286 F14 BIOGRAPHIA CLASSICA: THE LIVE S AND CHARACTERS O F THE GREEK AND ROMAN CLASSICS. A NEW EDITION, AND A LIST of the BEST EDITIONS of each Author. By EDWARD HARWOOD, D. D. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I, LONDON: Printed for T. BECKET, and T. EVANS, in the STRAND. M DCC LXXVIII. BY THE EDIT O R. THE Reflection imparts to me fingular Satisfaction, that I have expended those Hours, which I have been able to redeem from my daily Occupation, on correcting and enlarging a Work, which will eminently contribute to the Amusement and Improvement of young Perfons. Teaching the Greek and Roman Claffics has conftituted the principal Employment and the principal Felicity of my Life, and I look through a Series of Twenty Years with exalted Pleasure and Gratitude, in which I have done fome Service to my Country, in inftructing Youth in the best Species of Erudition, teaching them to understand and relish the immortal Productions of Greece and Rome, and by these Standards of literary Excellence, forming them to Purity of Diction, Elegance of Tafte, and Solidity of Judgment. This is the fole Department in which, as an INSTRUCTOR, I have done good, or indeed can confcientiously ferve Mankind. My Profeffion as well as Inclination powerfully induce me to rejoice in every Thing that facilitates the Path of Inftruction, in every Book that illuftrates the Greek and Roman Claffics, and exhibits to the World the Lives, Characters, and Compofitions of those incomparable Writers. The following Work, therefore, being excellently calculated for the Amusement and Inftruction of Youth, whether in private Families, or in our Schools, Academies, and Universities, I thought I fhould deferve well of Parents, Preceptors, and Tutors, if I devoted fome of my vacant Hours to augment and improve it. I have not indiligently revised the Whole, added in every Life feveral Particulars, corrected many Mistakes in Names, Places, and Facts, and have written four entire new Lives. At the End of every Article I have added a List of the beft Editions of each Claffic Author, much more complete and accurate than any before published. I have only to add, that the Study and Pains I have employed on these Two Volumes, will be amply recompenfed, if they in any Refpect conduce to delight and inftruct young Perfons, and prove inftrumental in endowing their Minds with Knowledge and Virtue. LONDON, October 8, 1777. E. HARWOOD. PREFACE. TH HE Ufefulness, or the Neceffity ra ther, of a Work of this Nature, if executed with Judgment and Accuracy, can never be disputed by fuch as profess any Regard for Claffical Learning, or for thofe mighty and celebrated Names, which have been tranfmitted to us, with Renown, through So many revolving Ages, as the great and venerable Founders of it. The mere Perufal and Grammatical Knowledge of thefe Writers must be jejune and unaffecting, unless you are in fome Measure made acquainted with their Characters, their Lives, their Hiftories, their feveral Beauties and Imperfections, the Times in which they lived, the Figure they have made in the Republic of Letters, and the Sentiments and Judgment of the Learned in all Ages on their Compofitions. Thefe, and many other Circumstances, are fo neceffary to be known by a young Student, who begins to tread upon Claffic Ground, in order to conduct him with Delight and Improvement thro' the Courfe of his Studies, that without thefe |