If you have a Latin or Greek text that you would like to see as a commentary on this website and in paperback, please add your suggestion to the comments to this post.

After a two-and-a-half-year hiatus, I am now starting up new projects.

Recent recommendations have included Tacitus’ Annales 1 or 14, Thucydides Book 6 (perhaps a two part commentary), Plato’s Timaeus (two parts?), and Eutropius’ later books (imperial period).

If you want your correspondence to remain private, please contact me via email (my full name (at)gmail.com) or add the word “private” to your comment to this post.

Thank you in advance for all suggestions.

Update (08Jun22): Thank you for your suggestions. The text and vocabulary frequency lists for Thucydides Book 6 have been formatted into a single 210 pp. commentary. The remainder of the project will stretch into the late fall. I plan to work on a second project this summer but have not yet settled on the Latin//Greek work. Other authors have made me aware that they are working on the Timaeus and Agamemnon. If I receive any updates, I will pass them along.

If you are a student or teacher who would like to recommend changes or additions to the College Vergil or College Caesar commentaries, you can suggest changes by adding comments directly to the pdf linked through Adobe cloud or contact me privately in an email or blog comment. No change is too small.

College Vergil and College Caesar all the selections on the College Board AP exam.

I promise to take your suggestions seriously and include most changes in a weekly revision to the paperback and pdf on this website. More substantial changes–such as additional sections–may take a few more weeks to complete. Thank you.

Early beta editions for Pygmalion & Galatea and Pyramus & Thisbe from Ovid’s Metamorphoses have been added to the Ovid page, which already includes early betas for Icarus & Daedalus and Daphne and Apollo.

Readers now have the ability to suggest changes online for Plato’s Apology and College Vergil. The links take readers to the pdf in the cloud (Adobe), where readers can suggest changes, and I receive a notification to read the suggestions. Changes are included in a revised paperback and pdf within two or three weeks (often sooner). Eventually, I will expand this feature to most of the commentaries in the series.

Teachers, if there is some ancillary or other form of support that you would like to see for readers. please let me know in the comments or via email.

Happy New Year!

Teachers have contacted me and offered a number of ways that they use the pdf to enhance instruction. Below are a few tips worth passing along:

(1) Enlarge the pdf on the desktop which you are projecting to create a quick and easy presentation.

(2) Enlarge the pdf on the desktop and take screenshot images of the selected text (Mac: shift-command-4, Windows: Snipping tool) to insert in presentations, handouts, quizzes, and tests. (Enlarging the pdf improves the image resolution.) This is a very easy way to maintain formatting between the book, presentations, and handouts.

(3) Post the pdf (or a link to the pdf) on your class website and ask that students use the paperback in class and pdf at home or vice versa and not carry the book in their book bags. This method discourages daily wear-and-tear on your books and yet ensures that students always have access to the commentary.

(4) Need flashcards? Search Quizlet or Anki before you make your own. The flashcards may already have been created. If you wish to make your own flashcards, most applications allow you to copy and paste vocabulary and then ask what punctuation you wish to use to divide up the word from the definition. Choose “:” (a colon) and within seconds you will convert the vocabulary list copied from the pdf into a set of flashcards. Then, simply copy the link to the flashcard set and send it to your students.

(5) Use the search function in the pdf to find relevant grammar constructions throughout the commentary: e.g. search “subj” to find all labeled subjunctive constructions and “dat” to find labeled dative constructions.

(6) If the students have mastered the core vocabulary, copy and paste selected dictionary entries from the corresponding vocabulary sections (e.g. word occurring 3-8 times) as you read to create vocabulary lists for students to review and memorize.

If you have any other suggestions to add to this list, please let me know.

J. Shaw’s commentary is now available on Amazon here (for 13.95 USD), and the latest pdf version is available as a free download here on his website.

J. Shaw’s commentary on St. Augustine’s Confessions is also available on Amazon here (for 9.95 USD), and the latest pdf version is available as a free download here on his website. 

Finally, a very early beta edition for 10 Letters of Seneca is available on this website.

J, S. has just published  a Pharr-formatted commentary on Ars Amatoria Book 1, a didactic poem that instructs readers on how to pick up members of the opposite sex. The opening lines are known to be a bit challenging, but if you read ahead just a little, you will be rewarded with a guided tour of the best places to find love in Rome.

If you have enjoyed reading Ovid in the past but never considered Ars Amatoria, it is certainly a great summer read. The paperback is available on Amazon here, and a free pdf of the commentary is available on her website here.