BY M. E. THALHEIMER, FORMERLY TEACHER OF HISTORY AND COMPOSITION IN THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, N. Y. VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & CO., 137 WALNUT STREET, CINCINNATI. 28 BOND STREET, NEW YORK. THALHEIMER’S HISTORICAL SERIES. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by WILSON, HINKLE & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. ECLECTIC PRESS: VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & CO., CINCINNATI....

Several causes have lately augmented both the means and the motives for a more thorough study of History. Modern criticism, no longer accepting primitive traditions, venal eulogiums, partisan pamphlets, and highly wrought romances as equal and trustworthy evidence, merely because of their age, is teaching us to sift the testimony of ancient authors, to ascertain the sources and relative value of their information, and to discern those special aims which may determine the light in which their wor

1. The former inhabitants of our world are known to us by three kinds of evidence: (1) Written Records; (2) Architectural Monuments; (3) Fragmentary Remains. 2. Of these the first alone can be considered as true sources of History, though the latter afford its most interesting and valuable illustrations. Several races of men have disappeared from the globe, leaving no records inscribed either upon stone or parchment. Their existence and character can only be inferred from fragments of their weap

12. Asia , the largest division of the Eastern Hemisphere, possesses the greatest variety of soil, climate, and products. Its central and principal portion is a vast table-land, surrounded by the highest mountain chains in the world, on whose northern, eastern, and southern inclinations great rivers have their rise. Of these, the best known to the ancients were the Tigris and Euphra´tes, the Indus, Etyman´der, Arius, Oxus, Jaxar´tes, and Jordan. 13. Northern Asia , north of the great table-land

114. The continent of Africa differs in many important respects from that of Asia. The latter, extending into three zones, has its greatest extent in the most favored of all, the North Temperate. Africa is almost wholly within the tropics, only a small portion of its northern and southern extremities entering the two temperate zones, where their climate is most nearly torrid. Asia has the loftiest mountains on the globe, from which flow great rivers spreading fertility and affording every means

Persia, having been for a century subject to the Medes, became independent under Cyrus, who also conquered Lydia and Babylonia, liberated the Jews, and founded a great empire reaching from Macedonia to India. He died in war with the Scythians, and the African expedition was left to Cambyses, his son. This king conquered Egypt, but his attempts against Ethiopia and the temple of Amun resulted only in disaster. His contempt for Egyptian idolatry was, according to the priests, punished with madness

25. The Persians held the reformed religion taught by Zo´roas´ter, a great law-giver and prophet, who appeared in the Medo-Bactrian kingdom long before [28] the birth of Cyrus. In every part of the East, the belief in One God, and the pure and simple worship which the human family had learned in its original home, had become overlaid by false mythologies and superstitious rites. The teachings of Zoroaster divided the Aryan family into its two Asiatic branches, which have ever since remained dist

42. Xer´xes, the Ahasue´rus of the Book of Esther, succeeded to his father’s dominions, instead of Artabaza´nes, his elder brother, who had been born before Darius’s accession to the throne. His first care was the crushing of the Egyptian revolt. This was accomplished in the second year of his reign; a severer servitude was imposed, and his brother Achæ´menes remained as his viceroy in the Valley of the Nile. The Babylonians attempted an insurrection, but dearly paid for their rashness with all

1. Of the three peninsulas which extend southward into the Mediterranean, the most easterly was first settled, and became the seat of the highest civilization which the ancient world could boast. Its southern portion only was occupied by Greece, which extended from the 40th parallel southward to the 36th. Continental Greece never equaled in size the state of Ohio. Its greatest length, from Mount Olym´pus to Cape Tæn´arum, was 250 miles; and its greatest breadth, from Actium to Marathon, was but

8. First Period. The name of Greece was unknown to the Greeks, who called their country Hellas and themselves Helle´nes . But the Romans, having probably made their first acquaintance with the people of that peninsula through the Grai´koi , a tribe who inhabited the coast nearest Italy, applied their name to the whole Hellenic race. A more ancient name, Pelas´gia , was derived from the earliest known inhabitants of the country—a widely extended people, who may be traced by the remains of their m

38. The Heroic Age had ended with a general migration among the tribes of Greece, which for a time interrupted their improvement of manners. But Grecian liberty arose out of the ruins of the Heroic Age; and instead of absolute monarchies, various forms of free government were established in the several states. A state, indeed, was nothing more than a city with a small portion of land surrounding it. Except in Attica, no city at this time had control over any other town. 39. All the Greeks—though

95. The details of the Ionian Revolt (B. C. 499-494) have been found in the History of Persia. [43] Reserving his vengeance for the European Greeks who had interfered in the quarrel, Darius sought to console the conquered Ionians for the loss of their political independence by greater personal freedom. Just laws, equal taxes, peace and good order began to restore their prosperity; and when Mardonius, the son-in-law of Darius, succeeded Artaphernes in the satrapy, he signalized his reign by remov

1. The Kingdom of Macedon, lying north of Thessaly and east of Illyr´icum, was of little importance before the reign of Philip II., whose aggressions ended the independent history of Greece. ( See Book III, §§ 248-254. ) In 507 B. C., Amyntas I. submitted to Darius Hystaspes; and fifteen years later, in the first expedition of Mardonius, the country became a mere province of the Persian empire, the native kings governing as tributaries. After Xerxes’ retreat, B. C. 480, Macedonia became free aga

19. Alexander named no successor, but shortly before his death he gave his ring to Perdiccas. This general, as prime minister, kept the empire united for two years in the royal family. An infant prince, Alexander IV., born after his father’s death, was associated on the throne with Philip Arrhidæ´us, half-brother of the great Alexander. Four regents or guardians of the empire were appointed—two in Europe and two in Asia. One of these was murdered by Perdiccas, who thus acquired for himself the s

28. After the restoration of Seleucus to the government of Babylonia ( see § 22 ), he extended his power over all the provinces between the Euphrates and the Indus. He even made war against an Indian kingdom upon the western headwaters of the Ganges, gaining thereby a great extension of commerce, and the addition of five hundred elephants to his army. The battle of Ipsus added to his dominions the country as far west as the Mediterranean and the center of Phrygia, making his kingdom by far the g

1. Italy , bounded by the Alps, and the Adriatic, Ionian, and Tyrrhe´nian seas, is the smallest of the three peninsulas of southern Europe. It is inferior to Greece in the number of its harbors and littoral islands, but excels it in the richness and extent of its plains and fertile mountain-sides, being thus better fitted for agriculture and the rearing of cattle than for maritime interests. Still, from its long and narrow shape, Italy has an extended coast-line; the slopes of the Apennines abou

8. Our history in this Book falls naturally into three divisions: The records of the First Period, so far as they relate to persons, are largely mixed with fable, and it is impossible to separate the fanciful from the real. The student is recommended to read the stories of the kings, in their earliest and most attractive form, in Dr. Arnold’s History of Rome. Under their beautiful mythical guise, these legends present, doubtless, a considerable amount of truth. Our limits only admit a statement

32. The 480 years’ history of the Roman Republic will be best understood if divided into four periods: The leaders of the revolution which expelled the Tarquins, restored the laws of Servius and carried forward his plans, by causing the election of two chief magistrates, of whom one was probably a plebeian. The consuls , during their year of office, had all the power and dignity of kings. They were preceded in public by their guard of twelve lictors, bearing the fasces , or bundles of rods. Out

181. First Period , B. C. 31-A. D. 192. The empire founded by Cæsar Octavianus was an absolute monarchy under the form of a republic. Many of the high offices, which had been borne by different persons, were now concentrated in one; but he declined the name dictator, which had been abused by Marius and Sulla, and was careful to be elected only for limited periods, and in the regular manner. The title Imperator, which he bore for life, had always belonged to generals of consular rank during the t

The following works are recommended to the student who desires a more complete account of the nations of antiquity. Rawlinson’s History of the Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World. Wilkinson’s Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. Heeren’s Researches into the Politics, Commerce, etc., of the Ancient World. Niebuhr’s Lectures on Ancient History. Layard’s Nineveh. Milman’s History of the Jews. Stanley’s History of the Jewish Church. Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities. Herodotus. (