It is impossible here to enter into ‘the question of the close and striking correspondence between the history, the literature, and the language of Rome. It was not until the history of Rome threw its mantle over her poetry that the dignity of the poet was recognised and acknowledged. . . . In the same way the life of the Roman people is closely bound up with the prose records, and the phenomena of the Roman Empire lend a human interest to all representative Roman writers.’[1] Considerations of this kind form a sufficient justification of the method here adopted of employing the historical records of Rome as a basis of teaching.
In this book the Introduction (pp. 1-14) is written to teach a boy how to arrive at the meanings of words (_Helps to Vocabulary_, pp. 1-5); how to find out the thought of a sentence through analysis and a knowledge of the order of words in Latin (_Helps to-Translation_, pp. 5-12); how to reproduce in good English the exact meaning and characteristics of his author (_Helps to Style_, pp. 13-14).
In the Demonstrations (pp. 15-58) the boy is taught to notice all allusions that give him a clue to the sense of the passage, to grapple with the difficulties of construction, to break up sentences, and to distinguish between the principal and the subordinate thoughts both in prose and verse.
The Passages have been carefully selected, and contain accounts of nearly all the important events and illustrious men of the period of history to which they belong. They are chronologically arranged and divided into six periods, covering Roman history from B.C. 753 to B.C. 44, leaving the Augustan and subsequent period to be dealt with in a second volume. The translation help given in the notes is carefully graduated. The notes to Parts I., II., III. (marked D, pp. 60-107) are thus intended to help younger boys to deal with passages which would in some cases be too difficult for them; less help in translation is given in Parts IV. and V. (marked C, pp. 108-159); while the notes to Part VI. (marked B, pp. 160-236) are mainly concerned with historical explanation, illustration, or allusion.
The Miscellaneous Passages (pp. 238-271), chosen for me by my brother-in-law, Mr. A. M. Goodhart (Assistant Master at Eton College), are added to provide occasional passages in which no help is given. It is hoped that these, which deal with subjects of general interest, and include a somewhat wide range of authors, may give variety to the book, and supply more verse passages than the historical character of the rest would admit. For the sake of variety, or to economise time, some of the passages may be translated _viva voce_ at the discretion of the master.