Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic/Preface
MORE is known of Cicero than of any other person of the ancient world, and almost in proportion to the knowledge is the controversy of opinion concerning him. I formerly attempted a discussion of some disputed points in articles in the Quarterly Review (1879 and 1880) on the writings of Mr. Froude and Mr. Beesley. Some paragraphs from these articles are incorporated in the present volume. Here, however, my business is not to criticise but t narrate, and I have refrained even from the confutation of Drumann, with whose utterances I find myself at issue on almost every page.
In writing Roman history it is impossible to escape from the influence of the genius of Mommsen. Sometimes by suggestion, sometimes by repulsion, his presence is always felt. I have likewise more especially to acknowledge the aid which I have received from the comments of Tyrrell and Purser, of Boissier, and of Watson. As a lecturer, constantly using Mr. Watson's Letters of Cicero for my text-book, I naturally appropriate the result of his labours, and cannot always clearly distinguish how much of my material is borrowed from him.