CONTAINING NUMEROUS ADDITIONAL ARTICLES RELATIVE TO THE BOTANY. M.NERALOGY. AND ZOOLOGY OF THE ANCIENTS. BY CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D., PROFESSOR OF THE GREEK AND ITIN LANGUAGES IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW-YORK, AND NEW YORK, HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. : $29 29 V2038 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousano eight hundred and forty-three, by CHARLES ANTHON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern Distri of New York. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. THE merits of the present work are so fully set forth in the preface of the London editor as to render any additional remarks on this subject almost unnecessary. The student has here a guide to an accurate knowledge of Greek and Roman Antiquities, before which the meager compilations of Potter and Adams must sink into utter in significance; and he is put in possession of a vast body of information in a most interesting department of study, which it might otherwise have cost him the labour of a whole life to accumulate. All the most recent and valuable discoveries of the German scholars are here placed within his reach, and there is nothing to prevert their speculations becoming as familiar to him as household words. The work is, in truth, a German one in an English garb, and will be found to contain all that fumess and accuracy of detail for which the scholars of Germany have so long and justly been celebrated. It is equally intended, also, for the general reader, and as a work of popular reference will be found to be invaluable, not only from its accuracy of research, but from the wide field over which it ranges. In a word, the present vol ume supplies what has long been felt as a great desideratum in English literature. In order to render the work, however, if possible, still more useful, the American editor has added a large number of articles relative to the Botany, Mineralogy, and Zoology of the ancients, topics interesting and curious in themselves, and which, it is con. ceived, fall naturally within the scope of such a work as the present one. The contributions by the American editor are distinguished from those of the English writers by having an asterisk prefixed. In preparing them, the editor has availed himself of various sources of information, but more particularly of three, which it affords him great pleasure to mention here. The first is the Collection of Scientific and other Terms, by his learned friend, Francis Adams, Esq., of Scotland, and which has appeared as an Appendix to the Greek Lexicon of Professor Dunbar. It embraces the opinions, not only of the ancient naturalists, but of the most celebrated, also, among the moderns, and has afforded the American editor the most numerous, as well as the richest materials for his labours. The second source whence information has been obtained on various topics connected with the natural history of the ancients is the noble edition of Cu. vier's Animal Kingdom, by Griffith and others, in 16 volumes, 8vo, a work full of curious learning, and replete with interesting observations on the naturalists of an tiquity and the opinions entertained by them. On the subject of Ancient Mineralogy, the editor acknowledges himself deeply indebted to the excellent work published some years ago by Dr. Moore, at that time Professor of Ancient Languages in Columbia College, now President of that institution; and he takes the greater pleasure in stating his obligations to the labours of this distinguished scholar, since it affords him, also, the opportunity of congratulating his Alma Mater on having her highest office filled by one so well qualified to advance her best interests, and to gain for her the esteem and approbation of all who wish her well. the way As regards the general appearance of the work, some changes of form have been made which may here be enumerated. In the English edition, the articles relating to Grecian Antiquities have their heading in Greek characters. This, although no bstacle, of course, to the student or professed scholar, is a serious impediment in of the general reader, and might mar the popularity of the work. To guard against such a result, great care has been taken to change all the headings of the Greek articles (except such as relate to legal matters) to Roman characters, while, at the same time, in order to satisfy the scholar, the Greek title is written immedi ately after the Roman. Should any words, by this arrangement, be thrown out of the alphabetical order, their places can be discovered in an instant by the General Index at the end of the volume. In the English edition, again, the references and authorities are given in the body of the article, a plan calculated to deter the general reader, and which, at best, is one of very doubtful propriety, since it mars the ap |