Chapter I: Preface

The method employed in this edition of the _Monumentum Ancyranum_ is suggested by the purpose for which it is intended. That purpose is primarily to adapt it as one of the series of _Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History_, published by the Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania. The English version is the core of the work. At the same time the opportunity has been seized to present the original texts in such form as to be of real philological service. That there is room for such an edition of the _Monumentum Ancyranum_ there can be no doubt. The critical edition published by Mommsen in 1883, _Res Gestæ Divi Augusti_, must long remain for scholars the sufficient hand-book for the study of the greatest of inscriptions. But that edition, with its Latin notes, is not adapted for ordinary school or college use, or for historical study by those who do not readily use Latin. And although Roman histories constantly refer to this great source for the life and times of Augustus, there has been no accessible English translation. It is true that the English translation of Duruy’s _History of Rome_ contains a version of the _Monumentum_, but it is not in full accord with the latest text as set forth by Mommsen, and is hidden away in the ponderous volumes of that expensive work.

Aside from Mommsen’s edition of 1883, the only recent edition is a French one of 1886 by C. Peltier. But this is simply a condensation of Mommsen. While the present edition depends very largely on Mommsen’s work, it is more than a condensation. Not only is the English version given, but all the known studies of the text published since 1883, and in criticism of Mommsen, have been collated. The emendations thus suggested have been placed as footnotes to the Latin and Greek texts. Moreover, the notes have been carefully revised. For the most part they are much reduced in compass, but in many cases they are added to; and a large number of typographical errors in Mommsen’s edition have been corrected. Most of these errors were reproduced in the French edition above mentioned. In a work with such a multitude of references it is too much to hope that all errors have been avoided, and the editor will be greatly indebted if users of the book will report them to him.

W. FAIRLEY.

_University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa._