COLLEGE SERIES OF LATIN AUTHORS EDITED BY CLEMENT LAWRENCE SMITH AND TRACY PECK LIVY. BOOKS I. AND II. GREENOUGH ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY CLEMENT L. SMITH AND TRACY PECK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 832.4 The Athenæum Press PREFACE. PA 6452 Bl 1891 THE editor holds, as he has often said elsewhere, that the essential object of studying Latin is to learn to read Latin with readiness and accuracy; that the proper method of learning to read is to try to read, in the form and the order in which the author presents his ideas and conceptions, and with as little translation into the vernacular as possible. This is especially true of Livy, who is a professional raconteur, always aiming to produce a graphic effect on the mind of his reader. This book is accordingly edited with a view to that object and that method. Discussions of historical and grammatical points have been made subordinate to the presentation of Livy's exact ideas as they lay in his mind, and the precise order in which in their parts and their totality he intended to present them. The teacher as well as the pupil will perhaps miss some historical and grammatical lore and many translations which they have become accustomed to associate with classical studies, but which the editor has purposely omitted. Yet in compensation it is hoped that both will be led to a better knowledge of the author and of the Latin language than they would get by following the customary method of exhaustive comment on irrelevant topics. |