Germanicus : Extracts _front the Annals of Tacitus. With English
Notes, for the Middle Forms of Public Schools. By A. H. Beesly. (Longmans.)—The idea of this little book is by no means a bad one. The object of the selection is to give from the " Annals " of Tacitus a con- secutive story of singular interest, such as it may be hoped will en- chain the attention of moderately intelligent boys. Germanicus is one of Tacitns's heroes; his campaigns on the Rhine and the Weser, his persecution by Tiberius and his mysterious death in the prime of early manhood, make up a very lively piece of classical reading. Mr. Beesly in his introduction discusses briefly Tacitus's general credibility as a historian, and has some acute remarks on the subject. He decides that Tiberius has been unscrupulously misrepresented and libelled. The notes are very brief, hardly sufficient, we have thought, for their pur- pose. But then, no doubt, it is assumed that boys have other and more effective guidance. Mr. Beesly often gives a good and pointed ren- dering. In a note enumerating the Roman provinces, he makes one or two slips, and wholly omits Mamie., Pannonia, and Noricum. There was no such province as Phcenicia, apart from Syria, as far as we know.
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