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ANCIENT HISTORY

BY

PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS

 

CONTENTS

chapter page

I. General Introduction : Prehistoric Times  

II. Races and Groups of Peoples

PART I. THE EASTERN PEOPLES

III. Ancient Egypt. (From earliest times to 30 b.c.)

IV. The Early City-kingdoms of Babylonia and the Old Babylonian Empire. (From earliest times to 728 b.c.)

V. The Assyrian Empire. (From an unknown date to 606 b.c.)

VI. The Chaldean Empire. (625-538 b.c)

VII, The Hebrews

VIII. Phoenicians, Hittites, and Lydians 

I. The Phoenicians

II. The Hittites

III. The Lydians

IX. The Persian Empire. (558-330 b.c)  

I. Political History

II. Government, Religion, and Arts

X. The East Asian Peoples

I. India

II. China

PART II. GREECE

XI. The Land and the People       

XII. Prehistoric Times according to Greek Accounts

XIII. The AEGEAN Civilization    .

XIV. The Heritage of the Historic Greeks    

I. Political Institutions

II. Religious Ideas and Institutions  

III. Language, Mythology, Literature, and Art

XV. Early Sparta and the Peloponnesian League

XVI. The Age of Colonization and of Tyrannies    

I. The Age of Colonization.  (About 750-600 b.c.)   

II. The Tyrannies. (About 650-500 b.c.)

XVII. The History of Athens up to the Persian Wars

XVIII. Hellas Overshadowed  by the Rise of  Persia :

Prelude to the Persian Wars

XIX. The Persian Wars. (500-479 b.c.)

XX. The Making of the Athenian Empire. (479-445 b. c.) 207

XXI. The Age of Pericles. (445-431 b.c.)  

XXII. The Peloponnesian War(431-404 b.c.) ;  the Spartan and the Theban Supremacy

XXIII. The Greeks of Western Hellas: (413-336 b.c)   

XXIV. The Rise of Macedonia: Reign of Philip II. (359-336 b.c.)

XXV. Alexander the Great. (336-323 b.c)

XXVI. The GrAEco-Oriental World from the Death of Alexander to the Conquest of Greece by the Romans. (323-146 b.c)

I. Hellenistic Culture

II. Macedonia

III. Continental Greece

IV. Rhodes

V. Pergamum 

VI. The Syrian Kingdom

VII. The Kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt                          

XXVII. Greek Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting 283

XXVIII. Greek Literature

I. Introductory  

II. The Period before 475 b.C

III. The Attic or Golden Age. (475-300 b.c.)  

IV. The Alexandrian Age. (300-146 b. c.)   

XXIX. Greek Philosophy and Science

XXX. Social Life of the Greeks   

PART III. ROME

First Period  Rome as a Kingdom

XXXI. Italy and its Early Inhabitants  

XXXII. Rome as a Kingdom  

I. The Beginnings of Rome

II. Society and Government

III. Religion

IV. Rome under the Kings. (Legendary Date 753-509 b.c.)

Second Period  Rome as a Republic (509-31 b.c.)

XXXIII. The Early Republic; Plebeians Secure Equality with the Patricians. (509-367 b.c.)

XXXIV. The Conquest and Unification of Italy. (367-264 b.c.)

XXXV. Expansion of Rome beyond the Peninsula   

I. The First Punic War. (264-241 b.c.)

II. Rome and Carthage between the First and the Second Punic War. (241-218 b.c.)

III. The Second Punic War. (218-201 b.c.)

IV. Events between the Second and the Third Punic War. (201-146 b.c.)

V. The Third Punic War. (149-146 b.c.)

XXXVI. The Last Century of the Republic: the Period of Revolution. (133-31 b.c.)


Third Period  Rome as an Empire. (31 b.c.-476 a.d.)

I.  The Principate. (31 b.c.-284 a.d.)

XXXVII. The Establishment of the Empire and the Prin­cipate of Augustus Cesar. (31 b.c.-14A.d.)  

XXXVIII. From Tiberius to the Accession of DiocletiaN (14-284 a. d.)  

II. The Absolute Monarchy

XXXIX. The Reigns of Diocletian and Constantine the Great

I. The Reign of Diocletian. (284-305 a.d.)  

II. Reign of Constantine the Great. (306-337 a.d.) 

XL. The Break-up of the Empire in the West. (376-476 a.d.)                             

XLI. Architecture, Literature, Law, and Social Life among the Romans       

PART IV. THE ROMANO-GERMAN OR TRANSITION AGE (476-800 a.d.)

XLII. The Barbarian Kingdoms

XLIII. The Church and its Institutions

I. The Conversion of the Barbarians   

II. The Rise of Monasticism  

III. The Rise of the Papacy    

XLIV. The Fusion of Latin and Teuton

XLV. The Roman Empire in the East

XLVI. The Rise of Islam

XLVII. Charlemagne  and  the   Restoration   of the Empire in the West

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

 



I. General Introduction : Prehistoric Times

 

PREFACE

I cannot perhaps better introduce what I have to say here than by quoting the following paragraph from the preface to the 1888 edition of this work: “The following pages are a revision and expansion of my Outlines of Ancient History, which was published as a library book in 1882 by Messrs. Harper & Brothers. It is through the generous action of these publishers that I have had the advantage of making this earlier work the basis of the present text-book”.

After the lapse of sixteen more years I now give out the present revised edition. The Oriental portion of the work has been almost wholly rewritten; the Greek part is based on my History of Greece (1895); the Roman portion on my Rome: Its Rise and Fall (1901).

Besides this brief statement of fact there are various other things relating to the scope and aim of the work that might properly enough be said in this place; but the book must speak for itself. I write these prefatory words solely to express my gratitude to those who have helped me, and in doing this to disclaim title to that which does not belong to me. It would not be right should I withhold the fact that during the years I have labored on the volume I have from time to time been assisted by several eminent historical scholars, and that, while the faults of the book are all my own, to these scholars should be ascribed in part whatever merits it may possess. To Professor Nathaniel Schmidt, of Cornell University, I am deeply indebted for aiding me in the revision of the proof sheets of the chapters of the Oriental part of the volume; to Dr. Rufus B. Richardson, for many years head of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, I owe special thanks for reading the proofs of the Greek portion; to Dr. Eduard Meyer, of the University of Halle, and Professor Henry F. Pelham, of the University of Oxford, I am indebted for reading all the chapters (but in their more extended form as they appear in my Rome: Its Rise and Fall) of the Roman part; while to Professor George L. Burr, of Cornell University, I am under like deep obligation for giving me his scholarly aid in the revision of the sheets of those chapters of my Middle Ages on which the continuation of the present work from the extinction, of the Roman Empire in the West to its restoration by Charlemagne is based.

I wish further to make grateful acknowledgment of the assistance given me by Mrs. Mabel E. Hodder, graduate student of Radcliffe College, Cambridge, in the revision and extension of the bibliographies of the Greek and Roman chapters; and of the aid I have received from my former pupil, Miss Lucy M. Blanchard, who has kindly given me the benefit of long class-room use of the earlier work by making various suggestions which I have found very helpful.

I would also tender my thanks to the officers of the Architectural Library of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of the Fogg Museum of Harvard University, of the Public Library of Boston, and of the Public Library of Cincinnati, for the use and loan of books, photographs, and other illustrative material. In this connection it is fitting that mention should be made of the fact that the many fine pen drawings which embellish the book are by the artist Mr, Homer W. Colby of Boston.

Lastly, to my publishers I feel prompted to express my appreciation of the generosity they have shown, exceeding even what I have dared to suggest, in enriching the volume with maps, cuts, and plates; and to make acknowledgment of the courtesies and efficient aid I have received from the heads and members of the various departments of their house.

P. V. N. M.

College Hill, Ohio May 12, 1904