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COPYRIGHT BY

ALBERT HARKNESS,

1878.

MA. 27 1925

HERT

H23p

PREFACE.

THE work now offered to the public presents in a single volume a course of study in Latin Prose Authors, sufficiently extended to meet the requisites for admission. to any American college. It contains four books of Cæsar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, the whole of Sallust's Catiline, and eight orations of Cicero. To the Latin text are added Notes, Illustrations, and a Special Dictionary, making the volume comparatively complete in itself. For the benefit, however, of those who prefer to have the different authors in separate volumes, the editions of Cæsar, Sallust, and Cicero, already issued in this series, will continue to be published.

The present work is intended to follow the Latin Reader. It accordingly assumes that the student is. already familiar with the regular forms and the general principles of the language; that he has acquired, by actual experience, some facility in translating; and that he is now prepared to enter with success upon the consecutive study of a Latin classic. Starting from this point, it aims to conduct him to a higher knowledge of the power and use of the Latin tongue, and to introduce him to an appreciative study of a standard literary work.

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The Notes are intended to guide the faithful efforts of the student, and to prepare him for that course of direct instruction and illustration which belongs exclusively to the teacher. They aim to furnish him such special aid as will enable him to surmount real and untried difficulties of construction and idiom, and such collateral information upon Roman manners and customs, upon Roman history and life, as will enable him to understand the stirring events recorded in the Commentaries, and to appreciate and enjoy the masterpieces of Roman eloquence presented in the orations of Cicero. They are arranged topically in such a manner as to keep the general scope of thought as constantly as possible before the mind of the student. It is hoped that this feature of the work will aid the instructor in his efforts to interest his pupils, and to develop in them habits of thought and of critical study.

The Text is the result of a careful collation of the several editions most approved by European scholars. It is based, however, chiefly upon the critical labors of Schneider, Kraner, Nipperdey, Dietsch, Halm, and Klotz.

The Dictionary has been prepared mainly by Mr. Edward H. Cutler, the accomplished Principal of the Classical Department of the Providence High School, and bears the marks of his critical accuracy and sound practical judgment.

The Illustrations, taken from Forsyth's "Life of Cicero," will, it is hoped, be found both interesting and instructive.

In the preparation of every part of the work, it has

been the aim of the editor to make the interests of the student paramount to all other considerations. While, therefore, he has resorted freely to the rich stores which European learning has collected for the critical study of our authors, he has endeavored to admit into his pages only such information as may be made serviceable in the actual work of the class-room.

In conclusion, the editor desires to make his grateful acknowledgments to the classical instructors throughout the country who have received his previous works with such marked favor, and have used them with such fidelity and skill. To their hands this volume is now respectfully committed.

BROWN UNIVERSITY, June, 1878.

A. HARKNESS.

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