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THE

ANCIENT HISTORY

OF

THE EGYPTIANS, CARTHAGINIANS, ASSYRIANS, BABYLONIANS,
MEDES AND PERSIANS, GRECIANS, AND MACEDONIANS;

INCLUDING A HISTÓRY

OF THE

ARTS AND SCIENCES OF THE ANCIENTS.

BY CHARLES ROLLIN,

LATE PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS, PROFESSOR OF ELOQUENCE IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE,

AND MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF INSCRIPTIONS AND BELLES LETTRES.

WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

BY JAMES BELL.

FIRST COMPLETE AMERICAN EDITION.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

I.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,

NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET.

1839.

5213

KG 13462

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

EDMUND MORLEY PARKER OCT 22 1929

PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT.

IN presenting to the American Public, this new and improved edition of ROLLIN'S ANCIENT HISTORY, the Publisher deems it proper to point out some of the instances, which it is believed will give it a superiority over any other hitherto published in this countryThey are,

FIRST-The restoration of the prefatory remarks of Rollin, to each history, as originally prepared by him and inserted in the French editions.

SECOND-The addition of "A History of the Arts and Sciences of the Ancients," by Rollin, as inserted in the original, and all subsequent French editions.

The following extract from the preface of the Publishers of the Glasgow Edition of 1832, Edited by James Bell, will more clearly show the importance of the additions referred to.

"The publishers venture to say this is the only entire and unmutilated edition of Rollin's History in English, which has issued from the press for more than eighty years: indeed they are not aware that any other unmutilated edition was ever printed in Britain, except the first English edition published in 1738 by J. & P. Knapton, London. In Rollin's original work, as may be seen by consulting the French editions, and the first English edition 1738, the author has introduced each separate division of the history by suitable prefatory remarks. In the subsequent editions, however, these different introductions have been thrown together in the most confused and undistinguished manner, for the purpose of forming one general preface to the whole work; by which means not only is the original form of the work marred, but the utility of those valuable portions of it are in a great measure destroyed. But what is still worse, this part of the work has been exceedingly mutilated by the suppression of many paragraphs, and even whole pages; by which means the sentiments and remarks of the learned and pious author upon some of the most important and interesting subjects have been hidden from and lost to his English readers: and this is the more to be regretted, inasmuch as the mutilator has manifested any thing but a preference for the doctrines and morality of the Bible, in the selection of those parts of the work which he has chosen to suppress. In order also to make up the above mentioned heterogeneous preface, the whole of Chapter III. Book X. of the original work, forming part of the history of the Persians and Grecians, and amounting to above one hundred pages of the first English edition, has been torn from its original place in the work, and thrown into the centre of the foresaid general preface, without the smallest apparent regard to any principles of order or connexion, thus completing such a flagrant instance of literary license as it is hoped but seldom occurs. the edition now offered to the public, the various introductions to the several divisions of the history have been printed in their original separate form, and the many paragraphs formerly suppressed, as also Chapter III. Book X. have all been restored to their proper places in the work.

In

"It is a fact known to few English readers of Rollin, that the original edition of his 'Ancient History,' and all the subsequent French editions down to that edited by M. Letronne in 1823, contain as an integral part of the work, A History of the Arts and Sciences of

the Ancients.' What first induced the English publishers to mutilate the work, by suppressing so large and valuable a part of it, we shall not determine; certain, however, it is that their injudicious example has been followed in all the English editions published since 1740: so that even few Booksellers are now aware of the fact, that in all the English editions of Rollin published during the last eighty-five years, nearly a THIRD PART OF THE WORK HAS BEEN SUPPRESSED, and that a part too which the author himself, in common we believe with every enlightened and philosophic mind, regarded as the most valuable and interesting of the whole. For as Dr. Johnson justly remarks, 'There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates the progress of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning and ignorance, which are the light and darkness of thinking beings, the extinction and resuscitation of arts, and the revolutions of the intellectual world. If accounts of battles and invasions are peculiarly the business of princes, surely the useful or elegant arts are not to be neglected.'"

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It will be seen by the above extract, that the present edition of Rollin's Ancient History contains nearly one third more than any other hitherto issued from the American Press.

NEW-YORK, OCT. 1834.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAP. I. The foundation of Carthage, and its aggrand-

izement, till the time of the first Punic war, 35.-Conquests
of the Carthaginians in Africa, 36.-In Sardinia, 37.—In
Spain, ib.-In Sicily, 38.

CHAP. II. The history of Carthage, from the first
Punic war to its destruction, 47.

ART. I. The first Punic war, 47.-The Libyan war;
or against the mercenaries, 54.-The second Punic war,
57. The remote and more immediate causes of the second
Punic war, 58.-War proclaimed, 60.-The beginning of
the second Punic war, ib.-The passage of the Rhone, ib.

The march after the battle of the Rhone, 61.-Passage
over the Alps, ib.-Hannibal enters Italy, 62.-Battle of
the cavalry near the Ticinus, 63.-Battle of Trebia, 64.-
Of Thrasymenus, 65.-Hannibal's conduct with respect to
Fabius, 66.-The state of affairs in Spain, 67.-The battle
of Cannæ, ib.-Hannibal takes up his winter quarters in
Capua, 69. The transactions relating to Spain and
Sardinia, 70.-The ill success of Hannibal. The sieges
of Capua and Rome, ib.-The defeat and death of the two
Scipios in Spain, 71.-The defeat and death of Asdrubal,
ib.-Scipio conquers all Spain. Is appointed consul, and
sails into Africa. Hannibal is recalled, 72.-Interview be-
tween Hannibal and Scipio in Africa, followed by a battle,
73.-A peace concluded between the Carthaginians and
the Romans. The end of the second Punic war, 74.-A
short reflection on the government of Carthage, in the time
of the second Punic war, 75.-The interval between the

PART II. Of the manners and customs of the Egyp-second and third Punic war, ib.

ians, 8.

CHAP. I. Concerning the kings and government, 8.

CHAP. II. Concerning the priests and religion of the

Egyptians, 10.

SECT. I. The worship of the various deities, 10.

SECT. II. The ceremonies of the Egyptian funerals, 12.

CHAP. III. Of the Egyptian soldiers and war, 13.

CHAP. IV. Of their arts and sciences, 13.

SECT. I. Continuation of the history of Hannibal, 75.

Hannibal undertakes and completes the reformation of the
courts of Justice, and the treasury of Carthage, ib.-Han-
nibal's retreat and death, 76.-His character and eulo-
gium, 78.

SECT. II. Dissensions between the Carthaginians and
Masinissa, king of Numidia, 80. The third Punic war, 82.
-A digression on the manners and character of the second
CHAP. V. Of their husbandmen, shepherds, and arti- Scipio Africanus, 88.-The history of the family and pos-

ficers, 14.

CHAP. VI. Of the fertility of Egypt, 15.

PART III. The history of the kings of Egypt, 17.-The

kings of Egypt, ib.

THE HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS.

CHAP. I. The first empire of the Assyrians, 94.

SECT. I. Duration of that empire 94.-The walls, 96.

-The quays and bridge, ib.-The lake, ditches, and canals
made for the draining of the river, 97.-The palaces and
hanging gardens, ib.-The temple of Belus, ib.

CHAP. II. The second Assyrian empire, both of Nine-

veh and Babylon, 100.-Kings of Babylon, ib.-Kings of

Nineveh, 101.

CHAP. III. The history of the kingdom of the Medes,

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