social life of the Romans. I have tried to group round the central
figure of Cicero various sketches of men and manners, and so to give my
readers some idea of what life actually was in Rome, and the provinces
of Rome, during the first six decades--to speak roughly--of the first
century B.C. I speak of Cicero as the "central figure," not as judging
him to be the most important man of the time, but because it is from
him, from his speeches and letters, that we chiefly derive the
information of which I have here made use. Hence it follows that I give,
not indeed a life of the great orator, but a sketch of his personality
and career. I have been obliged also to trespass on the domain of
history: speaking of Cicero, I was obliged to speak also of Caesar and
of Pompey, of Cato and of Antony, and to give a narrative, which I have
striven to make as brief as possible, of their military achievements and
political action. I must apologize for seeming to speak dogmatically on
some questions which have been much disputed. It would have been
obviously inconsistent with the character of the book to give the
opposing arguments; and my only course was to state simply conclusions
which I had done my best to make correct.

I have to acknowledge my obligations to Marquardt's _Privat-Leben der
Romer_, Mr. Capes' _University Life in Ancient Athens_, and Mr. Watson's
_Select Letters of Cicero_, I have also made frequent use of Mr. Anthony
Trollope's _Life of Cicero_, a work full of sound sense, though
curiously deficient in scholarship.

The publishers and myself hope that the illustrations, giving as there
is good reason to believe they do the veritable likenesses of some of
the chief actors in the scenes described, will have a special interest.
It is not till we come down to comparatively recent times that we find
art again lending the same aid to the understanding of history.