430 
EDITIONS. 
Art. I. Anacreontis Odaria, ad Textus Barnesiani fidem emendata accedunt varie Lec 
tiones, eurd Envarbi Forster, 4. M. 
ANACREON is an author who has 
in several instances been selected b 
eminent printers, as a subject for their 
exhibition of the beauties of the typo- 
graphic art; and the small size of the 
volume, and the sprightly gracefulness 
and popularity of the pieces of which it 
consists, render it very well adapted for 
this purpose. The readings of this edi- 
tion do not differ, except in a very few 
instances, from those of Barnes ; but it 
TRANSLATIONS. . 
Art. Il. Tie Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, translated into English Verse, with 
Notes critical, hisiorical, and explanatory, and Dissertations, by Wittiam PRESTON, 
Esq. M.R.J. A. In Three Vols. Svo. 
APOLLONIUS, author of the Ar- 
gonautics, was a writer of considerable 
merit in the Alexandrian school, which 
flourished in Egypt with great reputa- 
tion under the dynasty of the Ptolemies. 
He is by some authors ranked among 
the seven poets of pre-eminent rank, who 
were considered as worthy to compose 
a constellation of genius under the name 
of the Pleiades. ‘he particulars of his 
history, which have reached us, are 
scanty. The short Greek lives which 
are sometimes prefixed to his poem, in- 
form us that he was by birth an Alex- 
andrian; that he studied under the di- 
rection of the poet Callimachus, and at 
an early period of life published the first 
edition of the Argonautics, which was 
so unfavourably received, that unable 
to support the disgrace, which he con- 
sidered as consequent upon his failure, 
he retreated to Rhodes; from his resi- 
dence in which island he probably as- 
sumed or derived his surname. Hav- 
ing here employed himself in a careful 
revision of his work, he published it a 
second time; and in this amended form 
it experienced from the Rhodians a re- 
ception so favourable as to procure for 
its author the honours of the state. He 
is said to have afterwards returned to 
his native city; to have lived there in 
great reputation, and to have succeed- 
ed Eratosthenes in the charge of the 
Alexandrian library. We are told, that 
at one period cf his life he was en- 
gaged in a bitter contest with Callima- 
ANCIENT CLASSICS. 
8vo, pp. 1350. 
is an exquisite specimen of typograpicat 
skill, The letters are oblique; like the 
Italic form of the Latin letters. The 
only fault which we have to find is, that 
the circumflex accent approaches too 
nearly to a straight line, so as sometimes 
to be scarcely distinguishable from it 
without minute attention. This edition 
is correctly printed, though it is not, 
what some pains should have been takem 
to render it, absolutely immaculate. 
chus his master. This enmity was, how- 
ever, probably either extinguished du~ 
ring the lives of the two poets, or the 
death of Callimachus effaced from the 
mind of his surviving rival, the traces 
of his resentment, if, according to one. 
of the anonymous biographers, the ashes 
of the disciple were deposited in the 
same tomb with those of his master. 
Apollonius appears to have been a 
man of great learning. Several of his 
works are mentioned by the ancients, of 
which only the poem ot the Argonautics 
has descended to the present time. An 
epigram of two lines is extant, which is 
attributed to this author, and appears to 
have been written during his contention 
with Callimachus. A few verses of the 
original edition of the Argonautics are 
scattered among the Greek scholia, 
These are nearly all the circumstances 
respecting the life of the poet, of which 
we are in possession; and the supple- 
mentary essays, which are annexed to 
the present work, are extended by the 
aid of reflections, the introduction of 
contemporary anecdote, the description 
of the circumstances and manners of the 
age,and other similar topics, into a narra- 
tive of almost thirty closely printed pages.. 
The poem of the Argonautics, from 
the judgments of Quintilian and Lon- 
ginus, does not appear to have been 
very popular with the ancients ; and the 
superior merit and great facility of 
Homer have caused him to be compa- 
ratively neglected by modern critics and 
