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TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
It is to the patient industry of the historians of Germany, that we are indebted for the first production of Manuals of history, and for those synchronistic tables which have so much facilitated the systematic study of ancient history; and among the various and profound treatises of this class which enrich and adorn their literature, the works of Heeren are distinguished by their extended range of enquiry, as well as by the minute accuracy of their details. The work before us embodies the result
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PREFACE
PREFACE
In adding to the number of Manuals on Ancient History already published, I feel myself bound to give an account of the plan on which the present has been executed. It was at first designed to be used in my public lectures, and from them it has grown up to what it now is. In them I did not consider it necessary to state all we know or think we know of ancient history. Many facts highly interesting to the learned historian are not adapted for public lectures. It was therefore my great object to ma
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PREFACE
PREFACE
The call for a second edition of my Manual imposes upon me an obligation to supply the deficiencies of my former work. Corrections have been carefully made, and many parts completely re-written. A select list of books which treat of the respective departments of my subject is now first added; the former edition containing only references to the sources from which my facts were derived. This, I trust, will be considered an essential service to the friends of historical science, more especially th
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
I. The sources of ancient history may be ranged under two heads; the ancient writers, and the monuments still extant. The various writers will be mentioned in their proper places, at the different divisions of this work. A general view of the ancient monuments, so far as they are sources of history, will be found in: Oberlin , Orbis antiqui monumentis suis illustrati primæ lineæ . Argentorati, 1790. Extremely defective, as many discoveries have been made since it was published. II. General Treat
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I.—ASIATIC NATIONS.
I.—ASIATIC NATIONS.
See the Introduction to Heeren's Researches into the Politics and Commerce of the Nations of Antiquity, prefixed to vol. 1 of the African Nations. Oxford, 1831. 1. Asia is the largest and the most favourably situated of the great divisions of the globe. Its superficial contents are 11,200,000 square geogr. miles; while those of Africa do not exceed 4,780,000; and those of Europe are not more than 2,560,000. As to situation, it comprises the greatest portion of the northern temperate zone. Compar
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II. AFRICAN NATIONS.
II. AFRICAN NATIONS.
See A. H. L. Heeren's Historical Researches , etc. African Nations. 2 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1831. The dynasty of Sabaco, Seuechus, and Tarhaco in Meroe, who as conquerors subjected Upper Egypt, is comprised between B. C. 800—700. Their names likewise have been already discovered on monuments; some at Abydos in Egypt, others in Nubia. 6. The Egyptian monarchy, however, at length fell, and was replaced by an oligarchy; (or perhaps a return was only made to the division of the earlier kingdoms;) twelv
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History of the Persian Empire, from B. C. 560—330.
History of the Persian Empire, from B. C. 560—330.
Sources. Preservation of historic records among the Persians themselves under the form of royal annals; origin and nature of those annals. As these have been destroyed, we are obliged to deduce the history from foreign writers, some of whom, however, availed themselves of the Persian annals. 1. Greeks : their authority as writers, contemporary, but not always sufficiently acquainted with the east. ( a ) Ctesias. His court history compiled from Persian annals, would be the principal work did we p
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Geographical Outline.
Geographical Outline.
Greece is bounded on the north by the Cambunian mountains, which separate it from Macedonia; on the south and east by the Ægæan, on the west by the Ionian sea. its dimensions: Greatest length from south to north = 220 geog. miles, greatest breadth from west to east, = 140 geog. miles. Superficial contents, = 29,600 square miles.—Principal rivers: rivers: the Peneus, which discharges its waters into the Ægæan, and the Achelous, which flows into the Ionian sea. Advantages in respect to fertility,
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FIRST PERIOD.
FIRST PERIOD.
The most ancient traditional history, down to the Trojan war, about B. C. 1200. Sources: On the formation and progress of history among the Greeks. Preliminary enquiry into the peculiarities of Grecian mythology in a historical point of view, as comprising the most ancient history of the national tribes and heroes. A history rich in itself, on account of the number of tribes and their leaders; but embellished and altered in various ways by the poets, particularly the great early epic writers, an
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SECOND PERIOD.
SECOND PERIOD.
From the Trojan war to the breaking out of the Persian war, B. C. 1200—500. Sources. On no portion of the Grecian history is our information so scanty as upon this long period, in which we can be hardly said to have more than a general knowledge of many of the most important events. As in the foregoing period, its commencement is but a traditional and poetical history. It was not till towards the end of it that the use of writing became common among the Greeks; add to which the period itself was
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THIRD PERIOD.
THIRD PERIOD.
From the commencement of the Persian wars to the time of Alexander the Great, B. C. 500—336. 32. A general peace is concluded in Greece through the mediation of the Persians, (who wish to obtain auxiliaries against the Egyptians,) under the condition that all the Grecian cities shall be free: it is acceded to by Sparta and Athens, but rejected by Thebes, because she cannot admit the condition without again falling under the Spartan yoke. In fact, the lofty language used by Epaminondas, as envoy
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FIRST PERIOD.
FIRST PERIOD.
From its origin to the death of Alexander the Great. B. C. 800—323. Sources. We have no historian who wrote, particularly, on Macedonia, before the time of Alexander. The facts relative to the earlier history previous to Philip are collected from Diodorus, Justin, Thucydides, and Arrian; from Diodorus more especially. In consequence of the loss of the other historians, Diodorus is the chief authority for the history of Philip; the speeches of Demosthenes and Æschines must likewise be consulted,
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SECOND PERIOD.
SECOND PERIOD.
History of the Macedonian monarchy, from the death of Alexander the Great to the battle of Ipsus, B. C. 323—301. To enable the reader to take a general view, the history of the European events is resumed below, under the head of the history of Macedonia Proper. Sources. Diodorus, lib. xviii—xx. is the great authority for this portion of history. He compiled mostly, for this period, from a contemporary historian, Hieronymus of Cardia. He is followed by Plutarch in the Lives of Eumenes, Demetrius,
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THIRD PERIOD.
THIRD PERIOD.
History of the kingdoms and states which arose upon the dismemberment of the Macedonian Monarchy after the battle of Ipsus. I. History of the Syrian empire under the Seleucidæ , B. C. 312—64. Sources. Neither for the history of the Syrian, nor for that of the Egyptian and Macedonian kingdoms, has any eminent writer been preserved. The fragments of the lost books of Diodorus, and, from the time that these kingdoms became allies of Rome, those of Polybius, several narratives of Livy, the Syriaca o
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HISTORY OF THE ROMAN STATE.
HISTORY OF THE ROMAN STATE.
Introductory remarks on the Geography of Ancient Italy. Italy constitutes a peninsula, bounded on the north by the Alps, on the west and south by the Mediterranean, and on the east by the Adriatic sea. Its greatest length from north to south is 600 geogr. miles; its greatest breadth, taken at the foot of the Alps, is 320 geogr. miles; but that of the peninsula, properly so called, is not more than 120 geogr. miles. Superficial contents, 81,920 sq. geogr. miles. The principal mountain range is th
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FIRST PERIOD.
FIRST PERIOD.
From the foundation of Rome to the conquest of Italy and the commencement of the wars with Carthage, B. C. 754—264, or A. U. C. 1—490. Sources. The most copious author, and, if we except his system of deducing everything connected with Rome from Greece, the most critical of all those who have written on the earlier history of Rome and Italy, is Dionysius Halicarnassensis, in his Archæologia : of this work only the first eleven books, reaching down to the year 443, have been preserved; to these,
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SECOND PERIOD.
SECOND PERIOD.
From the commencement of the war with Carthage to the rise of the civil broils under the Gracchi, B. C. 264—134. Year of Rome, 490—620. Sources. The principal writer for this highly interesting period, in which was laid the foundation of the universal dominion of Rome, is Polybius as far as the year 146, not only in the complete books preserved to us, which come down to 216, but also in the fragments. He is frequently followed by Livy, lib. xxi—xlv. 218—166. Appian, who comes next, does not conf
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THIRD PERIOD.
THIRD PERIOD.
From the beginning of the civil broils under the Gracchi, to the fall of the republic. B. C. 134—30. Year of Rome, 620—724. 25. The fall of Mithridates raised the republic to the highest pitch of her power: there was no longer any foreign foe of whom she could be afraid. But her internal administration had undergone great changes during these wars. Sylla's aristocratic constitution was shaken by Pompey, in a most essential point, by the reestablishment of the power of the tribunes, which was don
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FOURTH PERIOD.
FOURTH PERIOD.
HISTORY OF THE ROMAN STATE AS A MONARCHY TO THE OVERTHROW OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. B. C. 30.—A. C. 476. Geographical outline. View of the Roman empire and provinces, and other countries connected with it by war or commerce. The ordinary boundaries of the Roman empire, which, however, it sometimes exceeded, were in Europe the two great rivers of the Rhine and Danube; in Asia, the Euphrates and the sandy desert of Syria; in Africa likewise, the sandy regions. It thus included the fairest portions of
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FIRST SECTION.
FIRST SECTION.
From Augustus Cæsar to the death of Commodus, B. C. 30. A. C. 193. Sources. For the whole of this period Dion Cassius , lib. li—lxxx, is our historian; though of his last twenty books we have only the abridgment of Xiphilinus. For the history of the emperors from Tiberius to the beginning of Vespasian's reign, the principal writer is Tacitus , in his Annals , A. C. 14—63; (of which, however, part of the history of Tiberius, 32—34, all of Caligula and the first six years of Claudius, 37—47, as we
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SECOND SECTION.
SECOND SECTION.
From the death of Commodus to Diocletian, A. C. 193—284. Sources. The Extracts of Xiphilinus from Dion Cassius , lib. lxxiii—lxxx. though often imperfect, reach down as low as the consulate of Dion himself under Alexander Severus, 229.— Herodiani Hist. libri viii. comprise the period from Commodus to Gordian, 180—238.—The Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ Minores contain the private lives of the emperors down to Diocletian, by Julius Capitolinus, Flavius Vopiscus , etc.—The Breviaria Historiæ Romanæ o
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THIRD SECTION.
THIRD SECTION.
From Diocletian to the overthrow of the Roman empire in the west, A. C. 284—476. Sources. It now becomes of importance to enquire whether the historians were Christians or pagans. Zosimus , the imitator of Polybius, belonged to the last. He describes the fall of the Roman state, as his model does the previous part. Of his Histories only five books and a half, to the time of Gratian, 410, have descended to us. He was certainly a violent antagonist of the Christians, yet, nevertheless, the best wr
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APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
CHRONOLOGY OF HERODOTUS TO THE TIME OF CYRUS, EXTRACTED FROM THE RESEARCHES OF M. VOLNEY. See Preface. Although Herodotus did not write his work in chronological order, yet we cannot doubt that he had some general plan of computing time. By carefully selecting and comparing the separate data scattered through his work, this plan to a certain extent may be traced out, and early history, with regard to settled chronology, must necessarily gain a good deal. The following essay is founded upon a pro
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