the Roman Forum mimic the sylph’srnbody and heavy breasts of Barbie ratherrnthan the broad hips and moderate cleavagernof the original sculpture. Forgeriesrnhave frequently appealed to us becausernthey are more attractive than reality, andrnthey are exposed as false only when ourrnsense of beauty has altered enough tornmake their appearance jar. For manyrnvears, beginning in 1933, two Etruscanrntcrra-cotta warriors graced the entrancernto New York’s Metropolitan Museum ofrnArt. Because they were designed as pastichesrnof elements borrowed from bothrnGreek and Etruscan art, their relativelyrnHellcnized form seemed supremelyrnbeautiful, as stunning an improvementrno’cr what had previoush’ been known ofrnEtruscan work as the same museum’srngenuine Euphronios crater (illegallyrnripped, it must be said, from an Etruscanrntomb) would be for a later generation’srnknowledge of that painter’s skill. Thernterra-cotta warriors are now amusingrnrather than beautiful, their author, AlfredornAdolfo Fioravanti, joining the ranksrnof Alceo Dossena as a testament to thernvibrant tradition of Italian artisticrnforgery. What wc have lost in losingrnthem is the force of the fantasy they oncerncompelled; their exposure represents therngain we have made by coming to appreciaternEtruscan art on its own terms ratherrnthan the terms we have imposed upon it.rnTime is the most reliable rcvealer ofrnforgery; human cleverness keeps up withrneverv other expedient.rnIngrid D. Rowland is an assistant professorrnof art at the University of Chicago.rnGive ‘Em Hell,rnHarricernby William F. Wyatt, Jr.rnGetting Latin RightrnI don’t like to write such, but this noternwill have a crotchety tone. I havernfound in reading David McCullough’srnTruman only one misprint. On page 956rnthe Latin word firmissime is spelled firmissinernin a Latin citation delivered onrnthe occasion of Truman’s receiving anrnhonorary degree from Oxford. An Englishrntranslation precedes, and there isrnthus no loss of clarity and no loss ofrnmeaning. There is a loss of respect,rnthough, both for the text as it was originallyrndelivered and for the language inrnwhich it was couched. If it was importantrnenough to include the Latin, it wasrnimportant enough to get it right.rnEditors owe it to their readers to be accuraternin transcribing foreign languages,rnparticularly ones that have been part ofrnthe Western cultural heritage. Failure tornget the Latin right implies that it is notrnimportant to get the Latin right, that therntradition it represents is not a significantrnone. An attitude like this is of a piecernwith the currently fashionable denigrationrnof Western culture.rnThe Library of America has been doingrna marvelous job presenting reliablerntexts of important American works tornthe American public. Particulady do Irnfind this the case with its volume of Jefferson’srnwritings. I have enjoyed readingrnJefferson’s thoughts and have learned arnlot. And yet on page 1225, where Jeffersonrnquotes the well-known concludingrnlines of Horace’s Epistles (I, 6.67-8),rnvive, vale, siquid novisti rectiusrnillis,rnCandidas imperti; si nil, his uterernmecum,rnthe word (?) ulere appears instead ofrnutere, rendering the Latin meaningless.rnA trivial error, perhaps, but not in context.rnJefferson was writing here to JamesrnMadison (May 13,1810), then President.rnJefferson knew his Horace and chose hisrnquote wisely: he could assume thatrnMadison would recognize the citation.rnEditors should be respectful, if not ofrnLatin, at least of Presidents of the UnitedrnStates.rnThe error is easy to correct. Less easyrnis the muddle made of Greek in thernsame volume. Jefferson knew Greek,rnread it routinely, and used it in his writings.rnIn an eariy work on English prosodyrn(1786) he had occasion to quote threernlines of Greek. I could make sense of thernfirst two because, though bollixed up,rnthey were familiar to me. The third forrnlong remained a complete muddle. Irngive the line in English transliteration,rnomitting some typographical oddities:rnmetsa de tem’che theoisi, to/ndmetron estinrnagison. What is one to make of this?rnThere are Greek words in it, but metsa,rntem’che, agison are not Greek by anyrnstretch of the imagination. And whatrnmight to / nd be?rnI finally found the line in the Phocylidea,rnline 98: metra de teuche theoisi, torngar metron estin ariston. Now this actuallyrnmakes sense—modern editions preferrngooisi to theoisi—in Greek and illustratesrnJefferson’s point, for though metrarnand metron are forms of the same word,rntheir first syllables have different metricalrnweights. Through diligent search ofrnGreek texts one can elicit Jefferson’s originalrnintent. There remains the question,rnthough: Who made the mistake? Jefferson?rnEditor? Printer? Was Jeffersonrnperhaps not so proficient with Greekrntexts as we are led to believe? This seemsrnunlikely, but we’d like to know. We canrnat least be certain that the publisher didrnnot think it important to present a Greekrntext faithful to the original.rnIn fact, he had no reason to believernthat the text was not accurate, for hernsimply copies here the text as it was presentedrn(for the first time) in The Writmgsrnof Thomas Jefferson, edited by A.A. Lipscombrn&• A.E. Bergh in 1903. These editorsrnintroduced both the text and its errorsrnto Jefferson’s readers, errors notrncorrected in the Library of America version.rnThe Library misleads, though,rnwhen on the dust jacket it maintains thatrnLIBERAL ARTSrnONE NATION INDIVISIBLE?rnAs reported in the newsletter Gleanings, the Detroit Board of Education recentlyrndebated removing the American flag from its meeting room—on the basis that inrnour multicultural society the flag doesn’t represent many of our cultures. Gleaningsrnwonders whether this was inspired by the 500 students in Syracuse, New York,rnwho refused to pledge allegiance to the flag in school because it was offensivernto them.rnSEPTEMBER 1993/45rnrnrn