Two years later, the commentary of Rev. Percival Frost was published in London, as one of the volumes of the "Bibliotheca Classica." This contains in the Preliminary Remarks an interesting discussion of the trustworthiness of Tacitus as an historian and of his other qualities as a writer, which are summed up in characterizing him as "picturesque in narrative, forcible in expression, and profound in reflection." This edition has also a considerable collection of words and constructions peculiar to this author or his age, or found elsewhere only in the poets, which are grouped together for examination and comparison. The comments on the text, quite limited in extent, are mainly upon the subject-matter, explanatory of allusions to personages, events, customs, etc.

Of very much the same character are the annotations in the "Annals of Tacitus," edited by G. O. Holbrooke, Professor of Latin in Trinity College, Hartford, pp. 523, Macmillan & Co., London, 1882. With slight variations this edition follows the text of Halm (Leipsic, 1877), and the notes are based on a careful consultation throughout of the standard critical works upon Tacitus, from Lipsius down. The numerous references to Madvig's and Roby's Latin Grammars, the maps of the empire and of Rome, Germany, and Campania, and the abridgment of Draeger's “Peculiarities of the Language and Style of Tacitus" add not a little to the value of this commentary.

The work of Furneaux, as it is the most recent, is also by far the ablest, and will be, when finished by the publication of the second volume, the most complete and the most profitable for study of all these treatises expository of Tacitus' "Annals."

Some idea of the character of the Introduction may be given by even a mere enumeration of the topics of the nine "chapters," or separate essays, which compose it. These treat in succession of the life and works of Tacitus, the genuineness of the "Annals," the sources of information open to the author and their probable value, the use made by him of his materials and the influence of his ideas and opinions on his treatment of history, the constitution of the early principate, the general administra tion and condition of the Roman world at the death of Augustus and during the principate of Tiberius, the estimate in Tacitus of the character and personal government of Tiberius, and the genealogy of the family of Augustus and of the Claudian Cæsars.

It is unnecessary to say that all these are points of exceeding interest and importance to any who are investigating the history of the first Christian century as well as to students of Latin literature.

Nearly all the chapter on "the syntax and style of Tacitus with especial reference to the 'Annals,"" covering thirty-two pages, the editor has derived, as he tells us, from "the exhaustive and no less concise treatise of Dr. Draeger into which are also gathered up the chief results of the labors of Döderlein, Bötticher, Roth, and others on this subject;" and that statement is certainly a sufficient guarantee of its superior value.

Furneaux adopts the text of Halm, preferring it to that of Ritter or even Nipperdey, as nearer to the manuscript, and prefixes to each book a full summary of its contents.

Confidence in the exposition he has given of the text is awakened at the outset by the assurance that "the whole commentary has been mainly drawn up from the abundant material collected by so many predecessors, among the earlier of whom those most used have been Walther and the

valuable edition of Ruperti, in which all the excursus of Lipsius and the chief results of the labor of other commentators down to his date are contained, while among later editors, those most constantly consulted have been Ritter, Orelli, Draeger, and Nipperdey." And this confidence is strengthened by the editor's use of such special works bearing on the criticism and interpretation of the text as Bötticher's "Lexicon Taciteum," that part of the complete and exhaustive new "Lexicon Taciteum" of Gerber and Greef which has been published, and in illustration of the subject-matter of such authorities as Mommsen's "Römisches Staatsrecht," Marquardt's "Römische Staatsverwaltung," Friedlaender's "Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms," and Merivale's "History of the Romans under the Empire."

Of all these helps to the comprehension of this most difficult of Latin authors, Furneaux has certainly made a judicious and scholarly use. His commentary is not a collection of extracts from them, nor a mere digest of their opinions or statements; but it gives the results of his own independent study alike of the text itself, of the various views of its different expounders, and of all the best sources of information upon the history and antiquities of the time, in a clear and concise form.

As an evidence of the painstaking thoroughness with which he examines every point requiring consideration, and of his fair and impartial treatment of different judgments upon the same question, may be cited the paragraph preliminary to his discussion of "the estimate in Tacitus of the character and personal government of Tiberius :

"Several of the works on this subject are mentioned by Nipperdey, to whose list of various judgments may be added the vigorous defense of Tiberius by Professor Beesly (Catiline, Clodius, and Tiberius,' London, 1878), the more modified praise in M. Duruy's History, the more unfavorable view taken by M. Boissier in his work 'L'Opposition sous les Césars' (especially ch. 6, on the delators), and the unmeasured invective of Comte Champagny (Les Césars'). "Many obligations, not easy to specify in their places, must be here acknowledged to several of these works; but my chief endeavor has been to give an independent judgment on the facts and interpretations of facts contained in Tacitus and other original authorities."

Remarking that Tacitus would undoubtedly wish his readers to take as his most deliberate judgment on Tiberius the summary at the end of the Sixth Book (ch. LI. 5), where his life is marked out into [five] periods, showing a gradual moral deterioration, affecting both his private habits and personal government, Furneaux proceeds to a critical and searching examination of all that is on record of the life of Tiberius, public and private, including the motives imputed to him by ancient historians.

The result at which the critic arrives is that "the stages and periods of change noted by Tacitus can be on the whole made out; though we should consider the explanation put into the mouth of Arruntius, that the character of Tiberius had been thrown off its balance by the force of despotism,' to be nearer the truth than the theory adopted by the historian as his own, that of a true character asserting itself by slow degrees against the disguise of hypocrisy."

Perhaps this is the most satisfactory decision that can be reached as to this difficult historical problem, unless we prefer to remain content with the negative conclusion of Merivale: "While in the ample gallery of

full-length portraits which Roman history has given us between Cæsar and Vespasian Tacitus' painting of Tiberius undoubtedly displays the greatest genius in character delineation, the accuracy of the likeness is a matter of dispute which can never be settled."

E. P. Crowell.

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ERRATA.

Page 124, line 32, for in read is.
Page 237, line 7, for foes read folds.
Page 269, line 36, omit in.

Page 429, foot-note, for 24 read 20.

Page 429, foot-note, for ch. iv., read ch. iii.

Page 442, foot-note, for σωθήσνοται read σωθήσονται ; for αληθειας, ἀληθείας. Page 533, line 25, and passim, for Garucci read Garrucci.

Page 533, line 27, for Bulletino read Bullettino.

Page 539, foot-note, for Bulletino read Bullettino.