When I recall my earliest impressions of Roman history I find that M. Crassus figures in them as a not very important and rather unattractive person. In contrast with Caesar, who conquered Gaul, he was defeated by the Parthians; and he accumulated wealth in a thoroughly sordid fashion and to a sordid extent. This impression was probably derived from the standard textbooks. For example, Mommsen's Roman History says: ‘Marcus Crassus had for years been reckoned among the heads of the three-headed monster without any proper title to be so included. He served as a makeweight to trim the balance between the real regents Pompeius and Caesar, or, to speak more accurately, he threw his weight into the scale of Caesar against Pompeius. The part of a supernumerary colleague is not a very honourable one; but Crassus was never hindered by any keen sense of honour from pursuing his own advantage. He was a merchant and was open to negotiation.’

Greece & Rome, Second Series, ii (1955), 138, n. 3: for ‘By J. B. Skemp’ read ‘By H. LI. Hudson-Williams’. Both are Professors of Greek in Durham University: Professor Skemp in the Durham Division, and Professor Hudson-Williams in the Newcastle Division. This confusion, for which the Reviews Editor was not responsible, is much regretted.

Mr. Francis Elliot's eloquent plea for substituting the ‘beautiful modern Greek pronunciation’ for the so-called ‘reformed’ pronunciation of the ancient language is at first sight very attractive, and there is no doubt that the reformed pronunciation is itself in need of some reforming. I would agree that the modern language in the mouths of most Greeks is more beautiful than the ancient language in the mouths of most Englishmen—this is partly due to the Englishman's inability or reluctance to fit his mouth to continental vowels and consonants—and that the modern Greek way of stressing the syllables bearing the acute or circumflex accent should be universally adopted in our schools instead of being the hobby of a few eccentric teachers. The ancient Greek accent was no doubt one of pitch, but there are traces of the transformation of this into a stress accent as early as the fourth century a.d.; in any event there is a tendency for a higher-pitched syllable to carry a stress with it, whereas there is no case at all for foisting the Latin trisyllabic rule of stress on to ancient Greek. Even to utter the stressed syllables at a higher pitch is no impossible feat.