NOTES TO THE ROMAN TRAITOR.
It is perhaps hardly necessary to state, that the oration of
Cicero in the 37th page of the second volume, those of Cæsar
and Cato in the 137th and 142d pages, and that of Catiline
in the 217th page of the same, are all literal translations from
the actual speeches delivered on those occasions, and recorded by
Cicero and Sallust.
It was absolutely necessary for the truth and spirit of the romance,
that these speeches should be inserted; and the author
considered that it would be equally vain and absurd to attempt
fictitious orations, when these master-pieces of ancient eloquence
were extant.
This brief explanation made, no farther notes will, I believe,
be found necessary; as the few Latin words which occur in
the body of the work are explained therein; and the costumes
and customs are described so much in detail, that they will be
readily comprehended even by the unclassical reader.
A table is appended, containing the Roman and English Calendars
of the three months during which all the events of the
conspiracy occurred, illustrating the complicated and awkward
mode of Roman computation; and this, I believe, is all that is
needful in the way of simplifying or elucidating the narrative.
