261, 308,
320: Giraudon/Art Resource, NY; pp. 123, 227, 286: Tate Gallery, London/Art Re-
source, NY; p. 162: Kimbell Art Museum/CORBIS; p.167: Clore Collection, Tate
Gallery, London/Art Resource, NY; p. 209: Whitford & Hughes, London, UK/
Bridgeman Art Library; p. 211: Gianni Dagli Orti/CORBIS; pp. 213, 215: Arte &
Immagini srl/CORBIS; p. 231: Art Resource, NY; p. 241: Bettmann/CORBIS;
p. 243: The Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, NY; p. 263: Werner Forman/
Art Resource, NY; p. 266: Sarah Spence; p. 302: Image Select/Art Resource, NY;
p. 310: Alinari/Regione Umbria/Art Resource, NY
WHEELOCK'STM is a trademark of Martha Wheelock and Deborah Wheelock Taylor.
WHEELOCK'S LATIN READER (Second Edition). Copyright © 2001 by Frederic M.
Wheelock, Martha Wheelock, and Deborah Wheelock Taylor. Revision text
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DOROTHEAE CONIVGI
MARTHAE DEBORAEQUE FILIABVS
CARISSIMIS PATERFAMILIAS
FREDERICVS
D.D.
CONTENTS
Preface xi
Bibliography xvii
Abbreviations xix
Maps xxi
Cicero's Orations against Verres 2
Cicero's Letters 44
Cicero's Philosophica 82
On Moral Responsibilities 84
On Friendship 116
Livy's History of Rome 136
Legends of Early Rome 138
Hannibal and the Second Punic War 164
Ovid's Metamorphoses 194
Pliny's Letters 242
The Vulgate 276
Medieval Latin 294
Latin-English Vocabulary 329
ix
PREFACE
The genesis of this book derives from the demand for an intermedi-
ate Latin reader that could be readily employed as a sequel to Wheelock's
Latin and other beginning texts. The volume's purpose is to provide, not
a survey of all Latin literature, but an interesting and stimulating selec-
tion from a variety of important authors, together with notes that as-
sume and enlarge upon the student's knowledge of basic Latin grammar.
Students who complete the readings in this text, or a generous sampling
of them, will be well prepared to move on to more advanced work in
Latin prose and verse; at the same time, those who do not continue with
the language can with this book enjoy the rewards of reading selections
from some of the most interesting and influential works of Latin litera-
ture, ranging from the late republic and the empire to the late Middle
Ages, and including Cicero, Livy, Ovid, Pliny the Younger, St. Jerome's
translation of the Latin Bible (the so-called Vulgate edition), and a vari-
ety of medieval writers.
In deciding upon the passages for this volume, preference was given
to including longer selections from fewer authors rather than brief snip-
pets from a wider array of works (the only exception being the sampling
from medieval texts presented at the end of the book). Whenever a stu-
dent comes to a new Latin author, some time is required to become
familiar and comfortable with the characteristics of that author's style,
and it is easy to imagine the compounding of those challenges in a text
that ranges through numerous authors, works, and subjects in a multi-
tude of short passages. Moreover, a very positive advantage in an anthol-
ogy of longer readings is that each excerpt can provide a better sense of
the character of the work as a whole.
All the readings included in this volume, unlike those in some in-
termediate textbooks, are authentic, unadapted Latin. The only liberty
taken with the original texts is the use of classical spelling in the medi-
eval Latin selections and the occasional omission of passages that are
either too difficult or digressive or of too little interest. The majority of
the passages, including most of Cicero's and Pliny's letters and the selec-
tions from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the several medieval texts, are in
fact unexcerpted, and those that have been excerpted are identified as
such and provided with references to the full original text.
In the notes, outright translations are given as seldom as possible.
xi
xii Wheelock's Latin Reader
Instead, words that are likely to be unfamiliar are glossed, and com-
ments on grammar and context are provided to help students com-
prehend the Latin and arrive at an accurate understanding of the text
through their own abilities.
Finally, the end vocabulary includes English meanings for all Latin
words appearing in the text, the sole exception being certain personal
names and other proper nouns that are adequately defined in the notes.
Macrons, though not appearing in the text (since the Romans them-
selves did not ordinarily employ them and they are not used in advanced
Latin textbooks), are provided in the vocabulary.
To Professor Edwin S. Ramage of Indiana University I am very
grateful for his most conscientious and critical survey of the manuscript
of the passages and notes; many of his suggestions have led to improve-
ments. Likewise I am grateful to Professors Joseph J. Prentiss of West
Virginia University and W. M. Read of the University of Washington
for submitting lists of corrigenda for the book's second printing. To the
keen observation, good judgment, and acute queries of Dr. Gladys Wal-
terhouse of Barnes and Noble I am also deeply indebted. Finally, my
heartfelt and abiding thanks to my very patient and very devoted wife,
Dorothy, who typed the manuscript so accurately and so understand-
ingly, and to my daughter Deborah for her very faithful and accurate
assistance in proofreading the galleys.
FREDERIC M. WHEELOCK
Amherst, New Hampshire
Summer, 1969
The Revised Edition
In many respects Wheelock's Latin Reader (originally titled Latin
Literature: A Book of Readings) is one of the very best intermediate Latin
texts published in the last generation. When the book first appeared in
1967, reviewers extolled the accessibility and comprehensiveness of its
readings from Cicero, Livy, Ovid, and Pliny, praised its incorporation of
selections from medieval Latin and the Vulgate as "a particularly happy
innovation," and hailed the volume as "a solid companion" to Wheelock's
Latin, the author's best-selling beginning Latin textbook.
The book's primary virtues were, and remain, these two: the wide
range of selections from both classical and medieval Latin—about 3,400
lines altogether—and Professor Wheelock's judicious annotations. From
Preface xiii
Cicero are included a rich and diverse sampling of his widely varied
works, constituting nearly half the volume's readings: the extensive ex-
cerpts from Cicero's orations against Verres, the corrupt governor of
Sicily whom he courageously prosecuted in 70 B.C., provide valuable
insights into the political and judicial proceedings of the late republic
and a marvelous specimen of Ciceronian rhetoric; the selections from
two of his philosophical treatises, the De Officiis and the De Amicitia,
probingly examine ethical and moral issues that continue to be of great
concern to us today; and the several letters (most of them included in
their entirety), addressed to family, friends, and associates, give us some
remarkably candid glimpses into the personal and political life of that
most famous orator and statesman.
The selections from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, which include the story
of Romulus and Remus and other legends of early Rome, as well as an
account of Hannibal's assault on Italy during the Second Punic War, are
at once invaluable historical documents and lively, captivating narra-
tives. The four transformation tales from Ovid's Metamorphoses—the
tragic love stories of Pyramus and Thisbe, and of Orpheus and Eurydice,
the myths of Daedalus and Icarus and of Midas' golden touch make
for delightful reading and provide an ideal introduction to classical
Latin poetry. The selections from Pliny's literary epistles present an in-
teresting contrast with Cicero's more spontaneous letters and contain
important and interesting information on social and political institu-
tions of the early empire, as well as detailed evidence for both the cata-
strophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and the Roman govern-
ment's policies regarding practices of the early Christian church during
the reign of the emperor Trajan.
The passages from St. Jerome's Vulgate edition of the Bible, includ-
ing the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Prodigal
Son, and others, are an excellent introduction to that profoundly influ-
ential document and to the vulgar Latin (the Latin of the vulgus, the
common people) of the early fifth century. And finally, the several selec-
tions drawn from Latin literature of the Middle Ages demonstrate the
evolution of the language from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries as
well as the remarkable diversity of matter and manner seen in such dis-
parate works as Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, the alle-
gorizing tales of the Gesta Romanorum, the sometimes reverent, some-
times raucous Carmina Burana, and the hypnotic power of that most
powerful of medieval hymns, the Dies Irae.
It would be difficult to improve upon so rich a selection from Latin