Pliny's Letters. Book HI. By J. E. B. Mayor. (Macmillan
and Co.)—Some of Pliny's most interesting letters are contained in this book. There is the letter in which he gives a detailed account of his uncle's various and numerous works, with amusing illustrations of his prodigious industry. There is a pretty and elegant little letter in which he describes a small statue of Corinthian bronze, which he had purchased out of a legacy he had unexpectedly acquired. In another, a letter of considerable length, he gives a friend a very particular account of his exertions on behalf of the provincials of Baetica, who had been shamefully plundered and oppressed by one Classicus, a specially hideous scoundrel, who delighted in parading his wickedness. It is amusing to note the tone of self-complacency which runs through this letter, Pliny evidently feeling that his defence of these poor, ill-treated people was something highly meritorious. We have a very good account of his life, so far as we can put it together, from Mr. Rendall ; and the memoir is appropriately closed with the famous inscription to Pliny's memory, graved in marble on the walls of the thermre which he gave to his birth-place, Comum. It records, as reconstructed by Momumen, with the aid of written documents, Pliny's benefactions and good deeds to his fellow-towns- folk. It is hardly necessary for us to say that Professor Mayor's notes are replete (too replete, some will say) with learning, and round every familiar word or usage is gathered a wealth of illustration which is thrown away on any but the ripest and most laborious scholars. Thus, for instance, the phrase " constare rationem" (" the account tallies") has the best part of a page devoted to it, and ex- amples of its use are multiplied from every conceivable Latin author. The long antiquarian notes, in which much has been added to the researches of Becker and Marquardt, are a special feature in this edition, which, indeed, we heartily commend to all students who are aiming at, a thorough acquaintance with one of the most charming and interesting writers of antiquity.
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