The AP Latin Curriculum is Going Through Changes
How many times can we kill Julius Caesar? The limit does not exist.
The AP Latin committee just dropped the latest draft of the ‘25-’26 AP Latin curriculum, notably snubbing Julius Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, a curriculum staple since the early aughts.
Underdog Pliny the Younger’s status will soon be elevated, as his letters will comprise most of the prose curriculum.
But Pliny the Younger is not even the cool one who wrote the Natural Histories! I’m surprised that the new draft named his Epistulae as the majority of the new prose curriculum. They certainly hold cultural weight and are an invaluable resource for information on the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and Roman political life. However, comparatively, Pliny the Elder provides extensive accounts of various aspects of global culture, history, and science, not accounts of mainly administrative and political happenings.
The question then becomes: why nix Caesar at all?
Replacing Julius Caesar with Little Pliny seems to cancel out any potential benefits that I could think of.
Introducing students to a wider “canon” of Latin literature,I personally wouldn’t describe Pliny the Younger as outside of the canon or unusual to see in an undergraduate course offering.De Bello Gallico was difficult to connect to the Aeneid thematically… Um, hello? Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita is right there!Introducing students to the Roman letter-writing genre, Again, Cicero’s letters are right there. Students will probably have already been exposed to Cicero’s writing earlier in their Latin curriculum, AND Cicero is more contemporary to Vergil than Pliny the Younger is, so the letters’ themes might mirror the Aeneid satisfyingly.Discuss wider themes than war and politics,And how are we gonna do that through the writings of another politician?
Classics Twitter was aflame: many supported axing DBG from the curriculum. (I’m still on the fence, either way, though I do lean more towards getting rid of Caesar, just not necessarily replacing him with Pliny the Younger.)
Though AP Latin is one of the least taken AP exams (Italian takes the last spot,) it has cultural ramifications that impact the field of classics. The test and curriculum, whether colleges like it or not, basically dictate what knowledge students bring into their undergraduate degree.
Again, it’s interesting that the curriculum developers, which included Latin educators at all levels, chose Pliny the Younger as the prose author. His name doesn’t exactly have *star power* like Julius Caesar’s does.
The Aeneid takes a hit
While getting rid of Caesar was one of the more immediately noticeable changes, it seems that the Aeneid readings are also changing a bit as well. I’ve noted the changes in the chart below and calculated the difference between the two numbers.
You can find the PDFs of the 2020 curriculum and the proposed 2025 curriculum linked and attached.
Comparison between the 2020 and 2025 curriculum
| New Curriculum (Effective 2025) | Difference between the two | Old Curriculum (Effective 2020) |
| Vergil Aeneid Book 1 1-33 88-107 496-512 | Old curriculum reads 247 more lines in Latin* of Aeneid book 1 *The old curriculum reads the entirety of book 1 in English | Vergil Aeneid Book 1 1–209 418–440 494–578 Book 1 read in English |
| Vergil Aeneid Book 2 40-56 201-249 | Old curriculum reads 90 more lines in Latin* of Aeneid book 2 *The old curriculum reads the entirety of book 2 in English | Vergil Aeneid Book 2 40–56 201–249 268–297 559–620 Book 2 read in English |
| Vergil Aeneid Book 4 74-89 165-197 305-361 | Old curriculum reads 103 more lines in Latin* of Aeneid book 4 *The old curriculum reads the entirety of book 4 in English | Vergil Aeneid Book 4 60–218 259–361 659–705 Book 4 read in English |
| Vergil Aeneid Book 6 450-476 788-800 847-853 | Old curriculum reads 60 more lines in Latin* of Aeneid book 6 *The old curriculum reads the entirety of book 6 in English | Vergil Aeneid Book 6 295–332 384–425 450–476 847–899 Book 6 read in English |
| Vergil Aeneid Book 7 46-58 783-792 803-817 | New curriculum reads 35 more lines of Aeneid book 7 | |
| *The old curriculum reads the entirety of book 8 in English | Book 8 read in English | |
| Vergil Aeneid Book 11 532-594 | New curriculum reads 62 more lines of Aeneid book 11 | |
| Vergil Aeneid Book 12 791-796 803-812 818-829 819-952 | New curriculum reads 111 more lines of Aeneid book 12 in Latin* *The old curriculum reads the entirety of book 12 in English | Book 12 read in English |
What are those kids even learning anymore?!
Generally speaking, the old curriculum reads way more in Latin AND English than the new curriculum. However, something to keep in mind, in the new curriculum, there are two different units for teacher choice: both poetry and prose.
I’m not entirely sure what the statistics are for the difference in words students will read through 2020 vs. 2025 curriculum changes. At first glance, it seems that the 2020 curriculum students will read more in Latin and English. However, the diversity of the readings in the 2025 draft far outpaces 2020’s options.
Diversity of choice
Sulpicia surprisingly gets a shoutout in the teacher’s choice of recommended poetry and other female Latinists from outside of the classical period, like Martha Marchina, and contemporary classicists, including Emma Vanderpool and Ellie Arnold’s novellas.
Of course, if AP Latin teachers miss Caesar that much, they can choose to teach De Bello Gallico (either books 1 or 6. Personally, I would have included 4, but whatever.)
Both curricula have their pros and cons. I do appreciate seeing more readings across several time periods, but gender diversity, too. (Well, some.)
AP Latin curriculum activities
Inevitably, a new curriculum requires new activities. As more information gets released about the curriculum and when it will be rolled out, I’ll create more resources to supplement it. You can find those resources here: https://maialeechin.com/category/resources/
You can also subscribe to my newsletter to keep updated with anything else that I create.
Statius’ Thebaid should at least have been included in the recommended “teacher’s choice” readings. It expands the canon of authors and it’s relationship to the Aeneid makes incredible points about imperial propaganda.
I’d generally agree, but it seems to me that there’s a real gap in Statius resources, especially for secondary school. Also, I’d add that in my experience, it’s more common that the Odyssey would be in a student’s curriculum (which makes sense why AP Latin focuses more on the first half of the Aeneid.)