situated on the banks of the Euphrates, was perhaps the largest city in the world. Cyrus, king of Persia, [B. C. 538] laid siege to it: Belshazzar, the king, having retired within its walls with twenty years' provision. The night, however, in which the hand writing appeared on the wall, Cyrus entered the city; having dug a new channel, by which the Euphrates was turned into the Tigris, and the channel of the former river became dry. The kingdom was conquered, and united to that of Persia under Cyrus.

In Babylon, died Alexander the Great. By Seleucus, one of his generals, it was made the capital of his kingdom, and continued among his descendants, the head of the Syrian empire, till the last of those descendants was dethroned by Pompey the Great, [B. С. 65] when it was made a Roman province.

EGYPT.

By whom Egypt was first settled is uncertain; more generally its settlement is attributed to Misraim; but some authors contend that its first inhabitants were from Ethiopia. Among some learned writers, it is still a subject of dispute, whether its ancient inhabitants were white or black, or copper coloured.

Though this renowned kingdom was for so many centuries the first in civilization and in the cultivation of the arts, and so long maintained its high character, in extent of territory it scarcely surpassed the state of New-York. The Nile was the great source of its wealth, its populousness, and its power. This great river overflowed annually its banks, to the height of about 25 feet for several months, and left, on retiring, a richness of mud that rendered the land exceedingly fertile.

So ancient is this country, that no historian knows when or by whom were built the vast pyramids, which remain, almost unchanged, to the present day: having stood, probably, nearly four thousand years. Egypt is said once to have contained 20,000 cities; the chief of which was Thebes, Memphis and Alexandria.

Cambyses, king of Persia, conquered Egypt: [B.

C. 525] the Egyptians, however, revolted, and were governed by their own kings, till the conquest by Alexander the Great. After which, Ptolemy and his successors governed it, till Augustus [B. C. 30] made it a Roman province: the beautiful and the dissolute Cleopatra, being the last of the race of the Ptolemies.

Egypt continued a Roman province several centuries. It was conquered [A. D. 640] by Amrou. Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, and the empire of Morocco, were made separate governments. The ancient boundaries of Egypt contain Jews, Christians, and Musselmen, or followers of Mahomet. The country is under nominal subjection to the Ottoman Porte, or, Mahometan Court of Constantinople.

PERSIA.

Under Cyrus, were united the Babylonian, Median, and Persian empires, [B. C. 536.] This country became subject to the Romans, and afterwards to the Arabians. The famous Genghis Khan, [A. D. 1190] from the north of Persia, subdued Persia, and the hither India, to the borders of China: the Mogul's empire was established on his victories.

Tamerlane, another Tartar prince, extended the Mogul's empire, [A. D. 1400.] Kouli Khan, [A. D. 1732] a Persian prince, diminished the strength of the Mogul's empire, and established his own power in Persia. Civil wars, from this time, have been common in Persia, which is at present governed by several independent sovereignties.

GREECE.

This territory is now called "Turkey in Europe." It is generally supposed to have been settled by emigrants from Egypt and Phœnicia. Athens and Sparta. were considered the eyes of this empire, Solon was the principal lawgiver to Athens, and Lycurgus to Sparta. The laws of Solon were generally wise and merciful. Those of Lycurgus were arbitrary. In Sparta, the government established by Lycurgus was con

tinued about five centuries. It was impossible in Sparta for any man to be rich; their current coin being iron, a bushel of wheat demanded a stout pair of oxen to carry to the vender the amount of sale.

Literature, voluptuousness, dissipation, philosophy and folly, were the alternate and concomitant rulers of Athens for many centuries. Greece was divided into many states. Union among them was often sought; nd wise provisions made for its preservation. Local and political jealousies disunited these states.

Probably the first instance of a general union of the Grecian States, for warlike or political purposes, was that which occasioned the famous Trojan war. The critical Bryant has introduced much learning and much argument to prove this war the issue of Homer's brain : but the literary world denounce his theory.

The son of Priam, king of Troy, is supposed to have corrupted the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus, and carried her to Troy. By her husband's instigation and authority, all the states of Greece became his par tizans. After a siege of ten years on the part of Greece against the city of Troy, by stratagem it was at length subdued.

Xerxes, king of Persia, attempted the conquest of Greece, with an army, by different historians calculated at two, and from thence to five millions of soldiers. He passed the Hellespont by a bridge of boats, and entered the plains of Greece. Leonidas, a Spartan prince, at the mountainous straight of Thermopylæ, performed wonders of valour. A naval action subsequently took place between the Persian and Grecian fleets, at Salamis, near Athens, in which the Persian fleet was defeated; and Xerxes returned to Persia with the fragment of an army, and the fullness of defeat and disgrace.

The different states of Greece had frequent civil wars, till they were defeated by Alexander the Great; and they afterwards became subject to the government of the Romans.

At present what was ancient Greece, is under the control of of the Ottoman Porte of Constantinople,

ROME.

The Roman Empire extended, at and subsequent to the birth of Jesus Christ, over the whole world as then known, excepting the eastern part of Asia. The city of Rome was founded by Romulus, 753 years before the birth of Christ. Men only were its first inhabitants. The men and women of a neighbouring territory, the Sabines, were invited to a feast in this new, rude city, when the Romans seized on the Sabine women and each took to himself a wife by force.

After the death of Romulus, the city and then little Roman empire, was governed by kings about 250 years. The last king, Tarquin the Proud, so called, overcoming by force the conjugal chastity of Lucretia, a Roman matron of the Patrician, or noble order, caused a rebellion which ended regal government. Instead of a king, two officers, called Consuls, were annually elected, under whose authority the government was administered about 500 years, when Julius Cæsar was made Dictator; another name for King.

The Romans for several centuries anterior to the dictatorship of Julius Cæsar, were remarkable for the plainness of their habits, their military spirit, their conquests, their civil dissentions, and the extension of their dominions.

Carthage, a city of much commerce and great opulence, was long the rival of Rome. After several long and bloody wars, this city, situated near where Tunis now stands, was destroyed by the Romans, B. С. 146. About this period, literature, with the arts and sciences, was introduced into Rome, from Greece, and generally cultivated.

Fifty years before the Saviour's birth, Julius Cæsar and Pompey the Great, were Roman Consuls. Cæsar after having gained many battles in France and Spain, discovered and partially subdued Great Britain, and returning from the west, made war on Pompey. A battle was fought at Pharsalia, in which the arms of Cæsar were victorious. After enjoying the supreme command about five years, he was murdered in the Capitol.

The murderers of Cæsar, the principal of whom were Brutus and Cassius, engaged in a civil war with Mark Anthony, who was victorious at Phillippi. Subsequently Octavius, a relation of Julius Cæsar, afterwards the Emperor Augustus, defeated Anthony in a naval action, and became the first Emperor of Rome. To him succeeded many emperors; most of them of the most dissolute character; till A. D. 331, when the Emperor Constantine established the christian religion, destroying all the heathen temples, and removed the seat of government from Rome to Byzantium, then called Constantinople, in honour of the emperor.

Constantinople continued the capital of the Eastern Empire, so called in distinction from the Western Empire, the capital of which was Rome. The Eastern Empire continued till 1453, when it was conquered by Mahomet II. and has since been the seat of government of the Turkish empire.

About the year 800, Charlemagne, then Emperor of the West, delivered Rome and all Italy to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, who had long sustained the appellation of the pope; and by his successors, much of Italy has ever since been held, under the name of the Ecclesiastical States.

CARTHAGE.

The exact time when commenced the foundation of Carthage, the capital of the Carthaginian state, is not known. It is generally supposed to have been built by Dido, or Elisa, a Tyrian princess, 869 years before Christ. The husband of this princess is supposed to have been murdered by her brother-in-law, Pygmalion. Dido, however, contrived to escape from Tyre, and settled on the coast of Africa.

The Carthaginians, as they increased in power, had many engagements with the neighbouring states, all of which they subdued; and at length extended their conquests to Spain, Sicily and Sardinia; and became, and long continued the rivals of Rome.

The Romans having beheld with jealousy the growth