Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/487

Rh second volume closed, down to the beginning of the first Punic war, written out for the Press ten or twelve years ago: and that this, along with the corrections made in the latter part of the original second volume, embracing the period from the promulgation of the Licinian laws to the dictatorship of Publilius, had been placed in the hands of Savigny, and was expected to be speedily published.

The third volume arrived -in this country some weeks back: but the editor's preface has not yet been received. When it appears it will be accompanied by an index which has perhaps been the cause of the delay. It will probably afford some interesting information about the state of the author's manuscripts, which appear to contain more than was at first expected. In the mean time a brief account of the contents of the third volume may be not unacceptable to many of our readers. It will be confined to two points: a state- ment of the relation in which that part of the volume which corresponds to the latter half of the second in the first edition, stands to the original: and an enumeration of the subjects peculiar to the new volume, which may enable the reader to judge of the proportion which the narrative bears to the antiquarian disquisitions.

The volume opens with a chapter on the Licinian bills. The original chapter on the same subject was interrupted by one on the agrarian institutions, which is now omitted for the reasons mentioned in Vol. II. p. 6l7 (Transl.) In the descrip- tion of the bills themselves, that relating to the domain is now placed second, instead of being preceded, as in ed. 1, by that concerning the Keepers of the Sibylline books, which is distinguished as a preparatory measure from the three prin- cipal bills, and is set in a new and a clearer light. The refu- tation of the vulgar story, which attributed the conduct of Licinius to the influence of female vanity, has been retouched and strengthened. The wisdom shown in the comprehensive character of his legislation is more distinctly pointed out : and the nature of the difficulties which he had to encounter, and of the causes that contributed to his success, is now for the first time fully and luminously explained. The advantages of the consular over the decemviral form of government for the inte- rest of the plebeians are also made more palpable. On the other