305 26 586 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL Published monthly from October to June inclusive, by the Classical Association of the Middle West The Classical Journal is published monthly, except in July, August, and September. 1. Concerning membership in the Classical Association of the Middle West and South to Theodore The territory of the Association includes Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, 2. Concerning membership in the Classical Association of New England to George E. Howes, Williams The subscription price for the Classical Journal to residents outside of the territory of the two above- For Great Britain: LUZAC & Co., 46 Great Russell Street, London, England. Yearly subscriptions Claims for missing numbers should be made within the month following the regular month of publication. The publishers expect to supply missing numbers free only when they have been lost in transit. Editorial communications and manuscripts should be sent either to Frank J. Miller, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill., or to Arthur T. Walker, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.; from New England contributors, to Charles D. Adams, Dartmouth College. Fifty reprints of articles will be furnished gratis to authors. Additional copies, if ordered in advance of publication, will be supplied at cost. Entered May 16, 1906, at the Post Office at Chicago as second-class matter under Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. With this number Classical Journal enters upon its sixth volume. Our old readers will at once notice a new departure in the fact that the first number of the volume is issued in October instead of in November. We are glad to announce that this means an issue of nine numbers for the year instead of the eight numbers of former years. The total number of pages will not, however, be increased for the present, although it is hoped that this may be done in another year. The old contract with the University Press under which the first five volumes were published expired with the publication of the June number of the present year. After considering all available choices, the Executive Committee has, by the authorizing vote of the Association, made a new contract with the University of Chicago Press for a period of five years, with such changes as seemed mutually desirable to the Association and the Press. The Journal is to be congratulated upon the continuance of this relation with its publishers, who have contributed much to the establishment of its present standard of material excellence. An important change in the management of one of the departments of the Journal is announced. At the request of Professor J. J. Schlicher, who for several years past has edited the "Reports from the Classical Field" for the Journal, the managing editors have decided to divide this department into two independent departments. It is proposed to continue one of these under the management of Professor Schlicher, and to include therein the survey of general conditions and practice in classical teaching and study, a survey which he has already so successfully instituted and conducted. The other department, under the head of "Current Events," will present everything that is properly newsoccurrences from month to month, meetings, changes in faculties, performances of various kinds, etc. This department will be under the charge of four associate editors who will have each his separate field, and who will together cover the whole field. These fields as outlined will be as follows: (1) the territory covered by the Associations of New England and the Atlantic States; (2) the Middle States west to the Mississippi River; (3) the Southern States, and (4) the territory west of the Mississippi, exclusive of Louisiana and Texas. VIRGIL, AND THE TRANSITION FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN LITERATURE' BY FRANCES J. HOSFORD The last quarter of the fifth century and the sixth century after Christ saw endings and beginnings which may be compared only to the great upheavals of the geologic ages. In 476 Rome, plundered, humbled, helpless in the hands of the northern barbarians, gave up the fiction of sovereignty, and sent the robe of imperial purple to Constantinople. Soon Theodoric, another and a more enlightened Ostrogoth, conquered the conqueror of Rome, but perhaps the most far-reaching result of his splendid reign was the establishment of the monasteries of Cassiodorus at Squilace, and of St. Benedict at Monte Cassino-the initial step of the mediaeval type of monasticism. It was in 529 that St. Benedict first gathered his monks about him in his new retreat at Monte Cassino, upon the site of an ancient temple to Apollo. That was a noteworthy year for the passing of the old as well as for the coming of the new, for it was in 529 that Justinian closed the School of Athens. The brilliant victories of Justinian's general, Belisarius, only served to prove the desperate case of the old civilization, and pestilence completed the work of barbarism. Between them, they changed the whole face of Europe. And straightway the Lombards, fiercest and most ruthless of the northern hordes, were to sweep away Roman and Ostrogoth alike, to end the shadowy remains of imperial power at Ravenna, and to overthrow the Greek cities of southern Italy. When Antharis, son of Cleph, swept the peninsula like a tornado, and, at the southern extreme of Italy, had urged his warhorse into the salt waves, then throwing his spear as far as his mighty arm could hurl it, proclaimed, "This is the end of the power of the Lombards," that moment was indeed the "consummation of the ages." As the Roman knew this planet, it might well be described as the "end of the world." Read before the Latin Club of Columbus, Ohio, February 26, 1910. Who were these barbarians who thus trampled beneath their feet the splendid result of centuries of human effort? We can only guess what wild fens, what frozen steppes, or interminable forests gave them birth, and trained muscles of iron and souls of even sterner stuff. The Huns, with their broad cheekbones and cruel, featureless faces, came and again returned upon their desolated track. But the Germans stayed-men of gigantic stature, with flaxen hair and fierce blue eyes. They were so masterful that as Visigoths in Spain they made the term "blue-blooded" synonymous with hereditary leadership, and so ruthless that as Vandals in Italy and Africa they gave their name to every species of wanton destructiveness. They burned and razed with the power of gods and the ignorance of children. The implements of the higher culture were the most worthless of their playthings. Books made a bonfire, easy to light. Marble statues had a certain value, for they would go into the limekiln better than blocks from the quarry. Bronzes could be melted for armor or weapons, while every artistic object in gold or silver was eagerly sought, to be remolded into their clumsy ornaments or primitive media of exchange. When we remember how many successive waves of destruction swept over Europe, the marvel is, not that so much of the old culture was lost, but that anything remained, for after all, the classic civilization is the foundation upon which is built much that is best and most enduring in our modern life. How is it that it did not pass away, as did the civilizations of Assyria and Phoenicia, to be resurrected only by the toil of the specialist, and to remain quite without significance to our times? The connecting link was the Christian church, as it gradually took upon its primitive simplicity the form of Roman Catholicism. Persecuted in the days of the Empire's splendor, flourishing in its decadence, the church came to absorb into its bosom the Roman genius for organization and government. The glory of Roman dominion did not fade. It passed from temporal to spiritual. The church conquered the conquerors of the civilized world. It met fire and sword with the symbol of the cross, and blood-stained warriors paused in their work of destruction, and, kneeling before unarmed priests, craved the rite of baptism. It did not make these wild |