garded as erroneous opinions hitherto received, or to the development of new and more difficult topics pertaining to the investigation, which others have omitted. The careful student may also glean much from this work, casting light upon the synonymy of the Greek language. The scholar who is destined to furnish a regular treatise on this subject, will here find much preparatory work already performed for him. Winer expresses his regret that the too late appearance of the work, put it out of his power to make use of it in the preparation of the last edition of his Idioms of the New Testament. He might otherwise have collected from it numerous, pertinent illustrations of important points in biblical philology. Among other parts of the Pathologia which he designates as particularly rich in such spoils, are the remarks on verbs in aivo p. 37, on adjectives in alɛos p. 99 sq., on substantives in ourŋ p. 230 sq., and on the contraction of proper names in as p. 505 sq. The positive "gεMos which occurs in 1 Tim. 2, 2, is not found in the older Greek authors and the comparative geuέoregos which the Attics also employ, has been referred hitherto to the adverb gua. Winer, however, calls attention to the fact that Lobeck (Patholog. etc. p. 158) has discovered this positive upon Inscript. Olbiopol. n. 2059, v. 24.

Dr. Delitzsch, teacher of theology in the university at Leipsic, has ́appeared with a new work on the Prophetic Theology of the Bible. The treatise, which we possess on this subject from Knobel and Köster, are written for the most part in conformity with the freer views of the rationalistic critics; and they are, in other respects also, less complete and satisfactory than could be desired. Prof. Delitzsch belongs to a different theological school. He has already written a valuable commentary on Habbakuk, and both here and in other productions has furnished good proof of his ability to serve the cause of sacred learning. The subject of Prophetic Theology embraces, as usually presented, a general view of the return of prophetic inspiration, the institution and office of the Hebrew Prophets, and of the application and fulfilment of the prophecies, especially in their relation to the New Testament.

The new commentary of Tholuck, 1845, on the Sermon on the Mount, appears in a greatly improved form. This has usually been considered, by scholars, as the author's ablest critical performance. The present is the third Edition of the work. The Preface remarks that a greater number of helps will be found to have been used in this revision, and especially that the many important publications on the synoptical gospels, which have appeared since the earlier editions, have received constant attention. The exposition of new passages has been improved in point of simplicity and certainty. The development of the dogmatic and ethical contents of the discourse has continued to be one of the main objects for which the work was undertaken.

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA

AND

THEOLOGICAL REVIEW.

NO. X.

MAY, 1846.

ARTICLE I.

ROMAN PRIVATE LIFE.*

By Prof. J. L. Lincoln, Brown University.

THE labors of German scholars, within the present century, have given a new character to the study of Greek and Roman Antiquities. It is no slender praise, to say of the German manner of discussing this subject, that it is sensible and intelligent and full of life; for exactly in such qualities as these, consists the great superiority of the German authors over all their predecessors. In the text-books of Potter and Adams, which are honored at least by time and long use, we discover not the faintest trace of any true, living conception of Greek and Roman life; it is just as if the people, whose manners and customs are dryly detailed, had never lived at all, but had a mere dim, traditional being. It is far otherwise with the German writers, to whom we now refer. They seem to us more like travellers, coming from a region remote indeed, but yet belonging to our own world, and recording their own impressions of a people, parted from us by the long interval of ages, but yet human beings, like ourselves, who once lived and moved on the earth, and with all their lofty destinies, shared the common allotments of human existence;

Sabina, von C. A. Böttiger. Leipzig, 1806.-Gallus, oder Römische Scenen aus der Zeit Augusts, von Wilh. Adolph Becker, Prof. a. d. Univ. Leipzig, 1838.-Gallus, or Roman Scenes of the time of Augustus, with Notes and Excursus illustrative of the Manners and Customs of the Romans. Translated from the German of Professor Becker, by Frederick Metcalfe, B. A. Late Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge. London, Parker, 1844.

VOL. III. No. 10.

20

we behold in their works, intelligent and comprehensive views of the life of the great nations of classic antiquity, from which, as they pass before us, we catch the living spirit of Greek and Roman civilization. It is in this manner, that the department of Classic Antiquities has gathered, in the hands of the Germans, a completely new character. Not only have they given it, by their large and accurate learning, that well-ordered, organic system, which it so much needed; but with the healthful and genial spirit, characteristic of German scholarship, they have animated and informed with a living soul, this hitherto dry and repulsive study. Till comparatively a recent period, the Greek Antiquities had received in Germany a disproportionate share of attention. The labors of Boeckh, Ottfried Müller, Jacobs and others, in particular brauches of inquiry, and the more extensive works of Hermann, Wachsmuth and Schömann have left unexplained scarcely a single point in the whole subject of Greek Antiquities. On the other hand, with the exception of the Roman law, which has been investigated with so much success by Savigny and other German jurists, the Roman Antiquities had been in comparative neglect. But the work of Becker, of which we have spoken in a former number of this Journal, promises to supply a want that has long been felt; and to furnish a Manual of Roman Antiquities, not inferior to the well-known books of Hermann and Wachsmuth, on the Antiquities of Greece. In this notice of the literature of this subject, we must not omit to mention the very valuable Dictionary, which has been recently published in England, under the editorial care of Dr. William Smith. It is the united work of a noble band of English scholars, whose aims and spirit and large attainments are full of promise for classical learning in England. Without neglecting a personal examination of the original sources, they have made themselves perfectly familiar with the labors of the best modern writers, and have thus reproduced in English, and embodied in a single volume,

1 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Edited by William Smith, Ph. D., and illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. This work has been republished in this country, under the auspices of Charles Anthon, LL. D. of New York. In this American edition, with some useful changes affecting only its external form, the original work has lost just as much in quality as it has gained in quantity, by the introduction of "numerous additional articles relative to the Botany, Mineralogy, and Zoology of the Ancients!" In our humble judgment, the best service that could have been rendered to the American public in this case by Dr. Anthon, would have been a faithful reprint of the English work.

1846.]

Ignorance in regard to Roman Private Life.

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adapted alike to instruction and general use, all the results of German research and learning. It may safely be pronounced the best, nay the only book of the kind, to be found in any language. The two works we have indicated above, are devoted to the private life of the Romans, an interesting subject, which has quite escaped the attention of most modern writers. Indeed from the general neglect of this branch of inquiry, have arisen and prevailed concerning it, the most inadequate and incorrect views. We are too apt to think of the Romans, in their exclusive devotion to politics and war, as a people all remote from the humble experience of common life. We think of them only in their national being, a mighty people extending their triumphs on sea and land, or giving laws in the senate and the forum to a conquered world; and amid the exploits of heroes and the coun. sels of statesmen, we quite forget the thousand little, unrecorded events, that transpired within the limited circles of domestic and social intercourse. But the Roman life was not all one grand triumphal march, nor yet one grave debate in the senate, or splendid declamation in the forum. Within the many homes of the great city, far away from the strife of the camp, and the bustle of the Comitia, there went on ever a quiet private life, rich in all human experience. The Roman loved his home and fireside, and around his family hearth, in the benign presence of his household god, clustered all the endearing charms of domestic life. The poetry of Horace, and the more familiar prose of Cicero and of Pliny disclose many a picture of home-life; and the narrative of Suetonius, and even the satire of Juvenal betray now and then a glimpse of similar scenes.

These works now before us, at once suggest and illustrate these remarks, and exhibit many agreeable analogies to the private life of modern times. The Sabina of Böttiger, though published many years ago, still maintains its reputation as the best work which has been written, on the particular subject of which it treats. It was written by one of the most learned and the most elegant of all the classical scholars of Germany; and has the great merit of presenting in a new and agreeable form, the original results of the author's own researches. Under the humble design of exhibiting "Morning Scenes in the Toilette of a rich Roman lady," Böttiger has contrived to gather together into one view the customs and occupations, all the manifold features of the daily life of the Roman women, in the first century of the Empire. This book is, however, so well-known, that we do not

design an extended review of it, but only to add to this general notice of its character, occasional allusions, in the course of this Article. Becker's Gallus, from its extreme importance, as well as its comparatively recent appearance, is well worthy of a particular examination. The author approached the execution of his task, after a most extensive and laborious preparation. He carefully went over the whole field of the later Greek and Roman literature, and subjected to a most searching process of investigation every original source of information. With the exception of the particular portion which has been so satisfactorily discussed by Böttiger, the work covers the whole ground of the Domestic Antiquities, and in the judgment of both German and English scholars, already holds the place, which the author hoped it might reach, of "a desirable Repertory of whatever is most worth knowing about the private life of the Romans."

In imitating the example of Böttiger, and, instead of writing a systematic Manual, weaving his materials into a continuous story, Becker has invested his work with much of the attractive interest that belongs to a tale of manners. The story however partakes less of the nature of romance than of biography; as the author has chosen to fix his inquiries on an historical basis, in the life of Cornelius Gallus, a man eminent for his talents and rank, and intimacy with Augustus; and has mingled only as much of fiction as was needful for introducing the minor details of his subject. In dividing the work into twelve scenes, the author disclaims all intention of writing a romance. This would, no doubt, have been a far easier task than the tedious combination of a multitude of isolated facts into a single picture; an operation allowing but little scope to the imagination.-His eagerness to avoid anything like romance, may possibly have rather prejudiced the narrative, but, even as it is, more fiction perhaps is admitted than is strictly compatible with the earnestness of literary inquiry." Notwithstanding this disclaimer, the narrative reflects great credit upon the author's imaginative power, and must awaken the most lively interest in the general reader, as well as in the scholar; and the various scenes furnish, in the language of the translator, "a flesh and blood picture of the Roman, as he lived and moved, and thought and acted."

In the remainder of this Article, we propose to follow Becker through some of the principal scenes in the history of Gallus, and to connect with them such remarks as they naturally suggest.

The first scene, entitled the "Nocturnal Return," gives us a