It’s so close! The launch party for The Lover’s Curse: A Tiered Reader of Aeneid 4 is happening this weekend at the following times (click here to join, or click the thumbnail below):

• US: Sat 23 Sep, 4pm EDT
• UK: Sat 23 Sep, 9pm BST
• Australia: Sun 24 Sep, 6am AEST

This is my final post in the series celebrating the publication of Latin tiered readers throughout the ages. While Part 1 shared public domain works, Part 2 discussed 20^th century textbooks, and Part 3 considered recently published tiered readers, here in Part 4 I will be spotlighting soon-to-be published tiered readers.

Sagarum Crimina

Sagarum Crimina, or ‘The Crimes of Witches’, is a tiered reader of supernatural horror, featuring witches and not shying away from the violence in its source material. It is authored by Jessica McCormack, my editor for The Lover’s Curse.

There will be three tiers in total in Sagarum Crimina: the top tier consists of horror themed excerpts from Apuleius’ ancient novel Metamorphoses, written sometime in the 2^nd century AD, and Lucan’s Pharsalia, an epic about Caesar and Pompey written during the reign of Nero. The middle tier is Appleton’s adaptation of the horror stories from Apuleius and Lucan, Fabulae Virginibus Puerisque aut Narrandae aut Recitandae, which was first published in 1914 and is now in the public domain. The bottom tier is Jessica’s adaptation of Appleton’s work.

This tiered reader is intended for a somewhat more mature and advanced audience than The Lover’s Curse. Jessica recommends that the prospective reader should be fully finished with Familia Romana and have read some other intermediate reader such as Ad Alpes before reading Sagarum Crimina. The reason is that Apuleius’ Latin style is rather eccentric and elaborate, a challenging text even for experienced readers.

Sagarum Crimina is not for the faint of heart – but it might just steal your heart, like the witches. Jessica is hoping to get it out in time for Halloween. You can sign up for updates about this project by following Jess @ Lupus Alatus on substack, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. I hope you’ll enjoy this spooky, chilling read.

Caesar the Ethnographer

Caesar the Ethnographer is a tiered reader of selections of Caesar which is currently being written by Mike Saridakis.

As the title suggests, the focus of these excerpts will be on the ethnographical sections of Caesar’s Gallic Wars. It will be divided into three sections: De Gallis, De Germanis, and De Britannis.

As someone who has taught from Caesar’s Gallic Wars, I am excited about the ethnographic focus. To a non-military historian like me, the Gallic Wars tends to drag when it comes to documenting the logistics and movements of troops in Caesar’s military campaigns. But it does serve as an important (even if one-sided) document for the non-Roman societies and cultures of ancient Gaul.

There will be four tiers in total (including the final tier which is Caesar’s unadapted text). Tier 1 will be a loose paraphrase as simple as the author can make it, with some introduction of vocabulary or particular idioms relevant to the final text. Tier 2 starts to bridge the gap between the original and the paraphrase. Tier 3 uses the same words as the orginal text but with minor changes to word order or sentence lengths, adding implied subjects and antecedents in brackets where it can be helpful. Tier 4 is the unadapted text of Caesar, with occasional notes on possible discussion questions or rhetorical techniques.

This project is rather further out from being finished than Sagarum Crimina. If you want to hear updates about Caesar the Ethnographer, you can subscribe to Contubernales Books’ email list (at the bottom of their contact page), follow Mike on Twitter or Bluesky (@toutovlepo on both), or follow his WordPress blog.

I hope you’re as excited as I am about these upcoming tiered reader book projects!

And I hope you can join me really soon this weekend for my launch party for The Lover’s Curse: A Tiered Reader of Aeneid 4!  

P.S.: During the Livestream I’ll be sending out free digital copies of my tiered reader book, The Lover’s Curse: A Tiered Reader of Aeneid 4 to everyone on my Latin email newsletter list. Subscribe here to receive your free digital copy this weekend!