retrace our steps, and give a rough review of the various stages
of conquest by which the different regions of the Old World became
known to the Greeks and the Roman Empire, whose knowledge Ptolemy
summarises.

[_Authorities:_ Bunbury, _History of Ancient Geography,_ 2 vols.,
1879; Tozer, _History of Ancient Geography,_ 1897.]




CHAPTER II

THE SPREAD OF CONQUEST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

In a companion volume of this series, "The Story of Extinct
Civilisations in the East," will be found an account of the rise
and development of the various nations who held sway over the west
of Asia at the dawn of history. Modern discoveries of remarkable
interest have enabled us to learn the condition of men in Asia
Minor as early as 4000 B.C. All these early civilisations existed
on the banks of great rivers, which rendered the land fertile through
which they passed.

We first find man conscious of himself, and putting his knowledge
on record, along the banks of the great rivers Nile, Euphrates,
and Tigris, Ganges and Yang-tse-Kiang. But for our purposes we
are not concerned with these very early stages of history. The
Egyptians got to know something of the nations that surrounded
them, and so did the Assyrians. A summary of similar knowledge