The Ancient Empires of the East #251386

Before learning, however, what it is that the monuments have to teach us, we must form a clear idea of the worth of the information about the nations of the East, which we have received from classical antiquity. We need only compare the following chapters with a work on ancient history, like that of Rollin, founded entirely on the statements of Greek and Latin authors, to see how different — nay, how inconsistent they are. If the one is true, the other cannot be. If the record of the contemporaneous monument is correct, we must give up our faith in the legends of a later age, reported by writers who scorned to know an oriental language.