Hillard and Botting's Elementary Latin Translation was designed to accompany the same authors' Elementary Latin Exercises, so that the two books could conveniently be used together and translation be learned as well as composition.

The order of the grammar in this book is the same as in Elementary Latin Exercises; and the pieces for translation numbered with odd numbers present the chief events of Roman History in a chronological series, those with even numbers give stories from Greek mythology. The same words are repeated frequently to encourage learning and to stimulate the student to find certain words and phrases which then can gradually be recognised and translated on sight.

It presupposes that the beginner is learning the essentials of the Latin Grammar in the order set, and it presents him at each stage with pieces of translation which demand no form in declension or conjugation which the student has not already learnt.