conscientious labour, in bringing them before the British public, will be amply rewarded, if the manner in which I have executed my task should meet with your approbation. With this hope I beg your Lordship’s acceptance of the present volumes as a small tribute to your genius and learning, and as a token of the veneration and gratitude with which I shall ever remain, My dear Lord, Your’s faithfully and sincerely, L. SCHMITZ. PREFACE. The Lectures here offered to the English public were delivered by Niebuhr in the university of Bonn during the winter of 1827-28, and were published by Dr. Isler at Berlin in 1851. The German editor, in a short preface, remarks, that for a time he hesitated as to the propriety of publishing the present course of Lectures unabridged, because from its very nature the historian had been obliged here to treat of many topics which are discussed in the Lectures already published. But a regard for those readers who may not be possessed of the volumes containing the other courses of Lectures, and at the same time a desire to keep each course complete in itself, induced him to give the lectures uncurtailed and as complete as he found them in the MS. notes. It must also be borne in mind that Niebuhr, delivering his discourses extempore, cannot be said exactly to have repeated what he had said on previous occasions; but that, generally, the statements made in one course of Lectures rather supplement and complete those put forth at another time. The relation in which the present English version stands to the German original is precisely the same as that described in my Preface to the “Lectures on Ancient History”; but the present volumes differ from the previous ones in so far as they do not appear in the _form_ of Lectures. This is owing to the fact that the division into Lectures is not marked either in the German edition or in any of the sets of notes which I had opportunities of collating. The want of such a division, in this instance, is perhaps scarcely to be regretted, because the subject itself renders division and subdivision absolutely necessary; and if the merely accidental division into Lectures had been added, it would frequently disturb rather than assist the reader. Many of the localities and countries here described have been more fully explored since the delivery of these Lectures, and much information might accordingly have been added in notes; but I have thought it right to adhere to the principle which I have followed in the publication of the Lectures on Ancient and on Roman History, as it is not my object to furnish complete treatises on these subjects, but to preserve and bring before the public the views and opinions of a man who still stands unrivalled as an historical inquirer. L. S.