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A MANUAL

OF

ANCIENT HISTORY,

PARTICULARLY WITH REGARD TO

THE CONSTITUTIONS, THE COMMERCE,
AND THE COLONIES,

OF THE STATES OF ANTIQUITY.

BY A. H. L. HEEREN;

KNIGHT OF THE NORTH STAR AND GUELPHIC ORDER; AULIC COUNSELLOR
AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GOETTINGEN;
AND MEMBER OF SEVERAL OTHER LEARNED SOCIETIES.

Translated from the German.

THE SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED AND IMPROVED.

OXFORD:
PUBLISHED BY D. A. TALBOYS.
M DCCC XXXIII.

OXFORD: PRINTED BY TALBOYS AND BROWNE.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

TO THIS EDITION.

It is to the patient industry of the historians of Germany, that we are indebted for the first production of Manuals of history, and for those synchronistic tables which have so much facilitated the systematic study of ancient history; and among the various and profound treatises of this class which enrich and adorn their literature, the works of Heeren are distinguished by their extended range of enquiry, as well as by the minute accuracy of their details.

The work before us embodies the result of his laborious researches during the long period in which he has been engaged as public lecturer and professor of history in the university of Goettingen; and if it be any recommendation of a work to know that its writer has had ample time, ability, and opportunity to collect and elaborate his materials, it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that the author of the present work possessed all these advantages in an eminent degree. He has spent the greater portion of his life in lecturing upon the subjects of which it treats, and has in every case gone for his information immediately to the fountain head. It forms, too, an important feature of his work, that a list of the original sources, whence his own knowledge has been drawn, is placed at the head of each section; another is added of the principal writers who have touched upon or illustrated the particular portion of history under notice; both being generally accompanied with a few words of judicious criticism, in which the value of the writer's authority is estimated, and his sources, circumstances, and prejudices, briefly, but fairly set forth. Besides this advantage, the work possesses the merit of combining the convenience of the Manuals with the synchronistic method of instruction; as the geography, chronology, and biography of the countries and states of the ancient world are brought at once under the eye of the reader; and so lucid is the arrangement, that the darkest and most entangled portions of history are seen in a clear and perspicuous light. Professor Heeren seems, moreover, to possess in a more eminent degree than any other writer, the power of forcing, by a very few words, the attention of the reader upon the most important facts of history; and of conjuring up in his thoughts a train of reflections calculated at once to instruct and enlarge the mind. His work is not only admirably adapted to become a text-book in the study of history, but will be found equally serviceable as a book of reference—it will guide the student in his untried and intricate course, and enable the more advanced scholar to methodize his collected stores. Perhaps in no work has so much important information been condensed into so small a compass.

The estimation in which this Manual is held on the continent, may be gathered from the fact of its having passed through six large editions in German, and two in French, and from its having been translated into almost every language of Europe.

The rapidity with which the first edition, as well as the other writings of professor Heeren, have sold in this country, is a proof that they only required to be known here in order to be appreciated. The favour with which these translations have been received, both by the venerable author himself and by the British public, has been a source of the highest gratification to the publisher. The encouragement, so kindly bestowed, has urged him to new exertions, the fruits of which, he trusts, will be observable in the present volume. The Manual has not only been revised and corrected throughout, but has also been diligently compared with the German, and has received such ameliorations as the original text or the English style seemed to demand. When it is added to this that a very numerous body of corrections and improvements have been sent to the publisher by professor Heeren himself, who has patiently examined the translation expressly for this edition, he trusts that the public will be satisfied that it is as faithful a copy of the original work as the nature of things will allow.

In the preface to the last edition of this Manual the publisher announced his intention, should it be favourably received, of following it up by the publication of another elaborate work of the same author, viz. A Manual of the History of the States of Modern Europe and their Colonies, as forming one political System. This work will now very shortly appear. As an apology for the delay which has taken place, he begs to call to their notice another equally important work by the same author, which he has published in the mean time; the Historical Researches into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Carthaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians, with a general introduction; the remainder of this work, containing the Historical Researches into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Ancient Asiatic Nations—the Persians, Phœnicians, Babylonians, Scythians, and Hindoos, will appear in a few weeks.

To add to the usefulness of the work, an analysis of the contents, with dates, has been given in the margin. The † prefixed to some of the books denote that they are written in German.

        Oxford,
    March, 1833.

PROFESSOR HEEREN'S WORKS.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

In adding to the number of Manuals on Ancient History already published, I feel myself bound to give an account of the plan on which the present has been executed.

It was at first designed to be used in my public lectures, and from them it has grown up to what it now is. In them I did not consider it necessary to state all we know or think we know of ancient history. Many facts highly interesting to the learned historian are not adapted for public lectures. It was therefore my great object to make choice of such incidents as ought to be known by my pupils in order to the effectual prosecution of their historical studies. Consequently I have not extended my labours so far as to give an historical account of every nation, but have limited myself to those most remarkable for their general civilization and political eminence.

The subjects to which I have particularly directed my attention are, the formation of states, the changes in their constitution, the routes by which commerce was carried on, the share which the different nations respectively took in its pursuit, and, as immediately connected with that department, their extension severally by means of colonies.

The favourable reception which my larger work, executed after a different plan, has met with, would lead me to hope for a like indulgence in this new attempt, even if the spirit of the age did not so loudly call upon every historian to direct his chief attention to these subjects. And for this reason I could not rest satisfied with a mere detail of isolated facts, but have made it my study to follow the course of events, linking them into one connected chain; so as to represent them in a condensed form by continually and carefully forcing together the main circumstances which contributed to the development of the whole.

Without this, history in general would be but a lifeless study, more especially that of republics, which were so numerous in ancient times, and which, from their constitution being made up of political parties, everywhere present the most difficult problems for the historian's solution. Of all the larger divisions of my work, the arrangement of the Greek history I have found most troublesome, on account of the number of little states into which it is sub-divided. Historians, indeed, lighten this labour by confining themselves merely to Athens and Sparta; but by so doing they give us a very imperfect knowledge of the subject. I have endeavoured to surmount the difficulty by throwing the account of the smaller states and their colonies into the second period; by which means I have been able in the third and most important portion, the interest of which depends entirely upon the principal states, to carry on my history, as a whole without interruption. But in case others, who wish to make this Manual the groundwork of their lectures, should dislike this arrangement, they may very easily attach these notices to the introductory geographical survey; a plan I very often adopt in my own lectures. Upon the arrangement of the other parts, I am not aware of the necessity of making any observations. The sources from which I have drawn my materials are specified in every section. Particular references do not come within my plan; and if I have referred several times in the first two sections to my larger work, it is only on particular 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 certain be substituted in its place?

In the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth editions, though the increase in the number of pages is small, yet all those additions and corrections which I deemed necessary, and which the progress of knowledge and discovery, as in the case of Egypt and other countries, enabled me to effect, have been most carefully and fully made. The importance of these will be best seen by comparison.

Goettingen, 1828.

CONTENTS.

OXFORD: PRINTED BY TALBOYS AND BROWNE.