Excerpt from A History of the Ancient World, Vol. 1 of 3: From the Earliest Records to the Fall of the Western Empire Such a work, to be really useful, must be condensed into a moderate compass; else the powers Of the writer would be frit tered away, and the attention of the reader wearied out, by an overwhelming bulk, filled up with microscopic details. The more striking facts of history, - the rise and fall of empires, - the achievements of warriors and heroes, - the struggles of peoples for their rights and freedom, - the conflict between priestcraft and religious liberty, - must needs stand out on the canvas of such a picture with the prominence they claim in the world itself. But they will not divert our attention from the more quiet and influ ential working of science and art, social progress and individual thought, - the living seed sown, and the fruit borne, in the field broken up by those outward changes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.