I took 8 years of Latin through Catholic school. By the second year of High School, we were required to read history texts written in Latin.
This just proves my point. Catholic schools in the US are private institutions, and one that would teach Latin with vigor is a rare case. However:
> we were required to read history texts written in Latin.
It is common for Caesar’s Gallic War to be assigned early on, but students working through it with the support of a tailor-made glossary and commentary is not a particularly impressive achievement. De bello gallico (like Xenophon’s Anabasis in Greek) is assigned precisely because it is an extremely easy text, and it is not very representative of Latin literature in general.
If your school expected you to read Livy, or even Tacitus, that definitely puts it into the “elite” category.
Yes to both :D
I should read more of these texts, I remember being really fond of Latin classes.
Edit: to concur with GP, Caesar's writings (de bello Gallico) were somewhere in the first half of the curriculum and were definitely regarded as relatively easy.