PREFACE
 

  The great progress which classical studies have made in Europe, and more espe¬

cially in Germany, during the  present century, has superseded most of the works

usually employed in the elucidation of the Greek and Roman writers.  It had long

been felt by our best scholars and teachers that something better was required thau

we yet possessed in the English language for  illustrating the Antiquities, Litera¬

ture, Mythology, and Geography of the ancient writers, and for enabling a diligent

student to read them in the most profitable manner.   It was with a view of sup¬

plying this acknowledged want that the series  of classical dictionaries was under¬

taken ; and the very favorable manner in which these works have been  received

by the scholars and teachers  of this country demands from  the  editor his most

grateful acknowledgments.  The approbation with which he has been  favored has

encouraged him to proceed in the design which he had formed from the beginning,

of preparing a series of works which might be useful  not only to the scholar  and

the more advanced student, but also to those who were entering on  their classical

studies.   The dictionaries of " Greek and Roman Antiquities " and of "Greek and

Roman Biography and Mythology," which are already completed, and the " Dic¬

tionary of Gieek  and Roman Geography," on which the editor  is now  engaged,

sire  intended  to meet the wants of the more advanced scholar ;  but these works

<*re on too extended a scale, and enter too much into details, to be suitable for the

use of junior  students.   For the latter  class of persons a work is required of the

same kind as Lempriere's well-known dictionary, containing  in a  single volume

the most important names, biographical, mythological, and geographical, occurring

in the Greek  and Roman writers usually read in our public schools.  It is invidious

for  an author  to  speak  of the defects of his  predecessors;  but it may safely be

said  that Lempriere's work, which  originally contained the most serious mistakes,

has  long  since become  obsolete,  and  that since the time  it was compiled  we

have attained to more correct  knowledge on a vast number of subjects comprised

in that work.       ■                                  ■

  The present dictionary is designed, as already remarked, chiefly to elucidate the

Greek and Roman writers usually read in schools; but, at the same time, it has

not been considered expedient to omit  any proper names connected with classical

antiquity, of  which it is expected that  some knowledge ought to be possessed by

every person who  aspires to a liberal education.  Accordingly, while more spac«

has been given to the prominent Greek and Eoman writers,  and to the more dis¬

tinguished characters of Greek and Roman history, other names have not been

omitted altogether, but  only  treated with greater  brevity.  The chief difficulty

which every author has to contend with in a work like the present is the vastness

of his subject and  the copiousness of his'materials.   It has therefore  been neces:

sary in  all cases to study the  greatest  possible brevity, to avoid all  discussions,

and to be satisfied  with giving  simply the results, at which the best modern scholars