made use of the Arabic numerals as they are
called)."

Mr. Astle further observes:

"The Emperor Tacitus ordered ten copies of the
works of his relation, the historian, to be made
every year which he sent into the different provinces
of the empire; and yet, notwithstanding his
endeavours to perpetuate these inestimable works,
they were buried in oblivion for many centuries.
Since the restoration of learning an ancient MSS.
was discovered in a monastery in Westphalia,
which contained the most valuable part of his annals;
but in this unique manuscript, part of the
fifth, seventh, ninth and tenth books are deficient,
as are part of the eleventh, and the latter part of the
sixteenth. This MSS. was procured by that great
restorer of learning Pope Leo X., under whose patronage
it was printed at Rome in 1515; he afterwards
deposited it in the Vatican library, where it
is still preserved. Thus posterity is probably indebted
to the above magnificent Pontiff, for the
most valuable part of the works of this inimitable
historian."

Accounts which differentiate in their descriptive details
of questioned ink-written fragments of antiquity
and on the genuineness or authenticity of which rests
the truth or falsity of ancient history or other literature,