Note 199 — PART I INTRODUCTORY
Reading edition
Cf. Freeman, Historical Essays, Ser. III, 119: ‘The panegyrist, at all events in addressing princes, some of whom were certainly very far from fools, is not likely to venture on much in the way of mere invention. He will leave out a great deal, he will exaggerate a great deal, he will pervert his own moral sense to praise a great deal that ought to be blamed: but the main facts which he asserts are pretty sure to have happened much as he states them. He is a fairly good authority for positive facts, bad for negative ones.’ Cf. Pichon, Études sur la Litt. lat. dans les Gaules, i. 74.