any notes appended to Plutarch's text, while to those who
read merely "for the story," the notes prove both troublesome and
useless.
In deciding on the spelling of the Greek proper names, I have felt great
hesitation. To make a Greek speak of Juno or Minerva seems as absurd as
to make a Roman swear by Herakles or Ares. Yet both Greek and Roman
divinities are constantly mentioned. The only course that seemed to
avoid absolute absurdity appeared to me to be that which I have adopted,
namely to speak of the Greek divinities by their Greek, and the Latin
ones by their Latin names. In substituting a k for the more usual c, I
have followed the example of Grote, who in his History spells all Greek
names exactly as they are written, with the exception of those with
which we are so familiar in their Latin form as to render this
practically impossible; as for instance in the case of Cyprus or
Corinth, or of a name like Thucydides, where a return to the Greek k
would be both pedantic and unmeaning.
The text, which I have followed throughout, is that of C. Sintenis,
Leipsic, 1873.
AUBREY STEWART.
PREFACE TO THE CIVIL WARS OF ROME.[A]
[Footnote A: It has been thought desirable to give here Mr. Long's
preface to the lives published by him, under the title of "Civil Wars of
Rome." The lives will be found in subsequent volumes.]
Among the extant Lives of Plutarch there are thirteen Lives of Romans
which belong to the most eventful period of Roman history. They are the
lives of the brothers Tiberius and Caius Sempronius Gracchus, of Caius
Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Quintus Sertorius, Marcus Licinius
Crassus, Cneius Pompeius Magnus, Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger, Marcus
Tullius Cicero, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Caius Julius Caesar, Marcus
Junius Brutus, and Marcus Antonius. From the year of the death of
Tiberius Gracchus, B.C. 133, to the death of Marcus Antonius, B.C. 30, a
period of about one hundred years, the Roman State was convulsed by
revolutions which grew out of the contest between the People and the
Nobility, or rather, out of the contests between the leaders of these
two bodies. This period is the subject of Appian's History of the Civil
Wars of the Romans, in Five Books. Appian begins with the Tribunate and
legislation of Tiberius Gracchus, from which he proceeds to the
Dictatorship of Sulla, and then to the quarrels between Pompeius and
Caesar, and Caesar's Dictatorship and assassination. He then
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