PREFACE.
The editor has endeavored in the following pages to give some account of the customs and institutions of the Romans and of ancient Mythology in a form adapted to the use of classical schools.
In making the compilation he has freely drawn from all creditable sources of information within his reach, but chiefly from the following: Sketches of the institutions and domestic customs of the Romans, published in London a few years since; from the works of Adams, Kennett, Lanktree, Montfaucon, Middleton and Gesner: upon the subject of Mythology, from Bell, Spense, Pausanias, La Pluche, Plutarch, Pliny, Homer, Horace, Virgil, and many others to whom reference has been occasionally made.
Boston, July, 1832.
In the second edition now offered to the public much has been added to the department of Antiquities. A more comprehensive chapter upon the weights, measures and coins of the Romans has been substituted in the place of the former one, and many other improvements made which it is hoped will be found acceptable. As it was not thought expedient to increase the size of the volume, the additions have been made by excluding the questions.
Boston, May, 1833.