who are endowed with a warm and lively imagination. A virtuous difpofition is here no lefs eminently confpicuous than a judgment in painting; and while he inftructs his readers in the fcience of a connoiffeur, he animates them with a rational zeal for morality and religion.

IV. Fragmentum ex Lib. XCI. Hiftoriarum Titi Livi Patavini nunc primum eruit ex Codice MS. Vaticano quomdam Palatino inter Latinos Signato No. 24. Et Celeb. Beniamino Kennicott infcripfit Pavllvs Iacobvs Brvns. 4to. 15. White.

E cannot but lament the fate of the Greek and Roman WE hiftorians. Their works have fuffered irreparable injuries in defcending down the ftream of time. Most of them are irretrievably funk in the gulph of oblivion; and of others we have only fome fmall fragments preferved. Thofe which have escaped without any material damage, like the reliques of the fleet of Eneas,

"Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto."

The principal Greek hiftorians, of which we have any confiderable remains, are, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus, Jofephus, Plutarch, Arrian, Appian, Diogenes Laertius, Philoftratus, Dion Caffius, Herodian, Eunapius, Zofimus, Eufebius, and the Byzantine hiftorians, Procopius, Agathias, &c.

The General History of Polybius originally confifted of forty books, containing the hiftory of the moft confiderable nations in the known world, from the commencement of the fecond Punic war ant. Chr. 217, to the fubversion of the Macedonian empire, an. 164. But only the first five, with fome extracts or fragments, are now remaining ".

The Hiftorical Library of Diodorus Siculus confifted of forty books, comprehending the principal tranfa&tions of aimoft all nations in the world, from the earliest antiquity, to the days of Julius Cæfar, including the fabulous ages before the Trojan war. But only fifteen books are now extant; that is, five between the fifth and eleventh, and the last twenty; with fome fragments collected out of Photius and others.

Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus wrote twenty books of Roman Antiquities, extending from the fiege of Troy to the first Punic war, A. U. C. 488. but only eleven of them are now remaining; which reach no farther than the year of Rome

312.

* See Crit. Rev. vol. xxxiii. p. 185.
N 4

Ap

Appian is.faid to have written the Roman hiftory in twentyfour books, beginning with Æneas and ending with Trajan. Of this work we have nothing left, except fome detached pieces, containing the hiftory of the Punic, Syrian, Parthian, Mithridatic, Iberian, Hannibalic, and Illyrian wars; five books of the Civil Wars of the Romans," and a fragment or epitome of the Celtic war.

Dion Caffius wrote eighty books of hiftory, from the foundation of Rome to the reign of Alexander Severus. The firft thirty four, the greater part of the thirty fifth, fome of the thirty fixth, and the laft twenty are loft. We have therefore only twenty-five remaining; with fome fragments, and an epitome of the laft twenty by Xiphilinus.

The most eminent Latin hiftorians whofe works are come down to us, "are, Julius Cæfar, Cornelius Nepos, Salluft, Livy, Paterculus, Val. Maximus, Q.Curtius, Tacitus, Florus, Suetonius, Juftin, Sex Scriptores Hiftoriæ Augufta, Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Marcellinus, &c.

But the hiftorical works of feveral of these writers are mangled and imperfect.

Salluft is fuppofed to have written a Roman hiftory of confiderable extent. But there are only fome fragments of it preferved.

Livy's Roman hiftory originally confifted of 140, or as Petrarch and Sigonius fuppofe, of 142 books*, extending from the foundation of Rome to the death of Drufus, A. U. C. 744, or feven years before the Chriftian æra. Of this excellent work we have loft 107 books †; fo that we have only thirty-five remaining, viz. the firft ten, comprehending a period of about 460 years, and twenty five (fome of which are imperfect) from the XXI. to the, XLV. both ineluded. These laft contain the hiftory of about fifty years, and terminate with the year of Rome 586. We have indeed an epitome of 140 books, which is ufually printed with the works of Livy. But it is fo very short, that it only ferves to give us a general idea of the fubject, and imprefs us with a more lively sense of the lofs we have fuftained by being deprived of the original.

It is generally agreed, that Velleius Paterculus comprised his elegant compendium of Roman hiftory in two books. But almost all the firft is loft, and the latter part of the second.

Concerning the vulgar and pedantic divifion of Livy's books into Decades, fee Crit. Rev. vol. xxxiii. p. 406.

Morhoff fays, we have loft 95 "Id monendum eft, quinque & nonaginta eorum, temporum injuriâ, deperditos." De Patavinitate Livianâ, §2.This is a mistake: we have loft above 107, including the lacunæ in fome of those which are extant.

The

The first and fecond books of Q. Curtius are entirely loft, and in fome of thofe which are preferved, there are feveral chafms.

There is a deficiency of feveral books in the Annals of Tacitus: viz. part of the V. the VII. VIII. IX. X. the former part of the XI. and the latter part of the XVI. containing the hiftory of about two years, immediately preceding the death of Nero.

Of his Hiflory there are only five books remaining. This work begins with Galba, and hardly contains the transactions of two years. But between Galba and the death of Domi tian, to which our author extended his narration *, there were twenty-eight years. It is evident therefore, that we have loft the greatest part of this valuable performance. St. Jerom mentions the extent of this writer's hiftorical productions in the following paffage: "Cornelius Tacitus, qui poft Auguftum, ufque ad mortem Domitiani, vitas Cæfarum XXX, voluminibus exaravit +."

Juftin has given the world an elegant epitome of Trogus Pompeius. Yet this epitome is but the mere shadow of Trogus.

Am. Marcellinus wrote thirty-one books, extending from the acceffion of Nerva to the death of Valens; but the first thirteen are wanting: and the laft but one, as Claudius Chiflet fuppofes, who has endeavoured to prove, that there were originally thirty-two,

These few remarks may be fufficient to fhew the lamentable depredations, which have been committed on the literary treafures of antiquity, by Goths and Vandals, monks and worms, and that notorious belluo librorum, Tempus edax rerum. If we were only to give a fbort account of all the Greek and Roman hiftorians, whose writings have perished in the common wreck of literature, we should fill a volume. The learned reader may gratify his curiofity in this point, by confulting two excellent tracts, De Hiftoricis Græcis et Latinis, by the cele brated Gerard Voffius.

:

Libris, quibus res imperatoris Domitiani compofui. Tacit. Annal. 1. xi. § 11. See the fubfequent passage from St. Jerom. + Not, in Zachariæ, cap. xiv.

Differt, de Vitâ et Scriptis Ammiani.

Mirificus zelus fuit S. Gregorii, qui, ut S. Antoninus, et ex eo Jo. Heffelius, ex utroque Raderus ad Martialem tradit, Livium proptereà combuffit, quòd in fuperftitionibus, et facris Romanorum perpetuò verfetur. Voff, de Hift. Lat. c. 19.We could give many fuch examples of the infatuated zeal and bigotry of such blockheads as Gregory, if it were neceffary..

Let

Let us return to Livy.-The literary world has formed many vain expectations of recovering all the books of this excellent hiftorian, which are wanting in our printed copies.

In 1531, when Simon Grynæus published the forty-first and the four following books of Livy, from a manuscript, which had been preferved in a monaftery at Worms, Erasmus, in a preface to that publication, congratulated the learned world on the acquifition of those books; and flattered himself with hopes, that all the reft might be discovered ".

Erpenius, about the year 1620, affirmed, that the whole hiftory of Livy was extant in Arabia +. Peter della Valle, a noble Roman, who lived about the fame time, and published his Travels into Turkey, Perfia, India, &c. was fully perfuaded, that it was in Arabic, in the grand fignior's library at Conftantinople 1. But though 10,000 crowns were offered for it by the French ambaffador, and 5000 piaftres by the great duke of Tufcany, it was never found.

About the year 1683, a Greek merchant of the ifle of Chios, whofe name was Juftiniani, was in France, and of fered the French king all the works of Livy. He pretended, that, at the great fire, which happened at Conftantinople in 1665, this valuable work was, among other books, thrown out at a window, and picked up by a Turk, who privately fold it to a merchant, by whom he (the aforefaid Juftiniani) was employed to fell it. The purchafe was agreed upon; and the man was to have 10,000 crowns immediately paid him, for every two decades which he fhould produce.—But this Greek merchant proved an impoftor, and never appeared with his Livy §.

1

Among other reports, concerning the loft books of this hiftorian, we are told, that a copy of them was formerly in the abbey of Fontevrault, in the province of Anjou; that the abbefs, not knowing the value of the treafure the poffeffed, gave the parchment to an apothecary, who fold it to a man that ufed it in making battledores; and that a gentleman of

* Utinam faxit Deus O. M. ut hic author totus & integer nobis reftituatur. Ejus rei fpem nonnullam præbent rumores per ora quorundan volitantes; dum hic apud Danos, ille apud Polonos, alius apud Germanos, haberi Liviana quædam nondum edita jactitat. Certè poftquam hafce reliquias præter omnium fpem objecit fortuna, cur defperemus et plura poffe contingere? &c. Erafini Ep. 1. xxviii. 15. P. Jovii Defcript. Hebrid. p. 77.

+ Orat. 2. de Ling. Arabicâ.-Erpenius died in the year 1624. Viaggi di P. della Valle par. 1. let. 9.-Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, &c. par M. Spon, par. i. p. 253.

§ Morhoff de Patavin. Liviana, p. 6,

learn

learning accidentally discovered the nature and importance of the manufcript, when every fheet' but one was destroyed *.

Some have fuppofed, that Livy is in a library at Fez. The learned Dr. Hyde informs us, that an ambaffador from the emperor of Morocco affured him, that in his country they had one library, containing a hundred thousand volumes, in the Arabic language; another containing two hundred thou fand, and a great number of inferior note.-If this be true, it is impoffible to fay, what valuable productions may be hoarded up in these repofitories. The doctor himself feems to have been fully perfuaded, that the works of the ancients are to be found in Arabian libraries: In Arabum thefauris,' fays he, adhuc latent multa veterum fcripta, quæ Arabes eruditionis avidi, in fuam linguam tranftulerunt, quæ in originali linguâ deperdita, ex Arabiâ denuò repeti, & inftaurari poterunt t.

Bishop Montague feems to have treated every notion of this kind as a vifionary expectation. Decades Livii, nullibi terrarum, opinor, restaurandæ, nifi forfitan, ut fplendidè mentitur Hifpanus quidam avtovopafados, apud ultimos homipum Ethiopes, in montis Amaræ ßißλiotapi ‡.”

In the first edition of Livy, which was published at Rome," A. D. 1470, from a manufcript in the poffeffion of Victorinus Feltrenfis, and in many fubfequent editions, there were only twenty-nine books, and some of those imperfect.

The XXXIII. book, wanting about feventeen chapters at the beginning, and the latter part of the LX. from ch. 37. to the end, were first published at Mentz in 1518, from an ancient manufcript belonging to the church of St. Martin in that city.

The XLI. and the four following books, as we have already obferved, were published in 1531 by Grynæus,

The first part of the XXXIII. was published at Rome in 1616, from a manuscript in the library of the cathedral church of Bamberg. Voffius looks upon it as a forgery, and fays of the editor-" fucum fecit auritis Midis; non illis, quibus corculis esse datum eft, et qui norunt quid æra lupinis diftent §." But Gronovius defends its authenticity .

* Vide Colomefii Opufcula, p. 105. & Bibl. Choifie, p. 31. Menagiana, par. ii. p. 97. Fabricii Bib. Lat. 1. i. c. 11.

Hyde de Ling, Arab. Antiq. Orat. Vide Opera, Vol. ii. p. 456. Montacutii Apparat. ad Orig. Eccl. præf. § 29-Montague probably alludes to Leo Africanus, who was born at Granada, and has given us a very fabulous defcription of Africa; but Leo fays not a word of Livy. The only paffage which can be applied to him, is lib. i. c. 25. but the author's words are extremely ambiguous. See Conringii Antiq. Acad. Suppl. 19.

§ De Hift, Lat. p. 94.

In Præf. Commentariorum.

Mr,