PINNOCK'S
IMPROVED EDITION OF
DR. GOLDSMITH'S
HISTORY OF ROME:
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED AN
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN HISTORY,
AND
A GREAT VARIETY OF VALUABLE INFORMATION ADDED
THROUGHOUT THE WORK, ON THE
MANNERS, INSTITUTIONS, AND ANTIQUITIES
OF THE ROMANS;
WITH
NUMEROUS BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTES;
AND
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION
AT THE END OF EACH SECTION.
ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.
BY WM. C. TAYLOR, LL.D.,
OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN.
AUTHOR OF MANUAL OF ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY, ETC. ETC.
THIRTY-FIFTH AMERICAN, FROM THE TWENTY-THIRD ENGLISH EDITION
PHILADELPHIA:
THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & CO.
1851.
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, inthe year 1848, by
THOMAS, COWPERTHWAIT & CO.
In the clerk's office of the District Court ofthe United States for
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
PRINTED BY SMITH & PETERS,
Franklin Buildings, Sixth Street below Arch, Philadelphia.
PREFACE.
The researches of Niebuhr and several other distinguished Germanscholars have thrown a new light on Roman History, and enabled us todiscover the true constitution of that republic which once ruled thedestinies of the known world, and the influence of whose literatureand laws is still powerful in every civilized state, and will probablycontinue to be felt to the remotest posterity. These discoveries have,however, been hitherto useless to junior students in this country; theworks of the German critics being unsuited to the purposes of schools,not only from their price, but also from the extensive learningrequisite to follow them through their laborious disquisitions. Theeditor has, therefore, thought that it would be no unacceptableservice, to prefix a few Introductory Chapters, detailing such resultsfrom their inquiries as best elucidate the character and condition ofthe Roman people, and explain the most important portion of thehistory. The struggles between the patricians and plebeians,respecting the agrarian laws have been so strangely misrepresented,even by some of the best historians, that the nature of the contestmay, with truth, be said to have been wholly misunderstood before thepublication of Niebuhr's work: a perfect explanation of theseimportant matters cannot be expected in a work of this kind; theEditors trust that the brief account given here of the Roman tenure ofland, and the nature of the agrarian laws, will be found sufficientfor all practical purposes. After all the researches that have beenmade, the true origin of the Latin people, and even of the Roman city,is involved in impenetrable obscurity; the legendary traditionscollected by the historians are, however, the best guides that we cannow follow; but it would be absurd to bestow implicit credit on allthe accounts they have given, and the editor has, therefore, pointedout the uncertain nat