hich had grown unworthy of freedom, and
carried his victorious arms over the fertile plains of Palestine, till
he stood a conqueror amidst the palaces of Persepolis, and finally
halted only on the frontiers of Hindostan, arrested in his progress not
by the arms of his enemies but by the revolt of his soldiers? He flung a
halo of glory around the last days of Greece, like the bright light of a
meteor, whose course he resembled equally in the rapidity and brilliancy
of his career. With him dies the interest of Grecian story: the
intrigues and disputes of his successors, destitute of general interest,
served but to pave the way for the progress of a mightier power.

Of greater interest even than this is the history of Rome. Her conquests
were not merely the glorious and dazzling achievements of one man, which
owed their existence to his talents, and crumbled to pieces at his
death; they were slow and gradual in their progress--the effects of a
deep and firm policy: they were not made in a day, but they endured for
a thousand years. No country presents such interest to the politician
and the soldier. To the one, the rise and progress of her constitution;
her internal struggles; the balance of political power in the state; her
policy, her principles of government; the administration and treatment
of the many nations which composed her vast empire, must ever be the
subject of deep and careful study: while to the other, the campaigns of
Hannibal, the wars of Caesar, and the long line of her military annals,
present a wide field for investigation and instruction--an inexhaustible
topic for philosophic reflection.

But there is one subject connected with the progress of the Roman empire
which has been unduly neglected, and without a perfect understanding of
which we cannot justly appreciate either the civil or military policy of
that state. We mean the history of the nations who came in contact with
her--viz. the Carthaginians, the Gauls, the Spaniards. The ancient
historians belonged exclusively to Greece or Rome: they looked upon all
other nations except themselves as barbarous; and they never related
their history except incidentally, and in so far as it was connected
with that of those two countries. Modern historians, following in their
track, and attracted by the splendour of their names, deviated not from
the beaten path; and a thick veil still hung over the semi-barbarous
neighbours and enemies of Rome. The history of no