Identifier: introductiontocl00lawt (find matches)
Title: Introduction to classical Latin literature
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Lawton, William Cranston, 1853-1941
Subjects: Latin literature -- History and criticism
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
nemies and avertcivil war, it failed of its immediate purpose : but as anappeal to after-time, as an Apologia pro Vita, it reaches afresh jury in each age : not the reluctant children for whomits quaint doom makes it a parsing-book and first reader,but rather the Niebuhrs, Mommsens, and Von Rankes ofevery civilized race. On the whole the verdict upon thebook, as upon the life, is one of hearty admiration and per-sonal regard. Caesar found himself amid forces which he could at bestonly guide, not escape. Above all, between the little sena-Caesar an Oppor- torial oligarchy and the blind led city mob,tunist. there was no longer a true middle class, only the wealthy yet greedy equites, mostly engaged in farmingthe provincial revenues, after the present Turkish fashion,for their own immediate enrichment. The nephew ofMarius, the son-in-law of Cinna, saved with difficulty fromSullas keen and deadly eye, Cfesar was called from thefirst to be the leader of the mob. lie wisely planned to be 98
Text Appearing After Image:
JILTUS C.ESATl.Anti(iui liiist in the riipitoliiic Mii«onni. C^SAR 99 its master, too. Much of his youthful dissipation, even ifall the scandalous gossip of a Suetonius be given a hearing,may have been a screen against partisan or personal hatred.Certainly he was a profound student of history and litera-ture, even a fastidious scholar, a consummate orator.Above all, human character was to him an open book. Free from all superstition or religion, save a faith in hisown destiny, he at thirty-seven sought and won the life-Cffisar Pontifex P^^^ ^^ Supreme pontiff, made an exhaustive naximus, 63 study of ceremonial, wrote a careful treatiseon Divination. Cicero himself, blindto the ruin he is even then preparing for his own careerby hasty illegal executions, already realizes that Caesar hasfollowed that path in politics which is accounted popular,In Cat iv V ^^y> is truly popular. The people lovepious conformity. They also love the circus.Cffisar /Ediie, The shows of Cassars aedileship

Note About Images