Plato’s Apology is now available in a free pdf (here) and in paperback on Amazon.

A completed beta edition of AP Vergil selections is available as a free pdf here to support instructors and readers who will be reading the AP syllabus online during the pandemic. My original plan was to crowdsource the Vergil commentary, but it is still too easy for someone to slip copyrighted material unnoticed into such a project. Instead,  I will open the commentary to comments on Adobe docs (comment on the pdf!) and update the pdf regularly.

Below is a poll for readers who would like to recommend a future title. You are welcome to choose more than one work and/or submit a suggested author and title.  I take your recommendations very seriously. When I last offered a poll in 2014, I completed three of the titles that you suggested. As always, thank you for the support.

Other suggestions so far: Ovid’s Heroides; something from Cicero; Sophocles’ Ajax, Isocrates; Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Soul and Resurrection; Thucydides Bk 6; Aristophanes’ Clouds; Diogenes Laertius; Demonsthenes’ On the Crown; “It’s so hard to choose;”  Xenophon’s Memorabilia; Plato’s Protagoras; Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe (2); Plato’s Sophist; Plato’s Republic 2-10; Genesis-Latin Vulgate, Plato’s Timaeus, Hebrews (soon to be available by Joshua Calvin Shaw here), Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Republic 7, Hesiod, Aristotle’s NE 1,  Iliad 1 or 2,  Argonautika 3, Another Aristophanes (Wasps or Clouds?), Persians, Aristoteles: Politea Atheneia, Aristophanes: Birds, Apollonius Rhodius, Genesis – Septuagint; Odyssey – books 21-24, Epictetus, Gospel of Mark, Thucydides (4 recommendations)

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

An early beta version of Plato’s Apology is available on this website here. Revisions are underway.

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.

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 your desktop and connect the computer to a projector 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, quizzes, and tests. (Enlarging the pdf improves the image resolution.) This is a very easy way to maintain formatting between the book, presentations, and tests.

(3) Copy and paste the Greek or Latin text to insert in translation quizzes and tests.

(4) 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.

(5) 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.

(6) In a secondary school setting, 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 is an easy way to discourage daily wear-and-tear on your books and yet ensure that students always have access to the commentary.

(7) If you wish to add selected vocabulary to Quizlet or Anki to make flashcards, Quizlet and other programs allow you to copy and paste lists of vocabulary and then ask what punctuation you wish to use to divide up the word from the definition. Choose “:” and within seconds you will convert the vocabulary list copied from the pdf into a functional set of flashcards. Then, simply copy the link to the flashcard set and send it to your students.

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