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Ancient Classics for English Readers
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I have to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Forsyth's well-known 'Life ofCicero', especially as a guide to the biographical materials which aboundin his Orations and Letters. Mr. Long's scholarly volumes have also beenfound useful. For the translations, such as they are, I am responsible. IfI could have met with any which seemed to me more satisfactory, I wouldgladly have adopted them.
I. BIOGRAPHICAL—EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION,
II. PUBLIC CAREER—IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES,
III. THE CONSULSHIP AND CATILINE,
IV. EXILE AND RETURN,
V. CICERO AND CAESAR,
VI. CICERO AND ANTONY,
VII. CHARACTER AS POLITICIAN AND ORATOR,
VIII. MINOR CHARACTERISTICS,
IX. CICERO's CORRESPONDENCE,
X. ESSAYS ON 'OLD AGE' AND 'FRIENDSHIP',
XI. CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY,
XII. CICERO'S RELIGION.
When we speak, in the language of our title-page, of the 'AncientClassics', we must remember that the word 'ancient' is to be taken witha considerable difference, in one sense. Ancient all the Greek and Romanauthors are, as dated comparatively with our modern era. But as to theantique character of their writings, there is often a difference whichis not merely one of date. The poetry of Homer and Hesiod is ancient, ashaving been sung and written when the society in which the authors lived,and to which they addressed themselves, was in its comparative infancy.The chronicles of Herodotus are ancient, partly from their subject-matterand partly from their primitive style. But in this sense there are ancientauthors belonging to every nation which has a literature of its own.Viewed in this light, the history of Thucydides, the letters and orationsof Cicero, are not ancient at all. Bede, and Chaucer, and Matthew ofParis, and Froissart, are far more redolent of antiquity. The severalbooks which make up what we call the Bible are all ancient, no doubt; buteven between the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and the Epistles of St.Paul there is a far wider real interval than the mere lapse of centuries.
In one respect, the times of Cicero, in spite of their complicatedpolitics, should have more interest for a modern reader than most of whatis called Ancient History. Forget the date but for a moment, and thereis scarcely anything ancient about them. The scenes and actors aremodern—terribly modern; far more so than the middle ages of Christendom.Between the times of our own Plantagenets and Georges, for instance, thereis a far wider gap, in all but years, than between the consulships ofCaesar and Napoleon. The habits of life, the ways of thinking, the familyaffections, the tastes of the Romans of Cicero's day, were in manyrespects wonderfully like our own; the political jealousies and rivalrieshave repeated themselves again and again in the last two or threecenturies of Europe: their code of political honour and morality, debasedas it was, was not much lower