AN EPITOME

ཁམས་

OF THE

CIVIL AND LITERARY CHRONOLOGY

OF

ROME AND CONSTANTINOPLE,

FROM

THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS

ΤΟ

THE DEATH OF HERACLIUS.

BY

HENRY FYNES CLINTON, Esq. M. A.

LATE STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH.

EDITED BY

THE REV. C. J. FYNES CLINTON, M. A.

RECTOR OF CROMWELL, AND VICAR OF ORSTON, NOTTS.

OXFORD:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

M.DCCC.LIII.

PREFACE.

THIS Epitome is on the plan of the Epitome of the Fasti Hellenici, to which it may be considered as a sequel, or as a second volume. The arrangement is similar: that is, the quotations and references are generally omitted; the facts and narratives are retained. The same distribution of subjects is followed as in the larger work, except in some few particulars where an alteration was desirable. In the larger work the Tables terminate at the year 578, and the sixty-three years which follow are placed in the Appendix, and in the second Volume: but in the Tables of this Epitome the years are given in one uninterrupted series, beginning at A. D. 15, and ending at A.D. 641.

At the close of the section containing the list and account of Emperors, the genealogies of the Merovingian, Carlovingian, and Capetian dynasties are added.

In the section on Scripture Chronology some new matter will be found which is not in the larger work. The probable period during which the Japhetic families inhabited the Iranian upland before they occupied India, Greece, and other countries, is considered; the Indian Chronology of Prichard and Tod is examined;

and the most probable dates are given for the rise of the kingdom of the Pharaohs.

Of the Abstracts from Ecclesiastical Authors contained in the larger work that of Origen de principiis is omitted, but in its stead is given an Abstract of Photius from a work of Theodorus of Mopsuestia.

This Epitome has the disadvantage of being a posthumous publication. The manuscript of it was carried down by the lamented Author to the commencement of Testimonia Patrum, but he did not live to finish it. (See page 454, note a). His journal attests how much he had at heart the completion of this Work, and how diligently he laboured at it, even when, while his mind retained its fullest vigour, his state of health was far from equal to the task.

For the compilation of the remainder (from page 454 to the end, including the Indices), and for the general revision of the whole, the Editor is responsible.

The Editor gratefully acknowledges that the Delegates of the Oxford University Press have extended to this last work of his brother the same favours which they have uniformly bestowed upon his former volumes. Like its predecessors it is published under their auspices and patronage.

Eastbourne, June 20th, 1853.