Chapter I: Front Matter

THE BEST

_of the_

WORLD'S CLASSICS

RESTRICTED TO PROSE

HENRY CABOT LODGE

_Editor-in-Chief_

FRANCIS W. HALSEY

_Associate Editor_

With an Introduction, Biographical and
Explanatory Notes, etc.

IN TEN VOLUMES

Vol. II

ROME

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

NEW YORK AND LONDON

COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

* * * * *

The Best of the World's Classics

VOL. II

ROME

234 B.C.--180 A.D.

* * * * *

CONTENTS

VOL. II--ROME

CATO THE CENSOR--(Born in 234 B.C., died in 149.)

Of Work on a Roman Farm. (From "De Re Rustica." Translated by Dr. E. Wilson)

CICERO--(Born in 106 B.C., assassinated in 43.)

I The Blessings of Old Age.
(From the "Cato Major." Translated by Cyrus R. Edmonds)

II On the Death of His Daughter Tullia. (A letter to Sulpicius)

III Of Brave and Elevated Spirits.
(From Book I of the "Offices." Translated by Cyrus R. Edmonds)

IV Of Scipio's Death and of Friendship.
From the "Dialog on Friendship." (Translated by Cyrus R. Edmonds)

JULIUS CAESAR--(Born in 100 B.C., assassinated in 44.)

I The Building of the Bridge Across the Rhine.
(From Book IV of the "Commentaries on the Gallic War." Translated
by McDivett and W. S. Bohn)

II The Invasion of Britain.
(From Book V of the "Commentaries on the Gallic War." Translated by
McDivett and Bohn)

III Overcoming the Nervii.
(From Book II of the "Commentaries on the Gallic War." Translated
by McDivett and Bohn)

IV The Battle of Pharsalia and the Death of Pompey.
(From Book III of the "Commentaries on the Gallic War." Translated
by McDivett and Bohn)

SALLUST--(Born about 86 B.C., died about 34.)

I The Genesis of Catiline.
(From the "Conspiracy of Catiline." Translated by J. S. Watson)

II The Fate of the Conspirators.
(From the "Conspiracy of Catiline." Translated by J. S. Watson)

Livy--(Born in 59 B.C., died in 17 A.D.)

I Horatius Cocles at the Bridge.
(From Book II of the "History of Rome." Translated by D. Spillan
and Cyrus R. Edmonds)

II Hannibal's Crossing of the Alps.
(From Book XXI of the "History of Rome." Translated by Spillan and
Edmonds)

III Hannibal and Scipio at Zama.
(From Book XXX of the "History of Rome." Translated by Spillan and
Edmonds)

SENECA--(Born about 4 B.C., died in 65 A.D.)

I Of the Wise Man.
(From Book II of the "Minor Essays." Translated by Aubrey Stewart)

II Of Consolation for the Loss of Friends.
(From Book VI of the "Minor Essays." Translated by Aubrey Stewart)

III To Nero on Clemency.
(From the "Minor Essays." Translated by Aubrey Stewart)

IV The Pilot.
(From Epistle 85. Translated by Thomas Lodge)

V Of a Happy Life.
(From Book VII of the "Minor Essays." Translated by Aubrey Stewart)

PLINY THE ELDER--(Born in 23 A.D., perished in the Eruption of Vesuvius.)

I The Qualities of the Dog.
(From the "Natural History." Translated by Bostock and Riley)

II Three Great Artists of Greece.
(From the "Natural History." Translated by Bostock and Riley)

QUINTILIAN--(Born about 35 A.D., died about 95.)

The Orator Must Be a Good Man.
(From Book XII, Chapter I, of the "Institutes." Translated by J. S.
Watson)

TACITUS--(Born about 55 A.D., died about 117.)

I From Republican to Imperial Rome.
(From Book I of the "Annals." The Oxford translation revised)

II The Funeral of Germanicus.
(From Book III of the "Annals." The Oxford translation revised)

III The Death of Seneca.
(From Book XV of the "Annals." The Oxford translation revised)

IV The Burning of Rome by Order of Nero.
(From Book XV of the "Annals." The Oxford translation revised)

V The Burning of the Capitol at Rome.
(From Book III of the "History." The Oxford translation revised)

VI The Siege of Cremona.
(From Book III of the "History." The Oxford translation revised)

VII Agricola.
(The Oxford translation revised)

PLINY THE YOUNGER--(Born in 63 A.D., died in 113.)

I Of the Christians in His Province.
(From the "Letters." The Melmoth translation revised)

II To Tacitus on the Eruption of Vesuvius.
(From the "Letters." The Melmoth translation revised)

SUETONIUS--(Lived in the first half of the second century A.D.)

I The Last Days of Augustus.
(From the "Lives of the Caesars." Translated by Alexander Thomson,
revised by Forester)

II The Good Deeds of Nero.
(From the "Lives of the Caesars." Translated by Thomson, revised by
Forester)

III The Death of Nero.
(From the "Lives of the Caesars." Translated by Thomson, revised by
Forester)

MARCUS AURELIUS--(Born in 121 A.D., died in 180.)

His Debt to Others.
(From the "Meditations." Translated by George Long)

* * * * *

ROME

234 B.C.--180 A.D.

* * * * *

CATO, THE CENSOR

Born in Tusculum, Italy, in 234 B.C., died in 149;
celebrated as statesman, general, and writer; questor under
Scipio in 204; Consul in 195; served in Spain in 194; censor
in 184; ambassador to Carthage in 150; one of the chief
instigators of the third Punic war; among his writings are
"De Re Rustica" and "Origines."[1]

OF WORK ON A ROMAN FARM[2]

When the owner of the farm and slaves visits his country villa, after saluting the household god, he should the same day, if possible, go round the farm; if not the same day, he should do so the day after. On seeing how the farm is being cultivated, and what work has been done or left undone, he should call for his steward and inquire for his account of what work has been done and what remains to be done. He should ask whether the work has been completed in good time and whether what is left uncompleted can be finished. He should find what wine has been made, and what wheat stored. When he has gone into these particulars, he should ask for an account of the days spent in accomplishing the work.

If the work does not seem satisfactory and the steward should excuse himself by declaring that he has done his best, that the slaves were good for nothing, that the weather was bad, that some slaves had run away, that he himself had been called off on public service, and should allege other such excuses, he should still be strictly called to account. He should be asked if on rainy or tempestuous days he had seen that indoor operations had been carried on. Had the wine-casks been scoured and lined with pitch; had the house-cleaning been done; had the grain been taken from the thrashing-floor to the granary; had manure been thrown from the stables and cow-houses and piled into heaps; had the seed been winnowed; had any rope been made; had the old rope been repaired, and had he seen that the slaves mended their coats and caps. He should be reminded that on religious festivals old ditches might have been cleared out, the public road mended, briers cut down, the garden dug over, the meadow cleared, the trees trimmed, thorns pulled up by the roots, the grain ground and a general clearing up carried through. He should also be told that when slaves were sick their rations should be cut down.

When the matters have been settled to the master's satisfaction, he should take measures to see that what has not been done be at once accomplished. He should then proceed to consider the account of the farm, and a consideration of the amount of grain which has been prepared for fodder. He should have returns made of wine and olive-oil, and learn how much has been consumed, how much sold, how much is left over and may be put on sale. If there is a deficit any year, he should order it to be made up from the outside, and whatever is above the needs of the farm sold. If there is anything to let out on contract, he should order this to be done, and concerning the work which he wishes to be thus accomplished he should give his order in writing. As regards the cattle he should order them to be sold by auction, and in the same way should sell the oil, if the price of oil has risen; likewise the superfluous wine and corn of the estate. He should also order to be sold worn-out bulls, blemished cattle, blemished sheep, wool, hides, any plow that is old, old tools, old slaves, slaves who are diseased, or anything else which is useless, for the owner of a farm must be a seller and not a purchaser.

The owner of a farm and of slaves must begin to study in early manhood the cultivation and sowing of the land. He should, however, think a long time before building his villa, but not about farming his property, which he should set about at once. Let him wait until his thirty-sixth year and then build, provided his whole property is under cultivation. So build that neither the villa be disproportionately small in comparison with the farm nor the farm in comparison with the villa. It behooves a slave-owner to have a well-built country house, containing a wine-cellar, a place for storing olive-oil, and casks in such numbers that he may look forward with delight to a time of scarcity and high prices, and this will add not only to his wealth, but to his influence and reputation. He must have wine-presses of the first order, that his wine may be well made. When the olives have been picked, let oil be at once made or it will turn out rancid. Recollect that every year the olives are shaken from the trees in great number by violent storms. If you gather them up quickly and have vessels ready to receive them, the storm will have done them no harm and the oil will be all the greener and better. If the olives be on the ground or even on the barn floor too long, the oil made from them will be fetid. Olive-oil will be always good and sweet if it be promptly made.

The following are the duties of a steward: He must maintain strict discipline, and see that the festivals are observed. While he keeps his hands off the property of a neighbor, let him look well to his own. The slaves are to be kept from quarreling. If any of them commits a fault, he should be punished in a kindly manner. The steward must see that the slaves are comfortable and suffer neither from cold nor hunger. By keeping them busy he will prevent them from running into mischief or stealing. If the steward sets his face against evil doing, evil will not be done by them. His master must call him to task if he let evil doing go unpunished. If one slave do him any service, he should show gratitude that the others may be encouraged to do right. The steward must not be a gadder or a diner-out, but must give all his attention to working the slaves, and considering how best to carry out his master's instructions....

It is at times worth while to gain wealth by commerce, were it not so perilous; or by usury, were it equally honorable. Our ancestors, however, held, and fixt by law, that a thief should be condemned to restore double, a usurer quadruple. We thus see how much worse they thought it for a citizen to be a money-lender than a thief. Again, when they praised a good man, they praised him as a good farmer or a good husbandman. Men so praised were held to have received the highest praise. For myself, I think well of a merchant as a man of energy and studious of gain; but it is a career, as I have said, that leads to danger and ruin. However, farming makes the bravest men and the sturdiest soldiers, and of all sources of gain is the surest, the most natural, and the least invidious, and those who are busy with it have the fewest bad thoughts.[3]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Cato was Rome's first thoroughly national author. He is usually classed as the creator of Latin prose. Other Roman authors of his time wrote in Greek. Cato bitterly opposed Greek learning, declaring that, when Greece should give Rome her literature, she would "corrupt everything." On Cato's mind no outside literary influence ever prevailed. He has been called "the most original writer that Rome ever produced."]

[Footnote 2: From "De Re Rustica." Translated for this work by Dr. Epiphanius Wilson.]

[Footnote 3: The translation of this paragraph is taken from Cruttwell's "History of Roman Literature."]

CICERO

Born in 106 B.C., assassinated in 43; celebrated as orator,
philosopher, statesman, and man of letters; served in the
social war in 89; traveled in Greece and Asia in 79-77;
questor in Sicily in 75; accused Verres in 70; praetor in 60;
as Consul supprest Catiline's conspiracy in 63; banished in
58; recalled in 57; proconsul in Cicilia in 51-50; joined
Pompey in 49; pronounced orations against Mark Antony in
44-43; proscribed by the Second Triumvirate in 43; of his
orations fifty-seven are extant, with fragments of twenty
others; other extant works include "De Oratore," "De
Republica," "Cato Major," "De Officiis," and four
collections of letters.