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ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY.

SECTION I.

1. By what nations were the Israelites surrounded, and to which were they at different times, or in differ-* ent portions, given into captivity?

2. Describe the extent of Alexander's dominion at his death, and name his successors.

3. Name the greatest poets, philosophers, and historians of Greece.

SECTION II.

1. Under what Roman emperors were the Christians most cruelly persecuted?

2. What were the successive forms of government in Rome?

3. Name the principal provinces of the Roman empire at its great extent, and the countries of modern times which are included in each..

SECTION III.

1. When did the division between the Eastern and Western Empire take place; and what was the line of separation between them?

2. Which of the northern nations possessed themselves of the greater portions of Britain and Gaul on the decline of the Western Empire ?

3. When was Constantinople taken, and what effect had its capture upon the literature of Western Europe?

SECTION IV.

1. In what countries did the Reformation become firmly established; and what is meant by the Edict of Nantes, and its Revocation?

2. What countries have been colonized from Europe, and by what nations?

3. What gave occasion to the American War of Independence, and to the French Revolution of 1789 ?

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SECTION I.

1. By what nations were the Israelites surrounded, and to which were they at different times, or in different portions, given into captivity?"

To the north-west of Palestine were the Phoenicians, among whom the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon are frequently mentioned in Scripture. To the north-east of Palestine were the Syrians; to the east, the tribes of the Amalakites and Midianites; and to the south, the Ammonites and Philistines. More anciently, the people in contact with the Israelites on their northern frontier were the "Canaanites, and Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in Mount Lebanon" (Judges iii. 3).

The Israelites were successively vanquished, wholly or in part, by:-1st. The king of Mesopotamia, who was taken captive by Othniel, the successor of Joshua in the leadership of the Israelites. 2nd. By Eglon, king of Moab, whose dominion Ehud terminated. 3rd. By the Philistines, against whom Shamgar distinguished

himself. 4th. By Jabin, king of Canaan, from whom the Israelites were delivered, under the leadership of Deborah and Barak. 5th. The Midianites and Amalekites, whose oppression was terminated by the several decisive victories of Gideon. 6th. The Ammonites, who were at length overthrown by Jephthah. 7th. The Philistines, against whom Samson signalized himself, though it remained for Saul and David effectually to subvert their dominion. 8th. Great encroachments on the territory of the Israelites were made in the time of their kings till the ten tribes were carried away captive by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, 721 B.C. 9th. The remaining two tribes shared the fate of their brethren when, under their last king Zedekiah, they were carried captive to Babylon. 10th. On the return of the two tribes from captivity they remained tributary to the Persians, secured the protection of Alexander the Great, in 332 B.C., but were subjected to the Egyptians, under Ptolemy, 320. 11th. Antiochus, king of Syria, persuaded the Jews to transfer their allegiance from the Egyptians to him, 294 B.C. 12th. On account of the tyranny and cruelty of the Syrians, the Jews made a successful effort to regain their independence, which they finally lost, by the reduction of their country to the condition of a Roman province, 63 B.C.

2. "Describe the extent of Alexander's dominions, at his death, and name his successors."

At the time of his death the countries which acknowledged the sovereignty of Alexander, exclusive of those which were tributary to him in various degrees, were Macedon, all the Grecian States, the whole of Asia Minor, Egypt, Arabia, Phoenicia, and Persia: the Ganges was at one time the eastern, and the Adriatic the western, boundary of his empire.

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After many intrigues and dissensions among his officers, his empire was dismembered into four great monarchies, of which Ptolemy obtained Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Cole Syria, and Palestine; Cassander had Macedon and Greece; Lysimachus had Thrace, Bithynia, and other provinces, near the Bosphorus and the Hellespont; and Seleucus the remainder, except some remote provinces, which had again asserted their independence, as the doubtful conquests on the Indus and Ganges.

3. "Name the greatest poets, philosophers, and historians of Greece."

1. Poets-Linus, Orpheus (both doubtful as to the authenticity of remains imputed to them), Homer, Hesiod, Terpander, Sappho, Alcæus, Simonides, Pindar, Anacreon, Eschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Menander, &c.

2. Philosophers-Thales, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, Zenophanes, Zeno, Parmenides, Democritus, Anaxarchus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes, Epicurus, &c.

3. Historians-Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Plutarch, Arrian, &c.

SECTION II.

1. "Under what Roman emperors were the Christians most cruelly persecuted?"

Under Nero, Domitian, Maximin, Decius, and Diocletian; and to a less extent under Trajan, Adrian, Antonius Pius, Severus, Gallus, and Valerian.

2. "What were the successive forms of government in Rome?"

The first form of government among the Romans

was that of kings, of whom, according to the doubtful records that remain of that remote period, there were seven, in two hundred and forty-four years. The regal government began with Romulus, 752 B.C. His successors were, Numa Pompilius, 715 B.C.; Tallus Hostilus, 672; Ancus Martius, 640; Tarquinius Priscus, 616; Servius Tullius, 578; Tarquinius Superbus, 534 to 509. The tyranny and vices of Tarquin the Proud procured his expulsion, and the abolition of kingly. government.

The next form of government was monarchical in all but the name of the chief magistrates and the limited duration of their power. This was that of the consuls, of whom there were two contemporaneously, and their jurisdiction lasted for a year. The supreme government was vested in an annual succession of consuls, from 509 to 451 B.C. The consulate was displaced by the Decemvirate, or government of ten, which lasted only three years, when the consuls and the tribunes, or representatives of the people, were restored to their functions, and the popular element became the leading feature in the constitution. Many partial revolutions interrupted the period of the consulate, till its extinction by Julius Cæsar, 45 B.C. That successful general caused himself to be created consul for ten years, then perpetual dictator and imperator. But if the republic and popular liberties were extinguished, the name of a king was so odious to a large section of the Roman citizens, that on Cæsar's attempting the formal assumption of that title he was assassinated (44), and the Triumvirate established, 43 B.C. In 59, Pompy, Crassus, and Cæsar had divided among them the supreme power, which afterwards devolved on Cæsar alone. The reign of Cæsar may therefore be said to have intervened between the first Triumvirate and the second, which was established on the death of Cæsar,

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