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REV. JOHN SELBY WATSON, M.A.,

HEAD MASTER OF THE PROPRIETARY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, STOCKWELL.

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET,

COVENT GARDEN.

1889.

Ls 5.342.5

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

FROM THE LIBRARY OF

FRANK DYER CHESTER
JUNE 12, 1939

LONDON:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

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PREFACE.

In this volume are presented English Translations of the three Roman Historians, Sallust, Florus, and Velleius Paterculus.

"SALLUST," an eminent scholar once remarked to me, “it is more easy to dilute than to transmute.” It is hoped that in the following pages the reader will find Sallust's Latin transmuted into English without any unnecessary dilution.

Some minor liberties have been taken with his expressions, in order to avoid stiffness, and to represent the author fairly in an English dress; but none inconsistent with a faithful adherence to his sense.

passages the commentators References have been given

On all difficult or disputed have been carefully consulted. in the notes, wherever they appeared necessary, as well to the older critics, of whom Cortius is the chief, as to the more recent, among whom the principal are Gerlach, Kritz, and Dietsch.

All the Fragments of Sallust that can be of any interest to the English reader, have been translated; and that nothing might be wanting to render the work complete, versions of the spurious Epistles to Cæsar, which present a good imitation of Sallust's style, and of the Declamations which pass under the names of Sallust and Cicero, have been added.

The text at first intended to be followed was that of Cortius; but the readings given by later critics appeared often so much better, that they were adopted in preference; indeed, the present version approaches nearer to the text of Kritz than to that of any other editor.

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