ii
SOURCES OF ROMAN HISTORY.
the case of individual men ; for of many thousands, a few only
are not thwarted in their development. In modern history,
the English alone have passed through the same perfect career
of development as the Bomans ; and in a cosmopolitan point
of view therefore, the history of these two nations must always
be the most important. I shall endeavour, with the help of
God, to relate to you, in one course, the complete history of
Rome, during its twelve saecula, which in the legend of
Bomulus, are prophetically stated as the period of Borne’s
duration. First I have to relate to you the history of the
nation and city, and next, that of the empire and the mass of
nations which acquired the name of Bomans. The time I
shall devote to my subject will, I believe, be sufficient ; for
it is not my intention to follow out my inquiries step by step,
but only to give the results and conclusions to which I have
come.
But before proceeding to the history, let us make ourselves
acquainted with its sources. Here the first question which
presents itself is, Is any credit due to the sources of the earliest
history, previously to the rise of an historical literature ? In
former times, and down to the eighteenth century, Eoman
history was treated with a full belief in its truth, that is,
uncritically, the confusions and inconsistencies of its early
periods being endured without uneasiness ; and such also was
the case during a great part of the eighteenth century. In the
sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries scholars were
occupied with the details of history,—chronology, numismatics,
and the like. Eminent men, as Tillemont, Eckhel, and others,
produced admirable works as far as the detail is concerned ;
but it is only in our days, after scepticism had taken possession
of the field, that history has been subjected to criticism. But,
as is usually the case in such matters, these critical researches,
after being once set on foot, have become the principal object
in Eoman history. This may be well for a time, but it must
not always be so : there is too much of it already ; it is dwelt
upon too much, and we must try to counteract this tendency
pro virili parte.
You may expect, first, a view of the literature of Eoman
history ; secondly, results, and not researches, concerning the
early portions of it ; and thirdly, the history of the later
times, down to the period when the Eoman world assumes a
Scaligek—valla—glareanu s sigonius. iii
different aspect ; and it will be my endeavour to render these
later times as clear and distinct to you as I can.
I shall first speak of the historians of the commonwealth.
They may be divided into great classes, though every thing
cannot be classsified without taking some artificial or unnatural
point of view. I have already said that there was a time
when a simple and sincere belief in the authenticity of the
ancient historians prevailed ; when the history of Rome was
read like that of the German emperors; and it would have
been looked upon as a crime or frivolity, if any one had
ventured to doubt the historical character of Roman history
as transmitted by Livy. It is now incomprehensible to us
how even very ingenious writers, men far above us, took the
details of ancient history for granted, without feeling any
doubt as to their credibility. Thus Scaliger believed the list
of the kings of Sicyon to be as authentic and consistent as
that of the kings of France. Men lived in a state of literary
innocence, which continued after the revival of learning, so
long as history was treated merely philologically, and was
studied from books alone, and so long only could it last. F or
when, in the seventeenth century, in the Netherlands, England,
France, and Germany, the human mind began to assert its
rights, and men raised themselves above their books to that
kind of learning which we find among the ancients, some few,
though, not without great timidity,began to point out the incon-
gruities and contradictions of Roman history which had been
noticed indeed before, but had been passed over in reve-
rential silence. Valla1, who was so deeply imbued with
the spirit of the ancients, that one of his writings was for
a long time believed to be the work of an ancient Roman,
was struck by the accounts of Livy, and was the first who
proved that there were impossibilities in his narrative. His
example was followed by Glareanus, whose remarks irritated
Sigonius, and induced him to oppose thej ingenious Ger-
man, although Sigonius himself had no idea of historical
criticism. At the conclusion of the sixteenth century, Pighius,
' It i⅛ one of my most pleasing recollections, that I discovered his tombstone,
and induced the chapter of the Lateran to replace it in their church, of which
he lι.-ι<l been ∏ canon. Italy was at that time far in advance of the rest of
Europe: next followed the French, and a short time afterwards the Germans,
to whom philology was resigned by the former. —N.
b 2