In the "New Classical Library," Edited by Dr. Emil Reich
(Swan Sonnenachein and Co.), we have The Annals of Tacitus, Translated by Aubrey V. Symonds, B.A. (3s. 6d. net). Mr. Symonds gives us a very readable, and, as far as we have examined it, a faithful, rendering of the original. He is confronted with the dilemma which a translator of Tacitus cannot escape,—to be brief and obscure, or at the best harsh, or to lose in paraphrase his author's chief characteristic. In II. 39, where Libo implores the help of his influential friends, and is refused, 16 abnuentibus ctinctis, cum diverse, praetenderent, eadem forinidine," Mr: Symonds finds himself compelled to use for these seven words no less than twenty-five : "but he met with a general refusal, prompted in every case, notwithstanding the diversity of the excuses offered, by one and the same motive—fear."
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