Excerpt from The Dominion of the Air: The Story of Aerial Navigation Four centuries later, in the days of Nero, there was a man in Rome who flew so well and high as to lose his life thereby. Here at any rate, was an honest man, or the story would not have ended thus; but of the rest - and there are many who in early ages aspired to the attainment of flight - we have no more reason to credit their Claims than those of Charlatans who flourish in' every age. 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.