Syllabus

Readings for AP Latin

The required syllabus lists the minimum number of readings that students need to study in Latin and in English. Encourage students who work quickly to read beyond the minimum for each language. Offer students many opportunities to develop the ability to read Latin poetry and prose at sight.

Required Readings in Latin

Vergil, Aeneid

• Book 1: Lines 1-209, 418-440, 494-578

• Book 2: Lines 40-56, 201-249, 268-297, 559-620

• Book 4: Lines 160-218, 259-361, 659-705

• Book 6: Lines 295-332, 384-425, 450-476, 847-899

Caesar, Gallic War

• Book 1: Chapters 1-7

• Book 4: Chapters 24-35 and the first sentence of Chapter 36

(Eodem die legati . . . venerunt.)

• Book 5: Chapters 24-48

• Book 6: Chapters 13-20

Required Readings in English

• Vergil, Aeneid : Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12

• Caesar, Gallic War : Books 1, 6, 7

Readings in English

The required syllabus includes readings in Latin and English from Vergil's Aeneid and Caesar’s Gallic War. Reading in English helps students identify significant themes, central characters, and key ideas in the Latin passages.

Reading Latin at Sight

To develop students' ability to read Latin at sight, choose texts with relatively common vocabulary and straightforward grammar and syntax. Recommended prose authors include Nepos, Cicero (but not his letters), Livy, Pliny the Younger, and Seneca the Younger rather than Tacitus or Sallust. Recommended verse authors include Ovid, Martial, Tibullus, and Catullus, rather than Horace, Juvenal, or Lucan. We also recommend portions of the works of Vergil and Caesar that are outside the required reading. Teachers may use the works listed here to develop at-sight reading skills in preparation for the exam. The list is neither exclusive nor exhaustive.