The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, Isaac Newton

 

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THE
CHRONOLOGY
OF
ANCIENT KINGDOMS
AMENDED.

To which is Prefix'd,
A SHORT CHRONICLE from the First
Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest
of Persia by Alexander the Great.

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By Sir ISAAC NEWTON.

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LONDON:

Printed for J. TONSON in the Strand, and J. OSBORN
and T. LONGMAN in Pater-noster Row.

MDCCXXVIII.

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TO THE

QUEEN.

MADAM,

As I could never hope to write any thing my self, worthy to be laid before YOUR MAJESTY; I think it a very great happiness, that it should be my lot to usher into the world, under Your Sacred Name, the last work of as great a Genius as any Age ever produced: an Offering of such value in its self, as to be in no danger of suffering from the meanness of the hand that presents it.

The impartial and universal encouragement which YOUR MAJESTY has always given to Arts and Sciences, entitles You to the best returns the learned world is able to make: And the many extraordinary Honours YOUR MAJESTY vouchsafed the Author of the following sheets, give You a just right to his Productions. These, above the rest, lay the most particular claim to Your Royal Protection; For the Chronology had never appeared in its present Form without YOUR MAJESTY's Influence; and the Short Chronicle, which precedes it, is entirely owing to the Commands with which You were pleased to honour him, out of your singular Care for the education of the Royal Issue, and earnest desire to form their minds betimes, and lead them early into the knowledge of Truth.

The Author has himself acquainted the Publick, that the following Treatise was the fruit of his vacant hours, and the relief he sometimes had recourse to, when tired with his other studies. What an Idea does it raise of His abilities, to find that a Work of such labour and learning, as would have been a sufficient employment and glory for the whole life of another, was to him diversion only, and amusement! The Subject is in its nature incapable of that demonstration upon which his other writings are founded, but his usual accuracy and judiciousness are here no less observable; And at the same time that he supports his suggestions, with all the authorities and proofs that the whole compass of Science can furnish, he offers them with the greatest caution; And by a Modesty, that was natural to Him and always accompanies such superior talents, sets a becoming example to others, not to be too presumptuous in matters so remote and dark. Tho' the Subject be only Chronology, yet, as the mind of the Author abounded with the most extensive variety of Knowledge, he frequently intersperses Observations of a different kind; and occasionally instills principles of Virtue and Humanity, which seem to have been always uppermost in his heart, and, as they were the Constant Rule of his actions, appear Remarkably in all his writings.

Here YOUR MAJESTY will see Astronomy, and a just Observation on the course of Nature, assisting other parts of Learning to illustrate Antiquity; and a Penetration and Sagacity peculiar to the great Author, dispelling that Mist, with which Fable and Error had darkened it; and will with pleasure contemplate the first dawnings of Your favourite Arts and Sciences, the noblest and most beneficial of which He alone carried farther in a few years, than all the most Learned who went before him, had been able to do in many Ages. Here too, MADAM, You will observe, that an Abhorrence of Idolatry and Persecution (the very essence and foundation of that Religion, which makes so bright a part of YOUR MAJESTY's character) was one of the earliest Laws of the Divine Legislator, the Morality of the first Ages, and the primitive Religion of both Jews and Christians; and, as the Author adds, ought to be the standing Religion of all Nations; it being for the honour of God, and good of Mankind. Nor will YOUR MAJESTY be displeased to find his sentiments so agreeable to Your own, whilst he condemns all oppression; and every kind of cruelty, even to brute beasts; and, with so much warmth, inculcates Mercy, Charity, and the indispensable duty of doing good, and promoting the general welfare of mankind: Those great ends, for which Government was first instituted, and to which alone it is administred in this happy Nation, under a KING, who distinguished himself early in opposition to the Tyranny which threatned Europe, and chuses to reign in the hearts of his subjects; Who, by his innate Benevolence, and Paternal Affection to his People, establishes and confirms all their Liberties; and, by his Valour and Magnanimity, guards and defends them.

That Sincerity and Openness of mind, which is the darling quality of this Nation, is become more conspicuous, by being placed upon the Throne; And we see, with Pride, OUR SOVEREIGN the most eminent for a Virtue, by which our country is so desirous to be distinguished. A Prince, whose views and heart are above all the mean arts of Disguise, is far out of the reach of any temptation to Introduce Blindness and Ignorance. And, as HIS MAJESTY is, by his incessant personal cares, dispensing Happiness at home, and Peace abroad; You, MADAM, lead us on by Your great Example to the most noble use of that Quiet and Ease, which we enjoy under His Administration, whilst all Your hours of leisure are employed in cultivating in Your Self That Learning, which You so warmly patronize in Others.

YOUR MAJESTY does not think the instructive Pursuit, an entertainment below Your exalted Station; and are Your Self a proof, that the abstruser parts of it are not beyond the reach of Your Sex. Nor does this Study end in barren speculation; It discovers itself in a steady attachment to true Religion; in Liberality, Beneficence, and all those amiable Virtues, which increase and heighten the Felicities of a Throne, at the same time that they bless All around it. Thus, MADAM, to enjoy, together with the highest state of publick Splendor and Dignity all the retired Pleasures and domestick Blessings of private life; is the perfection of human Wisdom, as well as Happiness.

The good Effects of this Love of knowledge, will not stop with the present Age; It will diffuse its Influence with advantage to late Posterity: And what may we not anticipate in our minds for the Generations to come under a Royal Progeny, so descended, so educated, and formed by such Patterns!

The glorious Prospect gives us abundant reason to hope, that Liberty and Learning will be perpetuated together; and that the bright Examples of Virtue and Wisdom, set in this Reign by the Royal Patrons of Both, will be transmitted with the Scepter to their Posterity, till this and the other Works of Sir ISAAC NEWTON shall be forgot, and Time it self be no more: Which is the most sincere and ardent wish of

MADAM,

May it please YOUR MAJESTY,

YOUR MAJESTY's most obedient and most dutiful subject and servant,

John Conduitt.

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THE CONTENTS.

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Advertisement.

Tho' The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amended, was writ by the Author many years since; yet he lately revis'd it, and was actually preparing it for the Press at the time of his death. But The Short Chronicle was never intended to be made public, and therefore was not so lately corrected by him. To this the Reader must impute it, if he shall find any places where the Short Chronicle does not accurately agree with the Dates assigned in the larger Piece. The Sixth Chapter was not copied out with the other Five, which makes it doubtful whether he intended to print it: but being found among his Papers, and evidently appearing to be a Continuation of the same Work, and (as such) abridg'd in the Short Chronicle; it was thought proper to be added.

Had the Great Author himself liv'd to publish this Work, there would have been no occasion for this Advertisement; But as it is, the Reader is desired to allow for such imperfections as are inseparable from Posthumous Pieces; and, in so great a number of proper names, to excuse some errors of the Press that have escaped.

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A SHORT

CHRONICLE

FROM THE
First Memory of Things in Europe,
TO THE
Conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great.

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The INTRODUCTION.

The Greek Antiquities are full of Poetical Fictions, because the Greeks wrote nothing in Prose, before the Conquest of Asia by Cyrus the Persian. Then Pherecydes Scyrius and Cadmus Milesius introduced the writing in Prose. Pherecydes Atheniensis, about the end of the Reign of Darius Hystaspis, wrote of Antiquities, and digested his work by Genealogies, and was reckoned one of the best Genealogers. Epimenides the Historian proceeded also by Genealogies; and Hellanicus, who was twelve years older than Herodotus, digested his History by the Ages or Successions of the Priestesses of Juno Argiva. Others digested theirs by the Kings of the Lacedæmonians, or Archons of Athens. Hippias the Elean, about thirty years before the fall of the Persian Empire, published a breviary or list of the Olympic Victors; and about ten years before the fall thereof, Ephorus the disciple of Isocrates formed a Chronological History of Greece, beginning with the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and ending with the siege of Perinthus, in the twentieth year of Philip the father of Alexander the great: But he digested things by Generations, and the reckoning by Olympiads was not yet in use, nor doth it appear that the Reigns of Kings were yet set down by numbers of years. The Arundelian marbles were composed sixty years after the death of Alexander the great (An. 4. Olymp. 128.) and yet mention not the Olympiads: But in the next Olympiad, Timæus Siculus published an history in several books down to his own times, according to the Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the Kings of Sparta, the Archons of Athens, and the Priestesses of Argos, with the Olympic Victors, so as to make the Olympiads, and the Genealogies and Successions of Kings, Archons, and Priestesses, and poetical histories suit with one another, according to the best of his judgment. And where he left off, Polybius began and carried on the history.

So then a little after the death of Alexander the great, they began to set down the Generations, Reigns and Successions, in numbers of years, and by putting Reigns and Successions equipollent to Generations, and three Generations to an hundred or an hundred and twenty years (as appears by their Chronology) they have made the Antiquities of Greece three or four hundred years older than the truth. And this was the original of the Technical Chronology of the Greeks. Eratosthenes wrote about an hundred years after the death of Alexander the great: He was followed by Apollodorus, and these two have been followed ever since by Chronologers.

But how uncertain their Chronology is, and how doubtful it was reputed by the Greeks of those times, may be understood by these passages of Plutarch. Some reckon, saith he, ^[1] Lycurgus contemporary to Iphitus, and to have been his companion in ordering the Olympic festivals: amongst whom was Aristotle the Philosopher, arguing from the Olympic Disc, which had the name of Lycurgus upon it. Others supputing the times by the succession of the Kings of the Lacedæmonians, as Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, affirm that he was not a few years older than the first Olympiad. First Aristotle and some others made him as old as the first Olympiad; then Eratosthenes, Apollodorus, and some others made him above an hundred years older: and in another place Plutarch ^[2] tells us: The congress of Solon with Croesus, some think they can confute by Chronology. But an history so illustrious, and verified by so many witnesses, and (which is more) so agreeable to the manners of Solon, and so worthy of the greatness of his mind and of his wisdom, I cannot persuade my self to reject because of some Chronological Canons, as they call them: which hundreds of authors correcting, have not yet been able to constitute any thing certain, in which they could agree among themselves, about repugnancies. It seems the Chronologers had made the Legislature of Solon too ancient to consist with that Congress.

For reconciling such repugnancies, Chronologers have sometimes doubled the persons of men. So when the Poets had changed Io the daughter of Inachus into the Egyptian Isis, Chronologers made her husband Osiris or Bacchus and his mistress Ariadne as old as Io, and so feigned that there were two Ariadnes, one the mistress of Bacchus, and the other the mistress of Theseus, and two Minos's their fathers, and a younger Io the daughter of Jasus, writing Jasus corruptly for Inachus. And so they have made two Pandions, and two Erechtheus's, giving the name of Erechthonius to the first; Homer calls the first, Erechtheus: and by such corruptions they have exceedingly perplexed Ancient History.

And as for the Chronology of the Latines, that is still more uncertain. Plutarch represents great uncertainties in the Originals of Rome: and so doth Servius. The old records of the Latines were burnt by the Gauls, sixty and four years before the death of Alexander the great; and Quintus Fabius Pictor, the oldest historian of the Latines, lived an hundred years later than that King.

In Sacred History, the Assyrian Empire began with Pul and Tiglathpilaser, and lasted about 170 years. And accordingly Herodotus hath made Semiramis only five generations, or about 166 years older than Nitocris, the mother of the last King of Babylon. But Ctesias hath made Semiramis 1500 years older than Nitocris, and feigned a long series of Kings of Assyria, whose names are not Assyrian, nor have any affinity with the Assyrian names in Scripture.

The Priests of Egypt told Herodotus, that Menes built Memphis and the sumptuous temple of Vulcan, in that City: and that Rhampsinitus, Mœris, Asychis and Psammiticus added magnificent porticos to that temple. And it is not likely that Memphis could be famous, before Homer's days who doth not mention it, or that a temple could be above two or three hundred years in building. The Reign of Psammiticus began about 655 years before Christ, and I place the founding of this temple by Menes about 257 years earlier: but the Priests of Egypt had so magnified their Antiquities before the days of Herodotus, as to tell him that from Menes to Mœris (who reigned 200 years before Psammiticus) there were 330 Kings, whose Reigns took up as many Ages, that is eleven thousand years, and had filled up the interval with feigned Kings, who had done nothing. And before the days of Diodorus Siculus they had raised their Antiquities so much higher, as to place six, eight, or ten new Reigns of Kings between those Kings, whom they had represented to Herodotus to succeed one another immediately.

In the Kingdom of Sicyon, Chronologers have split Apis Epaphus or Epopeus into two Kings, whom they call Apis and Epopeus, and between them have inserted eleven or twelve feigned names of Kings who did nothing, and thereby they have made its Founder Ægialeus, three hundred years older than his brother Phoroneus. Some have made the Kings of Germany as old as the Flood: and yet before the use of letters, the names and actions of men could scarce be remembred above eighty or an hundred years after their deaths: and therefore I admit no Chronology of things done in Europe, above eighty years before Cadmus brought letters into Europe; none, of things done in Germany, before the rise of the Roman Empire.

Now since Eratosthenes and Apollodorus computed the times by the Reigns of the Kings of Sparta, and (as appears by their Chronology still followed) have made the seventeen Reigns of these Kings in both Races, between the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus and the Battel of Thermopylæ, take up 622 years, which is after the rate of 36½ years to a Reign, and yet a Race of seventeen Kings of that length is no where to be met with in all true History, and Kings at a moderate reckoning Reign but 18 or 20 years a-piece one with another: I have stated the time of the return of the Heraclides by the last way of reckoning, placing it about 340 years before the Battel of Thermopylæ. And making the Taking of Troy eighty years older than that Return, according to Thucydides, and the Argonautic Expedition a Generation older than the Trojan War, and the Wars of Sesostris in Thrace and death of Ino the daughter of Cadmus a Generation older than that Expedition: I have drawn up the following Chronological Table, so as to make Chronology suit with the Course of Nature, with Astronomy, with Sacred History, with Herodotus the Father of History, and with it self; without the many repugnancies complained of by Plutarch. I do not pretend to be exact to a year: there may be Errors of five or ten years, and sometimes twenty, and not much above.

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A SHORT

CHRONICLE

FROM THE
First Memory of things in Europe to
the Conquest of Persia by Alexander
the great.

The Times are set down in years before Christ.

The Canaanites who fled from Joshua, retired in great numbers into Egypt, and there conquered Timaus, Thamus, or Thammuz King of the lower Egypt, and reigned there under their Kings Salatis, Bœon, Apachnas, Apophis, Janias, Assis, &c. untill the days of Eli and Samuel. They fed on flesh, and sacrificed men after the manner of the Phœnicians, and were called Shepherds by the Egyptians, who lived only on the fruits of the earth, and abominated flesh-eaters. The upper parts of Egypt were in those days under many Kings, Reigning at Coptos, Thebes, This, Elephantis, and other Places, which by conquering one another grew by degrees into one Kingdom, over which Misphragmuthosis Reigned in the days of Eli.

In the year before Christ 1125 Mephres Reigned over the upper Egypt from Syene to Heliopolis, and his Successor Misphragmuthosis made a lasting war upon the Shepherds soon after, and caused many of them to fly into Palestine, Idumæa, Syria, and Libya; and under Lelex, Æzeus, Inachus, Pelasgus, Æolus the first, Cecrops, and other Captains, into Greece. Before those days Greece and all Europe was peopled by wandring Cimmerians, and Scythians from the backside of the Euxine Sea, who lived a rambling wild sort of life, like the Tartars in the northern parts of Asia. Of their Race was Ogyges, in whose days these Egyptian strangers came into Greece. The rest of the Shepherds were shut up by Misphragmuthosis, in a part of the lower Egypt called Abaris or Pelusium.

In the year 1100 the Philistims, strengthned by the access of the Shepherds, conquer Israel, and take the Ark. Samuel judges Israel.

1085. Hæmon the son of Pelasgus Reigns in Thessaly.

1080. Lycaon the son of Pelasgus builds Lycosura; Phoroneus the son of Inachus, Phoronicum, afterwards called Argos; Ægialeus the brother of Phoroneus and son of Inachus, Ægialeum, afterwards called Sicyon: and these were the oldest towns in Peloponnesus. 'Till then they built only single houses scattered up and down in the fields. About the same time Cecrops built Cecropia in Attica, afterwards called Athens; and Eleusine, the son of Ogyges, built Eleusis. And these towns gave a beginning to the Kingdoms of the Arcadians, Argives, Sicyons, Athenians, Eleusinians, &c. Deucalion flourishes.

1070. Amosis, or Tethmosis, the successor of Misphragmuthosis, abolishes the Phœnician custom in Heliopolis of sacrificing men, and drives the Shepherds out of Abaris. By their access the Philistims become so numerous, as to bring into the field against Saul 30000 chariots, 6000 horsemen, and people as the sand on the sea shore for multitude. Abas, the father of Acrisius and Prœtus, comes from Egypt.

1069. Saul is made King of Israel, and by the hand of Jonathan gets a great victory over the Philistims. Eurotas the son of Lelex, and Lacedæmon who married Sparta the daughter of Eurotas, Reign in Laconia, and build Sparta.

1060. Samuel dies.

1059. David made King.

1048. The Edomites are conquered and dispersed by David, and some of them fly into Egypt with their young King Hadad. Others fly to the Persian Gulph with their Commander Oannes; and others from the Red Sea to the coast of the Mediterranean, and fortify Azoth against David, and take Zidon; and the Zidonians who fled from them build Tyre and Aradus, and make Abibalus King of Tyre. These Edomites carry to all places their Arts and Sciences; amongst which were their Navigation, Astronomy, and Letters; for in Idumæa they had Constellations and Letters before the days of Job, who mentions them: and there Moses learnt to write the Law in a book. These Edomites who fled to the Mediterranean, translating the word Erythræa into that of Phœnicia, give the name of Phœnicians to themselves, and that of Phœnicia to all the sea-coasts of Palestine from Azoth to Zidon. And hence came the tradition of the Persians, and of the Phœnicians themselves, mentioned by Herodotus, that the Phœnicians came originally from the Red Sea, and presently undertook long voyages on the Mediterranean.

1047. Acrisius marries Eurydice, the daughter of Lacedæmon and Sparta. The Phœnician mariners who fled from the Red Sea, being used to long voyages for the sake of traffic, begin the like voyages on the Mediterranean from Zidon; and sailing as far as Greece, carry away Io the daughter of Inachus, who with other Grecian women came to their ships to buy their merchandize. The Greek Seas begin to be infested with Pyrates.

1046. The Syrians of Zobah and Damascus are conquered by David. Nyctimus, the son of Lycaon, reigns in Arcadia. Deucalion still alive.

1045. Many of the Phœnicians and Syrians fleeing from Zidon and from David, come under the conduct of Cadmus, Cilix, Phœnix, Membliarius, Nycteus, Thasus, Atymnus, and other Captains, into Asia minor, Crete, Greece, and Libya; and introduce Letters, Music, Poetry, the Octaeteris, Metals and their Fabrication, and other Arts, Sciences and Customs of the Phœnicians. At this time Cranaus the successor of Cecrops Reigned in Attica, and in his Reign and the beginning of the Reign of Nyctimus, the Greeks place the flood of Deucalion. This flood was succeeded by four Ages or Generations of men, in the first of which Chiron the son of Saturn and Philyra was born, and the last of which according to Hesiod ended with the Trojan War; and so places the Destruction of Troy four Generations or about 140 years later than that flood, and the coming of Cadmus, reckoning with the ancients three Generations to an hundred years. With these Phœnicians came a sort of men skilled in the Religious Mysteries, Arts, and Sciences of Phœnicia, and settled in several places under the names of Curetes, Corybantes, Telchines, and Idæi Dactyli.

1043. Hellen, the son of Deucalion, and father of Æolus, Xuthus, and Dorus, flourishes.

1035. Erectheus Reigns in Attica. Æthlius, the grandson of Deucalion and father of Endymion, builds Elis. The Idæi Dactyli find out Iron in mount Ida in Crete, and work it into armour and iron tools, and thereby give a beginning to the trades of smiths and armourers in Europe; and by singing and dancing in their armour, and keeping time by striking upon one another's armour with their swords, they bring in Music and Poetry; and at the same time they nurse up the Cretan Jupiter in a cave of the same mountain, dancing about him in their armour.

1034. Ammon Reigns in Egypt. He conquered Libya, and reduced that people from a wandering savage life to a civil one, and taught them to lay up the fruits of the earth; and from him Libya and the desert above it were anciently called Ammonia. He was the first that built long and tall ships with sails, and had a fleet of such ships on the Red Sea, and another on the Mediterranean at Irasa in Libya. 'Till then they used small and round vessels of burden, invented on the Red Sea, and kept within sight of the shore. For enabling them to cross the seas without seeing the shore, the Egyptians began in his days to observe the Stars: and from this beginning Astronomy and Sailing had their rise. Hitherto the Lunisolar year had been in use: but this year being of an uncertain length, and so, unfit for Astronomy, in his days and in the days of his sons and grandsons, by observing the Heliacal Risings and Setting of the Stars, they found the length of the Solar year, and made it consist of five days more than the twelve calendar months of the old Lunisolar year. Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus marries Xuthus the son of Hellen. Erechtheus having first celebrated the Panathenæa joins horses to a chariot. Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and mother of Æacus, born.

1030. Ceres a woman of Sicily, in seeking her daughter who was stolen, comes into Attica, and there teaches the Greeks to sow corn; for which Benefaction she was Deified after death. She first taught the Art to Triptolemus the young son of Celeus King of Eleusis.

1028. Oenotrus the youngest son of Lycaon, the Janus of the Latines, led the first Colony of Greeks into Italy, and there taught them to build houses. Perseus born.

1020. Arcas, the son of Callisto and grandson of Lycaon, and Eumelus the first King of Achaia, receive bread-corn from Triptolemus.

1019. Solomon Reigns, and marries the daughter of Ammon, and by means of this affinity is supplied with horses from Egypt; and his merchants also bring horses from thence for all the Kings of the Hittites and Syrians: for horses came originally from Libya; and thence Neptune was called Equestris. Tantalus King of Phrygia steals Ganimede the son of Tros King of Troas.

1017. Solomon by the assistance of the Tyrians and Aradians, who had mariners among them acquainted with the Red Sea, sets out a fleet upon that sea. Those assistants build new cities in the Persian Gulph, called Tyre and Aradus.

1015. The Temple of Solomon is founded. Minos Reigns in Crete expelling his father Asterius, who flees into Italy, and becomes the Saturn of the Latines. Ammon takes Gezer from the Canaanites, and gives it to his daughter, Solomon's wife.

1014. Ammon places Cepheus at Joppa.

1010. Sesac in the Reign of his father Ammon invades Arabia Fœlix, and sets up pillars at the mouth of the Red Sea. Apis, Epaphus or Epopeus, the son of Phroroneus, and Nycteus King of Bœotia, slain. Lycus inherits the Kingdom of his brother Nycteus. Ætolus the son of Endymion flies into the Country of the Curetes in Achaia, and calls it Ætolia; and of Pronoe the daughter of Phorbas begets Pleuron and Calydon, who built cities in Ætolia called by their own names. Antiopa the daughter of Nycteus is sent home to Lycus by Lamedon the successor of Apis, and in the way brings forth Amphion and Zethus.

1008. Sesac, in the Reign of his father Ammon, invades Afric and Spain, and sets up pillars in all his conquests, and particularly at the mouth of the Mediterranean, and returns home by the coast of Gaul and Italy.

1007. Ceres being dead Eumolpus institutes her Mysteries in Eleusine. The Mysteries of Rhea are instituted in Phrygia, in the city Cybele. About this time Temples begin to be built in Greece. Hyagnis the Phrygian invents the pipe. After the example of the common-council of the five Lords of the Philistims, the Greeks set up the Amphictyonic Council, first at Thermopylæ, by the influence of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion; and a few years after at Delphi by the influence of Acrisius. Among the cites, whose deputies met at Thermopylæ, I do not find Athens, and therefore doubt whether Amphictyon was King of that city. If he was the son of Deucalion and brother of Hellen, he and Cranaus might Reign together in several parts of Attica. But I meet with a later Amphictyon who entertained the great Bacchus. This Council worshipped Ceres, and therefore was instituted after her death.

1006. Minos prepares a fleet, clears the Greek seas of Pyrates, and sends Colonies to the Islands of the Greeks, some of which were not inhabited before. Cecrops II. Reigns in Attica. Caucon teaches the Mysteries of Ceres in Messene.

1005. Andromeda carried away from Joppa by Perseus. Pandion the brother of Cecrops II. Reigns in Attica. Car, the son of Phoroneus, builds a Temple to Ceres.

1002. Sesac Reigns in Egypt and adorns Thebes, dedicating it to his father Ammon by the name of No-Ammon or Ammon-No, that is the people or city of Ammon: whence the Greeks called it Diospolis, the city of Jupiter. Sesac also erected Temples and Oracles to his father in Thebes, Ammonia, and Ethiopia, and thereby caused his father to be worshipped as a God in those countries, and I think also in Arabia Fœlix: and this was the original of the worship of Jupiter Ammon, and the first mention of Oracles that I meet with in Prophane History. War between Pandion and Labdacus the grandson of Cadmus.

994. Ægeus Reigns in Attica.

993. Pelops the son of Tantalus comes into Peloponnesus, marries Hippodamia the granddaughter of Acrisius, takes Ætolia from Ætolus the son of Endymion, and by his riches grows potent.

990. Amphion and Zethus slay Lycus, put Laius the son of Labdacus to flight, and Reign in Thebes, and wall the city about.

989. Dædalus and his nephew Talus invent the saw, the turning-lath, the wimble, the chip-ax, and other instruments of Carpenters and Joyners, and thereby give a beginning to those Arts in Europe. Dædalus also invented the making of Statues with their feet asunder, as if they walked.

988. Minos makes war upon the Athenians, for killing his son Androgeus. Æacus flourishes.

987. Dædalus kills his nephew Talus, and flies to Minos. A Priestess of Jupiter Ammon, being brought by Phœnician merchants into Greece, sets up the Oracle of Jupiter at Dodona. This gives a beginning to Oracles in Greece: and by their dictates, the Worship of the Dead is every where introduced.

983. Sisyphus, the son of Æolus and grandson of Hellen, Reigns in Corinth, and some say that he built that city.

980. Laius recovers the Kingdom of Thebes. Athamas, the brother of Sisyphus and father of Phrixus and Helle, marries Ino the daughter of Cadmus.

979. Rehoboam Reigns. Thoas is sent from Crete to Lemnos, Reigns there in the city Hephœstia, and works in copper and iron.

978. Alcmena born of Electryo the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and of Lysidice the daughter of Pelops.

974. Sesac spoils the Temple, and invades Syria and Persia, setting up pillars in many places. Jeroboam, becoming subject to Sesac, sets up the worship of the Egyptian Gods in Israel.

971. Sesac invades India, and returns with triumph the next year but one: whence Trieterica Bacchi. He sets up pillars on two mountains at the mouth of the river Ganges.

968. Theseus Reigns, having overcome the Minotaur, and soon after unites the twelve cities of Attica under one government. Sesac, having carried on his victories to Mount Caucasus, leaves his nephew Prometheus there, and Æetes in Colchis.

967. Sesac, passing over the Hellespont conquers Thrace, kills Lycurgus King thereof, and gives his Kingdom and one of his singing-women to Oeagrus the father of Orpheus. Sesac had in his army Ethiopians commanded by Pan, and Libyan women commanded by Myrina or Minerva. It was the custom of the Ethiopians to dance when they were entring into a battel, and from their skipping they were painted with goats feet in the form of Satyrs.

966. Thoas, being made King of Cyprus by Sesac, goes thither with his wife Calycopis, and leaves his daughter Hypsipyle in Lemnos.

965. Sesac is baffled by the Greeks and Scythians, loses many of his women with their Queen Minerva, composes the war, is received by Amphiction at a feast, buries Ariadne, goes back through Asia and Syria into Egypt, with innumerable captives, among whom was Tithonus, the son of Laomedon King of Troy; and leaves his Libyan Amazons, under Marthesia and Lampeto, the successors of Minerva, at the river Thermodon. He left also in Colchos Geographical Tables of all his conquests: And thence Geography had its rise. His singing-women were celebrated in Thrace by the name of the Muses. And the daughters of Pierus a Thracian, imitating them, were celebrated by the same name.

964. Minos, making war upon Cocalus King of Sicily, is slain by him. He was eminent for his Dominion, his Laws and his Justice: upon his sepulchre visited by Pythagoras, was this inscription, ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ the Sepulchre of Jupiter. Danaus with his daughters flying from his brother Egyptus (that is from Sesac) comes into Greece. Sesac using the advice of his Secretary Thoth, distributes Egypt into xxxvi Nomes, and in every Nome erects a Temple, and appoints the several Gods, Festivals and Religions of the several Nomes. The Temples were the sepulchres of his great men, where they were to be buried and worshipped after death, each in his own Temple, with ceremonies and festivals appointed by him; while He and his Queen, by the names of Osiris and Isis, were to be worshipped in all Egypt. These were the Temples seen and described by Lucian eleven hundred years after, to be of one and the same age: and this was the original of the several Nomes of Egypt, and of the several Gods and several Religions of those Nomes. Sesac divided also the land of Egypt by measure amongst his soldiers, and thence Geometry had its rise. Hercules and Eurystheus born.

963. Amphictyon brings the twelve Gods of Egypt into Greece, and these are the Dii magni majorum gentium, to whom the Earth and Planets and Elements are dedicated.

962. Phryxus and Helle fly from their stepmother Ino the daughter of Cadmus. Helle is drowned in the Hellespont, so named from her, but Phryxus arrived at Colchos.

960. The war between the Lapithæ and the people of Thessaly called Centaurs.

958. Oedipus kills his father Laius. Sthenelus the son of Perseus Reigns in Mycene.

956. Sesac is slain by his brother Japetus, who after death was deified in Afric by the name of Neptune, and called Typhon by the Egyptians. Orus Reigns and routs the Libyans, who under the conduct of Japetus, and his Son Antæus or Atlas, invaded Egypt. Sesac from his making the river Nile useful, by cutting channels from it to all the cities of Egypt, was called by its names, Sihor or Siris, Nilus and Egyptus. The Greeks hearing the Egyptians lament, O Siris and Bou Siris, called him Osiris and Busiris. The Arabians from his great acts called him Bacchus, that is, the Great. The Phrygians called him Ma-fors or Mavors, the valiant, and by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests, and his army in his father's Reign fought against the Africans with clubs, he is painted with pillars and a club: and this is that Hercules who, according to Cicero, was born upon the Nile, and according to Eudoxus, was slain by Typhon; and according to Diodorus, was an Egyptian, and went over a great part of the world, and set up the pillars in Afric. He seems to be also the Belus who, according to Diodorus, led a Colony of Egyptians to Babylon, and there instituted Priests called Chaldeans, who were free from taxes, and observed the stars, as in Egypt. Hitherto Judah and Israel laboured under great vexations, but henceforward Asa King of Judah had peace ten years.

947. The Ethiopians invade Egypt, and drown Orus in the Nile. Thereupon Bubaste the sister of Orus kills herself, by falling from the top of an house, and their mother Isis or Astræa goes mad: and thus ended the Reign of the Gods of Egypt.

946. Zerah the Ethiopian is overthrown by Asa. The people of the lower Egypt make Osarsiphus their King, and call in two hundred thousand Jews and Phœnicians against the Ethiopians. Menes or Amenophis the young son of Zerah and Cissia Reigns.

944. The Ethiopians, under Amenophis, retire from the lower Egypt and fortify Memphis against Osarsiphus. And by these wars and the Argonautic expedition, the great Empire of Egypt breaks in pieces. Eurystheus the son of Sthenelus Reigns in Mycenæ.

943. Evander and his mother Carmenta carry Letters into Italy.

942. Orpheus Deifies the son of Semele by the name of Bacchus, and appoints his Ceremonies.

940. The great men of Greece, hearing of the civil wars and distractions of Egypt, resolve to send an embassy to the nations, upon the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas, subject to that Empire, and for that end order the building of the ship Argo.

939. The ship Argo is built after the pattern of the long ship in which Danaus came into Greece: and this was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Chiron, who was born in the Golden Age, forms the Constellations for the use of the Argonauts; and places the Solstitial and Equinoctial Points in the fifteenth degrees or middles of the Constellations of Cancer, Chelæ, Capricorn, and Aries. Meton in the year of Nabonassar 316, observed the Summer Solstice in the eighth degree of Cancer, and therefore the Solstice had then gone back seven degrees. It goes back one degree in about seventytwo years, and seven degrees in about 504 years. Count these years back from the year of Nabonassar 316, and they will place the Argonautic expedition about 936 years before Christ. Gingris the son of Thoas slain, and Deified by the name of Adonis.

938. Theseus, being fifty years old, steals Helena then seven years old. Pirithous the son of Ixion, endeavouring to steal Persephone the daughter of Orcus King of the Molossians, is slain by the Dog of Orcus; and his companion Theseus is taken and imprisoned. Helena is set at liberty by her brothers.

937. The Argonautic expedition. Prometheus leaves Mount Caucasus, being set at liberty by Hercules. Laomedon King of Troy is slain by Hercules. Priam succeeds him. Talus a brazen man, of the Brazen Age, the son of Minos, is slain by the Argonauts. Æsculapius and Hercules were Argonauts, and Hippocrates was the eighteenth from Æsculapius by the father's side, and the nineteenth from Hercules by the mother's side; and because these generations, being noted in history, were most probably by the chief of the family, and for the most part by the eldest sons; we may reckon 28 or at the most 30 years to a generation: and thus the seventeen intervals by the father's side and eighteen by the mother's, will at a middle reckoning amount unto about 507 years; which being counted backwards from the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, at which time Hippocrates began to flourish, will reach up to the time where we have placed the Argonautic expedition.

936. Theseus is set at liberty by Hercules.

934. The hunting of the Calydonian boar slain by Meleager.

930. Amenophis, with an army out of Ethiopia and Thebais, invades the lower Egypt, conquers Osarsiphus, and drives out the Jews and Canaanites: and this is reckoned the second expulsion of the Shepherds. Calycopis dies, and is Deified by Thoas with Temples at Paphos and Amathus in Cyprus, and at Byblus in Syria, and with Priests and sacred Rites, and becomes the Venus of the ancients, and the Dea Cypria and Dea Syria. And from these and other places where Temples were erected to her, she was also called Paphia, Amathusia, Byblia, Cytherea, Salaminia, Cnidia, Erycina, Idalia, &c. And her three waiting-women became the three Graces.

928. The war of the seven Captains against Thebes.

927. Hercules and Æsculapius are Deified. Eurystheus drives the Heraclides out of Peloponnesus. He is slain by Hyllus the son of Hercules. Atreus the son of Pelops succeeds him in the Kingdom of Mycenæ. Menestheus, the great grandson of Erechtheus, Reigns at Athens.

925. Theseus is slain, being cast down from a rock.

924. Hyllus invading Peloponnesus is slain by Echemus.

919. Atreus dies. Agamemnon Reigns. In the absence of Menelaus, who went to look after what his father Atreus had left to him, Paris steals Helena.

918. The second war against Thebes.

912. Thoas, King of Cyprus and part of Phœnicia dies; and for making armour for the Kings of Egypt; is Deified with a sumptuous Temple at Memphis by the name of Baal Canaan, Vulcan. This Temple was said to be built by Menes, the first King of Egypt who reigned next after the Gods, that is, by Menoph or Amenophis who reigned next after the death of Osiris, Isis, Orus, Bubaste and Thoth. The city, Memphis was also said to be built by Menes; he began to build it when he fortified it against Osarsiphus. And from him it was called Menoph, Moph, Noph, &c; and is to this day called Menuf by the Arabians. And therefore Menes who built the city and temple Was Menoph or Amenophis. The Priests of Egypt at length made this temple above a thousand years older then Amenophis, and some of them five or ten thousand years older: but it could not be above two or three hundred years older than the Reign of Psammiticus who finished it, and died 614 years before Christ. When Menoph or Menes built the city, he built a bridge there over the Nile: a work too great to be older than the Monarchy of Egypt.

909. Amenophis, called Memnon by the Greeks, built the Memnonia at Susa, whilst Egypt was under the government of Proteus his Viceroy.

904. Troy taken. Amenophis was still at Susa; the Greeks feigning that he came from thence to the Trojan war.

903. Demophoon, the son of Theseus by Phœdra the daughter of Minos, Reigns at Athens.

901. Amenophis builds small Pyramids in Cochome.

896. Ulysses leaves Calypso in the Island Ogygie (perhaps Cadis or Cales.) She was the daughter of Atlas, according to Homer. The ancients at length feigned that this Island, (which from Atlas they called Atlantis) had been as big as all Europe, Africa and Asia, but was sunk into the Sea.

895. Teucer builds Salamis in Cyprus. Hadad or Benhadad King of Syria dies, and is Deified at Damascus with a Temple and Ceremonies.

887. Amenophis dies, and is succeeded by his son Ramesses or Rhampsinitus, who builds the western Portico of the Temple of Vulcan. The Egyptians dedicated to Osiris, Isis, Orus senior, Typhon, and Nephthe the sister and wife of Typhon, the five days added by the Egyptians to the twelve Calendar months of the old Luni-solar year, and said that they were added when these five Princes were born. They were therefore added in the Reign of Ammon the father of these five Princes: but this year was scarce brought into common use before the Reign of Amenophis: for in his Temple or Sepulchre at Abydus, they placed a Circle of 365 cubits in compass, covered on the upper side with a plate of gold, and divided into 365 equal parts, to represent all the days of the year; every part having the day of the year, and the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars on that day, noted upon it. And this Circle remained there 'till Cambyses spoiled the temples of Egypt: and from this monument I collect that it was Amenophis who established this year, fixing the beginning thereof to one of the four Cardinal Points of the heavens. For had not the beginning thereof been now fixed, the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars could not have been noted upon the days thereof. The Priests of Egypt therefore in the Reign of Amenophis continued to observe the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars upon every day. And when by the Sun's Meridional Altitudes they had found the Solstices and Equinoxes according to the Sun's mean motion, his Equation being not yet known, they fixed the beginning of this year to the Vernal Equinox, and in memory thereof erected this monument. Now this year being carried into Chaldæa, the Chaldæans began their year of Nabonassar on the same Thoth with the Egyptians, and made it of the same length. And the Thoth of the first year of Nabonassar fell upon the 26th day of February: which was 33 days and five hours before the Vernal Equinox, according to the Sun's mean motion. And the Thoth of this year moves backwards 33 days and five hours in 137 years, and therefore fell upon the Vernal Equinox 137 years before the Æra of Nabonassar began; that is, 884 years before Christ. And if it began upon the day next after the Vernal Equinox, it might begin three or four years earlier; and there we may place the death of this King. The Greeks feigned that he was the Son of Tithonus, and therefore he was born after the return of Sesac into Egypt, with Tithonus and other captives, and so might be about 70 or 75 years old at his death.

883. Dido builds Carthage, and the Phœnicians begin presently after to sail as far as to the Straights Mouth, and beyond. Æneas was still alive, according to Virgil.

870. Hesiod flourishes. He hath told us himself that he lived in the age next after the wars of Thebes and Troy, and that this age should end when the men then living grew hoary and dropt into the grave; and therefore it was but of an ordinary length: and Herodotus has told us that Hesiod and Homer were but 400 years older than himself. Whence it follows that the destruction of Troy was not older than we have represented it.

860. Mœris Reigns in Egypt. He adorned Memphis, and translated the seat of his Empire thither from Thebes. There he built the famous Labyrinth, and the northern portico of the Temple of Vulcan, and dug the great Lake called the Lake of Mœris, and upon the bottom of it built two great Pyramids of brick: and these things being not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod, were unknown to them, and done after their days. Mœris wrote also a book of Geometry.

852. Hazael the successor of Hadad at Damascus dies and is Deified, as was Hadad before: and these Gods, together with Arathes the wife of Hadad, were worshipt in their Sepulchres or Temples, 'till the days of Josephus the Jew; and the Syrians boasted their antiquity, not knowing, saith Josephus, that they were novel.

844. The Æolic Migration. Bœotia, formerly called Cadmeis, is seized by the Bœotians.

838. Cheops Reigns in Egypt. He built the greatest Pyramid for his sepulchre, and forbad the worship of the former Kings; intending to have been worshipped himself.

825. The Heraclides, after three Generations, or an hundred years, reckoned from their former expedition, return into Peloponnesus. Henceforward, to the end of the first Messenian war, reigned ten Kings of Sparta by one Race, and nine by another; ten of Messene, and nine of Arcadia: which, by reckoning (according to the ordinary course of nature) about twenty years to a Reign, one Reign with another, will take up about 190 years. And the seven Reigns more in one of the two Races of the Kings of Sparta, and eight in the other, to the battle at Thermopylæ; may take up 150 years more: and so place the return of the Heraclides, about 820 years before Christ.

824. Cephren Reigns in Egypt, and builds another great Pyramid.

808. Mycerinus Reigns there, and begins the third great Pyramid. He shut up the body of his daughter in a hollow ox, and caused her to be worshipped daily with odours.

804. The war, between the Athenians and Spartans, in which Codrus, King of the Athenians, is slain.

801. Nitocris, the sister of Mycerinus, succeeds him, and finishes the third great Pyramid.

794. The Ionic Migration, under the conduct of the sons of Codrus.

790. Pul founds the Assyrian Empire.

788. Asychis Reigns in Egypt, and builds the eastern Portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly; and a large Pyramid of brick, made of mud dug out of the Lake of Mœris. Egypt breaks into several Kingdoms. Gnephactus and Bocchoris Reign successively in the upper Egypt; Stephanathis; Necepsos and Nechus, at Sais; Anysis or Amosis, at Anysis or Hanes; and Tacellotis, at Bubaste.

776. Iphitus restores the Olympiads. And from this Æra the Olympiads are now reckoned. Gnephactus Reigns at Memphis.

772. Necepsos and Petosiris invent Astrology in Egypt.

760. Semiramis begins to flourish; Sanchoniatho writes.

751. Sabacon the Ethiopian, invades Egypt, now divided into various Kingdoms, burns Bocchoris, slays Nechus, and makes Anysis fly.

747. Pul, King of Assyria, dies, and is succeeded at Nineveh by Tiglathpilasser, and at Babylon by Nabonassar. The Egyptians, who fled from Sabacon, carry their Astrology and Astronomy to Babylon, and found the Æra of Nabonassar in Egyptian years.

740. Tiglathpilasser, King of Assyria, takes Damascus, and captivates the Syrians.

729. Tiglathpilasser is succeeded by Salmanasser.

721. Salmanasser, King of Assyria, carries the Ten Tribes into captivity.

719. Sennacherib Reigns over Assyria. Archias the son of Evagetus, of the stock of Hercules, leads a Colony from Corinth into Sicily, and builds Syracuse.

717. Tirhakah Reigns in Ethiopia.

714. Sennacherib is put to flight by the Ethiopians and Egyptians, with great slaughter.

711. The Medes revolt from the Assyrians. Sennacherib slain. Asserhadon succeeds him. This is that Asserhadon-Pul, or Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxis, or Sennacherib, who built Tarsus and Anchiale in one day.

710. Lycurgus, brings the poems of Homer out of Asia into Greece.

708. Lycurgus, becomes tutor to Charillus or Charilaus, the young King of Sparta. Aristotle makes Lycurgus as old as Iphitus, because his name was upon the Olympic Disc. But the Disc was one of the five games called the Quinquertium, and the Quinquertium was first instituted upon the eighteenth Olympiad. Socrates and Thucydides made the institutions of Lycurgus about 300 years older than the end of the Peloponnesian war, that is, 705 years before Christ.

701. Sabacon, after a Reign of 50 years, relinquishes Egypt to his son Sevechus or Sethon, who becomes Priest of Vulcan, and neglects military affairs.

698. Manasseh Reigns.

697. The Corinthians begin first of any men to build ships with three orders of oars, called Triremes. Hitherto the Greeks had used long vessels of fifty oars.

687. Tirhakah Reigns in Egypt.

681. Asserhadon invades Babylon.

673. The Jews conquered by Asserhadon, and Manasseh carried captive to Babylon.

671. Asserbadon invades Egypt. The government of Egypt committed to twelve princes.

668. The western nations of Syria, Phœnicia and Egypt, revolt from the Assyrians. Asserhadon dies, and is succeeded by Saosduchinus. Manasseh returns from Captivity.

658. Phraortes Reigns in Media. The Prytanes Reign in Corinth, expelling their Kings.

657. The Corinthians overcome the Corcyreans at sea: and this was the oldest sea fight.

655. Psammiticus becomes King of all Egypt, by conquering the other eleven Kings with whom he had already reigned fifteen years: he reigned about 39 years more. Henceforward the Ionians had access into Egypt; and thence came the Ionian Philosophy, Astronomy and Geometry.

652. The first Messenian war begins: it lasted twenty years.

647. Charops, the first decennial Archon of the Athenians. Some of these Archons might dye before the end of the ten years, and the remainder of the ten years be supplied by a new Archon. And hence the seven decennial Archons might not take up above forty or fifty years. Saosduchinus King of Assyria dies, and is succeeded by Chyniladon.

640. Josiah Reigns in Judæa.

636. Phraortes> King of the Medes, is slain in a war against the Assyrians. Astyages succeeds him.

635. The Scythians invade the Medes and Assyrians.

633. Battus builds Cyrene, where Irasa, the city of Antæus, had stood.

627. Rome is built.

625. Nabopolassar revolts from the King of Assyria, and Reigns over Babylon. Phalantus leads the Parthenians into Italy, and builds Tarentum.

617. Psammiticus dies. Nechaoh reigns in Egypt.

611. Cyaxeres Reigns over the Medes.

610. The Princes of the Scythians slain in a feast by Cyaxeres.

609. Josiah slain. Cyaxeres and Nebuchadnezzar overthrow Nineveh, and, by sharing the Assyrian Empire, grow great.

607. Creon the first annual Archon of the Athenians. The second Messenian war begins. Cyaxeres makes the Scythians retire beyond Colchos and Iberia, and seizes the Assyrian Provinces of Armenia, Pontus and Cappadocia.

606. Nebuchadnezzar invades Syria and Judæa.

604. Nabopolassar dies, and is succeeded by his Son Nebuchadnezzar, who had already Reigned two years with his father.

600. Darius the Mede, the son of Cyaxeres, is born.

599. Cyrus is born of Mandane, the Sister of Cyaxeres, and daughter of Astyages.

596. Susiana and Elam conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Caranus and Perdiccas fly from Phidon, and found the Kingdom of Macedon. Phidon introduces Weights and Measures, and the Coining of Silver Money.

590. Cyaxeres makes war upon Alyattes King of Lydia.

588. The Temple of Solomon is burnt by Nebuchadnezzar. The Messenians being conquered, fly into Sicily, and build Messana.

585. In the sixth year of the Lydian war, a total Eclipse of the Sun, predicted by Thales, May the 28th, puts an end to a Battel between the Medes and Lydians: Whereupon they make Peace, and ratify it by a marriage between Darius Medus the son of Cyaxeres, and Ariene the daughter of Alyattes.

584. Phidon presides in the 49th Olympiad.

580. Phidon is overthrown. Two men chosen by lot, out of the city Elis, to preside in the Olympic Games.

572. Draco is Archon of the Athenians, and makes laws for them.

568. The Amphictions make war upon the Cirrheans, by the advice of Solon, and take Cirrha. Clisthenes, Alcmæon and Eurolicus commanded the forces of the Amphictions, and were contemporary to Phidon. For Leocides the son of Phidon, and Megacles the son of Alcmæon, at one and the same time, courted Agarista the daughter of Clisthenes.

569. Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt. Darius the Mede Reigns.

562. Solon, being Archon of the Athenians, makes laws for them.

557. Periander dies, and Corinth becomes free from Tyrants.

555. Nabonadius Reigns at Babylon. His Mother Nitocris adorns and fortifies that City.

550. Pisistratus becomes Tyrant at Athens. The Conference between Crœsus and Solon.

549. Solon dies, Hegestratus being Archon of Athens.

544. Sardes is taken by Cyrus. Darius the Mede recoins the Lydian money into Darics.

538. Babylon is taken by Cyrus.

536. Cyrus overcomes Darius the Mede, and translates the Empire to the Persians. The Jews return from Captivity, and found the second Temple.

529. Cyrus dies. Cambyses Reigns,

521. Darius the son of Hystaspes Reigns. The Magi are slain. The various Religions of the several Nations of Persia, which consisted in the worship of their ancient Kings, are abolished; and by the influence of Hystaspes and Zoroaster, the worship of One God, at Altars, without Temples is set up in all Persia.

520. The second Temple is built at Jerusalem by the command of Darius.

515. The second Temple is finished and dedicated.

513. Harmodius and Aristogiton, slay Hipparchus the son of Pisistratus, Tyrant of the Athenians.

508. The Kings of the Romans expelled, and Consuls erected.

491. The Battle of Marathon.

485. Xerxes Reigns.

480. The Passage of Xerxes over the Hellespont into Greece, and Battles of Thermopylæ and Salamis.

464. Artaxerxes Longimanus Reigns.

457. Ezra returns into Judæa. Johanan the father of Jaddua was now grown up, having a chamber in the Temple.

444. Nehemiah returns into Judæa. Herodotus writes.

431. The Peloponnesian war begins.

428. Nehemiah drives away Manasseh the brother of Jaddua, because he had married Nicaso the daughter of Sanballat.

424. Darius Nothus Reigns.

422. Sanballat builds a Temple in Mount Gerizim and makes his son-in-law Manasseh the first High-Priest thereof.

412. Hitherto the Priests and Levites were numbered, and written in the Chronicles of the Jews, before the death of Nehemiah: at which time either Johanan or Jaddua was High-Priest, And here Ends the Sacred History of the Jews.

405. Artaxerxes Mnemon Reigns. The end of the Peloponnesian war.

359. Artaxerxes Ochus Reigns.

338. Arogus Reigns.

336. Darius Codomannus Reigns.

332. The Persian Empire conquered by Alexander the great.

331. Darius Codomannus, the last King of Persia, slain.

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THE

CHRONOLOGY

OF ANCIENT KINGDOMS AMENDED.

---

CHAP. I.

Of the Chronology of the First Ages of the Greeks.

All Nations, before they began to keep exact accounts of Time, have been prone to raise their Antiquities; and this humour has been promoted, by the Contentions between Nations about their Originals. Herodotus ^[3] tells us, that the Priests of Egypt reckoned from the Reign of Menes to that of Sethon, who put Sennacherib to flight, three hundred forty and one Generations of men, and as many Priests of Vulcan, and as many Kings of Egypt: and that three hundred Generations make ten thousand years; for, saith he, three Generations of men make an hundred years: and the remaining forty and one Generations make 1340 years: and so the whole time from the Reign of Menes to that of Sethon was 11340 years. And by this way of reckoning, and allotting longer Reigns to the Gods of Egypt than to the Kings which followed them, Herodotus tells us from the Priests of Egypt, that from Pan to Amosis were 15000 years, and from Hercules to Amosis 17000 years. So also the Chaldæans boasted of their Antiquity; for Callisthenes, the Disciple of Aristotle, sent Astronomical Observations from Babylon to Greece, said to be of 1903 years standing before the times of Alexander the great. And the Chaldæans boasted further, that they had observed the Stars 473000 years; and there were others who made the Kingdoms of Assyria, Media and Damascus, much older than the truth.

Some of the Greeks called the times before the Reign of Ogyges, Unknown, because they had No History of them; those between his flood and the beginning of the Olympiads, Fabulous, because their History was much mixed with Poetical Fables: and those after the beginning of the Olympiads, Historical, because their History was free from such Fables. The fabulous Ages wanted a good Chronology, and so also did the Historical, for the first 60 or 70 Olympiads.

The Europeans, had no Chronology before the times of the Persian Empire: and whatsoever Chronology they now have of ancienter times, hath been framed since, by reasoning and conjecture. In the beginning of that Monarchy, Acusilaus made Phoroneus as old as Ogyges and his flood, and that flood 1020 years older than the first Olympiad; which is above 680 years older than the truth: and to make out this reckoning his followers have encreased the Reigns of Kings in length and number. Plutarch ^[4] tells us that the Philosophers anciently delivered their Opinions in Verse, as Orpheus, Hesiod, Parmenides, Xenophanes, Empedocles, Thales; but afterwards left off the use of Verses; and that Aristarchus, Timocharis, Aristillus, Hipparchus, did not make Astronomy the more contemptible by describing it in Prose; after Eudoxus, Hesiod, and Thales had wrote of it in Verse. Solon wrote ^[5] in Verse, and all the Seven Wise Men were addicted to Poetry, as Anaximenes ^[6] affirmed. 'Till those days the Greeks wrote only in Verse, and while they did so there could be no Chronology, nor any other History, than such as was mixed with poetical fancies. Pliny, ^[7] in reckoning up the Inventors of things, tells us, that Pherecydes Syrius taught to compose discourses in Prose in the Reign of Cyrus, and Cadmus Milesius to write History. And in ^[8] another place he saith that Cadmus Milesius was the first that wrote in Prose. Josephus tells us ^[9] that Cadmus Milesius and Acusilaus were but a little before the expedition of the Persians against the Greeks: and Suidas ^[10] calls Acusilaus a most ancient Historian, and saith that he wrote Genealogies out of tables of brass, which his father, as was reported, found in a corner of his house. Who hid them there may be doubted: For the Greeks ^[11] had no publick table or inscription older than the Laws of Draco. Pherecydes Atheniensis, in the Reign of Darius Hystaspis, or soon after, wrote of the Antiquities and ancient Genealogies of the Athenians, in ten books; and was one of the first European writers of this kind, and one of the best; whence he had the name of Genealogus; and by Dionysius ^[12] Halicarnassensis is said to be second to none of the Genealogers. Epimenides, not the Philosopher, but an Historian, wrote also of the ancient Genealogies: and Hellanicus, who was twelve years older than Herodotus, digested his History by the Ages or Successions of the Priestesses of Juno Argiva. Others digested theirs by those of the Archons of Athens, or Kings of the Lacedæmonians. Hippias the Elean published a Breviary of the Olympiads, supported by no certain arguments, as Plutarch ^[13] tells us: he lived in the 105th Olympiad, and was derided by Plato for his Ignorance. This Breviary seems to have contained nothing more than a short account of the Victors in every Olympiad. Then ^[14] Ephorus, the disciple of Isocrates, formed a Chronological History of Greece, beginning with the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and ending with the Siege of Perinthus, in the twentieth year of Philip the father of Alexander the great, that is, eleven years before the fall of the Persian Empire: but ^[15] he digested things by Generations, and the reckoning by the Olympiads, or by any other Æra, was not yet in use among the Greeks. The Arundelian Marbles were composed sixty years after the death of Alexander the great (An. 4. Olymp. 128.) and yet mention not the Olympiads, nor any other standing Æra, but reckon backwards from the time then present. But Chronology was now reduced to a reckoning by Years; and in the next Olympiad Timæus Siculus improved it: for he wrote a History in Several books, down to his own times, according to the Olympiads; comparing the Ephori, the Kings of Sparta, the Archons of Athens, and the Priestesses of Argos with the Olympic Victors, so as to make the Olympiads, and the Genealogies and Successions of Kings and Priestesses, and the Poetical Histories suit with one another, according to the best of his judgment: and where he left off, Polybius began, and carried on the History. Eratosthenes wrote above an hundred years after the death of Alexander the great: He was followed by Apollodorus; and these two have been followed ever since by Chronologers.

But how uncertain their Chronology is, and how doubtful it was reputed by the Greeks of those times, may be understood by these passages of Plutarch. Some reckon Lycurgus, saith he, ^[16] contemporary to Iphitus, and to have been his companion in ordering the Olympic festivals, amongst whom was Aristotle the Philosopher; arguing from the Olympic Disc, which had the name of Lycurgus upon it. Others supputing the times by the Kings of Lacedæmon, as Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, affirm that he was not a few years older than the first Olympiad. He began to flourish in the 17th or 18th Olympiad, and at length Aristotle made him as old as the first Olympiad; and so did Epaminondas, as he is cited by Ælian and Plutarch: and then Eratosthenes, Apollodorus, and their followers, made him above an hundred years older.

And in another place Plutarch ^[17] tells us: The Congress of Solon with Crœsus, some think they can confute by Chronology. But a History so illustrious, and verified by so many witnesses, and which is more, so agreeable to the manners of Solon, and worthy of the greatness of his mind, and of his wisdom, I cannot persuade my self to reject because of some Chronological Canons, as they call them, which hundreds of authors correcting, have not yet been able to constitute any thing certain, in which they could agree amongst themselves, about repugnancies.

As for the Chronology of the Latines, that is still more uncertain. Plutarch ^[18] represents great uncertainties in the Originals of Rome, and so doth Servius ^[19]. The old Records of the Latines were burnt ^[20] by the Gauls, an hundred and twenty years after the Regifuge, and sixty-four years before the death of Alexander the great: and Quintus Fabius Pictor, ^[21] the oldest Historian of the Latines, lived an hundred years later than that King, and took almost all things from Diocles Peparethius, a Greek. The Chronologers of Gallia, Spain, Germany, Scythia, Swedeland, Britain and Ireland are of a date still later; for Scythia beyond the Danube had no letters, 'till Ulphilas their Bishop formed them; which was about six hundred years after the death of Alexander the great: and Germany had none 'till it received them, from the western Empire of the Latines, above seven hundred years after the death of that King. The Hunns, had none in the days of Procopius, who flourished 850 years after the death of that King: and Sweden and Norway received them still later. And things said to be done above one or two hundred years before the use of letters, are of little credit.

Diodorus, ^[22] in the beginning of his History tells us, that he did not define by any certain space the times preceding the Trojan War, because he had no certain foundation to rely upon: but from the Trojan war, according to the reckoning of Apollodorus, whom he followed, there were eighty years to the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus; and that from that Period to the first Olympiad, there were three hundred and twenty eight years, computing the times from the Kings of the Lacedæmonians. Apollodorus followed Eratosthenes, and both of them followed Thucydides, in reckoning eighty years from the Trojan war to the Return of the Heraclides: but in reckoning 328 years from that Return to the first Olympiad, Diodorus tells us, that the times were computed from the Kings of the Lacedæmonians; and Plutarch ^[23] tells us, that Apollodorus, Eratosthenes and others followed that computation: and since this reckoning is still received by Chronologers, and was gathered by computing the times from the Kings of the Lacedæmonians, that is from their number, let us re-examin that Computation.

The Egyptians reckoned the Reigns of Kings equipollent to Generations of men, and three Generations to an hundred years, as above; and so did the Greeks and Latines: and accordingly they have made their Kings Reign one with another thirty and three years a-piece, and above. For they make the seven Kings of Rome who preceded the Consuls to have Reigned 244 years, which is 35 years a-piece: and the first twelve Kings of Sicyon, Ægialeus, Europs, &c. to have Reigned 529 years, which is 44 years a-piece: and the first eight Kings of Argos, Inachus, Phoroneus, &c. to have Reigned 371 years, which is above 46 years a-piece: and between the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and the end of the first Messenian war, the ten Kings of Sparta in one Race; Eurysthenes, Agis, Echestratus, Labotas, Doryagus, Agesilaus, Archelaus, Teleclus, Alcamenes, and Polydorus: the nine in the other Race; Procles, Sous, Eurypon, Prytanis, Eunomus, Polydectes, Charilaus, Nicander, Theopompus: the ten Kings of Messene; Cresphontes, Epytus, Glaucus, Isthmius, Dotadas, Sibotas, Phintas, Antiochus, Euphaes, Aristodemus: and the nine of Arcadia; Cypselus, Olæas, Buchalion, Phialus, Simus, Pompus, Ægineta, Polymnestor, Æchmis, according to Chronologers, took up 379 years: which is 38 years a-piece to the ten Kings, and 42 years a-piece to the nine. And the five Kings of the Race of Eurysthenes, between the end of the first Messenian war, and the beginning of the Reign of Darius Hystaspis; Eurycrates, Anaxander, Eurycrates II, Leon, Anaxandrides, Reigned 202 years, which is above 40 years a-piece.

Thus the Greek Chronologers, who follow Timæus and Eratosthenes, have made the Kings of their several Cities, who lived before the times of the Persian Empire, to Reign about 35 or 40 years a-piece, one with another; which is a length so much beyond the course of nature, as is not to be credited. For by the ordinary course of nature Kings Reign, one with another, about eighteen or twenty years a-piece: and if in some instances they Reign, one with another, five or six years longer, in others they Reign as much shorter: eighteen or twenty years is a medium. So the eighteen Kings of Judah who succeeded Solomon, Reigned 390 years, which is one with another 22 years a-piece. The fifteen Kings of Israel after Solomon, Reigned 259 years, which is 17¼ years a-piece. The eighteen Kings of Babylon, Nabonassar &c. Reigned 209 years, which is 11⅔ years a-piece. The ten Kings of Persia; Cyrus, Cambyses, &c. Reigned 208 years, which is almost 21 years a piece. The sixteen Successors of Alexander the great, and of his brother and son in Syria; Seleucus, Antiochus Soter, &c. Reigned 244 years, after the breaking of that Monarchy into various Kingdoms, which is 15¼ years a-piece. The eleven Kings of Egypt; Ptolomæus Lagi, &c. Reigned 277 years, counted from the same Period, which is 25 years a-piece. The eight in Macedonia; Cassander, &c. Reigned 138 years, which is 17¼ years a-piece. The thirty Kings of England; William the Conqueror, William Rufus, &c. Reigned 648 years, which is 21½ years a-piece. The first twenty four Kings of France; Pharamundus, &c. Reigned 458 years, which is 19 years a-piece: the next twenty four Kings of France; Ludovicus Balbus, &c. 451 years, which is 18¾ years a-piece: the next fifteen, Philip Valesius, &c. 315 years, which is 21 years a-piece: and all the sixty three Kings of France, 1224 years, which is 19½ years a-piece. Generations from father to son, may be reckoned one with another at about 33 or 34 years a-piece, or about three Generations to an hundred years: but if the reckoning proceed by the eldest sons, they are shorter, so that three of them may be reckoned at about 75 or 80 years: and the Reigns of Kings are still shorter, because Kings are succeeded not only by their eldest sons, but sometimes by their brothers, and sometimes they are slain or deposed; and succeeded by others of an equal or greater age, especially in elective or turbulent Kingdoms. In the later Ages, since Chronology hath been exact, there is scarce an instance to be found of ten Kings Reigning any where in continual Succession above 260 years: but Timæus and his followers, and I think also some of his Predecessors, after the example of the Egyptians, have taken the Reigns of Kings for Generations, and reckoned three Generations to an hundred, and sometimes to an hundred and twenty years; and founded the Technical Chronology of the Greeks upon this way of reckoning. Let the reckoning be reduced to the course of nature, by putting the Reigns of Kings one with another, at about eighteen or twenty years a-piece: and the ten Kings of Sparta by one Race, the nine by another Race, the ten Kings of Messene, and the nine of Arcadia, above mentioned, between the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and the end of the first Messenian war, will scarce take up above 180 or 190 years: whereas according to Chronologers they took up 379 years.

For confirming this reckoning, I may add another argument. Euryleon the son of Ægeus, ^[24] commanded the main body of the Messenians in the fifth year of the first Messenian war, and was in the fifth Generation from Oiolicus the son Theras, the brother-in-law of Aristodemus, and tutor to his sons Eurysthenes and Procles, as Pausanias ^[25] relates: and by consequence, from the return of the Heraclides, which was in the days of Theras, to the battle which was in the fifth year of this war, there were six Generations, which, as I conceive, being for the most part by the eldest sons, will scarce exceed thirty years to a Generation; and so may amount unto 170 or 180 years. That war lasted 19 or 20 years: add the last 15 years, and there will be about 190 years to the end of that war: whereas the followers of Timæus make it about 379 years, which is above sixty years to a Generation.

By these arguments, Chronologers have lengthned the time, between the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus and the first Messenian war, adding to it about 190 years: and they have also lengthned the time, between that war and the rise of the Persian Empire. For in the Race of the Spartan Kings, descended from Eurysthenes; after Polydorus, reigned ^[26] these Kings, Eurycrates, Anaxander, Eurycratides, Leon, Anaxandrides, Clomenes, Leonidas, &c. And in the other Race descended from Procles; after Theopompus, reigned ^[27] these, Anaxandrides, Archidemus, Anaxileus, Leutychides, Hippocratides, Ariston, Demaratus, Leutychides II. &c. according to Herodotus. These Kings reigned 'till the sixth year of Xerxes, in which Leonidas was slain by the Persians at Thermopylæ; and Leutychides II. soon after, flying from Sparta to Tegea, died there. The seven Reigns of the Kings of Sparta, which follow Polydorus, being added to the ten Reigns above mentioned, which began with that of Eurysthenes; make up seventeen Reigns of Kings, between the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus and the sixth year of Xerxes: and the eight Reigns following Theopompus, being added to the nine Reigns above mentioned, which began with that of Procles, make up also seventeen Reigns: and these seventeen Reigns, at twenty years a-piece one with another, amount unto three hundred and forty years. Count these 340 years upwards from the sixth year of Xerxes, and one or two years more for the war of the Heraclides, and Reign of Aristodemus, the father of Eurysthenes and Procles; and they will place the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, 159 years after the death of Solomon, and 46 years before the first Olympiad, in which Coræbus was victor. But the followers of Timæus have placed this Return two hundred and eighty years earlier. Now this being the computation upon which the Greeks, as you have heard from Diodorus and Plutarch, have founded the Chronology of their Kingdoms, which were ancienter than the Persian Empire; that Chronology is to be rectified, by shortening the times which preceded the death of Cyrus, in the proportion of almost two to one; for the times which follow the death of Cyrus are not much amiss.

The Artificial Chronologers, have made Lycurgus, the legislator, as old as Iphitus, the restorer of the Olympiads; and Iphitus, an hundred and twelve years, older than the first Olympiad: and, to help out the Hypothesis, they have feigned twenty eight Olympiads older than the first Olympiad, wherein Coræbus was victor. But these things were feigned, after the days of Thucydides and Plato: for Socrates died three years after the end of the Peloponnesian war, and Plato ^[28] introduceth him saying, that the institutions of Lycurgus were but of three hundred years standing, or not much more. And ^[29] Thucydides, in the reading followed by Stephanus, saith, that the Lacedæmonians, had from ancient times used good laws, and been free from tyranny; and that from the time that they had used one and the same administration of their commonwealth, to the end of the Peloponnesian war, there were three hundred years and a few more. Count three hundred years back from the end of the Peloponnesian war, and they will place the Legislature of Lycurgus upon the 19th Olympiad. And, according to Socrates, it might be upon the 22d or 23d. Athenæus ^[30] tells us out of ancient authors (Hellanicus, Sosimus and Hieronymus) that Lycurgus the Legislator, was contemporary to Terpander the Musician; and that Terpander was the first man who got the victory in the Carnea, in a solemnity of music instituted in those festivals in the 26th Olympiad. He overcame four times in those Pythic games, and therefore lived at least 'till the 29th Olympiad: and beginning to flourish in the days of Lycurgus, it is not likely that Lycurgus began to flourish, much before the 18th Olympiad. The name of Lycurgus being on the Olympic Disc, Aristotle concluded thence, that Lycurgus was the companion of Iphitus, in restoring the Olympic games: and this argument might be the ground of the opinion of Chronologers, that Lycurgus and Iphitus were contemporary. But Iphitus did not restore all the Olympic games. He ^[31] restored indeed the Racing in the first Olympiad, Coræbus being victor. In the 14th Olympiad, the double stadium was added, Hypænus being victor. And in the 18th Olympiad the Quinquertium and Wrestling were added, Lampus and Eurybatus, two Spartans, being victors: And the Disc was one of the games of the Quinquertium. ^[32] Pausanias tells us that there were three Discs kept in the Olympic treasury at Altis: these therefore having the name of Lycurgus upon them, shew that they were given by him, at the institution of the Quinquertium, in the 18th Olympiad. Now Polydectes King of Sparta, being slain before the birth of his son Charillus or Charilaus, left the Kingdom to Lycurgus his brother; and Lycurgus, upon the birth of Charillus, became tutor to the child; and after about eight months travelled into Crete and Asia, till the child grew up, and brought back with him the poems of Homer; and soon after published his laws, suppose upon the 22d or 23d Olympiad; for he was then growing old: and Terpander was a Lyric Poet, and began to flourish about this time; for ^[33] he imitated Orpheus and Homer, and sung Homer's verses and his own, and wrote the laws of Lycurgus in verse, and was victor in the Pythic games in the 26th Olympiad, as above. He was the first who distinguished the modes of Lyric music by several names. Ardalus and Clonas soon after did the like for wind music: and from henceforward, by the encouragement of the Pythic games, now instituted, several eminent Musicians and Poets flourished in Greece: as Archilochus, Eumelus Corinthius, Polymnestus, Thaletas, Xenodemus, Xenocritus, Sacadas, Tyrtæus, Tlesilla, Rhianus, Alcman, Arion, Stesichorus, Mimnermnus, Alcæus, Sappho, Theognis, Anacreon, Ibycus, Simonides, Æschylus, Pindar, by whom the Music and Poetry of the Greeks were brought to perfection.

Lycurgus, published his laws in the Reign of Agesilaus, the son and successor of Doryagus, in the Race of the Kings of Sparta descended from Eurysthenes. From the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, to the end of the Reign of Agesilaus, there were six Reigns: and from the same Return to the end of the Reign of Polydectes, in the Race of the Spartan Kings descended from Procles, there were also six Reigns: and these Reigns, at twenty years a-piece one with another, amount unto 120 years; besides the short Reign of Aristodemus, the father of Eurysthenes and Procles, which might amount to a year or two: for Aristodemus came to the crown, as ^[34] Herodotus and the Lacedæmonians themselves affirmed. The times of the deaths of Agesilaus and Polydectes are not certainly known: but it may be presumed that Lycurgus did not meddle with the Olympic games before he came to the Kingdom; and therefore Polydectes died in the beginning of the 18th Olympiad, or but a very little before. If it may be supposed that the 20th Olympiad was in, or very near to the middle time between the deaths of the two Kings Polydectes and Agesilaus, and from thence be counted upwards the aforesaid 120 years, and one year more for the Reign of Aristodemus; the reckoning will place the Return of the Heraclides, about 45 years before the beginning of the Olympiads.

Iphitus, who restored the Olympic games, ^[35] was descended from Oxylus, the son of Hæmon, the son of Thoas, the son of Andræmon: Hercules and Andræmon married two sisters: Thoas warred at Troy: Oxylus returned into Peloponnesus with the Heraclides. In this return he commanded the body of the Ætolians, and recovered Elea; ^[36] from whence his ancestor Ætolus, the son of Endymion, the son of Aethlius, had been driven by Salmoneus the grandson of Hellen. By the friendship of the Heraclides, Oxylus had the care of the Olympic Temple committed to him: and the Heraclides, for his service done them, granted further upon oath that the country of the Eleans should be free from invasions, and be defended by them from all armed force: And when the Eleans were thus consecrated, Oxylus restored the Olympic games: and after they had been again intermitted, Iphitus their King ^[37] restored them, and made them quadrennial. Iphitus is by some reckoned the son of Hæmon, by others the son of Praxonidas, the son of Hæmon: but Hæmon being the father of Oxylus, I would reckon Iphitus the son of Praxonidas, the son of Oxylus, the son of Hæmon. And by this reckoning the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus will be two Generations by the eldest sons, or about 52 years, before the Olympiads.

Pausanias ^[38] represents that Melas the son of Antissus, of the posterity of Gonussa the daughter of Sicyon, was not above six Generations older than Cypselus King of Corinth; and that he was contemporary to Aletes, who returned with the Heraclides into Peloponnesus. The Reign of Cypselus began An. 2, Olymp. 31, according to Chronologers; and six Generations, at about 30 years to a Generation, amount unto 180 years. Count those years backwards from An. 2, Olymp. 31, and they will place the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus 58 years before the first Olympiad. But it might not be so early, if the Reign of Cypselus began three or four Olympiads later; for he reigned before the Persian Empire began.

Hercules the Argonaut was the father of Hyllus; the father of Cleodius; the father of Aristomachus; the father of Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, who led the Heraclides into Peloponnesus and Eurystheus, who was of the same age with Hercules, was slain in the first attempt of the Heraclides to return: Hyllus was slain in the second attempt, Cleodius in the third attempt, Aristomachus in the fourth attempt, and Aristodemus died as soon as they were returned, and left the Kingdom of Sparta to his sons Eurysthenes and Procles. Whence their Return was four Generations later than the Argonautic expedition: And these Generations were short ones, being by the chief of the family, and suit with the reckoning of Thucydides and the Ancients, that the taking of Troy was about 75 or eighty years before the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus; and the Argonautic expedition one Generation earlier than the taking of Troy. Count therefore eighty years backward from the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus to the Trojan war, and the taking of Troy will be about 76 years after the death of Solomon: And the Argonautic expedition, which was one Generation earlier, will be about 43 years after it. From the taking of Troy to the Return of the Heraclides, could scarce be more than eighty years, because Orestes the son of Agamemnon was a youth at the taking of Troy, and his sons Penthilus and Tisamenus lived till the Return of the Heraclides.

Æsculapius and Hercules were Argonauts, and Hippocrates was the eighteenth inclusively by the father's side from Æsculapius, and the nineteenth from Hercules by the mother's side: and because these Generations, being taken notice of by writers, were most probably by the principal of the family, and so for the most part by the eldest sons; we may reckon about 28 or at the most about 30 years to a Generation. And thus the seventeen intervals by the father's side, and eighteen by the mother's, will at a middle reckoning amount unto about 507 years: which counted backwards from the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, at which time Hippocrates began to flourish, will reach up to the 43d year after the death of Solomon, and there place the Argonautic expedition.

When the Romans conquered the Carthaginians, the Archives of Carthage came into their hands: And thence Appian, in his history of the Punic wars, tells in round numbers that Carthage stood seven hundred years: and ^[39] Solinus adds the odd number of years in these words: Adrymeto atque Carthagini author est a Tyro populus. Urbem istam, ut Cato in Oratione Senatoria autumat; cum rex Hiarbas rerum in Libya potiretur, Elissa mulier extruxit, domo Phœnix & Carthadam dixit, quod Phœnicum ore exprimit civitatem novam; mox sermone verso Carthago dicta est, quæ post annos septingentos triginta septem exciditur quam fuerat extructa. Elissa was Dido, and Carthage was destroyed in the Consulship of Lentulus and Mummius, in the year of the Julian Period 4568; from whence count backwards 737 years, and the Encænia or Dedication of the City, will fall upon the 16th year of Pygmalion, the brother of Dido, and King of Tyre. She fled in the seventh year of Pygmalion, but the Æra of the City began with its Encænia. Now Virgil, and his Scholiast Servius, who might have some things from the archives of Tyre and Cyprus, as well as from those of Carthage, relate that Teucer came from the war of Troy to Cyprus, in the days of Dido, a little before the Reign of her brother Pygmalion; and, in conjunction with her father, seized Cyprus, and ejected Cinyras: and the Marbles say that Teucer came to Cyprus seven years after the destruction of Troy, and built Salamis; and Apollodorus, that Cinyras married Metharme the daughter of Pygmalion, and built Paphos. Therefore, if the Romans, in the days of Augustus, followed not altogether the artificial Chronology of Eratosthenes, but had these things from the records of Carthage, Cyprus, or Tyre; the arrival of Teucer at Cyprus will be in the Reign of the predecessor of Pygmalion: and by consequence the destruction of Troy, about 76 years later than the death of Solomon.

Dionysius Halicarnassensis ^[40] tells us, that in the time of the Trojan war, Latinus was King of the Aborigines in Italy, and that in the sixteenth Age after that war, Romulus built Rome. By Ages he means Reigns of Kings: for after Latinus he names sixteen Kings of the Latines, the last of which was Numitor, in whose days Romulus built Rome: for Romulus was contemporary to Numitor, and after him Dionysius and others reckon six Kings more over Rome, to the beginning of the Consuls. Now these twenty and two Reigns, at about 18 years to a Reign one with another, for many of these Kings were slain, took up 396 years; which counted back from the consulship of Junius Brutus and Valerius Publicola, the two first Consuls, place the Trojan war about 78 years after the death of Solomon.

The expedition of Sesostris was one Generation earlier than the Argonautic expedition: for in his return back into Egypt he left Æetes in Colchis, and Æetes reigned there 'till the Argonautic expedition; and Prometheus was left by Sesostris with a body of men at Mount Caucasus, to guard that pass, and after thirty years was released by Hercules the Argonaut: and Phlyas and Eumedon, the sons of the great Bacchus, so the Poets call Sesostris, and of Ariadne the daughter of Minos, were Argonauts. At the return of Sesostris into Egypt, his brother Danaus fled from him into Greece with his fifty daughters, in a long ship; after the pattern of which the ship Argo was built: and Argus, the son of Danaus, was the master-builder thereof. Nauplius the Argonaut was born in Greece, of Amymone, one of the daughters of Danaus, and of Neptune, the brother and admiral of Sesostris: And two others of the daughters of Danaus married Archander and Archilites, the sons of Achæus, the son of Creusa, the daughter of Erechtheus King of Athens: and therefore the daughters of Danaus were three Generations younger than Erechtheus; and by consequence contemporary to Theseus the son of Ægeus, the adopted son of Pandion, the son of Erechtheus. Theseus, in the time of the Argonautic expedition, was of about 50 years of age, and so was born about the 33d year of Solomon: for he stole Helena ^[41] just before that expedition, being then 50 years old, and she but seven, or as some say ten. Pirithous the son of Ixion helped Theseus to steal Helena, and then ^[42] Theseus went with Pirithous to steal Persephone, the daughter of Aidoneus, or Orcus, King of the Molossians, and was taken in the action: and whilst he lay in prison, Castor and Pollux returning from the Argonautic expedition, released their sister Helena, and captivated Æthra the mother of Theseus. Now the daughters of Danaus being contemporary to Theseus, and some of their sons being Argonauts, Danaus with his daughters fled from his brother Sesostris into Greece about one Generation before the Argonautic expedition; and therefore Sesostris returned into Egypt in the Reign of Rehoboam. He came out of Egypt in the fifth year of Rehoboam, ^[43] and spent nine years in that expedition, against the Eastern Nations and Greece; and therefore returned back into Egypt, in the fourteenth year of Rehoboam. Sesac and Sesostris were therefore Kings of all Egypt, at one and the same time: and they agree not only in the time, but also in their actions and conquests. God gave Sesac ממלכות הארצות the Kingdoms of the lands, 2 Chron. xii. Where Herodotus describes the expedition of Sesostris, Josephus ^[44] tells us that he described the expedition of Sesac, and attributed his actions to Sesostris, erring only in the name of the King. Corruptions of names are frequent in history; Sesostris was otherwise called Sesochris, Sesochis, Sesoosis, Sethosis, Sesonchis, Sesonchosis. Take away the Greek termination, and the names become Sesost, Sesoch, Sesoos, Sethos, Sesonch: which names differ very little from Sesach. Sesonchis and Sesach differ no more than Memphis and Moph, two names of the same city. Josephus ^[45] tells us also, from Manetho, that Sethosis was the brother of Armais, and that these brothers were otherwise called Ægyptus and Danaus; and that upon the return of Sethosis or Ægyptus, from his great conquests into Egypt, Armais or Danaus fled from him into Greece.

Egypt was at first divided into many small Kingdoms, like other nations; and grew into one monarchy by degrees: and the father of Solomon's Queen, was the first King of Egypt, who came into Phœnicia with an Army: but he only took Gezir, and gave it to his daughter. Sesac, the next King, came out of Egypt with an army of Libyans, Troglodites and Ethiopians, 2 Chron. xii. 3. and therefore was then King of all those countries; and we do not read in Scripture, that any former King of Egypt; who Reigned over all those nations, came out of Egypt with a great army to conquer other countries. The sacred history of the Israelites, from the days of Abraham to the days of Solomon, admits of no such conqueror. Sesostris reigned over all the same nations of the Libyans, Troglodites and Ethiopians, and came out of Egypt with a great army to conquer other Kingdoms. The Shepherds reigned long in the lower part of Egypt, and were expelled thence, just before the building of Jerusalem and the Temple; according to Manetho; and whilst they Reigned in the lower part of Egypt, the upper part thereof was under other Kings: and while Egypt was divided into several Kingdoms, there was no room for any such King of all Egypt as Sesostris; and no historian makes him later than Sesac: and therefore he was one and the same King of Egypt with Sesac. This is no new opinion: Josephus discovered it when he affirmed that Herodotus erred, in ascribing the actions of Sesac to Sesostris, and that the error was only in the name of the King: for this is as much as to say, that the true name of him who did those things described by Herodotus, was Sesac; and that Herodotus erred only in calling him Sesostris; or that he was called Sesostris by a corruption of his name. Our great Chronologer, Sir John Marsham, was also of opinion that Sesostris was Sesac: and if this be granted, it is then most certain, that Sesostris came out of Egypt in the fifth year of Rehoboam to invade the nations, and returned back into Egypt in the 14th year of that King; and that Danaus then flying from his brother, came into Greece within a year or two after: and the Argonautic expedition being one Generation later than that invasion, and than the coming of Danaus into Greece, was certainly about 40 or 45 years later than the death of Solomon. Prometheus stay'd on Mount Caucasus ^[46] thirty years, and then was released by Hercules: and therefore the Argonautic expedition was thirty years after Prometheus had been left on Mount Caucasus by Sesostris, that is, about 44 years after the death of Solomon.

All nations, before the just length of the Solar year was known, reckoned months by the course of the moon; and years by the ^[47] returns of winter and summer, spring and autumn: and in making Calendars for their Festivals, reckoned thirty days to a Lunar month, and twelve Lunar months to a year; taking the nearest round numbers: whence came the division of the Ecliptic into 360 degrees. So in the time of Noah's flood, when the Moon could not be seen, Noah reckoned thirty days to a month: but if the Moon appeared a day or two before the end of the month, ^[48] they began the next month with the first day of her appearing: and this was done generally, 'till the Egyptians of Thebais found the length of the Solar year. So ^[49] Diodorus tells us that the Egyptians of Thebais use no intercalary months, nor subduct any days [from the month] as is done by most of the Greeks. And ^[50] Cicero, est consuetudo Siculorum cæterorumque Græcorum, quod suos dies mensesque congruere volunt cum Solis Lunæque ratione, ut nonnumquam siquid discrepet, eximant unum aliquem diem aut summum biduum ex mense [civili dierum triginta] quos illi εξαιρεσιμους dies nominant. And Proclus, upon Hesiod's τριακας mentions the same thing. And ^[51] Geminus: Προθεσις γαρ ην τοις αρχαιοις, τους μεν μηνας αγειν κατα σεληνην, τους δε ενιαυτους καθ' ‛ηλιον. Το γαρ ‛υπο των νομων, και των χρησμων παραγγελλομενον, το θυειν κατα γ', ηγουν τα πατρια, μηνας, ‛ημερας, ενιαυτους: τουτο διελαβον απαντες ‛οι ‛Ελληνες τωι τους μεν ‛ενιαυτους συμφωνως αγειν τωι ‛ηλιωι· τας δε ‛ημερας και τους μηνας τηι σεληνη. εστι δε το μεν καθ' ‛ηλιον αγειν τους ενιαυτους, το περι τας αυτας ‛ωρας του ενιαυτου τας αυτας θυσιας τοις θεοις επιτελειθαι, και την μεν εαρινην θυσιαν δια παντος κατα το εαρ συντελειθαι· την δε θερινην, κατα το θερος· ‛ομοιως δε και κατα τους λοιπους καιρους του ετους τας αυτας θυσιας πιπτειν. Τουτο γαρ ‛υπελαβον προσηνες, και κεχαρισμενον ειναι τοις θεοις. Τουτο δ' αλλως ουκ αν δυναιτο γενεσθαι, ει μη ‛αι τροπαι, και ‛αι ισημεριαι περι τους αυτους τοπους γιγνοιντο. Το δε κατα σεληνην αγειν τας ‛ημερας, τοιουτον εστι· το ακολουθως τοις της σεληνης φωτισμοις τας προσηγοριας των ‛ημερων γινεσθαι. απο γαρ των της σεληνης φωτισμων ‛αι προσηγοριαι των ‛ημερων κατωνομασθησαν. Εν ‛ηι μεν γαρ ‛ημεραι νεα ‛η σεληνη φαινεται, κατα συναλοιφην νεομηνια προσηγορευθη· εν ‛ηι δε ‛ημεραι την δευτεραν φασιν ποιειται, δευτεραν προσηγορευσαν· την δε κατα μεσον του μηνος γινομενην φασιν της σεληνης, απο αυτου του συμβαινοντος διχομηνιαν εκαλεσαν. και καθολου δε πασας τας ‛ημερας απο των της σεληνης φωτισματων προσωνομασαν. ‛οθεν και την τριακοστην του μηνος ‛ημεραν εσχατην ουσαν απο αυτου του συμβαινοντος τριακαδα εκαλεσαν. Propositum enim fuit veteribus, menses quidem agere secundum Lunam, annos vero secundum Solem. Quod enim a legibus & Oraculis præcipiebatur, ut sacrificarent secundum tria, videlicet patria, menses, dies, annos; hoc ita distincte faciebant universi Græci, ut annos agerent congruenter cum Sole, dies vero & menses cum Luna. Porro secundum Solem annos agere, est circa easdem tempestates anni eadem sacrificia Diis perfici, & vernum sacrificium semper in vere consummari, æstivum autem in æstate: similiter & in reliquis anni temporibus eadem sacrificia cadere. Hoc enim putabant acceptum & gratum esse Diis. Hoc autem aliter fieri non posset nisi conversiones solstitiales & æquinoctia in iisdem Zodiaci locis fierent. Secundum Lunam vero dies agere est tale ut congruant cum Lunæ illuminationibus appellationes dierum. Nam a Lunæ illuminationibus appellationes dierum sunt denominatæ. In qua enim die Luna apparet nova, ea per Synalœphen, seu compositionem νεομηνια id est, Novilunium appellatur. In qua vero die secundam facit apparitionem, eam secundam Lunam vocarunt. Apparitionem Lunæ quæ circa medium mensis fit, ab ipso eventu διχομηνιαν, id est medietatem mensis nominarunt. Ac summatim, omnes dies a Lunæ illuminationibus denominarunt. Unde etiam tricesimam mensis diem, cum ultima sit, ab ipso eventu τριακαδα vocarunt.

The ancient Calendar year of the Greeks consisted therefore of twelve Lunar months, and every month of thirty days: and these years and months they corrected from time to time, by the courses of the Sun and Moon, omitting a day or two in the month, as often as they found the month too long for the course of the Moon; and adding a month to the year, as often as they found the twelve Lunar months too short for the return of the four seasons. Cleobulus, ^[52] one of the seven wise men of Greece, alluded to this year of the Greeks, in his Parable of one father who had twelve sons, each of which had thirty daughters half white and half black: and Thales ^[53] called the last day of the month τριακαδα, the thirtieth: and Solon counted the ten last days of the month backward from the thirtieth, calling that day ενην και νεαν, the old and the new, or the last day of the old month and the first day of the new: for he introduced months of 29 and 30 days alternately, making the thirtieth day of every other month to be the first day of the next month.

To the twelve Lunar months ^[54] the ancient Greeks added a thirteenth, every other year, which made their Dieteris; and because this reckoning made their year too long by a month in eight years, they omitted an intercalary month once in eight years, which made their Octaeteris, one half of which was their Tetraeteris: And these Periods seem to have been almost as old as the religions of Greece, being used in divers of their Sacra. The ^[55] Octaeteris was the Annus magnus of Cadmus and Minos, and seems to have been brought into Greece and Crete by the Phœnicians, who came thither with Cadmus and Europa, and to have continued 'till after the days of Herodotus: for in counting the length of seventy years ^[56], he reckons thirty days to a Lunar month, and twelve such months, or 360 days, to the ordinary year, without the intercalary months, and 25 such months to the Dieteris: and according to the number of days in the Calendar year of the Greeks, Demetrius Phalereus had 360 Statues erected to him by the Athenians. But the Greeks, Cleostratus, Harpalus, and others, to make their months agree better with the course of the Moon, in the times of the Persian Empire, varied the manner of intercaling the three months in the Octaeteris; and Meton found out the Cycle of intercaling seven months in nineteen years.

The Ancient year of the Latines was also Luni-solar; for Plutarch ^[57] tells us, that the year of Numa consisted of twelve Lunar months, with intercalary months to make up what the twelve Lunar months wanted of the Solar year. The Ancient year of the Egyptians was also Luni-solar, and continued to be so 'till the days of Hyperion, or Osiris, a King of Egypt, the father of Helius and Selene, or Orus and Bubaste: For the Israelites brought this year out of Egypt; and Diodorus tells ^[58] us that Ouranus the father of Hyperion used this year, and ^[59] that in the Temple of Osiris the Priests appointed thereunto filled 360 Milk Bowls every day: I think he means one Bowl every day, in all 360, to count the number of days in the Calendar year, and thereby to find out the difference between this and the true Solar year: for the year of 360 days was the year, to the end of which they added five days.

That the Israelites used the Luni-solar year is beyond question. Their months began with their new Moons. Their first month was called Abib, from the earing of Corn in that month. Their Passover was kept upon the fourteenth day of the first month, the Moon being then in the full: and if the Corn was not then ripe enough for offering the first Fruits, the Festival was put off, by adding an intercalary month to the end of the year; and the harvest was got in before the Pentecost, and the other Fruits gathered before the Feast of the seventh month.

Simplicius in his commentary ^[60] on the first of Aristotle's Physical Acroasis, tells us, that some begin the year upon the Summer Solstice, as the People of Attica; or upon the Autumnal Equinox, as the People of Asia; or in Winter, as the Romans; or about the Vernal Equinox, as the Arabians and People of Damascus: and the month began, according to some, upon the Full Moon, or upon the New. The years of all these Nations were therefore Luni-solar, and kept to the four Seasons: and the Roman year began at first in Spring, as I seem to gather from the Names of their Months, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, December: and the beginning was afterwards removed to Winter. The ancient civil year of the Assyrians and Babylonians was also Luni-solar: for this year was also used by the Samaritans, who came from several parts of the Assyrian Empire; and the Jews who came from Babylon called the months of their Luni-solar year after the Names of the months of the Babylonian year: and Berosus ^[61] tells us that the Babylonians celebrated the Feast Sacæa upon the 16th day of the month Lous, which was a Lunar month of the Macedonians, and kept to one and the same Season of the year: and the Arabians, a Nation who peopled Babylon, use Lunar months to this day. Suidas ^[62] tells us, that the Sarus of the Chaldeans contains 222 Lunar months, which are eighteen years, consisting each of twelve Lunar months, besides six intercalary months: and when ^[63] Cyrus cut the River Gindus into 360 Channels, he seems to have alluded unto the number of days in the Calendar year of the Medes and Persians: and the Emperor Julian ^[64] writes, For when all other People, that I may say it in one word, accommodate their months to the course of the Moon, we alone with the Egyptians measure the days of the year by the course of the Sun.

At length the Egyptians, for the sake of Navigation, applied themselves to observe the Stars; and by their Heliacal Risings and Settings found the true Solar year to be five days longer than the Calendar year, and therefore added five days to the twelve Calendar months; making the Solar year to consist of twelve months and five days. Strabo ^[65] and ^[66] Diodorus ascribe this invention to the Egyptians of Thebes. The Theban Priests, saith Strabo, are above others said to be Astronomers and Philosophers. They invented the reckoning of days not by the course of the Moon, but by the course of the Sun. To twelve months each of thirty days they add yearly five days. In memory of this Emendation of the year they dedicated the ^[67] five additional days to Osiris, Isis, Orus senior, Typhon, and Nephthe the wife of Typhon, feigning that those days were added to the year when these five Princes were born, that is, in the Reign of Ouranus, or Ammon, the father of Sesac: and in ^[68] the Sepulchre of Amenophis, who Reigned soon after, they placed a Golden Circle of 365 cubits in compass, and divided it into 365 equal parts, to represent all the days in the year, and noted upon each part the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars on that day; which Circle remained there 'till the invasion of Egypt by Cambyses King of Persia. 'Till the Reign of Ouranus, the father of Hyperion, and grandfather of Helius and Selene, the Egyptians used the old Lunisolar year: but in his Reign, that is, in the Reign of Ammon, the father of Osiris or Sesac, and grandfather of Orus and Bubaste, the Thebans began to apply themselves to Navigation and Astronomy, and by the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars determined the length of the Solar year; and to the old Calendar year added five days, and dedicated them to his five children above mentioned, as their birth days: and in the Reign of Amenophis, when by further Observations they had sufficiently determined the time of the Solstices, they might place the beginning of this new year upon the Vernal Equinox. This year being at length propagated into Chaldæa, gave occasion to the year of Nabonassar; for the years of Nabonassar and those of Egypt began on one and the same day, called by them Thoth, and were equal and in all respects the same: and the first year of Nabonassar began on the 26th day of February of the old Roman year, seven hundred forty and seven years before the Vulgar Æra of Christ, and thirty and three days and five hours before the Vernal Equinox, according to the Sun's mean motion; for it is not likely that the Equation of the Sun's motion should be known in the infancy of Astronomy. Now reckoning that the year of 365 days wants five hours and 49 minutes of the Equinoctial year; the beginning of this year will move backwards thirty and three days and five hours in 137 years: and by consequence this year began at first in Egypt upon the Vernal Equinox, according to the Sun's mean motion, 137 years before the Æra of Nabonassar began; that is, in the year of the Julian Period 3830, or 96 years after the death of Solomon: and if it began upon the next day after the Vernal Equinox, it might begin four years earlier; and about that time ended the Reign of Amenophis: for he came not from Susa to the Trojan war, but died afterwards in Egypt. This year was received by the Persian Empire from the Babylonian; and the Greeks also used it in the Æra Philippæa, dated from the Death of Alexander the great; and Julius Cæsar corrected it, by adding a day in every four years, and made it the year of the Romans.

Syncellus tells us, that the five days were added to the old year by the last King of the Shepherds: and the difference in time between the Reign of this King, and that of Ammon, is but small; for the Reign of the Shepherds ended but one Generation, or two, before Ammon began to add those days. But the Shepherds minded not Arts and Sciences.

The first month of the Luni-solar year, by reason of the Intercalary month, began sometimes a week or a fortnight before the Equinox or Solstice, and sometimes as much after it. And this year gave occasion to the first Astronomers, who formed the Asterisms, to place the Equinoxes and Solstices in the middles of the Constellations of Aries, Cancer, Chelæ, and Capricorn. Achilles Tatius ^[69] tells us, that some antiently placed the Solstice in the beginning of Cancer, others in the eighth degree of Cancer, others about the twelfth degree, and others about the fifteenth degree thereof. This variety of opinions proceeded from the precession of the Equinox, then not known to the Greeks. When the Sphere was first formed, the Solstice was in the fifteenth degree or middle of the Constellation of Cancer: then it came into the twelfth, eighth, fourth, and first degree successively. Eudoxus, who flourished about sixty years after Meton, and an hundred years before Aratus, in describing the Sphere of the Ancients, placed the Solstices and Equinoxes in the middles of the Constellations of Aries, Cancer, Chelæ, and Capricorn, as is affirmed by ^[70] Hipparchus Bithynus; and appears also by the Description of the Equinoctial and Tropical Circles in Aratus, ^[71] who copied after Eudoxus; and by the positions of the Colures of the Equinoxes and Solstices, which in the Sphere of Eudoxus, described by Hipparchus, went through the middles of those Constellations. For Hipparchus tells us, that Eudoxus drew the Colure of the Solstices, through the middle of the great Bear, and the middle of Cancer, and the neck of Hydrus, and the Star between the Poop and Mast of Argo, and the Tayl of the South Fish, and through the middle of Capricorn, and of Sagitta, and through the neck and right wing of the Swan, and the left hand of Cepheus; and that he drew the Equinoctial Colure, through the left hand of Arctophylax, and along the middle of his Body, and cross the middle of Chelæ, and through the right hand and fore-knee of the Centaur, and through the flexure of Eridanus and head of Cetus, and the back of Aries a-cross, and through the head and right hand of Perseus.

Now Chiron delineated σχηματα ολυμπου the Asterisms, as the ancient Author of Gigantomachia, cited by ^[72] Clemens Alexandrinus informs us: for Chiron was a practical Astronomer, as may be there understood also of his daughter Hippo: and Musæus, the son of Eumolpus and master of Orpheus, and one of the Argonauts, ^[73] made a Sphere, and is reputed the first among the Greeks who made one: and the Sphere it self shews that it was delineated in the time of the Argonautic expedition; for that expedition is delineated in the Asterisms, together with several other ancienter Histories of the Greeks, and without any thing later. There's the golden RAM, the ensign of the Vessel in which Phryxus fled to Colchis; the BULL with brazen hoofs tamed by Jason; and the TWINS, CASTOR and POLLUX, two of the Argonauts, with the SWAN of Leda their mother. There's the Ship ARGO, and HYDRUS the watchful Dragon; with Medea's CUP, and a RAVEN upon its Carcass, the Symbol of Death. There's CHIRON the master of Jason, with his ALTAR and SACRIFICE. There's the Argonaut HERCULES with his DART and VULTURE falling down; and the DRAGON, CRAB and LION, whom he slew; and the HARP of the Argonaut Orpheus. All these relate to the Argonauts. There's ORION the son of Neptune, or as some say, the grandson of Minos, with his DOGS, and HARE, and RIVER, and SCORPION. There's the story of Perseus in the Constellations of PERSEUS, ANDROMEDA, CEPHEUS, CASSIOPEA and CETUS: That of Callisto, and her son Arcas, in URSA MAJOR and ARCTOPHYLAX: That of Icareus and his daughter Erigone in BOOTES, PLAUSTRUM and VIRGO. URSA MINOR relates to one of the Nurses of Jupiter, AURIGA to Erechthonius, OPHIUCHUS to Phorbas, SAGITTARIUS to Crolus the son of the Nurse of the Muses, CAPRICORN to Pan, and AQUARIUS to Ganimede. There's Ariadne's CROWN, Bellerophon's HORSE, Neptune's DOLPHIN, Ganimede's EAGLE, Jupiter's GOAT with her KIDS, Bacchus's ASSES, and the FISHES of Venus and Cupid, and their Parent the SOUTH FISH. These with DELTOTON, are the old Constellations mentioned by Aratus: and they all relate to the Argonauts and their Contemporaries, and to Persons one or two Generations older: and nothing later than that Expedition was delineated there Originally. ANTINOUS and COMA BERENICES are novel. The Sphere seems therefore to have been formed by Chiron and Musæus, for the use of the Argonauts: for the Ship Argo was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Hitherto they had used round vessels of burden, and kept within sight of the shore; and now, upon an Embassy to several Princes upon the coasts of the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas, ^[74] by the dictates of the Oracle, and consent of the Princes of Greece, the Flower of Greece were to sail with Expedition through the deep, in a long Ship with Sails, and guide their Ship by the Stars. The People of the Island Corcyra ^[75] attributed the invention of the Sphere to Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinous, King of the Pheaces in that Island: and it's most probable that she had it from the Argonauts, who ^[76] in their return home sailed to that Island, and made some stay there with her father. So then in the time of the Argonautic Expedition, the Cardinal points of the Equinoxes and Solstices were in the middles of the Constellations of Aries, Cancer, Chelæ, and Capricorn.

In the end of the year of our Lord 1689 the Star called Prima Arietis was in . 28°. 51'. 00", with North Latitude 7°. 8'. 58". And the Star called ultima caudæ Arietis was in . 19°. 3'. 42", with North Latitude 2°. 34'. 5". And the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through the point in the middle between those two Stars did then cut the Ecliptic in . 6°. 44': and by this reckoning the Equinox in the end of the year 1689 was gone back 36°. 44'. since the Argonautic Expedition: Supposing that the said Colure passed through the middle of the Constellation of Aries, according to the delineation of the Ancients. The Equinox goes back fifty seconds in one year, and one degree in seventy and two years, and by consequence 36°. 44'. in 2645 years, which counted back from the end of the year of our Lord 1689, or beginning of the year 1690, will place the Argonautic Expedition about 25 years after the Death of Solomon: but it is not necessary that the middle of the Constellation of Aries should be exactly in the middle between the two Stars called prima Arietis and ultima Caudæ: and it may be better to fix the Cardinal points by the Stars, through which the Colures passed in the primitive Sphere, according to the description of Eudoxus above recited. By the Colure of the Equinoxes, I mean a great Circle passing through the Poles of the Equator, and cutting the Ecliptic in the Equinoxes in an Angle of 66½ degrees, the complement of the Sun's greatest Declination; and by the Colure of the Solstices I mean a great Circle passing through the same Poles, and cutting the Ecliptic at right Angles in the Solstices: and by the Primitive Sphere, that which was in use before the motions of the Equinoxes and Solstices were known: now the Colures passed through the following Stars according to Eudoxus.

In the back of Aries is a Star of the sixth magnitude, marked ν by Bayer: in the end of the year 1689, and beginning of the year 1690, its Longitude was . 9°. 38'. 45", and North Latitude 6°. 7'. 56": and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum drawn though it, according to Eudoxus, cuts the Ecliptic in . 6°. 58'. 57". In the head of Cetus are two Stars of the fourth Magnitude, called ν and ξ by Bayer: in the end of the year 1689 their Longitudes were . 4°. 3'. 9". and . 3°. 7'. 37", and their South Latitudes 9°. 12'. 26". and 5°. 53'. 7"; and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing in the mid way between them, cuts the Ecliptic in . 6°. 58'. 51". In the extreme flexure of Eridanus, rightly delineated, is a Star of the fourth Magnitude, of late referred to the breast of Cetus, and called ρ by Bayer; it is the only Star in Eridanus through which this Colure can pass; its Longitude, in the end of the year 1689, was . 25°. 22'. 10". and South Latitude 25°. 15'. 50". and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through it, cuts the Ecliptic in . 7°. 12'. 40". In the head of Perseus, rightly delineated, is a Star of the fourth Magnitude, called τ by Bayer; the Longitude of this Star, in the end of the year 1689, was . 23°. 25'. 30", and North Latitude 34°. 20'. 12": and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through it, cuts the Ecliptic in . 6°. 18'. 57". In the right hand of Perseus, rightly delineated, is a Star of the fourth Magnitude, called η by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of the year 1689, was . 24°. 25'. 27", and North Latitude 37°. 26'. 50": and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through it cuts the Ecliptic in . 4°. 56'. 40": and the fifth part of the summ of the places in which these five Colures cut the Ecliptic, is . 6°. 29'. 15": and therefore the Great Circle which in the Primitive Sphere according to Eudoxus, and by consequence in the time of the Argonautic Expedition, was the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through the Stars above described; did in the end of the year 1689, cut the Ecliptic in . 6°. 29'. 15": as nearly as we have been able to determin by the Observations of the Ancients, which were but coarse.

In the middle of Cancer is the South Asellus, a Star of the fourth Magnitude, called by Bayer δ; its Longitude in the end of the year 1689, was . 4°. 23'. 40". In the neck of Hydrus, rightly delineated, is a Star of the fourth Magnitude, called δ by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of the year 1689, was . 5°. 59'. 3". Between the poop and mast of the Ship Argo is a Star of the third Magnitude, called ι by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of that year, was . 7°. 5'. 31". In Sagitta is a Star of the sixth Magnitude, called θ by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of the same year 1689, was . 6°. 29'. 53". In the middle of Capricorn is a Star of the fifth Magnitude, called η by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of the same year was . 8°. 25'. 55": and the fifth part of the summ of the three first Longitudes, and of the complements of the two last to 180 Degrees; is . 6°. 28'. 46". This is the new Longitude of the old Colurus Solstitiorum passing through these Stars. The same Colurus passes also in the middle between the Stars η and κ, of the fourth and fifth Magnitudes, in the neck of the Swan; being distant from each about a Degree: it passeth also by the Star κ, of the fourth Magnitude, in the right wing of the Swan; and by the Star ο, of the fifth Magnitude, in the left hand of Cepheus, rightly delineated; and by the Stars in the tail of the South-Fish; and is at right angles with the Colurus Æquinoctiorum found above: and so it hath all the characters, of the Colurus Solstitiorum rightly drawn.

The two Colures therefore, which in the time of the Argonautic Expedition cut the Ecliptic in the Cardinal Points, did in the end of the year 1689 cut it in . 6°. 29'; . 6°. 29'; . 6°. 29'; and . 6°. 29'; that is, at the distance of 1 Sign, 6 Degrees and 29 Minutes from the Cardinal Points of Chiron; as nearly as we have been able to determin from the coarse observations of the Ancients: and therefore the Cardinal Points, in the time between that Expedition and the end of the year 1689, have gone back from those Colures one Sign, 6 Degrees and 29 Minutes; which, after the rate of 72 years to a Degree, answers to 2627 years. Count those years backwards from the end of the year 1689, or beginning of the year 1690, and the reckoning will place the Argonautic Expedition, about 43 years after the death of Solomon.

By the same method the place of any Star in the Primitive Sphere may readily be found, counting backwards one Sign, 6°. 29'. from the Longitude which it had in the end of the year of our Lord 1689. So the Longitude of the first Star of Aries in the end of the year 1689 was . 28°. 51'. as above: count backward 1 Sign, 6°. 29'. and its Longitude, counted from the Equinox in the middle of the Constellation of Aries, in the time of the Argonautic expedition, will be . 22°. 22': and by the same way of arguing, the Longitude of the Lucida Pleiadum in the time of the Argonautic Expedition will be . 19°. 26'. 8": and the Longitude of Arcturus . 13°. 24'. 52": and so of any other Stars.

After the Argonautic Expedition we hear no more of Astronomy 'till the days of Thales: He ^[77] revived Astronomy, and wrote a book of the Tropics and Equinoxes, and predicted Eclipses; and Pliny ^[78] tells us, that he determined the Occasus Matutinus of the Pleiades to be upon the 25th day after the Autumnal Equinox: and thence ^[79] Petavius computes the Longitude of the Pleiades in . 23°. 53': and by consequence the Lucida Pleiadum had, since the Argonautic Expedition, moved from the Equinox 4°. 26'. 52": and this motion, after the rate of 72 years to a Degree, answers to 320 years: count these years back from the time in which Thales was a young man fit to apply himself to Astronomical Studies, that is from about the 41st Olympiad, and the reckoning will place the Argonautic Expedition about 44 years after the death of Solomon, as above: and in the days of Thales, the Solstices and Equinoxes, by this reckoning, will have been in the middle of the eleventh Degrees of the Signs. But Thales, in publishing his book about the Tropics and Equinoxes, might lean a little to the opinion of former Astronomers, so as to place them in the twelfth Degrees of the Signs.

Meton and Euctemon, ^[80] in order to publish the Lunar Cycle of nineteen years, observed the Summer Solstice in the year of Nabonassar 316, the year before the Peloponnesian war began; and Columella ^[81] tells us that they placed it in the eighth Degree of Cancer, which is at least seven Degrees backwarder than at first. Now the Equinox, after the rate of a Degree in Seventy and two years, goes backwards seven Degrees in 504 years: count backwards those years from the 316th year of Nabonassar, and the Argonautic Expedition will fall upon the 44th year after the death of Solomon, or thereabout, as above. And thus you see the truth of what we cited above out of Achilles Tatius; viz. that some anciently placed the Solstice in the eighth Degree of Cancer, others about the twelfth Degree, and others about the fifteenth Degree thereof.

Hipparchus the great Astronomer, comparing his own Observations with those of former Astronomers, concluded first of any man, that the Equinoxes had a motion backwards in respect of the fixt Stars: and his opinion was, that they went backwards one Degree in about an hundred years. He made his observations of the Equinoxes between the years of Nabonassar 586 and 618: the middle year is 602, which is 286 years after the aforesaid observation of Meton and Euctemon; and in these years the Equinox must have gone backwards four degrees, and so have been in the fourth Degree of Aries in the days of Hipparchus, and by consequence have then gone back eleven Degrees since the Argonautic Expedition; that is, in 1090 years, according to the Chronology of the ancient Greeks then in use: and this is after the rate of about 99 years, or in the next round number an hundred years to a Degree, as was then stated by Hipparchus. But it really went back a Degree in seventy and two years, and eleven Degrees in 792 years: count these 792 years backward from the year of Nabonassar, 602, the year from which we counted the 286 years, and the reckoning will place the Argonautic Expedition about 43 years after the death of Solomon. The Greeks have therefore made the Argonautic Expedition about three hundred years ancienter than the truth, and thereby given occasion to the opinion of the great Hipparchus, that the Equinox went backward after the rate of only a Degree in an hundred years.

Hesiod tells us that sixty days after the winter Solstice the Star Arcturus rose just at Sunset: and thence it follows that Hesiod flourished about an hundred years after the death of Solomon, or in the Generation or Age next after the Trojan war, as Hesiod himself declares.

From all these circumstances, grounded upon the coarse observations of the ancient Astronomers, we may reckon it certain that the Argonautic Expedition was not earlier than the Reign of Solomon: and if these Astronomical arguments be added to the former arguments taken from the mean length of the Reigns of Kings, according to the course of nature; from them all we may safely conclude that the Argonautic Expedition was after the death of Solomon, and most probably that it was about 43 years after it.

The Trojan War was one Generation later than that Expedition, as was said above, several Captains of the Greeks in that war being sons of the Argonauts: and the ancient Greeks reckoned Memnon or Amenophis, King of Egypt, to have Reigned in the times of that war, feigning him to be the son of Tithonus the elder brother of Priam, and in the end of that war to have come from Susa to the assistance of Priam. Amenophis was therefore of the same age with the elder children of Priam, and was with his army at Susa in the last year of that war: and after he had there finished the Memnonia, he might return into Egypt, and adorn it with Buildings, and Obelisks, and Statues, and die there about 90 or 95 years after the death of Solomon; when he had determined and settled the beginning of the new Egyptian year of 365 days upon the Vernal Equinox, so as to deserve the Monument above-mentioned in memory thereof.

Rehoboam was born in the last year of King David, being 41 years old at the Death of Solomon, 1 Kings xiv. 21. and therefore his father Solomon was probably born in the 18th year of King David's Reign, or before: and two or three years before his Birth, David besieged Rabbah the Metropolis of the Ammonites, and committed adultery with Bathsheba: and the year before this siege began, David vanquished the Ammonites, and their Confederates the Syrians of Zobah, and Rehob, and Ishtob, and Maacah, and Damascus, and extended his Dominion over all these Nations as far as to the entring in of Hamath and the River Euphrates: and before this war began he smote Moab, and Ammon, and Edom, and made the Edomites fly, some of them into Egypt with their King Hadad, then a little child; and others to the Philistims, where they fortified Azoth against Israel; and others, I think, to the Persian Gulph, and other places whither they could escape: and before this he had several Battles with the Philistims: and all this was after the eighth year of his Reign, in which he came from Hebron to Jerusalem. We cannot err therefore above two or three years, if we place this Victory over Edom in the eleventh or twelfth year of his Reign; and that over Ammon and the Syrians in the fourteenth. After the flight of Edom, the King of Edom grew up, and married Tahaphenes or Daphnis, the sister of Pharaoh's Queen, and before the Death of David had by her a son called Genubah, and this son was brought up among the children of Pharaoh: and among these children was the chief or first born of her mother's children, whom Solomon married in the beginning of his Reign; and her little sister who at that time had no breasts, and her brother who then sucked the breasts of his mother, Cant. vi. 9. and viii. 1, 8: and of about the same Age with these children was Sesac or Sesostris; for he became King of Egypt in the Reign of Solomon, 1 Kings xi. 40; and before he began to Reign he warred under his father, and whilst he was very young, conquered Arabia, Troglodytica and Libya, and then invaded Ethiopia; and succeeding his father Reigned 'till the fifth year of Asa: and therefore he was of about the same age with the children of Pharaoh above-mentioned; and might be one of them, and be born near the end of David's Reign, and be about 46 years old when he came out of Egypt with a great Army to invade the East: and by reason of his great Conquests, he was celebrated in several Nations by several Names. The Chaldæans called him Belus, which in their Language signified the Lord: the Arabians called him Bacchus, which in their Language signified the great: the Phrygians and Thracians called him Ma-fors, Mavors, Mars, which signified the valiant: and thence the Amazons, whom he carried from Thrace and left at Thermodon, called themselves the daughters of Mars. The Egyptians before his Reign called him their Hero or Hercules; and after his death, by reason of his great works done to the River Nile, dedicated that River to him, and Deified him by its names Sihor, Nilus and Ægyptus; and the Greeks hearing them lament 0 Sihor, Bou Sihor, called him Osiris and Busiris. Arrian ^[82] tells us that the Arabians worshipped, only two Gods, Cœlus and Dionysus; and that they worshipped Dionysus for the glory of leading his Army into India. The Dionysus of the Arabians was Bacchus, and all agree that Bacchus was the same King of Egypt with Osiris: and the Cœlus, or Uranus, or Jupiter Uranius of the Arabians, I take to be the same King of Egypt with His father Ammon, according to the Poet:

I place the end of the Reign of Sesac upon the fifth year of Asa, because in that year Asa became free from the Dominion of Egypt, so as to be able to fortify Judæa, and raise that great Army with which he met Zerah, and routed him. Osiris was therefore slain in the fifth year of Asa, by his brother Japetus, whom the Egyptians called Typhon, Python, and Neptune: and then the Libyans, under Japetus and his son Atlas, invaded Egypt, and raised that famous war between the Gods and Giants, from whence the Nile had the name of Eridanus: but Orus the son of Osiris, by the assistance of the Ethiopians, prevailed, and Reigned 'till the 15th year of Asa: and then the Ethiopians under Zerah invaded Egypt, drowned Orus in Eridanus, and were routed by Asa, so that Zerah could not recover himself. Zerah was succeeded by Amenophis, a youth of the Royal Family of the Ethiopians, and I think the son of Zerah: but the People of the lower Egypt revolted from him, and set up Osarsiphus over them, and called to their assistance a great body of men from Phœnicia, I think a part of the Army of Asa; and thereupon Amenophis, with the remains of his father's Army of Ethiopians, retired from the lower Egypt to Memphis, and there turned the River Nile into a new channel, under a new bridge which he built between two Mountains; and at the same time he built and fortified that City against Osarsiphus, calling it by his own name, Amenoph or Memphis: and then he retired into Ethiopia, and stayed there thirteen years; and then came back with a great Army, and subdued the lower Egypt, expelling the People which had been called in from Phœnicia: and this I take to be the second expulsion of the Shepherds. Dr. Castel ^[83] tells us, that in Coptic this City is called Manphtha; whence by contraction came its Names Moph, Noph.

While Amenophis staid in Ethiopia, Egypt was in its greatest distraction: and then it was, as I conceive, that the Greeks hearing thereof contrived the Argonautic Expedition, and sent the flower of Greece in the Ship Argo to persuade the Nations upon the Sea Coasts of the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas to revolt from Egypt, and set up for themselves, as the Libyans, Ethiopians and Jews had done before. And this is a further argument for placing that Expedition about 43 years after the Death of Solomon; this Period being in the middle of the distraction of Egypt. Amenophis might return from Ethiopia, and conquer the lower Egypt about eight years after that Expedition, and having settled his Government over it, he might, for putting a stop to the revolting of the eastern Nations, lead his Army into Persia, and leave Proteus at Memphis to govern Egypt in his absence, and stay some time at Susa, and build the Memnonia, fortifying that City, as the Metropolis of his Dominion in those parts.

Androgeus the son of Minos, upon his overcoming in the Athenæa, or quadrennial Games at Athens in his youth, was perfidiously slain out of envy: and Minos thereupon made war upon the Athenians, and compelled them to send every eighth year to Crete seven beardless Youths, and as many young Virgins, to be given as a reward to him that should get the Victory in the like Games instituted in Crete in honour of Androgeus. These Games seem to have been celebrated in the beginning of the Octaeteris, and the Athenæa in the beginning of the Tetraeteris, then brought into Crete and Greece by the Phœnicians and upon the third payment of the tribute of children, that is, about seventeen years after the said war was at an end, and about nineteen or twenty years after the death of Androgeus, Theseus became Victor, and returned from Crete with Ariadne the daughter of Minos; and coming to the Island Naxus or Dia, ^[84] Ariadne was there relinquished by him, and taken up by Glaucus, an Egyptian Commander at Sea, and became the mistress of the great Bacchus, who at that time returned from India in Triumph; and ^[85] by him she had two sons, Phlyas and Eumedon, who were Argonauts. This Bacchus was caught in bed in Phrygia with Venus the mother of Æneas, according ^[86] to Homer; just before he came over the Hellespont, and invaded Thrace; and he married Ariadne the daughter of Minos, according to Hesiod ^[87]: and therefore by the Testimony of both Homer and Hesiod, who wrote before the Greeks and Egyptians corrupted their Antiquities, this Bacchus was one Generation older than the Argonauts; and so being King of Egypt at the same time with Sesostris, they must be one and the same King: for they agree also in their actions; Bacchus invaded India and Greece, and after he was routed by the Army of Perseus, and the war was composed, the Greeks did him great honours, and built a Temple to him at Argos, and called it the Temple of the Cresian Bacchus, because Ariadne was buried in it, as Pausanias ^[88] relates. Ariadne therefore died in the end of the war, just before the return of Sesostris into Egypt, that is, in the 14th year of Rehoboam: She was taken from Naxus upon the return of Bacchus from India, and then became the Mistress of Bacchus, and accompanied him in his Triumphs; and therefore the expedition of Theseus to Crete, and the death of his father Ægeus, was about nine or ten years after the death of Solomon. Theseus was then a beardless young man, suppose about 19 or 20 years old, and Androgeus was slain about twenty years before, being then about 20 or 22 years old; and his father Minos might be about 25 years older, and so be born about the middle of David's Reign, and be about 70 years old when he pursued Dædalus into Sicily: and Europa and her brother Cadmus might come into Europe, two or three years before the birth of Minos.

Justin, in his 18th book, tells us: A rege Ascaloniorum expugnati Sidonii navibus appulsi Tyron urbem ante annum * * Trojanæ cladis condiderunt And Strabo, ^[89] that Aradus was built by the men who fled from Zidon. Hence ^[90] Isaiah calls Tyre the daughter of Zidon, the inhabitants of the Isle whom the Merchants of Zidon have replenished: and ^[91] Solomon in the beginning of his Reign calls the People of Tyre Zidonians. My Servants, saith he, in a Message to Hiram King of Tyre, shall be with thy Servants, and unto thee will I give hire for thy Servants according to all that thou desirest: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like the Zidonians. The new Inhabitants of Tyre had not yet lost the name of Zidonians, nor had the old Inhabitants, if there were any considerable number of them, gained the reputation of the new ones for skill in hewing of timber, as they would have done had navigation been long in use at Tyre. The Artificers who came from Zidon were not dead, and the flight of the Zidonians was in the Reign of David, and by consequence in the beginning of the Reign of Abibalus the father of Hiram, and the first King of Tyre mentioned in History. David in the twelfth year of his Reign conquered Edom, as above, and made some of the Edomites, and chiefly the Merchants and Seamen, fly from the Red Sea to the Philistims upon the Mediterranean, where they fortified Azoth. For ^[92] Stephanus tells us: Ταυτην εκτισεν ‛εις των επανελθοντων απ' Ερυθρας θαλασσης Φευγαδων: One of the Fugitives from the Red Sea built Azoth: that is, a Prince of Edom, who fled from David, fortified Azoth for the Philistims against him. The Philistims were now grown very strong, by the access of the Edomites and Shepherds, and by their assistance invaded and took Zidon, that being a town very convenient for the Merchants who fled from the Red Sea: and then did the Zidonians fly by Sea to Tyre and Aradus, and to other havens in Asia Minor, Greece, and Libya, with which, by means of their trade, they had been acquainted before; the great wars and victories of David their enemy, prompting them to fly by Sea: for ^[93] they went with a great multitude, not to seek Europa as was pretended, but to seek new Seats, and therefore fled from their enemies: and when some of them fled under Cadmus and his brothers to Cilicia, Asia minor, and Greece; others fled under other Commanders to seek new Seats in Libya, and there built many walled towns, as Nonnus ^[94] affirms: and their leader was also there called Cadmus, which word signifies an eastern man, and his wife was called Sithonis a Zidonian. Many from those Cities went afterwards with the great Bacchus in his Armies: and by these things, the taking of Zidon, and the flight of the Zidonians under Abibalus, Cadmus, Cilix, Thasus, Membliarius, Atymnus, and other Captains, to Tyre, Aradus, Cilicia, Rhodes, Caria, Bithynia, Phrygia, Calliste, Thasus, Samothrace, Crete, Greece and Libya, and the building of Tyre and Thebes, and beginning of the Reigns of Abibalus and Cadmus over those Cities, are fixed upon the fifteenth or sixteenth year of David's Reign, or thereabout. By means of these Colonies of Phœnicians, the people of Caria learnt sea-affairs, in such small vessels with oars as were then in use, and began to frequent the Greek Seas, and people some of the Islands therein, before the Reign of Minos: for Cadmus, in coming to Greece, arrived first at Rhodes, an Island upon the borders of Caria, and left there a Colony of Phœnicians, who sacrificed men to Saturn, and the Telchines being repulsed by Phoroneus, retired from Argos to Rhodes with Phorbas, who purged the Island from Serpents; and Triopas, the son of Phorbas, carried a Colony from Rhodes to Caria, and there possessed himself of a promontory, thence called Triopium: and by this and such like Colonies Caria was furnished with Shipping and Seamen, and called ^[95] Phœnice. Strabo and Herodotus ^[96] tell us, that the Cares were called Leleges, and became subject to Minos, and lived first in the Islands of the Greek Seas, and went thence into Caria, a country possest before by some of the Leleges and Pelasgi: whence it's probable that when Lelex and Pelasgus came first into Greece to seek new Seats, they left part of their Colonies in Caria and the neighbouring Islands.

The Zidonians being still possessed of the trade of the Mediterranean, as far westward as Greece and Libya, and the trade of the Red Sea being richer; the Tyrians traded on the Red Sea in conjunction with Solomon and the Kings of Judah, 'till after the Trojan war; and so also did the Merchants of Aradus, Arvad, or Arpad: for in the Persian Gulph ^[97] were two Islands called Tyre and Aradus, which had Temples like the Phœnician; and therefore the Tyrians and Aradians sailed thither, and beyond, to the Coasts of India, while the Zidonians frequented the Mediterranean: and hence it is that Homer celebrates Zidon, and makes no mention of Tyre. But at length, ^[98] in the Reign of Jehoram King of Judah, Edom revolted from the Dominion of Judah, and made themselves a King; and the trade of Judah and Tyre upon the Red Sea being thereby interrupted, the Tyrians built ships for merchandise upon the Mediterranean, and began there to make long Voyages to places not yet frequented by the Zidonians; some of them going to the coasts of Afric beyond the Syrtes, and building Adrymetum, Carthage, Leptis, Utica, and Capsa; and others going to the Coasts of Spain, and building Carteia, Gades and Tartessus; and others going further to the Fortunate Islands, and to Britain and Thule. Jehoram Reigned eight years, and the two last years was sick in his bowels, and before that sickness Edom revolted, because of Jehoram's wicked Reign: if we place that revolt about the middle of the first six years, it will fall upon the fifth year of Pygmalion King of Tyre, and so was about twelve or fifteen years after the taking of Troy: and then, by reason of this revolt, the Tyrians retired from the Red Sea, and began long Voyages upon the Mediterranean; for in the seventh year of Pygmalion, his Sister Dido sailed to the Coast of Afric beyond the Syrtes, and there built Carthage. This retiring of the Tyrians from the Red Sea to make long Voyages on the Mediterranean, together with the flight of the Edomites from David to the Philistims, gave occasion to the tradition both of the ancient Persians, and of the Phœnicians themselves, that the Phœnicians came originally from the Red Sea to the coasts of the Mediterranean, and presently undertook long Voyages, as Herodotus ^[99] relates: for Herodotus, in the beginning of his first book, relates that the Phœnicians coming from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and beginning to make long Voyages with Egyptian and Assyrian wares, among other places came to Argos, and having sold their wares, seized and carried away into Egypt some of the Grecian women who came to buy them; and amongst those women was Io the daughter of Inachus. The Phœnicians therefore came from the Red Sea, in the days of Io and her brother Phoroneus King of Argos, and by consequence at that time when David conquered the Edomites, and made them fly every way from the Red Sea; some into Egypt with their young King, and others to the Philistims their next neighbours and the enemies of David. And this flight gave occasion to the Philistims to call many places Erythra, in memory of their being Erythreans or Edomites, and of their coming from the Erythrean Sea; for Erythra was the name of a City in Ionia, of another in Libya, of another in Locris, of another in Bœotia, of another in Cyprus, of another in Ætolia, of another in Asia near Chius; and Erythia Acra was a promontory in Libya, and Erythræum a promontory in Crete, and Erythros a place near Tybur, and Erythini a City or Country in Paphlagonia: and the name Erythea or Erythræ was given to the Island Gades, peopled by Phœnicians. So Solinus, ^[100] In capite Bæticæ insula a continenti septingentis passibus memoratur quam Tyrii a rubro mari profecti Erytheam, Pœni sua lingua Gadir, id est sepem nominarunt. And Pliny, ^[101] concerning a little Island near it; Erythia dicta est quoniam Tyrii Aborigines eorum, orti ab Erythræo mari ferebantur. Among the Phœnicians who came with Cadmus into Greece, there were ^[102] Arabians, and ^[103] Erythreans or Inhabitants of the Red Sea, that is Edomites; and in Thrace there settled a People who were circumcised and called Odomantes, that is, as some think, Edomites. Edom, Erythra and Phœnicia are names of the same signification, the words denoting a red colour: which makes it probable that the Erythreans who fled from David, settled in great numbers in Phœnicia, that is, in all the Sea-coasts of Syria from Egypt to Zidon; and by calling themselves Phœnicians in the language of Syria, instead of Erythreans, gave the name of Phœnicia to all that Sea-coast, and to that only. So Strabo: ^[104] ‛Οι μεν γαρ και τους Φοινικας, και τους Σιδονιους τους καθ' ‛ημας αποικους ειναι των εν τωι Ωκεανωι φασι, προστιθεντες και δια τι Φοινικες εκαλουντο, ‛οτι και ‛η θαλαττα ερυθρα. Alii referunt Phœnices & Sidonios nostros esse colonos eorum qui sunt in Oceano, addentes illos ideo vocari Phœnices [puniceos] quod mare rubrum sit.

Strabo ^[105] mentioning the first men who left the Sea-coasts, and ventured out into the deep, and undertook long Voyages, names Bacchus, Hercules, Jason, Ulysses and Menelaus; and saith that the Dominion of Minos over the Sea was celebrated, and the Navigation of the Phœnicians who went beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and built Cities there, and in the middle of the Sea-coasts of Afric, presently after the war of Troy. These Phœnicians ^[106] were the Tyrians, who at that time built Carthage in Afric, and Carteia in Spain, and Gades in the Island of that name without the Straights; and gave the name of Hercules to their chief Leader, because of his labours and success, and that of Heraclea to the city Carteia which he built. So Strabo: ^[107] Εκπλεουσιν ουν εκ της ‛ημετερας θαλαττης εις την εξω, δεξιον εστι τουτο· και προς αυτο Καλπη [Καρτηια] ^[108] πολις εν τετταρακοντα σταδιοις αξιολογος και παλαια, ναυσταθμον ποτε γενομενη των Ιβηρων· ενιοι δε και Ηρακλεους κτισμα λεγουσιν αυτην, ‛ων εστι και Τιμοσθενης· ‛ος Φησι και Ηρακλειαν ονομαζεσθαι το παλαιον· δεικνυσθαι τε μεγαν περιβολον, και νεωσοικους. Mons Calpe ad dextram est e nostro mari foras navigantibus, & ad quadraginta inde stadia urbs Carteia vetusta ac memorabilis, olim statio navibus Hispanorum. Hanc ab Hercule quidam conditam aiunt, inter quos est Timosthenes, qui eam antiquitus Heracleam fuisse appellatam refert, ostendique adhuc magnum murorum circuitum & navalia. This Hercules, in memory of his building and Reigning over the City Carteia, they called also Melcartus, the King of Carteia. Bochart ^[109] writes, that Carteia was at first called Melcarteia, from its founder Melcartus, and by an Aphæresis, Carteia; and that Melcartus signifies Melec Kartha, the King of the city, that is, saith he, of the city Tyre: but considering that no ancient Author tells us, that Carteia was ever called Melcarteia, or that Melcartus was King of Tyre; I had rather say that Melcartus, or Melecartus, had his name from being the Founder and Governor or Prince of the city Carteia. Under Melcartus the Tyrians sailed as far as Tartessus or Tarshish, a place in the Western part of Spain, between the two mouths of the river Bœtis, and there they ^[110] met with much silver, which they purchased for trifles: they sailed also as far as Britain before the death of Melcartus; for ^[111] Pliny tells us, Plumbum ex Cassiteride insula primus apportavit Midacritus: And Bochart ^[112] observes that Midacritus is a Greek name corruptly written for Melcartus; Britain being unknown to the Greeks long after it was discovered by the Phœnicians. After the death of Melcartus, they ^[113] built a Temple to him in the Island Gades, and adorned it with the sculptures of the labours of Hercules, and of his Hydra, and the Horses to whom he threw Diomedes, King of the Bistones in Thrace, to be devoured. In this Temple was the golden Belt of Teucer, and the golden Olive of Pygmalion bearing Smaragdine fruit: and by these consecrated gifts of Teucer and Pygmalion, you may know that it was built in their days. Pomponius derives it from the times of the Trojan war; for Teucer, seven years after that war, according to the Marbles, arrived at Cyprus, being banished from home by his father Telamon, and there built Salamis: and he and his Posterity Reigned there 'till Evagoras, the last of them, was conquered by the Persians, in the twelfth year of Artaxerxes Mnemon. Certainly this Tyrian Hercules could be no older than the Trojan war, because the Tyrians did not begin to navigate the Mediterranean 'till after that war: for Homer and Hesiod knew nothing of this navigation, and the Tyrian Hercules went to the coasts of Spain, and was buried in Gades: so Arnobius ^[114]; Tyrius Hercules sepultus in finibus Hispaniæ: and Mela, speaking of the Temple of Hercules in Gades, saith, Cur sanctum sit ossa ejus ibi sepulta efficiunt. Carthage ^[115] paid tenths to this Hercules, and sent their payments yearly to Tyre: and thence it's probable that this Hercules went to the coast of Afric, as well as to that of Spain, and by his discoveries prepared the way to Dido: Orosius ^[116] and others tell us that he built Capsa there. Josephus tells of an earlier Hercules, to whom Hiram built a Temple at Tyre: and perhaps there might be also an earlier Hercules of Tyre, who set on foot their trade on the Red Sea in the days of David or Solomon.

Tatian, in his book against the Greeks, relates, that amongst the Phœnicians flourished three ancient Historians, Theodotus, Hysicrates and Mochus, who all of them delivered in their histories, translated into Greek by Latus, under which of the Kings happened the rapture of Europa; the voyage of Menelaus into Phœnicia; and the league and friendship between Solomon and Hiram, when Hiram gave his daughter to Solomon, and furnished him with timber for building the Temple: and that the same is affirmed by Menander of Pergamus. Josephus ^[117] lets us know that the Annals of the Tyrians, from the days of Abibalus and Hiram, Kings of Tyre, were extant in his days; and that Menander of Pergamus translated them into Greek, and that Hiram's friendship to Solomon, and assistance in building the Temple, was mentioned in them; and that the Temple was founded in the eleventh year of Hiram: and by the testimony of Menander and the ancient Phœnician historians, the rapture of Europa, and by consequence the coming of her brother Cadmus into Greece, happened within the time of the Reigns of the Kings of Tyre delivered in these histories; and therefore not before the Reign of Abibalus, the first of them, nor before the Reign of King David his contemporary. The voyage of Menelaus might be after the destruction of Troy. Solomon therefore Reigned in the times between the raptures of Europa and Helena, and Europa and her brother Cadmus flourished in the days or David. Minos, the son of Europa, flourished in the Reign of Solomon, and part of the Reign of Rehoboam: and the children of Minos, namely Androgeus his eldest son, Deucalion his youngest son and one of the Argonauts, Ariadne the mistress of Theseus and Bacchus, and Phædra the wife of Theseus; flourished in the latter end of Solomon, and in the Reigns of Rehoboam, Abijah and Asa: and Idomeneus, the grandson of Minos, was at the war of Troy: and Hiram succeeded his father Abibalus, in the three and twentieth year of David: and Abibalus might found the Kingdom of Tyre about sixteen or eighteen years before, when Zidon was taken by the Philistims; and the Zidonians fled from thence, under the conduct of Cadmus and other commanders, to seek new seats. Thus by the Annals of Tyre, and the ancient Phœnician Historians who followed them, Abibalus, Alymnus, Cadmus, and Europa fled from Zidon about the sixteenth year of David's Reign: and the Argonautic Expedition being later by about three Generations, will be about three hundred years later than where the Greeks have placed it.

After Navigation in long ships with sails, and one order of oars, had been propagated from Egypt to Phœnicia and Greece, and thereby the Zidonians had extended their trade to Greece, and carried it on about an hundred and fifty years; and then the Tyrians being driven from the Red Sea by the Edomites, had begun a new trade on the Mediterranean with Spain, Afric, Britain, and other remote nations; they carried it on about an hundred and sixty years; and then the Corinthians began to improve Navigation, by building bigger ships with three orders of oars, called Triremes. For ^[118] Thucydides tells us that the Corinthians were the first of the Greeks who built such ships, and that a ship-carpenter of Corinth went thence to Samos, about 300 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war, and built also four ships for the Samians; and that 260 years before the end of that war, that is, about the 29th Olympiad, there was a fight at sea between the Corinthians and the Corcyreans which was the oldest sea-fight mentioned in history. Thucydides tells us further, that the first colony which the Greeks sent into Sicily, came from Chalcis in Eubœa, under the conduct of Thucles, and built Naxus; and the next year Archias came from Corinth with a colony, and built Syracuse; and that Lamis came about the same time into Sicily, with a colony from Megara in Achaia, and lived first at Trotilum, and then at Leontini, and died at Thapsus near Syracuse; and that after his death, this colony was invited by Hyblo to Megara in Sicily, and lived there 245 years, and was then expelled by Gelo King of Sicily. Now Gelo flourished about 78 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war: count backwards the 78 and the 245 years, and about 12 years more for the Reign of Lamis in Sicily, and the reckoning will place the building of Syracuse about 335 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war, or in the tenth Olympiad; and about that time Eusebius and others place it: but it might be twenty or thirty years later, the antiquities of those days having been raised more or less by the Greeks. From the colonies henceforward sent into Italy and Sicily came the name of Græcia magna.

Thucydides ^[119] tells us further, that the Greeks began to come into Sicily almost three hundred years after the Siculi had invaded that Island with an army out of Italy: suppose it 280 years after, and the building of Syracuse 310 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war; and that invasion of Sicily by the Siculi will be 590 years before the end of that war, that is, in the 27th year of Solomon's Reign, or thereabout. Hellanicus ^[120] tells us, that it was in the third Generation before the Trojan war; and in the 26th year of the Priesthood of Alcinoe, Priestess of Juno Argiva: and Philistius of Syracuse, that it was 80 years before the Trojan war: whence it follows that the Trojan war and Argonautic Expedition were later than the days of Solomon and Rehoboam, and could not be much earlier than where we have placed them.

The Kingdom of Macedon ^[121] was founded by Caranus and Perdiccas, who being of the Race of Temenus King of Argos, fled from Argos in the Reign of Phidon the brother of Caranus. Temenus was one of the three brothers who led the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and shared the conquest among themselves: he obtained Argos; and after him, and his son Cisus, the Kingdom of Argos became divided among the posterity of Temenus, until Phidon reunited it, expelling his kindred. Phidon grew potent, appointed weights and measures in Peloponnesus, and coined silver money; and removing the Pisæans and Eleans, presided in the Olympic games; but was soon after subdued by the Eleans and Spartans. Herodotus ^[122] reckons that Perdiccas was the first King of Macedon; later writers, as Livy, Pausanias and Suidas, make Caranus the first King: Justin calls Perdiccas the Sucessor of Caranus; and Solinus saith that Perdiccas succeeded Caranus; and was the first that obtained the name of King. It's probable that Caranus and Perdiccas were contemporaries, and fled about the same time from Phidon, and at first erected small principalities in Macedonia, which, after the death of Caranus, became one under Perdiccas. Herodotus ^[123] tells us, that after Perdiccas Reigned Aræus, or Argæus, Philip, Æropus, Alcetas, Amyntas, and Alexander, successively. Alexander was contemporary to Xerxes King of Persia, and died An. 4. Olymp. 79, and was succeeded by Perdiccas, and he by his son Archelaus: and Thucydides ^[124] tells us that there were eight Kings of Macedon before this Archelaus: now by reckoning above forty years a-piece to these Kings, Chronologers have made Phidon and Caranus older than the Olympiads; whereas if we should reckon their Reigns at about 18 or 20 years a-piece one with another, the first seven Reigns counted backwards from the death of this Alexander, will place the dominion of Phidon, and the beginning of the Kingdom of Macedon under Perdiccas and Caranus, upon the 46th or 47th Olympiad, or thereabout. It could scarce be earlier, because Leocides the son of Phidon, and Megacles the son of Alcmæon, at one and the same time courted Agarista, the daughter of Clisthenes King of Sicyon, as Herodotus ^[125] tells us; and the Amphictyons, by the advice of Solon, made Alcmæon, and Clisthenes, and Eurolycus King of Thessaly, commanders of their army, in their war against Cirrha; and the Cirrheans were conquered An. 2. Olymp. 47. according to the Marbles. Phidon therefore and his brother Caranus were contemporary to Solon, Alcmæon, Clisthenes, and Eurolycus, and flourished about the 48th and 49th Olympiads. They were also contemporary in their later days to Crœsus; for Solon conversed with Crœsus, and Alcmæon entertained and conducted the messengers whom Crœsus sent to consult the Oracle at Delphi, An. 1. Olymp. 56. according to the Marbles, and was sent for by Crœsus, and rewarded with much riches.

But the times set down in the Marbles before the Persian Empire began, being collected by reckoning the Reigns of Kings equipollent to Generations, and three Generations to an hundred years or above; and the Reigns of Kings, one with another, being shorter in the proportion of about four to seven; the Chronology set down in the Marbles, until the Conquest of Media by Cyrus, An. 4, Olymp. 60, will approach the truth much nearer, by shortening the times before that Conquest in the proportion of four to seven. So the Cirrheans were conquered An. 2, Olymp. 47, according to the Marbles, that is 54 years before the Conquest of Media; and these years being shortened in the proportion of four to seven, become 31 years; which subducted from An. 4, Olymp. 60, place the Conquest of Cirrha upon An. 1, Olymp. 53: and, by the like correction of the Marbles, Alcmæon entertained and conducted the messengers whom Crœsus sent to consult the Oracle at Delphi, An. 1, Olymp. 58; that is, four years before the Conquest of Sardes by Cyrus: and the Tyranny of Pisistratus, which by the Marbles began at Athens, An. 4, Olymp. 54, by the like correction began An. 3, Olymp. 57; and by consequence Solon died An. 4, Olymp. 57. This method may be used alone, where other arguments are wanting; but where they are not wanting, the best arguments are to be preferred.

Iphitus ^[126] presided both in the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, and in the Olympic Games, and so did his Successors 'till the 26th Olympiad; and so long the victors were rewarded with a Tripos: but then the Pisæans getting above the Eleans, began to preside, and rewarded the victors with a Crown, and instituted the Carnea to Apollo; and continued to preside 'till Phidon interrupted them, that is, 'till about the time of the 49th Olympiad: for ^[127] in the 48th Olympiad the Eleans entered the country of the Pisæans, suspecting their designs, but were prevailed upon to return home quietly; afterwards the Pisæans confederated with several other Greek nations, and made war upon the Eleans, and in the end were beaten: in this war I conceive it was that Phidon presided, suppose in the 49th Olympiad; for ^[128] in the 50th Olympiad, for putting an end to the contentions between the Kings about presiding, two men were chosen by lot out of the city Elis to preside, and their number in the 65th Olympiad was increased to nine, and afterwards to ten; and these judges were called Hellenodicæ, judges for or in the name of Greece. Pausanias tells us, that the Eleans called in Phidon and together with him celebrated the 8th Olympiad; he should have said the 49th Olympiad; but Herodotus tells us, that Phidon removed the Eleans; and both might be true: the Eleans might call in Phidon against the Pisæans, and upon overcoming be refused presiding in the Olympic games by Phidon, and confederate with the Spartans, and by their assistance overthrow the Kingdom of Phidon, and recover their ancient right of presiding in the games.

Strabo ^[129] tells us that Phidon was the tenth from Temenus; not the tenth King, for between Cisus and Phidon they Reigned not, but the tenth from father to son, including Temenus. If 27 years be reckoned to a Generation by the eldest sons, the nine intervals will amount unto 243 years, which counted back from the 48th Olympiad, in which Phidon flourished, will place the Return of the Heraclides about fifty years before the beginning of the Olympiads, as above. But Chronologers reckon about 515 years from the Return of the Heraclides to the 48th Olympiad, and account Phidon the seventh from Temenus; which is after the rate of 85 years to a Generation, and therefore not to be admitted.

Cyrus took Babylon, according to Ptolomy's Canon, nine years before his death, An. Nabonass. 209, An. 2, Olymp. 60: and he took Sardes a little before, namely An. 1, Olymp. 59, as Scaliger collects from Sosicrates: Crœsus was then King of Sardes, and Reigned fourteen years, and therefore began to Reign An. 3, Olymp. 55. After Solon had made laws for the Athenians, he obliged them upon oath to observe those laws 'till he returned from his travels; and then travelled ten years, going to Egypt and Cyprus, and visiting Thales of Miletus: and upon His Return to Athens, Pisistratus began to affect the Tyranny of that city, which made Solon travel a second time; and now he was invited by Crœsus to Sardes; and Crœsus, before Solon visited him, had subdued all Asia Minor, as far as to the River Halys; and therefore he received that visit towards the latter part of his Reign; and we may place it upon the ninth year thereof, An. 3, Olymp. 57: and the legislature of Solon twelve years earlier, An. 3, Olymp. 54: and that of Draco still ten years earlier, An. 1, Olymp. 52. After Solon had visited Crœsus, he went into Cilicia and some other places, and died ^[130] in his travels: and this was in the second year of the Tyranny of Pisistratus. Comias was Archon when Solon returned from his first travels to Athens; and the next year Hegestratus was Archon, and Solon died before the end of the year, An. 3, Olymp. 57, as above: and by this reckoning the objection of Plutarch above mentioned is removed.

We have now shewed that the Phœnicians of Zidon, under the conduct of Cadmus and other captains, flying from their enemies, came into Greece, with letters and other arts, about the sixteenth year of King David's Reign; that Europa the sister of Cadmus, fled some days before him from Zidon and came to Crete, and there became the mother of Minos, about the 18th or 20th year of David's Reign; that Sesostris and the great Bacchus, and by consequence also Osiris, were one and the same King of Egypt with Sesac, and came out of Egypt in the fifth year of Rehoboam to invade the nations, and died 25 years after Solomon; that the Argonautic expedition was about 43 years after the death of Solomon; that Troy was taken about 76 or 78 years after the death of Solomon; that the Phœnicians of Tyre were driven from the Red Sea by the Edomites, about 87 years after the death of Solomon, and within two or three years began to make long voyages upon the Mediterranean, sailing to Spain, and beyond, under a commander whom for his industry, conduct, and discoveries, they honoured with the names of Melcartus and Hercules; that the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus was about 158 years after the death of Solomon; that Lycurgus the Legislator Reigned at Sparta, and gave the three Discs to the Olympic treasury, An. 1, Olymp. 18, or 273 years after the death of Solomon, the Quinquertium being at that time added to the Olympic Games; that the Greeks began soon after to build Triremes, and to send Colonies into Sicily and Italy, which gave the name of Græcia magna to those countries; that the first Messenian war ended about 350 years after the death of Solomon, An. 1, Olymp. 37; that Phidon was contemporary to Solon, and presided in the Olympic Games in the 49th Olympiad, that is, 397 years after the death of Solomon; that Draco was Archon, and made his laws, An. 1, Olymp. 52; and Solon, An. 3, Olymp. 54; and that Solon visited Crœsus Ann. 3, Olymp. 57, or 433 years after the death of Solomon; and Sardes was taken by Cyrus 438 years, and Babylon by Cyrus 443 years, and Echatane by Cyrus 445 years after the death of Solomon: and these periods being settled, they become a foundation for building the Chronology of the antient times upon them; and nothing more remains for settling such a Chronology, than to make these Periods a little exacter, if it can be, and to shew how the rest of the Antiquities of Greece, Egypt, Assyria, Chaldæa, and Media may suit therewith.

Whilst Bacchus made his expedition into India, Theseus left Ariadne in the Island Naxus or Dia, as above, and succeeded his father Ægeus at Athens; and upon the Return of Bacchus from India, Ariadne became his mistress, and accompanied him in his triumphs; and this was about ten years after the death of Solomon: and from that time reigned eight Kings in Athens, viz. Theseus, Menestheus, Demophoon, Oxyntes, Aphidas, Thymætes, Melanthus, and Codrus; these Kings, at 19 years a-piece one with another, might take up about 152 years, and end about 44 years before the Olympiads: then Reigned twelve Archons for life, which at 14 or 15 years a-piece, the State being unstable, might take up about 174 years, and end An. 2, Olymp. 33: then reigned seven decennial Archons, which are usually reckoned at seventy years; but some of them dying in their Regency, they might not take up above forty years, and so end about An. 2, Olymp. 43, about which time began the Second Messenian war: these decennial Archons were followed by the annual Archons, amongst whom were the Legislators Draco and Solon. Soon after the death of Codrus, his second Son Neleus, not bearing the Reign of his lame brother Medon at Athens, retired into Asia, and was followed by his younger brothers Androcles and Cyaretus, and many others: these had the name of Ionians, from Ion the son of Xuthus, who commanded the army of the Athenians at the death of Erechtheus, and gave the name of Ionia to the country which they invaded: and about 20 or 25 years after the death of Codrus, these new Colonies, being now Lords of Ionia, set up over themselves a common Council called Panionium, and composed of Counsellors sent from twelve of their cities, Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedus, Teos, Clazomenæ, Phocæa, Samos, Chios, and Erythræa: and this was the Ionic Migration.

^[131] When the Greeks and Latines were forming their Technical Chronology, there were great disputes about the Antiquity of Rome: the Greeks made it much older than the Olympiads: some of them said it was built by Æneas; others, by Romus, the son or grandson of Æneas; others, by Romus, the son or grandson of Latinus King of the Aborigines; others, by Romus the son of Ulysses, or of Ascanius, or of Italus: and some of the Latines at first fell in with the opinion of the Greeks, saying that it was built by Romulus, the son or grandson of Æneas. Timæus Siculus represented it built by Romulus, the grandson of Æneas, above an hundred years before the Olympiads; and so did Nævius the Poet, who was twenty years older than Ennius, and served in the first Punic war, and wrote the history of that war. Hitherto nothing certain was agreed upon, but about 140 or 150 years after the death of Alexander the Great, they began to say that Rome was built a second time by Romulus, in the fifteenth Age after the destruction of Troy: by Ages they meant Reigns of the Kings of the Latines at Alba, and reckoned the first fourteen Reigns at about 432 years, and the following Reigns of the seven Kings of Rome at 244 years, both which numbers made up the time of about 676 years from the taking of Troy, according to these Chronologers; but are much too long for the course of nature: and by this reckoning they placed the building of Rome upon the sixth or seventh Olympiad; Varro placed it on the first year of the Seventh Olympiad, and was therein generally followed by the Romans; but this can scarce be reconciled to the course of nature: for I do not meet with any instance in all history, since Chronology was certain, wherein seven Kings, most of whom were slain, Reigned 244 years in continual Succession. The fourteen Reigns of the Kings of the Latines, at twenty years a-piece one with another, amount unto 280 years, and these years counted from the taking of Troy end in the 38th Olympiad: and the Seven Reigns of the Kings of Rome, four or five of them being slain and one deposed, may at a moderate reckoning amount to fifteen or sixteen years a-piece one with another: let them be reckoned at seventeen years a-piece, and they will amount unto 119 years; which being counted backwards from the Regifuge, end also in the 38th Olympiad: and by these two reckonings Rome was built in the 38th Olympiad, or thereabout. The 280 years and the 119 years together make up 399 years; and the same number of years arises by counting the twenty and one Reigns at nineteen years a-piece: and this being the whole time between the taking of Troy and the Regifuge, let these years be counted backward from the Regifuge, An. 1, Olymp. 68, and they will place the taking of Troy about 74 years after the death of Solomon.

When Sesostris returned from Thrace into Egypt, he left Æetes with part of his army in Colchis, to guard that pass; and Phryxus and his sister Helle fled from Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, to Æetes soon after, in a ship whose ensign was a golden ram: Ino was therefore alive in the fourteenth year of Rehoboam, the year in which Sesostris returned into Egypt; and by consequence her father Cadmus flourished in the Reign of David, and not before. Cadmus was the father of Polydorus, the father of Labdacus, the father of Laius, the father of Oedipus, the father of Eteocles and Polynices who slew one another in their youth, in the war of the seven Captains at Thebes, about ten or twelve years after the Argonautic Expedition: and Thersander, the son of Polynices, warred at Troy. These Generations being by the eldest sons who married young, if they be reckoned at about twenty and four years to a Generation, will place the birth of Polydorus upon the 18th year of David's Reign, or thereabout: and thus Cadmus might be a young man, not yet married, when he came first into Greece. At his first coming he sail'd to Rhodes, and thence to Samothrace, an Island near Thrace on the north side of Lemnos, and there married Harmonia, the sister of Jasius and Dardanus, which gave occasion to the Samothracian mysteries: and Polydorus might be their son, born a year or two after their coming; and his sister Europa might be then a young woman, in the flower of her age. These Generations cannot well be shorter; and therefore Cadmus, and his son Polydorus, were not younger than we have reckoned them: nor can they be much longer, without making Polydorus too old to be born in Europe, and to be the son of Harmonia the sister of Jasius. Labdacus was therefore born in the end of David's Reign, Laius in the 24th year of Solomon's, and Oedipus in the seventh of Rehoboam's, or thereabout: unless you had rather say, that Polydorus was born at Zidon, before his father came into Europe; but his name Polydorus is in the language of Greece.

Polydorus married Nycteis, the daughter of Nycteus a native of Greece, and dying young, left his Kingdom and young son Labdacus under the administration of Nycteus. Then Epopeus King of Ægialus, afterwards called Sicyon, stole Antiope the daughter of Nycteus, ^[132] and Nycteus thereupon made war upon him, and in a battle wherein Nycteus overcame, both were wounded and died soon after. Nycteus left the tuition of Labdacus, and administration of the Kingdom, to his brother Lycus; and Epopeus or, as Hyginus ^[133] calls him, Epaphus the Sicyonian, left his Kingdom to Lamedon, who presently ended the war, by sending home Antiope: and she, in returning home, brought forth Amphion and Zethus. Labdacus being grown up received the Kingdom from Lycus, and soon after dying left it again to his administration, for his young son Laius. When Amphion and Zethus were about twenty years old, at the instigation of their mother Antiope, they killed Lycus, and made Laius flee to Pelops, and seized the city Thebes, and compassed it with a wall; and Amphion married Niobe the sister of Pelops, and by her had several children, amongst whom was Chloris, the mother of Periclymenus the Argonaut. Pelops was the father of Plisthenes, Atreus, and Thyestes; and Agamemnon and Menelaus, the adopted sons of Atreus, warred at Troy. Ægisthus, the son of Thyestes, slew Agamemnon the year after the taking of Troy; and Atreus died just before Paris stole Helena, which, according to ^[134] Homer, was twenty years before the taking of Troy. Deucalion the son of Minos, ^[135] was an Argonaut; and Talus another son of Minos, was slain by the Argonauts; and Idomeneus and Meriones the grandsons of Minos were at the Trojan war. All these things confirm the ages of Cadmus and Europa, and their posterity, above assigned, and place the death of Epopeus or Epaphus King of Sicyon, and birth of Amphion and Zethus, upon the tenth year of Solomon; and the taking of Thebes by Amphion and Zethus, and the flight of Laius to Pelops, upon the thirtieth year of that King, or thereabout. Amphion might marry the sister of Pelops, the same year, and Pelops come into Greece three or four years before that flight, or about the 26th year of Solomon.

[Sidenode p: Hygin. Fab. 14.]

In the days of Erechtheus King of Athens, and Celeus King of Eleusis, Ceres came into Attica; and educated Triptolemus the son of Celeus, and taught him to sow corn. She ^[136] lay with Jasion, or Jasius, the brother of Harmonia the wife of Cadmus; and presently after her death Erechtheus was slain, in a war between the Athenians and Eleusinians; and, for the benefaction of bringing tillage into Greece, the Eleusinia Sacra were instituted to her ^[137] with Egyptian ceremonies, by Celeus and Eumolpus; and a Sepulchre or Temple was erected to her in Eleusine, and in this Temple the families of Celeus and Eumolpus became her Priests: and this Temple, and that which Eurydice erected to her daughter Danae, by the name of Juno Argiva, are the first instances that I meet with in Greece of Deifying the dead, with Temples, and Sacred Rites, and Sacrifices, and Initiations, and a succession of Priests to perform them. Now by this history it is manifest that Erechtheus, Celeus, Eumolpus, Ceres, Jasius, Cadmus, Harmonia, Asterius, and Dardanus the brother of Jasius, and one of the founders of the Kingdom of Troy, were all contemporary to one another, and flourished in their youth, when Cadmus came first into Europe. Erechtheus could not be much older, because his daughter Procris convers'd with Minos King of Crete; and his grandson Thespis had fifty daughters, who lay with Hercules; and his daughter Orithyia was the mother of Calais and Zetes, two of the Argonauts in their youth; and his son Orneus ^[138] was the father of Peteos the father of Menestheus, who warred at Troy: nor much younger, because his second son Pandion, who with the Metionides deposed his elder brother Cecrops, was the father of Ægeus, the father of Theseus; and Metion, another of his sons, was the father of Eupalamus, the father of Dædalus, who was older than Theseus; and his daughter Creusa married Xuthus, the son of Hellen, and by him had two sons, Achæus and Ion; and Ion commanded the army of the Athenians against the Eleusinians, in the battle in which his grandfather Erechtheus was slain: and this was just before the institution of the Eleusinia Sacra, and before the Reign of Pandion the father of Ægeus. Erechtheus being an Egyptian procured corn from Egypt, and for that benefaction was made King of Athens; and near the beginning of his Reign Ceres came into Attica from Sicily, in quest of her daughter Proserpina. We cannot err much if we make Hellen contemporary to the Reign of Saul, and to that of David at Hebron; and place the beginning of the Reign of Erechtheus in the 25th year, the coming of Ceres into Attica in the 30th year, and the dispersion of corn by Triptolemus about the 40th year of David's Reign; and the death of Ceres and Erechtheus, and institution of the Eleusinia Sacra, between the tenth and fifteenth year of Solomon.

Teucer, Dardanus, Erichthonius, Tros, Ilus, Laomedon, and Priamus Reigned successively at Troy; and their Reigns, at about twenty years a-piece one with another, amount unto an hundred and forty years: which counted back from the taking of Troy, place the beginning of the Reign of Teucer about the fifteenth year of the Reign of King David; and that of Dardanus, in the days of Ceres, who lay with Jasius the brother of Dardanus: whereas Chronologers reckon that the six last of these Kings Reigned 296 years, which is after the rate of 49⅓ years a-piece one with another; and that they began their Reign in the days of Moses. Dardanus married the daughter of Teucer, the Son of Scamander, and succeeded him: whence Teucer was of about the same age with David.

Upon the return of Sesostris into Egypt, his brother Danaus not only attempted his life, as above, but also commanded his daughters, who were fifty in number and had married the sons of Sesostris, to slay their husbands; and then fled with his daughters from Egypt, in a long ship of fifty oars. This Flight was in the fourteenth year of Rehoboam. Danaus came first to Lindus, a town in Rhodes, and there built a Temple, and erected a Statue to Minerva, and lost three of his daughters by a plague which raged there; and then sailed thence with the rest of his daughters to Argos. He came to Argos therefore in the fifteenth or sixteenth year of Rehoboam: and at length contending there with Gelanor the brother of Eurystheus for the crown of Argos, was chosen by the people, and Reigned at Argos, while Eurystheus Reigned at Mycenæ; and Eurystheus was born ^[139] the same year with Hercules. Gelanor and Eurystheus were the sons of Sthenelus, by Nicippe the daughter of Pelops; and Sthenelus was the son of Perseus, and Reigned at Argos, and Danaus, who succeeded him at Argos, was succeeded there by his son in law Lynceus, and he by his son Abas; that Abas who is commonly, but erroneously, reputed the father of Acrisius and Prætus. In the time of the Argonautic expedition Castor and Pollux were beardless young men, and their sisters Helena and Clytemnestra were children, and their wives Phœbe and Ilaira were also very young: all these, with the Argonauts Lynceus and Idas, were the grandchildren of Gorgophone, the daughter of Perseus, the son of Danae, the daughter of Acrisius and Eurydice; and Perieres and Oebalus, the husbands of Gorgophone, were the sons of Cynortes, the son of Amyclas, the brother of Eurydice. Mestor or Mastor, the brother of Sthenelus, married Lysidice, another of the daughters of Pelops: and Pelops married Hippodamia, the daughter of Evarete, the daughter of Acrisius. Alcmena, the mother of Hercules, was the daughter of Electryo; and Sthenelus, Mestor and Electryo were brothers of Gorgophone, and sons of Perseus and Andromeda: and the Argonaut Æsculapius was the grandson of Leucippus and Phlegia, and Leucippus was the son of Perieres, the grandson of Amyclas the brother of Eurydice, and Amyclas and Eurydice were the children of Lacedæmon and Sparta: and Capaneus, one of the seven Captains against Thebes, was the husband of Euadne the daughter of Iphis, the son of Elector, the son of Anaxagoras, the son of Megapenthes, the son of Prætus the brother of Acrisius. Now from these Generations it may be gathered that Perseus, Perieres and Anaxagoras were of about the same age with Minos, Pelops, Ægeus and Sesac; and that Acrisius, Prætus, Eurydice, and Amyclas, being two little Generations older, were of about the same age with King David and Erechtheus; and that the Temple of Juno Argiva was built about the same time with the Temple of Solomon; the same being built by Eurydice to her daughter Danae, as above; or as some say, by Pirasus or Piranthus, the son or successor of Argus, and great grandson of Phoroneus: for the first Priestess of that Goddess was Callithea the daughter of Piranthus; Callithea was succeeded by Alcinoe, about three Generations before the taking of Troy, that is about the middle of Solomon's Reign: in her Priesthood the Siculi passed out of Italy into Sicily: afterwards Hypermnestra the daughter of Danaus became Priestess of this Goddess, and she flourished in the times next before the Argonautic expedition: and Admeta, the daughter of Eurystheus, was Priestess of this Juno about the times of the Trojan war. Andromeda the wife of Perseus, was the daughter of Cepheus an Egyptian, the son of Belus, according to ^[140] Herodotus; and the Egyptian Belus was Ammon: Perseus took her from Joppa, where Cepheus, I think a kinsman of Solomon's Queen, resided in the days of Solomon. Acrisius and Prætus were the sons of Abas: but this Abas was not the same man with Abas the grandson of Danaus, but a much older Prince, who built Abæa in Phocis, and might be the Prince from whom the island Eubœa ^[141] was anciently called Abantis, and the people thereof Abantes: for Apollonius Rhodius ^[142] tells us, that the Argonaut Canthus was the son of Canethus, and that Canethus was of the posterity of Abas; and the Commentator upon Apollonius tells us further, that from this Abas the inhabitants of Eubœa were anciently called Abantes. This Abas therefore flourished three or four Generations before the Argonautic expedition, and so might be the father of Acrisius: the ancestors of Acrisius were accounted Egyptians by the Greeks, and they might come from Egypt under Abas into Eubœa, and from thence into Peloponnesus. I do not reckon Phorbas and his son Triopas among the Kings of Argos, because they fled from that Kingdom to the Island Rhodes; nor do I reckon Crotopus among them, because because he went from Argos, and built a new city for himself in Megaris, as ^[143] Conon relates.

We said that Pelops came into Greece about the 26th year of Solomon: he ^[144] came thither in the days of Acrisius, and in those of Endymion, and of his sons, and took Ætolia from Aetolus. Endymion was the son of Aëthlius, the son of Protogenia, the sister of Hellen, and daughter of Deucalion: Phrixus and Helle, the children of Athamus, the brother of Sisyphus and Son of Æolus, the son of Hellen, fled from their stepmother Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, to Æetes in Colchis, presently after the return of Sesostris into Egypt: and Jason the Argonaut was the son of Æson, the son of Cretheus, the son of Æolus, the son of Hellen: and Calyce was the wife of Aëthlius, and mother of Endymion, and daughter of Æolus, and sister of Cretheus, Sisyphus and Athamas: and by these circumstances Cretheus, Sisyphus and Athamas flourished in the latter part of the Reign of Solomon, and in the Reign of Rehoboam: Aëthlius, Æolus, Xuthus, Dorus, Tantalus, and Danae were contemporary to Erechtheus, Jasius and Cadmus; and Hellen was about one, and Deucalion about two Generations older than Erechtheus. They could not be much older, because Xuthus the youngest son of Hellen ^[145] married Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus; nor could they be much younger, because Cephalus the son of Deioneus, the son of Æolus, the eldest son of Hellen, ^[146] married Procris the daughter of Erechtheus; and Procris fled from her husband to Minos. Upon the death of Hellen, his youngest son Xuthus ^[147] was expelled Thessaly by his brothers Æolus and Dorus, and fled to Erechtheus, and married Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus; by whom he had two sons, Achæus and Ion, the youngest of which grew up before the death of Erechtheus, and commanded the army of the Athenians, in the war in which Erechtheus was slain: and therefore Hellen died about one Generation before Erechtheus.

Sisyphus therefore built Corinth about the latter end of the Reign of Solomon, or the beginning of the Reign of Rehoboam. Upon the flight of Phrixus and Helle, their father Athamas, a little King in Bœotia, went distracted and slew his son Learchus; and his wife Ino threw her self into the sea, together with her other son Melicertus; and thereupon Sisyphus instituted the Isthmia at Corinth to his nephew Melicertus. This was presently after Sesostris had left Æetes in Colchis, I think in the fifteenth or sixteenth year of Rehoboam: so that Athamas, the son of Æolus and grandson of Hellen, and Ino the daughter of Cadmus, flourished 'till about the sixteenth year of Rehoboam. Sisyphus and his successors Ornytion, Thoas, Demophon, Propodas, Doridas, and Hyanthidas Reigned successively at Corinth, 'till the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus: then Reigned the Heraclides, Aletes, Ixion, Agelas, Prumnis, Bacchis, Agelas II, Eudamus, Aristodemus, and Telestes successively about 170 years, and then Corinth was governed by Prytanes or annual Archons about 42 years, and after them by Cypselus and Periander about 48 years more.

Celeus King of Eleusis, who was contemporary to Erechtheus, ^[148] was the son of Rharus, the son of Cranaus, the successor of Cecrops; and in the Reign of Cranaus, Deucalion fled with his sons Hellen and Amphictyon from the flood which then overflowed Thessaly, and was called Deucalion's flood: they fled into Attica, and there Deucalion died soon after; and Pausanias tells us that his Sepulchre was to be seen near Athens. His eldest son Hellen succeeded him in Thessaly, and his other son Amphictyon married the daughter of Cranaus, and Reigning at Thermopylæ, erected there the Amphictyonic Council; and Acrisius soon after erected the like Council at Delphi. This I conceive was done when Amphictyon and Acrisius were aged, and fit to be Counsellors; suppose in the latter half of the Reign of David, and beginning of the Reign of Solomon; and soon after, suppose about the middle of the Reign of Solomon, did Phemonoë become the first Priestess of Apollo at Delphi, and gave Oracles in hexameter verse: and then was Acrisius slain accidentally by his grandson Perseus. The Council of Thermopylæ included twelve nations of the Greeks, without Attica, and therefore Amphictyon did not then Reign at Athens: he might endeavour to succeed Cranaus, his wife's father, and be prevented by Erechtheus.

Between the Reigns of Cranaus and Erechtheus, Chronologers place also Erichthonius, and his son Pandion; but I take this Erichthonius and this his son Pandion, to be the same with Erechtheus and his son and successor Pandion, the names being only repeated with a little variation in the list of the Kings of Attica: for Erichthonius, he that was the son of the Earth, nursed up by Minerva, is by Homer called Erechtheus; and Themistius ^[149] tells us, that it was Erechtheus that first joyned a chariot to horses; and Plato ^[150] alluding to the story of Erichthonius in a basket, saith, The people of magnanimous Erechtheus is beautiful, but it behoves us to behold him taken out: Erechtheus therefore immediately succeeded Cranaus, while Amphictyon Reigned at Thermopylæ. In the Reign of Cranaus the Poets place the flood of Deucalion, and therefore the death of Deucalion, and the Reign of his sons Hellen and Amphictyon, in Thessaly and Thermpolyæ, was but a few years, suppose eight or ten, before the Reign of Erechtheus.

The first Kings of Arcadia were successively Pelasgus, Lycaon, Nyctimus, Arcas, Clitor, Æpytus, Aleus, Lycurgus, Echemus, Agapenor, Hippothous, Æpytus II, Cypselus, Olæas, &c. Under Cypselus the Heraclides returned into Peloponnesus, as above: Agapenor was one of those who courted Helena; he courted her before he reigned, and afterwards he went to the war at Troy, and thence to Cyprus, and there built Paphos. Echemus slew Hyllus the son of Hercules. Lycurgus, Cepheus, and Auge, were ^[151] the children of Aleus, the son of Aphidas, the son of Arcas, the son of Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon: Auge lay with Hercules, and Ancæus the son of Lycurgus was an Argonaut, and his uncle Cepheus was his Governour in that Expedition; and Lycurgus stay'd at home, to look after his aged father Aleus, who might be born about 75 years before that Expedition; and his grandfather Arcas might be born about the end of the Reign of Saul, and Lycaon the grandfather of Arcas might be then alive, and dye before the middle of David's Reign; and His youngest son Oenotrus, the Janus of the Latines, might grow up, and lead a colony into Italy before the Reign of Solomon. Arcas received ^[152] bread-corn from Triptolemus, and taught his people to make bread of it; and so did Eumelus, the first King of a region afterwards called Achaia: and therefore Arcas and Eumelus were contemporary to Triptolemus, and to his old father Celeus, and to Erechtheus King of Athens; and Callisto to Rharus, and her father Lycaon to Cranaus: but Lycaon died before Cranaus, so as to leave room for Deucalion's flood between their deaths. The eleven Kings of Arcadia, between this Flood and the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, that is, between the Reigns of Lycaon and Cypselus, after the rate of about twenty years to a Reign one with another, took up about 220 years; and these years counted back from the Return of the Heraclides, place the Flood of Deucalion upon the fourteenth year of David's Reign, or thereabout.

Herodotus ^[153] tells us, that the Phœnicians who came with Cadmus brought many doctrines into Greece: for amongst those Phœnicians were a sort of men called Curetes, who were skilled in the Arts and Sciences of Phœnicia, above other men, and ^[154] settled some in Phrygia, where they were called Corybantes; some in Crete, where they were called Idæi Dactyli; some in Rhodes, where they were called Telchines; some in Samothrace, where they were called Cabiri; some in Eubœa, where, before the invention of iron, they wrought in copper, in a city thence called Chalcis some in Lemnos, where they assisted Vulcan; and some in Imbrus, and other places: and a considerable number of them settled in Ætolia, which was thence called the country of the Curetes; until Ætolus the son of Endymion, having slain Apis King of Sicyon, fled thither, and by the assistance of his father invaded it, and from his own name called it Ætolia: and by the assistance of these artificers, Cadmus found out gold in the mountain Pangæus in Thrace, and copper at Thebes; whence copper ore is still called Cadmia. Where they settled they wrought first in copper, 'till iron was invented, and then in iron; and when they had made themselves armour, they danced in it at the sacrifices with tumult and clamour, and bells, and pipes, and drums, and swords, with which they struck upon one another's armour, in musical times, appearing seized with a divine fury; and this is reckoned the original of music in Greece: so Solinus ^[155] Studium musicum inde cœptum cum Idæi Dactyli modulos crepitu & tinnitu æris deprehensos in versificum ordinem transtulissent: and ^[156] Isidorus, Studium musicum ab Idæis Dactylis cœptum. Apollo and the Muses were two Generations later. Clemens ^[157] calls the Idæi Dactyli barbarous, that is strangers; and saith, that they reputed the first wise men, to whom both the letters which they call Ephesian, and the invention of musical rhymes are referred: it seems that when the Phœnician letters, ascribed to Cadmus, were brought into Greece, they were at the same time brought into Phrygia and Crete, by the Curetes; who settled in those countries, and called them Ephesian, from the city Ephesus, where they were first taught. The Curetes, by their manufacturing copper and iron, and making swords, and armour, and edged tools for hewing and carving of wood, brought into Europe a new way of fighting; and gave Minos an opportunity of building a Fleet, and gaining the dominion of the seas; and set on foot the trades of Smiths and Carpenters in Greece, which are the foundation of manual trades: the ^[158] fleet of Minos was without sails, and Dædalus fled from him by adding sails to his vessel; and therefore ships with sails were not used by the Greeks before the flight of Dædalus, and death of Minos, who was slain in pursuing him to Sicily, in the Reign of Rehoboam. Dædalus and his nephew Talus, in the latter part of the Reign of Solomon, invented the chip-ax, and saw, and wimble, and perpendicular, and compass, and turning-lath, and glew, and the potter's wheel; and his father Eupalamus invented the anchor: and these things gave a beginning to manual Arts and Trades in Europe.

The ^[159] Curetes, who thus introduced Letters, and Music, and Poetry, and Dancing, and Arts, and attended on the Sacrifices, were no less active about religious institutions, and for their skill and knowledge and mystical practices, were accounted wise men and conjurers by the vulgar. In Phrygia their mysteries were about Rhea, called Magna Mater, and from the places where she was worshipped, Cybele, Berecynthia, Pessinuntia, Dindymene, Mygdonia, and Idæa Phrygia: and in Crete, and the Terra Curetum, they were about Jupiter Olympius, the son of the Cretan Rhea: they represented, ^[160] that when Jupiter was born in Crete, his mother Rhea caused him to be educated in a cave in mount Ida, under their care and tuition; and ^[161] that they danced about him in armour, with great noise, that his father Saturn might not hear him cry; and when he was grown up, assisted him in conquering his father, and his father's friends; and in memory of these things instituted their mysteries. Bochart ^[162] brings them from Palestine, and thinks that they had the name of Curetes from the people among the Philistims called Crethim, or Cerethites: Ezek. xxv. 16. Zeph. ii. 5. 1 Sam. xxx. 14, for the Philistims conquered Zidon, and mixed with the Zidonians.

The two first Kings of Crete, who reigned after the coming of the Curetes, were Asterius and Minos; and Europa was the Queen of Asterius, and mother of Minos; and the Idæan Curetes were her countrymen, and came with her and her brother Alymnus into Crete, and dwelt in the Idæan cave in her Reign, and there educated Jupiter, and found out iron, and made armour: and therefore these three, Asterius, Europa, and Minos, must be the Saturn, Rhea and Jupiter of the Cretans. Minos is usually called the son of Jupiter; but this is in relation to the fable, that Jupiter in the shape of a bull, the Ensign of the Ship, carried away Europa from Zidon: for the Phœnicians, upon their first coming into Greece, gave the name of Jao-pater, Jupiter, to every King: and thus both Minos and his father were Jupiters. Echemenes, an ancient author cited by Athenæus, ^[163] said that Minos was that Jupiter who committed the rape upon Ganimede; though others said more truly that it was Tantalus: Minos alone was that Jupiter who was most famous among the Greeks for Dominion and Justice, being the greatest King in all Greece in those days, and the only legislator. Plutarch ^[164] tells us, that the people of Naxus, contrary to what others write, pretended that there were two Minos's, and two Ariadnes; and that the first Ariadne married Bacchus, and the last was carried away by Theseus: but ^[165] Homer, Hesiod, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Strabo, knew but of one Minos; and Homer describes him to be the son of Jupiter and Europa, and the brother of Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon, and the father of Deucalion the Argonaut, and grandfather of Idomeneus who warred at Troy, and that he was the legislator of Hell: Herodotus ^[166] makes Minos and Rhadamanthus the sons of Europa, contemporary to Ægeus: and ^[167] Apollodorus and Hyginus say, that Minos, the father of Androgeus, Ariadne and Phædra, was the son of Jupiter and Europa, and brother of Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon.

Lucian ^[168] lets us know that Europa the mother of Minos was worshipped by the name of Rhea, the form of a woman sitting in a chariot drawn by lions, with a drum in her hand, and a Corona turrita on her head, like Astarte and Isis; and the Cretans ^[169] anciently shewed the house where this Rhea lived: and ^[170] Apollonius Rhodius tells us, that Saturn, while he Reigned over the Titans in Olympus, a mountain in Crete, and Jupiter was educated by the Curetes in the Cretan cave, deceived Rhea, and of Philyra begot Chiron: and therefore the Cretan Saturn and Rhea, were but one Generation older than Chiron, and by consequence not older than Asterius and Europa, the parents of Minos; for Chiron lived 'till after the Argonautic Expedition, and had two grandsons in that Expedition, and Europa came into Crete above an hundred years before that Expedition: Lucian ^[171] tells us, that the Cretans did not only relate, that Jupiter was born and buried among them, but also shewed his sepulchre: and Porphyry ^[172] tells us, that Pythagoras went down into the Idæan cave, to see sepulchre: and Cicero, ^[173] in numbering three Jupiters, saith, that the third was the Cretan Jupiter, Saturn's son, whose sepulchre was shewed in Crete: and the Scholiast upon Callimachus ^[174] lets us know, that this was the sepulchre of Minos: his words are, Εν Κρητη επι τωι ταφωι του Μινωος επεγεγραπτο, ΜΙΝΩΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ ΤΑΦΟΣ. τωι χρονωι δε του Μινωος απηλειφθη, ‛ωστε περιλειφθηναι, ΔΙΟΣ ΤΑΦΟΣ. εκ τουτου ουν εχειν λεγουσι Κρητες τον ταφον του Διος. In Crete upon the Sepulchre of Minos was written Minois Jovis sepulchrum: but in time Minois wore out so that there remained only, Jovis sepulchrum, and thence the Cretans called it the Sepulchre of Jupiter. By Saturn, Cicero, who was a Latine, understood the Saturn so called by the Latines: for when Saturn was expelled his Kingdom he fled from Crete by sea, to Italy; and this the Poets exprest by saying, that Jupiter cast him down to Tartarus, that is, into the Sea: and because he lay hid in Italy, the Latines called him Saturn; and Italy, Saturnia, and Latium, and themselves Latines: so ^[175] Cyprian; Antrum Jovis in Creta visitur, & sepulchrum ejus ostenditur: & ab eo Saturnum fugatum esse manifestum est: unde Latium de latebra ejus nomen accepit: hic literas imprimere, hic signare nummos in Italia primus instituit, unde ærarium Saturni vocatur; & rusticitatis hic cultor fuit, inde falcem ferens senex pingitur: and Minutius Felix; Saturnus Creta profugus, Italiam metu filii sævientis accesserat, & Jani susceptus hospitio, rudes illos homines & agrestes multa docuit, ut Græculus & politus, literas imprimere, nummos signare, instrumenta conficere: itaque latebram suam, quod tuto latuisset, vocari maluit Latium, & urbem Saturniam de suo nomine. * * Ejus filius Jupiter Cretæ excluso parente regnavit, illic obiit, illic filios habuit; adhuc antrum Jovis visitur, & sepulchrum ejus ostenditur, & ipsis sacris suis humanitatis arguitur: and Tertullian; ^[176] Quantum rerum argumenta docent, nusquam invenio fideliora quam apud ipsam Italiam, in qua Saturnus post multas expeditiones, postque Attica hospitia consedit, exceptus ab Jano, vel Jane ut Salii volunt. Mons quem incoluerat Saturnius dictus: civitas quam depalaverat Saturnia usque nunc est. Tota denique Italia post Oenotriam Saturnia cognominabatur. Ab ipso primum tabulæ, & imagine signatus nummus, & inde ærario præsidet. By Saturn's carrying letters into Italy, and coyning money, and teaching agriculture, and making instruments, and building a town, you may know that he fled from Crete, after letters, and the coyning of money, and manual arts were brought into Europe by the Phœnicians; and from Attica, after agriculture was brought into Greece by Ceres; and so could not be older than Asterius, and Europa, and her brother Cadmus: and by Italy's being called Oenotria, before it was called Saturnia, you may know that he came into Italy after Oenotrus, and so was not older than the sons of Lycaon. Oenotrus carried the first colony of the Greeks into Italy, Saturn the second, and Evander the third; and the Latines know nothing older in Italy than Janus and Saturn: and therefore Oenotrus was the Janus of the Latines, and Saturn was contemporary to the sons of Lycaon, and by consequence also to Celeus, Erechtheus, Ceres, and Asterius: for Ceres educated Triptolemus the son of Celeus, in the Reign of Erechtheus, and then taught him to plow and sow corn: Arcas the son of Callisto, and grandson of Lycaon, received corn from Triptolemus, and taught his people to make bread of it; and Procris, the daughter of Erechtheus, fled to Minos the son of Asterius. In memory of Saturn's coming into Italy by sea, the Latines coined their first money with his head on one side, and a ship on the other. Macrobius ^[177] tells us, that when Saturn was dead, Janus erected an Altar to him, with sacred rites as to a God, and instituted the Saturnalia, and that humane sacrifices were offered to him; 'till Hercules driving the cattle of Geryon through Italy, abolished that custom: by the human sacrifices you may know that Janus was of the race of Lycaon; which character agrees to Oenotrus. Dionysius Halicarnassensis tells us further, that Oenotrus having found in the western parts of Italy a large region fit for pasturage and tillage, but yet for the most part uninhabited, and where it was inhabited, peopled but thinly; in a certain part of it, purged from the Barbarians, he built towns little and numerous, in the mountains; which manner of building was familiar to the ancients: and this was the Original of Towns in Italy.

Pausanias ^[178] tells us that the people of Elis, who were best skilled in Antiquities, related this to have been the Original of the Olympic Games: that Saturn Reigned first and had a Temple built to him in Olympia by the men of the Golden Age; and that when Jupiter was newly born, his mother Rhea recommended him to the care of the Idæi Dactyli, who were also called Curetes: that afterwards five of them, called Hercules, Pœonius, Epimedes, Jasius, and Ida, came from Ida, a mountain in Crete, into Elis; and Hercules, called also Hercules Idæus, being the oldest of them, in memory of the war between Saturn and Jupiter, instituted the game of racing, and that the victor should be rewarded with a crown of olive; and there erected an altar to Jupiter Olympius, and called these games Olympic: and that some of the Eleans said, that Jupiter contended here with Saturn for the Kingdom; others that Hercules Idæus instituted these games in memory of their victory over the Titans: for the people of Arcadia ^[179] had a tradition, that the Giants fought with the Gods in the valley of Bathos, near the river Alpheus and the fountain Olympias. ^[180] Before the Reign of Asterius, his father Teutamus came into Crete with a colony from Olympia; and upon the flight of Asterius, some of his friends might retire with him into their own country, and be pursued and beaten there by the Idæan Hercules: the Eleans said also that Clymenus the grandson of the Idæan Hercules, about fifty years after Deucalion's flood, coming from Crete, celebrated these games again in Olympia, and erected there an altar to Juno Olympia, that is, to Europa, and another to this Hercules and the rest of the Curetes; and Reigned in Elis 'till he was expelled by Endymion, ^[181] who thereupon celebrated these games again: and so did Pelops, who expelled Ætolus the son of Endymion; and so also did Hercules the son of Alcmena, and Atreus the son of Pelops, and Oxylus: they might be celebrated originally in triumph for victories, first by Hercules Idæus, upon the conquest of Saturn and the Titans, and then by Clymenus, upon his coming to Reign in the Terra Curetum; then by Endymion, upon his conquering Clymenus; and afterwards by Pelops, upon his conquering Ætolus; and by Hercules, upon his killing Augeas; and by Atreus, upon his repelling the Heraclides; and by Oxylus, upon the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus. This Jupiter, to whom they were instituted, had a Temple and Altar erected to him in Olympia, where the games were celebrated, and from the place was called Jupiter Olympius: Olympia was a place upon the confines of Pisa, near the river Alpheus.

In the ^[182] Island Thasus, where Cadmus left his brother Thasus, the Phœnicians built a Temple to Hercules Olympius, that Hercules, whom Cicero ^[183] calls ex Idæis Dactylis; cui inferias afferunt. When the mysteries of Ceres were instituted in Eleusis, there were other mysteries instituted to her and her daughter and daughter's husband, in the Island Samothrace, by the Phœnician names of Dii Cabiri Axieros, Axiokersa, and Axiokerses, that is, the great Gods Ceres, Proserpina and Pluto: for ^[184] Jasius a Samothracian, whose sister married Cadmus, was familiar with Ceres; and Cadmus and Jasius were both of them instituted in these mysteries. Jasius was the brother of Dardanus, and married Cybele the daughter of Meones King of Phrygia, and by her had Corybas; and after his death, Dardanus, Cybele and Corybas went into Phrygia, and carried thither the mysteries of the mother of the Gods, and Cybele called the goddess after her own name, and Corybas called her priests Corybantes: thus Diodorus; but Dionysius saith ^[185] that Dardanus instituted the Samothracian mysteries, and that his wife Chryses learnt them in Arcadia, and that Idæus the son of Dardanus instituted afterwards the mysteries of the mother of the gods in Phrygia: this Phrygian Goddess was drawn in a chariot by lions, and had a corona turrita on her head, and a drum in her hand, like the Phœnician Goddess Astarte, and the Corybantes danced in armour at her sacrifices in a furious manner, like the Idæi Dactyli; and Lucian ^[186] tells us that she was the Cretan Rhea, that is, Europa the mother of Minos: and thus the Phœnicians introduced the practice of Deifying dead men and women among the Greeks and Phrygians; for I meet with no instance of Deifying dead men and women in Greece, before the coming of Cadmus and Europa from Zidon.

From these originals it came into fashion among the Greeks, κτεριζειν, parentare, to celebrate the funerals of dead parents with festivals and invocations and sacrifices offered to their ghosts, and to erect magnificent sepulchres in the form of temples, with altars and statues, to persons of renown; and there to honour them publickly with sacrifices and invocations: every man might do it to his ancestors; and the cities of Greece did it to all the eminent Greeks: as to Europa the sister, to Alymnus the brother, and to Minos and Rhadamanthus the nephews of Cadmus; to his daughter Ino, and her son Melicertus; to Bacchus the son of his daughter Semele, Aristarchus the husband of his daughter Autonoe, and Jasius the brother of his wife Harmonia; to Hercules a Theban, and his mother Alcmena; to Danae the daughter of Acrisius; to Æsculapius and Polemocrates the son of Machaon, to Pandion and Theseus Kings of Athens, Hippolytus the son of Theseus, Pan the son of Penelope, Proserpina, Triptolemus, Celeus, Trophonius, Castor, Pollux, Helena, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Amphiaraus and his son Amphilochus, Hector and Alexandra the son and daughter of Priam, Phoroneus, Orpheus, Protesilaus, Achilles and his mother Thetis, Ajax, Arcas, Idomeneus, Meriones, Æacus, Melampus, Britomartis, Adrastus, Iolaus, and divers others. They Deified their dead in divers manners, according to their abilities and circumstances, and the merits of the person; some only in private families, as houshold Gods or Dii Pænates; others by erecting gravestones to them in publick, to be used as altars for annual sacrifices; others, by building also to them sepulchres in the form of houses or temples; and some by appointing mysteries, and ceremonies, and set sacrifices, and festivals, and initiations, and a succession of priests for performing those institutions in the temples, and handing them down to posterity. Altars might begin to be erected in Europe a little before the days of Cadmus, for sacrificing to the old God or Gods of the Colonies, but Temples began in the days of Solomon; for ^[187] Æacus the son of Ægina, who was two Generations older than the Trojan war, is by some reputed one of the first who built a Temple in Greece. Oracles came first from Egypt into Greece about the same time, as also did the custom of forming the images of the Gods with their legs bound up in the shape of the Egyptian mummies: for Idolatry began in Chaldæa and Egypt, and spread thence into Phœnicia and the neighbouring countries, long before it came into Europe; and the Pelasgians propagated it in Greece, by the dictates of the Oracles. The countries upon the Tigris and the Nile being exceeding fertile, were first frequented by mankind, and grew first into Kingdoms, and therefore began first to adore their dead Kings and Queens: hence came the Gods of Laban, the Gods and Goddesses called Baalim and Ashtaroth by the Canaanites, the Dæmons or Ghosts to whom they sacrificed, and the Moloch to whom they offered their children in the days of Moses and the Judges. Every City set up the worship of its own Founder and Kings, and by alliances and conquests they spread this worship, and at length the Phœnicians and Egyptians brought into Europe the practice of Deifying the dead. The Kingdom of the lower Egypt began to worship their Kings before the days of Moses; and to this worship the second commandment is opposed: when the Shepherds invaded the lower Egypt, they checked this worship of the old Egyptians, and spread that of their own Kings: and at length the Egyptians of Coptos and Thebais, under Misphragmuthosis and Amosis, expelling the Shepherds, checked the worship of the Gods of the Shepherds, and Deifying their own Kings and Princes, propagated the worship of twelve of them into their conquests; and made them more universal than the false Gods of any other nation had been before, so as to be called, Dii magni majorum gentium. Sesostris conquered Thrace, and Amphictyon the son of Prometheus brought the twelve Gods from Thrace into Greece: Herodotus ^[188] tells us that they came from Egypt; and by the names of the cities of Egypt dedicated to many of these Gods, you may know that they were of an Egyptian original: and the Egyptians, according to Diodorus, ^[189] usually represented, that after their Saturn and Rhea, Reigned Jupiter and Juno, the parents of Osiris and Isis, the parents of Orus and Bubaste.

By all this it may be understood, that as the Egyptians who Deified their Kings, began their monarchy with the Reign of their Gods and Heroes, reckoning Menes the first man who reigned after their Gods; so the Cretans had the Ages of their Gods and Heroes, calling the first four Ages of their Deified Kings and Princes, the Golden, Silver, Brazen, and Iron Ages. Hesiod ^[190] describing these four Ages of the Gods and Demi-Gods of Greece, represents them to be four Generations of men, each of which ended when the men then living grew old and dropt into the grave, and tells us that the fourth ended with the wars of Thebes and Troy: and so many Generations there were, from the coming of the Phœnicians and Curetes with Cadmus and Europa into Greece unto the destruction of Troy. Apollonius Rhodius saith that when the Argonauts came to Crete, they slew Talus a brazen man, who remained of those that were of the Brazen Age, and guarded that pass: Talus was reputed ^[191] the son of Minos, and therefore the sons of Minos lived in the Brazen Age, and Minos Reigned in the Silver Age: it was the Silver Age of the Greeks in which they began to plow and sow Corn, and Ceres, that taught them to do it, flourished in the Reign of Celeus and Erechtheus and Minos. Mythologists tell us that the last woman with whom Jupiter lay, was Alcmena; and thereby they seem to put an end to the Reign of Jupiter among mortals, that is to the Silver Age, when Alcmena was with child of Hercules; who therefore was born about the eighth or tenth year of Rehoboam's Reign, and was about 34 years old at the time of the Argonautic expedition. Chiron was begot by Saturn of Philyra in the Golden Age, when Jupiter was a child in the Cretan cave, as above; and this was in the Reign of Asterius King of Crete: and therefore Asterius Reigned in Crete in the Golden Age; and the Silver Age began when Chiron was a child: if Chiron was born about the 35th year of David's Reign, he will be born in the Reign of Asterius, when Jupiter was a child in the Cretan cave, and be about 88 years old in the time of the Argonautic expedition, when he invented the Asterisms; and this is within the reach of nature. The Golden Age therefore falls in with the Reign of Asterius, and the Silver Age with that of Minos; and to make these Ages much longer than ordinary generations, is to make Chiron live much longer than according to the course of nature. This fable of the four Ages seems to have been made by the Curetes in the fourth Age, in memory of the first four Ages of their coming into Europe, as into a new world; and in honour of their country-woman Europa, and her husband Asterius the Saturn of the Latines, and of her son Minos the Cretan Jupiter and grandson Deucalion, who Reigned 'till the Argonautic expedition, and is sometimes reckoned among the Argonauts, and of their great grandson Idomeneus who warred at Troy. Hesiod tells us that he himself lived in the fifth Age, the Age next after the taking of Troy, and therefore he flourished within thirty or thirty five years after it: and Homer was of about the same Age; for he ^[192] lived sometime with Mentor in Ithaca, and there learnt of him many things concerning Ulysses, with whom Mentor had been personally acquainted: now Herodotus, the oldest Historian of the Greeks now extant, ^[193] tells us that Hesiod and Homer were not above four hundred years older than himself, and therefore they flourished within 110 or 120 years after the death of Solomon; and according to my reckoning the taking of Troy was but one Generation earlier.

Mythologists tell us, that Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus was the first woman with whom Jupiter lay, and that of her he begat Argus, who succeeded Phoroneus in the Kingdom of Argos, and gave his name to that city; and therefore Argus was born in the beginning of the Silver Age: unless you had rather say that by Jupiter they might here mean Asterius; for the Phœnicians gave the name of Jupiter to every King, from the time of their first coming into Greece with Cadmus and Europa, until the invasion of Greece by Sesostris, and the birth of Hercules, and particularly to the fathers of Minos, Pelops, Lacedæmon, Æacus, and Perseus.

The four first Ages succeeded the flood of Deucalion; and some tell us that Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, the son of Japetus, and brother of Atlas: but this was another Deucalion; for Japetus the father of Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Atlas, was an Egyptian, the brother of Osiris, and flourished two generations after the flood of Deucalion.

I have now carried up the Chronology of the Greeks as high as to the first use of letters, the first plowing and sowing of corn, the first manufacturing of copper and iron, the beginning of the trades of Smiths, Carpenters, Joyners, Turners, Brick-makers, Stone-cutters, and Potters, in Europe; the first walling of cities about, the first building of Temples, and the original of Oracles in Greece; the beginning of navigation by the Stars in long ships with sails; the erecting of the Amphictyonic Council; the first Ages of Greece, called the Golden, Silver, Brazen and Iron Ages, and the flood of Deucalion which immediately preceded them. Those Ages could not be earlier than the invention and use of the four metals in Greece, from whence they had their names; and the flood of Ogyges could not be much above two or three ages earlier than that of Deucalion: for among such wandering people as were then in Europe, there could be no memory of things done above three or four ages before the first use of letters: and the expulsion of the Shepherds out of Egypt, which gave the first occasion to the coming of people from Egypt into Greece, and to the building of houses and villages in Greece, was scarce earlier than the days of Eli and Samuel; for Manetho tells us, that when they were forced to quit Abaris and retire out of Egypt, they went through the wilderness into Judæa and built Jerusalem: I do not think, with Manetho, that they were the Israelites under Moses, but rather believe that they were Canaanites; and upon leaving Abaris mingled with the Philistims their next neighbours: though some of them might assist David and Solomon in building Jerusalem and the Temple.

Saul was made King ^[194], that he might rescue Israel out of the hand of the Philistims, who opressed them; and in the second year of his Reign, the Philistims brought into the field against him thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore for multitude: the Canaanites had their horses from Egypt; and yet in the days of Moses all the chariots of Egypt, with which Pharaoh pursued Israel were but six hundred, Exod. xiv. 7. From the great army of the Philistims against Saul, and the great number of their horses, I seem to gather that the Shepherds had newly relinquished Egypt; and joyned them: the Shepherds might be beaten and driven out of the greatest part of Egypt, and shut up in Abaris by Misphragmuthosis in the latter end of the days of Eli; and some of them fly to the Philistims, and strengthen them against Israel, in the last year of Eli; and from the Philistims some of the Shepherds might go to Zidon, and from Zidon, by sea to Asia minor and Greece: and afterwards, in the beginning of the Reign of Saul, the Shepherds who still remained in Egypt might be forced by Tethmosis or Amosis the son of Misphragmuthosis, to leave Abaris, and retire in very great numbers to the Philistims; and upon these occasions several of them, as Pelasgus, Inachus, Lelex, Cecrops, and Abas, might come with their people by sea from Egypt to Zidon and Cyprus, and thence to Asia minor and Greece, in the days of Eli, Samuel and Saul, and thereby begin to open a commerce by sea between Zidon and Greece, before the revolt of Edom from Judæa, and the final coming of the Phœnicians from the Red Sea.

Pelasgus Reigned in Arcadia, and was the father of Lycaon, according to Pherecydes Atheniensis, and Lycaon died just before the flood of Deucalion; and therefore his father Pelasgus might come into Greece about two Generations before Cadmus, or in the latter end of the days of Eli: Lycaon sacrificed children, and therefore his father might come with his people from the Shepherds in Egypt, and perhaps from the regions of Heliopolis, where they sacrificed men, 'till Amosis abolished that custom. Misphragmuthosis the father of Amosis, drove the Shepherds out of a great part of Egypt, and shut the remainder up in Abaris: and then great numbers might escape to Greece; some from the regions of Heliopolis under Pelasgus, and others from Memphis and other places, under other Captains: and hence it might come to pass that the Pelasgians were at the first very numerous in Greece, and spake a different language from the Greek, and were the ringleaders in bringing into Greece the worship of the dead.

Inachus is called the son of Oceanus, perhaps because he came to Greece by sea: he might come with his people to Argos from Egypt in the days of Eli, and seat himself upon the river Inachus, so named from him, and leave his territories to his sons Phoroneus, Ægialeus, and Phegeus, in the days of Samuel: for Car the son of Phoroneus built a Temple to Ceres in Megara, and therefore was contemporary to Erechtheus. Phoroneus Reigned at Argos, and Aegialeus at Sicyon, and founded those Kingdoms; and yet Ægialeus is made above five hundred years older than Phoroneus by some Chronologers: but ^[195] Acusilaus, ^[196] Anticlides and ^[197] Plato, accounted Phoroneus the oldest King in Greece, and ^[198] Apollodorus tells us, Ægialeus was the brother of Phoroneus. Ægialeus died without issue, and after him Reigned Europs, Telchin, Apis, Lamedon, Sicyon, Polybus, Adrastus, and Agamemnon, &c. and Sicyon gave his name to the Kingdom: Herodotus ^[199] saith that Apis in the Greek Tongue is Epaphus; and Hyginus, ^[200] that Epaphus the Sicyonian got Antiopa with child: but the later Greeks have made two men of the two names Apis and Epaphus or Epopeus, and between them inserted twelve feigned Kings of Sicyon, who made no wars, nor did any thing memorable, and yet Reigned five hundred and twenty years, which is, one with another, above forty and three years a-piece. If these feigned Kings be rejected, and the two Kings Apis and Epopeus be reunited; Ægialeus will become contemporary to his brother Phoroneus, as he ought to be; for Apis or Epopeus, and Nycteus the guardian of Labdacus, were slain in battle about the tenth year of Solomon, as above; and the first four Kings of Sicyon, Ægialeus, Europs, Telchin, Apis, after the rate of about twenty years to a Reign, take up about eighty years; and these years counted upwards from the tenth year of Solomon, place the beginning of the Reign of Ægialeus upon the twelfth year of Samuel, or thereabout: and about that time began the Reign of Phoroneus at Argos; Apollodorus ^[201] calls Adrastus King of Argos; but Homer ^[202] tells us, that he Reigned first at Sicyon: he was in the first war against Thebes. Some place Janiscus and Phæstus between Polybus and Adrastus, but without any certainty.

Lelex might come with his people into Laconia in the days of Eli, and leave his territories to his sons Myles, Eurotas, Cleson, and Polycaon in the days of Samuel. Myles set up a quern, or handmill to grind corn, and is reputed the first among the Greeks who did so: but he flourished before Triptolemus, and seems to have had his corn and artificers from Egypt. Eurotas the brother, or as some say the son of Myles, built Sparta, and called it after the name of his daughter Sparta, the wife of Lacedæmon, and mother of Eurydice. Cleson was the father of Pylas the father of Sciron, who married the daughter of Pandion the son of Erechtheus, and contended with Nisus the son of Pandion and brother of Ægeus, for the Kingdom; and Æacus adjudged it to Nisus. Polycaon invaded Messene, then peopled only by villages, called it Messene after the name of his wife, and built cities therein.

Cecrops came from Sais in Egypt to Cyprus, and thence into Attica: and he might do this in the days of Samuel, and marry Agraule the daughter of Actæus, and succeed him in Attica soon after, and leave his Kingdom to Cranaus in the Reign of Saul, or in the beginning of the Reign of David: for the flood of Deucalion happened in the Reign of Cranaus.

Of about the same age with Pelasgus, Inachus, Lelex, and Actæus, was Ogyges: he Reigned in Bœotia, and some of his people were Leleges: and either he or his son Eleusis built the city Eleusis in Attica, that is, they built a few houses of clay, which in time grew into a city. Acusilaus wrote that Phoroneus was older than Ogyges, and that Ogyges flourished 1020 years before the first Olympiad, as above; but Acusilaus was an Argive, and feigned these things in honour of his country: to call things Ogygian has been a phrase among the ancient Greeks, to signify that they are as old as the first memory of things; and so high we have now carried up the Chronology of the Greeks. Inachus might be as old as Ogyges, but Acusilaus and his followers made them seven hundred years older than the truth; and Chronologers, to make out this reckoning, have lengthened the races of the Kings of Argos and Sicyon, and changed several contemporary Princes of Argos into successive Kings, and inserted many feigned Kings into the race of the Kings of Sicyon.

Inachus had several sons, who Reigned in several parts of Peloponnesus, and there built Towns; as Phoroneus, who built Phoronicum, afterwards called Argos, from Argus his grandson; Ægialeus, who built Ægialea, afterwards called Sicyon, from Sicyon the grandson of Erechtheus; Phegeus, who built Phegea, afterwards called Psophis, from Psophis the daughter of Lycaon: and these were the oldest towns in Peloponnesus then Sisyphus, the son of Æolus and grandson of Hellen, built Ephyra, afterwards called Corinth; and Aëthlius, the son of Æolus, built Elis: and before them Cecrops built Cecropia, the cittadel of Athens; and Lycaon built Lycosura, reckoned by some the oldest town in Arcadia; and his sons, who were at least four and twenty in number, built each of them a town; except the youngest, called Oenotrus, who grew up after his father's death, and sailed into Italy with his people, and there set on foot the building of towns, and became the Janus of the Latines. Phoroneus had also several children and grand-children, who Reigned in several places, and built new towns, as Car, Apis, &c. and Hæmon, the son of Pelasgus, Reigned in Hæmonia, afterwards called Thessaly, and built towns there. This division and subdivision has made great confusion in the history of the first Kingdoms of Peloponnesus, and thereby given occasion to the vain-glorious Greeks, to make those kingdoms much older than they really were: but by all the reckonings abovementioned, the first civilizing of the Greeks, and teaching them to dwell in houses and towns, and the oldest towns in Europe, could scarce be above two or three Generations older than the coming of Cadmus from Zidon into Greece; and might most probably be occasioned by the expulsion of the Shepherds out of Egypt in the days of Eli and Samuel, and their flying into Greece in considerable numbers: but it's difficult to set right the Genealogies and Chronology of the Fabulous Ages of the Greeks, and I leave these things to be further examined.

Before the Phœnicians introduced the Deifying of dead men, the Greeks had a Council of Elders in every town for the government thereof, and a place where the elders and people worshipped their God with Sacrifices: and when many of those towns, for their common safety, united under a common Council, they erected a Prytaneum or Court in one of the towns, where the Council and People met at certain times, to consult their common safety, and worship their common God with sacrifices, and to buy and sell: the towns where these Councils met, the Greeks called δημοι, peoples or communities, or Corporation Towns: and at length, when many of these δημοι for their common safety united by consent under one common Council, they erected a Prytaneum in one of the δημοι for the common Council and People to meet in, and to consult and worship in, and feast, and buy, and sell; and this δημος they walled about for its safety, and called την πολιν the city: and this I take to have been the original of Villages, Market-Towns, Cities, common Councils, Vestal Temples, Feasts and Fairs, in Europe: the Prytaneum, πυρος ταμειον, was a Court with a place of worship, and a perpetual fire kept therein upon an Altar for sacrificing: from the word ‛Εστια fire, came the name Vesta, which at length the people turned into a Goddess, and so became fire-worshippers like the ancient Persians: and when these Councils made war upon their neighbours, they had a general commander to lead their armies, and he became their King.

So Thucydides ^[203] tells us, that under Cecrops and the ancient Kings, untill Theseus; Attica was always inhabited city by city, each having Magistrates and Prytanea: neither did they consult the King, when there was no fear of danger, but each apart administred their own common-wealth, and had their own Council, and even sometimes made war, as the Eleusinians with Eumolpus did against Erechtheus: but when Theseus, a prudent and potent man obtained the Kingdom, he took away the Courts and Magistrates of the other cities, and made them all meet in one Council and Prytaneum at Athens. Polemon, as he is cited by ^[204] Strabo, tells us, that in this body of Attica, there were 170 δημοι, one of which was Eleusis: and Philochorus ^[205] relates, that when Attica was infested by sea and land by the Cares and Bœoti, Cecrops the first of any man reduced the multitude, that is the 170 towns, into twelve cities, whose names were Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelia, Eleusis, Aphydna, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephissia, and Phalerus; and that Theseus contracted those twelve cities into one, which was Athens.

The original of the Kingdom of the Argives was much after the same manner: for Pausanias ^[206] tells us, that Phoroneus the son of Inachus was the first who gathered into one community the Argives, who 'till then were scattered, and lived every where apart, and the place where they were first assembled was called Phoronicum, the city of Phoroneus: and Strabo ^[207] observes, that Homer calls all the places which he reckons up in Peloponnesus, a few excepted, not cities but regions, because each of them consisted of a convention of many δημοι, free towns, out of which afterward noble cities were built and frequented: so the Argives composed Mantinæa in Arcadia out of five towns, and Tegea out of nine; and out of so many was Heræa built by Cleombrotus, or by Cleonymus: so also Ægium was built out of seven or eight towns, Patræ: out of seven, and Dyme out of eight; and so Elis was erected by the conflux of many towns into one city.

Pausanias ^[208] tells us, that the Arcadians accounted Pelasgus the first man, and that he was their first King; and taught the ignorant people to built houses, for defending themselves from heat, and cold, and rain; and to make them garments of skins; and instead of herbs and roots, which were sometimes noxious, to eat the acorns of the beech tree; and that his son Lycaon built the oldest city in all Greece: he tells us also, that in the days of Lelex the Spartans lived in villages apart. The Greeks therefore began to build houses and villages in the days of Pelasgus the father of Lycaon, and in the days of Lelex the father of Myles, and by consequence about two or three Generations before the Flood of Deucalion, and the coming of Cadmus; 'till then ^[209] they lived in woods and caves of the earth. The first houses were of clay, 'till the brothers Euryalus and Hyperbius taught them to harden the clay into bricks, and to build therewith. In the days of Ogyges, Pelasgus, Æzeus, Inachus and Lelex, they began to build houses and villages of clay, Doxius the son of Cœlus teaching them to do it; and in the days of Lycaon, Phoroneus, Ægialeus, Phegeus, Eurotas, Myles, Polycaon, and Cecrops, and their sons, to assemble the villages into δημοι, and the δημοι into cities.

When Oenotrus the son of Lycaon carried a Colony into Italy, he ^[210] found that country for the most part uninhabited; and where it was inhabited, peopled but thinly: and seizing a part of it, he built towns in the mountains, little and numerous, as above: these towns were without walls; but after this Colony grew numerous, and began to want room, they expelled the Siculi, compassed many cities with walls, and became possest of all the territory between the two rivers Liris and Tibre: and it is to be understood that those cities had their Councils and Prytanea after the manner of the Greeks: for Dionysius ^[211] tells us, that the new Kingdom of Rome, as Romulus left it, consisted of thirty Courts or Councils, in thirty towns, each with the sacred fire kept in the Prytaneum of the Court, for the Senators who met there to perform Sacred Rites, after the manner of the Greeks: but when Numa the successor of Romulus Reigned, he leaving the several fires in their own Courts, instituted one common to them all at Rome: whence Rome was not a compleat city before the days of Numa.

When navigation was so far improved that the Phœnicians began to leave the sea-shore, and sail through the Mediterranean by the help of the stars, it may be presumed that they began to discover the islands of the Mediterranean, and for the sake of trafic to sail as far as Greece: and this was not long before they carried away Io the daughter of Inachus, from Argos. The Cares first infested the Greek seas with piracy, and then Minos the son of Europa got up a potent fleet, and sent out Colonies: for Diodorus ^[212] tells us, that the Cyclades islands, those near Crete, were at first desolate and uninhabited; but Minos having a potent fleet, sent many Colonies out of Crete, and peopled many of them; and particularly that the island Carpathus was first seized by the soldiers of Minos: Syme lay waste and desolate 'till Triops came thither with a Colony under Chthonius: Strongyle or Naxus was first inhabited by the Thracians in the days of Boreas, a little before the Argonautic Expedition: Samsos was, at first desert, and inhabited only by a great multitude of terrible wild beasts, 'till Macareus peopled it, as he did also the islands Chius and Cos. Lesbos lay waste and desolate 'till Xanthus sailed thither with a Colony: Tenedos lay desolate 'till Tennes, a little before the Trojan war, sailed thither from Troas. Aristæus, who married Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus, carried a Colony from Thebes into Cæa, an island not inhabited before: the island Rhodes was at first called Ophiusa, being full of serpents, before Phorbas, a Prince of Argos, went thither, and made it habitable by destroying the serpents, which was about the end of Solomon's Reign; in memory of which he is delineated in the heavens in the Constellation of Ophiuchus. The discovery of this and some other islands made a report that they rose out of the Sea: in Asia Delos emersit, & Hiera, & Anaphe, & Rhodus, saith ^[213] Ammianus: and ^[214] Pliny; claræ jampridem insulæ, Delos & Rhodos memoriæ produntur enatæ, postea minores, ultra Melon Anaphe, inter Lemnum & Hellespontum Nea, inter Lebedum & Teon Halone, &c.

Diodorus ^[215] tells us also, that the seven islands called Æolides, between Italy and Sicily, were desert and uninhabited 'till Lipparus and Æolus, a little before the Trojan war, went thither from Italy, and peopled them: and that Malta and Gaulus or Gaudus on the other side of Sicily, were first peopled by Phœnicians; and so was Madera without the Straits: and Homer writes that Ulysses found the Island Ogygia covered with wood, and uninhabited, except by Calypso and her maids, who lived in a cave without houses; and it is not likely that Great Britain and Ireland could be peopled before navigation was propagated beyond the Straits.

The Sicaneans were reputed the first inhabitants of Sicily, they built little Villages or Towns upon hills, and every Town had its own King; and by this means they spread over the country, before they formed themselves into larger governments with a common King: Philistus ^[216] saith that they were transplanted into Sicily from the River Sicanus in Spain; and Dionysius ^[217], that they were a Spanish people who fled from the Ligures in Italy; he means the Ligures ^[218] who opposed Hercules when he returned from his expedition against Geryon in Spain, and endeavoured to pass the Alps out of Gaul into Italy. Hercules that year got into Italy, and made some conquests there, and founded the city Croton; and ^[219] after winter, upon the arrival of his fleet from Erythra in Spain, sailed to Sicily, and there left the Sicani: for it was his custom to recruit his army with conquered people, and after they had assisted him in making new conquests to reward them with new seats: this was the Egyptian Hercules, who had a potent fleet, and in the days of Solomon sailed to the Straits, and according to his custom set up pillars there, and conquered Geryon, and returned back by Italy and Sicily to Egypt, and was by the ancient Gauls called Ogmius, and by Egyptians ^[220] Nilus: for Erythra and the country of Geryon were without the Straits. Dionysius ^[221] represents this Hercules contemporary to Evander.

The first inhabitants of Crete, according to Diodorus ^[222] were called Eteocretans; but whence they were, and how they came thither, is not said in history: then sailed thither a Colony of Pelasgians from Greece; and soon after Teutamus, the grandfather of Minos, carried thither a Colony of Dorians from Laconia, and from the territory of Olympia in Peloponnesus: and these several Colonies spake several languages, and fed on the spontaeous fruits of the earth, and lived quietly in caves and huts, 'till the invention of iron tools, in the days of Asterius the son of Teutamus; and at length were reduced into one Kingdom, and one People, by Minos, who was their first law-giver, and built many towns and ships, and introduced plowing and sowing, and in whose days the Curetes conquered his father's friends in Crete and Peloponnesus. The Curetes ^[223] sacrificed children to Saturn and according to Bochart ^[224] were Philistims; and Eusebius faith that Crete had its name from Cres, one of the Curetes who nursed up Jupiter: but whatever was the original of the island, it seems to have been peopled by Colonies which spake different languages, 'till the days of Asterius and Minos; and might come thither two or three Generations before, and not above, for want of navigation in those seas.

The island Cyprus was discovered by the Phœnicians not long before; for Eratosthenes ^[225] tells us, that Cyprus was at first so overgrown with wood that it could not be tilled, and that they first cut down the wood for the melting of copper and silver, and afterwards when they began to sail safely upon the Mediterranean, that is, presently after the Trojan war, they built ships and even navies of it: and when they could not thus destroy the wood, they gave every man leave to cut down what wood he pleased, and to possess all the ground which he cleared of wood. So also Europe at first abounded very much with woods, one of which, called the Hercinian, took up a great part of Germany, being full nine days journey broad, and above forty long, in Julius Cæsar's days: and yet the Europeans had been cutting down their woods, to make room for mankind, ever since the invention of iron tools, in the days of Asterius and Minos.

All these footsteps there are of the first peopling of Europe, and its Islands, by sea; before those days it seems to have been thinly peopled from the northern coast of the Euxine-sea by Scythians descended from Japhet, who wandered without houses, and sheltered themselves from rain and wild beasts in thickets and caves of the earth; such as were the caves in mount Ida in Crete, in which Minos was educated and buried; the cave of Cacus, and the Catacombs in Italy near Rome and Naples, afterwards turned into burying-places; the Syringes and many other caves in the sides of the mountains of Egypt; the caves of the Troglodites between Egypt and the Red Sea, and those of the Phaurusii in Afric, mentioned by ^[226] Strabo; and the caves, and thickets, and rocks, and high places, and pits, in which the Israelites hid themselves from the Philistims in the days of Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 6. But of the state of mankind in Europe in those days there is now no history remaining.

The antiquities of Libya were not much older than those of Europe; for Diodorus ^[227] tells us, that Uranus the father of Hyperion, and grandfather of Helius and Selene, that is Ammon the father of Sesac, was their first common King, and caused the people, who 'till then wandered up and down, to dwell in towns: and Herodotus ^[228] tells us, that all Media was peopled by δημοι, towns without walls, 'till they revolted from the Assyrians, which was about 267 years after the death of Solomon: and that after that revolt they set up a King over them, and built Ecbatane with walls for his seat, the first town which they walled about; and about 72 years after the death of Solomon, Benhadad King of Syria ^[229] had two and thirty Kings in his army against Ahab: and when Joshuah conquered the land of Canaan, every city of the Canaanites had its own King, like the cities of Europe, before they conquered one another; and one of those Kings, Adonibezek, the King of Bezek had conquered seventy other Kings a little before, Judg. i. 7. and therefore towns began to be built in that land not many ages before the days of Joshuah: for the Patriarchs wandred there in tents, and fed their flocks where-ever they pleased, the fields of Phœnicia not being yet fully appropriated, for want of people. The countries first inhabited by mankind, were in those days so thinly peopled, that ^[230] four Kings from the coasts of Shinar and Elam invaded and spoiled the Rephaims, and the inhabitants of the countries of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and the Kingdoms of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim; and yet were pursued and beaten by Abraham with an armed force of only 318 men, the whole force which Abraham and the princes with him could raise: and Egypt was so thinly peopled before the birth of Moses, that Pharaoh said of the Israelites; ^[231] behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: and to prevent their multiplying and growing too strong, he caused their male children to be drowned.

These footsteps there are of the first peopling of the earth by mankind, not long before the days of Abraham; and of the overspreading it with villages, towns and cities, and their growing into Kingdoms, first Smaller and then greater, until the rise of the Monarchies of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, and Rome, the first great Empires on this side India. Abraham was the fifth from Peleg, and all mankind lived together in Chaldea under the Government of Noah and his sons, untill the days of Peleg: so long they were of one language, one society, and one religion: and then they divided the earth, being perhaps, disturbed by the rebellion of Nimrod, and forced to leave off building the tower of Babel: and from thence they spread themselves into the several countries which fell to their shares, carrying along with them the laws, customs and religion, under which they had 'till those days been educated and governed, by Noah, and his sons and grandsons: and these laws were handed down to Abraham, Melchizedek, and Job, and their contemporaries, and for some time were observed by the judges of the eastern countries: so Job ^[232] tells us, that adultery was an heinous crime, yea an iniquity to be punished by the judges: and of idolatry he ^[233] saith, If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly inticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above: and there being no dispute between Job and his friends about these matters, it may be presumed that they also with their countrymen were of the same religion. Melchizedek was a Priest of the most high God, and Abraham voluntarily paid tythes to him; which he would scarce have done had they not been of one and the same religion. The first inhabitants of the land of Canaan seem also to have been originally of the same religion, and to have continued in it 'till the death of Noah, and the days of Abraham; for Jerusalem was anciently ^[234] called Jebus, and its people Jebusites, and Melchizedek was their Priest and King: these nations revolted therefore after the days of Melchizedek to the worship of false Gods; as did also the posterity of Ismael, Esau, Moab, Ammon, and that of Abraham by Keturah: and the Israelites themselves were very apt to revolt: and one reason why Terah went from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran in his way to the land of Canaan; and why Abraham afterward left Haran, and went into the land of Canaan, might be to avoid the worship of false Gods, which in their days began in Chaldea, and spread every way from thence; but did not yet reach into the land of Canaan. Several of the laws and precepts in which this primitive religion consisted are mentioned in the book of Job, chap. i. ver. 5, and chap, xxxi, viz. not to blaspheme God, nor to worship the Sun or Moon, nor to kill, nor steal, nor to commit adultery, nor trust in riches, nor oppress the poor or fatherless, nor curse your enemies, nor rejoyce at their misfortunes: but to be friendly, and hospitable and merciful, and to relieve the poor and needy, and to set up Judges. This was the morality and religion of the first ages, still called by the Jews, The precepts of the sons of Noah: this was the religion of Moses and the Prophets, comprehended in the two great commandments, of loving the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind, and our neighbour as our selves: this was the religion enjoyned by Moses to the uncircumcised stranger within the gates of Israel, as well as to the Israelites: and this is the primitive religion of both Jews and Christians, and ought to be the standing religion of all nations, it being for the honour of God, and good of mankind: and Moses adds the precept of being merciful even to brute beasts, so as not to suck out their blood, nor to cut off their flesh alive with the blood in it, nor to kill them for the sake of their blood, nor to strangle them; but in killing them for food, to let out their blood and spill it upon the ground, Gen. ix. 4, and Levit. xvii. 12, 13. This law was ancienter than the days of Moses, being given to Noah and his sons long before the days of Abraham: and therefore when the Apostles and Elders in the Council at Jerusalem declared that the Gentiles were not obliged to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, they excepted this law of abstaining from blood, and things strangled as being an earlier law of God, imposed not on the sons of Abraham only, but on all nations, while they lived together in Shinar under the dominion of Noah: and of the same kind is the law of abstaining from meats offered to Idols or false Gods, and from fornication. So then, the believing that the world was framed by one supreme God, and is governed by him; and the loving and worshipping him, and honouring our parents, and loving our neighbour as our selves, and being merciful even to brute beasts, is the oldest of all religions: and the Original of letters, agriculture, navigation, music, arts and sciences, metals, smiths and carpenters, towns and houses, was not older in Europe than the days of Eli, Samuel and David; and before those days the earth was so thinly peopled, and so overgrown with woods, that mankind could not be much older than is represented in Scripture.

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CHAP. II

Of the Empire of Egypt.

The Egyptians anciently boasted of a very great and lasting Empire under their Kings Ammon, Osiris, Bacchus, Sesostris, Hercules, Memnon, &c. reaching eastward to the Indies, and westward to the Atlantic Ocean; and out of vanity have made this monarchy some thousands of years older than the world: let us now try to rectify the Chronology of Egypt; by comparing the affairs of Egypt with the synchronizing affairs of the Greeks and Hebrews.

Bacchus the conqueror loved two women, Venus and Ariadne: Venus was the mistress of Anchises and Cinyras, and mother of Æneas, who all lived 'till the destruction of Troy; and the sons of Bacchus and Ariadne were Argonauts; as above: and therefore the great Bacchus flourished but one Generation before the Argonautic expedition. This Bacchus ^[235] was potent at sea, conquered eastward as far as India returned in triumph, brought his army over the Hellespont; conquered Thrace, left music, dancing and poetry there; killed Lycurgus King of Thrace, and Pentheus the grandson of Cadmus; gave the Kingdom of Lycurgus to Tharops; and one of his minstrells, called by the Greeks Calliope, to Oeagrus the son of Tharops; and of Oeagrus and Calliope was born Orpheus, who sailed with the Argonauts: this Bacchus was therefore contemporary to Sesostris; and both being Kings of Egypt, and potent at sea, and great conquerors, and carrying on their conquests into India and Thrace, they must be one and the same man.

The antient Greeks, who made the fables of the Gods, related that Io the daughter of Inachus was carried into Egypt; and there became the Egyptian Isis; and that Apis the son of Phoroneus after death became the God Serapis; and some said that Epaphus was the son of Io: Serapis and Epaphus are Osiris, and therefore Isis and Osiris, in the opinion of the ancient Greeks who made the fables of the Gods, were not above two or three Generations older than the Argonautic expedition. Dicæarchus, as he is cited by the scholiast upon Apollonius, ^[236] represents them two Generations older than Sesostris, saying that after Orus the son of Osiris and Isis, Reigned Sesonchosis. He seems to have followed the opinion of the people of Naxus, who made Bacchus two Generations older than Theseus, and for that end feigned two Minos's and two Ariadnes; for by the consent of all antiquity Osiris and Bacchus were one and the same King of Egypt: this is affirmed by the Egyptians, as well as by the Greeks; and some of the antient Mythologists, as Eumolpus and Orpheus, ^[237] called Osiris by the names of Dionysus and Sirius. Osiris was King of all Egypt, and a great conqueror, and came over the Hellespont in the days of Triptolemus, and subdued Thrace, and there killed Lycurgus; and therefore his expedition falls in with that of the great Bacchus. Osiris, Bacchus and Sesostris lived about the same time, and by the relation of historians were all of them Kings of all Egypt, and Reigned at Thebes, and adorned that city, and were very potent by land and sea: all three were great conquerors, and carried on their conquests by land through Asia as far as India: all three came over the Hellespont and were there in danger of losing their army: all three conquered Thrace, and there put a stop to their victories, and returned back from thence into Egypt: all three left pillars with inscriptions in their conquests: and therefore all three must be one and the same King of Egypt; and this King can be no other than Sesac. All Egypt, including Thebais, Ethiopia and Libya, had no common King before the expulsion of the Shepherds who Reigned in the lower Egypt; no Conqueror of Syria, India, Asia minor and Thrace, before Sesac; and the sacred history admits of no Egyptian conqueror of Palestine before this King.

Thymætes ^[238] who was contemporary to Orpheus, and wrote a poesy called Phrygia, of the actions of Bacchus in very old language and character, said that Bacchus had Libyan women in his army, amongst whom was Minerva a woman born in Libya, near the river Triton, and that Bacchus commanded the men and Minerva the women. Diodorus ^[239] calls her Myrina, and saith that she was Queen of the Amazons in Libya, and there conquered the Atlantides and Gorgons, and then made a league with Orus the son of Isis, sent to her by his father Osiris or Bacchus for that purpose, and passing through Egypt subdued the Arabians, and Syria and Cilicia, and came through Phrygia, viz. in the army of Bacchus to the Mediterranean; but palling over into Europe, was slain with many of her women by the Thracians and Scythians, under the conduct of Sipylus a Scythian, and Mopsus a Thracian whom Lycurgus King of Thrace had banished. This was that Lycurgus who opposed the passage of Bacchus over the Hellespont, and was soon after conquered by him, and slain: but afterwards Bacchus met with a repulse from the Greeks, under the conduct of Perseus, who slew many of his women, as Pausanias ^[240] relates, and was assisted by the Scythians and Thracians under the conduct of Sipylus and Mopsus; which repulses, together with a revolt of his brother Danaus in Egypt; put a stop to his victories: and in returning home he left part of his men in Colchis and at Mount Caucasus, under Æetes and Prometheus; and his women upon the river Thermodon near Colchis, under their new Queens Marthesia and Lampeto: for Diodorus ^[241] speaking of the Amazons who were seated at Thermodon, saith, that they dwelt originally in Libya, and there Reigned over the Atlantides, and invading their neighbours conquered as far as Europe: and Ammianus, ^[242] that the ancient Amazons breaking through many nations, attack'd the Athenians, and there receiving a great slaughter retired to Thermodon: and Justin, ^[243] that these Amazons had at first, he means at their first coming to Thermodon, two Queens who called themselves daughters of Mars; and that they conquered part of Europe, and some cities of Asia, viz. in the Reign of Minerva, and then sent back part of their army with a great booty, under their said new Queens; and that Marthesia being afterwards slain, was succeeded by her daughter Orithya, and she by Penthesilea; and that Theseus captivated and married Antiope the sister of Orithya. Hercules made war upon the Amazons, and in the Reign of Orithya and Penthesilea they came to the Trojan war: whence the first wars of the Amazons in Europe and Asia, and their settling at Thermodon, were but one Generation before those actions of Hercules and Theseus, and but two before the Trojan war, and so fell in with the expedition of Sesostris: and since they warred in the days of Isis and her son Orus, and were a part of the army of Bacchus or Osiris, we have here a further argument for making Osiris and Bacchus contemporary to Sesostris, and all three one and the same King with Sesac.

The Greeks reckon Osiris and Bacchus to be sons of Jupiter, and the Egyptian name of Jupiter is Ammon. Manetho in his 11th and 12th Dynasties, as he is cited by Africanus and Eusebius names these four Kings of Egypt, as reigning in order; Ammenemes, Gesongeses or Sesonchoris the son of Ammenemes, Ammenemes who was slain by his Eunuchs, and Sesostris who subdued all Asia and part of Europe. Gesongeses and Sesonchoris are corruptly written for Sesonchosis; and the two first of these four Kings, Ammenemes and Sesonchosis, are the same with the two last, Ammenemes and Sesostris, that is, with Ammon and Sesac; for Diodorus saith ^[244] that Osiris built in Thebes a magnificent temple to his parents Jupiter and Juno, and two other temples to Jupiter, a larger to Jupiter Uranius, and a less to his father Jupiter Ammon who reigned in that city: and ^[245] Thymætes abovementioned, who was contemporary to Orpheus, wrote expresly that the father of Bacchus was Ammon, a King Reigning over part of Libya, that is, a King of Egypt Reigning over all that part of Libya, anciently called Ammonia. Stephanus ^[246] saith Πασα ‛η Λιβυη ‛ουτως εκαλειτο απο Αμμωνος· All Libya was anciently called Ammonia from Ammon: this is that King of Egypt from whom Thebes was called No-Ammon, and Ammon-no the city of Ammon, and by the Greeks Diospolis, the city of Jupiter Ammon: Sesostris built it sumptuously, and called it by his father's name, and from the same King the ^[247] River called Ammon, the people called Ammonii, and the ^[248] promontory Ammonium in Arabia fælix had their names.

The lower part of Egypt being yearly overflowed by the Nile, was scarce inhabited before the invention of corn, which made it useful: and the King, who by this invention first peopled it and Reigned over it, perhaps the King of the city Mesir where Memphis was afterwards built, seems to have been worshipped by his subjects after death, in the ox or calf, for this benefaction: for this city stood in the most convenient place to people the lower Egypt, and from its being composed of two parts seated on each side of the river Nile, might give the name of Mizraim to its founder and people; unless you had rather refer the word to the double people, those above the Delta, and those within it: and this I take to be the state of the lower Egypt, 'till the Shepherds or Phœnicians who fled from Joshuah conquered it, and being afterwards conquered by the Ethiopians, fled into Afric and other places: for there was a tradition that some of them fled into Afric; and St. Austin ^[249] confirms this, by telling us that the common people of Afric being asked who they were, replied Chanani, that is, Canaanites. Interrogati rustici nostri, saith he, quid sint, Punice respondentes Chanani, corrupta scilicet voce sicut in talibus solet, quid aliud respondent quam Chanaanæi? Procopius also ^[250] tells us of two pillars in the west of Afric, with inscriptions signifying that the people were Canaanites who fled from Joshuah: and Eusebius ^[251] tells us, that these Canaanites flying from the sons of Israel, built Tripolis in Afric; and the Jerusalem Gemara, ^[252] that the Gergesites fled from Joshua, going into Afric: and Procopius relates their flight in this manner. Επει δε ‛ημας ‛ο της ‛ιστοριας λογος ενταυθ' ηγαγεν. επαναγκες ειπειν ανωθεν, ‛οθεν τε τα Μαυρουσιων εθνη ες Λιβυην ηλθε, και ‛οπως ωικησαντο. Επειδη ‛Εβραιοι εξ Αιγυπτου ανεχωρησαν, και αγχι των Παλαιστινης ‛οριων εγενοντο· Μωσης μεν σοφος ανηρ, ‛ος αυτος της ‛οδου ‛ηγησατο, θνησκει. διαδεχεται δε την ‛ηγεμονιαν Ιησους ‛ο του Ναυη παις· ‛ος ες τε την Παλαιστινην τον λεων τουτον εισηγαγε· και αρετην εν τωι πολεμωι κρεισσω ‛η κατα ανθρωπου φυσιν επιδειξαμενος, την χωραν εσχε· και τα εθνη ‛απαντα καταστρεψαμενος, τας πολεις ευπετως παρεστησατο, ανικητος τε πανταπασιν εδοξεν ειναι. τοτε δε ‛η επιθαλασσια χωρα, εκ Σιδωνος μεχρι των Αιγυπτου ‛οριων, Φοινικη ξυμπασα ωνομαζετο. βασιλευς δε εις το παλαιον εφεστηκει· ‛ωσπερ ‛απασιν ‛ωμολογηται, ‛οι Φοινικων τα αρχαιοτατα ανεγραψαντο. ενταυθ' ωκηντο εθνη πολυανθρωποτατα, Γεργεσαιοι τε και Ιεβουσαιοι, και αλλα αττα ονοματα εχοντα, ‛οις δη αυτα ‛η των ‛Εβραιων ‛ιστορια καλει. ‛ουτος ‛ο λαος επει αμαχον τι χρημα τον επηλυτην στρατηγον ειδον· εξ ηθων των πατριων εξανασταντες, επ' Αιγυπτον ‛ομορου ουσης εχωρησαν. ενθα χωρον ουδενα σφισιν ‛ικανον ενοικησασθαι ‛ευροντες, επει εν Αιγυπτω πολυανθρωπια εκ παλαιου ην· ες Λιβυην μεχρι στηλων των ‛Ηρακλεους εσχον· ενταυθα τε και ες εμε τηι Φοινικων φωνηι χρωμενοι ωικηνται. Quando ad Mauros nos historia deduxit, congruens nos exponere unde orta gens in Africa sedes fixerit. Quo tempore egressi Ægypto Hebræi jam prope Palestinæ fines venerant, mortuus ibi Moses, vir sapiens, dux itineris. Successor imperii factus Jesus Navæ filius intra Palæstinam duxit popularium agmen; & virtute usus supra humanum modum, terram occupavit, gentibusque excisis urbes ditionis suæ fecit, & invicti famam tulit. Maritima ora quæ a Sidone ad Ægypti limitem extenditur, nomen habet Phœnices. Rex unus [Hebræis] imperabat ut omnes qui res Phœnicias scripsere consentiunt. In eo tractatu numerosæ gentes erant, Gergesæi, Jebusæi, quosque aliis nominibus Hebræorum annales memorant. Hi homines ut impares se venienti imperatori videre, derelicto patriæ solo ad finitimam primum venere Ægyptum, sed ibi capacem tantæ multitudinis locum non reperientes, erat enim Ægyptus ab antiquo fœcunda populis, in Africam profecti, multis conditis urbibus, omnem eam Herculis columnas usque, obtinuerunt: ubi ad meam ætatem sermone Phœnicio utentes habitant. By the language and extreme poverty of the Moors, described also by Procopius and by their being unacquainted with merchandise and sea-affairs, you may know that they were Canaanites originally, and peopled Afric before the Tyrian merchants came thither. These Canaanites coming from the East, pitched their tents in great numbers in the lower Egypt, in the Reign of Timaus, as ^[253] Manetho writes, and easily seized the country, and fortifying Pelusium, then called Abaris, they erected a Kingdom there, and Reigned long under their own Kings, Salatis, Bœon, Apachnas, Apophis, Janias, Assis, and others successively: and in the mean time the upper part of Egypt called Thebais, and according to ^[254] Herodotus, Ægyptus, and in Scripture the land of Pathros, was under other Kings, Reigning perhaps at Coptos, and Thebes, and This, and Syene, and ^[255] Pathros, and Elephantis, and Heracleopolis, and Mesir, and other great cities, 'till they conquered one another, or were conquered by the Ethiopians: for cities grew great in those days, by being the seats of Kingdoms: but at length one of these Kingdoms conquered the rest, and made a lasting war upon the Shepherds, and in the Reign of its King Misphragmuthosis, and his son Amosis, called also Tethmosis, Tuthmosis, and Thomosis, drove them out of Egypt, and made them fly into Afric and Syria, and other places, and united all Egypt into one Monarchy; and under their next Kings, Ammon and Sesac, enlarged it into a great Empire. This conquering people worshipped not the Kings of the Shepherds whom they conquered and expelled, but ^[256] abolished their religion of sacrificing men, and after the manner of those ages Deified their own Kings, who founded their new Dominion, beginning the history of their Empire with the Reign and great acts of their Gods and Heroes: whence their Gods Ammon and Rhea, or Uranus and Titæa; Osiris and Isis; Orus and Bubaste: and their Secretary Thoth, and Generals Hercules and Pan; and Admiral Japetus, Neptune, or Typhon; were all of them Thebans, and flourished after the expulsion of the Shepherds. Homer places Thebes in Ethiopia, and the Ethiopians reported that ^[257] the Egyptians were a colony drawn out of them by Osiris, and that thence it came to pass that most of the laws of Egypt were the same with those of Ethiopia, and that the Egyptians learnt from the Ethiopians the custom of Deifying their Kings.

When Joseph entertained his brethren in Egypt, they did eat at a table by themselves, and he did eat at another table by himself; and the Egyptians who did eat with him were at another table, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that was an abomination to the Egyptians, Gen. xliii. 32. These Egyptians who did eat with Joseph were of the Court of Pharaoh; and therefore Pharaoh and his Court were at this time not Shepherds but genuine Egyptians; and these Egyptians abominated eating bread with the Hebrews, at one and the same table: and of these Egyptians and their fellow-subjects, it is said a little after, that every Shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians: Egypt at this time was therefore under the government of the genuine Egyptians, and not under that of the Shepherds.

After the descent of Jacob and his sons into Egypt, Joseph lived 70 years, and so long continued in favour with the Kings of Egypt: and 64 years after his death Moses was born: and between the death of Joseph and the birth of Moses, there arose up a new King over Egypt, which knew not Joseph, Exod. i. 8. But this King of Egypt was not one of the Shepherds; for he is called Pharaoh, Exod. i. 11, 22: and Moses told his successor, that if the people of Israel should sacrifice in the land of Egypt, they should sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and the Egyptians would stone them, Exod. viii. 26. that is, they should sacrifice sheep or oxen, contrary to the religion of Egypt. The Shepherds therefore did not Reign over Egypt while Israel was there, but either were driven out of Egypt before Israel went down thither, or did not enter into Egypt 'till after Moses had brought Israel from thence: and the latter must be true, if they were driven out of Egypt a little before the building of the temple of Solomon, as Manetho affirms.

Diodorus ^[258] saith in his 40th book, that in Egypt there were formerly multitudes of strangers of several nations, who used foreign rites and ceremonies in worshipping the Gods, for which they were expelled Egypt; and under Danaus, Cadmus, and other skilful commanders, after great hardships, came into Greece, and other places; but the greatest part of them came into Judæa, not far from Egypt, a country then uninhabited and desert, being conducted thither by one Moses, a wise and valiant man, who after he had possest himself of the country, among other things built Jerusalem, and the Temple. Diodorus here mistakes the original of the Israelites, as Manetho had done before, confounding their flight into the wilderness under the conduct of Moses, with the flight of the Shepherds from Misphragmuthosis, and his son Amosis, into Phœnicia and Afric; and not knowing that Judæa was inhabited by Canaanites, before the Israelites under Moses came thither: but however, he lets us know that the Shepherds were expelled Egypt by Amosis, a little before the building of Jerusalem and the Temple, and that after several hardships several of them came into Greece, and other places, under the conduct of Cadmus, and other Captains, but the most of them Settled in Phœnicia next Egypt. We may reckon therefore that the expulsion of the Shepherds by the Kings of Thebais, was the occasion that the Philistims were so numerous in the days of Saul; and that so many men came in those times with colonies out of Egypt and Phœnicia into Greece; as Lelex, Inachus, Pelasgus, Æzeus, Cecrops, Ægialeus, Cadmus, Phœnix, Membliarius, Alymnus, Abas, Erechtheus, Peteos, Phorbas, in the days of Eli, Samuel, Saul and David: some of them fled in the days of Eli, from Misphragmuthosis, who conquered part of the lower Egypt; others retired from his Successor Amosis into Phœnicia, and Arabia Petræa, and there mixed with the old inhabitants; who not long after being conquered by David, fled from him and the Philistims by sea, under the conduct of Cadmus and other Captains, into Asia Minor, Greece, and Libya, to seek new seats, and there built towns, erected Kingdoms, and set on foot the worship of the dead: and some of those who remained in Judæa might assist David and Solomon, in building Jerusalem and the Temple. Among the foreign rites used by the strangers in Egypt, in worshipping the Gods, was the sacrificing of men; for Amosis abolished that custom at Heliopolis: and therefore those strangers were Canaanites, such as fled from Joshua; for the Canaanites gave their seed, that is, their children, to Moloch, and burnt their sons and their daughters in the fire to their Gods, Deut. xii. 31. Manetho calls them Phœnician strangers.

After Amosis had expelled the Shepherds, and extended his dominion over all Egypt, his son and Successor Ammenemes or Ammon, by much greater conquests laid the foundation of the Egyptian Empire: for by the assistance of his young son Sesostris, whom he brought up to hunting and other laborious exercises, he conquered Arabia, Troglodytica, and Libya: and from him all Libya was anciently called Ammonia: and after his death, in the temples erected to him at Thebes, and in Ammonia and at Meroe in Ethiopia, they set up Oracles to him, and made the people worship him as the God that acted in them: and these are the oldest Oracles mentioned in history; the Greeks therein imitating the Egyptians: for the ^[259] Oracle at Dodona was the oldest in Greece, and was set up by an Egyptian woman, after the example of the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon at Thebes.

In the days of Ammon a body of the Edomites fled from David into Egypt, with their young King Hadad, as above; and carried thither their skill in navigation: and this seems to have given occasion to the Egyptians to build a fleet on the Red Sea near Coptos, and might ingratiate Hadad with Pharaoh: for the Midianites and Ishmaelites, who bordered upon the Red Sea, near Mount Horeb on the south-side of Edom, were merchants from the days of Jacob the Patriarch, Gen. xxxvii. 28, 36. and by their merchandise the Midianites abounded with gold in the days of Moses, Numb. xxxi. 50, 51, 52. and in the days of the judges of Israel, because they were Ishmaelites, Judg. viii 24. The Ishmaelites therefore in those days grew rich by merchandise; they carried their merchandise on camels through Petra to Rhinocolura, and thence to Egypt: and this trafic at length came into the hands of David, by his conquering the Edomites, and gaining the ports of the Red Sea called Eloth and Ezion-Geber, as may be understood by the 3000 talents of gold of Ophir, which David gave to the Temple, 1 Chron. xxix. 4. The Egyptians having the art of making linen-cloth, they began about this time to build long Ships with sails, in their port on those Seas near Coptos, and having learnt the skill of the Edomites, they began now to observe the positions of the Stars, and the length of the Solar Year, for enabling them to know the position of the Stars at any time, and to sail by them at all times, without sight of the shoar: and this gave a beginning to Astronomy and Navigation: for hitherto they had gone only by the shoar with oars, in round vessels of burden, first invented on that shallow sea by the posterity of Abraham, and in passing from island to island guided themselves by the sight of the islands in the day time, or by the sight of some of the Stars in the night. Their old year was the Lunisolar year, derived from Noah to all his posterity, 'till those days, and consisted of twelve months, each of thirty days, according to their calendar: and to the end of this calendar-year they now added five days, and thereby made up the Solar year of twelve months and five days, or 365 days.

The ancient Egyptians feigned ^[260] that Rhea lay secretly with Saturn, and Sol prayed that she might bring forth neither in any month, nor in the year; and that Mercury playing at dice with Luna, overcame, and took from the Lunar year the 72d part of every day, and thereof composed five days, and added them to the year of 360 days, that she might bring forth in them; and that the Egyptians celebrated those days as the birth-days of Rhea's five children, Osiris, Orus senior, Typhon, Isis, and Nephthe the wife of Typhon: and therefore, according to the opinion of the ancient Egyptians, the five days were added to the Lunisolar calendar-year, in the Reign of Saturn and Rhea, the parents of Osiris, Isis, and Typhon; that is, in the Reign of Ammon and Titæa, the parents of the Titans; or in the latter half of the Reign of David, when those Titans were born, and by consequence soon after the flight of the Edomites from David into Egypt: but the Solstices not being yet settled, the beginning of this new year might not be fixed to the Vernal Equinox before the Reign of Amenophis the successor of Orus junior, the Son of Osiris and Isis.

When the Edomites fled from David with their young King Hadad into Egypt, it is probable that they carried thither also the use of letters: for letters were then in use among the posterity of Abraham in Arabia Petræa, and upon the borders of the Red Sea, the Law being written there by Moses in a book, and in tables of stone, long before: for Moses marrying the daughter of the prince of Midian, and dwelling with him forty years, learnt them among the Midianites: and Job, who lived ^[261] among their neighbours the Edomites, mentions the writing down or words, as there in use in his days, Job. xix. 23, 24. and there is no instance of letters for writing down sounds, being in use before the days of David, in any other nation besides the posterity of Abraham. The Egyptians ascribed this invention to Thoth, the secretary of Osiris; and therefore Letters began to be in use in Egypt in the days of Thoth, that is, a little after the flight of the Edomites from David, or about the time that Cadmus brought them into Europe.

Helladius ^[262] tells us, that a man called Oes, who appeared in the Red Sea with the tail of a fish, so they painted a sea-man, taught Astronomy and Letters: and Hyginus, ^[263] that Euhadnes, who came out of the Sea in Chaldæa, taught the Chaldæans Astrology the first of any man; he means Astronomy: and Alexander Polyhistor ^[264] tells us from Berosus, that Oannes taught the Chaldæans Letters, Mathematicks, Arts, Agriculture, Cohabitation in Cities, and the Construction of Temples; and that several such men came thither successively. Oes, Euhadnes, and Oannes, seem to be the same name a little varied by corruption; and this name seems to have been given in common to several sea-men, who came thither from time to time, and by consequence were merchants, and frequented those seas with their merchandise, or else fled from their enemies: so that Letters, Astronomy, Architecture and Agriculture, came into Chaldæa by sea, and were carried thither by sea-men, who frequented the Persian Gulph, and came thither from time to time, after all those things were practised in other countries whence they came, and by consequence in the days of Ammon and Sesac, David and Solomon, and their successors, or not long before. The Chaldæans indeed made Oannes older than the flood of Xisuthrus, but the Egyptians made Osiris as old, and I make them contemporary.

The Red Sea had its name not from its colour, but from Edom and Erythra, the names of Esau, which signify that colour: and some ^[265] tell us, that King Erythra, meaning Esau, invented the vessels, rates, in which they navigated that Sea, and was buried in an island thereof near the Persian Gulph: whence it follows, that the Edomites navigated that Sea from the days of Esau; and there is no need that the oldest Oannes should be older. There were boats upon rivers before, such as were the boats which carried the Patriarchs over Euphrates and Jordan, and the first nations over many other rivers, for peopling the earth, seeking new seats, and invading one another's territories: and after the example of such vessels, Ishhmael and Midian the sons of Abraham, and Esau his grandson, might build larger vessels to go to the islands upon the Red Sea, in searching for new seats, and by degrees learn to navigate that sea, as far as to the Persian Gulph: for ships were as old, even upon the Mediterranean, as the days of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 13. Judg. v. 17. but it is probable that the merchants of that sea were not forward to discover their Arts and Sciences, upon which their trade depended: it seems therefore that Letters and Astronomy, and the trade of Carpenters, were invented by the merchants of the Red Sea, for writing down their merchandise, and keeping their accounts, and guiding their ships in the night by the Stars, and building ships; and that they were propagated from Arabia Petræa into Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Asia minor, and Europe, much about one and the same time; the time in which David conquered and dispersed those merchants: for we hear nothing of Letters before the days of David, except among the posterity of Abraham; nothing of Astronomy, before the Egyptians under Ammon and Sesac applied themselves to that study, except the Constellations mentioned by Job, who lived in Arabia Petræa among the merchants; nothing of the trade of Carpenters, or good Architecture, before Solomon sent to Hiram King of Tyre, to supply him with such Artificers, saying that there were none in Israel who could skill to hew timber like the Zidonians.

Diodorus ^[266] tells us, that the Egyptians sent many colonies out of Egypt into other countries; and that Belus, the son of Neptune and Libya, carried colonies thence into Babylonia, and seating himself on Euphrates, instituted priests free from taxes and publick expences, after the manner of Egypt, who were called Chaldæans, and who after the manner of Egypt, might observe the Stars: and Pausanias ^[267] tells us, that the Belus of the Babylonians had his name from Belus an Egyptian, the son of Libya: and Apollodorus; ^[268] that Belus the son of Neptune and Libya, and King of Egypt, was the father of Ægyptus and Danaus, that is, Ammon: he tells us also, that Busiris the son of Neptune and Lisianassa [Libyanassa] the daughter of Epaphus, was King of Egypt; and Eusebius calls this King, Busiris the son of Neptune, and of Libya the daughter of Epaphus. By these things the later Egyptians seem to have made two Belus's, the one the father of Osiris, Isis, and Neptune, the other the son of Neptune, and father of Ægyptus and Danaus: and hence came the opinion of the people of Naxus, that there were two Minos's and two Ariadnes, the one two Generations older than the other; which we have confuted. The father of Ægyptus and Danaus was the father of Osiris, Isis, and Typhon; and Typhon was not the grandfather of Neptune, but Neptune himself.

Sesostris being brought up to hard labour by his father Ammon, warred first under his father, being the Hero or Hercules of the Egyptians during his father's Reign, and afterward their King: under his father, whilst he was very young, he invaded and conquered Troglodytica, and thereby secured the harbour of the Red Sea, near Coptos in Egypt, and then he invaded Ethiopia, and carried on his conquest southward, as far as to the region bearing cinnamon: and his father by the assistance of the Edomites having built a fleet on the Red Sea, he put to sea, and coasted Arabia Fælix, going to the Persian Gulph and beyond, and in those countries set up Columns with inscriptions denoting his conquests; and particularly he Set up a Pillar at Dira, a promontory in the straits of the Red Sea, next Ethiopia, and two Pillars in India, on the mountains near the mouth of the rivers Ganges; so ^[269] Dionysius:

After these things he invaded Libya, and fought the Africans with clubs, and thence is painted with a club in his hand: so ^[270] Hyginus; Afri & Ægyptii primum fustibus dimicaverunt, postea Belus Neptuni filius gladio belligeratus est, unde bellum dictum est: and after the conquest of Libya, by which Egypt was furnished with horses, and furnished Solomon and his friends; he prepared a fleet on the Mediterranean, and went on westward upon the coast of Afric, to search those countries, as far as to the Ocean and island Erythra or Gades in Spain; as Macrobius ^[271] informs us from Panyasis and Pherecydes: and there he conquered Geryon, and at the mouth of the Straits set up the famous Pillars.

Then he returned through Spain and the southern coasts of France and Italy, with the cattel of Geryon, his fleet attending him by sea, and left in Sicily the Sicani, a people which he had brought from Spain: and after his father's death he built Temples to him in his conquests; whence it came to pass, that Jupiter Ammon was worshipped in Ammonia, and Ethiopia, and Arabia, and as far as India, according to the ^[273] Poet:

The Arabians worshipped only two Gods, Cœlus, otherwise called Ouranus, or Jupiter Uranius, and Bacchus: and these were Jupiter Ammon and Sesac, as above: and so also the people of Meroe above Egypt ^[274] worshipped no other Gods but Jupiter and Bacchus, and had an Oracle of Jupiter, and these two Gods were Jupiter Ammon and Osiris, according to the language of Egypt.

At length Sesostris, in the fifth year of Rehoboam, came out of Egypt with a great army of Libyans, Troglodytes and Ethiopians, and spoiled the Temple, and reduced Judæa into servitude, and went on conquering, first eastward toward India, which he invaded, and then westward as far as Thrace: for God had given him the kingdoms of the countries, 2 Chron. xii. 2, 3, 8. In ^[275] this Expedition he spent nine years, setting up pillars with inscriptions in all his conquests, some of which remained in Syria 'till the days of Herodotus. He was accompanied with his son Orus, or Apollo, and with some singing women, called the Muses, one of which, called Calliope, was the mother of Orpheus an Argonaut: and the two tops of the mountain Parnassus, which were very high, were dedicated ^[276] the one to this Bacchus, and the other to his son Apollo: whence Lucan; ^[277]

In the fourteenth year of Rehoboam he returned back into Egypt; leaving Æetes in Colchis, and his nephew Prometheus at mount Caucasus, with part of his army, to defend his conquests from the Scythians. Apollonius Rhodius ^[278] and his scholiast tell us, that Sesonchosis King of all Egypt, that is Sesac, invading all Asia, and a great part of Europe, peopled many cities which he took; and that Æa, the Metropolis of Colchis, remained stable ever since his days with the posterity of those Egyptians which he placed there, and that they preserved pillars or tables in which all the journies and the bounds of sea and land were described, for the use of them that were to go any whither: these tables therefore gave a beginning to Geography.

Sesostris upon his returning home ^[279] divided Egypt by measure amongst the Egyptians; and this gave a beginning to Surveying and Geometry: and ^[280] Jamblicus derives this division of Egypt, and beginning of Geometry, from the Age of the Gods of Egypt. Sesostris also ^[281] divided Egypt into 36 Nomes or Counties, and dug a canal from the Nile to the head city of every Nome, and with the earth dug out of it, he caused the ground of the city to be raised higher, and built a Temple in every city for the worship of the Nome, and in the Temples set up Oracles, some of which remained 'till the days of Herodotus: and by this means the Egyptians of every Nome were induced to worship the great men of the Kingdom, to whom the Nome, the City, and the Temple or Sepulchre of the God, was dedicated: for every Temple had its proper God, and modes of worship, and annual festivals, at which the Council and People of the Nome met at certain times to sacrifice, and regulate the affairs of the Nome, and administer justice, and buy and sell; but Sesac and his Queen, by the names of Osiris and Isis, were worshipped in all Egypt: and because Sesac, to render the Nile more useful, dug channels from it to all the capital cities of Egypt; that river was consecrated to him, and he was called by its names, Ægyptus, Siris, Nilus. Dionysius ^[282] tells us, that the Nile was called Siris by the Ethiopians, and Nilus by the people of Siene. From the word Nahal, which signifies a torrent, that river was called Nilus; and Dionysius ^[283] tells us, that Nilus was that King who cut Egypt into canals, to make the river useful: in Scripture the river is called Schichor, or Sihor, and thence the Greeks formed the words Siris, Sirius, Ser-Apis, O-Siris; but Plutarch ^[284] tells us, that the syllable O, put before the word Siris by the Greeks, made it scarce intelligible to the Egyptians.

I have now told you the original of the Nomes of Egypt and of the Religions and Temples of the Nomes, and of the Cities built there by the Gods, and called by their names: whence Diodorus ^[285] tells us, that of all the Provinces of the World, there were in Egypt only many cities built by the ancient Gods, as by Jupiter, Sol, Hermes, Apollo, Pan, Eilithyia, and, many others: and Lucian ^[286] an Assyrian, who had travelled into Phœnicia and Egypt, tells us, that the Temples of Egypt were very old, those in Phœnicia built by Cinyras as old, and those in Assyria almost as old as the former, but not altogether so old: which shews that the Monarchy of Assyria rose up after the Monarchy of Egypt; as is represented in Scripture; and that the Temples of Egypt then standing, were those built by Sesostris, about the same time that the Temples of Phœnicia and Cyprus were built by Cinyras, Benhadad, and Hiram. This was not the first original of Idolatry, but only the erecting of much more sumptuous Temples than formerly to the founders of new Kingdoms: for Temples at first were very small;

Altars were at first erected without Temples, and this custom continued in Persia 'till after the days of Herodotus: in Phœnicia they had Altars with little houses for eating the sacrifices much earlier, and these they called High Places: such was the High Place where Samuel entertained Saul; such was the House of Dagon at Ashdod, into which the Philistims brought the Ark; and the House of Baal, in which Jehu slew the Prophets of Baal; and such were the High Places of the Canaanites which Moses commanded Israel to destroy: he ^[287] commanded Israel to destroy the Altars, Images, High Places, and Groves of the Canaanites, but made no mention of their Temples, as he would have done had there been any in those days. I meet with no mention of sumptuous Temples before the days of Solomon: new Kingdoms begun then to build Sepulchres to their Founders in the form of Sumptuous Temples; and such Temples Hiram built in Tyre, Sesac in all Egypt, and Benhadad in Damascus.

For when David ^[288] smote Hadad Ezer King of Zobah, and slew the Syrians of Damascus who came to assist him, Rezon the son of Eliadah fled from his lord Hadad-Ezer, and gathered men unto him and became Captain over a band, and Reigned in Damascus, over Syria: he is called Hezion, 1 King. xv. 18. and his successors mentioned in history were Tabrimon, Hadad or Ben-hadad, Benhadad II. Hazael, Benhadad III. * * and Rezin the son of Tabeah. Syria became subject to Egypt in the days of Tabrimon, and recovered her liberty under Benhadad I; and in the days of Benhadad III, until the reign of the last Rezin, they became subject to Israel: and in the ninth year of Hoshea King of Judah, Tiglath-pileser King of Assyria captivated the Syrians, and put an end to their Kingdom: now Josephus ^[289] tells us, that the Syrians 'till his days worshipped both Adar, that is Hadad or Benhadad, and his successor Hazael as Gods, for their benefactions, and for building Temples by which they adorned the city of Damascus: for, saith he, they daily celebrate solemnities in honour of these Kings, and boast their antiquity, not knowing that they are novel, and lived not above eleven hundred years ago. It seems these Kings built sumptuous Sepulchres for themselves, and were worshipped therein. Justin ^[290] calls the first of these two Kings Damascus, saying that the city had its name from him, and that the Syrians in honour of him worshipped his wife Arathes as a Goddess, using her Sepulchre for a Temple.

Another instance we have in the Kingdom of Byblus. In the ^[291] Reign of Minos King of Crete, when Rhadamanthus the brother of Minos carried colonies from Crete to the Greek islands, and gave the islands to his captains, he gave Lemnos to Thoas, or Theias, or Thoantes, the father of Hypsipyle, a Cretan worker in metals, and by consequence a disciple of the Idæi Dactyli, and perhaps a Phœnician: for the Idæi Dactyli, and Telchines, and Corybantes brought their Arts and Sciences from Phœnicia: and ^[292] Suidas saith, that he was descended from Pharnaces King of Cyprus; Apollodorus, ^[293] that he was the son of Sandochus a Syrian; and Apollonius Rhodius, ^[294] that Hypsipyle gave Jason the purple cloak which the Graces made for Bacchus, who gave it to his son Thoas, the father of Hypsipyle, and King of Lemnos: Thoas married ^[295] Calycopis, the mother of Æneas, and daughter of Otreus King of Phrygia, and for his skill on the harp was called Cinyras, and was said to be exceedingly beloved by Apollo or Orus: the great Bacchus loved his wife, and being caught in bed with her in Phrygia appeased him with wine, and composed the matter by making him King of Byblus and Cyprus; and then came over the Hellespont with his army, and conquered Thrace: and to these things the poets allude, in feigning that Vulcan fell from heaven into Lemnos, and that Bacchus ^[296] appeased him with wine, and reduced him back into heaven: he fell from the heaven of the Cretan Gods, when he went from Crete to Lemnos to work in metals, and was reduced back into heaven when Bacchus made him King of Cyprus and Byblus: he Reigned there 'till a very great age, living to the times of the Trojan war, and becoming exceeding rich: and after the death of his wife Calycopis, ^[297] he built Temples to her at Paphos and Amathus, in Cyprus; and at Byblus in Syria, and instituted Priests to her with Sacred Rites and lustful Orgia; whence she became the Dea Cypria, and the Dea Syria: and from Temples erected to her in these and other places, she was also called Paphia, Amathusia, Byblia, Cytherea Salaminia, Cnidia, Erycina, Idalia. Fama tradit a Cinyra sacratum vetustissimum Paphiæ Veneris templum, Deamque ipsam conceptam mari huc appulsam: Tacit. Hist. l. 2. c. 3. From her sailing from Phrygia to the island Cythera, and from thence to be Queen of Cyprus, she was said by the Cyprians, to be born of the froth of the sea, and was painted sailing upon a shell. Cinyras Deified also his son Gingris, by the name of Adonis; and for assisting the Egyptians with armour, it is probable that he himself was Deified by his friends the Egyptians, by the name of Baal-Canaan, or Vulcan: for Vulcan was celebrated principally by the Egyptians, and was a King according to Homer, and Reigned in Lemnos; and Cinyras was an inventor of arts, ^[298] and found out copper in Cyprus, and the smiths hammer, and anvil, and tongs, and laver; and imployed workmen in making armour, and other things of brass and iron, and was the only King celebrated in history for working in metals, and was King of Lemnos, and the husband of Venus; all which are the characters of Vulcan: and the Egyptians about the time of the death of Cinyras, viz. in the Reign of their King Amenophis, built a very sumptuous Temple at Memphis to Vulcan, and near it a smaller Temple to Venus Hospita; not an Egyptian woman but a foreigner, not Helena but Vulcan's Venus: for ^[299] Herodotus tells us, that the region round about this Temple was inhabited by Tyrian Phœnicians, and that ^[300] Cambyses going into this Temple at Memphis, very much derided the statue of Vulcan for its littleness; For, saith he, this statue is most like those Gods which the Phœnicians call Patæci, and carry about in the fore part of their Ships in the form of Pygmies: and ^[301] Bochart saith of this Venus Hospita, Phœniciam Venerem in Ægypto pro peregrina habitam.

As the Egyptians, Phœnicians and Syrians in those days Deified their Kings and Princes, so upon their coming into Asia minor and Greece, they taught those nations to do the like, as hath been shewed above. In those days the writing of the Thebans and Ethiopians was in hieroglyphicks; and this way of writing seems to have spread into the lower Egypt before the days of Moses: for thence came the worship of their Gods in the various shapes of Birds, Beasts, and Fishes, forbidden in the second commandment. Now this emblematical way of writing gave occasion to the Thebans and Ethiopians, who in the days of Samuel, David, Solomon, and Rehoboam conquered Egypt, and the nations round about, and erected a great Empire, to represent and signify their conquering Kings and Princes, not by writing down their names, but by making various hieroglyphical figures; as by painting Ammon with Ram's horns, to signify the King who conquered Libya, a country abounding with sheep; his father Amosis with a Scithe, to signify that King who conquered the lower Egypt, a country abounding with corn; his Son Osiris by an Ox, because he taught the conquered nations to plow with oxen; Bacchus with Bulls horns for the same reason, and with Grapes because he taught the nations to plant vines, and upon a Tiger because he subdued India; Orus the son of Osiris with a Harp, to signify the Prince who was eminently skilled on that instrument; Jupiter upon an Eagle to signify the sublimity of his dominion, and with a Thunderbolt to represent him a warrior; Venus in a Chariot drawn with two Doves, to represent her amorous and lustful; Neptune with a Trident, to signify the commander of a fleet composed of three Squadrons; Ægeon, a Giant, with 50 heads, and an hundred hands, to signify Neptune with his men in a ship of fifty oars; Thoth with a Dog's head and wings at his cap and feet, and a Caduceus writhen about with two Serpents, to signify a man of craft, and an embassador who reconciled two contending nations; Pan with a Pipe and the legs of a Goat, to signify a man delighted in piping and dancing; and Hercules with Pillars and a Club, because Sesostris set up pillars in all his conquests, and fought against the Libyans with clubs: this is that Hercules who, according to ^[302] Eudoxus, was slain by Typhon; and according to Ptolomæus Hephæstion ^[303] was called Nilus, and who conquered Geryon with his three sons in Spain, and set up the famous pillars at the mouth of the Straits: for Diodorus ^[304] mentioning three Hercules's, the Egyptian, the Tyrian, and the son of Alcmena, saith that the oldest flourished among the Egyptians, and having conquered a great part of the world, set up the pillars in Afric: and Vasæus, ^[305] that Osiris, called also Dionysius, came into Spain and conquered Geryon, and was the first who brought Idolatry into Spain. Strabo ^[306] tells us, that the Ethiopians called Megabars fought with clubs: and some of the Greeks ^[307] did so 'till the times of the Trojan war. Now from this hieroglyphical way of writing it came to pass, that upon the division of Egypt into Nomes by Sesostris, the great men of the Kingdom to whom the Nomes were dedicated, were represented in their Sepulchers or Temples of the Nomes, by various hieroglyphicks; as by an Ox, a Cat, a Dog, a Cebus, a Goat, a Lyon, a Scarabæus, an Ichneumon, a Crocodile, an Hippopotamus, an Oxyrinchus, an Ibis, a Crow, a Hawk, a Leek, and were worshipped by the Nomes in the shape of these creatures.

The ^[308] Atlantides, a people upon mount Atlas conquered by the Egyptians in the Reign of Ammon, related that Uranus was their first King, and reduced them from a savage course of life, and caused them to dwell in towns and cities, and lay up and use the fruits of the earth, and that he reigned over a great part of the world, and by his wife Titæa had eighteen children, among which were Hyperion and Basilea the parents of Helius and Selene; that the brothers of Hyperion slew him, and drowned his son Helius, the Phaeton of the ancients, in the Nile, and divided his Kingdom amongst themselves; and the country bordering upon the Ocean fell to the lot of Atlas, from whom the people were called Atlantides. By Uranus or Jupiter Uranius, Hyperion, Basilea, Helius and Selene, I understand Jupiter Ammon, Osiris, Isis, Orus and Bubaste; and by the sharing of the Kingdom of Hyperion amongst his brothers the Titans, I understand the division of the earth among the Gods mentioned in the Poem of Solon.

For Solon having travelled into Egypt, and conversed with the Priests of Sais; about their antiquities, wrote a Poem of what he had learnt, but did not finish it; ^[309] and this Poem fell into the hands of Plato who relates out of it, that at the mouth of the Straits near Hercules's Pillars there was an Island called Atlantis, the people of which, nine thousand years before the days of Solon, reigned over Libya as far as Egypt; and over Europe as far as the Tyrrhene sea; and all this force collected into one body invaded Egypt and Greece, and whatever was contained within the Pillars of Hercules, but was resisted and stopt by the Athenians and other Greeks, and thereby the rest of the nations not yet conquered were preserved: he saith also that in those days the Gods, having finished their conquests, divided the whole earth amongst themselves, partly into larger, partly into smaller portions, and instituted Temples and Sacred Rites to themselves; and that the Island Atlantis fell to the lot of Neptune, who made his eldest Son Atlas King of the whole Island, a part of which was called Gadir; and that in the history of the said wars mention was made of Cecrops, Erechtheus, Erichthonius, and others before Theseus, and also of the women who warred with the men, and of the habit and statue of Minerva, the study of war in those days being common to men and women. By all these circumstances it is manifest that these Gods were the Dii magni majorum gentium, and lived between the age of Cecrops and Theseus; and that the wars which Sesostris with his brother Neptune made upon the nations by land and sea, and the resistance he met with in Greece, and the following invasion of Egypt by Neptune, are here described; and how the captains of Sesostris shared his conquests amongst themselves, as the captains of Alexander the great did his conquests long after, and instituting Temples and Priests and sacred Rites to themselves, caused the nations to worship them after death as Gods: and that the Island Gadir or Gades, with all Libya, fell to the lot of him who after death was Deified by the name of Neptune. The time therefore when these things were done is by Solon limited to the age of Neptune, the father of Atlas; for Homer tells us, that Ulysses presently after the Trojan war found Calypso the daughter of Atlas in the Ogygian Island, perhaps Gadir; and therefore it was but two Generations before the Trojan war. This is that Neptune, who with Apollo or Orus fortified Troy with a wall, in the Reign of Laomedon the father of Priamus, and left many natural children in Greece, some of which were Argonauts, and others were contemporary to the Argonauts; and therefore he flourished but one Generation before the Argonautic expedition, and by consequence about 400 years before Solon went into Egypt: but the Priests of Egypt in those 400 years had magnified the stories and antiquity of their Gods so exceedingly, as to make them nine thousand years older than Solon, and the Island Atlantis bigger than all Afric and Asia together, and full of people; and because in the days of Solon this great Island did not appear, they pretended that it was sunk into the sea with all its people: thus great was the vanity of the Priests of Egypt in magnifying their antiquities.

The Cretans ^[310] affirmed that Neptune was the man who set out a fleet, having obtained this Præfecture of his father Saturn; whence posterity reckoned things done in the sea to be under his government, and mariners honoured him with sacrifices: the invention of tall Ships with sails ^[311] is also ascribed to him. He was first worshipped in Africa, as Herodotus ^[312] affirms, and therefore Reigned over that province: for his eldest son Atlas, who succeeded him, was not only Lord of the Island Atlantis, but also Reigned over a great part of Afric, giving his name to the people called Atlantii, and to the mountain Atlas, and the Atlantic Ocean. The ^[313] outmost parts of the earth and promontories, and whatever bordered upon the sea and was washed by it, the Egyptians called Neptys; and on the coasts of Marmorica and Cyrene, Bochart and Arius Montanus place the Naphthuhim, a people sprung from Mizraim, Gen. x. 13; and thence Neptune and his wife Neptys might have their names, the words Neptune, Neptys and Naphthuhim, signifying the King, Queen, and people of the sea-coasts. The Greeks tell us that Japetus was the father of Atlas, and Bochart derives Japetus and Neptune from the same original: he and his son Atlas are celebrated in the ancient fables for making war upon the Gods of Egypt; as when Lucian ^[314] saith that Corinth being full of fables, tells the fight of Sol and Neptune, that is, of Apollo and Python, or Orus and Typhon; and where Agatharcides ^[315] relates how the Gods of Egypt fled from the Giants, 'till the Titans came in and saved them by putting Neptune to flight; and where Hyginus ^[316] tells the war between the Gods of Ægypt, and the Titans commanded by Atlas.

The Titans are the posterity of Titæa, some of whom under Hercules assisted the Gods, others under Neptune and Atlas warred against them: for which reason, saith Plutarch, ^[317] the Priests of Egypt abominated the sea, and had Neptune in no honour. By Hercules, I understand here the general of the forces of Thebais and Ethiopia whom the Gods or great men of Egypt called to their assistance, against the Giants or great men of Libya, who had slain Osiris and invaded Egypt: for Diodorus ^[318] saith that when Osiris made his expedition over the world, he left his kinsman Hercules general of his forces over all his dominions, and Antæus governor of Libya and Ethiopia. Antæus Reigned over all Afric to the Atlantic Ocean, and built Tingis or Tangieres: Pindar ^[319] tells us that he Reigned at Irasa a town of Libya, where Cyrene was afterwards built: he invaded Egypt and Thebais; for he was beaten by Hercules and the Egyptians near Antæa or Antæopolis, a town of Thebais; and Diodorus ^[320] tells us that this town had its name from Antæus, whom Hercules slew in the days of Osiris. Hercules overthrew him several times, and every time he grew stronger by recruits from Libya, his mother earth; but Hercules intercepted his recruits, and at length slew him. In these wars Hercules took the Libyan world from Atlas, and made Atlas pay tribute out of his golden orchard, the Kingdom of Afric. Antæus and Atlas were both of them sons of Neptune both of them Reigned over all Libya and Afric, between Mount Atlas and the Mediterranean to the very Ocean; both of them invaded Egypt, and contended with Hercules in the wars of the Gods, and therefore they are but two names of one and the same man; and even the name Atlas in the oblique cases seems to have been compounded of the name Antæeus and some other word, perhaps the word Atal, cursed, put before it: the invasion of Egypt by Antæus, Ovid hath relation unto, where he makes Hercules say,

This war was at length composed by the intervention of Mercury, who in memory thereof was said to reconcile two contending serpents, by casting his Ambassador's rod between them: and thus much concerning the ancient state of Egypt, Libya, and Greece, described by Solon.

The mythology of the Cretans differed in some things from that of Egypt and Libya: for in the Cretan mythology, Cœlus and Terra, or Uranus and Titæa were the parents of Saturn and Rhea, and Saturn and Rhea were the parents of Jupiter and Juno; and Hyperion, Japetus and the Titans were one Generation older than Jupiter; and Saturn was expelled his Kingdom and castrated by his son Jupiter: which fable hath no place in the mythology of Egypt.

During the Reign of Sesac, Jeroboam being in subjection to Egypt; set up the Gods of Egypt in Dan and Bethel; and Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching Priest and without law: and in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries; and nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. 2 Chron. xv. 3, 5, 6. But in the fifth year of Asa the land of Judah became quiet from war, and from thence had quiet ten years; and Asa took away the altars of strange Gods, and brake down the Images, and built the fenced cities of Judah with walls and towers and gates and bars, having rest on every side, and got up an army of 580000 men, with which in the fifteenth year of his Reign he met Zerah the Ethiopian, who came out against him with an army of a thousand thousand Ethiopians and Libyans: the way of the Libyans was through Egypt, and therefore Zerah was now Lord of Egypt: they fought at Mareshah near Gerar, between Egypt and Judæa, and Zerah was beaten, so that he could not recover himself: and from all this I seem to gather that Osiris was slain in the fifth year of Asa, and thereupon Egypt fell into civil wars, being invaded by the Libyans, and defended by the Ethiopians for a time; and after ten years more being invaded by the Ethiopians, who slew Orus the son and successor of Osiris, drowning him in the Nile, and seized his Kingdom. By these civil wars of Egypt, the land of Judah had rest ten years. Osiris or Sesostris reigned long, Manetho saith 48 years; and by this reckoning he began to Reign about the 17th year of Solomon; and Orus his son was drowned in the 15th year of Asa: for Pliny ^[321] tells us, Ægyptiorum bellis attrita est Æthiopia, vicissim imperitando serviendoque, clara & potens etiam usque ad Trojana bella Memnone regnante. Ethiopia, served Egypt 'till the death of Sesostris, and no longer; for Herodotus ^[322] tells us that he alone enjoyed the Empire of Ethiopia: then the Ethiopians became free, and after ten years became Lords of Egypt and Libya, under Zerah and Amenophis.

When Asa by his victory over Zerah became safe from Egypt, he assembled all the people, and they offered sacrifices out of the spoils, and entered into a covenant upon oath to seek the Lord; and in lieu of the vessels taken away by Sesac, he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, Silver and Gold, and Vessels. 2 Chron. xv.

When Zerah was beaten, so that he could not recover himself, the people ^[323] of the lower Egypt revolted from the Ethiopians, and called in to their assistance two hundred thousand Jews and Canaanites; and under the conduct of one Osarsiphus, a Priest of Egypt, called Usorthon, Osorchon, Osorchor, and Hercules Ægyptius by Manetho, caused the Ethiopians now under Memnon to retire to Memphis: and there Memnon turned the river Nile into a new channel, built a bridge over it and fortified that pass, and then went back into Ethiopia: but after thirteen years, he and his young son Ramesses came down with an army from Ethiopia, conquered the lower Egypt, and drove out the Jews and Phœnicians; and this action the Egyptian writers and their followers call the second expulsion of the Shepherds, taking Osarsiphus for Moses.

Tithonus a beautiful youth, the elder brother of Priamus, went into Ethiopia, being carried thither among many captives by Sesostris: and the Greeks, before the days of Hesiod, feigned that Memnon was his son: Memnon therefore, in the opinion of those ancient Greeks, was one Generation younger than Tithonus, and was born after the return of Sesostris into Egypt: suppose about 16 or 20 years after the death of Solomon. He is said to have lived very long, and so might die about 95 years after Solomon, as we reckoned above: his mother, called Cissia by Æschylus, in a statue erected to her in Egypt, ^[324] was represented as the daughter, the wife, and the mother of a King, and therefore he was the son of a King; which makes it probable that Zerah, whom he succeeded in the Kingdom of Ethiopia, was his father.

Historians ^[325] agree that Menes Reigned in Egypt next after the Gods, and turned the river into a new channel, and built a bridge over it, and built Memphis and the magnificent Temple of Vulcan: he built Memphis over-against the place where Grand Cairo now stands, called by the Arabian historians Mesir: he built only the body of the Temple of Vulcan, and his successors Ramesses or Rhampsinitus, Mœris, Asychis, and Psammiticus built the western, northern eastern, and southern portico's thereof: Psammiticus, who built the last portico of this Temple, Reigned three hundred years after the victory of Asa over Zerah, and it is not likely that this Temple could be above three hundred years in building, or that any Menes could be King of all Egypt before the expulsion of the Shepherds. The last of the Gods of Egypt was Orus, with his mother Isis, and sister Bubaste, and secretary Thoth, and unkle Typhon; and the King who reigned next after all their deaths, and turned the river and built a bridge over it, and built Memphis and the Temple of Vulcan, was Memnon or Amenophis, called by the Egyptians Amenoph; and therefore he is Menes: for the names Amenoph, or Menoph, and Menes do not much differ; and from Amenoph the city Memphis built by Menes had its Egyptian names Moph, Noph, Menoph or Menuf, as it is still called by the Arabian historians: the necessity of fortifying this place against Osarsiphus gave occasion to the building of it.

In the time of the revolt of the lower Egypt under Osarsiphus, and the retirement of Amenophis into Ethiopia, Egypt being then in the greatest distraction, the Greeks built the ship Argo, and sent in it the flower of Greece to Æetes in Colchis, and to many other Princes on the coasts of the Euxine and Mediterranean seas; and this ship was built after the pattern of an Egyptian ship with fifty oars, in which Danaus with his fifty daughters a few years before fled from Egypt into Greece, and was the first long ship with sails built by the Greeks: and such an improvement of navigation, with a design to send the flower of Greece to many Princes upon the sea-coasts of the Euxine and Mediterranean seas, was too great an undertaking to be set on foot, without the concurrence of the Princes and States of Greece, and perhaps the approbation of the Amphictyonic Council; for it was done by the dictate of the Oracle. This Council met every half year upon state-affairs for the welfare of Greece, and therefore knew of this expedition, and might send the Argonauts upon an embassy to the said Princes; and for concealing their design might make the fable of the golden fleece, in relation to the ship of Phrixus whose ensign was a golden ram: and probably their design was to notify the distraction of Egypt, and the invasion thereof by the Ethiopians and Israelites, to the said Princes, and to persuade them to take that opportunity to revolt from Egypt, and set up for themselves, and make a league with the Greeks: for the Argonauts went through ^[326] the Kingdom of Colchis by land to the Armenians, and through Armenia to the Medes; which could not have been done if they had not made friendship with the nations through which they passed: they visited also Laomedon King of the Trojans, Phineus King of the Thracians, Cyzicus King of the Doliones, Lycus King of the Mariandyni, the coasts of Mysia and Taurica Chersonesus, the nations upon the Tanais, the people about Byzantium, and the coasts of Epirus, Corsica, Melita, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Gallia upon the Mediterranean; and from thence they ^[327] crossed the sea to Afric, and there conferred with Euripylus King of Cyrene: and ^[328] Strabo tells us that in Armenia and Media, and the neighbouring places, there were frequent monuments of the expedition of Jason; as also about Sinope, and its sea-coasts, the Propontis and the Hellespont, and in the Mediterranean: and a message by the flower of Greece to so many nations could be on no other account than state-policy; these nations had been invaded by the Egyptians, but after this expedition we hear no more of their continuing in subjection to Egypt.

The ^[329] Egyptians originally lived on the fruits of the earth, and fared hardly, and abstained from animals, and therefore abominated Shepherds: Menes taught them to adorn their beds and tables with rich furniture and carpets, and brought in amongst them a sumptuous, delicious and voluptuous way of life: and about a hundred years after his death, Gnephacthus one of his successors cursed him for it, and to reduce the luxury of Egypt, caused the curse to be entered in the Temple of Jupiter at Thebes; and by this curse the honour of Menes was diminished among the Egyptians.

The Kings of Egypt who expelled the Shepherds and Succeeded them, Reigned I think first at Coptos, and then at Thebes, and then at Memphis. At Coptos I place Misphragmuthosis and Amosis or Thomosis who expelled the Shepherds, and abolished their custom of sacrificing men, and extended the Coptic language, and the name of Αια Κοπτου, Aegyptus, to the conquest. Then Thebes became the Royal City of Ammon, and from him was called No-Ammon, and his conquest on the west of Egypt was called Ammonia. After him, in the same city of Thebes, Reigned Osiris, Orus, Menes or Amenophis, and Ramesses: but Memphis and her miracles were not yet celebrated in Greece; for Homer celebrates Thebes as in its glory in his days, and makes no mention of Memphis. After Menes had built Memphis, Mœris the successor of Ramesses adorned it, and made it the seat of the Kingdom, and this was almost two Generations after the Trojan war. Cinyras, the Vulcan who married Venus, and under the Kings of Egypt Reigned over Cyprus and part of Phœnicia, and made armour for those Kings, lived 'till the times of the Trojan war: and upon his death Menes or Memnon might Deify him, and found the famous Temple of Vulcan in that city for his worship, but not live to finish it. In a plain ^[330] not far from Memphis are many small Pyramids, said to be built by Venephes or Enephes; and I suspect that Venephes and Enephes have been corruptly written for Menephes or Amenophis, the letters AM being almost worn out in some old manuscript: for after the example of these Pyramids, the following Kings, Mœris and his successors, built others much larger. The plain in which they were built was the burying-place of that city, as appears by the Mummies there found; and therefore the Pyramids were the sepulchral monuments of the Kings and Princes of that city: and by these and such like works the city grew famous soon after the days of Homer; who therefore flourished in the Reign of Ramesses.

Herodotus ^[331] is the oldest historian now extant who wrote of the antiquities of Egypt, and had what he wrote from the Priests of that country: and Diodorus, who wrote almost 400 years after him, and had his relations also from the Priests of Egypt, placed many nameless Kings between those whom Herodotus placed in continual succession. The Priests of Egypt had therefore, between the days of Herodotus and Diodorus, out of vanity, very much increased the number of their Kings: and what they did after the days of Herodotus, they began to do before his days; for he tells us that they recited to him out of their books, the names of 330 Kings who Reigned after Menes, but did nothing memorable, except Nitocris and Mœris the last of them: all these Reigned at Thebes, 'till Mœris translated the seat of the Empire from Thebes to Memphis. After Mœris he reckons Sesostris, Pheron, Proteus, Rhampsinitus, Cheops, Cephren, Mycerinus, Asychis, Anysis, Sabacon, Anysis again, Sethon, twelve contemporary Kings, Psammitichus, Nechus, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, and Psammenitus. The Egyptians had before the days of Solon made their monarchy 9000 years old, and now they reckon'd to Herodotus a succession of 330 Kings Reigning so many Generations, that is about 11000 years, before Sesostris: but the Kings who Reigned long before Sesostris might Reign over several little Kingdoms in several parts of Egypt, before the rise of their Monarchy; and by consequence before the days of Eli and Samuel, and so are not under our consideration: and these names may have been multiplied by corruption; and some of them, as Athothes or Thoth, the secretary of Osiris; Tosorthrus or Æsculapius a Physician who invented building with square stones; and Thuor or Polybus the husband of Alcandra, were only Princes of Egypt. If with Herodotus we omit the names of those Kings who did nothing memorable, and consider only those whose actions are recorded, and who left splendid monuments of their having Reigned over Egypt, such as were Temples, Statues, Pyramids, Obelisks, and Palaces dedicated or ascribed to them, these Kings reduced into good order will give us all or almost all the Kings of Egypt, from the days of the expulsion of the Shepherds and founding of the Monarchy, downwards to the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses: for Sesostris Reigned in the Age of the Gods of Egypt: being Deified by the names of Osiris, Hercules and Bacchus, as above; and therefore Menes, Nitocris, and Mœris are to be placed after him; Menes and his son Ramesses Reigned next after the Gods, and therefore Nitocris and Mœris Reigned after Ramesses: Mœris is set down immediately before Cheops, three times in the Dynastys of the Kings of Egypt composed by Eratosthenes, and once in the Dynasties of Manetho; and in the same Dynasties Nitocris is set after the builders of the three great Pyramids, and according to Herodotus her brother Reigned before her, and was slain, and she revenged his death; and according to Syncellus she built the third great Pyramid; and the builders of the Pyramids Reigned at Memphis, and by consequence after Mœris. Now from these things I gather that the Kings of Egypt mentioned by Herodotus ought to be placed in this order; Sesostris, Pheron, Proteus, Menes, Rhampsinitus, Mœris, Cheops, Cephren, Mycerinus, Nitocris, Asychis, Anysis, Sabacon, Anysis again, Sethon, twelve contemporary Kings, Psammitichus, Nechus, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, Psammenitus.

Pheron is by Herodotus said to be the son and successor of Sesostris. He was Deified by the name of Orus.

Proteus Reigned in the lower Egypt when Paris sailed thither; that is at the end of the Trojan war, according to ^[332] Herodotus: and at that time Amenophis was King of Egypt and Ethiopia: but in his absence Proteus might be governor of some part of the lower Egypt under him; for Homer places Proteus upon the sea-coasts, and makes him a sea God, and calls him the servant of Neptune; and Herodotus saith that he rose up from among the common people, and that Proteus was his name translated into Greek, and this name in Greek signifies only a Prince or President. He succeeded Pheron, and was succeeded by Rhampsinitus according to Herodotus; and so was contemporary to Amenophis.

Amenophis Reigned next after Orus and Isis the last of the Gods; he Reigned at first over all Egypt, and then over Memphis and the upper parts of Egypt; and by conquering Osarsiphus, who had revolted from him, became King of all Egypt again, about 51 years after the death of Solomon. He built Memphis and ordered the worship of the Gods of Egypt, and built a Palace at Abydus, and the Memnonia at This and Susa, and the magnificent Temple of Vulcan in Memphis; the building with square stones being found out before by Tosorthrus, the Æsculapius of Egypt: he is by corruption of his name called Menes, Mines, Minæus, Mineus, Minies, Mnevis, Enephes, Venephes, Phamenophis, Osymanthyas, Osimandes, Ismandes, Imandes, Memnon, Arminon.

Amenophis was succeeded by his son, called by Herodotus, Rhampsinitus, and by others Ramses, Ramises, Rameses, Ramesses, ^[333] Ramestes, Rhampses, Remphis. Upon an Obelisk erected by this King in Heliopolis, and sent to Rome by the Emperor Constantius, was an inscription, interpreted by Hermapion an Egyptian Priest, expressing that the King was long lived, and Reigned over a great part of the earth: and Strabo, ^[334] an eye-witness, tells us, that in the monuments of the Kings of Egypt, above the Memnonium were inscriptions upon Obelisks, expressing the riches of the Kings, and their Reigning as far as Scythia, Bactria, India and Ionia: and Tacitus ^[335] tells us from an inscription seen at Thebes by Cæsar Germanicus, and interpreted to him by the Egyptian Priests, that this King Ramesses had an army of 700000 men, and Reigned over Libya, Ethiopia, Media, Persia, Bactria, Scythia, Armenia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Lycia; whence the Monarchy of Assyria was not yet risen. This King was very covetous, and a great collector of taxes, and one of the richest of all the Kings of Egypt, and built the western portico of the Temple of Vulcan.

Mœris inheriting the riches of Ramesses, built the northern portico of that Temple more sumptuously, and made the Lake of Mœris, with two great Pyramids of brick in the midst of it: and for preserving the division of Egypt into equal shares amongst the soldiers, this King wrote a book of surveying, which gave a beginning to Geometry. He is called also Maris, Myris, Meres, Marres, Smarres; and more corruptly, by changing Μ into Α, Τ, Β, Σ, YΧ, Λ, &c. Ayres, Tyris, Byires, Soris, Uchoreus, Lachares, Labaris, &c.

Diodorus ^[336] places Uchoreus between Osymanduas and Myris, that is between Amenophis and Mœris, and saith that he built Memphis, and fortified it to admiration with a mighty rampart of earth, and a broad and deep trench, which was filled with the water of the Nile, and made there a vast and deep Lake for receiving the water of the Nile in the time of its overflowing, and built palaces in the city; and that this place was so commodiously seated that most of the Kings who Reigned after him preferred it before Thebes, and removed the Court from thence to this place, so that the magnificence of Thebes from that time began to decrease, and that of Memphis to increase, 'till Alexander King of Macedon built Alexandria. These great works of Uchoreus and those of Mœris savour of one and the same genius, and were certainly done by one and the same King, distinguished into two by a corruption of the name as above; for this Lake of Uchoreus was certainly the same with that of Mœris.

After the example of the two brick Pyramids made by Mœris, the three next Kings, Cheops, Cephren and Mycerinus built the three great Pyramids at Memphis; and therefore Reigned in that city. Cheops shut up the Temples of the Nomes, and prohibited the worship of the Gods of Egypt, designing no doubt to have been worshipped himself after death: he is called also Chembis, Chemmis, Chemnis, Phiops, Apathus, Apappus, Suphis, Saophis, Syphoas, Syphaosis, Soiphis, Syphuris, Anoiphis, Anoisis: he built the biggest of the three great Pyramids which stand together; and his brother Cephren or Cerpheres built the second, and his son Mycerinus founded the third: this last King was celebrated for clemency and justice; he shut up the dead body of his daughter in a hollow ox, and caused her to be worshipped daily with odours: he is called also Cheres, Cherinus, Bicheres, Moscheres, Mencheres. He died before the third Pyramid was finished, and his sister and successor Nitocris finished it.

Then Reigned Asychis, who built the eastern portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly, and among the small Pyramids a large Pyramid of brick, made of mud dug out of the Lake of Mœris: and these are the Kings who Reigned at Memphis, and spent their time in adorning that city, until the Ethiopians and the Assyrians and others revolted, and Egypt lost all her dominion abroad, and became again divided into several small Kingdoms.

One of those Kingdoms was I think at Memphis, under Gnephactus, and his son and successor Bocchoris. Africanus calls Bocchoris a Saite; but Sais at this time had other Kings: Gnephactus, otherwise called Neochabis and Technatis, cursed Menes for his luxury, and caused the curse to be entered in the Temple of Jupiter at Thebes; and therefore Reigned over Thebais: and Bocchoris sent in a wild bull upon the God Mnevis which was worshipped at Heliopolis. Another of those Kingdoms was at Anysis, or Hanes, Isa. xxx. 4. under its King Anysis or Amosis; a third was at Sais, under Stephanathis, Nechepsos, and Nechus; and a fourth was at Tanis or Zoan, under Petubastes, Osorchon and Psammis: and Egypt being weakened by this division, was invaded and conquered by the Ethiopians under Sabacon, who slew Bocchoris and Nechus, and made Anysis fly. The Olympiads began in the Reign of Petubastes, and the Æra of Nabonassar in the 22d year of the Reign of Bocchoris, according to Africanus; and therefore the division, of Egypt into many Kingdoms began before the Olympiads, but not above the length of two Kings Reigns before them.

After the study of Astronomy was set on foot for the use of navigation, and the Egyptians by the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars had determined the length of the Solar year of 365 days, and by other observations had fixed the Solstices, and formed the fixt Stars into Asterisms, all which was done in the Reign of Ammon, Sesac, Orus, and Memnon; it may be presumed that they continued to observe the motions of the Planets; for they called them after the names of their Gods; and Nechepsos or Nicepsos King of Sais, by the assistance of Petosiris a Priest of Egypt, invented Astrology, grounding it upon the aspects of the Planets, and the qualities of the men and women to whom they were dedicated: and in the beginning of the Reign of Nabonassar King of Babylon, about which time the Ethiopians under Sabacon invaded Egypt, those Egyptians who fled from him to Babylon, carried thither the Egyptian year of 365 days, and the study of Astronomy and Astrology, and founded the Æra of Nabonassar; dating it from the first year of that King's Reign, which was the 22d year of Bocchoris as above, and beginning the year on the same day with the Egyptians for the sake of their calculations. So Diodorus ^[337]: they say that the Chaldæans in Babylon, being Colonies of the Egyptians, became famous for Astrology, having learnt it from the Priests of Egypt: and Hestiæus, who wrote an history of Egypt, speaking of a disaster of the invaded Egyptians, saith ^[338] that the Priests who survived this disaster, taking with them the Sacra of Jupiter Enyalius, came to Sennaar in Babylonia. From the 15th year of Asa, in which Zerah was beaten, and Menes or Amenophis began his Reign, to the beginning of the Æra of Nabonassar, were 200 years; and this interval of time allows room for about nine or ten Reigns of Kings, at about twenty years to a Reign one with another; and so many Reigns there were, according to the account set down above out of Herodotus; and therefore that account, as it is the oldest, and was received by Herodotus from the Priests of Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, three principal cities of Egypt, agrees also with the course of nature, and leaves no room for the Reigns of the many nameless Kings which we have omitted. These omitted Kings Reigned before Mœris, and by consequence at Thebes; for Mœris translated the seat of the Empire from Thebes to Memphis: they Reigned after Ramesses; for Ramesses was the son and successor of Menes, who Reigned next after the Gods. Now Menes built the body of the Temple of Vulcan, Ramesses the first portico, and Mœris the second portico thereof; but the Egyptians, for making their Gods and Kingdom look ancient, have inserted between the builders of the first and second portico of this Temple, three hundred and thirty Kings of Thebes, and supposed that these Kings Reigned eleven thousand years; as if any Temple could stand so long. This being a manifest fiction, we have corrected it, by omitting those interposed Kings, who did nothing, and placing Mœris the builder of the second portico, next after Ramesses the builder of the first.

In the Dynasties of Manetho; Sevechus is made the successor of Sabacon, being his son; and perhaps he is the Sethon of Herodotus, who became Priest of Vulcan, and neglected military discipline: for Sabacon is that So or Sua with whom Hoshea King of Israel conspired against the Assyrians, in the fourth year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 24. Herodotus tells us twice or thrice, that Sabacon after a long Reign of fifty years relinquished Egypt voluntarily, and that Anysis who fled from him, returned and Reigned again in the lower Egypt after him, or rather with him: and that Sethon Reigned after Sabacon, and went to Pelusium against the army of Sennacherib, and was relieved with a great multitude of mice, which eat the bow-strings of the Assyrians; in memory of which the statue of Sethon, seen by Herodotus, ^[339] was made with a Mouse in its hand. A Mouse was the Egyptian symbol of destruction, and the Mouse in the hand of Sethon signifies only that he overcame the Assyrians with a great destruction. The Scriptures inform us, that when Sennacherib invaded Judæa and besieged Lachish and Libnah, which was in the 14th year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 34. the King of Judah trusted upon Pharaoh King of Egypt, that is upon Sethon, and that Tirhakah King of Ethiopia came out also to fight against Sennacherib, 2 King. xviii. 21. & xix. 9. which makes it probable, that when Sennacherib heard of the Kings of Egypt and Ethiopia coming against him, he went from Libnah towards Pelusium to oppose them, and was there surprized and set upon in the night by them both, and routed with as great a slaughter as if the bow-strings of the Assyrians had been eaten by mice. Some think that the Assyrians were smitten by lightning, or by a fiery wind which sometimes comes from the southern parts of Chaldæa. After this victory Tirhakah succeeding Sethon, carried his arms westward through Libya and Afric to the mouth of the Straits: but Herodotus tells us, that the Priests of Egypt reckoned Sethon the last King of Egypt, who Reigned before the division of Egypt into twelve contemporary Kingdoms, and by consequence before the invasion of Egypt by the Assyrians.

For Asserhadon King of Assyria, in the 68th year of Nabonassar, after he had Reigned about thirty years over Assyria, invaded the Kingdom of Babylon, and then carried into captivity many people from Babylon, and Cuthah, and Ava, and Hamath, and Sepharvaim, placing them in the Regions of Samaria and Damascus: and from thence they carried into Babylonia and Assyria the remainder of the people of Israel and Syria, which had been left there by Tiglath-pileser. This captivity was 65 years after the first year of Ahaz, Isa. vii. 1, 8. & 2. King. xv. 37. & xvi. 5. and by consequence in the twentieth year of Manasseh, Anno Nabonass. 69. and then Tartan was sent by Asserhadon with an army against Ashdod or Azoth, a town at that time subject to Judæa, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6. and took it, Isa. xx. 1: and this post being secured, the Assyrians beat the Jews, and captivated Manasseh, and subdued Judæa: and in these wars, Isaiah was saw'd asunder by the command of Manasseh, for prophesying against him. Then the Assyrians invaded and subdued Egypt and Ethiopia, and carried the Egyptians and Ethiopians into captivity, and thereby put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over Egypt, Isa. vii. 18. & viii. 7. & x. 11, 12, & xix. 23. & xx. 4. In this war the city No-Ammon or Thebes, which had hitherto continued in a flourishing condition, was miserably wasted and led into captivity, as is described by Nahum, chap. iii. ver. 8, 9, 10; for Nahum wrote after the last invasion of Judæa by the Assyrians, chap. i. ver. 15; and therefore describes this captivity as fresh in memory: and this and other following invasions of Egypt under Nebuchadnezzar and Cambyses, put an end to the glory of that city. Asserhadon Reigned over the Egyptians and Ethiopians three years, Isa. xx. 3, 4. that is until his death, which was in the year of Nabonassar 81, and therefore invaded Egypt, and put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over the Egyptians, in the year of Nabonassar 78; so that the Ethiopians under Sabacon, and his successors Sethon and Tirhakah, Reigned over Egypt about 80 years: Herodotus allots 50 years to Sabacon, and Africanus fourteen years to Sethon, and eighteen to Tirhakah.

The division of Egypt into more Kingdoms than one, both before and after the Reign of the Ethiopians, and the conquest of the Egyptians by Asserhadon, the prophet Isaiah ^[340] seems allude unto in these words: I will set, saith he, the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour, city against city, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and the Spirit of Egypt shall fail.—And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord [viz. Asserhadon] and a fierce King shall Reign over them.—Surely the Princes of Zoan [Tanis] are fools, the counsel of the wise Councellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how long say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the ancient Kings.—The Princes of Zoan are be come fools: the Princes of Noph [Memphis] are deceived,—even they that were the stay of the tribes thereof.—In that day there shall be a high-way out of Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians.

After the death of Asserhadon, Egypt remained subject to twelve contemporary Kings, who revolted from the Assyrians, and Reigned together fifteen years; including I think the three years of Asserhadon, because the Egyptians do not reckon him among their Kings. They ^[341] built the Labyrinth adjoining to the Lake of Mœris which was a very magnificent structure, with twelve Halls in it, for their Palaces: and then Psammitichus, who was one of the twelve, conquered all the rest. He built the last Portico of the Temple of Vulcan, founded by Menes about 260 years before, and Reigned 54 years, including the fifteen years of his Reign with the twelve Kings. Then Reigned Nechaoh or Nechus, 17 years; Psammis six years; Vaphres, Apries, Eraphius, or Hophra, 25 years; Amasis 44 years; and Psammenitus six months, according to Herodotus. Egypt was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar in the last year but one of Hophra, Anno Nabonass. 178, and remained in subjection to Babylon forty years, Jer. xliv. 30. & Ezek. xxix. 12, 13, 14, 17, 19. that is, almost all the Reign of Amasis, a plebeian set over Egypt by the conqueror: the forty years ended with the death of Cyrus; for he Reigned over Egypt and Ethiopia, according to Xenophon. At that time therefore those nations recovered their liberty; but after four or five years more they were invaded and conquered by Cambyses, Anno Nabonass. 223 or 224, and have almost ever since remained in servitude, as was predicted by the Prophets.

The Reigns of Psammitichus, Nechus, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, and Psammenitus, set down by Herodotus, amount unto 146½ years: and so many years there were from the 78th year of Nabonassar, in which the dominion of the Ethiopians over Egypt came to an end, unto the 224th year of Nabonassar, in which Cambyses invaded Egypt, and put an end to that Kingdom: which is an argument that Herodotus was circumspect and faithful in his narrations, and has given us a good account of the antiquities of Egypt, so far as the Priests of Egypt at Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, and the Carians and Ionians inhabiting Egypt, were then able to inform him: for he consulted them all; and the Cares and Ionians had been in Egypt from the time of the Reign of the twelve contemporary Kings.

Pliny ^[342] tells us, that the Egyptian Obelisks were of a sort of stone dug near Syene in Thebais, and that the first Obelisk was made by Mitres, who Reigned in Heliopolis; that is, by Mephres the predecessor of Misphragmuthosis; and that afterwards other Kings made others: Sochis, that is Sesochis, or Sesac, four, each of 48 cubits in length; Ramises, that is Ramesses, two; Smarres, that is Mœris, one of 48 cubits in length; Eraphius, or Hophra, one of 48; and Nectabis, or Nectenabis, one of 80. Mephres therefore extended his dominion over all the upper Egypt, from Syene to Heliopolis, and after him, Misphragmuthosis and Amosis, Reigned Ammon and Sesac, who erected the first great Empire in the world: and these four, Amosis, Ammon, Sesac, and Orus, Reigned in the four ages of the great Gods of Egypt; and Amenophis was the Menes who Reigned next after them: he was Succeeded by Ramesses, and Mœris, and some time after by Hophra.

Diodorus ^[343] recites the same Kings of Egypt with Herodotus, but in a more confused order, and repeats some of them twice, or oftener, under various names, and omits others: his Kings are these; Jupiter Ammon and Juno, Osiris and Isis, Horus, Menes, Busiris I, Busiris II, Osymanduas, Uchoreus, Myris, Sesoosis I, Sesoosis II, Amasis, Actisanes, Mendes or Marrus, Proteus, Remphis, Chembis, Cephren, Mycerinus or Cherinus, Gnephacthus, Bocchoris, Sabacon, twelve contemporary Kings, Psammitichus, * * Apries, Amasis. Here I take Sesoosis I, and Sesoosis II, Busiris I, and Busiris II, to be the same Kings with Osiris and Orus: also Osymanduas to be the same with Amenophis or Menes: also Amasis, and Actisanes, an Ethiopian who conquered him, to be the same with Anysis and Sabacon in Herodotus: and Uchoreus, Mendes, Marrus, and Myris, to be only several names of one and the same King. Whence the catalogue of Diodorus will be reduced to this: Jupiter Ammon and Juno; Osiris, Busiris or Sesoosis, and Isis; Horus, Busiris II, or Sesoosis II; Menes, or Osymanduas; Proteus; Remphis or Ramesses; Uchoreus, Mendes, Marrus, or Myris; Chembis or Cheops; Cephren; Mycerinus; * * Gnephacthus; Bocchoris; Amasis, or Anysis; Actisanes, or Sabacon; * twelve contemporary Kings; Psammitichus; * * Apries; Amasis: to which, if in their proper places you add Nitocris, Asychis, Sethon, Nechus, and Psammis, you will have the catalogue of Herodotus.

The Dynasties of Manetho and Eratosthenes seem to be filled with many such names of Kings as Herodotus omitted: when it shall be made appear that any of them Reigned in Egypt after the expulsion of the Shepherds, and were different from the Kings described above, they may be inserted in their proper places.

Egypt was conquered by the Ethiopians under Sabacon, about the beginning of the Æra of Nabonassar, or perhaps three or four years before, that is, about three hundred years before Herodotus wrote his history; and about eighty years after that conquest, it was conquered again by the Assyrians under Asserhadon: and the history of Egypt set down by Herodotus from the time of this last conquest, is right both as to the number, and order, and names of the Kings, and as to the length of their Reigns: and therein he is now followed by historians, being the only author who hath given us so good a history of Egypt, for that interval of time. If his history of the earlier times be less accurate, it was because the archives of Egypt had suffered much during the Reign of the Ethiopians and Assyrians: and it is not likely that the Priests of Egypt, who lived two or three hundred years after the days of Herodotus, could mend the matter: on the contrary, after Cambyses had carried away the records of Egypt, the Priests were daily feigning new Kings, to make their Gods and nation look ancient; as is manifest by comparing Herodotus with Diodorus Siculus, and both of them with what Plato relates out of the Poem of Solon: which Poem makes the wars of the great Gods of Egypt against the Greeks, to have been in the days of Cecrops, Erechtheus and Erichthonius, and a little before those of Theseus; these Gods at that time instituting Temples and Sacred Rites to themselves. I have therefore chosen to rely upon the stories related to Herodotus by the Priests of Egypt in those days, and corrected by the Poem of Solon, so as to make these Gods of Egypt no older than Cecrops and Erechtheus, and their successor Menes no older than Theseus and Memnon, and the Temple of Vulcan not above 280 years in building: rather than to correct Herodotus by Manetho, Eratosthenes, Diodorus, and others, who lived after the Priests of Egypt had corrupted their Antiquities much more than they had done in the days of Herodotus.

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CHAP. III.

Of the ASSYRIAN Empire.

As the Gods or ancient Deified Kings and Princes of Greece, Egypt, and Syria of Damascus, have been made much ancienter than the truth, so have those of Chaldæa and Assyria: for Diodorus ^[344] tells us, that when Alexander the great was in Asia, the Chaldæans reckoned 473000 years since they first began to observe the Stars; and Ctesias, and the ancient Greek and Latin writers who copy from him, have made the Assyrian Empire as old as Noah's flood within 60 or 70 years, and tell us the names of all the Kings of Assyria downwards, from Belus and his feigned son Ninus, to Sardanapalus the last King of that Monarchy: but the names of his Kings, except two or three, have no affinity with the names of the Assyrians mentioned in Scripture; for the Assyrians were usually named after their Gods, Bel or Pul; Chaddon, Hadon, Adon, or Adonis; Melech or Moloch; Atsur or Assur; Nebo; Nergal; Merodach: as in these names, Pul, Tiglath-Pul-Assur, Salman-Assur, Adra-Melech, Shar-Assur, Assur-Hadon, Sardanapalus or Assur-Hadon-Pul, Nabonassar or Nebo-Adon-Assur, Bel Adon, Chiniladon or Chen-El-Adon, Nebo-Pul-Assur, Nebo-Chaddon-Assur, Nebuzaradon or Nebo-Assur-Adon, Nergal-Assur, Nergal-Shar-Assur, Labo-Assur-dach, Sheseb-Assur, Beltes-Assur, Evil-Merodach, Shamgar-Nebo, Rabsaris or Rab-Assur, Nebo-Shashban, Mardocempad or Merodach-Empad. Such were the Assyrian names; but those in Ctesias are of another sort, except Sardanapalus, whose name he had met with in Herodotus. He makes Semiramis as old as the first Belus; but Herodotus tells us, that she was but five Generations older than the mother of Labynetus: he represents that the city Ninus was founded by a man of the same name, and Babylon by Semiramis; whereas either Nimrod or Assur founded those and other cities, without giving his own name to any of them: he makes the Assyrian Empire continue about 1360 years, whereas Herodotus tells us that it lasted only 500 years, and the numbers of Herodotus concerning those ancient times are all of them too long: he makes Nineveh destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians, three hundred years before the Reign of Astibares and Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed it, and sets down the names of seven or eight feigned Kings of Media, between the destruction of Nineveh and the Reigns of Astibares and Nebuchadnezzar, as if the Empire of the Medes, erected upon the ruins of the Assyrian Empire, had lasted 300 years, whereas it lasted but 72: and the true Empire of the Assyrians described in Scripture, whose Kings were Pul, Tiglath-pilesar, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Asserhadon, &c. he mentions not, tho' much nearer to his own times; which shews that he was ignorant of the antiquities of the Assyrians. Yet something of truth there is in the bottom of some of his stories, as there uses to be in Romances; as, that Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians; that Sardanapalus was the last King of the Assyrian Empire; and that Astibares and Astyages were Kings of the Medes: but he has made all things too ancient, and out of vainglory taken too great a liberty in feigning names and stories to please his reader.

When the Jews were newly returned from the Babylonian captivity, they confessed their Sins in this manner, Now therefore our God, —— let not all the trouble seem little before thee that hath come upon us, on our Kings, on our Princes, and on our Priests, and on our Prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the Kings of Assyria, unto this day; Nehem. ix. 32. that is, since the time of the Kingdom of Assyria, or since the rise of that Empire; and therefore the Assyrian Empire arose when the Kings of Assyria began to afflict the inhabitants of Palestine; which was in the days of Pul: he and his successors afflicted Israel, and conquered the nations round about them; and upon the ruin of many small and ancient Kingdoms erected their Empire, conquering the Medes as well as other nations: but of these conquests Ctesias knew not a word, no not so much as the names of the conquerors, or that there was an Assyrian Empire then standing; for he supposes that the Medes Reigned at that time, and that the Assyrian Empire was at an end above 250 years before it began.

However we must allow that Nimrod founded a Kingdom at Babylon, and perhaps extended it into Assyria: but this Kingdom was but of small extent, if compared with the Empires which rose up afterwards; being only within the fertile plains of Chaldæa, Chalonitis and Assyria, watered by the Tigris and Euphrates: and if it had been greater, yet it was but of short continuance, it being the custom in those early ages for every father to divide his territories amongst his sons. So Noah was King of all the world, and Cham was King of all Afric, and Japhet of all Europe and Asia minor; but they left no standing Kingdoms. After the days of Nimrod, we hear no more of an Assyrian Empire 'till the days of Pul. The four Kings who in the days of Abraham invaded the southern coast of Canaan came from the countries where Nimrod had Reigned, and perhaps were some of his posterity who had shared his conquests. In the time of the Judges of Israel, Mesopotamia was under its own King, Judg. iii. 8. and the King of Zobah Reigned on both sides of the River Euphrates 'till David conquered him, 2 Sam. viii, and x. The Kingdoms of Israel, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Philistia, Zidon, Damascus, and Hamath the great, continued subject to other Lords than the Assyrians 'till the days of Pul and his successors; and so did the house of Eden, Amos i. 5. 2 Kings xix. 12. and Haran or Carrhæ, Gen. xii. 2 Kings xix. 12. and Sepharvaim in Mesopotamia, and Calneh near Bagdad, Gen. x. 10, Isa. x. 9, 2 Kings xvii. 31. Sesac and Memnon were great conquerors, and Reigned over Chaldæa, Assyria, and Persia, but in their histories there is not a word of any opposition made to them by an Assyrian Empire then standing: on the contrary, Susiana, Media, Persia, Bactria, Armenia, Cappadocia, &c. were conquered by them, and continued subject to the Kings of Egypt 'till after the long Reign of Ramesses the son of Memnon, as above.

Homer mentions Bacchus and Memnon Kings of Egypt and Persia, but knew nothing of an Assyrian Empire. Jonah prophesied when Israel was in affliction under the King of Syria, and this was in the latter part of the Reign of Jehoahaz, and first part of the Reign of Joash, Kings of Israel, and I think in the Reign of Mœris the successor of Ramesses King of Egypt, and about sixty years before the Reign of Pul; and Nineveh was then a city of large extent, but full of pastures for cattle, so that it contained but about 120000 persons. It was not yet grown so great and potent as not to be terrified at the preaching of Jonah, and to fear being invaded by its neighbours and ruined within forty days: it had some time before got free from the dominion of Egypt, and had got a King of its own; but its King was not yet called King of Assyria, but only King of Nineveh, Jonah iii. 6, 7. and his proclamation for a fast was not published in several nations, nor in all Assyria, but only in Nineveh, and perhaps in the villages thereof; but soon after, when the dominion of Nineveh was established at home, and exalted over all Assyria properly so called, and this Kingdom began to make war upon the neighbouring nations, its Kings were no longer called Kings of Nineveh but began to be called Kings of Assyria.

Amos prophesied in the Reign of Jeroboam the Son of Joash King of Israel, soon after Jeroboam had subdued the Kingdoms of Damascus and Hamath, that is, about ten or twenty years before the Reign of Pul: and he ^[345] thus reproves Israel for being lifted up by those conquests; Ye which rejoyce in a thing of nought, which say, have we not taken to us horns by our strength? But behold I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord the God of Hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entring in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness. God here threatens to raise up a nation against Israel; but what nation he names not; that he conceals 'till the Assyrians should appear and discover it. In the prophesies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah and Zechariah, which were written after the Monarchy grew up, it is openly named upon all occasions; but in this of Amos not once, tho' the captivity of Israel and Syria be the subject of the prophesy, and that of Israel be often threatned: he only saith in general that Syria should go into captivity unto Kir, and that Israel, notwithstanding her present greatness, should go into captivity beyond Damascus; and that God would raise up a nation to afflict them: meaning that he would raise up above them from a lower condition, a nation whom they yet feared not: for so the Hebrew word מקם signifies when applied to men, as in Amos v. 2. 1 Sam. xii. 11. Psal. cxiii. 7. Jer. x. 20. l. 32. Hab. i. 6. Zech. xi. 16. As Amos names not the Assyrians; at the writing of this prophecy they made no great figure in the world, but were to be raised up against Israel, and by consequence rose up in the days of Pul and his successors: for after Jeroboam had conquered Damascus and Hamath, his successor Menahem destroyed Tiphsah with its territories upon Euphrates, because they opened not to him: and therefore Israel continued in its greatness 'till Pul, probably grown formidable by some victories, caused Menahem to buy his peace. Pul therefore Reigning presently after the prophesy of Amos, and being the first upon record who began to fulfill it, may be justly reckoned the first conqueror and founder of this Empire. For God stirred up the spirit of Pul, and the spirit of Tiglath-pileser King of Assyria, 1 Chron. v. 20.

The same Prophet Amos, in prophesying against Israel, threatned them in this manner, with what had lately befallen other Kingdoms: Pass ye, ^[346] saith he, unto Calneh and see, and from thence go ye to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistims. Be they better than these Kingdoms? These Kingdoms were not yet conquered by the Assyrians, except that of Calneh or Chalonitis upon Tigris, between Babylon and Nineveh. Gath was newly vanquished ^[347] by Uzziah King of Judah, and Hamath ^[348] by Jeroboam King of Israel: and while the Prophet, in threatning Israel with the Assyrians, instances in desolations made by other nations, and mentions no other conquest of the Assyrians than that of Chalonitis near Nineveh; it argues that the King of Nineveh was now beginning his conquests, and had not yet made any great progress in that vast career of victories, which we read of a few years after.

For about seven years after the captivity of the ten Tribes, when Sennacherib warred in Syria, which was in the 16th Olympiad, he ^[349] sent this message to the King of Judah: Behold, thou hast heard that the Kings of Assyria have done to all Lands by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered? Have the Gods of the nations delivered them which the Gods of my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan and Haran and Reseph, and the children of Eden which were in [the Kingdom of] Thelasar? Where is the King of Hamath, and the King of Arpad, and the King of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivah? And Isaiah ^[350] thus introduceth the King of Assyria boasting: Are not my Princes altogether as Kings? Is not Calno [or Calneh] as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus? As my hand hath found the Kingdoms of the Idols, and whose graven Images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; shall I not as I have done unto Samaria and her Idols, so do to Jerusalem and her Idols? All this desolation is recited as fresh in memory to terrify the Jews, and these Kingdoms reach to the borders of Assyria, and to shew the largeness of the conquests they are called all lands, that is, all round about Assyria. It was the custom of the Kings of Assyria, for preventing the rebellion of people newly conquered, to captivate and transplant those of several countries into one another's lands, and intermix them variously: and thence it appears ^[351] that Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and Gozan, and the cities of the Medes into which Galilee and Samaria were transplanted; and Kir into which Damascus was transplanted; and Babylon and Cuth or the Susanchites, and Hamath, and Ava, and Sepharvaim, and the Dinaites, and the Apharsachites, and the Tarpelites, and the Archevites, and the Dehavites, and the Elamites, or Persians, part of all which nations were led captive by Asserhadon and his predecessors into Samaria; were all of them conquered by the Assyrians not long before.

In these conquests are involved on the west and south side of Assyria, the Kingdoms of Mesopotamia, whose royal seats were Haran or Carrhæ, and Carchemish or Circutium, and Sepharvaim, a city upon Euphrates, between Babylon and Nineveh, called Sipparæ by Berosus, Abydenus, and Polyhistor, and Sipphara by Ptolomy; and the Kingdoms of Syria seated at Samaria, Damascus, Gath, Hamath, Arpad, and Reseph, a city placed by Ptolomy near Thapsacus: on the south side and south east side were Babylon and Calneh, or Calno, a city which was founded by Nimrod, where Bagdad now stands, and gave the name of Chalonitis to a large region under its government; and Thelasar or Talatha, a city of the children of Eden, placed by Ptolomy in Babylonia, upon the common stream of Tigris and Euphrates, which was therefore the river of Paradise; and the Archevites at Areca or Erech, a city built by Nimrod on the east side of Pasitigris, between Apamia and the Persian Gulph; and the Susanchites at Cuth, or Susa, the metropolis of Susiana: on the east were Elymais, and some cities of the Medes, and Kir, ^[352] a city and large region of Media, between Elymais, and Assyria, called Kirene by the Chaldee Paraphrast and Latin Interpreter, and Carine by Ptolomy: on the north-east were Habor or Chaboras, a mountainous region between Assyria and Media; and the Apharsachites, or men of Arrapachitis, a region originally peopled by Arphaxad, and placed by Ptolomy at the bottom of the mountains next Assyria: and on the north between Assyria and the Gordiæan mountains was Halah or Chalach, the metropolis of Calachene: and beyond these upon the Caspian sea was Gozan, called Gauzania by Ptolomy. Thus did these new conquests extend every way from the province of Assyria to considerable distances, and make up the great body of that Monarchy: so that well might the King of Assyria boast how his armies had destroyed all lands. All these nations ^[353] had 'till now their several Gods, and each accounted his God the God of his own land, and the defender thereof, against the Gods of the neighbouring countries, and particularly against the Gods of Assyria; and therefore they were never 'till now united under the Assyrian Monarchy, especially since the King of Assyria doth not boast of their being conquered by the Assyrians oftner than once: but these being small Kingdoms the King of Assyria easily overflowed them: Know ye not, saith ^[354] Sennacherib to the Jews, what I and my fathers have done unto all the People of other lands?—for no God of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand? He and his fathers therefore, Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, were great conquerors, and with a current of victories had newly overflowed all nations round about Assyria, and thereby set up this Monarchy.

Between the Reigns of Jeroboam II, and his son Zachariah, there was an interregnum of about ten or twelve years in the Kingdom of Israel: and the prophet Hosea ^[355] in the time of that interregnum, or soon after, mentions the King of Assyria by the name of Jareb, and another conqueror by the name of Shalman; and perhaps Shalman might be the first part of the name of Shalmaneser, and Iareb, or Irib, for it may be read both ways, the last part of the name of his successor Sennacherib: but whoever these Princes were, it appears not that they Reigned before Shalmaneser. Pul, or Belus, seems to be the first who carried on his conquests beyond the province of Assyria: he conquered Calneh with its territories in the Reign of Jerboam, Amos i. 1. vi. 2. & Isa. x. 8, 9. and invaded Israel in the Reign of Menahem, 2 King. xv. 19. but stayed not in the land, being bought off by Menahem for a thousand talents of silver: in his Reign therefore the Kingdom of Assyria was advanced on this side Tigris: for he was a great warrior, and seems to have conquered Haran, and Carchemish, and Reseph, and Calneh, and Thelasar, and might found or enlarge the city of Babylon, and build the old palace.

Herodotus tells us, that one of the gates of Babylon was ^[356] called the gate of Semiramis, and than she adorned the walls of the city, and the Temple of Belus, and that she ^[357] was five Generations older than Nitocris the mother of Labynitus, or Nabonnedus, the last King of Babylon; and therefore she flourished four Generations, or about 134 years, before Nebuchadnezzar , and by consequence in the Reign of Tiglath-pileser the successor of Pul: and the followers of Ctesias tell us, that she built Babylon, and was the widow of the son and successor of Belus, the founder of the Assyrian Empire; that is, the widow of one of the sons of Pul: but ^[358] Berosus a Chaldæan blames the Greeks for ascribing the building of Babylon to Semiramis; and other authors ascribe the building of this city to Belus himself, that is to Pul; so Curtius ^[359] tells us; Semiramis Babylonem condiderat, vel ut plerique credidere Belus, cujus regia ostenditur: and Abydenus, who had his history from the ancient monuments of the Chaldæans, writes, ^[360] Λεγεται Βηλον Βαβυλωνα τειχει περιβαλειν· τωι χρονωι δε τωι ικνευμενωι αφανισθηναι. τειχισαι δε αυθις Ναβουχοδονοσορον, το μεχρι της Μακεδονιων αρχης διαμειναν εον χαλκοπυλον. 'Tis reported that Belus compassed Babylon with a wall, which in time was abolished: and that Nebuchadnezzar afterwards built a new wall with brazen gates, which stood 'till the time of the Macedonian Empire: and so Dorotheas ^[361] an ancient Poet of Sidon;

That is, by the Syrian or Assyrian Belus; the words Tyrian, Syrian, and Assyrian, being anciently used promiscuously for one another: Herennius ^[362] tells us, that it was built by the son of Belus; and this son might be Nabonassar. After the conquest of Calneh, Thelasar, and Sippare, Belus might seize Chaldæa, and begin to build Babylon, and leave it to his younger son: for all the Kings of Babylon in the Canon of Ptolemy are called Assyrians, and Nabonassar is the first of them: and Nebuchadnezzar ^[363] reckoned himself descended from Belus, that is, from the Assyrian Pul: and the building of Babylon is ascribed to the Assyrians by ^[364] Isaiah: Behold, saith he, the land of the Chaldeans: This people was not 'till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness, [that is, for the Arabians.] They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof. From all this it seems therefore that Pul founded the walls and the palaces of Babylon, and left the city with the province of Chaldæa to his younger son Nabonassar; and that Nabonassar finished what his father began, and erected the Temple of Jupiter Belus to his father: and that Semiramis lived in those days, and was the Queen of Nabonassar, because one of the gates of Babylon was called the gate of Semiramis, as Herodotus affirms: but whether she continued to Reign there after her husband's death may be doubted.

Pul therefore was succeeded at Nineveh by his elder son Tiglath-pileser, at the same time that he left Babylon to his younger son Nabonassar. Tiglath-pileser, the second King of Assyria, warred in Phœnicia, and captivated Galilee with the two Tribes and an half, in the days of Pekah King of Israel, and placed them in Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and at the river Gozan, places lying on the western borders of Media, between Assyria and the Caspian sea, 2 King. xv. 29, &: 1 Chron. v. 26. and about the fifth or sixth year of Nabonassar, he came to the assistance of the King of Judah against the Kings of Israel and Syria, and overthrew the Kingdom of Syria, which had been seated at Damascus ever since the days of King David, and carried away the Syrians to Kir in Media, as Amos had prophesied, and placed other nations in the regions of Damascus, 2 King. xv. 37, & xvi. 5, 9. Amos i. 5. Joseph. Antiq. l. 9. c. 13. whence it seems that the Medes were conquered before, and that the Empire of the Assyrians was now grown great: for the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul King of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-pileser King of Assyria to make war, 1 Chron. v. 26.

Shalmaneser or Salmanasser, called Enemessar by Tobit, invaded ^[365] all Phœnicia, took the city of Samaria, and captivated Israel, and placed them in Chalach and Chabor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes; and Hosea ^[366] seems to say that he took Arbela: and his successor Sennacherib said that his fathers had conquered also Gozan, and Haran or Carrhæ, and Reseph or Resen, and the children of Eden, and Arpad or the Aradii, 2 King. xix. 12.

Sennacherib the son of Shalmaneser in the 14th year of Hezekiah invaded Phœnicia, and took several cities of Judah, and attempted Egypt; and Sethon or Sevechus King of Egypt and Tirhakah King of Ethiopia coming against him, he lost in one night 185000 men, as some say by a plague, or perhaps by lightning, or a fiery wind which blows sometimes in the neighbouring deserts, or rather by being surprised by Sethon and Tirhakah: for the Egyptians in memory of this action erected a statue to Sethon, holding in his hand a mouse, the Egyptian symbol of destruction. Upon this defeat Sennacherib returned in haste to Nineveh, and ^[367] his Kingdom became troubled, so that Tobit could not go into Media, the Medes I think at this time revolting: and he was soon after slain by two of his sons who fled into Armenia, and his son Asserhadon succeeded him. At that time did Merodach Baladan or Mardocempad King of Babylon send an embassy to Hezekiah King of Judah.

Asserhadon, ^[368] called Sarchedon by Tobit, Asordan by the LXX, and Assaradin in Ptolomy's Canon, began his Reign at Nineveh, in the year of Nabonassar 42; and in the year 68 extended it over Babylon: then he carried the remainder of the Samaritans into captivity, and peopled Samaria with captives brought from several parts of his Kingdom, the Dinaites, the Apharsachites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, the Elamites, Ezra iv. 2, 9. and therefore he Reigned over all these nations. Pekah and Rezin Kings of Samaria and Damascus, invaded Judæa in the first year of Ahaz, and within 65 years after, that is in the 21st year of Manasseh, Anno Nabonass. 69, Samaria by this captivity ceased to be a people, Isa. vii. 8. Then Asserhadon invaded Judæa, took Azoth, carried Manasseh captive to Babylon, and ^[369] captivated also Egypt, Thebais, and Ethiopia above Thebais: and by this war he seems to have put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over Egypt, in the year of Nabonassar 77 or 78.

In the Reign of Sennacherib and Asserhadon, the Assyrian Empire seems arrived at its greatness, being united under one Monarch, and containing Assyria, Media, Apolloniatis, Susiana, Chaldæa, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria, Phœnicia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and part of Arabia, and reaching eastward into Elymais, and Parætacene, a province of the Medes: and if Chalach and Chabor be Colchis and Iberia, as some think, and as may seem probable from the circumcision used by those nations 'till the days of Herodotus, we are also to add these two Provinces, with the two Armenia's, Pontus and Cappadocia, as far as to the river Halys: for ^[370] Herodotus tells us, that the people of Cappadocia as far as to that river were called Syrians by the Greeks, both before and after the days or Cyrus, and that the Assyrians were also called Syrians by the Greeks.

Yet the Medes revolted from the Assyrians in the latter end of the Reign of Sennacherib, I think upon the slaughter of his army near Egypt and his flight to Nineveh: for at that time the estate of Sennacherib was troubled, so that Tobit could not go into Media as he had done before, Tobit i. 15. and some time after, Tobit advised his son to go into Media where he might expect peace, while Nineveh, according to the prophesy of Jonah, should be destroyed. Ctesias wrote that Arbaces a Mede being admitted to see Sardanapalus in his palace, and observing his voluptuous life amongst women, revolted with the Medes, and in conjunction with Belesis a Babylonian overcame him, and caused him to set fire to his palace and burn himself: but he is contradicted by other authors of better credit; for Duris and ^[371] many others wrote that Arbaces upon being admitted into the palace of Sardanapalus, and seeing his effeminate life, slew himself; and Cleitarchus, that Sardanapalus died of old age, after he had lost his dominion over Syria: he lost it by the revolt of the western nations; and Herodotus ^[372] tells us, that the Medes revolted first, and defended their liberty by force of arms against the Assyrians, without conquering them; and at their first revolting had no King, but after some time set up Dejoces over them, and built Ecbatane for his residence; and that Dejoces Reigned only over Media, and had a peaceable Reign of 54 years, but his son and successor Phraortes made war upon his neighbours, and conquered Persia; and that the Syrians also, and other western nations, at length revolted from the Assyrians, being encouraged thereunto by the example of the Medes; and that after the revolt of the western nations, Phraortes invaded the Assyrians, but was slain by them in that war, after he had Reigned twenty and two years. He was succeeded by Astyages.

Now Asserhadon seems to be the Sardanapalus who died of old age after the revolt of Syria, the name Sardanapalus being derived from Asserhadon-Pul. Sardanapalus was the ^[373] son of Anacyndaraxis, Cyndaraxis, or Anabaxaris, King of Assyria; and this name seems to have been corruptly written for Sennacherib the father of Asserhadon. Sardanapalus built Tarsus and Anchiale in one day, and therefore Reigned over Cilicia, before the revolt of the western nations: and if he be the same King with Asserhadon, he was succeeded by Saosduchinus in the year of Nabonassar 81; and by this revolution Manasseh was set at liberty to return home and fortify Jerusalem: and the Egyptians also, after the Assyrians had harrassed Egypt and Ethiopia three years, Isa. xx. 3, 4. were set at liberty, and continued under twelve contemporary Kings of their own nation, as above. The Assyrians invaded and conquered the Egyptians the first of the three years, and Reigned over them two years more: and these two years are the interregnum which Africanus, from Manetho, places next before the twelve Kings. The Scythians of Touran or Turquestan beyond the river Oxus began in those days to infest Persia, and by one of their inroads might give occasion to the revolt of the western nations.

In the year of Nabonassar 101, Saosduchinus, after a Reign of twenty years, was succeeded at Babylon by Chyniladon, and I think at Nineveh also, for I take Chyniladon to be that Nabuchodonosor who is mentioned in the book of Judith; for the history of that King suits best with these times: for there it is said that Nabuchodonosor King of the Assyrians who Reigned at Nineveh, that great city, in the twelfth year of his Reign made war upon Arphaxad King of the Medes, and was then left alone by a defection of the auxiliary nations of Cilicia, Damascus, Syria, Phœnicia, Moab, Ammon, and Egypt; and without their help routed the army of the Medes, and slew Arphaxad: and Arphaxad is there said to have built Ecbatane and therefore was either Dejoces, or his son Phraortes, who might finish the city founded by his father: and Herodotus ^[374] tells the same story of a King of Assyria, who routed the Medes, and slew their King Phraortes; and saith that in the time of this war the Assyrians were left alone by the defection of the auxiliary nations, being otherwise in good condition: Arphaxad was therefore the Phraortes of Herodotus, and by consequence was slain near the beginning of the Reign of Josiah: for this war was made after Phœnicia, Moab, Ammon, and Egypt had been conquered and revolted, Judith i. 7, 8, 9. and by consequence after the Reign of Asserhadon who conquered them: it was made when the Jews were newly returned from captivity, and the Vessels and Altar and Temple were sanctified after the profanation, Judith iv. 3. that is soon after Manasseh their King had been carried captive to Babylon by Asserhadon; and upon the death of that King, or some other change in the Assyrian Empire, had been released with the Jews from that captivity, and had repaired the Altar, and restored the sacrifices and worship of the Temple, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, 16. In the Greek version of the book of Judith, chap. v. 18. it is said, that the Temple of God was cast to the ground; but this is not said in Jerom's version; and in the Greek version, chap. iv. 3, and chap. xvi. 20, it is said, that the vessels, and the altar, and the house were sanctified after the prophanation, and in both versions, chap. iv. 11, the Temple is represented standing.

After this war Nabuchodonosor King of Assyria, in the 13th year of his Reign, according to the version of Jerom, sent his captain Holofernes with a great army to avenge himself on all the west country; because they had disobeyed his commandment: and Holofernes went forth with an army of 12000 horse, and 120000 foot of Assyrians, Medes and Persians, and reduced Cilicia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, and Damascus, and part of Arabia, and Ammon, and Edom, and Madian, and then came against Judæa: and this was done when the government was in the hands of the High-Priest and Antients of Israel, Judith iv. 8. and vii. 23. and by consequence not in the Reign of Manasseh or Amon, but when Josiah was a child. In times of prosperity the children of Israel were apt to go after false Gods, and in times of affliction to repent and turn to the Lord. So Manasseh a very wicked King, being captivated by the Assyrians, repented; and being released from captivity restored the worship of the true God: So when we are told that Josiah in the eighth year of his Reign, while he was yet young, began to seek after the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year of his Reign began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from Idolatry, and to destroy the High Places, and Groves, and Altars and Images of Baalim, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3. we may understand that these acts of religion were occasioned by impending dangers, and escapes from danger. When Holofernes came against the western nations, and spoiled them, then were the Jews terrified, and they fortified Judæa, and cryed unto God with great fervency, and humbled themselves in sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads, and cried unto the God of Israel that he would not give their wives and their children and cities for a prey, and the Temple for a profanation: and the High-priest, and all the Priests put on sackcloth and ashes, and offered daily burnt offerings with vows and free gifts of the people, Judith iv. and then began Josiah to seek after the God of his father David: and after Judith had slain Holofernes, and the Assyrians were fled, and the Jews who pursued them were returned to Jerusalem, they worshipped the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and gifts, and continued feasting before the sanctuary for the space of three months, Judith xvi. 18, and then did Josiah purge Judah and Jerusalem from Idolatry. Whence it seems to me that the eighth year of Josiah fell in with the fourteenth or fifteenth of Nabuchodonosor, and that the twelfth year of Nabuchodonosor, in which Phraortes was slain, was the fifth or sixth of Josiah. Phraortes Reigned 22 years according to Herodotus, and therefore succeeded his father Dejoces about the 40th year of Manasseh, Anno Nabonass. 89, and was slain by the Assyrians, and succeeded by Astyages, Anno Nabonass. 111. Dejoces Reigned 53 years according to Herodotus, and these years began in the 16th year of Hezekiah; which makes it probable that the Medes dated them from the time of their revolt: and according to all this reckoning, the Reign of Nabuchodonosor fell in with that of Chyniladon; which makes it probable that they were but two names of one and the same King.

Soon after the death of Phraortes ^[375] the Scythians under Madyes or Medus invaded Media, and beat the Medes in battle, Anno Nabonass. 113, and went thence towards Egypt, but were met in Phœnicia by Psammitichus and bought off, and returning Reigned over a great part of Asia: but in the end of about 28 years were expelled; many of their Princes and commanders being slain in a feast by the Medes under the conduct of Cyaxeres, the successor of Astyages, just before the destruction of Nineveh, and the rest being soon after forced to retire.

In the year of Nabonassar 123, ^[376] Nabopolassar the commander of the forces of Chyniladon the King of Assyria in Chaldæa revolted from him, and became King of Babylon; and Chyniladon was either then, or soon after, succeeded at Nineveh by the last King of Assyria, called Sarac by Polyhistor: and at length Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, married Amyite the daughter of Astyages and sister of Cyaxeres; and by this marriage the two families having contracted affinity, they conspired against the Assyrians; and Nabopolasser being now grown old, and Astyages being dead, their sons Nebuchadnezzar and Cyaxeres led the armies of the two nations against Nineveh, slew Sarac, destroyed the city, and shared the Kingdom of the Assyrians. This victory the Jews refer to the Chaldæans; the Greeks to the Medes; Tobit, Polyhistor, Josephus, and Ctesias to both. It gave a beginning to the great successes of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyaxeres, and laid the foundation of the two collateral Empires of the Babylonians and Medes; these being branches of the Assyrian Empire: and thence the time of the fall of the Assyrian Empire is determined, the conquerors being then in their youth. In the Reign of Josiah, when Zephaniah prophesied, Nineveh and the Kingdom of Assyria were standing, and their fall was predicted by that Prophet, Zeph. i. 1, and ii. 13. and in the end of his Reign Pharaoh Nechoh King of Egypt, the successor of Psammitichus, went up against the King of Assyria to the river Euphrates, to fight against Carchemish or Circutium, and in his way thither slew Josiah, 2 Kings xxiii. 29. 2 Chron. xxxv. 20. and therefore the last King of Assyria was not yet slain. But in the third and fourth year of Jehoiakim the successor of Josiah, the two conquerors having taken Nineveh and finished their war in Assyria, prosecuted their conquests westward, and leading their forces against the King of Egypt, as an invader of their right of conquest, they beat him at Carchemish, and ^[377] took from him whatever he had newly taken from the Assyrians: and therefore we cannot err above a year or two, if we refer the destruction of Nineveh, and fall of the Assyrian Empire, to the second year of Jehoiakim, Anno Nabonass. 140. The name of the last King Sarac might perhaps be contracted from Sarchedon, as this name was from Asserhadon, Asserhadon-Pul, or Sardanapalus.

While the Assyrians Reigned at Nineveh, Persia was divided into several Kingdoms; and amongst others there was a Kingdom of Elam, which flourished in the days of Hezekiah, Manasseh, Josiah, and Jehoiakim Kings of Judah, and fell in the days of Zedekiah, Jer. xxv. 25, and xlix. 34, and Ezek. xxxii. 24. This Kingdom seems to have been potent, and to have had wars with the King of Touran or Scythia beyond the river Oxus with various success, and at length to have been subdued by the Medes and Babylonians, or one of them. For while Nebuchadnezzar warred in the west, Cyaxeres recovered the Assyrian provinces of Armenia, Pontus, and Cappadocia, and then they went eastward against the provinces of Persia and Parthia. Whether the Pischdadians, whom the Persians reckon to have been their oldest Kings, were Kings of the Kingdom of Elam, or of that of the Assyrians, and whether Elam was conquered by the Assyrians at the same time with Babylonia and Susiana in the Reign of Asserhadon, and soon after revolted, I leave to be examined.

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CHAP. IV.

Of the two Contemporary Empires of the Babylonians and Medes.

By the fall of the Assyrian Empire the Kingdoms of the Babylonians and Medes grew great and potent. The Reigns of the Kings of Babylon are stated in Ptolemy's Canon: for understanding of which you are to note that every King's Reign in that Canon began with the last Thoth of his predecessor's Reign, as I gather by comparing the Reigns of the Roman Emperors in that Canon with their Reigns recorded in years, months, and days, by other Authors: whence it appears from that Canon that Asserhadon died in the year of Nabonassar 81, Saosduchinus his successor in the year 101, Chyniladon in the year 123, Nabopolassar in the year 144, and Nebuchadnezzar in the year 187. All these Kings, and some others mentioned in the Canon, Reigned successively over Babylon, and this last King died in the 37th year of Jechoniah's captivity, 2 Kings xxv. 27. and therefore Jechoniah was captivated in the 150th year of Nabonassar.

This captivity was in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign, 2 Kings xxiv. 12. and eleventh of Jehoiakim's: for the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign was the fourth of Jehoiakim's, Jer. xxv. i. and Jehoiakim Reigned eleven years before this captivity, 2 Kings xxiii. 36. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5, and Jechoniah three months, ending with the captivity; and the tenth year of Jechoniah's captivity, was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign, Jer. xxxii. 1. and the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in which Jerusalem was taken, was the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, Jer. lii. 5, 12. and therefore Nebuchadnezzar began his Reign in the year of Nabonassar 142, that is, two years before the death of his father Nabopolassar, he being then made King by his father; and Jehoiakim succeeded his father Josiah in the year of Nabonassar 139; and Jerusalem was taken and the Temple burnt in the year of Nabonassar 160, about twenty years after the destruction of Nineveh.

The Reign of Darius Hystaspis over Persia, by the Canon and the consent of all Chronologers, and by several Eclipses of the Moon, began in spring in the year of Nabonassar 227: and in the fourth year of King Darius, in the 4th day of the ninth month, which is the month Chisleu, when the Jews had sent unto the house of God, saying, should I weep in the fifth month as I have done these so many years? the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, speak to all the people of the Land, and to the Priests, saying; when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me? Zech. vii. Count backwards those seventy years in which they fasted in the fifth month for the burning of the Temple, and in the seventh for the death of Gedaliah; and the burning of the Temple and death of Gedaliah, will fall upon the fifth and seventh Jewish months, in the year of Nabonassar 160, as above.

As the Chaldæan Astronomers counted the Reigns of their Kings by the years of Nabonassar, beginning with the month Thoth, so the Jews, as their Authors tell us, counted the Reigns of theirs by the years of Moses, beginning every year with the month Nisan: for if any King began his Reign a few days before this month began, it was reckoned to him for a whole year, and the beginning of this month was accounted the beginning of the second year of his Reign; and according to this reckoning the first year of Jehojakim began with the month Nisan, Anno Nabonass. 139, tho' his Reign might not really begin 'till five or six months after; and the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and first of Nebuchadnezzar, according to the reckoning of the Jews, began with the month Nisan, Anno Nabonass. 142; and the first year of Zedekiah and of Jeconiah's captivity, and ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, began with the month Nisan, in the year of Nabonassar 150; and the tenth year of Zedekiah, and 18th of Nebuchadnezzar, began with the month Nisan in the year of Nabonassar 159. Now in the ninth year of Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judæa and the cities thereof and in the tenth month of that year, and tenth day of the month, he and his host besieged Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxv. 1. Jer. xxxiv. 1, xxxix. 1, and lii. 4. From this time to the tenth month in the second year of Darius are just seventy years, and accordingly, upon the 24th day of the eleventh month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah,—and the Angel of the Lord said, Oh Lord of Hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation, these threescore and ten years, Zech. i. 7, 12. So then the ninth year of Zedekiah, in which this indignation against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah began, commenced with the month Nisan in the year of Nabonassar 158; and the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, in which the city was taken and the Temple burnt, commenced with the month Nisan in the year of Nabonassar 160, as above.

By all these characters the years of Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, and Nebuchadnezzar, seem to be sufficiently determined, and thereby the Chronology of the Jews in the Old Testament is connected with that of later times: for between the death of Solomon and the ninth year of Zedekiah wherein Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judæa, and began the Siege of Jerusalem, there were 390 years, as is manifest both by the prophesy of Ezekiel, chap. iv, and by summing up the years of the Kings of Judah; and from the ninth year of Zedekiah inclusively to the vulgar Æra of Christ, there were 590 years: and both these numbers, with half the Reign of Solomon, make up a thousand years.

In the ^[378] end of the Reign of Josiah, Anno Nabonass. 139, Pharaoh Nechoh, the successor of Psammitichus, came with a great army out of Egypt against the King of Assyria, and being denied passage through Judæa, beat the Jews at Megiddo or Magdolus before Egypt, slew Josiah their King, marched to Carchemish or Circutium, a town of Mesopotamia upon Euphrates, and took it, possest himself of the cities of Syria, sent for Jehoahaz the new King of Judah to Riblah or Antioch, deposed him there, made Jehojakim King in the room of Josiah, and put the Kingdom of Judah to tribute: but the King of Assyria being in the mean time besieged and subdued, and Nineveh destroyed by Assuerus King of the Medes, and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, and the conquerors being thereby entitled to the countries belonging to the King of Assyria, they led their victorious armies against the King of Egypt who had seized part of them. For Nebuchadnezzar, assisted ^[379] by Astibares, that is, by Astivares, Assuerus, Acksweres, Axeres, or Cy-Axeres, King of the Medes, in the ^[380] third year of Jehoiakim, came with an army of Babylonians, Medes, Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites, to the number of 10000 chariots, and 180000 foot, and 120000 horse, and laid waste Samaria, Galilee, Scythopolis, and the Jews in Galaaditis, and besieged Jerusalem, and took King Jehoiakim alive, and ^[381] bound him in chains for a time, and carried to Babylon Daniel and others of the people, and part of what Gold and Silver and Brass they found in the Temple: and in ^[382] the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which was the twentieth of Nabopolassar, they routed the army of Pharaoh Nechoh at Carchemish, and by pursuing the war took from the King of Egypt whatever pertained to him from the river of Egypt to the river of Euphrates. This King of Egypt is called by Berosus, ^[383] the Satrapa of Egypt, Cœle-Syria, and Phœnicia; and this victory over him put an end to his Reign in Cœle-Syria and Phœnicia, which he had newly invaded, and gave a beginning to the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar there: and by the conquests over Assyria and Syria the small Kingdom of Babylon was erected into a potent Empire.

Whilst Nebuchadnezzar was acting in Syria, ^[384] his father Nabopolassar died, having Reigned 21 years; and Nebuchadnezzar upon the news thereof, having ordered his affairs in Syria returned to Babylon, leaving the captives and his army with his servants to follow him: and from henceforward he applied himself sometimes to war, conquering Sittacene, Susiana, Arabia, Edom, Egypt, and some other countries; and sometimes to peace, adorning the Temple of Belus with the spoils that he had taken; and the city of Babylon with magnificent walls and gates, and stately palaces and pensile gardens, as Berosus relates; and amongst other things he cut the new rivers Naarmalcha and Pallacopas above Babylon and built the city of Teredon.

Judæa was now in servitude under the King of Babylon, being invaded and subdued in the third and fourth years of Jehoiakim, and Jehoiakim served him three years, and then turned and rebelled, 2 King. xxiv. 1. While Nebuchadnezzar and the army of the Chaldæans continued in Syria, Jehojakim was under compulsion; after they returned to Babylon, Jehojakim continued in fidelity three years, that is, during the 7th, 8th and 9th years of his Reign, and rebelled in the tenth: whereupon in the return or end of the year, that is in spring, he sent ^[385] and besieged Jerusalem, captivated Jeconiah the son and successor of Jehoiakim, spoiled the Temple, and carried away to Babylon the Princes, craftsmen, smiths, and all that were fit for war: and, when none remained but the poorest of the people, made ^[386] Zedekiah their King, and bound him upon oath to serve the King of Babylon: this was in spring in the end of the eleventh year of Jehoiakim, and beginning of the year of Nabonassar 150.

Zedekiah notwithstanding his oath ^[387] revolted, and made a covenant with the King of Egypt, and therefore Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year of Zedekiah ^[388] invaded Judæa and the cities thereof, and in the tenth Jewish month of that year besieged Jerusalem again, and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the 4th and 5th months, after a siege of one year and an half, took and burnt the City and Temple.

Nebuchadnezzar after he was made King by his father Reigned over Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria 45 years, and ^[389] after the death of his father 43 years, and ^[390] after the captivity of Jeconiah 37; and then was succeeded by his son Evilmerodach, called Iluarodamus in Ptolemy's Canon. Jerome ^[391] tells us, that Evilmerodach Reigned seven years in his father's life-time, while his father did eat grass with oxen, and after his father's restoration was put in prison with Jeconiah King of Judah 'till the death of his father, and then succeeded in the Throne. In the fifth year of Jeconiah's captivity, Belshazzar was next in dignity to his father Nebuchadnezzar, and was designed to be his successor, Baruch i. 2, 10, 11, 12, 14, and therefore Evilmerodach was even then in disgrace. Upon his coming to the Throne ^[392] he brought his friend and companion Jeconiah out of prison on the 27th day of the twelfth month; so that Nebuchadnezzar died in the end of winter, Anno Nabonass. 187.

Evilmerodach Reigned two years after his father's death, and for his lust and evil manners was slain by his sister's husband Neriglissar, or Nergalassar, Nabonass. 189, according to the Canon.

Neriglissar, in the name of his young son Labosordachus, or Laboasserdach, the grand-child of Nebuchadnezzar by his daughter, Reigned four years, according to the Canon and Berosus, including the short Reign of Laboasserdach alone: for Laboasserdach, according to Berosus and Josephus, Reigned nine months after the death of his father, and then for his evil manners was slain in a feast, by the conspiracy of his friends with Nabonnedus a Babylonian, to whom by consent they gave the Kingdom: but these nine months are not reckoned apart in the Canon.

Nabonnedus or Nabonadius, according to the Canon, began his Reign in the year of Nabonassar 193, Reigned seventeen years, and ended his Reign in the year of Nabonassar 210, being then vanquished and Babylon taken by Cyrus.

Herodotus calls this last King of Babylon, Labynitus, and says that he was the son of a former Labynitus, and of Nitocris an eminent Queen of Babylon: by the father he seems to understand that Labynitus, who, as he tells us, was King of Babylon when the great Eclipse of the Sun predicted by Thales put an end to the five years war between the Medes and Lydians; and this was the great Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel ^[393] calls the last King of Babylon, Belshazzar, and saith that Nebuchadnezzar was his father: and Josephus tells us, ^[394] that the last King of Babylon was called Naboandel by the Babylonians, and Reigned seventeen years; and therefore he is the same King of Babylon with Nabonnedus or Labynitus; and this is more agreeable to sacred writ than to make Nabonnedus a stranger to the royal line: for all nations were to serve Nebuchadnezzar and his posterity, till the very time of his land should come, and many nations should serve themselves of him, Jer. xxvii. 7. Belshazzar was born and lived in honour before the fifth year of Jeconiah's captivity, which was the eleventh year of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign; and therefore he was above 34 years old at the death of Evilmerodach, and so could be no other King than Nabonnedus: for Laboasserdach the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar was a child when he Reigned.

Herodotus ^[395] tells us, that there were two famous Queens of Babylon, Semiramis and Nitocris; and that the latter was more skilful: she observing that the Kingdom of the Medes, having subdued many cities, and among others Nineveh, was become great and potent, intercepted and fortified the passages out of Media into Babylonia; and the river which before was straight, she made crooked with great windings, that it might be more sedate and less apt to overflow: and on the side of the river above Babylon, in imitation of the Lake of Mœris in Egypt, she dug a Lake every way forty miles broad, to receive the water of the river, and keep it for watering the land. She built also a bridge over the river in the middle of Babylon, turning the stream into the Lake 'till the bridge was built. Philostratus saith, ^[396] that she made a bridge under the river two fathoms broad, meaning an arched vault over which the river flowed, and under which they might walk cross the river: he calls her Μηδεια, a Mede.

Berosus tells us, that Nebuchadnezzar built a pensile garden upon arches, because his wife was a Mede and delighted in mountainous prospects, such as abounded in Media, but were wanting in Babylonia: she was Amyite the daughter of Astyages, and sister of Cyaxeres, Kings of the Medes. Nebuchadnezzar married her upon a league between the two families against the King of Assyria: but Nitocris might be another woman who in the Reign of her son Labynitus, a voluptuous and vicious King, took care of his affairs, and for securing his Kingdom against the Medes, did the works above mentioned. This is that Queen mentioned in Daniel, chap. v. ver. 10.

Josephus ^[397] relates out of the Tyrian records, that in the Reign of Ithobalus King of Tyre, that city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years together: in the end of that siege Ithobalus their King was slain, Ezek. xxviii. 8, 9, 10. and after him, according to the Tyrian records, Reigned Baal ten years, Ecnibalus and Chelbes one year, Abbarus three months, Mytgonus and Gerastratus six years, Balatorus one year, Merbalus four years, and Iromus twenty years: and in the fourteenth year of Iromus, say the Tyrian records, the Reign of Cyrus began in Babylonia; therefore the siege of Tyre began 48 years and some months before the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia: it began when Jerusalem had been newly taken and burnt, with the Temple, Ezek. xxvi and by consequence after the eleventh year of Jeconiah's captivity, or 160th year of Nabonassar, and therefore the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia began after the year of Nabonassar 208: it ended before the eight and twentieth year of Jeconiah's captivity, or 176th year of Nabonassar, Ezek. xxix. 17. and therefore the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia began before the year of Nabonassar 211. By this argument the first year of Cyrus in Babylonia was one of the two intermediate years 209, 210. Cyrus invaded Babylonia in the year of Nabonassar 209; ^[398] Babylon held out, and the next year was taken, Jer. li. 39, 57. by diverting the river Euphrates, and entring the city through the emptied channel, and by consequence after midsummer: for the river, by the melting of the snow in Armenia, overflows yearly in the beginning of summer, but in the heat of dimmer grows low. ^[399] And that night was the King of Babylon slain, and Darius the Mede, or King of the Medes, took the Kingdom being about threescore and two years old: so then Babylon was taken a month or two after the summer solstice, in the year of Nabonassar 210; as the Canon also represents.

The Kings of the Medes before Cyrus were Dejoces, Phraortes, Astyages, Cyaxeres, or Cyaxares, and Darius: the three first Reigned before the Kingdom grew great, the two last were great conquerors, and erected the Empire; for Æschylus, who flourished in the Reigns of Darius Hystaspis, and Xerxes, and died in the 76th Olympiad, introduces Darius thus complaining of those who persuaded his son Xerxes to invade Greece; ^[400]

The Poet here attributes the founding of the Medo-Persian Empire to the two immediate predecessors of Cyrus, the first of which was a Mede, and the second was his son: the second was Darius the Mede, the immediate predecessor of Cyrus, according to Daniel; and therefore the first was the father of Darius, that is, Achsuerus, Assuerus, Oxyares, Axeres, Prince Axeres, or Cy-Axeres, the word Cy signifying a Prince: for Daniel tells us, that Darius was the son of Achsuerus, or Ahasuerus, as the Masoretes erroneously call him, of the seed of the Medes, that is, of the seed royal: this is that Assuerus who together with Nebuchadnezzar took and destroyed Nineveh, according to Tobit: which action is by the Greeks ascribed to Cyaxeres, and by Eupolemus to Astibares, a name perhaps corruptly written for Assuerus. By this victory over the Assyrians, and subversion of their Empire seated at Nineveh, and the ensuing conquests of Armenia, Cappadocia and Persia, he began to extend the Reign of one man over all Asia; and his son Darius the Mede, by conquering the Kingdoms of Lydia and Babylon, finished the work: and the third King was Cyrus, a happy man for his great successes under and against Darius, and large and peaceable dominion in his own Reign.

Cyrus lived seventy years, according to Cicero, and Reigned nine years over Babylon, according to Ptolemy's Canon, and therefore was 61 years old at the taking of Babylon; at which time Darius the Mede was 62 years old, according to Daniel: and therefore Darius was two Generations younger than Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus: for Astyages, according to both ^[401] Herodotus and Xenophon, gave his daughter Mandane to Cambyses a Prince of Persia, and by them became the grandfather of Cyrus; and Cyaxeres was the son of Astyages, according ^[402] to Xenophon, and gave his Daughter to Cyrus. This daughter, ^[403] saith Xenophon, was reported to be very handsome, and used to play with Cyrus when they were both children, and to say that she would marry him: and therefore they were much of the same age. Xenophon saith that Cyrus married her after the taking of Babylon; but she was then an old woman: it's more probable that he married her while she was young and handsome, and he a young man; and that because he was the brother-in-law of Darius the King, he led the armies of the Kingdom until he revolted: so then Astyages, Cyaxeres and Darius Reigned successively over the Medes; and Cyrus was the grandson of Astyages, and married the sister of Darius, and succeeded him in the Throne.

Herodotus therefore ^[404] hath inverted the order of the Kings Astyages and Cyaxeres, making Cyaxeres to be the son and successor of Phraortes, and the father and predecessor of Astyages the father of Mandane, and grandfather of Cyrus, and telling us, that this Astyages married Ariene the daughter of Alyattes King of Lydia, and was at length taken prisoner and deprived of his dominion by Cyrus: and Pausanias hath copied after Herodotus, in telling us that Astyages the son of Cyaxeres Reigned in Media in the days of Alyattes King of Lydia. Cyaxeres had a son who married Ariene the daughter of Alyattes; but this son was not the father of Mandane, and grandfather of Cyrus, but of the same age with Cyrus: and his true name is preserved in the name of the Darics, which upon the conquest of Crœsus by the conduct of his General Cyrus, he coyned out of the gold and silver of the conquered Lydians: his name was therefore Darius, as he is called by Daniel; for Daniel tells us, that this Darius was a Mede, and that his father's name was Assuerus, that is Axeres or Cyaxeres, as above: considering therefore that Cyaxeres Reigned long, and that no author mentions more Kings of Media than one called Astyages, and that Æschylus who lived in those days knew but of two great Monarchs of Media and Persia, the father and the son, older than Cyrus; it seems to me that Astyages, the father of Mandane and grandfather of Cyrus, was the father and predecessor of Cyaxeres; and that the son and successor of Cyaxeres was called Darius. Cyaxeres, ^[405] according to Herodotus, Reigned 40 years, and his successor 35, and Cyrus, according to Xenophon, seven: Cyrus died Anno Nabonass. 219, according to the Canon, and therefore Cyaxeres died Anno Nabonass. 177, and began his Reign Anno Nabonass. 137, and his father Astyages Reigned 26 years, beginning his Reign at the death of Phraortes, who was slain by the Assyrians, Anno Nabonass. 111, as above.

Of all the Kings of the Medes, Cyaxeres was greatest warrior. Herodotus ^[406] saith that he was much more valiant than his ancestors, and that he was the first who divided the Kingdom into provinces, and reduced the irregular and undisciplined forces of the Medes into discipline and order: and therefore by the testimony of Herodotus he was that King of the Medes whom Æschylus makes the first conqueror and founder of the Empire; for Herodotus represents him and his son to have been the two immediate predecessors of Cyrus, erring only in the name of the son. Astyages did nothing glorious: in the beginning of his Reign a great body of Scythians commanded by Madyes, ^[407] invaded Media and Parthia, as above, and Reigned there about 28 years; but at length his son Cyaxeres circumvented and slew them in a feast, and made the rest fly to their brethren in Parthia; and immediately after, in conjunction with Nebuchadnezzar, invaded and subverted the Kingdom of Assyria, and destroyed Nineveh.

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which the Jews reckon to be the first of Nebuchadnezzar, dating his Reign from his being made King by his father, or from the month Nisan preceding, when the victors had newly shared the Empire of the Assyrians, and in prosecuting their victory were invading Syria and Phœnicia, and were ready to invade the nations round about; God ^[408] threatned that he would take all the families of the North, that is, the armies of the Medes, and Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, and bring them against Judæa and against the nations round about, and utterly destroy those nations, and make them an astonishment and lasting desolations, and cause them all to drink the wine-cup of his fury; and in particular, he names the Kings of Judah and Egypt, and those of Edom, and Moab, and Ammon, and Tyre, and Zidon, and the Isles of the Sea, and Arabia, and Zimri, and all the Kings of Elam, and all the Kings of the Medes, and all the Kings of the North, and the King of Sesac; and that after seventy years, he would also punish the King of Babylon. Here, in numbering the nations which should suffer, he omits the Assyrians as fallen already, and names the Kings of Elam or Persia, and Sesac or Susa, as distinct from those of the Medes and Babylonians; and therefore the Persians were not yet subdued by the Medes, nor the King of Susa by the Chaldæans; and as by the punishment of the King of Babylon he means the conquest of Babylon by the Medes; so by the punishment of the Medes he seems to mean the conquest of the Medes by Cyrus.

After this, in the beginning of the Reign of Zedekiah, that is, in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, God threatned that he would give the Kingdoms of Edom, Moab, and Ammon, and Tyre and Zidon, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, and that all the nations should serve him, and his son, and his son's son until the very time of his land should come, and many nations and great Kings should serve themselves of him, Jer. xxvii. And at the same time God thus predicted the approaching conquest of the Persians by the Medes and their confederates: Behold, saith he, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might: and upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them towards all those winds, and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come: for I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life; and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and I will send the sword after them 'till I have consumed them; and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the King and the Princes, saith the Lord: but it shall come to pass in the latter days, viz. in the Reign of Cyrus, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord. Jer. xlix. 35, &c. The Persians were therefore hitherto a free nation under their own King, but soon after this were invaded, subdued, captivated, and dispersed into the nations round about, and continued in servitude until the Reign of Cyrus: and since the Medes and Chaldæans did not conquer the Persians 'till after the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, it gives us occasion to enquire what that active warrior Cyaxeres was doing next after the taking of Nineveh.

When Cyaxeres expelled the Scythians, ^[409] some of them made their peace with him, and staid in Media, and presented to him daily some of the venison which they took in hunting: but happening one day to catch nothing, Cyaxeres in a passion treated them with opprobrious language: this they resented, and soon after killed one of the children of the Medes, dressed it like venison, and presented it to Cyaxeres, and then fled to Alyattes King of Lydia; whence followed a war of five years between the two Kings Cyaxeres and Alyattes: and thence I gather that the Kingdoms of the Medes and Lydians were now contiguous, and by consequence that Cyaxeres, soon after the conquest of Nineveh, seized the regions belonging to the Assyrians, as far as to the river Halys. In the sixth year of this war, in the midst of a battel between the two Kings, there was a total Eclipse of the Sun, predicted by Thales; ^[410] and this Eclipse fell upon the 28th of May, Anno Nabonass. 163, forty and seven years before the taking of Babylon, and put an end to the battel: and thereupon the two Kings made peace by the mediation of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, and Syennesis King of Cilicia; and the peace was ratified by a marriage, between Darius the son of Cyaxeres and Ariene the daughter of Alyattes: Darius was therefore fifteen or sixteen years old at the time of this marriage; for he was 62 years old at the taking of Babylon.

In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's Reign, the year in which Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, Ezekiel comparing the Kingdoms of the East to trees in the garden of Eden, thus mentions their being conquered by the Kings of the Medes and Chaldæans: Behold, saith he, the Assyrian was a Cedar in Lebanon with fair branches,—his height was exalted above all the trees of the field,—and under his shadow dwelt all great nations,—not any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty:—but I have delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen,—I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to the grave with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth: they also went down into the grave with him, unto them that be slain with the sword, and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen, Ezek. xxxi.

The next year Ezekiel, in another prophesy, thus enumerates the principal nations who had been subdued and slaughtered by the conquering sword of Cyaxeres and Nebuchadnezzar. Asthur is there and all her company, viz. in Hades or the lower parts of the earth, where the dead bodies lay buried, his graves are about him; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused their terrour in the land of the living. There is Elam, and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terrour in the land of the living: yet have they born their shame with them that go down into the pit.—There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude ^[411]; her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terrour in the land of the living.—There is Edom, her Kings, and all her Princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword.—There be the Princes of the North all of them, and all the Zidonians, which with their terrour are gone down with the slain, Ezek. xxxii. Here by the Princes of the North I understand those on the north of Judæa, and chiefly the Princes of Armenia and Cappadocia, who fell in the wars which Cyaxeres made in reducing those countries after the taking of Nineveh. Elam or Persia was conquered by the Medes, and Susiana by the Babylonians, after the ninth, and before the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar: and therefore we cannot err much if we place these conquests in the twelfth or fourteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar: in the nineteenth, twentieth, and one and twentieth year of this King, he invaded and ^[412] conquered Judæa, Moab, Ammon, Edom, the Philistims and Zidon; and ^[413] the next year he besieged Tyre, and after a siege of thirteen years he took it, in the 35th year of his Reign; and then he ^[414] invaded and conquered Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya; and about eighteen or twenty years after the death of this King, Darius the Mede conquered the Kingdom of Sardes; and after five or six years more he invaded and conquered the Empire of Babylon: and thereby finished the work of propagating the Medo-Persian Monarchy over all Asia, as Æschylus represents.

Now this is that Darius who coined a great number of pieces of pure gold called Darics, or Stateres Darici: for Suidas, Harpocration, and the Scholiast of Aristophanes> ^[415] tell us, that these were coined not by the father of Xerxes, but by an earlier Darius, by Darius the first, by the first King of the Medes and Persians who coined gold money. They were stamped on one side with the effigies of an Archer, who was crowned with a spiked crown, had a bow in his left hand, and an arrow in his right, and was cloathed with a long robe; I have seen one of them in gold, and another in silver: they were of the same weight and value with the Attic Stater or piece of gold money weighing two Attic drachms. Darius seems to have learnt the art and use of money from the conquered Kingdom of the Lydians, and to have recoined their gold: for the Medes, before they conquered the Lydians, had no money. Herodotus ^[416] tells us, that when Crœsus was preparing to invade Cyrus, a certain Lydian called Sandanis advised him, that he was preparing an expedition against a nation who were cloathed with leathern breeches, who eat not such victuals as they would, but such as their barren country afforded; who drank no wine, but water only, who eat no figs nor other good meat, who had nothing to lose, but might get much from the Lydians: for the Persians, saith Herodotus, before they conquered the Lydians, had nothing rich or valuable: and ^[417] Isaiah tells us, that the Medes regarded not silver, nor delighted in gold; but the Lydians and Phrygians were exceeding rich, even to a proverb: Midas & Crœsus, saith ^[418] Pliny, infinitum possederant. Jam Cyrus devicta Asia [auri] pondo xxxiv millia invenerat, præter vasa aurea aurumque factum, & in eo folia ac platanum vitemque. Qua victoria argenti quingenta millia talentorum reportavit, & craterem Semiramidis cujus pondus quindecim talentorum colligebat. Talentum autem Ægyptium pondo octoginta capere Varro tradit. What the conqueror did with all this gold and silver appears by the Darics. The Lydians, according to ^[419] Herodotus, were the first who coined gold and silver, and Crœsus coined gold monies in plenty, called Crœsei; and it was not reasonable that the monies of the Kings of Lydia should continue current after the overthrow of their Kingdom, and therefore Darius recoined it with his own effigies, but without altering the current weight and value: he Reigned then from before the conquest of Sardes 'till after the conquest of Babylon.

And since the cup of Semiramis was preserved 'till the conquest of Crœsus by Darius, it is not probable that she could be older than is represented by Herodotus.

This conquest of the Kingdom of Lydia put the Greeks into fear of the Medes: for Theognis, who lived at Megara in the very times of these wars, writes thus, ^[420]

And again, ^[421]

The Poet tells us further that discord had destroyed Magnesia, Colophon, and Smyrna, cities of Ionia and Phrygia, and would destroy the Greeks; which is as much as to say that the Medes had then conquered those cities.

The Medes therefore Reigned 'till the taking of Sardes: and further, according to Xenophon and the Scriptures, they Reigned 'till the taking of Babylon: for Xenophon ^[422] tells us, that after the taking of Babylon, Cyrus went to the King of the Medes at Ecbatane and succeeded him in the Kingdom: and Jerom, ^[423] that Babylon was taken by Darius King of the Medes and his kinsman Cyrus: and the Scriptures tell us, that Babylon was destroyed by a nation out of the north, Jerem. l. 3, 9, 41. by the Kingdoms of Ararat Minni, or Armenia, and Ashchenez, or Phrygia minor, Jer. li. 27. by the Medes, Isa. xiii. 17, 19. by the Kings of the Medes and the captains and rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion, Jer. li. 11, 28. The Kingdom of Babylon was numbred and finished and broken and given to the Medes and Persians, Dan. v. 26. 28. first to the Medes under Darius, and then to the Persians under Cyrus: for Darius Reigned over Babylon like a conqueror, not observing the laws of the Babylonians, but introducing the immutable laws of the conquering nations, the Medes and Persians, Dan. vi. 8, 12, 15; and the Medes in his Reign are set before the Persians, Dan. ib. & v. 28, & viii. 20. as the Persians were afterwards in the Reign of Cyrus and his successors set before the Medes, Esther i. 3, 14, 18, 19. Dan. x. 1, 20. and xi. 2. which shews that in the Reign of Darius the Medes were uppermost.

You may know also by the great number of provinces in the Kingdom of Darius, that he was King of the Medes and Persians: for upon the conquest of Babylon, he set over the whole Kingdom an hundred and twenty Princes, Dan. vi. 1. and afterwards when Cambyses and Darius Hystaspis had added some new territories, the whole contained but 127 provinces.

The extent of the Babylonian Empire was much the same with that of Nineveh after the revolt of the Medes. Berosus saith that Nebuchadnezzar held Egypt, Syria, Phœnicia and Arabia: and Strabo adds Arbela to the territories of Babylon; and saying that Babylon was anciently the metropolis of Assyria, he thus describes the limits of this Assyrian Empire. Contiguous, ^[424] saith he, to Persia and Susiana are the Assyrians: for so they call Babylonia, and the greatest part of the region about it: part of which is Arturia, wherein is Ninus [or Nineveh;] and Apolloniatis, and the Elymæans, and the Parætacæ, and Chalonitis by the mountain Zagrus, and the fields near Ninus, and Dolomene, and Chalachene, and Chazene, and Adiabene, and the nations of Mesopotamia near the Gordyæans, and the Mygdones about Nisibis, unto Zeugma upon Euphrates; and a large region on this side Euphrates inhabited by the Arabians and Syrians properly so called, as far as Cilicia and Phœnicia and Libya and the sea of Egypt and the Sinus Issicus: and a little after describing the extent of the Babylonian region, he bounds it on the north, with the Armenians and Medes unto the mountain Zagrus; on the east side, with Susa and Elymais and Parætacene, inclusively; on the south, with the Persian Gulph and Chaldæa; and on the west, with the Arabes Scenitæ as far as Adiabene and Gordyæa: afterwards speaking of Susiana and Sitacene, a region between Babylon and Susa, and of Parætacene and Cossæa and Elymais, and of the Sagapeni and Siloceni, two little adjoining Provinces, he concludes, ^[425] and these are the nations which inhabit Babylonia eastward: to the north are Media and Armenia, exclusively, and westward are Adiabene and Mesopotamia, inclusively; the greatest part of Adiabene is plain, the same being part of Babylonia: in same places it borders on Armenia: for the Medes, Armenians and Babylonians warred frequently on one another. Thus far Strabo.

When Cyrus took Babylon, he changed the Kingdom into a Satrapy or Province: whereby the bounds were long after known: and by this means Herodotus ^[426] gives us an estimate of the bigness of this Monarchy in proportion to that of the Persians, telling us that whilst every region over which the King of Persia Reigned in his days, was distributed for the nourishment of his army, besides the tributes, the Babylonian region nourished him four months of the twelve in the year, and all the rest of Asia eight: so the power of the region, saith he, is equivalent to the third part of Asia, and its Principality, which the Persians call a Satrapy, is far the best of all the Provinces.

Babylon ^[427] was a square city of 120 furlongs, or 15 miles on every side, compassed first with a broad and deep ditch, and then with a wall fifty cubits thick, and two hundred high. Euphrates flowed through the middle of it southward, a few leagues on this side Tigris: and in the middle of one half westward stood the King's new Palace, built by Nebuchadnezzar; and in the middle of the other half stood the Temple of Belus, with the old Palace between that Temple and the river: this old Palace was built by the Assyrians, according to ^[428] Isaiah, and by consequence, by Pul and his son Nabonassar, as above: they founded the city for the Arabians, and set up the towers thereof, and raised the Palaces thereof: and at that time Sabacon the Ethiopian invaded Egypt, and made great multitudes of Egyptians fly from him into Chaldæa, and carry thither their Astronomy, and Astrology, and Architecture, and the form of their year, which they preserved there in the Æra of Nabonassar: for the practice of observing the Stars began in Egypt in the days of Ammon, as above, and was propagated from thence in the Reign of his son Sesac into Afric, Europe, and Asia by conquest; and then Atlas formed the Sphere of the Libyans, and Chiron that of the Greeks, and the Chaldæans also made a Sphere of their own. But Astrology was invented in Egypt by Nichepsos, or Necepsos, one of the Kings of the lower Egypt, and Petosiris his Priest, a little before the days of Sabacon, and propagated thence into Chaldæa, where Zoroaster the Legislator of the Magi met with it: so Paulinus,

And Diodorus, ^[429] they say that the Chaldæans in Babylonia are colonies of the Egyptians, and being taught by the Priests of Egypt became famous for Astrology. By the influence of the same colonies, the Temple of Jupiter Belus in Babylon seems to have been erected in the form of the Egyptian Pyramids: for ^[430] this Temple was a solid Tower or Pyramid a furlong square, and a furlong high, with seven retractions, which made it appear like eight towers standing upon one another, and growing less and less to the top: and in the eighth tower was a Temple with a bed and a golden table, kept by a woman, after the manner of the Egyptians in the Temple of Jupiter Ammon at Thebes; and above the Temple was a place for observing the Stars: they went up to the top of it by steps on the outside, and the bottom was compassed with a court, and the court with a building two furlongs in length on every side.

The Babylonians were extreamly addicted to Sorcery, Inchantments, Astrology and Divinations, Isa. xlvii. 9, 12, 13. Dan. ii. 2, & v. 11. and to the worship of Idols, Jer. l. 2, 40. and to feasting, wine and women. Nihil urbis ejus corruptius moribus, nec ad irritandas illiciendasque immodicas voluptates instructius. Liberos conjugesque cum hospitibus stupro coire, modo pretium flagitii detur, parentes maritique patiuntur. Convivales ludi tota Perside regibus purpuratisque cordi sunt: Babylonii maxime in vinum & quæ ebrietatem sequuntur effusi sunt. Fæminarum convivia ineuntium in principio modestus est habitus; dein summa quæque amicula exuunt, paulatimque pudorem profanant: ad ultimum, honos auribus sit, ima corporum velamenta projiciunt. Nec meretricum hoc dedecus est, sed matronarum virginumque, apud quas comitas habetur vulgati corporis vilitas. Q. Curtius, lib. v. cap. 1. And this lewdness of their women, coloured over with the name of civility, was encouraged even by their religion: for it was the custom for their women once in their life to sit in the Temple of Venus for the use of strangers; which Temple they called Succoth Benoth, the Temple of Women: and when any woman was once sat there, she was not to depart 'till some stranger threw money into her bosom, took her away and lay with her; and the money being for sacred uses, she was obliged to accept of it how little soever, and follow the stranger.

The Persians being conquered by the Medes about the middle of the Reign of Zedekiah, continued in subjection under them 'till the end of the Reign of Darius the Mede: and Cyrus, who was of the Royal Family of the Persians, might be Satrapa of Persia, and command a body of their forces under Darius; but was not yet an absolute and independant King: but after the taking of Babylon, when he had a victorious army at his devotion, and Darius was returned from Babylon into Media, he revolted from Darius, in conjunction with the Persians under him; ^[431] they being incited thereunto by Harpagus a Mede, whom Xenophon calls Artagerses and Atabazus, and who had assisted Cyrus in conquering Crœsus and Asia minor, and had been injured by Darius. Harpagus was sent by Darius with an army against Cyrus, and in the midst of a battel revolted with part of the army to Cyrus: Darius got up a fresh army, and the next year the two armies fought again: this last battel was fought at Pasargadæ in Persia, according to ^[432] Strabo; and there Darius was beaten and taken Prisoner by Cyrus, and the Monarchy was by this victory translated to the Persians. The last King of the Medes is by Xenophon called Cyaxares, and by Herodotus, Astyages the father of Mandane: but these Kings were dead before, and Daniel lets us know that Darius was the true name of the last King, and Herodotus, ^[433] that the last King was conquered by Cyrus in the manner above described; and the Darics coined by the last King testify that his name was Darius.

This victory over Darius was about two years after the taking of Babylon: for the Reign or Nabonnedus the last King of the Chaldees, whom Josephus calls Naboandel and Belshazzar, ended in the year of Nabonassar 210, nine years before the death of Cyrus, according to the Canon: but after the translation of the Kingdom of the Medes to the Persians, Cyrus Reigned only seven years, according to ^[434] Xenophon; and spending the seven winter months yearly at Babylon, the three spring months yearly at Susa, and the two Summer months at Ecbatane, he came the seventh time into Persia, and died there in the spring, and was buried at Pasargadae. By the Canon and the common consent of all Chronologers, he died in the year of Nabonassar 219, and therefore conquered Darius in the year of Nabonassar 212, seventy and two years after the destruction of Nineveh, and beat him the first time in the year of Nabonassar 211, and revolted from him, and became King of the Persians, either the same year, or in the end of the year before. At his death he was seventy years old according to Herodotus, and therefore he was born in the year of Nabonassar 149, his mother Mandane being the sister of Cyaxeres, at that time a young man, and also the sister of Amyite the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, and his father Cambyses being of the old Royal Family of the Persians.

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CHAP. V.

A Description of the TEMPLE of Solomon.

^[435] The Temple of Solomon being destroyed by the Babylonians, it may not be amiss here to give a description of that edifice.

This ^[436] Temple looked eastward, and stood in a square area, called the Separate Place: and ^[437] before it stood the Altar, in the center of another square area, called the Inner Court, or Court of the Priests: and these two square areas, being parted only by a marble rail, made an area 200 cubits long from west to east, and 100 cubits broad: this area was compassed on the west with a wall, and ^[438] on the other three sides with a pavement fifty cubits broad, upon which stood the buildings for the Priests, with cloysters under them: and the pavement was faced on the inside with a marble rail before the cloysters: the whole made an area 250 cubits long from west to east, and 200 broad, and was compassed with an outward Court, called also the Great Court, or Court of the People, ^[439] which was an hundred cubits on every side; for there were but two Courts built by Solomon: and the outward Court was about four cubits lower than the inward, and was compassed on the west with a wall, and on the other three sides ^[440] with a pavement fifty cubits broad, upon which stood the buildings for the People. All this was the ^[441] Sanctuary, and made a square area 500 cubits long, and 500 broad, and was compassed with a walk, called the Mountain of the House: and this walk being 50 cubits broad, was compassed with a wall six cubits broad, and six high, and six hundred long on every side: and the cubit was about 21½, or almost 22 inches of the English foot, being the sacred cubit of the Jews, which was an hand-breadth, or the sixth part of its length bigger than the common cubit.

The Altar stood in the center of the whole; and in the buildings of ^[442] both Courts over against the middle of the Altar, eastward, southward, and northward, were gates ^[443] 25 cubits broad between the buildings, and 40 long; with porches of ten cubits more, looking towards the Altar Court, which made the whole length of the gates fifty cubits cross the pavements. Every gate had two doors, one at either ^[444] end, ten cubits wide, and twenty high, with posts and thresholds six cubits broad: within the gates was an area 28 cubits long between the thresholds, and 13 cubits wide: and on either side of this area were three posts, each six cubits square, and twenty high, with arches five cubits wide between them: all which posts and arches filled the 28 cubits in length between the thresholds; and their breadth being added to the thirteen cubits, made the whole breadth of the gates 25 cubits. These posts were hollow, and had rooms in them with narrow windows for the porters, and a step before them a cubit broad: and the walls of the porches being six cubits thick, were also hollow for several uses. ^[445] At the east gate of the Peoples Court, called the King's gate, ^[446] were six porters, at the south gate were four, and at the north gate were four: the people ^[447] went in and out at the south and north gates: the ^[448] east gate was opened only for the King, and in this gate he ate the Sacrifices. There were also four gates or doors in the western wall of the Mountain of the House: of these ^[449] the most northern, called Shallecheth, or the gate of the causey, led to the King's palace, the valley between being filled up with a causey: the next gate, called Parbar, led to the suburbs Millo: the third and fourth gates, called Asuppim, led the one to Millo, the other to the city of Jerusalem, there being steps down into the valley and up again into the city. At the gate Shallecheth were four porters; at the other three gates were six porters, two at each gate: the house of the porters who had the charge of the north gate of the People's Court, had also the charge of the gates Shallecheth and Parbar: and the house of the porters who had the charge of the south gate of the People s Court, had also the charge of the other two gates called Asuppim.

They came through the four western gates into the Mountain of the House, and ^[450] went up from the Mountain of the House, to the gates of the People's Court by seven steps, and from the People's Court to the gates of the Priest's Court by eight steps: ^[451] and the arches in the sides of the gates of both courts led into cloysters ^[452] under a double building, supported by three rows of marble pillars, which butted directly upon the middles of the square posts, ran along from thence upon the pavements towards the corners of the Courts: the axes of the pillars in the middle row being eleven cubits distant from the axes of the pillars in the other two rows on either hand; and the building joining to the sides of the gates: the pillars were three cubits in diameter below, and their bases four cubits and an half square. The gates and buildings of both Courts were alike, and ^[453] faced their Courts: the cloysters of all the buildings, and the porches of all the gates looking towards the Altar. The row of pillars on the backsides of the cloysters adhered to marble walls, which bounded the cloysters and supported the buildings: ^[454] these buildings were three stories high above the cloysters, and ^[455] were supported in each of those stories by a row of cedar beams, or pillars of cedar, standing above the middle row of the marble pillars: the buildings on either side of every gate of the People's Court, being 187½ cubits long, were distinguished into five chambers on a floor, running in length from the gates to the corners or the Courts: there ^[456] being in all thirty chambers in a story, where the People ate the Sacrifices, or thirty exhedras, each of which contained three chambers, a lower, a middle, and an upper: every exhedra was 37½ cubits long, being supported by four pillars in each row, ^[457] whose bases were 4½ cubits square, and the distances between their bases 6½ cubits, and the distances between the axes of the pillars eleven cubits: and where two ^[458] exhedras joyned, there the bases of their pillars joyned; the axes of those two pillars being only 4½ cubits distant from one another: and perhaps for strengthning the building, the space between the axes of these two pillars in the front was filled up with a marble column 4½ cubits square, the two pillars standing half out on either side of the square column. At the ends of these buildings ^[459] in the four corners of the Peoples Court, were little Courts fifty cubits square on the outside of their walls, and forty on the inside thereof, for stair-cases to the buildings, and kitchins to bake and boil the Sacrifices for the People, the kitchin being thirty cubits broad, and the stair-case ten. The buildings on either side of the gates of the Priests Court were also 37½ cubits long, and contained each of them one great chamber in a story, subdivided into smaller rooms, for the Great Officers of the Temple, and Princes of the Priests: and in the south-east and north-east corners of this court, at the ends of the buildings, were kitchins and stair-cases for the Great Officers; and perhaps rooms for laying up wood for the Altar.

In the eastern gate of the Peoples Court, sat a Court of Judicature, composed of 23 Elders. The eastern gate of the Priests Court, with the buildings on either side, was for the High-Priest, and his deputy the Sagan, and for the Sanhedrim or Supreme Court of Judicature, composed of seventy Elders. ^[460] The building or exhedra on the eastern side of the southern gate, was for the Priests who had the oversight of the charge of the Sanctuary with its treasuries: and these were, first, two Catholikim, who were High-Treasurers and Secretaries to the High-Priest, and examined, stated, and prepared all acts and accounts to be signed and sealed by him; then seven Amarcholim, who kept the keys of the seven locks of every gate of the Sanctuary, and those also of the treasuries, and had the oversight, direction, and appointment of all things in the Sanctuary; then three or more Gisbarim, or Under-Treasurers, or Receivers, who kept the Holy Vessels, and the Publick Money, and received or disposed of such sums as were brought in for the service of the Temple, and accounted for the same. All these, with the High-Priest, composed the Supreme Council for managing the affairs of the Temple.

The Sacrifices ^[461] were killed on the northern side of the Altar, and flea'd, cut in pieces and salted in the northern gate of the Temple; and therefore the building or exhedra on the eastern side of this gate, was for the Priests who had the oversight of the charge of the Altar, and Daily Service: and these Officers were, He that received money of the People for purchasing things for the Sacrifices, and gave out tickets for the same; He that upon sight of the tickets delivered the wine, flower and oyl purchased; He that was over the lots, whereby every Priest attending on the Altar had his duty assigned; He that upon sight of the tickets delivered out the doves and pigeons purchased; He that administred physic to the Priests attending; He that was over the waters; He that was over the times, and did the duty of a cryer, calling the Priests or Levites to attend in their ministeries; He that opened the gates in the morning to begin the service, and shut them in the evening when the service was done, and for that end received the keys of the Amarcholim, and returned them when he had done his duty; He that visited the night-watches; He that by a Cymbal called the Levites to their stations for singing; He that appointed the Hymns and set the Tune; and He that took care of the Shew-Bread: there were also Officers who took care of the Perfume, the Veil, and the Wardrobe of the Priests.

The exhedra on the western side of the south gate, and that on the western side of the north gate, were for the Princes of the four and twenty courses of the Priests, one exhedra for twelve of the Princes, ^[462] and the other exhedra for the other twelve: and upon the pavement on either side of the Separate Place ^[463] were other buildings without cloysters, for the four and twenty courses of the Priests to eat the Sacrifices, and lay up their garments and the most holy things: each pavement being 100 cubits long, and 50 broad, had buildings on either side of it twenty cubits broad, with a walk or alley ten cubits broad between them: the building which bordered upon the Separate Place was an hundred cubits long, and that next the Peoples Court but fifty, the other fifty cubits westward ^[464] being for a stair-case and kitchin: these buildings ^[465] were three stories high, and the middle story was narrower in the front than the lower story, and the upper story still narrower, to make room for galleries; for they had galleries before them, and under the galleries were closets for laying up the holy things, and the garments of the Priests, and these galleries were towards the walk or alley, which ran between the buildings.

They went up from the Priests Court to the Porch of the Temple by ten steps: and the ^[466] House of the Temple was twenty cubits broad, and sixty long within; or thirty broad, and seventy long, including the walls; or seventy cubits broad, and 90 long, including a building of treasure-chambers which was twenty cubits broad on three sides of the House; and if the Porch be also included, the Temple was ^[467] an hundred cubits long. The treasure-chambers were built of cedar, between the wall of the Temple, and another wall without: they were ^[468] built in two rows three stories high, and opened door against door into a walk or gallery which ran along between them, and was five cubits broad in every story; So that the breadth of the chambers on either side of the gallery, including the breadth of the wall to which they adjoined, was ten cubits; and the whole breadth of the gallery and chambers, and both walls, was five and twenty cubits: the chambers ^[469] were five cubits broad in the lower story, six broad in the middle story, and seven broad in the upper story; for the wall of the Temple was built with retractions of a cubit, to rest the timber upon. Ezekiel represents the chambers a cubit narrower, and the walls a cubit thicker than they were in Solomon's Temple: there were ^[470] thirty chambers in a story, in all ninety chambers, and they were five cubits high in every story. The ^[471] Porch of the Temple was 120 cubits high, and its length from south to north equalled the breadth of the House: the House was three stories high, which made the height of the Holy Place three times thirty cubits, and that of the Most Holy three times twenty: the upper rooms were treasure-chambers; they ^[472] went up to the middle chamber by winding stairs in the southern shoulder of the House, and from the middle into the upper.

Some time after this Temple was built, the Jews ^[473] added a New Court, on the eastern side of the Priests Court, before the King's gate, and therein built ^[474] a covert for the Sabbath: this Court was not measured by Ezekiel, but the dimensions thereof may be gathered from those of the Womens Court, in the second Temple, built after the example thereof: for when Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the first Temple, Zerubbabel, by the commissions of Cyrus and Darius, built another upon the same area, excepting the Outward Court, which was left open to the Gentiles: and this Temple ^[475] was sixty cubits long, and sixty broad, being only two stories in height, and having only one row of treasure-chambers about it: and on either side of the Priests Court were double buildings for the Priests, built upon three rows of marble pillars in the lower story, with a row of cedar beams or pillars in the stories above: and the cloyster in the lower story looked towards the Priests Court: and the Separate Place, and Priests Court, with their buildings on the north and south sides, and the Womens Court, at the east end, took up an area three hundred cubits long, and two hundred broad, the Altar standing in the center of the whole. The Womens Court was so named, because the women came into it as well as the men: there were galleries for the women, and the men worshipped upon the ground below: and in this state the second Temple continued all the Reign of the Persians; but afterwards suffered some alterations, especially in the days of Herod.

This description of the Temple being taken principally from Ezekiel's Vision thereof; and the ancient Hebrew copy followed by the Seventy, differing in some readings from the copy followed by the editors of the present Hebrew, I will here subjoin that part of the Vision which relates to the Outward Court, as I have deduced it from the present Hebrew, and the version of the Seventy compared together.

Ezekiel chap. xl. ver. 5, &c.

^[476] And behold a wall on the outside of the House round about, at the distance of fifty cubits from it, aabb: and in the man's hand a measuring reed six cubits long by the cubit, and an hand-breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, or wall, one reed, and the height one reed. ^[477] Then came he unto the gate of the House, which looketh towards the east, and went up the seven steps thereof, AB, and measured the threshold of the gate, CD, which was one reed broad, and the Porters little chamber, EFG, one reed long, and one reed broad; and the arched passage between the little chambers, FH, five cubits: and the second little chamber, HIK, a reed broad and a reed long; and the arched passage, IL, five cubits: and the third little chamber LMN, a reed long and a reed broad: and the threshold of the gate next the porch of the gate within, OP, one reed: and he measured the porch of the gate, QR, eight cubits; and the posts thereof ST, st, two cubits; and the porch of the gate, QR, was inward, or toward the inward court; and the little chambers, EF, HI, LM, ef, hi, lm, were outward, or to the east; three on this side, and three on that side of the gate. There was one measure of the three, and one measure of the posts on this side, and on that side; and he measured the breadth of the door of the gate, Cc, or Dd, ten cubits; and the breadth of the gate within between the little chambers, Ee or Ff, thirteen cubits; and the limit, or margin, or step before the little chambers, EM, one cubit on this side, and the step, em, one cubit on the other side; and the little chambers, EFG, HIK, LMN, efg, hik, lmn, were six cubits broad on this side, and six cubits broad on that side: and he measured the whole breadth of the gate, from the further wall of one little chamber to the further wall of another little chamber: the breadth, Gg, or Kk, or Nn, was twenty and five cubits through; door, FH, against door, fh: and he measured the posts, EF, HI, and LM, ef, hi, and lm, twenty cubits high; and at the posts there were gates, or arched passages, FH, IL, fh, il, round about; and from the eastern face of the gate at the entrance, Cc, to the western face of the porch of the gate within, Tt, were fifty cubits: and there were narrow windows to the little chambers, and to the porch within the gate, round about, and likewise to the posts; even windows were round about within: and upon each post were palm trees.

Then he brought me into the Outward Court, and lo there were chambers, and a pavement with pillars upon it in the court round about, ^[478] thirty chambers in length upon the pavement, supported by the pillars, ten chambers on every side, except the western: and the pavement butted upon the shoulders or sides of the gates below, every gate having five chambers or exhedræ on either side. And he measured the breadth of the Outward Court, from the fore-front of the lower-gate, to the fore-front of the inward court, an hundred cubits eastward.

Then he brought me northward, and there was a gate that looked towards the north; he measured the length thereof, and the breadth thereof, and the little chambers thereof, three on this side, and three on that side, and the posts thereof, and the porch thereof, and it was according to the measures of the first gate; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth was five and twenty: and the windows thereof, and the porch and the palm-trees thereof were according to the measures of the gate which looked to the east, and they went up to it by seven steps: and its porch was before them, that is inward. And there was a gate of the inward court over against this gate of the north, as in the gates to the eastward: and he measured from gate to gate an hundred cubits.

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A Description of THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON

ABCD. The Separate Place in which stood the Temple.

ABEF. The Court of y^{e} Priests.

G. The Altar.

DHLKICEFD. A Pavement compassing three sides of the foremention'd Courts, and upon which stood the Buildings for the Priests, with Cloysters under them.

MNOP. The Court of the People.

MQTSRN. A Pavement compassing three sides of the Peoples Court, upon which stood the Buildings for the People, with Cloysters under them.

UXYZ. The Mountain of the House.

aabb. A Wall enclosing the whole.

c. The Gate Shallecheth.

d. The Gate Parbar.

ef. The two Gates Assupim.

g. The East Gate of the Peoples Court, call'd the Kings Gate.

hh. The North and South Gates of the same Court.

iiii. The chambers over the Cloysters of the Peoples Court where the People ate the Sacrifices, 30 Chambers in each Story.

kkkk. Four little Courts serving for Stair Cases and Kitchins for the People.

l. The Eastern Gate of the Priests Court, over which sate the Sanhedrin.

m. The Southern Gate of the Priests Court.

n. The Northern Gate of the same Court, where the Sacrifices were flea'd &c.

opqrst. The Buildings over the Cloysters for the Priests, viz six large Chambers (subdivided) in each Story, whereof o and p were for the High Priest and Sagan, q for the Overseers of the Sanctuary and Treasury, r for the Overseers of the Altar and Sacrifice and s and t for the Princes of the twenty four Courses of Priests.

uu. Two Courts in which were Stair Cases and Kitchins for the Priests.

x. The House or Temple which (together with the Treasure Chambers y, and Buildings zz on each side of the Separate Place) is more particularly describ'd on the second Plate.

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A Description of the Inner Court & Buildings for the Priests in Solomons Temple.

ABCD. The Separate Place.

ABEF. The Inner Court, or Court of the Priests, parted from the Separate Place, and and Pavement on the other three sides, by a marble rail.

G. The Altar.

HHH. The East, South, & North Gates of the Priests Court.

III. &c. The Cloysters supporting the Buildings for the Priests.

KK. Two Courts in which were Stair Cases and Kitchins for the Priests.

L. Ten Steps to the Porch of the Temple.

M. The Porch of the Temple.

N. The Holy Place.

O. The most Holy Place.

PPPP. Thirty Treasure-Chambers, in two rows, opening into a gallery, door against door, and compassing three sides of the Holy & most Holy Places.

Q. The Stairs leading to the Middle Chamber.

RRRR. &c. The buildings for the four and twenty Courses of Priests, upon the Pavement on either side of the Separate Place, three Stories high without Cloysters, but the upper Stories narrower than the lower, to make room for Galleries before them. There were 24 Chambers in each Story and they opend into a walk or alley, SS. between the Buildings.

TT. Two Courts in which were Kitchins for the Priests of the twenty four Courses.

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A Particular Description of one of the Gates of the Peoples Court, with part of the Cloyster adjoyning.

uw. The inner margin of the Pavement compassing three sides of the Peoples Court.

xxx. &c. The Pillars of the Cloyster supporting the Buildings for the People.

yyyy. Double Pillars where two Exhedræ joyned, and whose interstices in the front zz were filled up with a square Column of Marble.

Note The preceding letters of this Plate refer to the description in pag. 344 345.

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CHAP. VI.

Of the Empire of the Persians.

Cyrus having translated the Monarchy to the Persians, and Reigned seven years, was succeeded by his son Cambyses, who Reigned seven years and five months, and in the three last years of his Reign subdued Egypt: he was succeeded by Mardus, or Smerdis the Magus, who feigned himself to be Smerdis the brother of Cambyses.

Smerdis Reigned seven months, and in the eighth month being discovered, was slain, with a great number of the Magi; so the Persians called their Priests, and in memory of this kept an anniversary day, which they called, The slaughter of the Magi. Then Reigned Maraphus and Artaphernes a few days, and after them Darius the son of Hystaspes, the son of Arsamenes, of the family of Achæmenes, a Persian, being chosen King by the neighing of his horse: before he Reigned his ^[479] name was Ochus. He seems on this occasion to have reformed the constitution of the Magi, making his father Hystaspes their Master, or Archimagus; for Porphyrius tells us, ^[480] that the Magi were a sort of men so venerable amongst the Persians, that Darius the son of Hystaspes wrote on the monument of his father, amongst other things, that he had been the Master of the Magi. In this reformation of the Magi, Hystaspes was assisted by Zoroastres: so Agathias; The Persians at this day say simply that Zoroastres lived under Hystaspes: and Apuleius; Pythagoram, aiunt, inter captivos Cambysæ Regis [ex Ægypto Babylonem abductos] doctores habuisse Persarum Magos, & præcipue Zoroastrem, omnis divini arcani Antistitem. By Zoroastres's conversing at Babylon he seems to have borrowed his skill from the Chaldæans; for he was skilled in Astronomy, and used their year: so Q. Curtius; ^[481] Magi proximi patrium carmen canebant: Magos trecenti & sexaginta quinque juvenes sequebantur, puniceis amiculis velati, diebus totius anni pares numero: and Ammianus; Scientiæ multa ex Chaldæorum arcanis Bactrianus addidit Zoroastres. From his conversing in several places he is reckoned a Chaldæan, an Assyrian, a Mede, a Persian, a Bactrian. Suidas calls him ^[482] a Perso-Mede, and saith that he was the most skilful of Astronomers, and first author of the name of the Magi received among them. This skill in Astronomy he had doubtless from the Chaldæans, but Hystaspes travelled into India, to be instructed by the Gymnosophists: and these two conjoyning their skill and authority, instituted a new set of Priests or Magi, and instructed them in such ceremonies and mysteries of Religion and Philosophy as they thought fit to establish for the Religion and Philosophy of that Empire; and these instructed others, 'till from a small number they grew to a great multitude: for Suidas tells us, that Zoroastres gave a beginning to the name of the Magi: and Elmacinus; that he reformed the religion of the Persians, which before was divided into many sects: and Agathias; that he introduced the religion of the Magi among the Persians, changing their ancient sacred rites, and bringing in several opinions: and Ammianus ^[483] tells us, Magiam esse divinorum incorruptissimum cultum, cujus scientiæ seculis priscis multa ex Chaldæorum arcanis Bactrianus addidit Zoroastres: deinde Hystaspes Rex prudentissimus Darii pater; qui quum superioris Indiæ secreta fidentius penetraret, ad nemorosam quamdam venerat solitudinem, cujus tranquillis silentiis præcelsa Brachmanorum ingenia potiuntur; eorumque monitu rationes mundani motus & siderum, purosque sacrorum ritus quantum colligere potuit eruditus, ex his quæ didicit, aliqua sensibus Magorum infudit; quæ illi cum disciplinis præsentiendi futura, per suam quisque progeniem, posteris ætatibus tradunt. Ex eo per sæcula multa ad præsens, una eademque prosapia multitudo creata, Deorum cultibus dedicatur. Feruntque, si justum est credi, etiam ignem cœlitus lapsum apud se sempiternis foculis custodiri, cujus portionem exiguam ut faustam præisse quondam Asiaticis Regibus dicunt: Hujus originis apud veteres numerus erat exilis, ejusque mysteriis Persicæ potestates in faciendis rebus divinis solemniter utebantur. Eratque piaculum aras adire, vel hostiam contrectare, antequam Magus conceptis precationibus libamenta diffunderet præcursoria. Verum aucti paullatim, in amplitudinem gentis solidæ concesserunt & nomen: villasque inhabitantes nulla murorum firmitudine communitas & legibus suis uti permissi, religionis respectu sunt honorati. So this Empire was at first composed of many nations, each of which had hitherto its own religion: but now Hystaspes and Zoroastres collected what they conceived to be best, established it by law, and taught it to others, and those to others, 'till their disciples became numerous enough for the Priesthood of the whole Empire; and instead of those various old religions, they set up their own institutions in the whole Empire, much after the manner that Numa contrived and instituted the religion of the Romans: and this religion of the Persian Empire was composed partly of the institutions of the Chaldæans, in which Zoroastres was well skilled; and partly of the institutions of the ancient Brachmans, who are supposed to derive even their name from the Abrahamans, or sons of Abraham, born of his second wife Keturah, instructed by their father in the worship of ONE GOD without images, and sent into the east, where Hystaspes was instructed by their successors. About the same time with Hystapes and Zoroastres, lived also Ostanes, another eminent Magus: Pliny places him under Darius Hystaspis, and Suidas makes him the follower of Zoroastres: he came into Greece with Xerxes, and seems to be the Otanes of Herodotus, who discovered Smerdis, and formed the conspiracy against him, and for that service was honoured by the conspirators, and exempt from subjection to Darius.

In the sacred commentary of the Persian rites these words are ascribed to Zoroastres; ^[484] ‛Ο Θεος εστι κεφαλην εχων ‛ιερακος. ‛ουτος εστιν ‛ο πρωτος, αφθαρτος, αιδιος, αγενητος, αμερης, ανομοιοτατος, ‛ηνιοχος παντος καλου, αδωροδοκητος, αγαθων αγαθωτατος, φρονιμων φρονιμωτατος· εστι δε και πατηρ ευνομιας και δικαιοσυνης, αυτοδιδακτος, φυσικος, και τελειος, και σοφος, και ‛ιερου φυσικου μονος ‛ευρετης. Deus est accipitris capite: hic est primus, incorruptibilis, æternus, ingenitus, sine partibus, omnibus aliis dissimillimus, moderator omnis boni, donis non capiendus, bonorum optimus, prudentium prudentissimus, legum æquitatis ac justitiæ parens, ipse sui doctor, physicus & perfectus & sapiens & sacri physici unicus inventor: and the same was taught by Ostanes, in his book called Octateuchus. This was the Antient God of the Persian Magi, and they worshipped him by keeping a perpetual fire for Sacrifices upon an Altar in the center of a round area, compassed with a ditch, without any Temple in the place, and without paying any worship to the dead, or any images. But in a short time they declined from the worship of this Eternal, Invisible God, to worship the Sun, and the Fire, and dead men, and images, as the Egyptians, Phœnicians, and Chaldæans had done before: and from these superstitions, and the pretending to prognostications, the words Magi and Magia, which signify the Priests and Religion of the Persians, came to be taken in an ill sense.

Darius, or Darab, began his Reign in spring, in the sixteenth year of the Empire of the Persians, Anno Nabonass. 227, and Reigned 36 years, by the unanimous consent of all Chronologers. In the second year of his Reign the Jews began to build the Temple, by the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, and finished it in the sixth. He fought the Greeks at Marathon in October, Anno Nabonass. 258, ten years before the battel at Salamis, and died in the fifth year following, in the end of winter, or beginning of spring, Anno Nabonass. 263. The years of Cambyses and Darius are determined by three Eclipses of the Moon recorded by Ptolemy, so that they cannot be disputed: and by those Eclipses, and the Prophesies of Haggai and Zechariah compared together, it is manifest that the years of Darius began after the 24th day of the eleventh Jewish month, and before the 24th day of April, and by consequence in March or April.

Xerxes, Achschirosch, Achsweros, or Oxyares, succeeded his father Darius, and spent the first five years of his Reign, and something more, in preparations for his Expedition against the Greeks: and this Expedition was in the time of the Olympic Games, in the beginning of the first year of the 75th Olympiad, Callias being Archon at Athens; as all Chronologers agree. The great number of people which he drew out of Susa to invade Greece, made Æschylus the Poet say ^[485]:

The passage of his army over the Hellespont began in the end of the fourth year of the 74th Olympiad, that is in June, Anno Nabonass. 268, and took up a month; and in autumn, after three months more, on the 16th day of the month Munychion, at the full moon, was the battel at Salamis; and a little after that an Eclipse of the Moon, which by the calculation fell on Octob. 2. His first year therefore began in spring, Anno Nabonass. 263, as above: he Reigned almost twenty one years by the consent of all writers, and was murdered by Artabanus, captain of his guards; towards the end of winter, Anno Nabonass. 284.

Artabanus Reigned seven months, and upon suspicion of treason against Xerxes, was slain by Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Xerxes.

Artaxerxes began his Reign in the autumnal half year, between the 4th and 9th Jewish months, Nehem. i. 1. & ii. 1, & v. 14. and Ezra vii. 7, 8, 9. and his 20th year fell in with the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, as Africanus ^[486] informs us, and therefore his first year began within a month or two or the autumnal Equinox, Anno Nabonass. 284. Thucydides relates that the news of his death came to Athens in winter, in the seventh year of the Peloponnesian war, that is An. 4. Olymp. 88. and by the Canon he Reigned forty one years, including the Reign of his predecessor Artabanus, and died about the middle of winter, Anno Nabonass. 325 ineunte: the Persians now call him Ardschir and Bahaman, the Oriental Christians Artahascht.

Then Reigned Xerxes, two months, and Sogdian seven months, and Darius Nothus, the bastard son of Artaxerxes, nineteen years wanting four or five months; and Darius died in summer, a little after the end of the Peloponnesian war, and in the same Olympic year, and by consequence in May or June, Anno Nabonass. 344. The 13th year of his Reign was coincident in winter with the 20th of the Peloponnesian war, and the years of that war are stated by indisputable characters, and agreed on by all Chronologers: the war began in spring, Ann. 1. Olymp. 87, lasted 27 years, and ended Apr. 14. An. 4. Olymp. 93.

The next King was Artaxerxes Mnemon, the son of Darius: he Reigned forty six years, and died Anno Nabonass. 390. Then Reigned Artaxerxes Ochus twenty one years; Arses, or Arogus, two years, and Darius Codomannus four years, unto the battel of Arbela, whereby the Persian Monarchy was translated to the Greeks, Octob. 2. An. Nabonass. 417; but Darius was not slain untill a year and some months after.

I have hitherto stated the times of this Monarchy out of the Greek and Latin writers: for the Jews knew nothing more of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires than what they have out of the sacred books of the old Testament; and therefore own no more Kings, nor years of Kings, than they can find in those books: the Kings they reckon are only Nebuchadnezzar, Evilmerodach, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, Cyrus, Ahasuerus, and Darius the Persian; this last Darius they reckon to be the Artaxerxes, in whose Reign Ezra and Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, accounting Artaxerxes a common name of the Persian Kings: Nebuchadnezzar, they say, Reigned forty five years, 2 King. xxv. 27. Belshazzar three years, Dan. viii. 1. and therefore Evilmerodach twenty three, to make up the seventy years captivity; excluding the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, in which they say the Prophesy of the seventy years was given. To Darius the Mede they assign one year, or at most but two, Dan. ix. 1. to Cyrus three years incomplete, Dan. x. 1. to Ahasuerus twelve years 'till the casting of Pur, Esth. iii. 7. one year more 'till the Jews smote their enemies, Esth. ix. 1. and one year more 'till Esther and Mordecai wrote the second letter for the keeping of Purim, Esth. ix. 29. in all fourteen years: and to Darius the Persian they allot thirty two or rather thirty six years, Nehem. xiii. 6. So that the Persian Empire from the building of the Temple in the Second year of Darius Hystaspis, flourished only thirty four years, until Alexander the great overthrew it: thus the Jews reckon in their greater Chronicle, Seder Olam Rabbah. Josephus, out of the sacred and other books, reckons only these Kings of Persia; Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius Hystaspis, Xerxes, Artaxerxes, and Darius: and taking this Darius, who was Darius Nothus, to be one and the same King with the last Darius, whom Alexander the great overcame; by means of this reckoning he makes Sanballat and Jaddua alive when Alexander the great overthrew the Persian Empire. Thus all the Jews conclude the Persian Empire with Artaxerxes Longimanus, and Darius Nothus, allowing no more Kings of Persia, than they found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and referring to the Reigns of this Artaxerxes, and this Darius, whatever they met with in profane history concerning the following Kings of the same names: so as to take Artaxerxes Longimanus, Artaxerxes Mnemon and Artaxerxes Ochus, for one and the same Artaxerxes; and Darius Nothus, and Darius Codomannus, for one and the same Darius; and Jaddua, and Simeon Justus, for one and the same High-Priest. Those Jews who took Herod for the Messiah, and were thence called Herodians, seem to have grounded their opinion upon the seventy weeks of years, which they found between the Reign of Cyrus and that of Herod: but afterwards, in applying the Prophesy to Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, and at length to Barchochab, they seem to have shortned the Reign of the Kingdom of Persia. These accounts being very imperfect, it was necessary to have recourse to the records of the Greeks and Latines, and to the Canon recited by Ptolemy, for stating the times of this Empire. Which being done, we have a better ground for understanding the history of the Jews set down in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and adjusting it; for this history having suffered by time, wants some illustration: and first I shall state the history of the Jews under Zerubbabel, in the Reigns of Cyrus, Cambysis, and Darius Hystaspis.

This history is contained partly in the three first chapters of the book of Ezra, and first five verses of the fourth; and partly in the book of Nehemiah, from the 5th verse of the seventh chapter to the 9th verse of the twelfth: for Nehemiah copied all this out of the Chronicles of the Jews, written before his days; as may appear by reading the place, and considering that the Priests and Levites who sealed the Covenant on the 24th day of the seventh month, Nehem. x. were the very same with those who returned from captivity in the first year of Cyrus, Nehem. xii. and that all those who returned sealed it: this will be perceived by the following comparison of their names.

The Priests who returned.	The Priests who sealed.
Nehemiah. Ezra ii. 2.	Nehemiah.
Serajah.	Serajah.
*	Azariah.
Jeremiah.	Jeremiah.
Ezra.	Ezra. Nehem. 8.
*	Pashur.
Amariah.	Amariah.
Malluch: or Melicu, Neh. xii. 2, 14.	Malchijah.
Hattush.	Hattush.
Shechaniah or Shebaniah, Neh. xii. 3, 14.	Shebaniah.
*	Malluch.
Rehum: or Harim, ib. 3, 15.	Harim.
Meremoth.	Meremoth.
Iddo.	Obadiah or Obdia.
*	Daniel.
Ginnetho: or Ginnethon, Neh. xii. 4, 16.	Ginnethon.
*	Baruch.
*	Meshullam.
Abijah.	Abijah.
Miamin.	Mijamin.
Maadiah.	Maaziah.
Bilgah.	Bilgai.
Shemajah.	Shemajah.
Jeshua.	Jeshua.
Binnui.	Binnui.
Kadmiel.	Kadmiel.
Sherebiah. שרביה.	Shebaniah. שבניה.
Judah: or Hodaviah, Ezra ii. 40. & iii. 9. Ωδουια; Septuag.	Hodijah.

The Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, and Hodaviah or Judah, here mentioned, are reckoned chief fathers among the people who returned with Zerubbabel, Ezra ii. 40. and they assisted as well in laying the foundation of the Temple, Ezra iii. 9. as in reading the law, and making and sealing the covenant, Nehem. viii. 7. & ix. 5. & x. 9, 10.

Comparing therefore the books of Ezra and Nehemiah together; the history of the Jews under Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspis, is that they returned from captivity under Zerubbabel, in the first year of Cyrus, with the Holy Vessels and a commission to build the Temple; and came to Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his city, and dwelt in their cities untill the seventh month; and then coming to Jerusalem, they first built the Altar, and on the first day of the seventh month began to offer the daily burnt-offerings, and read in the book of the Law, and they kept a solemn fast, and sealed a Covenant; and thenceforward the Rulers of the people dwelt at Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots, to dwell one in ten at Jerusalem, and the rest in the cities of Judah: and in the second year of their coming, in the second month, which was six years before the death of Cyrus, they laid the foundation of the Temple; but the adversaries of Judah troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them all the days of Cyrus, and longer, even until the Reign of Darius King of Persia: but in the second year of his Reign, by the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, they returned to the work; and by the help of a new decree from Darius, finished it on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of his Reign, and kept the Dedication with joy, and the Passover, and Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Now this Darius was not Darius Nothus, but Darius Hystaspis, as I gather by considering that the second year of this Darius was the seventieth of the indignation against Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, which indignation commenced with the invasion of Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, in the ninth year of Zedekiah, Zech. i. 12. Jer. xxxiv. 1, 7, 22. & xxxix. 1. and that the fourth year of this Darius, was the seventieth from the burning of the Temple in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, Zech. vii. 5. & Jer. lii. 12. both which are exactly true of Darius Hystaspis: and that in the second year of this Darius there were men living who had seen the first Temple, Hagg. ii. 3. whereas the second year of Darius Nothus was 166 years after the desolation of the Temple and City. And further, if the finishing of the Temple be deferred to the sixth year of Darius Nothus, Jeshua and Zerubbabel must have been the one High-Priest, the other Captain of the people an hundred and eighteen years together, besides their ages before; which is surely too long: for in the first year of Cyrus the chief Priests were Serajah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, Malluch, Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, Iddo, Ginnetho, Abijah, Miamin, Maadiah, Bilgah, Shemajah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah: these were Priests in the days of Jeshua, and the eldest sons of them all, Merajah the son of Serajah, Hananiah the son of Jeremiah, Meshullam the son of Ezra, &c. were chief Priests in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua: Nehem. xii. and therefore the High Priest-hood of Jeshua was but of an ordinary length.

I have now stated the history of the Jews in the Reigns of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspis: it remains that I state their history in the Reigns of Xerxes, and Artaxerxes Longimanus: for I place the history of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Reign of this Artaxerxes, and not in that of Artaxerxes Mnemon: for during all the Persian Monarchy, until the last Darius mentioned in Scripture, whom I take to be Darius Nothus, there were but six High-Priests in continual succession of father and son, namely, Jeshua, Joiakim, Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan, Jaddua, and the seventh High-Priest was Onias the son of Jaddua, and the eighth was Simeon Justus, the Son of Onias, and the ninth was Eleazar the younger brother of Simeon. Now, at a mean reckoning, we should allow about 27 or 28 years only to a Generation by the eldest sons of a family, one Generation with another, as above; but if in this case we allow 30 years to a Generation, and may further suppose that Jeshua, at the return of the captivity in the first year of the Empire of the Persians, was about 30 or 40 years old; Joiakim will be of about that age in the 16th year of Darius Hystaspis, Eliashib in the tenth year of Xerxes, Joiada in the 19th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, Jonathan in the 8th year of Darius Nothus, Jaddua in the 19th year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, Onias in the 3d year of Artaxerxes Ochus, and Simeon Justus two years before the death of Alexander the Great: and this reckoning, as it is according to the course of nature, so it agrees perfectly well with history; for thus Eliashib might be High-Priest, and have grandsons, before the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, Ezra x. 6. and without exceeding the age which many old men attain unto, continue High-Priest 'till after the 32d year of that King, Nehem. xiii. 6, 7. and his grandson Johanan, or Jonathan, might have a chamber in the Temple in the seventh year of that King, Ezra x. 6. and be High-Priest before Ezra wrote the sons of Levi in the book of Chronicles; Nehem. xii. 23. and in his High-Priesthood, he might slay his younger brother Jesus in the Temple, before the end of the Reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon: Joseph. Antiq. l. xi. c. 7. and Jaddua might be High-Priest before the death of Sanballat, Joseph. ib. and before the death of Nehemiah, Nehem. xii. 22. and also before the end of the Reign of Darius Nothus; and he might thereby give occasion to Josephus and the later Jews, who took this King for the last Darius, to fall into an opinion that Sanballat, Jaddua, and Manasseh the younger brother of Jaddua, lived till the end of the Reign of the last Darius: Joseph. Antiq. l. xi. c. 7, 8. and the said Manasseh might marry Nicaso the daughter of Sanballat, and for that offence be chased from Nehemiah, before the end of the Reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus; Nehem. xiii. 28. Joseph. Antiq. l. xi. c. 7, 8. and Sanballat might at that time be Satrapa of Samaria, and in the Reign of Darius Nothus, or soon after, build the Temple of the Samaritans in Mount Gerizim, for his son-in-law Manasseh, the first High-Priest of that Temple; Joseph. ib. and Simeon Justus might be High-Priest when the Persian Empire was invaded by Alexander the Great, as the Jews represent, Joma fol. 69. 1. Liber Juchasis. R. Gedaliah, &c. and for that reason he might be taken by some of the Jews for the same High-Priest with Jaddua, and be dead some time before the book of Ecclesiasticus was writ in Hebrew at Jerusalem, by the grandfather of him, who in the 38th year of the Egyptian Æra of Dionysius, that is in the 77th year after the death of Alexander the Great, met with a copy of it in Egypt, and there translated it into Greek: Ecclesiast. ch. 50. & in Prolog. and Eleazar, the younger brother and successor of Simeon, might cause the Law to be translated into Greek, in the beginning of the Reign of Ptolemaus Philadelphus: Joseph. Antiq. l. xii. c. 2. and Onias the son of Simeon Justus, who was a child at his father's death, and by consequence was born in his father's old age, might be so old in the Reign of Ptolemæus Euergetes, as to have his follies excused to that King, by representing that he was then grown childish with old age. Joseph. Antiq. l. xii. c. 4. In this manner the actions of all these High-Priests suit with the Reigns of the Kings, without any straining from the course of nature: and according to this reckoning the days of Ezra and Nehemiah fall in with the Reign of the first Artaxerxes; for Ezra and Nehemiah flourished in the High Priesthood of Eliashib, Ezra x. 6. Nehem. iii. 1. & xiii. 4, 28. But if Eliashib, Ezra and Nehemiah be placed in the Reign of the second Artaxerxes, since they lived beyond the 32d year of Artaxerxes, Nehem. xiii. 28, there must be at least 160 years allotted to the three first High-Priests, and but 42 to the four or five last, a division too unequal: for the High Priesthoods of Jeshua, Joiakim, and Eliashib, were but of an ordinary length, that of Jeshua fell in with one Generation of the chief Priests, and that of Joiakim with the next Generation, as we have shewed already; and that of Eliashib fell in with the third Generation: for at the dedication of the wall, Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, was one of the Priests, Nehem. xii. 35, and Jonathan and his father Shemaiah, were contemporaries to Joiakim and his father Jeshua: Nehem. xii. 6, 18. I observe further that in the first year of Cyrus, Jeshua, and Bani, or Binnui, were chief fathers of the Levites, Nehem. vii. 7. 15. & Ezra ii. 2. 10. & iii. 9. and that Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, were chief Levites in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, when Ezra came to Jerusalem, Ezra viii. 33. so that this Artaxerxes began his Reign before the end of the second Generation: and that he Reigned in the time of the third Generation is confirmed by two instances more; for Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel, and Azariah the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, were fathers of their houses at the repairing of the wall; Nehem. iii. 4, 23. and their grandfathers, Meshazabeel and Hananiah, subscribed the covenant in the Reign of Cyrus: Nehem. x. 21, 23. Yea Nehemiah, this same Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah, was the Tirshatha, and subscribed it, Nehem. x. 1, & viii. 9, & Ezra ii. 2, 63. and therefore in the 32d year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, he will be above 180 years old, an age surely too great. The same may be said of Ezra, if he was that Priest and Scribe who read the Law, Nehem. viii. for he is the son of Serajah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shallum, &c. Ezra vii. 1. and this Serajah went into captivity at the burning of the Temple, and was there slain, 1 Chron. vi. 14. 2 King. xxv. 18. and from his death, to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, is above 200 years; an age too great for Ezra.

I consider further that Ezra, chap. iv. names Cyrus, *, Darius, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes, in continual order, as successors to one another, and these names agree to Cyrus, *, Darius Hystaspis, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes Longimanus, and to no other Kings of Persia: some take this Artaxerxes to be not the Successor, but the Predecessor of Darius Hystaspis, not considering that in his Reign the Jews were busy in building the City and the Wall, Ezra iv. 12. and by consequence had finished the Temple before. Ezra describes first how the people of the land hindered the building of the Temple all the days of Cyrus, and further, untill the Reign of Darius; and after the Temple was built, how they hindered the building of the city in the Reign of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, and then returns back to the story of the Temple in the Reign of Cyrus and Darius; and this is confirmed by comparing the book of Ezra with the book of Esdras: for if in the book of Ezra you omit the story of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, and in that of Esdras you omit the same story of Artaxerxes, and that of the three wise men, the two books will agree: and therefore the book of Esdras, if you except the story of the three wise men, was originally copied from authentic writings of Sacred Authority. Now the story of Artaxerxes, which, with that of Ahasuerus, in the book of Ezra interrupts the story of Darius, doth not interrupt it in the book of Esdras, but is there inferred into the story of Cyrus, between the first and second chapter of Ezra; and all the rest of the story of Cyrus, and that of Darius, is told in the book of Esdras in continual order, without any interruption: so that the Darius which in the book of Ezra precedes Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, and the Darius which in the same book follows them, is, by the book of Esdras, one and the same Darius; and I take the book of Esdras to be the best interpreter of the book of Ezra: so the Darius mentioned between Cyrus and Ahasuerus, is Darius Hysaspis; and therefore Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes who succeed him, are Xerxes and Artaxerxes Longimanus; and the Jews who came up from Artaxerxes to Jerusalem, and began to build the city and the wall, Ezra iv. 13. are Ezra with his companions: which being understood, the history of the Jews in the Reign of these Kings will be as follows.

After the Temple was built, and Darius Hystaspis was dead, the enemies of the Jews in the beginning of the Reign of his successor Ahasuerus or Xerxes, wrote unto him an accusation against them; Ezra iv. 6. but in the seventh year of his successor Artaxerxes, Ezra and his companions went up from Babylon with Offerings and Vessels for the Temple, and power to bestow on it out of the King's Treasure what should be requisite; Ezra vii. whence the Temple is said to be finished, according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes King of Persia: Ezra vi. 14. Their commission was also to set Magistrates and Judges over the land, and thereby becoming a new Body Politic, they called a great Council or Sanhedrim to separate the people from strange wives; and they were also encouraged to attempt the building of Jerusalem with its wall: and thence Ezra saith in his prayer, that God had extended mercy unto them in the sight of the Kings of Persia, and given them a reviving to set up the house of their God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give them a WALL in Judah, even in Jerusalem. Ezra ix. 9. But when they had begun to repair the wall, their enemies wrote against them to Artaxerxes: Be it known, say they, unto the King, that the Jews which came up from thee to us, are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations, &c. And the King wrote back that the Jews should cease and the city not be built, until another commandment should be given from him: whereupon their enemies went up to Jerusalem, and made them cease by force and power; Ezra iv. but in the twentieth year of the King, Nehemiah hearing that the Jews were in great affliction and distress, and that the wall of Jerusalem, that wall which had been newly repaired by Ezra, was broken down, and the gates thereof burnt wth fire; he obtained leave of the King to go and build the city, and the Governour's house, Nehem. i. 3. & ii. 6, 8, 17. and coming to Jerusalem the same year, he continued Governor twelve years, and built the wall; and being opposed by Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem, he persisted in the work with great resolution and patience, until the breaches were made up: then Sanballat and Geshem sent messengers unto him five times to hinder him from setting up the doors upon the gates: but notwithstanding he persisted in the work, until the doors were also set up: so the wall was finished in the eight and twentieth year of the King, Joseph. Antiq. l. xi. c. 5. in the five and twentieth day of the month Elul, or sixth month, in fifty and two days after the breaches were made up, and they began to work upon the gates. While the timber for the gates was preparing and seasoning, they made up the breaches of the wall; both were works of time, and are not jointly to be reckoned within the 52 days: this is the time of the last work of the wall, the work of setting up the gates after the timber was seasoned and the breaches made up. When he had set up the gates, he dedicated the wall with great solemnity, and appointed Officers over the chambers for the Treasure, for the Offerings, for the First-Fruits, and for the Tithes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities, the portions appointed by the law for the Priests and Levites; and the Singers and the Porters kept the ward of their God; Nehem. xii. but the people in the city were but few, and the houses were unbuilt: Nehem. vii. 1, 4. and in this condition he left Jerusalem in the 32d year of the King; and after sometime returning back from the King, he reformed such abuses as had been committed in his absence. Nehem. xiii. In the mean time, the Genealogies of the Priests and Levites were recorded in the book of the Chronicles, in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan, and Jaddua, until the Reign of the next King Darius Nothus, whom Nehemiah calls Darius the Persian: Nehem. xii. 11, 22, 23. whence it follows that Nehemiah was Governor of the Jews until the Reign of Darius Nothus. And here ends the Sacred History of the Jews.

The histories of the Persians now extant in the East, represent that the oldest Dynasties of the Kings of Persia, were those whom they call Pischdadians and Kaianides, and that the Dynasty of the Kaianides immediately succeeded that of the Pischdadians. They derive the name Kaianides from the word Kai, which, they say, in the old Persian language signified a Giant or great King; and they call the first four Kings of this Dynasty, Kai-Cobad, Kai-Caus, Kai-Cosroes, and Lohorasp, and by Lohorasp mean Kai-Axeres, or Cyaxeres: for they say that Lohorasp was the first of their Kings who reduced their armies to good order and discipline, and Herodotus affirms the same thing of Cyaxeres: and they say further, that Lohorasp went eastward, and conquered many Provinces of Persia, and that one of his Generals, whom the Hebrews call Nebuchadnezzar, the Arabians Bocktanassar, and others Raham and Gudars, went westward, and conquered all Syria and Judæa, and took the city of Jerusalem and destroyed it: they seem to call Nebuchadnezzar the General of Lohorasp, because he assisted him in some of his wars. The fifth King of this Dynasty, they call Kischtasp, and by this name mean sometimes Darius Medus, and sometimes Darius Hystaspis: for they say that he was contemporary to Ozair or Ezra, and to Zaradust or Zoroastres, the Legislator of the Ghebers or fire-worshippers, and established his doctrines throughout all Persia; and here they take him for Darius Hystaspis: they say also that he was contemporary to Jeremiah, and to Daniel, and that he was the son and successor of Lohorasp, and here they take him for Darius the Mede. The sixth King of the Kaianides, they call Bahaman, and tell us that Bahaman was Ardschir Diraz, that is Artaxerxes Longimanus, so called from the great extent of his power: and yet they say that Bahaman went westward into Mesopotamia and Syria, and conquered Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar, and gave the Kingdom to Cyrus his Lieutenant-General over Media: and here they take Bahaman for Darius Medus. Next after Ardschir Diraz, they place Homai a Queen, the mother of Darius Nothus, tho' really she did not Reign: and the two next and last Kings of the Kaianides, they call Darab the bastard son of Ardschir Diraz, and Darab who was conquered by Ascander Roumi, that is Darius Nothus, and Darius who was conquered by Alexander the Greek: and the Kings between these two Darius's they omit, as they do also Cyrus, Cambyses, and Xerxes. The Dynasty of the Kaianides, was therefore that of the Medes and Persians, beginning with the defection of the Medes from the Assyrians, in the end of the Reign of Sennacherib, and ending with the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. But their account of this Dynasty is very imperfect, some Kings being omitted, and others being confounded with one another: and their Chronology of this Dynasty is still worse; for to the first King they assign a Reign of 120 years, to the second a Reign of 150 years, to the third a Reign of 60 years, to the fourth a Reign of 120 years, to the fifth as much, and to the sixth a Reign of 112 years.

This Dynasty being the Monarchy of the Medes, and Persians; the Dynasty of the Pischdadians which immediately preceded it, must be that of the Assyrians: and according to the oriental historians this was the oldest Kingdom in the world, some of its Kings living a thousand years a-piece, and one of them Reigning five hundred years, another seven hundred years, and another a thousand years.

We need not then wonder, that the Egyptians have made the Kings in the first Dynasty of their Monarchy, that which was seated at Thebes in the days of David, Solomon, and Rehoboam, so very ancient and so long lived; since the Persians have done the like to their Kings, who began to Reign in Assyria two hundred years after the death of Solomon; and the Syrians of Damascus have done the like to their Kings Adar and Hazael, who Reigned an hundred years after the death of Solomon, worshipping them as Gods, and boasting their antiquity, and not knowing, saith Josephus, that they were but modern.

And whilst all these nations have magnified their Antiquities so exceedingly, we need not wonder that the Greeks and Latines have made their first Kings a little older than the truth.

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FINIS.

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Notes.

Greeks

Greece

Index

Hellenica World - Scientific Library