Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source:
http://www.archive.org/details/acaptiveromanea00dahngoog
2. Footnote is at the end of the book.
The author of the romance "A Captive of the RomanEagles"--published inGermany under the title of "Bissula"--is one of the most distinguishednovelists of the present day in his own country, and will doubtless beequally appreciated by Americans.
Like Dr. Georg Ebers, he has based his historical novels uponthe solidfoundation of earnest study. The field he has chosen is principally theperiod of the conflicts between Germany and Rome, and the struggles forsupremacy of the various peoples in the territory now occupied byGermany, Switzerland, and France, and he describes with vivid colorsand dramatic power the life of those far-off days.
Professor Dahn is a native of Hamburg, but spent his childhoodinMunich, always a centre of intellectual life, and, under the stimulusof its circle of writers, his poetic talent developed early. He studiedlaw, philosophy, and history in Munich and Berlin. In 1862 he was madeProfessor in the University of Wurzburg, in 1872 in Königsberg, and in1888 he was called to a chair in the University of Breslau, where, inthe intervals of his professional duties, he has devoted himself to hisbrilliant literary work.
The warm welcome accorded to my translations of the novels ofEbers,whose hold upon the affections of American readers has proved soenduring, inspires the hope that "A Captive of the Roman Eagles" mayalso receive a cordial recognition from our public.
Mary J. Safford.
Washington, D. C., June 10, 1902.
Whoever has been at Friedrichshafen on beautiful LakeConstance, on aclear August day, and watched the sun setting in splendor behind thetops of the beeches of Manzell; whoever has seen the waves of the lakeand the snow-capped peaks of the Alps from Sentis to the AllgauMountains glow in the crimson light, while the notes of the Ave Mariafloat softly over forest, meadow, and water, will treasure the memoryof the peaceful scene throughout his whole life. To this region thestory of little Bissula leads us.
But in that period--the year 378--the whole northern shore ofthe"Venetus Lacus" (Lake Constance) looked somewhat desolate, and often byno means peaceful. The lowlands were covered with primeval forests andfens--only here and there a few scattered settlements appeared onpatches of parched tilled land.
At that time the lake covered a much more extensive tract ofcountrythan now, and a still larger space was occupied by a marshy territorybetween the water and the meadow