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OF

ANCIENT AND MODERN

HISTORY,

ON A NEW PLAN.

EMBRACING

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONS,

AND

GENERAL VIEWS

OF THE GEOGRAPHY, POPULATION, POLITICS, RELIGION, MILITARY
AND NAVAL AFFAIRS, ARTS, LITERATURE, MANNERS, CUSTOMS,
AND SOCIETY, OF ANCIENT AND MODERN NATIONS.

BY REV. ROYAL ROBBINS.

ACCOMPANIED BY A SERIES OF QUESTIONS,

AND ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS.

TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.

VOL. I.

ANCIENT HISTORY.

SIXTH REVISED EDITION.

HARTFORD:

BELKNAP AND HAMERSLEY.

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
0478.12

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, By EDWARD HOPKINS,

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of Connecticut.

PREFACE.

THE increasing interest which of late years has been felt in regard to educa tion, among all classes of the community, has given rise to new, and it is believed in many instances, improved methods of advancing this great object. Books have been written with a special view of imparting instruction to youthful minds, as well as of directing the inquiries and gratifying the curiosity of riper understandings. In these works, so far as they have been elementary, the principle of comparison and classification has extensively prevailed; particular attention has been paid to the selection and arrangement of topics; things differing in kind have been kept separate as much as possible; and, in general, there has been a marked effort to observe the methods of science, and the laws by which the mind is usually governed in the acquisition of knowledge. In this way, ideas correctly arranged, and happily associated, have been communicated to learners and readers, on the various subjects presented to their consideration.*

"Ancient History," to which the reader is here introduced, "may be treated either ethnographically, that is, according to the different nations and states, or synchronically, that is, according to certain general periods of time. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages; both may, however, to a certain extent, be united." This is a remark of Heeren,† and the last was the arrangement which he adopted in his admirable History of the States of Antiquity, as well as in that which bears the title of the Political System of Europe. In the present volume, the subject has been treated under an ar rangement somewhat similar, both methods being combined, as far as could be done with convenience. The synchronical method, however, predominates, and that almost necessarily, in consequence of the very distinct eras which have been observed in the work. If, therefore, the general reader should experience any inconvenience, or diminution of interest, from the temporary sus. pension of the history of any single nation, he still can pursue the account of such nation in continuity, provided he will take it up in the successive periods, and omit, at the same time, the history of other nations. But it is believed, that the interest arising from the history of individual states, is very little less on this plan, than on the ethnographical, and even that, should it be considerably less, the clearer and more comprehensive views thence derived, would be an ample indemnification for the loss.

But it is time that the plan of the present work should be more particularly explained. It is briefly as follows. In the first place, political history, or the

As subservient to the improvements above alluded to, we must acknowledge the agency of numerous contrivances by means of maps, charts, engravings, and copious statistical tables, and also of a distinction of type between what is more and what is less essential in the subject matter of a treatise. Several of these contrivances, as well as of the more general improvements, have been extended to historical productions, as books designed for education; and especially great help has been derived from the last named particular-the use of different sizes of type. This auxiliary was suggested by the success which attended the Rev. David Blair's celebrated works for education, by whom it has been extensively employed. Accordingly, early use of it was made in this country, in a series of historical productions, of which the present was one, announced as developed on the plan of that gentleman, with the avowal, however, that they were wholly original, and with the reasons of the common name which they bore. These reasons have now ceased to operate in regard to the present work.

† Professor of History in Gottingen.

The periods are then history of states, is given, and the subject is divided into ten periods, each being distinguished by some characteristic trait. carried on separately. The important facts of each are stated in large type, and explanations, observations, anecdotes, adventures, and interesting particulars, illustrative of the events, manners, feelings, and opinions of the age, added in the smaller type. The matter in the smaller type is properly an expansion of that in the larger, or carries on the history merely by tracing its minuter features. At the close of the period, the lives of the illustrious persons who flourished during the same, are introduced, inasmuch as they constitute, in some instances, a portion of the world's political history.

Having in this way gone through the ten periods, then the reader, under the GENERAL VIEWS, is instructed in the geography, politics, religion, military and naval affairs, arts, literature, manners, &c. of ancient nations. By this means he is brought into a close and intimate acquaintance with those communities whose political history he has read, and can picture to himself their manner of living, thinking, feeling, and acting. This latter part of the book includes nearly such a subdivision of the general history of the human race, as Heeren calls "the history of culture, or of humanity, which investigates the history of men as men, without further reference to political rela-" tions." A portion, however, of the first part of the work, particularly the biographical details, would be included, perhaps, in the professor's definition of the history of culture.

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A plan of this kind, it is thought, if faithfully executed, must render history clear and intelligible; give vividness and interest to its various topics; enable the student to surmount the difficulties arising from dates; present a general view of the subject that may be easily comprehended and permanent ly established in the memory; and thus lay a strong and lasting foundation The subject is so arranged, that the whole body for a knowledge of history. of ancient history may be reviewed in its progress, embracing under one continuous aspect, the principal nations of the earth. And also, as already men tioned, the history of any particular nation may be taken up, and contempla ted by itself. The student or reader having once mastered this outline, (if the plan have been executed in any measure answerable to the author's wishes, and to the importance of the subject,) will be qualified to enter upon the perusal of more extended and elaborate works of ancient history. Having the grand features of the subject distinctly arranged in his mind, he will readily class whatever additional facts he may obtain. He may thus accumu late knowledge without danger of confusion, and increase his power of recollection by multiplied associations.

Though the work here presented to the public is especially designed for the purposes of education, it also contemplates the benefit of those individuals to whom the topics of history are not unknown, by refreshing their memory with scenes and incidents, from which they have before experienced pleasure. It is hoped, moreover, that the work has been constructed with such a regard to truth and moral consistency, as to be auxiliary to that purity of manners, refinement of taste, and love of knowledge, of which every fainly ought to be the cherished abode,

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