of the Roman Historians, informs us, that the Gauls, after they had been in full Poffefsion of all things, and Masters of Rome it self 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 Fabins Pictor, the most ancient Roman Historian, lived in Hanibal's time, and wrote, in Greek, an Account of the Carthaginian War ; but m Polybius says, 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? 11 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 several Families, which as Tully confesseth, caused their History to be faulty, many things being inferted in this fort of Works, χάριο δραδόντες ἢ πόλιν, ἄθραυσοι κὴ ἀσινεῖς ἔχοντες τ ὠφλείαν, εἰς τὸ οἰκείαν ἐπανῆλθον. Liv. lib. vi. c. I. Liv. l. i. c. 44. 1. xxii. c. 17. Polyb. 1. ii. • Cic. Brut Polyb. 1. vi. 6 which were never done, false Triumphs, false Confulships, and false Genealogies. The P Annales Maximi were of good use, 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 sung in Verse at their Banquets, where strict Truth could rarely be heard. The first Publishers of History, in the Latin Tongue, were Poets; Nevins 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 sometimes had their Historians or Poets along with them, whom they liberally rewarded; we may be sure, not for telling when they were beaten. Atticus, in Tully, says, it was a thing of course to relate Matters of History, not according to Truth, but in such a manner, as might best shew the Wit and Eloquence of the Writers. u Tully lays it down as a known and fundamental Rule of History, that an Historian should dare to say any Truth, but nothing that is false. Yet in an Id. de Orat. lib. ii. • Voff. de Hift. Lat. 1. i. c. 2. Id. Brut. $ Id. Pro Archia Poeta. • Quoniam quidem concessum est Rhetoribus ementiri in Hifto riis, ut aliquid dicere poffint argutius. Id. Brut. • De Orat. lib. ii. Epiftle Epistle to Luceius, whom he entreats to write the History of his own Ministration of Affairs, he earnestly beseeches * 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 Design. It has been remarked by some as a Fate upon Cicero, that this Testimony of his Vanity should remain, when the History, of which he was so desirous, is lost, if it was ever written: But who knows how many such Epistles are lost, when the Histories are preserved? y Trebonius made the like Request to Cicero, and Pliny wrote in the like manner to Tacitus, and both with the same Fate. Pliny wrote InstruCtions of what he desired might be inserted concerning himself, " intimating withal, that Tacitus would give to every thing a Lustre and Grandeur, exceeding the Truth, and beyond what he required. This is in common with the Greek and Latin Historians, that they put such Speeches as they think fit, into the Mouths of the several Persons concerned in the Actions they relate, which gives another View and Appearance to the Scene of Affairs, and acquaints us, not what such Persons faid or thought, but what the Historian would have spoke, and what Advice he would have given, if he had been in their place. It is strange to fee the Difference between a Cafar's own Speeches in his Commentaries, and those which Dion Caffius makes for him, both in the Circumstances and Reafons of things. But the Historians left their proper Business, and play'd the Orators upon these occafions. And therefore Diodorus Siculus found fault with this way of inferting set Orations into Histories, and Trogus Pompeius blam'd it particularly in Livy and Sallust. But Herodotus has much of the Simplicity of Ancient times, his Speeches are Natural, containing for the most part but a bare Narrative of what was said or done, only the Persons tell their own Story. But of all the Speeches which are to be met withal in any History, there are none so Natural, or which have such plain Characters of Truth in them, as those in the Scriptures. * Epist. Famil. lib. v. Epift. 12. Ad Attic. lib. iv. Epift. 6. Cic. Epift. Fam. 1. xii. * Hæc utcunque se habent, notiora, clariora, majora tu facies: quanquam non exigo, ut excedas actæ rei modum. Plin. Epift. I. vii. Ep. ult. what The Antiquities of China were destroy'd about two hundred years before Christ, and from the several Relations given of that matter by different Authors, it appears, that the Chineses are rather willing to have it believ'd, that their old Books were in some strange manner or other preserv'd, than that they are able to make it : out. It was the Custom of the Egyptians to omit the mention of these Persons, of whom they ■ Cæfar. Comment. 1. vii. Dion. Caff. 1. xxxviii. C • Just. 1. xxxvi. c. 3 had had any Diflike, or who had made themselves odious to them. Thus in the xxth Dynasty of their Kings, there is a total Vacancy for the space of GLXVIII Years, which the Learned Mr. Greaves, with great Probability, supplies with the Names of those Kings, who built the Pyramids, two whereof, Cheops and Chephren, as a Herodotus says, the Egyptians, out of Hatred to them, would not so much as name, but call'd the Pyramids, which they had erected, the Pyramids of Philition, a Shepherd, who in those days fed his Cattle there: The which Hatred, fays Mr. Greaves, occafion'd by their Oppreffions, as Diodorus also mentions, might cause Manethos to omit the rest, especially Sabachus an Æthiopian, and an Ufurper. But whatever account is to be given of the Egyptian History in that particular, this makes the Hiftory of that Nation in general very uncertain, and may afford a sufficient Reason, why the Jews are either omitted, or misrepresented by Heathen Historians, who had what they relate of them from the Egyptians; and the Hebrews neither liv'd with the Ægyptians, nor left them, upon such terms, as to have their Story faithfully told by a Nation, who would fuffer nothing to pass down to Posterity, if they could help it, that was displeasing to them, when it happen'd, but if any thing were so notorious, as not to be capable of being wholly stifled, they would d Herod. lib. ii. c. 128. •Diodor. Sic. L. 1. Greaves Pyramidograph. -94 be |