Fasti
Ovid
Latin
We will print you a perfectly bound paperback of your selected title and send it to you at your nominated address
Below is a summary of Fasti
Distributed Proofreading Team.
PUBLII OVIDII NASONIS FASTORUM
LIBRI VI.
OVID'S FASTI;
NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
THOMAS KEIGHTLEY,
Author of The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, History of Greece,
History of Rome, etc.
Sex ego Fastorum scripsi, totidemque libellos;
Cumque suo finem mense volumen habet.
OVID. TRIST. II. 549.
PREFACE
No one, I should think, who has even done nothing more than look into
Ovid's Fasti, will refuse his assent to the following words of Hercules
Ciofanus, one of the earliest editors of this poem: _Ex omnibus_, says
he, _veterum poetarum monumentis nullum hodierno die exstat opus, quod,
aut eruditione aut rebus quae ad Romanam antiquitatem cognoscendam
pertineant, hos Ovidii Fastorum libros antecellat_. In effect we have
here ancient Roman history, religion, mythology, manners and customs, and
moreover much Grecian mythology, and that portion of the ancient
astronomy which regards the rising and setting of the different
constellations. These altogether form a wide field of knowledge; and in
my opinion there is not, in the whole compass of classical literature, a
work better calculated to be put into the hands of students.
Accordingly the Fasti are read at some of our great public schools and at
several of the private ones, and I have lately had the gratification of
seeing this very edition adopted at one of the most eminent of the great
schools. The name of the master of that school, did I feel myself at
liberty to mention it, would be a warrant for the goodness, at least the
relative goodness, of the present edition.
At the same time I will candidly confess that the work falls far short of
my own ideas of perfection in this department of literature. Circumstances,
which it is needless to mention, caused it to be executed in a very hurried
manner and without the necessary apparatus of books. It was in fact
undertaken, written, and printed in little more than two months. This is
mentioned in explanation of, not in excuse for, its defects--for no such
excuse should be admitted.
The text is that of Krebs, the latest German editor; from which however I
have occasionally departed, especially in the punctuation. In the notes
will be found the most important various readings of the fifty-eight MSS.
of this poem which have been collated. I have also adopted the Calendar
of Krebs' edition, as being on the whole the best, and as its copiousness
enables it to supply the place of arguments to the several books.
In the Introduction I have given such matter as the student should be
acquainted with previous to commencing the poem. The study of it will, I
trust, be found to be of advantage. My plan in writing the notes was, to
be as concise as was compatible with a full elucidation of the meaning of
the author. While therefore no difficult passage is left without at least
an attempt at explaining it, I have avoided swelling out my notes with
mythic or historic notices and narrations which may be found in the
Classical Dictionary. I suppose, for example, the student to know, or to
be able easily to discover, who Hercules and Romulus were, and where
Mount Haemus lies. Perhaps it would have been better if the notes on the
first two or three books had been more copious; those on the three last
are, I believe, sufficiently so.
Many references will be found to Niebuhr's History of Rome, and to my own
Mythology of Greece and Italy. For those to the former work I may perhaps
be entitled to thanks, as leading the attention to the noble discoveries
of the Bacon of history, as he is justly styled by Dr. Arnold. This last
eminent scholar is himself engaged on a History of Rome, of which apart
has appeared, and which promises to form a permanent portion of our
historic literature. In my own epitome of the Roman history sufficient
information on the portions of it alluded to will be found by those who
have not access to the work of Niebuhr. For the accuracy and fidelity of
the translation of Niebuhr's history by my friends Hare and Thirlwall, I
can pledge myself without any reservation. It may be useful here to add,
that the dates in the following notes are those of the Varronian
chronology, and not the Catonian as in my History of Rome.
With respect to my Mythology, I may boldly say it is the only work on the
subject in our language. Even the first edition (which is the one
referred to in the notes) received the approbation of the most competent
Back