A HISTORY OF THE WORLD FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY PHILIP SMITH, B.A., ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTORS TO THE DICTIONARIES OF GREEK AND ROMAN VOL. III. ANCIENT HISTORY. FROM THE TRIUMVIRATE OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS TO THE FALL Ellustrated by Maps and Plans LONDON: WALTON AND MABERLY, GOWER STREET, & IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1865. [The Right of Translation is reserved.] TO THE READER. WITHIN the space of two years from the announcement of the plan of the "History of the World," the Author has been permitted, by the help which he desires devoutly to acknowledge, to complete the First Division of the work. In a design of such magnitude, experience must of necessity have a large place; and the redemption of the two-fold pledge,—to avoid the dry baldness of an epitome, and to give to each nation of the Ancient World a space proportioned to its importance, has increased this section to Three Volumes. Within that moderate compass the Reader has now offered to him, for the first time in English Literature, a complete ANCIENT HISTORY, from the Creation of the World to the Fall of the Western Empire, treated as a continuous narrative and with unity of purpose. Besides its place in the whole scheme of the History of the World, this division may be regarded as forming a complete and independent work, which may occupy the place once filled by the Ancient History of Rollin. That work, however deservedly popular in its time, not only regarded the despotisms of the Ancient World from a point of view inconsistent with those doctrines of well-regulated freedom which Englishmen of all parties cherish for themselves and desire to teach their children, but it omitted the important sections of Sacred History and Roman History, which are included in this work. Of the progress made, since the time of Rollin, in the researches on which the value of any historical work must mainly depend, it is superfluous to speak: of the use made of such researches in the present work, the reader may judge in part by the authorities quoted or referred to, though the author has carefully refrained from a parade of learned references. The execution of such a work has, like the History of the World itself, epochs, at which a pause may be made to review the past and to survey the future; and the accomplishment of the History of the Ancient World seems a fit breathing-place both for the author and his readers. The publication in Parts has not been attended with sufficient advantages to compensate for its obvious drawbacks. This form of publication will therefore be discontinued. Meanwhile the present work is offered as supplying the want so long felt, of a complete Ancient History. In like manner the second and third divisions are intended to form complete Medieval and Modern Histories; each History being an independent work, without detriment to the unity of the whole. In gratefully acknowledging the efforts of the Publishers to give every possible effect to the design of the work, the Author would refer especially to the important aid derived from the Maps and Plans which have been added, without any increase of price. |