| | | | The learned Niebuhr, as he is generally termed, has had the | advantage of at once puzzling and alarming the critics in the | Reviews; and they, who are so bold in | general, content themselves with giving extracts from his work, | ( The Fragment of a History of Rome; ) | and without venturing on any opinion, finish as they began, by | calling him the learned author, and so wash their hands of him. | It appears, however, that there is ample room for remark, ~~ in | fact, great necessity for investigating, sifting, and curtailing his | sweeping alterations, emendations, and decisions. Niebuhr's | claim to belief without examination, which, however, he puts | forth with great candour and modesty, on the score of his deep | researches, is unreasonable, and will never be granted to him; not | only because blind assent, without inquiry, is repugnant to the | opinions of the day, but also, because we are aware that men of | genius are particularly liable to self-deception; and the very | circumstance of poring long over a subject, which is the | foundation of the claim above-mentioned, leads to the | imagination becoming heated, and seeing not only things | difficult to perceive, but also those which do not exist otherwise | than in the

"mind's eye."

Niebuhr has an easy method of | discrediting and getting rid of such events as stand in his way. He | terms the History of the Kings of Rome, as given in Livy and | other ancient authors, a

"Lay,"

or rather, Lays; not that any | poetry exists, or is stated to have existed on the subject, but he | thinks it likely that lays may have been written, contain accounts | of the ancient Roman monarchy; from which poems he assumes | that the prose history which we read, may have been taken. He | gradually becomes sure on the point, and forthwith proceeds to | state it as a fact. | Of the more recent history, likewise, he clears away such facts as | he thinks proper, by terming them, not lays, but

"Legends."

| Being inclined, however, to question this peremptory manner of | demolishing all our old scholastic and deeply-imprinted ideas, I | determined to endeavour to follow this author through some of | his proofs, and see if all was right. I took at hazard the | well-known

"Legend"

of Cincinnatus, raised from the plough | to be Dictator of Rome. On this story the learned German is at | once sarcastic, humourous, and witty, (after a fashion;) | notwithstanding which, if I, like himself, have not been deceived | by my imagination, I think we shall be able to show that his | reasons for discrediting Livy on this point are groundless. | I do not charge him with intentional unfairness; but the | incorrectness is quite extraordinary. | This certainly, is only one out of a thousand of his emendations; | and others, with more leisure, more ability, and, above all, more | learning, may, if they will search for, probably find similar | inaccuracies. | This very story of Cincinnatus, and Niebuhr's exposure of it, are, | given and amplified in the Foreign Quarterly | Review, with much praise to the learned author, and | without the slightest doubt or surmise of any possibility of his | being in error. | The following is the story given from Livy by Niebuhr: ~~ | | This statement, and the victory obtained over the AEquians by | the Dictator, Cincinnatus, are thus ridiculed and disposed of by | Niebuhr: ~~ | | | | On this part of the story, the Foreign | Quarterly is even more express; stating that | The story, or rather the legend, is | therefore scouted and discredited, because ~~ | 1st, The men are stated to have carried | twelve palisades, instead of five, (the usual number.) | 2d, Because, between sunset and | midnight, they marched to Algidus, a distance of twenty miles. | 3d, Because they dug trenches without | being perceived by the AEquians. And Lastly, | (and which creates the greatest mirth in the author,) | Because the Roman soldiers shouted so as to be heard by their | comrades, but yet were not heard by the intervening enemy. | Yet, taking all this without contradiction, even as stated, we do | not find the matter so clearly and indisputably a

"legend"

| as is assumed. However, opinion is free; and we are not obliged to | leave the matter so in doubt; for, 1st, As | to the palisades, possibly the soldiers were quite able to carry | them; or, very possibly, they might have assistances in their | journey. There seems very little to found an argument, one way | or the other, as to these palisades. As to the Algidus, Niebuhr | make a gross and remarkable misstatement: the distance is | twelve miles from Rome, and not twenty; which, we imagine, | makes all the difference. And it would be well if some | explanation were given of so great a mistake; one, indeed, which | should prevent our taking for granted any of Niebuhr's | statements. | With regard to the intrenchment being cast up unperceived; in | the middle of the night, there is nothing worthy of reply in the | objection. | Lastly (and which is very | extraordinary,) Niebuhr's assertion, that the historian represents | the shouting of the Romans as heard by their comrades alone, is | utterly confounded; and the wit concerning the gods rendering | the AEquians deaf, etcetera etcetera. | is quite thrown away. Livy's | statement is express, that the | | Postscript ~~ | As Niebuhr is to set all the ancient history right, so his | translators intend to rectify the modern spelling; and thus their | translation is throughout disfigured with

"promist, attacht, reacht, | forein, soverein,"

etcetera etcetera | and numerous other elegances and | improvements. We rather think the "t," though, perhaps, | allowable in the participle-past, is not so in the preterperfect | tense; but in the translation it is used almost always in both cases.