THE RHETORICA OF PHILODEMUS. 



Introduction. 



The excavations at Herculaneum in the eighteenth century, 

 so rich in resuhs for the student of classical archaeology, pro- 

 duced another treasure which aroused the greatest interest in the 

 learned world, and seemed for a time likely to overshadow in 

 its importance the additions which these excavations made to 

 our knowledge of ancient sculpture. In one of the villas were 

 found many charred papyrus rolls. At first they were not recog- 

 nized as such, and many were destroyed before the discovery 

 was made that they were the remains of a very extensive private 

 library. Even then the task was hardly begun, for it was found 

 impossible at that time to unroll the papyri; many were cut apart 

 and sadly mutilated before a successful method was devised. 

 Thereafter the w^ork of unrolling and deciphering them was 

 undertaken, and has continued, though with very serious inter- 

 ruptions, to the present time. Two series of Herculanensia Volu- 

 mina totaling twenty-one volumes were published in Naples, and 

 a third series is now planned, of which the first volume has 

 already appeared.^ In addition to these editions copies of many 

 of the rolls were made under the direction of English scholars 

 early in the last century. These copies are preserved at Oxford; 

 some have been published.- These do not exhaust the Hercula- 

 nean discoveries, but are fairly representative of the whole mass 

 of papyri. 



The expectations aroused in the scholarly world by the dis- 

 covery of these papyri have been realized only to a small degree. 

 For instead of finding the lost works of some master of Greek 

 literature, it was seen that the library was composed of philo- 

 sophical works, almost entirely of the Epicurean school ; nor 

 were the volumes written by the greatest of the Epicureans, but 



^ Herculanensium Voluminum quae supersunt XI Tom. Naples, 1793-1855. 

 Vol. VII did not appear. Herculanensium Voluminum quae supersunt 

 collectio altera, XI Tom. Naples, 1862-1876. Herculanensium Voluminum 

 quae supersunt collectio tertia, Tom. I, Milan, 1914. 



^Herculanensium Voluminum Ps. I, II, Oxford, 1824, 1825; W. Scott, 

 Fragmenta Herculanensia, Oxford, 1885. 



