做學問有多種選擇，可以通過找材料來寫文章，也可以在認真研讀原典的基礎上來發現問題並闡述自己的看法。我在先生們的影響下，選擇了後者。雖然所花的時間較長，但收效明顯。主要表現在：第一，書中之敘事已由“平麵”文獻轉成了“立體”形象，好像是客觀的事件就發生在我的眼前，待我細品，等我評判。第二，產生問題之途徑也由“我找材料”發展至“材料找我”，由“我找問題”轉變為“問題找我”。我由衷地感謝洛伊伯古典叢書及眾多中譯作者給我帶來的便利。我在這些年主要閱讀的原典作品有：
1.Ammianus Marcellinus.Roman History
2.Appian.The Civil Wars
3.Apuleius.Metamorphoses
4.Arrian.Anabasis of Alexander
5.Athenaeus.The Deipnosophists
6.Aulus Gellius.Attic Nights
7.Ausonius. Poems
8.Caesar.Alexandrian War.African War.Spanish War
9.Caesar.The Gallic War
10.Caesar.The Civil Wars
11.Cato.On Agriculture
12.Cicero.Letters to Atticus
13.Cicero.On the Republic，On the Laws，On Duties
14.Cicero.Philippics
15.Claudian.Panegyric on Probinus and Olybrius.Against Rufinus 1 and 2.War Against Gildo.Against Eutropius 1 and 2.Fescennine Verses on the Marriage of Honorius.Epithalamium of Honorius and Maria.Panegyrics on the Third and Fourth Consulships of Honorius.Panegyric on the Consulship of Manlius.On Stilicho’s Consulship 1
16.Claudian.On Stilicho’s Consulship 2-3.Panegyric on the Sixth Consulship of Honorius.The Gothic War.Shorter Poems.Rape of Proserpina
17.Columella.On Agriculture
18.Cornelius Nepos.On Great Generals.On Historians
19.Dio Cassius.Roman History
20.Diodorus Siculus.Library of History
21.Dionysius of Halicarnassus.Roman Antiquities
22.Florus.Epitome of Roman History
23.Herodian.History of the Empire
24.Horace.Odes and Epodes