Tacitus: Annals XII. A Selection (S.) Allcock (ed.). Pp. viii + 124, map. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. Paper, £12.99. ISBN: 9781350156388.

This volume, edited as a textbook of the Cambridge OCR Advanced Level (A-Level) Latin Group 1 examination, conducted from June 2024 to June 2026, consists of 4 major parts: 'Introduction', which guides students and teachers through the life of Tacitus, his style seen in the Annals, and the contemporary cultural and political situations of Rome, followed by a list of further readings, a map of the Roman Empire, and a family tree of the Julio-Claudian dynasty; text extracted from the Oxford Classical Texts (OCT) version by Fisher, published in 1906; commentary notes, as the body of this volume, which help readers fully appreciate the Tacitean work; and vocabulary denoted by asterisks to indicate the OCR's Defined Vocabulary List for the Advanced Subsidiary Qualification (AS-Level).All of the abovementioned contents are rightly tuned for students who are about to take the step forward into the world of Classical prose reading, and for the training of students' analytical skills through their study for the A-Level exam.'Introduction' is useful as pre-reading material, as it provides readers with fundamental background information of the work and the author, giving students insight into what they are about to read.Teachers might want to pick up some of the most relevant and important points to look at first, as there might be several terms for which first-time learners need explanations.It is also very beneficial to come back to this part every now and then while reading proceedsthe sections dedicated to Tacitus' style and poetic language, especially, are most effectively referred to when readers encounter actual occurrences of those rhetorical techniques such as asyndeton, variatio, or zeugma.Revisiting 'Introduction' after having read through the Latin set text is also rewarding.Not only will it help readers see the entire text and its lines of argument more clearly, but also, through reflection, can give a sense of progress they have madeterms or points that the reader might have had difficulty fully understanding previously will now enrich their view of the world Tacitus depicts.An area which could have been improved is the family tree of the Julio-Claudian dynasty found at the end of 'Introduction'.Although the original text and commentary notes refer to the kinship between Agrippina, the protagonist of the Group 1 and 2 set texts, and Domitia Lepida, this is not shown in the family tree, nor does the