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riching and refining your forms of expression. Thus, in the transfer into English, the frequent use of the participle is to be avoided and a clause may be substituted. Test each ablative absolute and if it denotes time, render by a clause with when; or if it denotes cause render by a clause with since, and so on. We must, however, vary the 'when' with after and the 'since' with because, etc. We will trans. late milite misso, 'when he had sent the soldier,' 'after he had sent, though he sent-,' 'on sending-,' 'because he sent―,' or otherwise, as variety of expression and the connection may require. The Latin sometimes drops words which are required in Eng. lish or inserts or repeats them contrary to our usage. Thus Caesar says duo itinera erant, quibus itineribus, where good English requires the omission of itineribus in the translation. The use of the demonstrative and relative pronoun and of the connectives in the Latin differs from the English. In all these cases the comprehensive rule for the translator is, while noting the structure of the Latin, to follow the English idiom. Particular words are also to be rendered by terms appropriate to their connection. Haec or hae rēs is not truly translated by the spiritless term, ‘these things,' but we will say 'these events, dangers, obstacles, accidents, advantages, means, supplies, plans' as we observe what kind of 'things, matters, or circumstances' is really meant.

6. Note the favorite forms of expression in Caesar and commit some of these to memory. Such memorized passages will be helpful in all your future course.

7. In the preparation of your lesson read aloud the Latin text, receiving the thought according to suggestion 4. You will thus not merely practice the pronunciation but the words will be more vividly fixed in the mind.

8. Employ the words used by Caesar in forming new sentences, either in conversation or in composition. This practice will be found a valuable aid in acquiring the ability to write or speak Latin.

9. Possess at least one of the works on Caesar mentioned in the 'References for Reading or in the Preface of this book and read it in connection with the particular part of the Commentaries assigned for your study.

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CAESAR AND HIS TIMES.

R. C.

Birth and Family.

On July 12, 102 B. C., was born Caius Julius Caesar, 1 destined to make for himself "the greatest name in history." The Julian gēns had a lofty lineage, and numbered a long line of distinguished sons. The branch to which Caesar belonged had been prominent in the Republic for more than a hundred years. A Caesar had been consul in 157, the uncle of Gaius Julius in 91, and still another of the family in 90. His grandfather and father, however, reached the praetorship only. The prestige of the family was increased by the marriage of Caesar's aunt to the great Marius. Aurelia, the mother of Caesar, belonged to a prominent plebeian family of the Aurelian gēns, the Cottas.

Education and Political Training.

Then

The year of Caesar's birth was signalized by the defeat of 2 the Germans by Marius at Aquae Sextiae. The greatest danger that had threatened Rome since Hannibal's invasion was averted, and Marius was the hero of the hour. followed years of "storm and stress" in the political world, during which Caesar was living a quiet home life under the careful discipline of his mother, Aurelia. She appears to have been a woman of strong character and to have exerted

a powerful influence over her son. His academic training, B. C 3 which was under the supervision of M. Antonius Gnipho, a learned Gaul, seems to have been of the conventional sort, and can hardly have been very stimulating or attractive to a mind as original as that of Caesar. He was, indeed, fortunate in having for his tutor a man of intellectual culture and courteous manners, instead of the customary slave who, we are informed by Plutarch, was usually a drunkard or a glutton, and unfit for any other occupation. Daily contact with such a man as Gnipho doubtless did much to develop that love of knowledge which made Caesar a learner all his life.

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The genesis of Caesar's political opinions can easily be traced. Brought up in a household of democratic sympathies, his earliest impressions were doubtless those of the greatness of his uncle Marius, the leader of the democracy. When the civil war broke out, he was already old enough to be familiar with its origin and meaning, and his political opinions crystallized rapidly while his relatives and friends were fleeing before Sulla, the aristocrat. The democratic bias thus given to his views was strengthened by reflection upon the relative titles of the two parties to the support of the Romans of his generation; and the two, bias and reflection, bred in him a sober conviction to which he was ever true. His zeal and promise were soon recognized by Marius, who made him flāmen diālis, or priest of Jupiter, at the age of fourteen. Soon after the death of his 88 father, Caesar broke off an engagement with a wealthy 84 heiress of equestrian rank, and deliberately identified himself with the Marian party by marrying Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, the dictator. It cannot be doubted that he was cognizant of the purposes of his father-in-law as the arbiter of the policy of the popular party.

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