The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879Various
History
The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879
Various
Arts -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals
One of the most useful volumes for classical students which has seen the
light this year is the solid collection of _Specimens of Roman
Literature, illustrative of Roman Thought and Style_, edited by Messrs.
Cruttwell and Banton, of Bradfield College, and published by C. Griffin
and Co. Mr. Cruttwell is creditably known for his compendious History of
Roman Literature, and it is a happy afterthought of himself and his
composition-master to supplement that manual by the present collection
of extracts from Latin prose and poetry, designed as models for
composition, samples to be learnt by rote, and exercises in unseen
translation. The work contains above 900 passages, illustrative (1) of
Roman thought in the fields of religion, philosophy, art, and letters;
and (2) of Roman style, from the earliest date to the times of the
Antonines. Edited of necessity, by reason of their bulk, sans note or
comment, these selections are availably grouped in a preliminary
synopsis, happily headed with descriptive and apposite English titles,
and further adapted to English reference by an index of authors classed
in their periods, and another of subjects and titles of passages. It is
hard to conceive a completer or handier repertory of specimens of Latin
thought and style, and it is but fair to add that no small proportion of
the contents is comparatively novel and unhackneyed, a boon at the same
time to the exhausted composition tutor and to the acquisition-seeking,
wideawake pupil. For example, among descriptions selected in
illustration of style, we come upon passages from Ennius, Pacuvius, and
Accius, preserved in Cicero's De Divinatione and De Naturâ Deorum,
followed by epigrams of those elder poets, Valerius Œdituus, Porcius
Licinus, and Quintus Lutatius Catulus, embalmed in the antiquarian pages
of Aulus Gellius. The literature of Roman agriculture is represented (§§
31-4) by specimens of Varro de Re Rusticâ, directing how to choose the
best oxen for draught, or slaves for farm work; how to make a duck-pond,
or prepare a snail-bed; as well as of Columella and, of course, Virgil.
Pliny's natural history is taxed largely for characteristic
contributions: the letters of his nephew, as well as of Seneca and
Cicero, for epistolary style, as well as for philosophy, religious
views, and the like. Lucretius and Catullus are excellently represented:
as in the field of Roman drama are Plautus and Terence, with fragments
of elder playwrights. Nor is scant justice done to the purely Roman
field of satire, as is seen in apt extracts from Horace, Juvenal, and
Persius, whilst a happy selection is made of producible specimens of
Petronius. Even Roman parody is not overlooked, nor yet an insight into
Roman gastronomy. In fact, we know not where to turn for defaults in the
presence of such assiduous and various compilations. Here and there may
be detected careless printers' errors, such as _Tar_ for _Ter_. (the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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