VII

PREFACE.

demand. For the subject matter treated by Germanicus is such that you can not infrequently define what must necessarily be read, even if the conjecture is not supported by the authority of any codex, or if the readings of the codices and editions contradict it. Therefore, for my part, I have looked not only to the text of Grotius—which differs little from the Morellian—for the text of Germanicus, which I have given to be transcribed for this work from the Morellian edition (Paris, 1559, quarto), but I have also received very many emendations brought forward in the notes by Grotius, though not without good reason. Sometimes I have even departed from the Grotian reading, and I have retained either the vulgate text, or I have ordered my own conjecture, which seemed more probable, to move into the text. Altogether, I considered it better to present the fragments of Germanicus in such a way that they at least possessed a sound sense, even if the sincerity of the reading might be doubted, rather than to preserve an ancient reading that was devoid of any sense. I have added, moreover, the fragments