Nathaniel Hooke - The Roman History: From The Building Of Rome To The Ruin Of The Commonwealth...

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'woman History,

FROM THE

BUILDING OF ROME

TO THE

RUIN OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS.

BY N. HOOKE, ESQ.

A NEW EDITION, IN SIX VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOE C. AND J. RIVINGTON; T. EOERTON; J. NUNN;
J. CUTBEL1; J. SCATCHERD ; E. JEFFERY AND SON ; LONGMAN, HURST,
REES, ORME, AND RROWN; T. CADELL; J. AND W. T. CLARKE;
CARPENTER AND SON; J. AND A. ARCH; J. RICHARDSON J RALDWIN,
CRADOCK, AND JOY; J. BOOKER; R. PRIESTLEY; R. SCHOLEY; T.
HAMILTON; O. AND W. R. WHITTAKER; HARDING, MAVOR, AND
LEPARD; KINGSBURY, PARBURY, AND ALLEN ; J. BOHN ; R. SAUNDERS;
OGLE, DUNCAN, AND CO. ; E. GREENLAND ; T. AND J. ALLMAN ; HURST,
ROBINSON, AND CO. ; T. AND W. BOONE | LLOYD AND SON J C. TAYLOR:
WILSON AND SONS, YORK; DEIGHTON AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE; J.
PARKER, OXFORD; AND STERLING AND SLADE, EDINBURGH.

1823.

Sir,

Th E displaying your name at the head of these sheets is, I confess, like hanging out a splendid sign to catch the traveller's eye, and entice him to make trial of the entertainment the place affords. But when I can write under my sign, that Mr. Pope has been here, and was content, who will question the goodness of the house?

You see, Sir, and I had no desire to hide it, my interested view in this epistle. Perhaps I should find it difficult, on such an occasion as the present, to address you in any terms, which might not be construed into self-love, more or less refined. Will not this be the case, if I say, as with truth I can, that I was glad to seize the only opportunity I may ever have of so publicly testifying my just esteem for a worthy friend, to whom I have been long and much obliged? Yet

Vol. i. A

i 420333

PREFACE.

The compendious History of the regal and consular states of Rome, by Mr. Echard, and a translation of the extensive one, written in French, by the Jesuitfathers, Catrou and Rouille, were the only general accounts, which (unmixed * with foreign matters) had been given of them, in our language, when the present work was first offered to the public. In the structure of it, the author had an especial regard to those persons, who, wishing to be acquainted with the Roman story by reading it in English, found Mr. Echard too brief to satisfy their curiosity, and the Jesuits too diffuse and verbose to engage their attention agreeably. Not long after its coming abroad, the well known and much esteemed Monsieur Rollin, who, by the solicitation of his friends and admirers, had been prevailed with, in his old age, to undertake a History of Rome from the building of the city to the battle of Actium, obliged the public with a part of what he had executed. Death prevented his prosecution of the work to its completion; but it has since been continued and finished by the ingenious and industrious Monsieur Crevier; and the whole is translated into English. Had M. Rollin, who not only has avoided, in his relations, the extremes above-mentioned, but has drawn his historical matter (for the most part) from the ancient Greek and Latin authors, been somewhat more early in his enterprise, it would have hindered the writer of the present history from attempting any thing of this kind; whose project, at first, was nothing more than to abridge the Jesuits' voluminous compilation, making use, occasionally, of M. Vertot's sprightly narrative of the revolutions in the Roman go

Mr. Howel, in his History of the World, has given a dry, but very exact account of the Roman kingdom and republic. "His collections (says Mr. Echard J are admirable, both for their usefulness and exactness; his decisions very just and faithful, and his learning very uncommon and curious: in short, we may say, that no man ever more truly and carefully brought together the principal matters of all the Roman historians than he; and that he was an incomparable collector and compiler, though at the same time he was but an indifferent historian." Pref. to Ech. Rom. Hist.