[The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) by Theodor Mommsen]@TWC D-Link bookThe History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR 4/8
on the margin. "It is due to Dr.Schmitz, who has kindly encouraged me in this undertaking, that I should state that I alone am responsible for the execution of the translation.
Whatever may be thought of it in other respects, I venture to hope that it may convey to the English reader a tolerably accurate impression of the contents and general spirit of the book." In a new Library edition, which appeared in 1868, I incorporated all the additions and alterations which were introduced in the fourth edition of the German, some of which were of considerable importance; and I took the opportunity of revising the translation, so as to make the rendering more accurate and consistent. Since that time no change has been made, except the issue in 1870 of an Index.
But, as Dr.Mommsen was good enough some time ago to send to me a copy in which he had taken the trouble to mark the alterations introduced in the more recent editions of the original, I thought it due to him and to the favour with which the translation had been received that I should subject it to such a fresh revision as should bring it into conformity with the last form (eighth edition) of the German, on which, as I learn from him, he hardly contemplates further change.
As compared with the first English edition, the more considerable alterations of addition, omission, or substitution amount, I should think, to well-nigh a hundred pages. I have corrected various errors in renderings, names, and dates (though not without some misgiving that others may have escaped notice or been incurred afresh); and I have still further broken up the text into paragraphs and added marginal headings. The Index, which was not issued for the German book till nine years after the English translation was published, has now been greatly enlarged from its more recent German form, and has been, at the expenditure of no small labour, adapted to the altered paging of the English.
I have also prepared, as an accompaniment to it, a collation of pagings, which will materially facilitate the finding of references made to the original or to the previous English editions. I have had much reason to be gratified by the favour with which my translation has been received on the part alike of Dr.Mommsen himself and of the numerous English scholars who have made it the basis of their references to his work.( 1) I trust that in the altered form and new dress, for which the book is indebted to the printers, it may still further meet the convenience of the reader. September 1894. Notes for Preface 1.
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