In the fifth volume of his Roman History, issued in 1885, Mommsen described the Roman provinces as they were during the first three centuries of our era. It has been called, by one specially qualified to judge, Otto Hirschfeld, the best volume of the whole work. It is indeed a wonderful book. Here Mommsen summed up with supreme mastery a vast and multifarious mass of detail. Thousands of inscriptions yielded up their secrets; all scattered archaeological discoveries found recognition; the vast and dim areas of the provinces took definite shape and colour. Now at length it became easy to discern the true character of the Roman Empire. Our horizon broadened beyond the backstairs of the Palatine and the benches of the Curia to the wide lands north and east and south of the Mediterranean, and we began to realise the achievements of the Empire—its long and peaceable government of dominions extending into three continents, its gifts of civilisation, language, and citizenship to almost all its subjects, its creation of a stable and coherent order out of which rose the Europe of to–day. The old theory of an age of despotism and decay was overthrown. The believer in human nature could now feel confident that, whatever their limitations and defects, the men of the Empire wrought for the progress and happiness of the world.

The book was at once translated into English by, or at least under the supervision of, the late Dr. W. P. Dickson, Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow. Twenty–five years before, the same translator had rendered the earlier volumes of the history into English, and rendered them to the satisfaction of all readers. The translation of the fifth volume was less happy. Its style was difficult, and its errors—at least in some chapters—were numerous and surprising. The ideal remedy for the evil would be a fresh version. But the ideal is seldom attainable in published literature, and good prose translations are particularly rare. When, therefore, the time came to reprint the book, it seemed best not to let it again appear as it was, but to attempt some revision, even though the existence of stereotyped plates confined that revision within very narrow limits. I have accordingly altered a large number of passages where Dr. Dickson’s rendering was unintelligible or inaccurate, and I have tried to take account of the few changes which Mommsen himself introduced into the original German down to the fifth and last edition of 1904. In doing this I have had valuable help, which I desire to acknowledge, from Dr. George Macdonald. That I have left many defects, both by accident and by the exigencies of the stereotyped plates, is inevitable. But the alterations run into several hundreds, and at any rate “the government which prohibited voluntary fireworks” (freiwillige Feuerwehren), the “tribes who dwelt in hurdles” (HÜrden), and the “crescents which gave the signal to run away” (HÖrner), and some similar blots have vanished. As the translation is intended for English readers, I have added some notes on the chapter relating to Britain. It was far too large a task to do the same for other chapters. But a few references may be added here on two general questions. The results obtained by recent excavations on the Germano–Raetian Limes (Chapter IV., pp.152 foll.) have been well summarised in E. Fabricius’ Die Besitznahme Badens durch die RÖmer (Heidelberg, 1905), in an article by G. Lachenmaier in the WÜrttembergische Vierteljahreshefte fÜr Landesgeschichte for 1906, and in one by the late Professor Pelham in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, reprinted as Chapter IX. in his collected papers (Clarendon Press, 1909). The student should also consult the excellent Berichte Über die … rÖmisch–germ. Forschung for 1905–8, edited by Dr. H. Dragendorff (Frankfurt, 1905–9). The problem of the Hellenisation of Syria (Chapter X.) has been treated, with a solution unfavourable to the Hellenic element, by Theodor NÖldeke in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlÄndischen Gesellschaft for 1885 (xxxix. 332), and the two views have been compared by Mitteis in his Reichsrecht und Volksrecht (Leipzig, 1891, pp.25 foll.).

The maps are those prepared by the late Dr. Kiepert for the original German. Modern and medieval names are printed in letters slanting backwards; in Maps VIII. and IX. old Oriental names are included in square brackets. The presence of a few German terminations or words on some of the maps will, I hope, cause little trouble.

F. HAVERFIELD.