THE GERMANIA AND AGRICOLA ́ OF TACITUS, WITH NOTES BY THE REV. PERCIVAL FROST, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO. AVE MARIA LANE; GEORGE BELL, FLEET STREET. PA6706 1861 PREFACE. I Do not think it an easy thing to write Notes to the Germania for the use of schoolboys, because the main interest of the book arises from the ethnological discussions springing out of it. How numerous and important these are may be seen by any one who looks at the size of Dr. Latham's edition of the work. In these questions, however, the younger students, for whose use this Edition is, by the very heading of the series, intended, can hardly be supposed to feel much interest. And yet one can scarcely leave them out altogether. I have, therefore, endeavoured to exercise a wise discretion in the matter, hoping to say neither too much nor too little. I have also done my best to explain points in which I have found, in my experience, boys always have difficulties, or, at all events,. are content to entertain vague and misty ideas. I have sometimes, therefore, spent many words, where a few only might seem necessary, and explained in the Notes matters for the elucidation of which I might have simply referred the reader to other books; only I have learned the unwillingness of boys to make use of such references, even when they have the books requisite. I have put together the main passages from other authors, Greek or Latin, wherein the chief knowledge of Germany and Britain, possessed by the ancients, is stored up; and the most interesting of these extracts are translated into English, as more easily catching the eye in running them over, and to induce younger readers to look at them, which they might not do at all, if they had to be read in a foreign and painful language. I ought to mention the books to which I am most indebted for help. They are Forbiger's 'Handbuch der alten Geographie,' v. 3rd; Dr. Latham's 'Germania;' Ritter's Tacitus;' Dr. Smith's 'Dictionaries;' and Wex's ' Agricola.' BRIGHTON, August 31st, 1861. |