d been said in Vindication of Herodotus, by H. Stephens and Joac. Camerarius; and the Discoveries of Modern Travellers confirm many things in this History, which were formerly thought incredible. c Strabo has obferv'd, that the Greeks knew little of the most Famous Nations of Afia, except the Perfians, and that Homer knew nothing of the Empire of the Affyrians or Medes, but that he has omitted the mention of the Magnificence of Babylon, Nineveh, and Ecbatane, tho' he took notice of the Egyptian Thebes, and of the Wealth both of that Place and of a Phenicia. Salluft fufpected that the Athenians too highly magnified their own Actions. Quintilian compares the Greek Historians to Poets, for the Liberty which they commonly took. f Arrian, upon the different Account given by Ariftobulus, and Ptolemeus Lagi, of the Death of Callifthenes, remarks, that the most credible Hiftorians, who accompanied Alexander, difagreed in the relation of things, which were publick, and could not be unknown to them. And there is in 8 Vofpifcus a severe Charge against the Hiftorians in general, that there is none of them, who has not falfified in some thing or other, particularly that as to Livy, Salluft, Tacitus and Trogus Pompeius, it might e Strab. Geogr. lib. xv. d Salluft. Bell. Catilin. Græcis Hiftoriis plerumque Poeticæ fimilis eft licentia. Quint. 1. ii. c. 4. f De Exped. Alex. 1.4. Neminem Scriptorum, quantum ad Hiftoriam pertinet, non ali quid effe mentitum, Vopifc. in Aureliano. be be clearly proved upon them. And Pliny has furnished us with an inftance of great Partiality in the Roman Hiftories, which conceal that Porfena in his League with the People of Rome, obliged them to make ufe the Tilling of the Grounds of Iron, but for This, Pliny con feffes, was an express Article of that League: And how unlike is the Roman to the Jewish History in this very Inftance? For in the Scriptures we find it twice mentioned, that the Iraelites were reduced to that Condition, that they were permitted to have no Weapons of War, Judges v. 8. 1 Sam. xiii. 19. But the Romani Hiftorians had more regard to the Honour of the Roman Name than to Truth. And it is no Commendation of the fame Hiftorians, that they take fo little notice of the Jews, and fay fo little to their Advantage, when they do fpeak of them, fince Jofephus has proved the Leagues between the Jews and the Romans, and the Privileges granted them by the Romans, beyond all Denial, from the Tables then extant wherein they were contained. Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus differs in many things from Livy, and the other Roman Authors. And Polybius, contrary to the known Story k of In fædere, quod, expulfis Regibus, Populo Romano dedit Por fena, nominatim comprehenfum invenimus, ne ferro, nifi in Agriculturâ, uterentur. Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. xxxiv. c. 14. Tacent id H ftorici, ut pudendum Victori poftea Gentium Populi; at Plinius ingenue fatetur. Grot. ad 1 Sam. xiii. 19. I Γεγόννοι 5 κ 7 υπαρχόντων ἁπάντων ἐγκρατείς, κ ε πό λεως αὐτῆς μυρίας έπια κυειώσαντες, τέλος έθυε και με of the Roman Hiftorians, informs us, that the Gauls, after they had been in full Poffeffion of all things, and Masters of Rome it felf for seven Months, returned home, voluntarily delivering up the City, without any hurt or force from the Romans, but with great Spoil: and that the News, that the Veneti had invaded their own Country, was the cause of their Return. 1 Fabius Pictor, the most ancient Roman Historian, lived in Hanibal's time, and wrote, in Greek, an Account of the Carthaginian War; but m Polybius fays, he differed from Philinus and both were partial; Philinus to the Carthaginians, and Fabius to the Romans. But does Livy confute Philinus, or acknowledge the Partiality of Fabius ? n Livy declares, that most of the Monuments of Antiquity, whether publick or private, were destroyed, when the City was burnt by the Gauls, and that for this Reason, his History to the rebuilding of the City, near Four hundred Years after it was first built, is but uncertain. The most ancient Writings, which had any relation to History among the Romans, were their Funeral Orations: These were preserved in their feveral Families, which as Tully confeffeth, caused their History to be faulty, many things being inferted in this fort of Works, χάριο προδόντες τε πόλιν, αθραυσοι καὶ ἀσινῶς ἔχοντες τ αρχείαν, εἰς τὰ οἰκείαν ἐπανῆλθον. Liv. l. i. c. 44. 1. xxii. c. 17. Polyb. 1. vi. • Cic. Brut Polyb. 1. ii. r which were never done, falfe Triumphs, false Confulfhips, and falfe Genealogies. The P Annales Maximi were of good ufe, but they contained only the first Lines and rough Draughts of History, which appeared quite another thing, when it was filled up, and represented entire, with the Reasons and Circumstances of Affairs, according to the Pleasure or Skill of the Writer. But the Praises 1 of their Ancestors were fung in Verse at their Banquets, where strict Truth could rarely be heard. The first Publishers of History, in the Latin Tongue, were Poets; Nevius wrote the first Punick War in Verse, and was punished for defaming the Metelli: After him, Ennius wrote his Annals in Eighteen Books, and was in great Favour and Esteem with Scipio Africanus and Scipio Afiaticus. The Generals of Armies fometimes had their Hiftorians or Poets along with them, whom they liberally rewarded; we may be sure, not for telling when they were beaten. t Atticus, in Tully, fays, it was a thing of course to relate Matters of History, not according to Truth, but in fuch a manner, as might beft fhew the Wit and Eloquence of the Writers. u Tully lays it down as a known and fundamental Rule of History, that an Hiftorian should dare to say any Truth, but nothing that is falfe. Yet in an P Id. de Orat. lib. ii. Voff. de Hift. Lat. 1. i. c. 2. • Id. Brut. • Id. Pro Archia Poeta: Rhetoribus ementiri in Hifto riis, ut aliquid dicere poffint argutius. Id. Brut. De Orat. lib. ii. Epiftle X Epistle to Luceins, whom he entreats to write the Hiftory of his own Ministration of Affairs, he earnestly befeeches * Luceins, in plain Terms to neglect the Laws of History in his Favour, and to disregard Truth. And as if this had been a thing not unusual, or, at least, warrantable enough; he commends this Epistle in another to Atticus, and defires him to promote the Defign. It has been remarked by fome as a Fate upon Cicero, that this Testimony of his Vanity fhould remain, when the History, of which he was fo defirous, is loft, if it was ever written: But who knows how many fuch Epiftles are loft, when the Hiftories are preserved? y Trebonius made the like Request to Cicero, and Pliny wrote in the like manner to Tacitus, and both with the fame Fate. Pliny wrote Inftructions of what he defired might be inferted concerning himself, intimating withal, that Tacitus would give to every thing a Luftre and Grandeur, exceeding the Truth, and beyond what he required. This is in common with the Greek and Latin Hiftorians, that they put fuch Speeches as they think fit, into the Mouths of the several Perfons concerned in the Actions they relate, which gives another View and Appearance to the Scene of Affairs, and acquaints us, not what fuch Perfons faid or thought, but * Epift. Famil. lib. v. Epift. 12. Ad Attic. lib. iv. Epist. 6. Cic. Epift. Fam. 1. xii. 2 Hæc utcunque fe habent, notiora, clariora, majora tu facies: quanquam non exigo, ut excedas actæ rei modum. Plin. Epift. I. vii. Ep. ult. what |