New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-02-22
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE HISTORY OF ROME. by TnEoDoR M9 9S,s,',ns
Translated With tue authors SANCTION ana
by DIR. Ieonhard SchmitB New edition. in four vol
umes. Vols, and IL. Crown svo' PIP $685. 'S0'
Charles Scrbner Co.
The reputation of this work both in Germany and
England is SO well established that it is somewhat
surprising we have had no earlier reprint OF Dr.
Dicksons excellent translation published originally
in 1861 Any lengthy criticism would be supcriuous
To readers who need to be informed we may say, IN
the words of DR.. Sehmitz that the work, though
the production of a man of most profound and eh-
fppsiye learning is not much designed
for the professional scholar as for intelligent readers
Of all classes" It's distinguishing excellence Is inc
clear and consecutive view which 1t presents
of the character and condition of the Roman Co"'-
monwealth at each successive stage of its develop
mept and its decline. The State and the people
their component elements and their reciprocal lnhu-
ence-are ALWAYS in the foreground; not what TIE
Romans did, but what they WTc, Is the prihcipai Cd
ject of inquiry. In other words the narrative Oh
events is subOrdinated to the exposition OF causes
and results Military operations are more succnctly
related than in any work OF equal length on the
same subject, while institutions, laws ideas, man
ners arts commerce, agriculture, and kindred mat
ters are illustrated by all the which CLASH
cal literature and critical study can afford Thus we
have, for example vivid delineation of the faith
of conception and at the time ITS deepy-rooted
earncstness its rigid and stationary character; Its
inability TO excite that mysterious awe for which the
human heart has always q longing; its indifference
IL ideal elements accompanied by practical and
unitarian tendency; the profound moral impulse
which lay at its base its lack of artistic beauty and
of profound specuation its consequent tendency 10
sink INTO insimdity and dullness, into an anxious
and dreary round of ceremonies The striking con-
trast which it thus presented to the religious ideas
and systems of the Greeks is ascrbed by DR.. Momm-
sen TO the fact that Latum did not, and that Heas
did during the of growth, come into contact
with the East. No people earth was great enough
by its own efforts" he remarks to create either the
marvel of Hellenic or at a later period, the marvel
of Christian culture; history has produced these
most brilliant results only where the ideas of
Annaic religion have sunk into an lndo-Germanic
SOIL But if for this Hellas Is the prototype
of purely human Latium is not less for all time the
prototype of national development"
Unlike Niebuhr and German investigators in gen
eral Mommsen gives the results of research with
out the process, never entanges us i'll maze OF de-
tails and always writes in a teTse aud vigorous
style. Many of his judgments and cOnjectures are
open to question, and may hereafter be set aside;
but at the present stage of our knowledge OF an
tquity his work is indispensable to the student and
invaluable TO all who wish TO have the latest results
of scholarship applied to Roman history i'll com
pact Ineligible and interesting form.