Ossian Collection > Essay on the authenticity of the poems of Ossian

H 0\ THE AUTHENTICITY
manner of early nations, and of early times?
In the writings of the ancients of Greece
and Rome, we know, that nothing was
more common than to denominate places
and persons, not by the names given them
in their own country or language, but by
names constructed according to the genius
of the laneuaoe into which thev were trans-
ferred. Thus, Ctesias, a Greek, in his As-
syrian history, — borrowed from records,
which he found in the court of Persia, —
uniformly gives to the kings, not their As-
syrian names, which he found in the record,
but names of Greek etymology, which he
considered as of similar import. Diodorus
Siculus, in his account of Egypt, gives to
the heroes of that country, not their Egyp-
tian names, but Greek names, which he
considered as bearing the same significa-
tion. This practice, so common amongst
ancient writers, seems to arise naturally