points, explanations of which may be sought for in vain elsewhere.

Some knowledge of ancient geography and the use of maps[a], if it has not been previously acquired by the student, should, I am convinced, always be connected with lectures on ancient history. That this need not extend to detailed explanations of ancient geography, but that it should be restricted to what is merely useful in the study of history, I have observed in the body of my work. The geographical chapters which are interspersed having been written with this intent, will, I hope, be judged of accordingly. I have taken care to arrange them so as to include the whole of the ancient world; it depends, therefore, only upon the teacher to form a more or less extensive course upon them.

With regard to chronology, I have followed throughout the same uniform plan of computing time, viz. to and from the birth of Christ. By preferring this method, so convenient and certain, to the inconvenient and uncertain one of reckoning from the year of the world, I hope I have deserved the thanks of my readers. I relinquish, on the other hand, all claim to merit on the score of having more accurately defined the chronology of events which occur before the time of Cyrus. I have, on the contrary, in this part of my labour, often stated round numbers, where, in many modern publications, precise dates may be found. Exact determinations of time are only necessary, in my opinion, where a continuous development of circumstances takes place; not where unconnected facts are recorded.

The transactions of our own times have thrown a light upon ancient history, and given it an interest which it could not formerly possess. A knowledge of history, if not the only, is at least the most certain means of obtaining a clear and unprejudiced view of the great drama now performing around us. All direct comparisons, notwithstanding the many opportunities which have tempted me, I considered as foreign to my plan; but if, notwithstanding in some chapters of my work, particularly in the history of the Roman republic, I may be thought to make a reference to the transactions of the ten years during which this work has been published, I do not consider it necessary to offer any excuse for so doing. Of what use is the study of history if it do not make us wiser and better? unless the knowledge of the past teach us to judge more correctly of the present? Should I have contributed in any measure to promote this object, and should I be so fortunate as to lead the minds of my young friends to a deeper study of a science which can only in this way reward its admirers, I shall esteem it the most delightful recompense my labour can receive.

GOETTINGEN, Sept. 23, 1799.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND AND FOLLOWING EDITIONS.

The call for a second edition of my Manual imposes upon me an obligation to supply the deficiencies of my former work. Corrections have been carefully made, and many parts completely re-written. A select list of books which treat of the respective departments of my subject is now first added; the former edition containing only references to the sources from which my facts were derived. This, I trust, will be considered an essential service to the friends of historical science, more especially the young, for whom and not for the learned these additions have been made. Their use in this place is particularly obvious, where it is in every one's power to procure the books referred to[b]. The short criticisms subjoined, where it seemed necessary, will serve as guides for their use. In the author's department of the work but little has been changed, while its form and appearance have been improved by the use of different types, by more accurate running titles, and by ranging the dates in the margin. By the adoption of the latter method the increase in the number of pages is rendered inconsiderable, notwithstanding the numerous additions which have been made to the matter. In its arrangement, this work is the same as my Manual of the History of the European States and their Colonies. Beyond this, however, these works have no relation to each other, but have been executed upon quite different principles; the present as a history of the separate states of the ancient world, and the other as a general history of modern states and their colonies, as forming altogether one political system. Each, however, forms a complete work in itself, and it is by no means my intention to fill up the gulf which time has placed between them.

I regret that the acute researches of M. Volney[c], upon the chronology of Herodotus before the time of Cyrus, came too late into my hands to be made use of in its proper place in my second edition. In the third this has been done. I lay claim, at the same time, to the thanks of the reader for giving, in an Appendix, the results of these researches, together with references to the passages by which they are supported; leaving out, however, all extraneous matter, and everything that cannot be proved by the positive assertions of the father of history.

I cannot close this preface without again recurring to the advantage of the mode now becoming more and more general, of computing time in ancient history according to the number of years before Christ. The fact of its being certain and convenient has often been remarked; but besides this it possesses the great advantage of giving us at once a clear and precise notion of the interval that separates us from the incidents recorded; which it is impossible to obtain by the use of any other era, whether the year of the world, the olympiads, or the year of Rome, etc. And yet this peculiar advantage, so great in the eyes of the teacher, has not, to the best of my knowledge, been hitherto made the subject of remark. Even for the science of history itself, this circumstance is of greater moment than might be at first supposed. Should an enquirer arise who would closely examine all ancient history according to this era—setting out from the generally received year of the birth of Christ as from a fixed point, to which the labours of M. Volney are a good beginning—the whole science would thereby acquire a firmer consistency. For by this method all dates would not appear equally certain and equally uncertain, as they do in the eras which are computed from the year of the world; but it would be shown what is chronologically certain, what only probable, and what completely uncertain, according as we should recede from the clearer into the more obscure regions of history. The old manner of reckoning from the year of the world, in which congruity was impossible, because there was no agreement upon the point to start from, would certainly be thrown aside; but where is the harm if something better and more