27 APRIL 1944, Page 18

S.P.Q.R.: The History and Social Life of Ancient Rome. By

Kennedy and White. (Macmillan. 4s.)

A Social History of Rome

S.P.Q.R.: The History and Social Life of Ancient Rome. By Kennedy and White. (Macmillan. 4s.) THIS book, Which is largely a rewriting of the author's recent Roman History, Life, and Literature goes a long way towards achieving its purpose of giving boys and-girls whose study of Latin ends with the School Certificate the knowledge and understanding of the social life and literature of Rome without which history cannot - be read intelligently. One of the chief difficulties in presenting such information is to make it alive and interesting. This tbe authors do, especially in the section on social life, where by the device of describing the day-to-day activities of a Roman boy an abundance of facts is so subtly and unobtrusively introduced that the reader learns them without being aware of it. In the sections on history, by keeping external separate from internal affairs, they make it easier to see a series of events as a whole than .wouki be possible if the two were treated concurrently. At the same time the inter-action between the two is made obvious by cross-references.

But whereas in the chapters on internal affairs interest in events that often seem remote and meaningless to Middle Form students is stimulated by the judicious use of modern parallels and by an attempt to show causes instead of merely giving facts, parts of those on external affairs are little more than a presentation of bare facts with no very obvious thread between them. A desire for brevity was presumably the cause of this, as of the telescoping of Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, who get only a passing mention, in the chapters on internal history. There are no major points of fact or interpretation that strike one as wrong here, but it is a surprise to find the old misleading description of populares as democrats repeated, and Pallas called " the a rationibus " instead of " the secre- tary a rationibus." Latin literature is dealt with concisely but adequately, and there is a short section on metre and a comprehensive one on mythology which should help to solve some of the difficulties of translation. Twelve illustrations, largely confined to the section on social life, are too few for a book which sets out to appeal to students at an age when pictures can often teach almost as much as words, but it is well supplied with maps and plans, has an adequate

index, and is printed in bold, clear type. J. K. ADAMS.