Numismata hellenica: a catalogue of Greek coins; with notes, a map ...

PREFACE.
The geographical knowledge which, in late j'ears, has been acquired of the countries
occupied by the civilized nations of antiquity, together with the monumental discoveries
which have simultaneously been made in them, has opened to the present generation a
view of ancient history, much more correct and comprehensive than the learned of the
last century had the means of giving to the public ; these sources of historical truth are
far from being exhausted.
'o
Of Egypt and Assyria we know scarcely any thing, but from their monuments.
The kingdom of the Pharaohs was not open
to the historical researches of the
Greeks until after it had been subdued by the Babylonians and Persians ; in the
time of the Ptolemies, nothing of its history was left but its monuments, and
two or three conflicting catalogues of royal names, with a single date resting on
a scientific basis. In Assyria, the Old Testament alone can be relied on for
the interpretation of the monuments. Nor have geographical knowledge and monu-
mental evidence been less useful in enlarging, correcting, and improving the history of
Greece ; not so much in its annals, as in the far more important and instructive part of
the history of a great nation ; its manners and institutions ; its proficiency in art and
science ; and particularly in proving the vast extent of the influence of those qualities,
which rendered the Greeks superior to every other ancient race. So great, however,
has been the destruction of Greek hterature by triumphant barbarism, ignorance, and
bigotry, that of the immense number of Greek writings, anciently collected in the libraries
of Egypt, Greece, and Italy, those which have been saved of a date cotemporary, or
nearly cotemporary with the events related, is extremely small ; the remainder requiring
the severest criticism to separate the trustworthy parts from the fabulous or doubtful,
and all, without exception, standing in need of the light afforded by geography and the
monuments. It is by no means surprising, therefore, that when the hydrographicftl out-
line of the ancient countries was very partially known ; when the interior was almost a
blank in the map ; when scarcely any of the ancient sites of celebrated cities had been
explored ;
the most diligent study of the printed authorities, produced Uttle more than ^