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

The boundaries of Africa were Æthiopia above Egypt, and Gætulia and the great sandy desert of Libya, above the other provinces.

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FIRST SECTION.

From Augustus Cæsar to the death of Commodus, B. C. 30. A. C. 193.

Sources. For the whole of this period Dion Cassius, lib. li—lxxx, is our historian; though of his last twenty books we have only the abridgment of Xiphilinus. For the history of the emperors from Tiberius to the beginning of Vespasian's reign, the principal writer is Tacitus, in his Annals, A. C. 14—63; (of which, however, part of the history of Tiberius, 32—34, all of Caligula and the first six years of Claudius, 37—47, as well as the last year and a half of Nero, are unfortunately lost); and in his History, of which scarcely the first three years, 69—71, are come down to us. Suetonius's Lives of the Cæsars, down to Domitian, are so much the more valuable, because in a state like the Roman it becomes of importance to know the character and domestic life of the ruling men. For the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius the History of Velleius Paterculus is not of less consequence, although written in a court-like tone. The sources for the history of the separate Cæsars will be given as we come to them.

The following are the labours of modern writers:

Histoire des Empereurs et des autres Princes qui ont régné dans les six premiers siècles de l'Eglise, par M. Lenain de Tillemont. à Bruxelle, 1707, 5 vols. 8vo. (An earlier edition in 4to. 1700, 4 vols.) The work of Tillemont has some worth as a laborious compilation, but is superseded in its execution by the following:

Histoire des Empereurs Romains, depuis Auguste jusqu' à Constantin, par M. Crevier. Paris, 1749, 12 vols. 8vo. [Translated into English.] A continuation of Rollin's Roman History (see above, p. 318), quite in the spirit of that writer, and by one of his school.

Dr. Goldsmith's Roman History, from the foundation of the city of Rome to the destruction of the western empire. London, 1774, 2 vols. 8vo. Rather a sketch than a detailed history (see above, p. 321, sqq.).