NOTE.

ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

THE dates in this table are taken from Blair's Chronology, and contain the principal events of ancient history, most of which were selected by Dr. Lempriere in the introduction to his useful and popular work, the Classical Dictionary.

In order to find the year of the Olympiad, or the year of Rome in which any event happened, of which we know the date in years before Christ, we have to consider that the first Olympiad took place 776 years before Christ, and that Rome was founded 755 years B.C.

Hence we get the following rules.

To find the Olympiad; subtract the given year before Christ from 776, divide the remainder by 4, and to the quotient add 1 for the current year of it.

Thus the battle of the Granicus was fought B.C. 334. Therefore,

From 776.

Take 334.

That is, the battle of the Granicus was fought in the

third year of the 111th Olympiad.

Observe that as an Olympiad is a space of 4 years, in dividing the sum of which remains after subtraction, by 4, there will be either no remainder or a remainder of 1, 2 or 3; if there is no remainder then adding 1, we shall find that the event took place in the first year of the Olympiad, which we have previously found; if a remainder of 1, 2, or 3, by adding the one for the current year in each instance, it will have happened in the 2d, 3d, or 4th year. In the instance above given there was a remainder of 2 after division, adding one to which shows the event to have happened in the 3d year of the Olympiad (111) previously found. To find the year of Rome; subtract the given year B.C. from 753; to the remainder add 1 for the current year, and it will give the year of Rome-or subtract the given year B.C. from 754, and it will give the year of Rome without any addition.

Thus Cæsar was killed B.C. 44.

Conversely.---Multiply the Olympiad by 4, to the product add the current year or years of the Olympiad, and from the whole subtract 5*---then subtract the remainder from 776, and the remainder will be the year B.C. required.

* Because the one current Olympiad is 4 years, and the current year is one year,

or, without subtracting the 5, take the years of the Olympiad found as above from 781, and get the year B.C. required.

I have given the longer rules in these cases for the sake of showing the principle-the shorter are better for practice.

For the events in the Roman history after the birth of Christ we have only to add the given year of our Lord to 753, to get the year of Rome; or subtract 753 from the given year of Rome to get the year of our Lord. Thus Varus was defeated A.D.

10

753

763 A.U.C.

Or Varus was defeated A.U.C.

763

753

10 A.D.

ANTIENT WORLD.

CHAPTER I.

A.G. (Antient Geography) Pl. I.

THE antient Greeks and Romans knew only the three divisions of the world-Europe Asia, and Africa. In Europe they had little or rather no acquaintance with the countries North of Germany, now Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, which they called Scandinavia, and thought to consist of a number of islands. East of Germany and North of the Black Sea, was Sarmatia, now Russia, equally unknown to them. In Asia, they knew nothing North of the Caspian, but comprehended all the country under the general name of Scythia, divided into Scythia intra Imaum and Scythia extra Imaum; that is, on