Author Description

These last I have written not in their Greek but in their Latin forms-, having been assured by more than one fair reader that the names I bykus and Cyrus would have been greeted by them as old acquaintances, whereas the I bykos and Kyros of the first edition looked so strange and learned as to be quite discouraging. Where, however, the German khas the same worth as the Roman cI have adopted it in preference. With respect to theE gyptian names and those with which we have become acquainted through the cuneiform inscriptions I have chosen the forms most adapted to our German modes of speech, and in the present edition have placed those few explanations which seemed to me indispensable to the right understanding of the text at the foot of the page. The fact that displeasure has been excited among men of letters by this attempt to clothe the hardly earned results of severer studies in an imaginative form is even clearer to me now than when I first sent this book before the public. In some points I agree with this judgment, but that the act is kindly received, when a scholar does not scorn to render the results of his investigations accessible to the largest number of the educated class, in the form most generally interesting to them, is proved by the rapid sale of the first large edition of this work. I know at least of no better means than those I have chosen by which to instruct and suggest thought to an extended circle of readers. %T hose who read learned books evince in so doing a taste of such studies; but it may easily chance that the following pages, though taken up only for amusement, may excite a desire for more information, and even gain a disciple for the study of ancient history.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History,