Reviewed by Bradley Ritter, Ave Maria University, bradley.ritter@avemaria.edu

Terence Tunberg and Milena Minkova's Latin for the New Millennium ('LNM') is a strikingly original and decidedly effective text for introductory Latin. In it, the authors claim to strike a balance between the inductive, or reading method, and the deductive method commonly used in Greek and Latin instruction, and they are successful in that (see p.vii in the Teacher's Manual). Though they do not mention it explicitly, they have also transcended the cultural aspirations of most reading-based texts with their successful adaptation of original passages to the needs of beginning Latin students, helping students to see for themselves some of what Latin literature has to offer them. In their choice of authors for their adapted passages, they go in a temporal sequence from Plautus to Boethius in level one, and from Bede to the early modern writers (such as Copernicus or the lesser known Ludvig Holberg) in level two. In doing so, they make a strong case for Latin by constantly holding before their readers' eyes the vast temporal reach of the language and its importance to European intellectual history. These aspects of the text are fairly obvious after even a passing glance. Much less noticeable initially, but of equal if not greater importance, is the text's uncommonly rich supply of exercises, both written and oral, which are as numerous as they are effective.

The text is suitable both for high school and university students. Representatives of the press (per litteras) say that university students could complete the first level (the text here under review) in one semester, and the second level in another (to be released in June 2009, according to the press). High school courses could take an entire year for the first level, and at least that for the second level. Because level two ends with ten sections of unadapted Latin from Nepos' life of Atticus, both texts together could conceivably be used over two or three semesters in university courses, and, for high schools, both levels one and two could be used over three years. The teacher's manual, which includes a reprint of the basic textbook, also includes oral, supplementary exercises, a key for all exercises, and translations of all the Latin readings. There is also a workbook, which itself has a teacher's key. Online aids are plentiful.

Each chapter begins with a quotation of the author who is the focus of the chapter. So, in chapter three, we find 'Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto,' (Heauton Timoroumenos 77), followed by an adapted reading from Terence, and in chapter seven, 'Odi et amo', followed by an adaptation of Catullus 2 and 5. But the heart of every chapter is the reading adapted from that author. The reading contains the basic vocabulary to be learned, and its concepts and themes are often reiterated in practice sentences throughout the chapter. This repetition in the exercises also provides sensible and effective reinforcement of both vocabulary and new grammatical concepts. The adapted readings include the standard authors, Cicero, Caesar, Catullus, Sallust, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Seneca, Tacitus, as well as the welcome additions of authors not so standard, including both Augustine and Boethius, as well as Apuleius and Ammianus. After the adapted reading, there is a gloss list on the facing page to help students navigate through new vocabulary and unfamiliar morphology.

Because the reading includes elements of grammar to be introduced in later sections, the glosses often include translations of forms students would otherwise be unable to interpret on their own. Next come two or three sections, called Language Fact I, II or III, each providing an explanation of some new point of morphology or syntax. Each of these sections also includes at least one, and usually more, exercises to help students apply this morphology through transformations, translation of forms, and analysis or translation from Latin to English. Finally, the chapter closes with a dialogue of conversational Latin focused on common situations in everyday life: greetings and leave-takings, describing where one comes from, vocabulary and formulae appropriate to the classroom, and related items.

The basic arrangement of grammatical material will come as no surprise to any Latin instructor, and any changes to the standard presentation are subtle and welcome. The goal of the level one text is to present the basic morphology of nouns, pronouns and adjectives, the functions of the cases, indicative and infinitive verbs and the principal parts, the irregular verbs sum and possum, relative clauses, indirect discourse, and two participles (perfect passive and future active). Accordingly, the list of morphological and syntactic points found in the level two text is equally unsurprising: subjunctives, ablative absolute constructions, the passive periphrastic, other irregular verbs, comparatives and superlatives of adjectives and adverbs, and the present participle. The authors depart from the norm where appropriate. The concept of case and the names of the five Latin cases are explained quickly so that students can memorize whole declensions immediately (pp. 6-7). But the main functions of the cases are unpacked gradually over several chapters (the nominative and accusative in ch. 1, pp. 6-7; genitive and vocative in ch. 3 (p. 37); dative in ch. 4 (p. 62); the ablative in ch. 8 (pp. 128-129)). Again, the book introduces the accusative with infinitive construction relatively early (in ch. 7, pp. 116-19), so that students grow familiar with this over time and can add in new grammatical features as they are gradually revealed (such as perfect active and passive infinitives, pp. 354-357, and, later, future (active) infinitives, pp. 368-370).

A review follows every three chapters, and includes a vocabulary summary and exercises on the chief new material, followed by three sections, in English, which are cultural sidelights. These include, first, an account of one of the major Roman gods; second, a small bit of social history (such as slavery, Roman attire, cities and road systems, gladiators); and, last, a short summary of some aspects of Roman social, political or literary history, written by outside contributors. The contributions from William Anderson on Roman comedy and from James Keenan on Roman Law are particularly successful for their engagement and explication of the texts students have read, and that of Jacqueline Carlon on Roman families, for its constant recourse to Latin vocabulary. All three sidelights in these review sections will doubtless have a greater role to play in high school courses assessed through the National Latin Exam or other state exams, which inevitably include questions about the Roman Pantheon or Roman social and political history. But for the purposes of simple cultural enrichment, the adapted readings are often sufficient.

To give a better sense for the book's composition, it is useful to look in detail at a specific chapter, such as chapter 15. The chapter begins with an adapted reading from Seneca's Epistulae Morales (12). The reading is greatly altered from Seneca's original, but to good purpose. Vocabulary is pared down; subjunctives and tenses of the indicative not yet learned have all been removed. Futures of the third and fourth conjugation have been carefully added (one of the primary grammatical goals of the chapter). The reading is just long enough to capture both the humor of the passage as well as Seneca's central observation in the letter: the theme of memento mori. The adaptation is significant, but judicious. Although not the original texts, these simplified passages from ancient prose are a wonderful avenue for covering themes from the literature in the target language.

After the adapted reading in chapter 15, the first 'Language Fact' section presents the future active and passive of third, fourth and third conjugation -io verbs (p. 249). An exercise follows that requires transformations of present and imperfect tense verbs into the future (p. 250). The student is then required to translate both the original form and the derived form into English. The Teacher's Manual contains an oral exercise of similar transformations for additional oral practice (p. 249). Next is the vocabulary for memorization, a subset of the gloss list found at the start of the chapter. In every chapter, this list is followed by an exercise meant to teach English derivatives from the vocabulary.

The second 'Language Fact' section presents interrogative pronouns and adjectives, illustrated by some easy sentences of both types of words. Paradigms of each are then presented. Numerous exercises follow. In one exercise, students are asked to translate simple sentences into Latin which make use either of the interrogative pronoun or adjectives (such as 'Whose villa is old?'and 'Whose (plural) villas are old?') (p. 254). An exercise in the Teacher's Manual (p. 253) contains simple sentences which students are to read and then transform, orally, into questions by replacing underlined forms with interrogative pronouns and adjectives. Another brief oral exercise encourages active use of the interrogative pronoun. The teacher, it is suggested, could ask various students such pre-formulated questions as 'Quis es?', 'Quis sum?', 'Cuius liber est?' and so forth (Teacher's Manual, p. 252). Sample answers are given. This sort of exercise is a good example of the often charming hints tucked away in the Teacher's Manual which could help enliven an otherwise dreary grammatical point and present an additional way to help ground the students in the morphology. Another textbook exercise contains a skillful review of the reading: questions are asked (in Latin) about the content of the Seneca passage, and students are asked to pick the most appropriate response from among three possible answers in Latin (pp. 254-55). In yet another exercise, students work on translation and composition. They are to read a short dialogue based on the reading, translating Latin into English and English to Latin (p. 256). The grammatical points tested most intensively are third and fourth conjugation verbs as well as interrogative pronouns and adjectives, the chapter's main points. Such useful exercises, found throughout the text, form the backbone of the book.

Finally, the chapter ends with a short dialogue between the recurring cast of student characters. The topic is a trip to the country, an appropriate topic given Seneca's own trip to his villa in the chapter's adapted reading. It contains a mix of mostly vocabulary with ancient pedigree (rus, along with ruri and erure, semita, deambulare, sub divo, vehor) and occasional, but sensible neologisms (birota, mantica dorsualis, tentorium plicatile). Then follows an oral exercise based upon the dialogue, which tests the students' reading comprehension and reinforces vocabulary with simple Latin questions which the students are to answer in Latin. The final oral exercise is a short dictation based on the chapter's opening reading. Afterwards, the students may be asked reading comprehension questions to which they are required to give Latin responses.

As my review of chapter 15 indicates, the book's rich and diverse supply of useful classroom exercises is one of its most important contributions. The authors are careful to suggest a number of the tried and true oral drills: practice conjugations and declensions, work with principal parts, declensions both of isolated nouns and of noun phrases complete with demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, and basic translation from and to Latin. But there are subtle touches which improve their overall effect. In their translation exercises, they have been careful not to encumber students with multiple variables, as the sentences are normally focused enough that they help students exercise the specific skill currently being reinforced. Moreover, these exercises invariably use the vocabulary of the adapted reading, providing useful repetition. But in addition to these more standard drills, there are also a number of transformational drills and completion exercises ('cloze tests'), which prove to be extremely effective both for improving and testing comprehension. The teacher's manual contains even further exercises, including oral transformational drills and dictation exercises. A number of the 'Teacher's Tips' and almost all the oral exercises are enormously innovative and tremendously effective (for some examples, see p. 202, ch. 12; p. 223, ch. 13; p. 252, ch. 15; p. 291, ch. 17; p. 169, ch. 10). It would be difficult to think of another textbook which rivals this one in the number and quality of these transformation, completion and dictation exercises. The exercises should be of interest to all Latin instructors, whether or not they adopt the textbook for their courses.

The historical scope of the material contained in LNM is so vast that the textbook itself becomes an implicit argument for the value of studying Latin, given its longevity as a literary language and in various scholarly disciplines. The book, however, as far as can be judged in level one, adheres strictly to the norms of Classical Latin in its description of the grammar (the perfect is simply described as, e.g., laudatus sum, not laudatus fui), and the vocabulary intended for memorization is straight from the canonical authors. The level two text will include Bede, Einhard, Abelard, the Gesta Romanorum, Petrarch, Erasmus, Thomas More, Sepulveda, and Copernicus. There too, it appears that the Latin texts of the standard canon will be given privileged status since the unadapted texts which begin to be used in the level two text are from the letters of Cicero and Nepos' life of Atticus. This primacy of both the grammar of Classical Latin as well as its literary monuments should be stressed if level two's vastly increased scope causes some hesitation for instructors deciding whether to adopt the text. If anything, Terence and Cicero seem to take on added importance as foundational authors in a two-thousand-year tradition of thinkers who expressed their thought in Latin.

The Latin dialogues at the end of each chapter are a helpful supplement to the text and succeed on two levels. Since they concern the daily life of students at roughly the age of those using the text, they will be contextualized by the reader's own experiences. As a result, they can be read with relative ease, giving students fairly rapid exposure to more Latin. Second , and less tangibly, their familiar content gives students a helpful psychological link to the language. The dialogues arm them, to some extent, with some of the vocabulary and modes of expression which they would be acquiring in a modern language class and, hence, often expect to learn in the Latin classroom. Incidentally, they are reminiscent of their medieval and Renaissance era counterparts, especially those of Erasmus, Corderius and Juan Luis Vives. Doubtless in the Renaissance, there was a pressing motivation to learn to use Latin actively, and there were plentiful opportunities for students aspiring to university studies to make active use of it. This is to say, one hoped from such colloquia to become a better speaker of Latin. But even Erasmus intended such formulae loquendi, simple sentences for common situations, to be used as a preface to reading of ancient authors. The Latin dialogues in LNM serve a similar function by allowing for additional practice in the language and a closer connection to it before the hard work of reading unadapted authors begins . . . .

LNM is an attractive text. On a physical level, the text is brilliantly illustrated. But its beauty is not skin-deep. The images are often as lavish as they are instructive, and the art gives students a sense of the deep importance of the Classical tradition for European education until the twentieth century. Its texts and exercises are clearly the fruit of years of thought and practice. The scope of the book itself reflects a long-standing belief on the part of Terence Tunberg for the need to broaden the canon covered in Classics departments to include medieval and Neo-Latin texts. Whether or not his arguments can gain traction, the text which Tunberg and Minkova have produced makes a strong case for Latin's enduring ability to communicate high-level thought, whether in ancient texts or in modern ones. Moreover, its exercises and dialogues, drawing on the authors' considerable experience and expertise in both oral and written composition, succeed in offering a tremendous array of classroom practice which can enrich any Latin classroom.

To view sample chapters from the Latin for the New Millennium student textbook, workbook, teacher's manual and ancillaries, visit Bolchazy-Carducci at http://www.bolchazy.com. E-mail inquiries may be sent to info@bolchazy.com. You may also direct questions to the publisher by contacting Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 1570 Baskin Road, Mundelein, Illinois 60060 USA, Tel. (800) 392-6453, Fax. (847) 526-2867.