"an elementary source-book." Thus the reader learns at the same
time the facts, and the authorities from whom our knowledge of the facts is derived. Between twenty and thirty writers, in prose and verse, amongst whom we find Appian, Caesar, Cicero, Diodorus, Dionysius, Justin, Livy, Nepos, Plutarch, Polybius, and Tacitus, together with the chief Roman poets, are utilised for the purpose. The idea is good and seems to be well worked out. The editors add, when necessary. connecting passages. And they also supply occasional illustrations. One apt example is the comparing of the dictum of Appius Claudius Caesar, that there must be no treating with Pyrrhus as long as he remained in Italy, with the Monroe doctrine. The story of the Second Punic War is given from Polybius and Livy, that of the Third from Polybius and Appian. It will be understood that the whole is brought within narrow limits, the narrative being carried down in a little over three hundred pages to the death of M. Aurelius.
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