by Christopher Tanfield (ed.), Bloomsbury 2016, Pb 128 pages, ISBN 978-1-47426-610-9 (£12.99).

This book is one of a series, all in a similar format, published by Bloomsbury for the OCR examinations board in A-level Latin for June 2018 and 2019. The edition may of course also be useful for those not doing these examinations but who wish to read some of Virgil’s Aeneid. The writer of this book assumes that students will already have learned Latin to GCSE (intermediate) level.

In the Preface the author says that ‘The Introduction includes much background information which, it is hoped, will make useful reference as well as an orientation for those coming to the Aeneid for the first time’. The Introduction (pages 1-37) does indeed provide much useful background information on Virgil and the Aeneid, but I would have to say that as a teacher I doubt very much that I would have chosen this selection from book X if I was teaching students for whom this was their first encounter with Virgil. This specification was of course chosen by the OCR and not by the author of this book. Aeneid X is largely, but not entirely, devoted to the battles of Aeneas and his allies in gaining a foothold in Italy, but this selection, after the first 90 lines or so, is almost unremittingly about battles and bloodshed. Would not the opening section of the book, or at least some of it, on the council of the Gods (ll.1-117) have been more interesting for students (and their teachers)?

But back to the Introduction: pages 1-16 give information about Roman history and about Virgil’s life and works. The material is interestingly presented and at the right level for A-level students. There follows a section on Virgil’s hexameter (pages 16-22), which is very detailed and very well illustrated with examples. The author stresses the sound of the metre, and encourages students to read the lines aloud. In this context he also points out the way the word accent tends to coincide with the metrical ictus in the 5^th and 6^th feet, but much less so in the first four feet – which was clearly an integral part of the verse structure. This is all very different from the old practice of ‘scansion’, and very much to be recommended. The rest of the Introduction deals with various aspects of Virgil’s style. The treatment is very thorough. The rather long list of ‘Terminology’ (from alliteration to zeugma, 35 terms in all) is a useful list for reference, though rather daunting in its length; but the author does say that ‘it is more important to read Virgil than to label him’. I hope the OCR examiners agree.

There are a couple of small errors that I noticed in the Introduction: on page 7, line 15, ‘the’ has been omitted; and on page 20, line 5, the –‘s after Virgil is not needed.

The text of the selections (pages 41-48) could usefully have been printed in a larger font-size. There is a summary in English of the parts of book X that have been omitted. The use of capital letters has been restricted to the initial letter of names, but on six occurrences of names a capital letter has not been used: line 260 (should be Teucros); line 276 (Turno); line 287 (Aeneas); line 426 (Lausus); line 439 (Lauso); and line 474 (Pallas). 

The Commentary Notes (pages 49-89) are pitched at an appropriate level for A-level students, and considerable help is given with more difficult passages. There appears to be an omission in the note on line 284: the note on the half line at 490 says, ‘On half lines, see the note to l.284’, but the note on 284 (also a half line) makes no comment about half lines.

The Vocabulary (pages 91-121) is very clearly set out and seems to cover every word in the text.

There is no doubt that this edition of Aeneid X is very thorough and well suited to use by A-level students. My only substantial reservation is not about the book itself, but about prescribing this particular selection from book X for A-level students – especially if this is their first experience of reading Virgil.

John Thorley

OCR is an examinations board, an independent body which sets the public examinations (A levels) at school leaving age/university entrance level (18+).