st
portion of a translation of Dr. Mommsen's 'Romische Geschichte,'
I am somewhat in the position of Albinus; who, when appealing to
his readers to pardon the imperfections of the Roman History which
he had written in indifferent Greek, was met by Cato with the
rejoinder that he was not compelled to write at all--that, if the
Amphictyonic Council had laid their commands on him, the case would
have been different--but that it was quite out of place to ask the
indulgence of his readers when his task had been self-imposed. I
may state, however, that I did not undertake this task, until
I had sought to ascertain whether it was likely to be taken up by
any one more qualified to do justice to it. When Dr. Mommsen's
work accidentally came into my hands some years after its first
appearance, and revived my interest in studies which I had long
laid aside for others more strictly professional, I had little doubt
that its merits would have already attracted sufficient attention
amidst the learned leisure of Oxford to induce some of her great
scholars to clothe it in an English dress. But it appeared on
inquiry that, while there was a great desire to see it translated,
and the purpose of translating it had been entertained in more
quarters than one, the projects had from various causes miscarried.
Mr. George Robertson published an excellent translation (to which,
so far as it goes, I desire to acknowledge my obligations) of the
introductory chapters on the early inhabitants of Italy; but other
studies and engagements did not permit him to proceed with it. I
accordingly requested and obtained Dr. Mommsen's permission to
translate his work.

"The translation has been prepared from the third edition of the
original, published in the spring of the present year at Berlin.
The sheets have been transmitted to Dr. Mommsen, who has kindly
communicated to me such suggestions as occurred to him. I have
thus been enabled, more especially in the first volume, to correct
those passages where I had misapprehended or failed to express the
author's meaning, and to incorporate in the English work various
additions and corrections which do not appear in the original.

"In executing the translation I have endeavoured to follow the original
as closely as is consistent with a due regard to the difference of
idiom. Many of our translations from the German are so literal as
to reproduce the very order of the German sentence, so that they
are, if