The main purpose of these Roman sketches is to show that the men and
women of ancient Rome were like ourselves.
"Born into life!--'tis we,
And not the world, are new;
Our cry for bliss, our plea,
Others have urged it too--
Our wants have all been felt, our errors made before."
It is only when we perceive in "classical antiquity" a human nature
similar to our own in its mingling of weakness and strength, vice
and virtue, sorrow and joy, defeats and victories that we shall find
in its noblest literature an intimate rather than a formal
inspiration, and in its history either comfort or warning.
A secondary purpose is to suggest Roman conditions as they may have
affected or appeared to men of letters in successive epochs, from
the last years of the Republic to the Antonine period. Three of the
six sketches are concerned with the long and brilliant "Age of
Augustus." One is laid in the years immediately preceding the death
of Julius Caesar, and one in the time of Trajan and Pliny. The last
sketch deals with the period when Hadrian attempted a renaissance
of Greek art in Athens and creative Roman literature had come to an
end. Its renaissance was to be Italian in a new world.
In all the sketches the essential facts are drawn directly from the
writings of the men who appear in them. These facts have been merely
cast into an imaginative form which, it is hoped, may help rather
to reveal than cloak their significance for those who believe that
the roads from Rome lead into the highway of human life.
In choosing between ancient and modern proper names I have thought
it best in each case to decide which would give the keener impression
of verisimilitude. Consistency has, therefore, been abandoned.
Horace, Virgil and Ovid exist side by side with such original Latin
names as Julius Paulus. While Como has been preferred to Comum, the
"Larian Lake" has been retained. Perugia (instead of Perusia) and
Assisi (instead of Assisium) have been used in one sketch and
Laurentum, Tusculum and Tibur in another. The modern name that least
suggests its original is that of the river Adige. The Latin Atesia
would destroy the reader's sense of familiarity with Verona.
My thanks are due to Professor M. S. Slaughter, of the University
of Wisconsin, who has had the great kindness to read this book in
manuscript. My husband, Francis G. Allinson, has assisted me at every
turn in its preparation. With one exception, acknowledged in its
place, all the translations are his.