Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/7



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researches into the languages, laws, and institutions of ancient Rome and Italy are now so well known and appreciated by the best scholars of this country, that it may seem presumptuous on my part to step forward for the purpose of introducing his work on Roman history to the English public. I should indeed have been glad to leave this duty to others, or have allowed the book to take its own chance, feeling quite sure that no words of mine are likely to attract readers, and that the work itself, in its English garb, will become as popular in this country as it is in the land of its birth. But several years ago, I was applied to by more than one enthusiastic admirer of Dr. Mommsen in Germany to do something towards making his History of Rome known in this country, and a repeated perusal of the German original led me to the conviction that its author richly deserved the admiration of his countrymen. I accordingly felt it both a duty and a pleasure, some years back, to prevail upon my friend, Mr. George Robertson, to give to the public at least a specimen of the book, in an English translation of the first, or introductory chapters, on the early inhabitants of Italy—a subject on which no man is better entitled to be listened to with respect and attention than Dr. Mommsen. The specimen which was then published would, I hoped, create a desire for the whole work, and in this hope I have not been disappointed. The result is the present translation; of its merits it does not become me to speak in this place. But a 2