also to the more advanced student; and by the illustration of allusions to ancient customs, and the occasional collation of the statements of other historians, to elucidate the exact meaning and connection. In the first two books it was frequently necessary to enter into a criticism upon the traditional nature of the early history of Rome; and in doing this, we have endeavoured, on the one hand, to treat with due regard the ingenious and poetical legends with which that history abounds; and on the other, to extract from them germs of truth, and state the real origin of the Roman state, and of its wondrous development.

With regard to orthography, we refer to our Grammar, where we have stated the results found by a careful comparison of the forms and rules given by the ancient grammarians with the practice in the most trustworthy manuscripts. When a reference is made merely to Gram., Dr Schmitz's Latin Grammar, prepared for the present series, is the one alluded to.

The

Livy's whole work consisted of one hundred and forty-two books, divided-whether by the author himself or his transcribers we know not-into decades, or sections of ten books each. great size of the work rendered complete copies of it very rare, and consequently very dear, in the later ages of antiquity; and to this circumstance we must chiefly attribute the disappearance of such copies. No single manuscript of Livy in existence contains even all those books which we possess. The first half of the fifth decade (books xli.-xlv.) is found only in one manuscript, which was discovered in the Benedictine Monastery at Lorsch near Worms (Codex Laurishamensis'), and is now deposited in the Imperial Library at Vienna. The fourth decade, too—a manuscript of Mainz being lost-is found, the greater part of it at least (books xxxi.-xxxviii.), only in a Bamberg manuscript. Of the first two existing decades (books i.—x. and xxi.-xxx.) there is a considerable number of manuscripts, few of them, however, old and good. The best manuscripts of the first decade are one at Florence (Codex Mediceus'), one at Paris (No. 5725), and one at Oxford (Codex Harleianus'). The text of the third decade depends principally upon the Paris manuscript, which belonged to the learned Du Puy, and was hence called 'Codex Puteanus;' upon the Codex Colbertinus,' No. 5731 of the Paris Library; and upon a 'Codex Mediceus' at Florence, different from that which contains the first decade. Ever since these or similar manuscripts, now lost, were made use of by the early editors, the text of Livy has by degrees been greatly improved both in regard to completeness and accuracy. As, however, even the best manuscripts are disfigured by numerous and varied errors, the text of our author presented, and still presents to the learned, a rich field for the exercise and

display of their knowledge, both of history and of language, in acute conjectures.* The great edition of Livy, into which all the discoveries and corrections made previous to the time of its publication (1738–46) were incorporated, is that of Arnold Drakenborch. There are in it, besides the careful and excellent notes of Drakenborch himself, the remarks of the former critics, particularly C. Sigonius and J. F. Gronow (Gronovius). A part of the work, too, is occupied by the supplements of John Freinsheim. These were intended to supply the place of the lost books of Livy, and were composed in Latin, according to those epitomae of all the books which have come down to us under the name of the historian Florus, the materials being collected with uncommon diligence from other ancient writers. During the century which has elapsed since the publication of Drakenborch's most meritorious edition, very many corrections of the text of Livy have been made by modern critics, such as Stroth, Walch, Kreyssig, Bekker, and Alschefski.

In the year 1773 there was discovered in the Vatican Library at Rome a fragment of the ninety-first book, containing an account of the events of the war in Spain during the year 76 B.C.; and little more than a year ago there was found in Berlin a fragment of the ninety-eighth book, which, it is to be lamented, consists of but a few mutilated lines. The frequently-excited hope, however, of finding a complete copy of Livy's work, either in Latin or in an Oriental translation, has not as yet been fulfilled. C. G. ZUMPT.

BERLIN, March 1849.

*In some manuscripts of the first decade, particularly in the Codex Mediceus,' there is subscribed at the end of each book, 'I, Nicomachus, have at Henna (in Sicily) corrected (emendavi) these books according to an older copy.' In all probability this Nicomachus lived about the end of the fourth century after Christ. Besides this note there is added, 'I, Victorianus, have corrected (emendabam) these books for the domini Symmachi' (a father and son, who flourished about the year 400 after Christ). Though these notes have come into the existing manuscripts only by transcription from the more ancient one, still they give us sufficiently certain evidence of the fact that the text was corrected. Emendation, before the invention of printing, was in the highest degree necessary, and was effected either by professed grammarians, or at least by men of learning, the mere transcription being executed by scribes or calligraphers, who worked mechanically, without troubling their brains about what they were writing. A manuscript which had not been corrected was of course disfigured by many lapsus of the copyist, even though he had faithfully followed his original, or at least had not intentionally diverged from it. The celebrated Codex Puteanus' is a manuscript of this kind, beautifully written, but not revised by a learned reader. It is therefore justly considered to be faithful, but at the same time by no means free from errors.

† A parchment on which these lines occur, is a leaf of a lost manuscript of Livy, covered with another writing of a later date, and had been brought from Spain to Berlin.

INTRODUCTION.

the Roman historian, was born, according to Jerome's translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius,' in the second year of the 180th Olympiad - that is, 59 B. C., the same year in which the orator Messalla Corvinus was born; and died Olymp. 199,1-that is, A.D. 17, in which year also the poet Ovid died. Livy's native city was Patavium (now Padua), an ancient and considerable town of the Veneti, situated in Upper Italy, near the mouth of the river Padus (Po). The Veneti had been for a long time allies of the Roman people, and were confirmed in their fidelity to them by their common fear of the Gauls (in Gallia Cisalpina). In reward for this constancy they received, on the occasion of the Marsic or Social war, the Roman franchise. The law by which this privilege was conferred upon them was brought forward by the consul, Cn. Pompeius Strabo, father of Pompey the Great, and was consequently called lex Pompeia. It may be remarked that the Latin language was then already in use among the Veneti, particularly in their chief town, Patavium; and afterwards acquired such an ascendancy, that no information of the existence of a native Venetian language has come down to us. Livy was therefore born a Roman citizen, and educated in Latin. It may be a doubtful question whether the family of Livy had emigrated from Rome, where there was an ancient plebeian gens of that name, often mentioned in history, or whether a native Patavian family had assumed the Roman gentile name of 'Livius:' we believe the latter supposition to be the true one, since it was very common for such peregrini (persons not Roman citizens) as received the franchise to take the name of a Roman gens; and we know nothing of the settlement of a Roman colony in the ancient territory of the Veneti.

Livy, as every allusion leads us to believe, was born of an equestrian family; that is, of a family which belonged to the class holding the middle station between the senators and the common people; not possessing the prerogatives of the former, but distinguished from the latter by opulence and free birth for three generations. After finishing his studies in rhetoric and philosophy, he might either have entered into public life at Rome, by plunging into a political career, or become a teacher of rhetoric. But we know nothing of his devoting himself to either the one profession or the other. He seems rather, being possessed of an easy independence, to have remained in a private station, busied with his own studies; to have married, and become the father of a family; and to have lived principally at Rome, on terms of intimacy with the most accomplished men of that capital. He himself was a much-prized member of the small but brilliant circle that Augustus had drawn around him; and it was his counsel which induced the emperor's grandson, Claudius-who was afterwards emperor to apply his attention to the writing of historical works. Livy's first literary productions were philosophical treatises, which were highly valued. His 'Dialogi' also, occupying a middle position between philosophy and history, were held in much esteem. He earned immortality, however, by the execution of a great and comprehensive work on the history of the Roman people, from the building of the city till the year 9 B. C., in which year Claudius Drusus-the stepson of Augustus-after making a successful campaign against the Germans, and penetrating further into their country than any other Roman general had done, died on his march back into Gaul. The period, therefore, at which the history closed was one when the Roman eagles were still soaring triumphantly, and when the state was entirely free from intestine commotions, the constitution being well balanced between monarchical despotism and republican licentiousness. He might, perhaps, have carried on his history further for instance, till the death of Augustus, A.D. 14—but, besides other reasons to us unknown, by which he may have been induced to close it earlier, had he continued it to this point, he would then have had to describe a dark period, comprehending the failure of the plans formed by the Romans for the subjugation of Germany, and many sad presages of the coming reign of despotism at home. Whatever were his reasons, it is certain that he resolved to finish his work in 142 books,* with the year 9 B.C., though he lived till the fourth year of the reign of Tiberius ;

* Niebuhr (Lectures on Rom. Hist., vol. iii., p. lviii., 2d ed., Schmitz) expresses it as his opinion that, as there is an evident want of symmetry in Livy's work being comprehended in 142 books, the author probably intended to complete fifteen decades, but died before he could accomplish his object.