Attic drama, illustrated by the blended lights of grammatical, philological and historical learning, under the guidance of a discriminating judgment, and a ready sympathy with all that is beautiful in poetical inspiration, and sublime in moral senti

ment.

ART. IV. The History of Rome.

1. The History of Rome. By G. B. NIEBUHR. Translated by JULIUS CHARLES HARE, M. A. and CONNOP THIRLWALL, M. A. Fellows of Trinity College. Cambridge, 2 vols. 8vo. First American from the London edition. Philadelphia, 1835.

WE are very glad to find that the English translation of this celebrated work is republished in our country. Among the multitude of European books, continually issuing from the American press, some of little value, and others at the best entirely worthless, it is truly refreshing to see such a work as Niebuhr's History of Rome. We believe it to be the opinion of all those who are acquainted with the work, that it sheds great light on this most important part of ancient history, and exhibits a far more complete and satisfactory view of the government and political institutions of Rome than can any where else be found.

The first edition of Niebuhr's History was published at Berlin in 1811 and 1812 in two volumes. The novel views presented of the Roman constitution and early history produced much excitement among the literati of Germany, and though it was severely criticised by some of the German scholars, its reception was on the whole very favorable. The author was encouraged to proceed in his researches, convinced, as he says, that the revival of Roman history was in accord with the spirit of the age.

In England and America these inquiries, which were the subject of much interesting discussion on the continent, were for some years scarcely heard of. In an article of this jour nal about thirteen years ago, containing a notice of the first edition of Niebuhr's History it was mentioned as the misfortune, not to say the disgrace of both countries, that a work

of such transcendent merit should have been published for ten years and be yet so little known.

It

But for want of a translation the history was inaccessible to a majority of English readers. This obstacle no longer exists, and we are much gratified to have an English translation of the last and highly improved edition of Niebuhr's History. was executed by Messrs. Hare and Thirlwall, of the University of Oxford, and has the advantage of being sanctioned by Niebuhr himself, who even furnished the translators with corrections that are not found in the German.

The first edition of the history had its origin in a course of lectures delivered by Niebuhr at the opening of the celebrated University of Berlin, commenced in 1810. Encouraged by the favor with which the lectures were received, not only by the students, but by the learned and intelligent of all classes, he was induced to prepare these lectures for publication in the first and second volumes of his history. But though the first effort of Niebuhr exhibited great learning and critical sagacity in investigating and analyzing the traditionary history of Rome, he saw, and no doubt more clearly than any of his readers or critics, that it contained many errors and defects. He freely acknowledges that though he had discovered the meaning of many an ancient mystery, yet more were overlooked, that in much he erred, and a still greater part was left in a disjointed condition, and feebly supported by proofs. His knowledge, he says, was that of a self-taught man, who had as yet been able to devote to study only such hours as he could withdraw from business. The leisure and the means for studying the history and antiquities of Rome under the most favorable circumstances were soon afforded to Niebuhr by the liberality of his patron the king of Prussia. Niebuhr, who had been the Prussian Ambassador to Holland in 1808 and 1814, was in 1816 sent by the king as his Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary to Rome. It was understood that the appointment was given to him with the special view, that the historian of Rome might pursue his researches on the spot, which was the scene of the events he was engaged in describing.

This monarch who is not only the founder of the two distinguished Universities of Berlin and Bonn, but who has carried into execution the best system that has yet been framed for the education of the youth of all classes in his dominions, has a claim on the gratitude of his subjects, such as no other sove

reign can boast. His example in this respect may well put to shame all other governments in christendom whether monarchies or republics.

On his return to Germany in 1823, he settled at Bonn, where he remodeled the first volume of his History, corrected the second, and drew up the plan of the third. The new light he had gained at Rome, and especially the rich sources of information opened by the discovery, and publication of the institutes of Gaius and Cicero's Republic, induced him to write the first volume anew, and make it in fact a new creation. His own opinion of it, as compared with the first edition, is thus expressed.

"The work I here lay before the public is, as the first glance. will show, an entirely new one, in which scarcely a few fragments of the former have been incorporated. It would have been far easier to preserve the ground-work of the first edition; I resolved on the more difficult task, as the most expedient, from its giving unity and harmony to the whole. That whole, made up of this and the next two volumes, is the work of a man in his maturity; whose powers may decline, but whose convictions are thoroughly settled, whose views cannot change and accordingly I wish that the former edition may be regarded as a youthful work."

-p. 12.

The second edition of the first volume appeared in 1827, and was immediately translated into English by Messrs. Hare and Thirlwall, and published in England in 1828. But notwithstanding the intense, and we believe we may truly say unparalleled labor and research already bestowed upon this volume, the parental care of the author could not yet abandon it. He again revised it, and the third edition appeared in German, in 1828 and the English translation in 1831.

The first edition of the second volume was deemed by the author incomparably more matured and complete than that of the first, and as to a great portion of it he supposed there was nothing to correct and little to add, and that the revision of it would be an easy task. How far this opinion was correct will best appear from his own account.

"Under this notion I fancied that a revised edition might be accomplished in a few months; but ere long I saw clearly that, in spite of all scepticism, a critical examination of the facts would enable me to restore and establish a certain and credible history from the epoch at which this volume begins, and this being so,

it became worth while to sift every particular with the utmost care, and during this period not to pass over, what in an age of great events would have been excluded as trifling. In like manner I perceived that the changes in the constitution might be traced step by step. Under favorable circumstances even this task might have been executed rapidly, like several disquisitions in the first volume; but that volume had left me in a state of exhaustion which was the consequence of the continued exertion of all my faculties, directed to a single object for sixteen months without any intermission except now and then a few days. My sight grew dim in its passionate efforts to pierce into the obscurity of the subject; and unless I was to send forth an incomplete work, which sooner or later would have had to be wholly remodeled, I was compelled to wait for what time might gradually bring forth; nor has he been niggardly, but though slowly, has granted me one discovery after another. I must, not however, omit that this exhaustion, which in fact resembled the dizziness of a person long deprived of sleep, excited a vehement desire for some different employment; and this led me most inconsiderately, having already such a task as this history on my hands, to engage in editing the Byzantine historians; which, along with other very laborious occupations, for instance the revisal of the third edition of the first volume, greatly impeded the progress of my plan after it had been twice recast; and as I wished to carry them all on together, my health, serenity, and clearness of mind for a time deserted me.

"At length I got quit of many of these interruptions; many of them were overcome; I again felt free and cheerful; the first sheets were written out, and were to be sent to the press the next morning, when the calamity which befell my house during the night, destroyed them all with the exception of a leaf that I happened to have lent to a friend. The materials however had been preserved, and my spirit did not fail, seven weeks after my misfortune, the lost manuscript was replaced, and the printing began." pp. 6-7,

The second volume was published in 1830. The author had confidently looked forward to the completion of his great work, to which he determined to devote the remainder of his days. He considered it the work of his life, and which was to preserve for him a name not unworthy of his father's.*

* The reader will recollect that the father was Carstein Niebuhr, the celebrated oriental traveller, of whom a very interesting biography has been written by the historian. It has been translated into English by Professor Robinson, of Boston, and published in his learned Biblical Repository in 1832.

These pleasing anticipations were soon to be disappointed. The author died January 2d, 1831, at the age of fifty-four. The following note of the translators will show the state in which the work was left by the author, and what we are further to expect.

"Within three months of the publication of this volume, its great author died, and his work is destined to be no more than a fragment. Among his manuscripts, however, there has fortunately been found a continuous history from the dictatorship of Publilius, where the original second volume closed, down to the beginning of the first Punic war, written out for the press ten or twelve years ago. 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, has been placed in the hands of his illustrious friend Savigny; and its speedy publication is expected. As soon as it comes out, the translators will endeavor to complete what has now become their melancholy duty."

Niebuhr undertook to write a history of Rome from the earliest ages of the city, to the time when Augustus became the acknowledged sovereign of the Roman empire. He begins with the first dawn of the city, his intention was to terminate it at the period when her dominion was extended from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and from the deserts of Africa to the Rhine and the Danube, comprehending, as Gibbon says, the fairest part of the earth and the most civilized portion of mankind. As the sea receives the rivers, says Niebuhr, so the history of Rome receives into itself that of all other nations known to have existed before her in the regions round the Mediterranean. It was a part of his plan to give a view of the character and condition of these nations, and not to leave the reader to seek the information in other works, where perhaps it may not be found. He considered it the province of the historian of Rome to give the best image of them that could be obtained by research and reflection. The plan of the work and the spirit in which it was commenced is thus stated in Niebuhr's introductory lecture of the course delivered before the University of Berlin, and which is prefixed to the first volume.

"I shall endeavor to examine the history, especially during the first five centuries, not under the guidance of dim feelings, but of searching criticism; nor shall I merely deliver the results,