HINTS OF SOME SUBJECTS FOR HISTORY
I wovutp despise an author regardless of the benefit of his readers: I would admire him who, solely attentive to this benefit, should be totally indifferent to his own fame. [I stand in neither of these predicaments. My own inclination, as well as the taste of the present age, have made me decide in favour of history. Convinced of its merit, my reason cannot blush at the choice. But this is not all. Am I worthy of pursuing a walk of literature, which Tacitus thought worthy of him, and of which Pliny doubted whether he was himself worthy ?* The part of an historian is as honourable as that of a mere chronicler or compiler of gazettes is contemptible. For which task I am fit, it-is impossible to know, until I have tried my strength; and to make the experiment, I ought soon to choose some subject of history, which may do me credit, if well treated ; and whose importance, even though my work should be unsuccessful, may console me for employing too much time in a species of composition for which I was not well qualified. I proceed, therefore, to review some subjects for history; to indicate their advantages and defects ; and to point out that subject which I may think fit to prefer. |
The history of Richard I. of England, and his crusade against the The history of
Richard [. of
Saracens, is alluring by the marvellous. A king of England fighting meal apakast the
Saracens.
* Vide Plin. Secund, Epist. Lib. v. Ep. viii. at /
at the head of an allied army of English and French under the walls of Ascalon! There are good materials for executing such an undertaking. Without. speaking of the general chronicles, we know two contemporary and accurate historians; and what is of great importance to a lover of the truth, the one a Christian, and the other a Mahomedan ; I mean William of Tyre, and the Arabian, whose history of Saladin is translated by Mr. Schultens. Two monkish authors, at least, have left particular descriptions of this crusade; and two other monks have celebrated it in historical poems. But, on the other hand, this Richard was a fit hero only for monks. With the ferocity of a gladiator, he united the cruelty of a tyrant; and both were unsuccessfully employed in a cause where superstition silenced religion, justice, and policy; and against one of the most accomplished princes in history. How little are we interested in the exploits of Richard! Besides, this transaction is too remote, and too deeply buried in the darkhess of the middle ages, to attract much notice at present.
INDEX
INDEX EXPURGATORIUS.
1. Mr. Hurd (English Commentary on Horace, tom. ii. p. 38, &c.) represents himself as the first discoverer of the Allegory in the third . Georgic; and as such receives the compliments of his friend Warburton. (Divine Legation, vol. i. p. 295.) The Jesuit Catrou had however explained it upon the same principle many years before. (Virgile de Catrou, tom. ti. p. 452, &c. )
~“ team 2)
2, M. Dacier (V. Horace de Dacier, sur le v. 67 de la première Satire du 1. i.) is doubly mistaken in supposing that the Metellus of Lucilius was the Metellus Numidicus ; between whom and Scipio Africanus, some jealousy had arisen from their several African exploits. 1. The sense of Horace supposes that Scipio was an impartial judge ; consequently no adversary of Metellus. 2. Scipio had never an opportunity of being jealous of the other’s African glory. Scipio died in the consulship of M. Aquilius and C. Sempronius. (Vell. Patercul. 1. i. c. 4.) A.U.C. 624. (V. Pigh. Annal. ad ann.) Metellus was consul with the province of Numidia in 644. (Pigh. ad ann.) M. Dacier might also have considered that the intimacy which the satirist enjoyed with Scipio, supposes him much older than twenty when that hero died, and consequently that Eusebius brings his birth too low (to the 158th Olymptad.) M. Bayle (Dictionnaire an mot Lucilius, Not. G.) drew the same conclusion, though from less decisive circumstances,
3. Mr. Hume would infer from the list of the Belgic army in Cæsar, (de Bell. Gallico, L ‘ii. c. 4.) the number of inhabitants in aH Gaul. VOL. III. 4B He
554 INDEX EXPURGATORIUS.
He justly enough considers Belgium (more properly the Belgic Gaul) as one fourth of the whole; at least with regard to population : but he forgot that not above half the Belgic nations entered into the alliance ; which circumstance must double the calculation. (V. Hume's Essays, in 4to. 1758. p. 247.} It is wonderful thas Mr. Wallace (Numbers of Mankind, p. 71, &c. Appendix, p. 312, &c.) should rather choose to refute him by the most improbable conjectures, than by so plain a fact. In the same place Mr. Hume observes, that the numbers in Cæsar are to be depended upon; as the Greek translation checks the original. Mr. Hume must know that this version (which.is a very indifferent qe) is attributed. hy tha. learned ta Gaza or Planudea;, and. comaaquently not older than eur most recent. MSS.
4. In the Notitia of the Western Empire, we meet among the-oficers
of the city of Rome with the Consularis Aquarum. I believe that this
employ no longer subsisted in the Theodosian age. 1. Because it appears here out of its rank, and amangat the subalterna. - 2, Beeause we find na commission for it among the formule of Cassiodorus, 3.. ‘Beeause-the functions of this place are- exactly the same wath the Comes Formarum, wha is very well known in those times. I therefore. suspect that the Consularis Aquarum was lost. in the Comes Formarum about, the age of Canstantine.
5, Abbé. Mongault had decided, that the Nace, where Brutus pleaded. before Cesar for King Dejotarua, was the Italian.and nat.the Bithynan city. of that name. (Epitres de. Cicéron a. Atticus, L xix. 1) Dr, Middleton (Life. of Cicero,, v, ii. p. 407.) has echoed it fram him, with a, severe, censure. upon the Jesuits Catrou and. Rouillé Both leader and. folewer. are, mistaken. L Nice in Italy. was a wret¢hed tewn among the, Alps,. where. Cæsar upon his return from Spain would never
have stopped to try a cause which he could so easily try a few days
afterwards at Rome. Nice in Bithynia was a great city, (in the neighbaurheed. of. Galatia,)-thpough which, Casar must bave. passed: im his PHOgrassy. when. * Jura in tetrarchas, reges, civitates distcibuit ;” (Hist.
de
INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. 555
de Bell, Alek.c. 78.)nay, we are told in the Same chapter that he actually decided a tause against Dejotarus. Brutus appears to have ‘been in Asin about that time. 2. Cicero's Dialogue de Claris Oratoribus was written after Brotus’s orëtion for Déjotarus. (V. c. 3.) It wae like wise wiftten before the death of Marcellus, (c. 71.) who was killed A.U.C. 07. (V. Fabric. in Vit. Ciceron. ad ann.) Therefore the oration wes in 706, when Cesar was in Asia, not in 708 when he was returning from Spain. Although the dialogue of Cicero may be feigned, yet we know how very attentive the ancients were in preserving the chronology of these kind of fictions. (C. 60.) The only foundation of Mongault’s opinion seems to be some obscure places (Epist. ad Attic.
L xiii. 39, 40.) where Cicero hints at a journey Brutus made to meet Cesar, but without any relation eithet to Niee or Dejotarus.
6. Cicero (pro Lege Maniliä, c. 4) speaks of Ecbatana, as the royal seat of Mithridates. I suppose it is not necessary t prove that Kebatana was the capital of Media, er that Media was hever a part of that priace’s empire. Tully was probably bat an imdifierent geographer, and the celebrated name of Ecbatanaz sounded extremely well. A lessen for critics !
dusamteahnat
7. Mr. Guthrie (English Translation of Cicero’s Letters to Atticus, 1. ix. 10.) translates Getæ by Goths; a barbarous name which was first heard of 250 years after Cicero’s death. V. Cluverii German. L iii.
8. Hirtius must be mistaken when he says (De Bell. Gall. 1. visé. c. 46.) that Q. Cicere was sent inte winter quarters #1 Belgium, whien it appears that he was serving under his brother in Cilicia thé 1S$theof October (Cicer. ad Attic. 1. v. 90.) of the same year, A. U. C. 702. (V. Pigh. ad annum.)
9. M. Guichardt (Mémoires Militaires sur les Grecs et les Romains, tom. ii. p. 220.) attributes the stay of Cæsuf in Egypt not to Cleopatra, 4B2 but
