This is the endorsed publication from OCR and Bloomsbury for the Latin AS and A-Level (Group 1) prescription of Cicero's Philippic II sections 44-50 (... viri tui similis esses) and 78 (C. Caesari ex Hispania redeunti...)-92, and the A-Level (Group 2) prescription of sections 100-119, giving full Latin text, commentary and vocabulary, with a detailed introduction that also covers the prescribed text to be read in English for A Level. It is 44 BC. Following Caesar's assassination, his supporters are looking for a new leader. Caesar's deputy, Antony, and the 18-year-old Octavian, the future Augustus, are vying with each other to fill the role; each seems more concerned with personal power than the good of Rome. Cicero returns to the city to try to save it with the one weapon at his disposal: his oratory. In this speech, the longest of the Philippics (so-called after a series of speeches made against Philip of Macedon), Cicero starts by defending his own career and then - the part we read - demolishes Antony's. A masterpiece of invective, it ensures Antony's bitter hostility and Cicero's eventual elimination. Resources are available on the Companion Website www.bloomsbury.com/ocr-editions-2019-2021

This is the OCR-endorsed publication from Bloomsbury for the Latin A-Level (Group 4) prescription of Virgil's Aeneid X, giving full Latin text, commentary and vocabulary for lines 215-250, 260-307, 362-398 and 426-542. A detailed introduction covers the prescribed text to be read in English for A Level. In Book X, the story moves from a council of the gods, via a depiction of Aeneas's return by sea to his beleaguered Trojan camp, to a bloody field of battle. We see Aeneas for the first time as a heroic warrior, but also afflicted by the searing pain of loss as the young son of his new ally, entrusted to him by his father, is killed. Aeneas is for now cheated of his revenge, a revenge which is the preoccupation of the rest of the poem. He does, however, slay the son of a champion of the opposition and then the champion himself, in scenes which re-emphasise that pain. The heart of the book, where Aeneas and his allies join the fray, constitutes the OCR selection. It is an immensely powerful confrontation between violence and compassion, cruelty and nobility.