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EXTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by

MARCIUS WILLSON,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

STEREOTYPED BY. THOMAS B. SMITH, 216 William Street, N. Y.

PRINTED BY
J. D. TORREY,
18 Spruce Street.

PREFACE TO THE UNIVERSITY EDITION.*

THE author of the following work submits it to the Public with a few remarks explanatory of its Plan, and of the endeavors of the writer to prepare a useful and interesting text-book on the subject of General History.

In the important departments of Grecian and Roman History he has aimed to embody the results of the investigations of the best modern writers, especially Thirlwall and Grote in Grecian, and Niebuhr and Arnold in Roman History; and in both Ancient and Modern History he has carefully examined disputed points of interest, with the hope of avoiding all important antiquated errors.

By endeavoring to keep the attention of the student fixed on the history of the most important nations-grouping around them, and treating as of secondary importance, the history of others, and by bringing out in bold relief the main subjects of history, to the exclusion of comparatively unimportant collateral details, he has given greater fulness than would otherwise be possible to Grecian, Roman, German, French, and English history, and preserved a considerable degree of unity in the narrative; while the importance of rendering the whole as interesting to the student as possible, has been kept constantly in view.

The numerous Notes throughout the work were not only thought necessary to the geographical elucidation of the narrative, by giving to events a distinct "local habitation," but they also supply much useful explanatory historical information, not easily attainable by the student, and which could not be introduced into the text without frequent digressions that would impair the unity of the subject.

In addition to the Table of Contents, which contains a general analysis of the whole work, a somewhat minute analysis of each Chapter or Section, given at the beginning of each, is designed for the use of teachers and pupils, in place of questions.

• In the "School Edition," Part III, containing "Outlines of the Philosophy of History," is omitted.

The author has devoted less space to the History of the United States of America than is found in most similar works, for the reason that he has already published for the use of schools, a "History of the United States," and also a larger "American History;" and, furthermore, that as the present work is designed as a text-book for American students, who have, or who should have previously studied the separate history of their own country, it is unnecessary, and, indeed, impossible, to repeat the same matter here in detail; and something more than so meagre an abridgment of our country's annals as a General History must necessarily be confined to, is universally demanded.

The author is not ignorant that he will very probably be charged with presumption in heading Part III. of the present work with the ambitious title of "Philosophy of History," although he professes to give only its "Outlines;" nor is he ignorant that a great critic has expressed the sentiment, that as the vast Chaos of Being is unfathomable by Human Experience, so the Philosophy of all History, could it be written, would require Infinite wisdom to understand it. But although the whole meaning of what has been recorded lies far beyond us, the fact should not deter us from a plausible explanation of what is known, if, haply, we may thereby lead others to a more just appreciation of the true spirit-the Genius of History-and the great lessons, social, moral, and political, which it teaches. With the explanatory remark that our brief and very imperfect sketches of the Philosophy of History were not designed to enlighten the advanced historical scholar, but to lead the student beyond . the narrow circle of facts, back to their causes, and onward to some of the important deductions which the greatest historians have drawn from them, we present these closing chapters as a brief compend of the history of Civilization, in which we have aimed to do justice to the cause of Religion, Intelligence, and Virtue, and the cause of Democracy,-the great agents of regeneration and Human Progress;-and we commend this portion of our work to the candor of those who have the charity to appreciate our object, and the liberality to connect with it our disclaimer of any other merit than that of having laboriously gathered and analyzed the results of the researches of others, and reconstructed them with some degree of unity of plan, and for a good purpose, into these forms of cur

own.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

SECTION III-THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, FROM THE BEGINNING of the CarthaAGINIAN WARS,
263 B. C., TO THE REDUCTION OF GREECE AND Carthage, 146 B. C.-117 YEARS.

I. Carthage.-II. First Punic War.-III. Illyrian War.-IV. War with the Gauls.-V. Second

Punic War.-VI. Grecian War.-VII. Syrian War.-VIII. Third Punic War. Page 150-165.

ROMAN HISTORY CONTINUED, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA,

TO THE OVERTHROW OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE OF THE ROMANS:

A. D. 1 TO A. D. 476.

SECTION L.-ROMAN HISTORY FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE

DEATH OF DOMITIAN, THE LAST OF THE TWELVE CESARS: A. D. 96.

1. Earlier and later history of the Empire compared.-II. Julius Cæsar.-III. Augustus.-IV.

Tiberius V. Caligula.-VI. Claudius.-VII. Nero.-VIII. Galba.-IX. Otho.-X. Vitellius.

-XI. Vespasian.-XII. Jewish war.-XIII. Titus.-XIV. Domitian........ Page 188-202.

SECTION II.-ROMAN HISTORY FROM THE DEATH OF DOMITIAN À. D. 96, TO THE ESTABLISH-

MENT OF MILITARY DESPOTISM, AFTER THE MURDER OF ALEXANDER SEVE'Rus,

A. D. 235-139 YEARS.

I. Nerva.-II. Trajan.-III. Adrian.-IV. Titus Antoninus.-V. Marcus Aurelius Antonínus.

VI. Com' modus.-VII. Pertinax.--VIII. Didius Julianus.-IX. Septimius Severus.-X.

Caracalla.-XI. Macrinus.-XII. Elagabalus.-XIII. Alexander Sevérus.... Page 202-211.

SECTION III.-ROMAN HISTORY, FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MILITARY DESPOTISM AFTER

THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER SEVE'RUS, A. D. 235, TO THE SUBVERSION OF THE

WESTERN EMPIRE OF THE ROMANS, A. D. 476-241 YEARS.

I. Maximin.-II. Gordian.-III. Pupienus and Balbinus.-IV. Second Gordian.-V. Philip the

Arabian.-VI. Décius.-VII. Gallus.-VIII. Æmiliánus.-IX. Valerian.-X. Gallienus.-XI. M.

Aurelius Claudius.-XII. Quintilius.-XIII. Aurélian.-XIV. Tacitus.-XV. Florian.-XVI.

Probus.-XVII. Cárus.-XVIII. Numérian and Carinus.-XIX. Diocletian.-XX. Maxim'ian

-XXI. Galérius and Constan' tius.-XXII. Con' stantine.-XXIII. Constantius II.-XXIV.

Julian the Apostate.-XXV. Jovian.-XXVI. Valentin'ian and Valens.-XXVII. Barbarian

inroads.-XXVIII. Gratian and Theodosius.-XXIX. Valentinian II.-XXX. Honorius and

Arcadius.-XXXI. Alaric the Goth.-XXXII. Valentin' ian III.-XXXIII. Conquests of

Attila.-XXXIV. The Vandals.-XXXV. Av' itus-Majorian.-XXXVI. Sevérus-XXXVII.

Subversion of the Western Empire......
Page 211-235.

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