THREE IMPORTANT CLASSICAL BOOKS.* OF these three works, which are
all in different ways note- worthy, Sir E. Maunde Thompson's superb volume merits beyond question the first place. To a large extent, indeed, it is only a reprint of his well-known handbook on Greek and Latin Palaeography, the value of which is sufficiently proved • (1) Introduction to 0-reek and Latin Palaeography. By Sir E. Maunde Thomp son. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [36s. net.1— (2) Companion to Bo man Studies. By H. Stuart Jones. Same Fu usher. [15s. net.;—(3) The Grandeur that pas Roma. By T. C. Stobart. London : Bidgwick and Jackson. [30u. net.] by the fact that it some years ago reached its third edition. But while the text remains chiefly the same, except in so far as the author has added a full account of recent discoveries of Greek papyri, or altered some statement in the light of fuller knowledge (no longer, for instance, deriving the Phoenician, and so our own, alphabet from "a cursive form of Egyptian hieratic writing "), the increased size and artistic merit of the volume give it a wholly independent value. For by the aid of two hundred and fifty large full-page facsimiles the student of palaeography is here brought face to face with the subject matter of his inquiries almost as vividly as if he had the actual MSS. before him. He can sit in his library and, with the best of guides always at hand to comment and explain, examine the history of handwriting hardly less well, and certainly with more convenience, than if he visited half the museums in Europe. To the student, indeed, the work is indispensable, but to the ordinary man, too, it is of high interest. Handwriting is perhaps a thing for which the civilization of the future will have little need. In a higher state of development home sapiens may possibly discard the pen altogether, except to add "his mark" hieroglyphically to ssme machine-made document, but even then he will hardly be able to put aside, as a mere relic of barbarism, that "unique papyrus" (p. 100) of the fourth century B.C. which "almost brings us into the very presence of Alexander the Great," and is written probably in the exact script that was used by Demosthenes or Aristotle. Or who can look with indifference on the Ambrosial). Homer (p. 201), now assigned to the third century A.D., or on facsimiles of the three great Biblical codices — Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus which attest the equal skill and devotion of these early scribes ? And here, too (p. 275), is a Virgil of the same fourth century written in those square capitals—scripture monumentalis, they have been called—whose massy character seems to emphasize the dignity of the text. Or we can come nearer home and turn to the seventh-century copy of the Gospels, known as "The Book of Kells," which is so beautiful that it may well seem, in the words of Giraldus Cambrensis, to be wrought " by care of angels rather than of men," and which is also of special interest because it is in that Irish script to which England " was almost entirely indebted for her national handwriting "; while of this English hand numerous illustrations are given here (pp. 385 seq.), one at least of which we must mention. It comes from Lindisfarne, the foundation of the Irish missionary Aidan, "having been written, it is said, in honour of St. Cuthbert, by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne, about 700 A.D.," and " its beautiful hand leaves nothing to be desired in the precision and grace with which it is executed." It is in fact a marvel of calligraphy. But it is also something more. For to look first at the fault- less uncials BEATI QUI ESURIUNT .ET SITIUNT IUSTITIAM, and then at the fine script of the rendering written above them " eadge biton &t 'Se hyncgrat and tyrstas sotftestnisse," is to be brought into direct touch with our distant forefathers and almost to feel, as it were, their very pulse and heartbeat. Indeed, to study these facsimiles of English MSS., notably such as those of ".2Elfric's Grammar," of several " Wycliffite Bibles" (pp. 206,. 208, 209) and " The Coronation Charter of 1308," invaluable as it must be to the technical student, is assuredly not less full of historical and human interest for every reader of taste and judgment.
Nor is Mr. H. Stuart Jones's Companion to Roman History at all unworthy to be classed even with such a magnum. opus as that of Sir E. Maunde Thompson. Its author was for some years bead of the Archaeological School in Rome, and his object is " to deal with such aspects of Roman life as could be illustrated by material remains, and to exclude those which may be adequately studied in manuals unprovided with illustrations." He has accordingly divided his subject into eight chapters, each containing several distinct sections, headed respectively " Introductory," "Architecture," " War," "Religion," "Production and Distribution," "Money," "Public Amusements," and "Art," providing throughout a large number of maps, plans, and photographs, while to the separate sections there is appended a brief but well-chosen and adequate bibliography. The book is, in fact, chiefly a work of reference in which those interested in any particular portion of Roman life will find a sufficiently full summary of what modern knowledge, especially in the domain of archaeology, has to say upon the subject. The author makes no attempt to introduce " purple patches," but rightly subordinates everything else to what are the three great requirements of such a work=conciseness, accuracy, and lucidity. For there is nothing more exasperating to a student than " to ask bread and to be given a stone," to come to a book like this seeking facts and then only to find phrases. And as far as we can judge—for to give an absolute verdict would need a dozen specialists—Mr. Stuart Jones, while writing with a skill which makes it easy, and often delightful, to read his work consecutively, is always exact when you turn to him for information on a particular point. Take a single instance, which from its very minuteness is the more valuable as a text. Every schoolboy who has read the line (caementa demittit redemptor, Od. 3, i. 35j in which Horace describes the building of a villa right out into the sea, has probably translated eaemenia as "rubble," which is obviously nonsense, but here (p. 55) he will find what this." indestructible concrete "—just the stuff we use to-day in harbour works—exactly was, and how important a part this opus caementicium played in Roman building. Indeed, the whole chapter on " Architecture," which, as the subject demands, occupies a third of the volume, is remarkable throughout not only for a large grasp of the subject as a whole, but also for that careful and expert know- ledge of details which is, perhaps, even still more necessary to the student, while we may add somewhat incongruously that those whose interest is rather in human nature than in antiquities will find in the section on "Racing" five pages of singular fascination. Such a reference, no doubt, as " Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vi. 10048=Dessan, 5287," would hardly attract most readers of the Sportsman, and they probably never beard of C. Appuleius Diodes or his horse Pom- peianus. Yet this Diodes, whether he " made all the running " (occupavit et vicit is the phrase in inscriptions) or "snatched a victory on the post " (eripuit et vicit), was the most famous ,niliarius, or victor in one thousand contests, of his time, and "his winnings amounted to 35,863,120 sesterces." And there were many others not less famous in their day. For the racing world had its heroes then as now. Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona : there were great men before Fred Archer. And yet but for some curious archaeologist, some poor monk of Einsiedeln " who copied an epitaph in the ninth century A.D.." their very names would have been unknown.
If, however, Mr. Stuart Jones's work is chiefly designed for the student, Mr. Stobart frankly addresses himself to the general reader. Like its companion volume, The Glory that was Greece, which we lately noticed, its very title, The Grandeur that was Rome, almost challenges popularity, and indeed a history of Rome, which is contained in three hundred pages of large print, hardly admits any exact and accurate treat- ment of the subject. But Mr. Stobart would probably question whether such exactitude is even possible. "Rome is so vast a fact," there is so much to be known about it, and yet so much that must always remain obscure, that the utmost we can look for from any writer is a partial presentation of the theme, and such presentation will continually "vary with her various historians," whether ancient or modern. " Diodorus of Sicily," he writes in a passage of high interest, " was seeking mainly to flatter the claims of the Romans to a heroic past; Polybius . . . wrote Roman history to prove to his fellow Greeks his theory of the basis of political success; Livy was seeking a solace for the miseries of his own day in contemplating the virtues of an idealized past ; Tacitus, during an interval of mitigated despotism, strove to exhibit the crimes and follies Of autocracy," while in modern times " Edward Gibbon saw the empire from the standpoint of eighteenth-century liberalism and materialism ; Theodor Mommsen made Rome the setting for his Bismarckian Caesarism, and, finally, M. Boissier has enlivened her by peopling her streets with Parisians." And accordingly Mr. Stobart proceeds to paint a picture in his own way, which may fairly be said to be that of a very vigorous " impressionist." He selects what appeals to his own mind, devoting, for example, a third of the book to " Augustus " and "Augustan Rome," and neglects the rest, so that the last four centuries of the Empire are packed into an " Epilogue " of a dozen pages; but whatever appeals to him does so with a force and clearness that are reflected in Lis narrative. It is, no doubt, difficult for anyone who has read many other histories to judge how such a work as this would affect those who have not, but it would certainly, we
think, leave a very strong sense of the justness both of its title and of the motto which is set on its first page :—
"questa del Foro tno solitudino
ogni rumors vince, ogne gloria, e tutto the al mondo e civile, grande, augusto, egli a romano ancora."
And what, perhaps, can any historian do more? For, how ever easy it is to follow and understand Rome's earlier career of conquest, yet the Roman Empire is at once, we think, the greatest and least understood fact in history. In the first
century B.C. the Republic had closed amid anarchy, bloodshed, and corruption, while the picture of the next century as drawn
by a Tacitus or a Suetonius is one chiefly of intrigue and of scandal. Yet there is nothing more certain than that " from the accession of Augustus to the death of Antoninus Pius the world was enjoying one of its golden periods of prosperity." The term "Decline and Fall" is indeed, as applied to this period, unjustified, and Mr. Stobart rightly heads the admirable chapter which deals with it "The Growth of the Empire." For though at Rome there might be decadence and decay, throughout all the provincei there was an admirable order such as they were not to know again for long ages. Mr. Stobart attributes this to " the solidity of the imperial system as established by Augustus," and undoubtedly that great ruler—whom, however, "Ferrero regards as a feeble trickster "—did establish a system which "lasted in the West for just five centuries." But surely no "system," however excellent, can endure without men, and of the men who did the practical administrative work of the Roman Empire we know almost nothing. With the exception of here and there one like Agricola, their story is lost to us They have perished, these provincial governors, these builders of aqueducts, of roads, of bridges, these founders of modern civilization. But their works remain, and perhaps Mr. Stobart is right when he bids us look not to the historians but to the monuments if we would really get a true view of Roman "grandeur." And for that purpose at least nothing could be more serviceable than this handsome volume, for the numerous illustrations which adorn it set the evidence con. vincingly before the eyes.
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