PREFACE

IF the catalogues of colleges and universities can be relied upon-and over a hundred of them for the years 1895-1897 were examined-Juvenal is the only poet of the Empire who appears to be generally read. Martial, Lucan, Phaedrus, and Persius follow in the order named, but at a very considerable distance, while all others are practically excluded from the classical curriculum in the higher institutions of learning in England and America. The reasons for this undeserved neglect have been briefly pointed out in the preface to Vol. I, and need not be reiterated here.

While the primary object of this anthology is to render the literary masterpieces of the Empire generally accessible in adequately extensive and representative selections, it is designed to furnish at the same time a fairly complete survey of the entire literature within reasonable com

pass.

I have, therefore, not felt at liberty to omit Juvenal from this volume, or Curtius, Pliny the Younger, and Tacitus from the previous one, although these authors are universally read.

The selections themselves, though based upon the standard editions, have been carefully revised with the aid of such recent critical contributions as have been accessible to me. For the text of Manilius, I am indebted to Professor M. Bechert, who, with singular generosity, has not only placed at my disposal the proof - sheets of the first three books, which Professor J. P. Postgate kindly for