LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF ROME, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF BY B. G. NIEBUHR. EDITED BY DR. M. ISLER. TRANSLATED, WITH MANY ADDITIONS FROM MSS. BY DR. LEONHARD SCHMITZ, F.R.S.E., RECTOR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH. LONDON: TAYLOR AND WALTON, UPPER GOWER STREET; SOLD BY DEIGHTONS, CAMBRIDGE; AND PARKER, OXFORD. M.DCCC.XLVIII, PREFACE. WHEN in 1844 I published the Lectures of Niebuhr, embracing the History of Rome from the commencement of the first Punic war down to the death of Constantine, I entertained a strong hope that Niebuhr's friends in Germany would be roused to a sense of duty, and no longer withhold from the world his valuable relics in his own language. In that hope I was, for a time, disappointed; for no sooner were the Lectures published in this country than there appeared, at once, advertisements of two German translations of them. The idea of translating from English into German a work of which there existed in Germany numerous manuscripts containing the very words and expressions of Niebuhr, and which required only the careful and conscientious supervision of an editor, seemed to be a somewhat preposterous undertaking. If the Lectures were to be published in Germany, assuredly the German public had a right to expect that the exact language of the historian should be scrupulously preserved, which is an impossibility in a re-translation, in the execution of which, moreover, no use was to be made of the manuscript notes taken by the students during the delivery of the Lectures. Only one of the advertised translations, however, made its appearance; and that was more than enough, for it bore so many marks of carelessness, and displayed so flagrant a want of knowledge of the English language, that even the most moderate expectations were disappointed. As there was reason for believing that every succeeding volume of Niebuhr's Lectures which might appear in this country would meet with the same fate in Germany as the first two, and that an unpardonable wrong would thus be done to the memory of the author, M. Marcus Niebuhr, the son of the historian, and some of the more intimate friends and pupils of Niebuhr, issued an announcement, that they would forthwith set about preparing a German edition of all Niebuhr's Lectures, on the only principle that could secure for his memory the honour among his own countrymen to which it is so justly entitled. Thus the very circumstance which at first had seemed to thwart my hopes contributed in reality to their speedy realisation. The task of preparing the German Edition was undertaken by M. Marcus Niebuhr, Dr. Isler of Hamburg, and Professor Classen of Lübeck. My co-operation also was solicited, but other engagements prevented my accepting the honourable proposal; and it was finally arranged that I should undertake the Editorship in England of the whole Series of Lectures. The first volume, containing the Lectures on the History of Rome from the earliest times down to the commencement of the first Punic war, edited by Dr. Isler, appeared at Berlin in 1846. Of this a translation is now presented to the English public. As to the materials which the German editor has made use of, and the plan he has followed, I shall do best to let him speak for himself1. "The History 1 I do not think it necessary to give the entire Preface of the German editor, for a considerable portion of it is only a repetition of what I have stated in my Preface to the Lectures from the First Punic War to the Death of Constantine. of the Roman republic," he says, "is one of those few subjects on which Niebuhr gave two courses of Lectures in the University of Bonn, the first in the winter of 1826-7, and the second during the winter of 1828-9. In the summer of 1829, he lectured on the History of the Roman Emperors down to the overthrow of the Western Empire 2. In the course of 1826, he did not carry the History further than to the time of Sulla, but in many parts of it he entered more minutely into the criticism and analysis of the existing materials; and this circumstance prevented him from carrying the History as far down as in the later course of 1828. What is here presented to the reader, consists essentially of the later course of Lectures; but all that is of interest or importance in the earlier one of 1826 has been incorporated, wherever it seemed appropriate. This combination of the two courses of Lectures into one, though it does not always preserve the exact form and order in which Niebuhr related the History, yet does not contain a single idea, nay hardly a single word, which was not actually uttered by him. If this should be thought an arbitrary mode of proceeding, the editor takes the responsi 2 I take this opportunity of correcting a mistake into which I lately fell. As all the MSS. which I used when preparing the History of the Emperors for publication break off with the death of Constantine, I naturally imagined that Niebuhr never carried his Lectures further than that event. But Professor Vischer of Basle has directed my attention to the fact that Niebuhr did continue his Lectures down to the overthrow of the Western empire, as is stated in the Lebensnachrichten von B. G. Niebuhr, Vol. III. p. 290. The fact is, that at the close of the summer session of 1829, when most of the students left the University, Niebuhr had just come to the death of Constantine; but as some students still remained at Bonn, he continued to lecture to them, till he arrived at the point where he had proposed to stop.-Translator. |