Evening star., 1931-12-26
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookIoper


drawn upon his scholarly knowledg'
and made good use Of a gift for bio
logical and geographical writing In /,
series of books on periods and charac
tiers of ancient history-"The Life ant
Times of Akhnaton," "A History OF th'
Pharaohs," "A Guide to the Antiquitie
lof Upper Egypt" "Wanderings in Ro
man Britain" "Wanderings in Aglo
Saxon Britain" 1.-The Grand Tour O
Norman England" THE Life and Times
of Cleopatra" Nero, Emperor of Rome,
and this Autumn THE Life and Time.
of Marc Antony" Mr.. Weigalls style il
that of the new" biography, very per
sonal, but not entirely given over Il
scandal, as are some writer's of tina
type of biographies. He holds some new
theories about the famous, romantic
Antony, chief among them that Anton,
and Cleopatra were married at festiva
at Samos in 80 BIC. and that he in.
tended to share with her the sover.
eighty Of the civilized world. He alsc
believes that Antony's defeat at the
battle Of Actium was due to a quarre
with Cleopatra the night before. which
so unnerved him that he thought onl,
Of reconciliation and turned his shiI
about to follow her briefly for that pur.
pose, intending to return Immediately tt
the battle. The time lost threw victory
to Octavian
The time covered by The Life anc
Times Of Marc Antony" is from 1874
BIC, when the Gracchi were initiatins
soclallstlc measures at Rome, to 80 B C.
when Antony died by his own sword
The facts dealt with are those of all
our school ancient history text books
ana we are SO familiar with them that
as we read we can see the black faced
type which marked the paragraph
headings in Myers Ancient History,
or some other of the same period-eg.
The Wanderings of Marius,' The Pro-
scriptions of Sulla,' The Abuses OF
Verres," Caesar, Crassus and Pompey,
Caesar Crosses the Rubicon" and Last
Struggle of the Republic at Philippi'
Yet the Interpretation is SO different
that we can sometimes hardly believe
we are reading of the classical heroes
OF our youth, of the Caesar of the com.
mentaries,' the Caesar of the ora
tions," or even the Catiline of Sallust
Certainly Caesar is not exactly the loft,
colossus of Shakespeare's Julius
Caesar" nor Antony the entirely ro-
mantle figure of Shakespeare's Antony
ana Cleopatra" though in his case the
resemblance Is closer. The most in
teresting things in the book are the
interpretations of the historic events
the vivid details, which most of the
histories OF ancient times condense OF
emit, and the characterizations of the
great personages Of the period. The
facts Of the historic story, most of the
intimate details, and even many of the
interpretatlons are drawn from as orig
lnal sources as exist, such as Apoian
Cicero, Diodorus, Florus, Plutarch, Sal
lust. Valerius MaXimus, Velleius Pater-
culus, Suetonius, Eutropius, Juvenal
Martial and many others.
4
In THE Life and Times of Marc
Antony" Caesar appears in hts youth
as "curled and scented young fop sc
overdressed and effeminate in appear.
ance that nobody could then accuse him
OF being supporter of the rough
proletariat, or a menace to the aristo-
cratic party whose most exaggerated
manners he emulated" Mr.. Weigal]
finds pathos in the relations of Caesar
and BrutuS. "Brutus was a man whose
character puzzled Antony; but Caesar
believing him to be his son, would hear
no word against him. There are not
many incidents in Caesars life, no,
temperamental passage, which inspire
In us any sense of sympathetic sorrow
on his account; he was so self -suffi-
cient. so fortunate, so absorbed in the
pursuit of his ambitions, that he makes
little demand upon our compassion
Yet the story of his relationship to Bru.
tuS is pltlful. He loved Brutus
but Brutus disapproved of him, anc
therein lay the dictator's tragedy.
BrutuS was anxious to disavoW, in public
at any rate, his relationship to the die
tator. for he could not tolerate the
thought that he was illegitimate and
had no right to his name, and he
wished also to clear his mothers repu.
tation of aspersions which had so Ions
been cast upon it." Cicero. limitlessly
vain and desperately anxious always tc
be on the winning side in the upheavals
OF the times, was, according to the evi-
cence offered by Mr.. Weigall, violent in
his hatreds, without sense of justice
and ridiculous in his frantic rushings
about in search of preferment anc
power. Cicero it will be recalled hac
Tor long been on bad terms with his
wife, Terentia, who was cold, critica
woman, incapacitated, it would seem
by sheer honesty from responding as he
would wish to his herofcs and his emo.
tlonal outburSts. One feels that the
years had opened her eyes to his short.
comings, and that she had no bouquet.
now to lay upon the altar of his vanity
But to Cicero f1attery was the breath ot
NE Antony is a favorite with Mr.
Weigall. He says of him: His nature
was very lovable. His generous ways,
writes Plutarch, his open and Lavish
hand in gifts and kindnesses to hi:
friends did a great deal for him in hi.
Ilrst advance to power, and, after hs
nad become great, long maintained hi.
fortunes when thousand follies were
hastenlng their overthrow In love af.
fairs also he was very agreeable. gain.
ing many friends by the assistance ht
gave them in theirs, and taking othel
peoples jokes about his own with gooe
numor. What might seem to some very
nsupportable-his showing off, his fun
ms drinking in public, his sitting dowr
with common soldiers while they were
having their meals, or eating, as he
stood, off their tables-made him, later
the delight and pleasure of the army.
He was tender hearted, senti-
mental and somewhat chivalrouS youne
man; and, as the following pages vii
reveal, he stands out as one of the few
notable vehicles of occasional humane
dealing In savage and intensely crue
cSe. h1o slIlpllClIy, however, Is the
feature of his character which mos
1ully wins him our sympathy"
X X x
Without "debunking" one of our ma.
t1onal heroes, Joseph Hergesheimer il
his Sheridan: Military Narrative, >
dispels some of the romantic glamour
attaching to "Sheridan's Ride" He i.
inclined to believe from the evidence
that Sheridan moved rather slowly or
that occasion and that his militar,
tactics were not of the best. He EN-.
phasizes the fact that Sheridan's mill.
tary fame is based on three achieve.
ments-the taking of Missionary Ridge
in 1858; the devastation of the Shen.
andoah Valley in 1864, and the obstruc.
ton of Lees retreat in 1865. so thai
Lee was forced to surrender to Grant
Sheridan was a favorite with Grant
Mr.. Hergesheimer says, who gave hin
his opportunities. Sheridan, though
quiet, and "unimpressive," won anc
held the devotion of his men.
X
Grace Hegger Lewis. first wife o