their children, of their possessions, their country, and their liberty; subjected them to a most severe captivity; employed them in those arts which are necessary for the support of life, in the lowest and most servile offices of the house, in the painful toils of the field; and frequently forced them, by the most inhuman treatment, to dig in mines, and ransack the bowels of the earth, merely to satiate their avarice; and hence mankind were divided into freemen and slaves, masters and bondmen.

Others introduced the custom of transporting whole nations into new countries, where they settled them, and gave them lands to cultivate.

Other princes again, of more gentle dispositions, contented themselves with only obliging the vanquished nations to purchase their liberties, and the enjoyment of their laws and privileges, by annual tributes laid on them for that purpose; and sometimes they would suffer kings to sit peaceably on their thrones, upon condition of their paying them some kind of homage.

But such of these monarchs as were the wisest and ablest politicians, thought it glorious to establish a kind of equality betwixt the nations newly conquered and their other subjects; granting the former almost all the rights and privileges which the others enjoyed; and by this means the great number of nations, that were spread over different and far distant countries, constituted in some measure but one city, at least but one people.

Thus I have given a general and concise idea of mankind, from the earliest monuments which history has preserved on this subject; the particulars whereof I shall endeavour to relate, in treating of each empire and nation. I shall not touch upon the history of the Jews, nor that of the Romans.

The history of the Carthaginians, that of the Assyrians, and the Lydians, which occurs in the second volume, is supported by the best authorities; but it is highly necessary to review the geography, the manners and customs, of the different nations here treated of; and first with regard to the religion, manners, and institutions of the Persians and Grecians; because these show their genius and character, which we may call, in some measure, the soul of history. For to take notice only of facts and dates, and confine our curiosity and researches to them, would be imitating the imprudence of a traveller, who, in visiting many countries, should content himself with knowing their exact distance from each other, and consider only the situation of the several places, their buildings, and the dresses of the people; without giving himself the least trouble to converse with the inhabitants, in order to inform himself of their genius, manners, dispositions, laws, and government. Homer, whose design was to give, in the person of Ulysses, a model of a wise and intelligent traveller, tells us, at the very opening of his Odyssey, that his hero informed himself very exactly of the manners and customs of the several people whose cities he visited; in which he ought to be imitated by every person who applies himself to the study of history.

As Asia will hereafter be the principal scene of the history we are now entering upon, it may not be improper to give the reader such a general idea of it, as may at least make him acquainted with its most considerable provinces and cities.

The northern and eastern parts of Asia are less known in ancient history.

To the north are ASIATIC SARMATIA and ASIATIC SCYTHIA, which answer to Tartary.

Sarmatia is situated between the river Tanais, which separates Europe and Asia, and the river Rha, or Volga. Scythia is divided into two parts; the one on this, the other on the other side of mount Imaus. The nations of Scythia best known to us are the Saca and Massagetæ.

The most eastern parts are, SERICA, Cathay; SINARUM REGIO, China; and INDIA. This last country was better known anciently than the two former. It was divided into two parts; the one on this side the Ganges, included between that river and the Indus, which now composes the dominions of the Great Mogul; the other part was that on the other side of the Ganges.

The remaining part of Asia, of which much greater mention is made in history, may be divided into five or six parts, taking it from east to west.

I. UPPER ASIA, which begins at the river Indus. The chief provinces are GEDROSIA, CARMANIA, ARACHOSIA, DRANGIANA, BACTRIANA, the capital of which was Bactra; SOGDIANA, MARGIANA, HYRCANIA, near the Caspian Sea; PARTHIA ; MEDIA, its chief city Ecbatana; PERSIA, the cities of Persepolis and Elymais; SUSIANA, the city of Susa; ASSYRIA, the city of Nineveh, situated on the river Tigris; MESOPOTAMIA, between the Euphrates and Tigris; BABYLONIA, the city of Babylon on the river Euphrates.

II. ASIA BETWEEN THE PONTUS EUXINUS AND THE CAS

3.

PIAN SEA. Therein we may distinguish four provinces. 1. COLCHIS, the river Phasis, and mount Caucasus. 2. IBERIA. ALBANIA which two last-mentioned provinces now form part of Georgia. 4. The greater ARMENIA. This is separated from the lesser by the Euphrates; from Mesopotamia by mount Taurus ; and from Assyria by mount Niphates. Its cities are Artaxata and Tigranocerta, and the river Araxes runs through it.

III. ASIA MINOR. This may be divided into four or five parts, according to the different situation of its provinces.

1. Northward, the shore of the Pontus Euxinus; PONTUS, under three different names. Its cities are, Trapezus, not far from which are the people called Chalybes or Chaldæi: Themiscyra, a city on the river Thermodon, and famous for having been the abode of the Amazons. PAPHLAGONIA, BITHYNIA; the cities of which are, Nice, Prusa, Nicomedia, Chalcedon, opposite to Constantinople, and Heraclea.

2. Westward, going down by the shores of the Ægean sea: MYSIA, of which there are two. The LESSER, in which stood

Cyzicus, Lampsacus, Parium, Abydos opposite to Sestos, from which it is separated only by the Dardanelles; Dardanum, Sigæum, Ilion, or Troy; and almost on the opposite side, the little island of Tenedos. The rivers are, the Esepus, the Granicus, and the Simois. Mount Ida. This region is sometimes called Phrygia Minor, of which Troas is part.

The GREATER MYSIA. Antandros, Trajanopolis, Adramyttium, Pergamus. Opposite to this Mysia is the island of LESBOS; the cities of which are, Methymna, where the celebrated Arion was born; and Mitylene, which has given to the whole island its modern name, Metelin.

EOLIA. Elea, Cuma, Phocæa.

IONIA. Smyrna, Clazomena, Teos, Lebedus, Colophon, Ephesus, Priene, Miletus.

CARIA. Laodicea, Antiochia, Magnesia, Alabanda. The river Mæander.

DORIS. Halicarnassus Cnidos.

Opposite to these four last countries, are the islands CHIOS, SAMOS, PATHMOS, Cos; and lower, towards the south, RHODES. 3. Southward, along the Mediterranean ;

LYCIA, the cities of which are, Telmesus, Patara. The river Xanthus. Here begins mount Taurus, which runs the whole length of Asia, and assumes different names, according to the several countries through which it passes.

PAMPHYLIA. Perga, Aspendus, Sida.

CILICIA. Seleucia, Corycium, Tarsus, on the river Cydnus. Opposite to Cilicia is the island of Cyprus. The cities are, Salamis, Amathus, and Paphos.

4. Along the banks of the Euphrates, going up Northward; The LESSER ARMENIA. Comana, Arabyza, Melitene, Satala. The river Melas, which empties itself into the Euphrates.

5. Inland:

CAPPADOCIA; the cities whereof are, Neocæsarea, Comana, Pontica, Sebastia, Sebastopolis, Diocæsarea, Cæsarea, otherwise called Mazaca, and Tyana.

LYCAONIA and ISAURIA.

Iconium, Isauria.

PISIDIA. Seleucia and Antiochia of Pisidia.

LYDIA. Its cities are, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia. The rivers are, Caystrus, and Hermus, into which the Pactolus empties itself. Mount Sipylus and Tmolus.

PHRYGIA MAJOR. Synnada, Apamia.

1. PALESTINE, Its cities are, The river Jordan

IV. SYRIA, now named Suria, called under the Roman Emperors the East, the chief provinces of which are, by which name is sometimes understood all Judea. Jerusalem, Samaria, and Cæsarea Palestina. waters it. The name of Palestine is also given to the land of Canaan, which extended along the Mediterranean; the chief cities of which were Gaza, Ascalon, Azotus, Accaron, and Gath.

2. PHOENICIA, whose cities are, Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon, and Berytus. Its mountains, Libanus, and Antilibanus.

3. SYRIA, properly so called, or ANTIOCHENA; the cities whereof are, Antiochia, Apamia, Laodicea, and Seleucia.

4. COMAGENA. The city of Samosata.

5. CŒLESYRIA. The cities are, Zeugma, Thapsacus, Palmyra, and Damascus.

V. ARABIA PETREA. Its cities are, Petra, and Bostra. Mount Casius. DESERTA. FELIX.

Of Religion.

It is observable, that in all ages and in every country the several nations of the world, however various and opposite in their characters, inclinations, and manners, have always united in one essential point; the inherent opinion of an adoration due to a Supreme Being, and of external forms calculated to evince such a belief. Into whatever country we cast our eyes, we find priests, altars, sacrifices, festivals, religious ceremonies, temples, or places consecrated to religious worship. Among every people we discover a reverence and awe of the Divinity; an homage and honour paid to him; and an open profession of an entire dependence upon him in all their undertakings, in all their necessities, in all their adversities and dangers. Incapable of themselves to penetrate into futurity and to ensure success, we find them careful to consult the Divinity by oracles, and by other methods of a like nature; and to merit his protection by prayers, vows, and offerings. It is by the same supreme authority they believe the most solemn treaties are rendered inviolable. It is that which gives sanction to their oaths; and to it by imprecations is referred the punishment of such crimes and enormities as escape the knowledge and power of men. On all their private concerns, voyages, journeys, marriages, diseases, the Divinity is still invoked. With him their every repast begins and ends. No war is declared, no battle fought, no enterprise formed, without his aid being first implored; to which the glory of the success is constantly ascribed by public acts of thanksgiving, and by the oblation of the most precious of the spoils, which they never fail to set apart as appertaining by right to the Divinity.

No variety of opinion is discernible in regard to the foundation of this belief. If some few persons, depraved by false philosophy, presume from time to time to rise up against this doctrine, they are immediately disclaimed by the public voice. They continue singular and alone, without making parties, or forming sects: the whole weight of the public authority falls upon them; a price is set upon their heads; whilst they are universally regarded as execrable persons, the bane of civil society, with whom it is criminal to have any kind of commerce.

So general, so uniform, so perpetual a consent of all the nations of the universe, which neither the prejudice of the passions, the false reasoning of some philosophers, nor the authority and example of certain princes, have ever been able to weaken or vary, can

proceed only from a first principle, which forms a part of the nature of man; from an inward sentiment implanted in his heart by the Author of his being; and from an original tradition as ancient as the world itself.

Such were the source and origin of the religion of the ancients; truly worthy of man, had he been capable of persisting in the purity and simplicity of these first principles: but the errors of the mind, and the vices of the heart, those sad effects of the corruption of human nature, have strangely disfigured their original beauty. There are still some faint rays, some brilliant sparks of light, which a general depravity has not been able to extinguish utterly; but they are incapable of dispelling the profound darkness of the gloom which prevails almost universally, and presents nothing to view but absurdities, follies, extravagances, licentiousness, and disorder; in a word, a hideous chaos of frantic excesses and enormous vices.

Can any thing be more admirable than these principles laid down by Cicero ?* That we ought above all things to be convinced that there is a Supreme Being who presides over all the events of the world, and disposes every thing as sovereign lord and arbiter: that it is to him mankind are indebted for all the good they enjoy: that he penetrates into, and is conscious of, whatever passes in the most secret recesses of our hearts: that he treats the just and the impious according to their respective merits: that the true means of acquiring his favour, and of being pleasing in his sight, is not by employing of riches and magnificence in the worship that is paid to him, but by presenting him with a heart pure and blameless, and by adoring him with an unfeigned profound veneration.

Sentiments so sublime and religious were the result of the reflections of some few who employed themselves in the study of the heart of man, and had recourse to the first principles of his institution, of which they still retained some valuable relics. But the whole system of their religion, the tendency of their public feasts and ceremonies, the essence of the Pagan theology, of which the poets were the only teachers and professors, the very example of the gods, whose violent passions, scandalous adventures, and abominable crimes, were celebrated in their hymns or odes, and proposed in some measure to the imitation, as well as adoration, of the people these were certainly very unfit means to enlighten the mind of men, and to form them to virtue and morality.

:

It is remarkable, that in the greatest solemnities of the Pagan religion, and in their most sacred and venerable mysteries, far from perceiving any thing which can recommend virtue, piety, or the practice of the most essential duties of ordinary life, we find the authority of laws, the imperious power of custom, the presence of magistrates, the assembly of all orders of the state, the example · of fathers and mothers, all conspire to train up a whole nation from

Sit hoc jam à principio persuasum civibus: dominos esse omnium rerum ac moderatores deos, eaque que geruntur eorum geri judicio ac numine; eosdemque optimè de genere hominum mereri; et, qualis quisque sit, quid agat, quid in se admittat, quá mente, quá pietate religiones colat, intueri; piorumque et impiorum habere rationem-Ad divos adeunto castè. Pietatem adhibento, opes amovento. Cic. de Leg. 1. ii. n. 15 et 19.