A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE CASTRIOT KING OF EPIRUS AND ALBANIA COMMONLY CALLED SCANDERBEG. THOUGH the life of Scanderbeg is certainly as full of the most surprizing events, his actions as wonderful, and his character as perfect and exalted, as any of the ancient heroes of Greece or Rome; yet for want of a Homer or a Virgil, a Plutarch or a Livy, to celebrate his praise, or write his life in a manner worthy of him, there are great numbers, who are conversant with the classic as well as other writers, who know very little of Scanderbeg, besides his name: so necessary to the fame even of the greatest men, is an elegant poet or faithful historian. The tragedy of the Christian Hero is founded on that wonderful and important circumstance in the life of Scanderbeg, his raising the siege of Croia, after it had been invested near six months by the numerous troops of the Turkish Sultan, Amurath the Second; who died, after infinite vexation and disappointment, of grief and rage under the walls of the city. We think it therefore necessary to give some account, collected from the most authentic authors, of the life and character of this excellent prince; that those, who are as yet unacquainted with the story, may by reading this, besides the instruction and entertainment they may find in it, be the better able to judge of the play. It may give light to the following history to observe that Albania, the country of Scanderbeg, is in that part of Greece which lies between Dalmatia and Achaia, on the Adriatic and Ionian seas; and includes in it some parts of the ancient kingdoms of Epirus and Macedon, and of the provinces of Liburnia, Dalmatia and Illyria, and is supposed to have taken its present name, which is but modern, from a colony of Albanians, a people of Asia; who coming into Europe and settling there, in time communicated their name to the country. After the conquest of Greece by Paulus Emilius and others, Albania, though not then known by that name, was incorporated with some adjacent countries, and became part of a Roman province under the government of the præfectus prætorio of Illyrium. At the division of the Empire it was allotted to the emperors of Constantinople, and so remained till the |