the lives and fortunes of all the rest, and therefore even the spirit of conquest could scarcely desire more.

3. The authenticity and the abundance of the materials of modern history, will be hailed with peculiar satisfaction by the inquirer after truth. A considerable portion of ancient history is plunged into darkness and uncertainty, from a variety of causes. And the scantiness, in some instances, of the materials from which it is drawn, is often perplexing But both the ecclesiastical and civil records of modern history, illustrate, with desirable fullness, the state of the times. It must be owned, however, that the rage of the barbarians who subverted the Roman Empire, has deprived us of some means of information which we should otherwise have possessed. But it is wonderful, after all, that so many monuments of the earlier periods of modern history, have come down to us.

The causes that have operated to render some portions of ancient history obscure, are such as the lapse of numerous ages; a series of great revolutions, in consequence of which the memory of many events was lost; the fury of barbarians, by which numerous monuments of early times have been destroyed; and more than all the rest, the designed or accidental destruction of libraries.

Some noble collections of books perished before the Christian era, particularly the celebrated library of Alexandria. This library was founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 284 years B. C., and consisted of a vast collection of records, histories, poems, and other works. The number of volumes was reckoned at 400,000, and they might have been as many as were in all the world beside. Before the art of printing, books were comparatively scarce; and of some, there might have been no other copies than those contained in this library. It perished in the flames of Alexandria, when Julius Cæsar took that city.

In later ages, large libraries have been destroyed, particularly the same library at Alexandria after it was revived, and collections had been made during several centuries. In the latter instance 700,000 volumes perished. But books by this time had been much inore multiplied, and though numerous destructions took place, many have survived the wrecks of ages.

GENERAL DIVISION.

MODERN HISTORY may be divided into ten periods. They have each their peculiar characteristic, by which they may be always remembered, and by which distinct views of the subject are designed to be imparted to the mind.

PERIOD I, will extend from the Nativity of Jesus Christ,

to the reign of Constantine the Great, 306 years A. C. This is the period of the Ten Persecutions of Christians.

PERIOD II, will extend from the reign of Constantine the Great, 306 years A. C., to the Extinction of the Western Empire, 476 years A. C. This is the period of the Northern Invasions.

PERIOD III, will extend from the Extinction of the Western Empire, 476 years A. C., to the Flight of Mahomet, 622 years A. C. This is the period of the Justinian Code, and the Wars of Belisarius.

PERIOD IV, will extend from the Flight of Mahomet, 622 years A. C., to the Crowning of Charlemagne at Rome, 800 years A. C. This is the period of the Establishment of the Saracen Dominion.

PERIOD V, will extend from the Crowning of Charlemagne at Rome, 800 years A. C., to the First Crusade, 1095 years A. C. This is the period of the New Western Empire.

PERIOD VI, will extend from the First Crusade, 1095 years A. C., to the Founding of the Turkish Empire, 1299 years A. C. This is the period of the Crusades.

PERIOD VII, will extend from the Founding of the Turkish Empire, 1299 years A. C., to the Taking of Constantinople, 1453 years A. C. This is the period of the Papal Schism.

PERIOD VIII, will extend from the Taking of Constantinople, 1453 years A. C., to the Edict of Nantes, (Nantz) 1598 years A. C. This is the period of the Reformation.

PERIOD IX, will extend from the Edict of Nantes, 1598 years A. C., to the Death of Charles XII, of Sweden, 1718 years A. C. This is the period of the English Commonwealth.

PERIOD X, will extend from the Death of Charles XII, of Sweden, 1718 years A. C., to the final Restoration of the Bourbons, 1815 years A. C. This is the period of the Ame rican and French Revolutions.

PERIOD I.

The period of the Ten Persecutions of Christians, extending from the Nativity of Jesus Christ, to the Reign of Constantine the Great, 306 A. C.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

SEC. 1. The great event with which this period properly commences, is the BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST. It belongs to the Roman History, only from the fact that Judea, the country of Our Saviour, was held in subjection to Rome. It is strictly an event of the Jewish History, and is hereafter to be more fully noticed under that head.

Here it may be mentioned only, that the Birth of Jesus occurred, according to the common reckoning, in the 31st year of the reign of Augustus, 752 years after the building of Rome, and in the 195th Olympiad, under the consulship of Caius Julius Cæsar. It is the general opinion of the learned, however, that our Saviour was born four years earlier than this date, viz. in the 27th of Augustus, and that the common reckoning or era is a mistake.

According to this opinion, Jesus, in the year 1, A. C., (the vulgar date) was really four years old.

It is a circumstance worthy of remark, that the temple of Janus, at Rome, which was always open in time of war, and shut only during peace, was shut at the period of our Saviour's birth, and that, for the third instance only, during the space of more than 700 years.

2. Rome had been an empire in the more proper sense of the word, from the beginning of the reign of Augustus. At the time of the nativity of Christ, the empire was at the meridian of its splendour, or perhaps a little past it. Most of the nations had bowed to the Roman yoke; and luxury and the arts poured in upon the queen of cities.

It had been for some years the most powerful dominion of the ancient world, and continued thus to be for several succeeding centuries. The times, however, were degenerate, and the real strength of the Roman empire, if it had not begun to diminish at this epoch, was certainly not greater than during the last days of the republic. A few nations afterwards were added to its sway, but these rather weakened than auginented the power of Rome. The wide extent of its do

minions, we shall hereafter see, was one of the causes of its decline and downfall.

But the pomp and glory of so great a monarchy, continu ed long after the seeds of weakness and decay were sown. Distant nations admired and dreaded the splendid spectacle. Ambassadors from every region daily arrived at Rome, to do homage to her greatness, or to seek her friendship and assistance. 3. Augustus, who first established a despotism over the Roman people, died 14 years after the birth of Christ. The events which took place between the birth of Christ and the death of Augustus, pertaining to the Romans, were neither many nor important.

During this interval, Augustus adopted Tiberius, and finally associated him in the empire. Archelaus, king of Judea, was deposed, and that country became strictly a Roman province. Germanicus, grandson of Augustus, successfully commanded in Pannonia, and Q. Varus was signally defeated by the Germans, with the loss of three Roman legions.

4. Luxury and the arts having enervated the Roman people, and the former civil wars and the consequent calamities having paved the way for a different order of things, in the quiet establishment of despotism under Augustus, their fate from this time was fixed. He found no difficulty in riveting their chains, and for long ages, a series of despots, most of them monsters of vice and cruelty, ruled with a rod of iron, this once liberty-loving people, and mistress of nations.

§ Amidst the refinements and elegancies of modern times, connected with our ideas of the progressive improvement of society, we are perhaps inclined to overlook and undervalue the ages of antiqui ty. Many seem to forget what scenes of brightness and grandeur have illumined the nations before us, and how mournfully those scenes are departed.

The pensive, contemplative mind, however, does justice to such a subject; and no instance of human greatness of old, strikes such a mind more forcibly, than that of the proud empire of Rome, under her Cæsars. The memorial is both pleasant and mournful to the soul. The mixture of misery with its splendour, renders it, if any thing, more touching and impressive.

5. Tiberius, who had been named in the will of Augustus as his successor, immediately assumed the government, 14 years A. C. He was the son of Augustus's wife, Livia, by a former husband, and had distinguished himself in war. During the first eight or nine years of his reign. he put on

the appearance of justice and moderation, practising the most consummate dissimulation. His vicious and tyrannical disposi tion was indulged during this time in a very covert manner; but afterwards it was openly manifested, and carried to a most terrible extreme. His cruelties and debaucheries were enormous.

The first objects of his suspicions were Agrippa Posthumus, a grandson of Augustus, whom he ordered to be executed in compliance with the pretended will of that emperor; and the accomplished Germanicus, his, nephew and distinguished general, whom he caused to be secretly poisoned. The Roman people indulged in unbounded sorrow, upon the death of Germanicus.

Afterwards, when he gave a loose to his passions, the best blood in Rome flowed. By means of Sejanus, a Roman knight whom he took into his confidence, and who exceeded even Tiberius in dissimulation, he exercised the most shocking cruelties towards his subjects. Sejanus first fell a victim to his crimes, in attempting to assume the government him self; and a few years after Tiberius was strangled or poison ed by one of his officers.

§ From the 12th year of his reign, Tiberius was persuaded by Sejanus to abandon Rome, and to retire to the island of Caprea, as a more convenient place for the indulgence of his indolence and debaucheries. His gloomy and cruel disposition also followed him there, and by means of this base minion, he perpetrated all manner of crimes.

At this time he was 67 years old, and the unpleasantness of his person comported with the deformity of his mind. He was quite bald in front; his face was disgustingly ulcerated, and covered over with plasters; his body was bent forward, while its unnatural tallness and leanness increased its ugliness. He now gave himself up to every excess. He spent whole nights in eating and drinking, and he appointed two of his table companions to the first posts of the empire, for no other merit, than that of having sat up with him two days and two nights, without interruption. These he called his friends of all hours.

His libidinous indulgences were still more detestable, and the most eminent women of Rome were obliged to sacrifice to him their virtue and honour.

His jealousy, which fastened on persons of the highest distinction, induced him to condemn them to death on the slightest pretences. Indeed to such an extent were legalized murders carried, that he began to grow weary of particular executions, and therefore gave orders that all the accused should be put to death together, without further examination. The whole city of Rome was filled with slaughter and mourning. The place of execution was a horrible scene