Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Addressed to a Lady

by Mrs. Chapone

years; the term from the deluge to Christ.

I do not give you these dates and periods as correctly true, for I have taken only round numbers, as more easily retained by the memory; so that, when you come to consult chronological books or tables, you will find variances of some years between them and the above accounts; but precise exactness is not material to a beginner.

I offer this short table as a little specimen of what you may easily do for yourself; but even this sketch, slight as it is, will give you a general notion of the ancient history of the world, from the deluge to the birth of Christ.

Within this period flourished the Grecian and Roman republics, with the history and chronology of which it will be expected you should be tolerably well acquainted; and indeed you will find nothing in the records of mankind so entertaining. Greece was divided into many petty states, whose various revolutions and annals you can never hope distinctly to remember; you are therefore to consider them as forming together one great kingdom—like the Germanic body, or the United Provinces—composed separately of different governments, but sometimes acting with united force for their common interest. The Lacedemonian government, formed by Lycurgus in the year of the world 3100—and the Athenian, regulated by Solon about the year 3440—will chiefly engage your attention.

In pursuing the Grecian chronology, you need only perhaps make one stand or epocha, at the time Socrates, that wisest of philosophers, whom you must have heard of, who lived about 3570 years from the creation, and about 430 before Christ: for within the term of 150 years before Socrates, and 200 after him, will fall in most of the great events and illustrious characters of the Grecian history.

I must inform you that the Grecian method of dating time was by Olympiads; that is, four complete years; so called from the celebration, every fifty years, of the Olympic Games, which were contests in all the manly exercises, such as wrestling, boxing, running, chariot-racing, &c. They were instituted in honour of Jupiter and took their name from Olympia, a city of Elis, near which they were performed: they were attended by all ranks of people, from every state in Greece; the noblest youths were eager to obtain the prize of victory, which was no other than an olive crown, but esteemed the most distinguishing ornament. These games continued all the time that Greece retained any spark of liberty; and with them begins the authentic history of that country—all before being considered as fabulous. You must therefore endeavour to remember, that they began in the year of the world 3228; after the flood 1570 years; after the destruction of Troy 400; before the building of Rome 23; before Cyrus about 200; and 770 before Christ. If you cannot retain all these dates, at least you must not fail to remember the near coincidence of the first Olympiad with the building of Rome, which is of great consequence, because, as the Grecians reckoned time by Olympiads, the Romans dated from the building of their city; and as these two eras are within 23 years of each other, you may, for the ease of memory, suppose them to begin together, in the year of the world 3228.

In reading the history of the Roman Republic, which continued in that form of government to the time of Julius Cæsar's dictatorship, about the year of the world 3960, and about 48 years before Christ, you will make as many epochas as you shall find convenient: I will mention only two; the sacking of Rome by the Gauls, which happened in the year of the world 3620, in the 365th year of the city, in the 97th Olympiad, before Christ 385, and about 30 years before the birth of Alexander. The second epocha may be the 608th year of the city, when, after three obstinate wars, Carthage was destroyed, and Rome was left without a rival.

Perhaps the following bad verses, which were given me when I was young, may help to fix in your mind the important eras of the Roman and Grecian dates: You must not laugh at them, for chronologers do not pique themselves on their poetry, but they make use of numbers and rhymes merely as assistants to memory, being so easily learned by heart.

"Rome and Olympiads bear the same date, Three thousand two hundred and twenty-eight. In three hundred and sixty [29] was Rome sack'd and torn, Thirty summers before Alexander was born."

You will allow that what I have said in these few pages is very easily learned; yet, little as it is, I will venture to say that, was you as perfectly mistress of it as of your alphabet, you might answer several questions relating to ancient chronology more readily than many who pretend to know something of this science. One is not so much required to tell the precise year, in which a great man lived, as to know, with whom he was contemporary in other parts of the world. I would know then, from the slight sketch above given, about what year of the Roman republic Alexander the Great lived. You would quickly run over in your mind, "Alexander lived in the 3670th year of the world, 330 before Christ; consequently he must have flourished about the 400th of Rome, which had endured 750 years when Christ was born." Or, suppose it was asked, what was the condition of Greece, at the time of the sacking of Rome by the Gauls; had any particular state, or the united body, chosen then to take advantage of the misfortunes of the Romans? You consider that the 365th year of the city—the date of that event—-is 385 before Christ; consequently this must have happened about the time of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander, when the Grecians under such a leader might have extirpated the Roman nation from the earth, had they ever heard of them, or thought the conquest of them an object worthy their ambition.