%
%    Holmes' commentary on Caesar's De Bello Gallico.
%    Preface (0).
%
%    Contributor: Konrad Schroder  <perseant@u.washington.edu>
%
%    Original publication data:
%         Holmes, T. Rice.  _C._Iuli_Caesaris_Comantarii_Rerum_in_
%                   _Gallia_Gestarum_VII_A._Hirti_Commentarius_VIII._
%                             Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1914.
%
%    Version: 0.01 (Alpha), 7 April 1993
%
%    This file is in the Public Domain.
%
\input ks_macros.tex
\centerline{PREFACE}

T{\sc HIS} edition is intended not only for teachers and pupils, but also
for general readers who may wish to become acquainted with Caesar's
masterpiece and for scholars who have not time or inclination to read my
larger books. The critical notes are printed along with the others at the
foot of the text, where they will be more easily understood than if they
were relegated to a critical appendix; and the references which they
contain will enable any one who may wish to specialize to pursue his
researches further. I have taken account of all the relevant works that
have appeared in England and America and on the Continent since the
completion of the second edition of my {\it Caesar's Conquest of Gaul;} and
in a few cases I have modified or supplemented statements which I made
there.

There is no more interesting Latin book for boys than Caesar's account of
the Gallic war, provided that they will give their minds to it and that
they have the help of a good teacher, who realizes the obligation of
keeping far ahead of his class. Young pupils, it is true, can read so
little at one time that interest in the story, as such, can hardly,
unaided, be sustained. Even Macaulay's {\it Essays} might be dull if they
were read by a foreigner, with a dictionary, at the rate of a single
paragraph a day. But the difficulty is only apparent. Before the study of
this book, or of any of the separate editions which I have prepared of each
{\it Commentary,} is begun, I would recommend teachers to make their pupils
read Part~I of my {\it Caesar's Conquest of Gaul} and the Sixth and Seventh
Chapters of my {\it Ancient Britain,} or, if this should be impracticable,
to read them aloud themselves. I feel less diffidence in making this
suggestion because it has been made already by well-known critics as well
as by the Curricula Committee of the Classical Association, and because the
books which I have named have been in part translated into German for the
use of schools. If, before a boy begins to grapple with Caesar's Latin, he
has got a general notion of the whole story, he will work with far more
heart.

The principle to which I have adhered in writing my notes has been to avoid
giving any information which the learner can easily acquire for himself
through the medium of grammar, dictionary, or such other books as he may
fairly be supposed to have. My aim has been not to save him the labour---if
I had done so he would only have been bored---but to let him feel the
pleasure of thinking; and I have therefore tried, as far as was possible
with due regard to space, to appeal to his reason,---not only to state
results, but to enable him to follow the steps by which they were attained.
Merely inform a pupil that Alesia was situated on Mont Auxois, and you will
profit him little, for cut-and-dried information is indigestible; but make
him understand that it was there and that to suppose that it was anywhere
else involves absurdities, and you will set his intellect to work. I desire
indeed to appeal not only to the learner's reason but also to his
scepticism and his latent critical acumen. I should be glad to hear that he
had tried to pick holes in my arguments; for I do not wish him to accept
them until he is convinced that they are sound. For the benefit of any one
who may be disposed to test them, I have given at the end of various notes
references to my larger books; and I hope that some readers may feel moved
to gain such a mastery of the subject as is unattainable with a succinct
commentary. The High Master of St. Paul's School, to whom I am grateful,
has lead nearly all my manuscript; and, after considering his suggestions,
I wrote some additional notes, struck out one or two, and modified a few
others; but he is not responsible for anything which this book contains.

I have thought it right to confine myself in the notes to explaining
Caesar's text. Various historical comments and other remarks which may be
helpful, but which would have been out of place in an edition of the
Commentaries, are to be found in Part I of my {\it Caesar's Conquest of
Gaul} (second edition) and of {\it Ancient Britain.}

Some readers may perhaps find opportunities of exploring the scenes of
Caesar's more important operations; for when one finds oneself, say, at
Martigny or upon the plateau of Alesia, the chapters in which Caesar
describes what happened there become more vivid than even the best maps and
plans can make them. I have given on pages 447--8 directions as to the best
way of reaching the various places which I have in mind.

It is now usual in English schools to read the classics in snippets,
partly, I suppose, in order that boys may become acquainted with many
authors before they leave school. But by following this plan they cannot
become intimate with any. One may read Macaulay's essay on Clive with
profit even if one ignores all the others; but to read the ninth chapter
only of his {\it History of England} would not be wise. Moreover, there is
no reason, apart from the consideration of what subjects are most
remunerative, why Caesar should only be used as an elementary text-book. It
cannot be read with the maximum of profit by a young boy, and it ought to
be read rapidly through, at least once, by the highest form in the school.
In saying this I have the support of the late High Master of St. Paul's,
who told me that when he was High Master of Manchester Grammar School he
read the whole work with his best pupils. Apart from the mere
interpretation of the Latin, which requires far more scholarship than is
commonly supposed, the book demands, for its full comprehension, at least
such an elementary knowledge of Roman history as may be acquired from the
late Professor Pelham's masterly {\it Outlines.} Furthermore, it demands
intelligence sufficiently developed to understand the exposition of
ethnological, social, religious, and political questions; and this demand
can hardly be satisfied by the Fourth Form.

In conclusion let me translate an extract from a letter relating to Caesar,
which Mommsen wrote in 1894 to Dr. Heinrich Meusel:--- `The noble work
deserves all the labour that can be spent upon it. The enormous difference
between these Commentaries and everything else that is called Roman History
cannot he adequately realized.'

\obeylines
11 D{\sc OURO} P{\sc LACE},
\quad K{\sc ENSINGTON}, W.
\quad\quad {\it November} 13, 1913.
\bye