SELECT ORATIONS OF CICERO: WITH AN ENGLISH COMMENTARY, AND HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, AND LEGAL INDEXES. BY CHARLES ANTHON, LL.D., JAY-PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT LITERATURE IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE, AND RECTOR OF THOROUGHLY REVISED, CORRECTED, AND IMPROVED, BY GEORGE B. WHEELER, A.B., OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. LONDON: WILLIAM TEGG AND Co., 85, QUEEN STREET, 1856. [ATH] EDITOR'S PREFACE. iii THE present edition of Dr. Anthon's Cicero has undergone a careful revision; I have lessened very considerably the amount of actual translation, and have excluded all references to books which were not generally accessible; or those, the chief point of which was already included in the notes. I have filled up the space thus gained by adding those observations, &c., the absence of which I considered a deficiency in the book. The amount of these additions may be at once ascertained, as all are included within brackets, thus []. Yet in very many instances I have altered the Doctor's language when it appeared to be too high-flown or turgid; to mark all such alterations would have been endless trouble, and would serve no useful purpose. I have persuaded the publisher to add to this Edition two Orations; that in Defence of Milo, and the Second Philippic; for the selected and original notes on these Orations I am solely responsible. I ought to add that, throughout, I have corrected the text to accordance with that of Orelli, except where I thought him to be in error. For all deviations from the common reading the reasons will be found in the foot-notes. DR. ANTHON'S PREFACE. IN forming the text of the present work, the editor has taken Ernesti's for his basis, but without any slavish adherence to the opinions and decisions of that distinguished commentator. Wherever a reading presented itself, calculated in the editor's opinion to throw more light on the meaning of Cicero than the received lection could impart, he has not hesitated to adopt it; and he flatters himself, that the result of his labours, in this department, will prove acceptable to all who are qualified to pass an opinion upon his efforts. The commentary, it will be perceived, is far from being a scanty one. If there be any author that stands in need of full and copious illustration, it undoubtedly is Cicero, in the orations which have come down to us. The train of thought must be continually laid open to the young scholar, to enable him to appreciate, in their full force and beauty, these brilliant memorials of other days; and the allusions, in which the orator is so fond of indulging, must be carefully and fully explained. Unless this be done, the speeches of Cicero become a dead letter, and time is only wasted in their perusal. |