A SHORT
CHRONICLE
FROM THE
First Memory of Things in Europe,
TO THE
Conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great.
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.
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.
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:
Quamvis Æthiopum populis, Arabumque beatis
Gentibus, atque Indis unus sit Jupiter Ammon.
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.
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:
Ενθα τε
και στηλαι,
Θηβαιγενεος
Διονυσου
‛Εστασιν
πυματοιο
παρα ‛ροον
Ωκεανοιο,
Ινδων
‛υστατιοισιν
εν
ουρεσιν·
ενθα τε
Γαγγης
Λευκον
‛υδορ
Νυσσαιον
επι
πλαταμωνα
κυλινδει.
Ubi etiamnum columnæ Thebis geniti Bacchi
Stant extremi juxta fluxum Oceani
Indorum ultimis in montibus: ubi & Ganges
Claram aquam Nyssæam ad planitiem devolvit.
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.
[272] Venit ad occasum mundique
extrema Sesostris.
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:
Quamvis Æthiopum populis, Arabumque beatis
Gentibus, atque Indis unus sit Jupiter Ammon.
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]
Parnassus gemino petit æthera
colle,
Mons Phœbo, Bromioque sacer.
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;
Jupiter angusta vix totus stabat in æde.
Ovid. Fast. l. 1.
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,
Sævoque alimenta parentis
Antæo eripui.
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.
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;
Αρχαιη
Βαβυλων,
Τυριου
Βηλοιο
πολισμα.
The ancient city Babylon built by the Tyrian
Belus;
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.
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]
Τοιγαρ
σφιν εργον
εστιν
εξειργασμενον
Μεγιστον,
αιειμνηστον
‛οιον
ουδεπω,
Το δ' αστυ
Σουσων
εξεκεινωσεν
πεσον·
Εξ
‛ουτε τιμην
Ζευς αναξ
τηνδ'
ωπασεν
Εν ανδρα
πασης
Ασιαδος
μηλοτροφου
Ταγειν,
εχοντα
σκηπτρον
ευθυντηριον
Μηδος
γαρ ην ‛ο
πρωτος
‛ηγεμων
στρατου·
Αλλος δ'
εκεινου
παις τοδ'
εργον
ηνυσε·
Φρενες γαρ
αυτου
θυμον
οιακοστροφουν.
Τριτος δ' απ'
αυτου
Κυρος,
ευδαιμων
ανηρ, &c.
They have done a work
The greatest, and most memorable, such as never
happen'd,
For it has emptied the falling Sufa:
From the time that King Jupiter granted this
honour,
That one man should Reign over all fruitful
Asia,
Having the imperial Scepter.
For he that first led the Army was a Mede;
The next, who was his son, finisht the work,
For prudence directed his soul;
The third was Cyrus, a happy man, &c.
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]
Πινωμεν,
χαριεντα
μετ'
αλληλοισι
λεγοντες,
Μηδεν τον
Μηδων
δειδιοτες
πολεμον.
Let us drink, talking pleasant things with one
another,
Not fearing the war of the Medes.
And again, [421]
Αυτος
δε στρατον
‛υβριστην
Μηδων
απερυκε
Τησδε
πολευς,
‛ινα σοι
λαοι εν
ευφροσυνηι
Ηρος
επερχομενου
κλειτας
πεμπωσ'
‛εκατομβας,
Τερπομενοι
κιθαρη και
ερατηι
θαλιηι,
Παιανωντε
χοροις,
ιαχωσι τε,
σον περι
βωμον.
Η γαρ
εγωγε
δεδοικ',
αφραδιην
εσορων
Και
στασιν
‛Ελληνων
λαοφθορον·
αλλα συ
Φοιβε,
‛Ιλαος
‛ημετερην
τηνδε
φυλασσε
πολιν.
Thou Apollo drive away the injurious army of the
Medes
From this city, that the people may with
joy
Send thee choice hecatombs in the spring,
Delighted with the harp and chearful
feasting,
And chorus's of Pœans and acclamations about
thy altar.
For truly I am afraid, beholding the
folly
And sedition of the Greeks, which corrupts the
people: but thou Apollo,
Being propitious, keep this our city.
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,
Quique magos docuit mysteria vana Necepsos:
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.
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.
A Description of THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
Plate I.
p.
346.
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.
A Description of the Inner Court & Buildings for the
Priests in Solomons Temple.
Plate II.
p. 346.
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.
A Particular Description of one of the Gates of the
Peoples Court, with part of the Cloyster adjoyning.
Plate III.
p. 346.
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.
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]:
Το δ' αστυ
Σουσων
εξεκεινωσεν
πεσον.
It emptied the falling city of Susa.
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.
FINIS.
Notes.
[1] In the life
of Lycurgus.
[2] In the life of
Solon.
[3] Herod. l.
2.
[4] Plutarch. de
Pythiæ Oraculo.
[5] Plutarch. in
Solon
[6] Apud Diog.
Laert. in Solon p. 10.
[7] Plin. nat.
hist. l. 7. c. 56.
[8] Ib. l. 5. c.
29.
[9] Cont. Apion.
sub initio.
[10] In
Ακουσιλαος.
[11] Joseph.
cont. Ap. l. 1.
[12] Dionys. l.
1. initio.
[13] Plutarch.
in Numa.
[14] Diodor. l.
16. p. 550. Edit. Steph.
[15] Polyb. p.
379. B.
[16] In vita
Lycurgi, sub initio.
[17] In
Solone.
[18] Plutarch.
in Romulo & Numa.
[19] In
Æneid. 7. v. 678.
[20] Diodor. l.
1.
[21] Plutarch.
in Romulo.
[22] Lib. I. in
Proæm.
[23] Plutarch.
in Lycurgo sub initio.
[24] Pausan. l.
4. c. 13. p. 28. & c. 7. p. 296 & l. 3. c. 15. p.
245.
[25] Pausan. l.
4. c. 7. p. 296.
[26] Herod. l.
7.
[27] Herod. l.
8.
[28] Plato in
Minoe.
[29] Thucyd. l.
1. p. 13.
[30] Athen. l.
14 p. 605
[31] Pausan. l.
5. c. 8.
[32] Pausan. l.
6. c. 19.
[33] Plutarch.
de Musica. Clemens Strom. l. 1. p. 308.
[34] Herod. l.
6. c. 52.
[35] Pausan. l.
5. c. 4.
[36] Pausan. l.
5. c. 1, 3, 8. Strabo, l. 8, p. 357.
[37] Pausan. l.
5. c.4.
[38] Pausan. l.
5. c.18.
[39] Solin. c.
30.
[40] Dionys. l.
1. p. 15.
[41] Apollon.
Argonaut. l. 1. v. 101.
[42] Plutarch.
in Theseo.
[43] Diodor. l.
1. p. 35.
[44] Joseph.
Antiq. l. 4. c. 8
[45] Contra
Apion. l. 1.
[46] Hygin. Fab.
144.
[47] Gen. i. 14.
& viii. 22. Censorinus c. 19 & 20. Cicero in Verrem.
Geminus c. 6.
[48] Cicero in
Verrem.
[49] Diodor. l.
1.
[50] Cicero in
Verrem.
[51] Gem. c.
6.
[52] Apud
Laertium, in Cleobulo.
[53] Apud
Laertium, in Thalete. Plutarch. in Solone.
[54] Censorinus
c. 18. Herod. l. 2. prope initium.
[55] Apollodor
l. 3. p. 169. Strabo l. 16. p. 476. Homer. Odyss. Τ. v.
179.
[56] Herod. l.
1.
[57] Plutarch.
in Numa.
[58] Diodor. l.
3. p. 133.
[59] Diodor. l.
1. p. 13.
[60] Apud
Theodorum Gazam de mentibus.
[61] Apud
Athenæum, l. 14.
[62] Suidas in
Σαροι.
[63] Herod. l.
1.
[64] Julian. Or:
4.
[65] Strabo l.
17. p. 816.
[66] Diodor. l.
1. p. 32.
[67] Plutarch de
Osiride & Iside. Diodor. l. 1. p. 9.
[68]
Hecatæus apud Diodor. l. 1. p. 32.
[69] Isagoge
Sect. 23, a Petavio edit.
[70] Hipparch.
ad Phænom. l.2. Sect. 3. a Petavio edit.
[71] Hipparch.
ad Phænom. l.1. Sect. 2.
[72] Strom. 1.
p. 306, 352.
[73] Laertius
Proem. l. 1.
[74] Apollodor.
l. 1. c. 9. Sect. 16.
[75] Suidas in
Αναγαλλις.
[76] Apollodor.
l. 1. c. 9. Sect. 25.
[77] Laert. in
Thalete. Plin. l. 2. c. 12.
[78] Plin. l.
18. c. 23.
[79] Petav. Var.
Disl. l. 1. c. 5.
[80] Petav.
Doct. Temp. l. 4. c. 26.
[81] Columel. l.
9. c. 14. Plin. l. 18. c. 25.
[82] Arrian. l.
7.
[83] In
Moph.
[84] Euanthes
apud Athenæum, l. 67. p. 296.
[85] Hyginus
Fab. 14.
[86] Homer.
Odyss. l. 8. v. 292.
[87] Hesiod.
Theogon. v. 945.
[88] Pausan. l.
2. c. 23.
[89] Strabo l.
16.
[90] Isa. xxiii.
2. 12.
[91] 1 Kings v.
6
[92] Steph. in
Azoth.
[93] Conon.
Narrat. 37.
[94] Nonnus
Dionysiac l. 13 v. 333 α sequ.
[95] Athen. l.
4. c. 23.
[96] Strabo. l.
10. p. 661. Herod. l. 1.
[97] Strabo. l.
16.
[98] 2 Chron.
xxi. 8, 10. & 2 Kings. viii. 20, 22.
[99] Herod. l.
1. initio, & l. 7. circa medium.
[100] Solin.
c. 23, Edit. Salm.
[101] Plin.
l. 4. c. 22.
[102] Strabo.
l. 9. p. 401. & l. 10. p. 447.
[103] Herod.
l. 5.
[104] Strabo.
l. 1. p. 42.
[105] Strabo.
l. 1. p. 48.
[106]
Bochart. Canaan. l. 1. c. 34.
[107] Strabo.
l. 3. p. 140.
[108] Vid.
Phil. Transact. Nº. 359.
[109] Canaan,
l. 1. c. 34. p. 682.
[110]
Aristot. de Mirab.
[111] Plin.
l. 7. c. 56.
[112] Canaan.
l. 1. c. 39.
[113]
Philostratus in vita Apollonii l. 5. c. 1. apud Photium.
[114] Arnob.
l. 1.
[115]
Bochart. in Canaan. l. 1. c. 24.
[116] Oros.
l. 5. c. 15. Florus l. 3. c. 1. Sallust. in Jugurtha.
[117] Antiq.
l. 8. c. 2, 5. & l. 9. c. 14.
[118] Thucyd.
l. 6. initio. Euseb. Chr.
[119] Thucyd.
ib.
[120] Apud
Dionys. l. 1. p. 15.
[121] Herod.
l. 8. c. 137.
[122] Herod.
l. 8.
[123] Herod.
l. 8. c. 139.
[124] Thucyd.
l. 2. prope finem.
[125] Herod
l. 6. c. 127.
[126] Strabo.
l. 8. p. 355.
[127] Pausan.
l. 6. c. 22.
[128] Pausan.
l. 5. c. 9.
[129] Strabo.
l. 8. p. 358.
[130] Phanias
Eph. ap. Plut. in vita Solonis.
[131] Vid.
Dionys. Halicarnass. l. 1. p. 44, 45.
[132] Pausan.
l. 2. c. 6.
[133] Hygin.
Fab. 7 & 8.
[134] Homer.
Iliad. Ο.
[135] Homer.
Odys. Η. Diodor. l. 5. p.237.
[136] Diodor.
l. 1. p.17.
[137] Pausan.
l. 2. c. 25.
[138]
Apollodor. l. 2. Sect. 5.
[139] Herod
l. 7.
[140]
Bochart. Canaan part. 2. cap. 13.
[141]
Apollon. Argonaut. l. 1. v. 77.
[142] Conon.
Narrat. 13.
[143] Pausan.
l. 5. c. 1. Apollodor. l. 1. c. 7.
[144] Pausan.
l. 7. c. 1.
[145] Pausan.
l. 1. c. 37. & l. 10. c. 29.
[146] Pausan.
l. 7. c. 1.
[147] Hesych.
in Κραναος.
[148]
Themist. Orat. 19.
[149] Plato
in Alcib. 1.
[150] Pausan.
l. 8. c. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
[151] Pausan.
l. 8. c. 4. Apollon. Argonaut. l. 1. v. 161.
[152] Pausan.
l. 8. c. 4.
[153] Herod.
l. 5. c. 58.
[154] Strabo
l. 10. p. 464, 465, 466.
[155] Solin.
Polyhist. c. 11.
[156] Isidor.
originum. lib. xi. c. 6.
[157] Clem.
Strom. l. 1.
[158] Pausan.
l. 9. c. 11.
[159] Strabo
l. 10. p. 472, 473. Diodor. l. 5. c. 4.
[160] Strabo
l. 10. p. 468. 472. Diodor. l. 5. c. 4.
[161] Lucian
de sacrificiis. Apollod. l. 1. c. 1. sect. 3. & c. 2. sect.
1.
[162] Boch.
in Canaan. l. 1. c. 15.
[163] Athen.
l. 13. p. 601.
[164]
Plutarch in Theseo.
[165] Homer
Il. Ν. & Ξ. & Odys. Λ. & Τ.
[166] Herod.
l. 1.
[167]
Apollod. l. 3. c. 1. Hygin. Fab. 40, 41, 42. 178.
[168] Lucian.
de Dea Syria.
[169] Diodor.
l. 5. c. 4,
[170]
Argonaut. l. 2. v. 1236.
[171] Lucian.
de sacrificiis.
[172]
Porphyr. in vita Pythag.
[173] Cicero
de Nat. Deor. l. 3.
[174]
Callimac. Hymn 1. v. 8.
[175] Cypr.
de Idolorum vanitate.
[176] Tert.
Apologet. c. 10.
[177] Macrob.
Saturnal. lib. 1. c. 7.
[178] Pausan.
l. 5. c. 7, vid. et. c. 13. 14. & l. 8. c. 2.
[179] Pausan.
l. 8. c. 29.
[180] Diodor.
l. 5. p. 183.
[181] Pausan.
l. 5. c. 8. 14.
[182] Herod.
l. 2. c. 44.
[183] Cic. de
natura Deorum. lib. 3.
[184] Diodor.
p. 223.
[185] Dionys.
l. 1. p. 38, 42.
[186] Lucian.
de saltatione.
[187] Arnob.
adv. gent. l. 6. p. 131.
[188] Herod.
l. 2. initio.
[189] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 8.
[190] Hesiod.
opera. v. 108.
[191]
Apollon. Argonaut. l. 4. v. 1643.
[192] Vita
Homeri Herodoto adfer.
[193] Herod.
l. 2.
[194] 1 Sam.
ix. 16. & xiii. 5. 19, 20.
[195] Clem.
Al. Strom. 1. p. 321.
[196] Plin.
l. 7.
[197] Plato
in Timæo.
[198]
Apollodor. l. 3. c. 1.
[199] Herod.
l. 2.
[200] Hygin.
Fab. 7.
[201]
Apollodor. l. 3. c. 6.
[202] Homer.
Il. Γ. vers 572.
[203] Thucyd.
l. 2. p. 110. & Plutarch. in Theseo.
[204] Strabo.
l. 9. p. 396.
[205] Apud
Strabonem, l. 9. p. 397.
[206] Pausan.
l. 2. c. 15.
[207] Strabo.
l. 8. p. 337.
[208] Pausan.
l. 8. c. 1. 2.
[209] Plin.
l. 7. c. 56.
[210] Dionys.
l. 1. p. 10.
[211] Dionys.
l. 2. p. 126.
[212] Diodor
l. 5. p. 224. 225. 240.
[213] Ammian.
l. 17. c. 7.
[214] Plin.
l. 2. c. 87.
[215] Diodor.
l. 5. p. 202. 204.
[216] Apud
Diodor. l. 5. p. 201.
[217] Dionys.
l. 1. p. 17.
[218] Dionys.
l. 1. p. 33. 34.
[219] Dionys.
ib.
[220] Ptol.
Hephæst. l. 2.
[221] Dionys.
l. 2. p. 34.
[222] Diodor.
l. 5. p. 230.
[223] Ister
apud Porphyr. abst. l. 2. s. 56.
[224]
Bochart. Canaan. l. 1. c. 15.
[225] Apud
Strabonem. lib. 14. p. 684.
[226] Strabo.
l. 17. p. 828.
[227] Diodor.
l. 3. p. 132.
[228] Herod.
l. 1.
[229] 1 King.
xx. 16.
[230] Genes.
xiv. Deut ii. 9. 12. 19.-22.
[231] Exod.
i. 9. 22.
[232] Job
xxxi. 11.
[233] Job
xxxi. 26.
[234] 1
Chron. xi. 4. 5. Judg. i. 21. 2 Sam v. 6.
[235] Vide
Hermippum apud Athenæum, I.
[236]
Argonaut. l. 4. v. 272.
[237] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 7.
[238] Apud
Diodorum l. 3. p. 140.
[239] Diodor.
l. 3. p. 131. 132.
[240] Pausan.
l. 2. c. 20. p. 155.
[241] Diodor.
l. 3. p. 130 & Schol. Apollonii. l. 2.
[242] Ammian.
l. 22. c. 8.
[243] Justin.
l. 2. c. 4.
[244] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 9.
[245] Apud
Diodor. l. 3. p. 141.
[246] Step.
in Αμμωνια.
[247] Plin.
l. 6. c. 28.
[248] Ptol.
l. 6. c. 7.
[249] D.
Augustin. in exposit. epist. ad Rom. sub initio.
[250] Procop.
de bello Vandal. l. 2. c. 10.
[251] Chron.
l. 1. p. 11.
[252] Gemar.
ad tit. Shebijth. cap. 6.
[253] Manetho
apud Josephum cont. Appion. l. 1. p. 1039.
[254] Herod.
l. 2.
[255] Jerem.
xliv. 1. Ezek. xxix. 14.
[256] Menetho
apud Porphyrium περι
απονης** l. 1. Sect. 55.
Et. Euseb. Præp. l. 4. c. 16. p. 155.
[257] Diodor.
l. 3. p. 101.
[258] Diodor.
apud Photium in Biblioth.
[259] Herod.
l. 2.
[260]
Plutarch. de Iside. p. 355. Diodor. l. 1. p. 9.
[261]
Augustin. de Civ. Dei. l. 18. c. 47.
[262] Apud
Photium, c. 279.
[263] Fab.
274.
[264] Apud
Euseb. Chron.
[265] Plin.
l. 6. c. 23, 28. & l. 7. c. 56.
[266] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 17.
[267] Pausan.
l. 4. c. 23.
[268]
Apollodor. l. 2. c. 1.
[269] Dionys.
in Perie. v. 623.
[270] Fab.
275.
[271]
Saturnal. l. 5. c. 21.
[272] Lucan.
l. 10.
[273] Lucan.
l. 9.
[274] Herod.
l. 1.
[275] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 35. Herod. l. 2 c. 102, 103, 106.
[276] Pausan.
l. 10. Suidas in Παρνασιοι.
[277] Lucan
l. 5.
[278]
Argonaut. l. 4. v. 272.
[279] Herod.
l. 2. c. 109.
[280] In vita
Pythag. c. 29.
[281] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 36
[282] Dionys.
de situ Orbis.
[283] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 39.
[284]
Plutarch. de Iside & Osiride.
[285] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 8.
[286] Lucian.
de Dea Syria
[287] Exod.
xxxiv. 13. Num. xxxiii. 52. Deut. vii. 5. & xii. 3.
[288] 2 Sam.
viii. 10. & 1 King. xi. 23.
[289] Antiq
l. 9. c. 2.
[290] Justin.
l. 36.
[291] Diodor.
l. 5. p. 238.
[292] Suidas
in Σαρδαναπαλος.
[293]
Apollod. l. 3.
[294]
Argonaut. l. 4. v. 424. & l. 1. v. 621.
[295] Homer
Odyss. Θ. v. 268. 292. & Hymn. 1. & 2. in Venerem.
& Hesiod. Theogon. v. 192.
[296] Pausan.
l. 1. c. 20.
[297] Clem.
Al. Admon. ad Gent. p. 10. Apollodor. l. 3. c. 13. Pindar. Pyth.
Ode 2. Hesych. in Κινυραδαι.
Steph. in Αμαθους.
Strabo. l. 16, p. 755.
[298] Clem.
Al. Admon. ad Gent. p. 21. Plin. l. 7. c. 56.
[299] Herod.
l. 2.
[300] Herod.
l. 3. c. 37.
[301]
Bochart. Canaan. l. 1. c. 4.
[302] Apud
Athenæum l. 9. p. 392.
[303] Ptol.
l. 2.
[304] Diod.
l. 3. p. 145.
[305] Vas.
Chron. Hisp. c. 10.
[306] Strabo
l. 16. p. 776.
[307]
Homer.
[308] Diodor.
l. 3. p.132, 133
[309] Plato
in Timæo. & Critia.
[310] Apud
Diodor. l. 5. p. 233.
[311] Pamphus
apud Pausan. l. 7. c. 21.
[312] Herod.
l. 2. c. 50.
[313]
Plutarch in Iside.
[314] Lucian
de Saltatione.
[315]
Agatharc. apud Photium.
[316] Hygin.
Fab. 150.
[317]
Plutarch. in Iside.
[318] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 10.
[319] Pindar.
Pyth. Ode 9.
[320] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 12.
[321] Plin.
l. 6. c. 29.
[322] Herod.
l. 2. c. 110.
[323] Manetho
apud Josephum cont. Apion. p. 1052, 1053.
[324] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 31.
[325] Herod.
l. 2.
[326] Strabo.
l. 1. p. 48.
[327] Pindar.
Pyth. Ode 4.
[328] Strabo.
l. 1. p. 21, 45, 46.
[329] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 29.
[330]
Manetho
[331] Herod.
l. 2
[332] Herod.
l. 2.
[333] Ammian.
l. 17. c. 4.
[334] Strabo.
l. 17. p. 817.
[335] Annal.
l. 2. c. 60.
[336] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 32.
[337] Diodor.
l. 1. p. 51.
[338] Joseph.
Ant. l. 1. c. 4.
[339]
Heordot. l. 2. c. 141.
[340] Isa.
xix. 2, 4, 11, 13, 23.
[341] Herod.
l. 2. c. 148, &c.
[342] Plin.
l. 36. c. 8. 9.
[343] Diodor.
l. 1 p. 29, &c.
[344] Diodor.
l. 2, p. 83.
[345] Amos
vi. 13, 14.
[346] Amos
vi. 2.
[347] 2
Chron. xxvi. 6.
[348] 2 King.
xiv. 25.
[349] 2 King.
xix. 11.
[350] Isa. x.
8.
[351] 1
Chron. v. 26. 2 King. xvi. 9 & xvii. 6, 24. & Ezra iv.
9.
[352] Isa.
xxii. 6.
[353] 2 King.
xvii. 24, 30, 31. & xviii. 33, 34, 35. 2 Chron. xxxii.
15.
[354] 2
Chron. xxxii. 13, 15.
[355] Hosea
v. 13. & x. 6, 14.
[356] Herod.
l. iii. c. 155.
[357] Herod.
l. i. c. 184.
[358] Beros.
apud Josep. contr. Appion. l. 1.
[359] Curt.
l. 5. c. 1.
[360] Apud
Euseb. Præp. l. 9. c. 41.
[361] Doroth.
apud Julium Firmicum.
[362] Heren.
apud Steph. in Βαβ.
[363] Abyden
apud Euseb. Præp. l. 9. c. 41.
[364] Isa.
xxiii. 13.
[365] Tobit.
i. 13. Annal. Tyr. apud Joseph. Ant. l. 9. c. 14.
[366] Hosea
x. 14.
[367] Tobit.
i. 15.
[368] Tobit.
i. 21. 2 King. xix. 37. Ptol. Canon.
[369] Isa.
xx. 1, 3, 4.
[370] Herod.
l. 1. c. 72. & l. 7. c. 63.
[371] Apud
Athenæum l. xii. p. 528.
[372] Herod.
l. 1. c. 96. &c.
[373]
Athenæus l. 12. p. 529, 530.
[374] Herod.
l. 1. c. 102.
[375] Herod.
l. 1. c. 103. Steph. in Παρθυαιοι.
[376]
Alexander Polyhist. apud Euseb. in Chron. p. 46 & apud
Syncellum. p. 210.
[377] 2 Kings
xxiv. 7. Jer. xlvi. 2. Eupolemus apud Euseb. Præp. l. 9. c.
35.
[378] 2 King.
xxiii. 29, &c.
[379]
Eupolemus apud Euseb. Præp. l. 9. c. 39. 2 King. xxv. 2,
7.
[380] Dan. i.
1.
[381] Dan. i.
2. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6.
[382] Jer.
xlvi. 2.
[383] Apud
Joseph. Antiq. l. 10. c. 11.
[384] Beros.
apud Joseph. Ant. l. 10. c. 11.
[385] 2 King.
xxiv. 12, 14. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10.
[386] 2 Kings
xxiv. 17. Ezek. xvii. 13, 16, 18.
[387] Ezek.
xvii. 15.
[388] 2 King.
xxv. 1, 2, 8. Jer. xxxii. 1, & xxxix 1, 2.
[389] Canon.
& Beros.
[390] 2 King.
xxv. 27.
[391] Hieron.
in Isa. xiv. 19.
[392] 2 King.
xxv. 27. 29, &c.
[393] Dan. v.
2.
[394] Jos.
Ant. l. 10. c. 11.
[395] Herod.
l. 1. c. 184, 185.
[396]
Philost. in vita Apollonii. l. 1. c. 15.
[397] Jos.
cont. Apion. l. 1. c. 21.
[398] Herod.
l. 1. c. 189, 190, 191. Xenoph. l. 7. p. 190, 191, 192. Ed.
Paris.
[399] Dan. v.
30, 31. Joseph. Ant. l. 10. c. 11.
[400]
Æsch. Persæ v. 761.
[401] Herod.
l. 1. c. 107, 108. Xenophon Cyropæd. l. 1. p. 3.
[402]
Cyropæd. l. 1. p. 22.
[403]
Cyropæd. l. viii. p. 228, 229.
[404] Herod.
l. 1. c. 73.
[405] Herod.
l. 1. c. 106, 130.
[406] Herod.
l. 1. c. 103.
[407] Herod.
ib.
[408] Jer.
xxv.
[409] Herod.
l. 1. c. 73, 74.
[410] Herod.
Ibid. Plin. l. 2. c. 12.
[411]
The Scythians.
[412] Jer.
xxvii. 3, 6. Ezek. xxi. 19, 20 & xxv. 2, 8, 12.
[413] Ezek.
xxvi. 2. & xxix. 17, 19.
[414] Ezek.
xxix. 19. & xxx. 4, 5.
[415] Suid.
in Δαρεικος
& Δαρεικους.
Harpocr. in Δαρεικος.
Scoliast in Aristophanis. Εκκλησιαζουστον.
v. 598.
[416] Herod.
l. 1. c. 71.
[417] Isa.
xiii. 17.
[418] Plin.
l. 33. c. 3.
[419] Herod.
l. 1. c. 94.
[420] Theogn.
Γνωμαι, v. 761.
[421] Ibid.
v. 773.
[422] Cyrop.
l. 8.
[423]
Comment. in Dan. v.
[424] Strabo.
l. 16. initio.
[425] Strab.
l. 16. p. 745.
[426] Herod.
l. 1. c. 192.
[427] Herod.
l. 1. c. 178, &c.
[428] Isa.
xxiii. 13.
[429] Diod.
l. 1. p. 51.
[430] Herod.
l. 1. c. 181.
[431] Suidas
in Αρισταρχος.
Herod. l. 1. c. 123, &c.
[432] Strabo.
l. 15. p. 730.
[433] Herod.
l. 1. c. 127, &c.
[434] Cyrop.
l. 8. p. 233.
[435] See
Plate I. & II.
[436] Ezek.
xli. 13, 14.
[437] Ezek.
xl. 47
[438] Ezek.
xl. 29, 33, 36.
[439] Ezek.
xl. 19, 23, 27. 2 King xxi. 5. 2 Chron. iv. 9.
[440] Ezek.
xl. 15, 17, 21. 1 Chron. xxviii. 12.
[441] Ezek.
xl 5, xlii. 20, & xlv. 2.
[442] 2 King.
xxi.5.
[443] Ezek.
xl.
[444] Plate
III.
[445] Plate
I.
[446] 1
Chron. xxvi. 17.
[447] Ezek.
xlvi. 8, 9.
[448] Ezek.
xliv. 2, 3.
[449] 1
Chron. xxvi. 15, 16, 17, 18.
[450] Ezek.
xl. 22, 26, 31, 34, 37.
[451] Plate
II & III.
[452] 1 King.
vi. 36. & vii. 13. Ezek. xl. 17, 18.
[453] Ezek.
xl. 10, 31, 34, 37.
[454] Plate
I.
[455] 1 King.
vi. 36, & vii. 12.
[456] Ezek.
xl. 17.
[457] Plate
III.
[458] Plate I
& II.
[459] Ezek.
xlvi. 21, 22.
[460] Ezek.
xl. 45.
[461] Ezek.
xl. 39, 41, 42, 46.
[462] Plate
II.
[463] Ezek.
xlii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14.
[464] Ezek.
xlvi. 19, 20.
[465] Ezek.
xlii. 5, 6.
[466] 1 King.
vi. 2. Ezek. xli. 2, 4, 12, 13, 14.
[467] 1 King.
vi. 3. Ezek. xli. 13.
[468] Ezek.
xli. 6, 11.
[469] 1 King.
vi. 6.
[470] Ezek.
xli. 6.
[471] 2
Chron. iii. 4.
[472] 1 King.
vi. 8.
[473] 2
Chron. xx. 5.
[474] 2 King.
xvi. 18.
[475] Ezra
vi. 3, 4.
[476] Plate
I
[477] Plate
III.
[478] Plate
I.
[479] Valer.
Max. l. 9. c. 2.
[480] Porph.
de Abstinentia, lib. 4.
[481] Q.
Curt. Lib. iii. c. 3.
[482] Suidas
in Ζωροαστρης.
[483] Ammian.
l. 23. c. 6.
[484] Euseb.
Præp. Evang. l. 1. c. ult.
[485]
Æsch. Persæ v. 763.
[486] Apud.
Hieron in Dan. viii.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chronology of
Ancient Kingdoms Amended, by Isaac Newton
![Index (1K)](Index.gif)