做学问有多种选择，可以通过找材料来写文章，也可以在认真研读原典的基础上来发现问题并阐述自己的看法。我在先生们的影响下，选择了后者。虽然所花的时间较长，但收效明显。主要表现在：第一，书中之叙事已由“平面”文献转成了“立体”形象，好像是客观的事件就发生在我的眼前，待我细品，等我评判。第二，产生问题之途径也由“我找材料”发展至“材料找我”，由“我找问题”转变为“问题找我”。我由衷地感谢洛伊伯古典丛书及众多中译作者给我带来的便利。我在这些年主要阅读的原典作品有：
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