AP Latin Required Reading List
This required syllabus lists the minimum number of readings that you’ll need to study in Latin and in English.
If you work quickly, your teacher might encourage you to read beyond the minimum for each language. You’ll have many opportunities to develop the ability to read Latin poetry and prose at sight.
Required Readings in Latin
Vergil, Aeneid
- Book 1: Lines 1–209, 418–440, 494–578
- Book 2: Lines 40–56, 201–249, 268–297, 559–620
- Book 4: Lines 160–218, 259–361, 659–705
- Book 6: Lines 295–332, 384–425, 450–476, 847–899
Caesar, Gallic War
- Book 1: Chapters 1–7
- Book 4: Chapters 24–35 and the first sentence of Chapter 36 (“Eodem die legati ... venerunt.”)
- Book 5: Chapters 24–48
- Book 6: Chapters 13–20
Required Readings in English
The required syllabus includes readings in Latin and English from Vergil's Aeneid and Caesar’s Gallic War. Reading in English helps you identify significant themes, central characters, and key ideas in the Latin passages.
Vergil, Aeneid
- Books 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12
Caesar, Gallic War
- Books 1, 6, 7
Reading Latin at Sight
To develop your ability to read Latin at sight, your teacher might choose texts with relatively common vocabulary and straightforward grammar and syntax.
- Recommended prose authors include Nepos, Cicero (but not his letters), Livy, Pliny the Younger, and Seneca the Younger rather than Tacitus or Sallust.
- Recommended verse authors include Ovid, Martial, Tibullus, and Catullus, rather than Horace, Juvenal, or Lucan.
- We also recommend portions of the works of Vergil and Caesar that are outside the required reading.
Your teacher may use the works listed here to develop at-sight reading skills in preparation for the exam. The list is neither exclusive nor exhaustive.