2110-6-5-13

11, Ridgmont Road, St.Albans.

26th July, 1933.

Dear Mr. Buchan,

It is very kind of you to find time to write me and to send so welcome a letter. I am very glad indeed that you see reason in some of my points and that you have realised that I wrote in no unfriendly spirit. I may perhaps confess that my personal feeling about Caesar was created entirely by his own writings, which I read through in the Summer of 1929 when I was preparing a little book on Great Writers of Rome for Benn's Sixpenny Series. My feeling against Mommsen's really unscrupulous treatment of ancient evidence is of very old standing; but it mainly arose from things for which the general reader cares little; and it wasn't until I decided to write this paper that I looked into the evidence of Caesar's conduct in detail, and it seemed to me to confirm my unpleasant impressions to a quite surprising

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degree. A writer in the Manchester Guardian, commenting on my conclusions, quoted Lord Acton's saying about Napoleon - that he was as great as a man can be without virtue.

I wish I could have the privilege of meeting you more often at the Athenaeum; but I am rarely there except at lunch. Meanwhile accept my very sincere thanks for your generous letter, and believe me,

Very truly yours,

R.S. Conway