The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

Bibliotheca Clanica.

M. Tullii Cioeronis

Orationes. With a Commentary by George
Long. Vol. 111. London : Whittaker.
Ma. Loire's services to the cause of classical
literature are too well known to the learned
world to demand any encomium from us. His
popular expositions of Roman law in the
" Dictionary of Antiquities " are not likely to
be surpassed in our own day ; awl the scholar.
ship displayed by him in the two former
volumes of the " Bibliotheca Classics" is cer-
tainly sufficient to induce all schoolmasters or
classical instructors to consider him a perfectly
safe guide. He does not aim at being
original on points of critical scholarship ; but
his usual plan is to review the conflicting
opinions of the two or three most distin-
guished scholars who have written on ), ny
passage, and then to pronounce which in his
opinion is the soundest view. His judgments
on such occasions are generally characterised
by uncommon clearness, force, and common
sense. The few original decisions which he
enunciates are distinguished by the same
qualities; and the possession of these cannot
fail to secure him, among all the fluctua-
tions of opinion, a high place among classical
editors. It is, however, on questions of
Roman law that his remarks will be found
most valuable. To read the " Verres " with the
aid of his admirable notes and appendices
was a great and novel pleasure. The whole
Roman system was brought so vividly before
our eyes, and intricate questions affecting
most intimately the aspect of their daily life
so cleverly unravelled and elucidated. Mr.
Long is always on these questions definite.
He always has a view, whether right or wrong,
which is whole and perfectly intelligible.
He always enables us to read on without the
uneasy sensation of having left an uncon-
quered difficulty in our rear.
The present volume does not afford Mr.
Long quite so many opportunities for the dis-
play of his peculiar powers as the " Verres." It
contains—" The Orations against Catiline,"
" Pro Murena," " Pro Sulla," " Pro Archie,"
" Pro Valerio Flacco," " Quum Senatui Gratias
Egit," " Quum Populo Gratias Egit," "Do
Demo Sus," "De Haruspicum Responsis,"
" Pro Sestio." There is however a considerable
amount of legal lore scattered through the
notes, and in this respect Mr. Long displays
the same industry and ability as ever.

We fear, however, we detect in this third
volume some symptoms of Mr. Long having
succumbed to that snare of all annotators—.
the habit of garrulity. It contaius a great hum

810

ber of long notes upon various passages, many
of which are feeble, and many irrelevant. In
the sixth chapter of the first oration against
Catiline, Cicero says, "Sceleri (quum scias) ac
furori tuo non mentem aliquam aut timorem
sed fortunam populi Romani obstitisse ?"
On this obviously rhetorical and commonplace
use of the word fortuna, Mr. Long gives us a
note of two columns, with quotations from
Aleman, Plutarch, and Machiavelli, to explain
what the word means.

In the ninth chapter of the fourth against
Catiline, Cicero speaks in the most casual
manner of the union which he had effected
between the Knights and the Senate. AU he
says is this :—" Neque ulla profecto tanta
" vis reperietur qua conjunctionein vestram
" equitumque Roma.norum et tantam eonspi-
" rationem bonorum (minium confringere et
" labefactare possit." On this passage we
have a note of three columns, setting forth
the whole history of the Publicuni and Nego-
tiatores, and the position of the moneyed classes
in the Roman world, all fortified at the end
by a quotation from St. Mathew about the
parable of the sower. Now, this is all very
good, but we cannot see that this was the
place to introduce it. In the " Verres," or in
certain of Cicero's letters, the disquisition
would be well timed ; but, placed where it is,
it is rather an encumbrance than an aid.
In the notes on the " Pro M ure na," we have
no less than four columns on the stoic philo-
sophy, which—Mr. Long must excuse us for
saying—throw very little light upon the
subject.

He is also, we think, too fond of indulging
in political disquisitions. His reflections are
not so peculiarly profound that he need go so
far out of his way to utter them. The notes
on the forty-seventh and sixty-fifth chapters of
the " Pro Sestio" are examples of what we mean,
and the student will doubtless notice many
others for himself, as he goes through the
volume, which could well be spared.
In the fourth oration against Catiline, Cicero
discusses the propriety of capital punishment,
and says that certain persons understood
" mortem a diis immortalibus non esse sup-
" plicii cause constitutam, sed aut necessit a-
" tern naturie aut laborurn ac miseriarurn
" quietein esse." On this Mr. Long has a very
long note, which, though we cannot think it
opportune, is certainly ingenious. lie seeks
to prove that death itself is no punishment,
but only the apprehension of death. Why
not, therefore, protract the apprehension as
much as possible ? There is force in this
argument, though it is not this to which
Cicero was alluding, but rather to the opinion
of philosophers, that death was a good, and
not an evil, and on that account not to be
awarded to criminals like Catiline.

Such faults as we have found are but slight
blemishes in this very useful edition of Cicero.
He was so many-sided a man that no one
editor can do him full justice. But we may
hope for a creditable English work at Mr.
Long's hands, which will possess certain dis-
tinct and acknowledged merits, and be re-
ceived by the scholars of all countries as an
authority upon given points.

First Footsteps in East Africa ; or, an Explora-
tion of Horan By R. F. Burton, Bombay
Army. London : Longmans.
WE have recently directed attention to nar-
ratives of three distinct expeditions into the
interior of Africa from widely distant points
of the coast. Mr. Hamilton, on the northern
shore, penetrated from Grennali (the ancient
Cyrene) to Sywah, Damanhour, and Cairo ;
Mr. Anderssou, from the south, reached Luke
Ngami, and furnished a valuable account
of the surrounding country ; while the explor-
ing expedition of the Plevul, under Dr. Baikie,
successfully ascended the eastern branch of
the Niger, far beyond the point reached by
previous explorers, and connected the stream
known as the Tsadda, or Chadda (so loose is
the orthography of African proper names),
with the Ilinue, crossed by Dr. Barth iu 1851,
and issuing, as there is every reason to sup-
pose, from Lake Tchad. Besides these narra-
tives, we have noticed the extremely useful
and intelligent work of Mr. Wilson, tho Arne.