Sa/Zistratus. By A. H. Gilkes. (Longmans and Co.)—This book is
written in the form of an autobiography, the story being told by a Greek who has been the companion of Hannibal, and tells in his old age the story of what he saw with him and with his Roman adversaries. Mr. Gilkes makes use, and that with no small literary skill, of some familiar passage in the history of the great struggle. Such is the crossing of the Rhone in the face of the Gallic host, one of the masterpieces of Hannibal's strategy ; such, again, is the famous interview between Scipio and the great Carthaginian, when he gave his well-known judgment as to the great Generals'of history. The style of the narrative is perhaps a little too formal. But then there is nothing harder than what Mr. Gilkes has here attempted, to write English, as if a Greek were speaking. The general literary merit of the book is great. It is the work of a scholar who has studied the period with care, and reads its meaning with no little insight. Of course we must remember that the author is not speaking in his own person, but he would probably maintain that the Greek's estimate of the weakness, as well as of the strength, of Roman character was not far from the truth. Here is an instance :—" It is strange, as I have always noted, that the Romans will accept any flattery and suspect nothing. They mostly themselves tell the truth ; but, I think, not because they love it, but because no Roman has the wit to invent a lie that any one would believe. And that is the reason that they think they hate lying." No intelligent boy who reads Kaltistratas will fail to learn as much about the time and the great actors in it as much reading of history could teach him.
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