PREFACE. THE following abstract is meant as an introduction to the study of works of higher pretension, which, useful and accurate as they are, have been found by experience too diffuse and full of unimportant facts to be remembered by mere beginners. It confines itself to what is strictly historical, as the legends of Rome and Greece are nothing in a dry abridgment: it is only in the flowing style of an Herodotus, a Livy, or a Goldsmith, that they can be told. In order to save time, and not to distract the attention of the learner, questions of geography and antiquities have been left for the teacher to explain. The latter is recommended, the first time any part of the book is read, to draw up for his pupil a short narrative of a few lines out of the principal dates prefixed to each section, (only the dates in italics need be learned by heart,) so as to enable him to form a general outline of the subject. As the frequent recurrence of the same names and titles designating different persons, so unavoidable in an abridgment, is perplexing, italics are employed when any individual is first mentioned. In the genealogies at the end of the book, those female descendants of the English kings have been omitted, who have either left no children, or else were of no historical importance. In this second edition, the Roman chronology has been altered after Dr. William Smith's Tables; the history of Greece, and the account of the English kings before the accession of the Stuarts, have been enlarged; and the remainder of the work has been amended. Much of the additional matter, being meant for the more advanced student, has been thrown into the notes. The encouragement which this little book has met with, has led the author to undertake a supplementary series on the same plan, which will give a succinct account of foreign affairs during the Middle Ages and in Modern CONTENTS. PART I. The Peloponnesian War, until the Peace of Nicias PART II. The Peloponnesian War, from the Argive Con- federacy to the Failure of the Athenians at Syracuse 1. From the Building of the City to its Burning by the Gauls |