"The imperfect manuscript, a translation of which is now presented to the American public,was discovered in the Library of the Vatican, by Professor Angelo Mai; a person of singularingenuity in the detection of those Palimpsests whose contents were written upon ancientwritings partially erased. A fac simile of part of the MSS. accompanies this work. TheRepublic of Cicero was greatly cherished by those who lived in and near his times; ofwhich occasional evidences are found in the writings of antiquity. But the tyranny of theemperors bridled the Romans so soon after its appearance, that Horace, Virgil, Seneca,Quintilian, Pliny, and even Tacitus, have not dared to praise it, lest they should bring downvengeance upon themselves."