Isaac Newton - The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amendedby Isaac Newton

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Title: The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms AmendedTo which is Prefix'd, A Short Chronicle from the First

Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest of Persia byAlexander the Great

Author: Isaac Newton

Release Date: May 7, 2005 [EBook #15784]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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THE CHRONOLOGY OF ANCIENT KINGDOMS

AMENDED.

To which is Prefix'd,

A SHORT CHRONICLE from the FirstMemory of Things in Europe, to the ConquestofPersia by Alexanderthe Great.

By Sir ISAAC NEWTON.

LONDON:

Printed for J. TONSON in the Strand, and J. OSBORNand T. LONGMAN inPater-noster Row.

MDCCXXVIII.


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TO THE QUEEN.

MADAM,

As I could never hope to write any thing my self, worthy to be laid before YOUR MAJESTY; I think it a

very great happiness, that it should be my lot to usher into the world, under Your Sacred Name, the last

work of as great a Genius as any Age ever produced: an Offering of such value in its self, as to be in nodanger of suffering from the meanness of the hand that presents it.

The impartial and universal encouragement which YOUR MAJESTY has always given to Arts and

Sciences, entitles You to the best returns the learned world is able to make: And the many extraordinary

Honours YOUR MAJESTY vouchsafed the Author of the following sheets, give You a just right to his

Productions. These, above the rest, lay the most particular claim to Your Royal Protection; For the

Chronology had never appeared in its present Form without YOUR MAJESTY's Influence; and the ShortChronicle, which precedes it, is entirely owing to the Commands with which You were pleased to honourhim, out of your singular Care for the education of the Royal Issue, and earnest desire to form their mindsbetimes, and lead them early into the knowledge of Truth.

The Author has himself acquainted the Publick, that the following Treatise was the fruit of his vacant

hours, and the relief he sometimes had recourse to, when tired with his other studies. What an Idea does itraise of His abilities, to find that a Work of such labour and learning, as would have been a sufficient

employment and glory for the whole life of another, was to him diversion only, and amusement! The

Subject is in its nature incapable of that demonstration upon which his other writings are founded, but hisusual accuracy and judiciousness are here no less observable; And at the same time that he supports his

suggestions, with all the authorities and proofs that the whole compass of Science can furnish, he offers

them with the greatest caution; And by a Modesty, that was natural to Him and always accompanies such

superior talents, sets a becoming example to others, not to be too presumptuous in matters so remote and

dark. Tho' the Subject be only Chronology, yet, as the mind of the Author abounded with the most extensivevariety of Knowledge, he frequently intersperses Observations of a different kind; and occasionally instills

principles of Virtue and Humanity, which seem to have been always uppermost in his heart, and, as they

were the Constant Rule of his actions, appear Remarkably in all his writings.

Here YOUR MAJESTY will see Astronomy, and a just Observation on the course of Nature, assisting otherparts of Learning to illustrate Antiquity; and a Penetration and Sagacity peculiar to the great Author,

dispelling that Mist, with which Fable and Error had darkened it; and will with pleasure contemplate the

first dawnings of Your favourite Arts and Sciences, the noblest and most beneficial of which He alone

carried farther in a few years, than all the most Learned who went before him, had been able to do in many

Ages. Here too, MADAM, You will observe, that an Abhorrence of Idolatry and Persecution (the very

essence and foundation of that Religion, which makes so bright a part of YOUR MAJESTY's character)

was one of the earliest Laws of the Divine Legislator, the Morality of the first Ages, and the primitiveReligion of both Jews and Christians; and, as the Author adds, ought to be the standing Religion of allNations; it being for the honour of God, and good of Mankind. Nor will YOUR MAJESTY be displeased tofind his sentiments so agreeable to Your own, whilst he condemns all oppression; and every kind ofcruelty,even to brute beasts; and, with so much warmth, inculcates Mercy, Charity, and the indispensable duty ofdoing good, and promoting the generalwelfare of mankind: Those great ends, for which Government was

first instituted, and to which alone it is administred in this happy Nation, under a KING, who distinguishedhimself early in opposition to the Tyranny which threatnedEurope, and chuses to reign in the hearts of his

subjects; Who, by his innate Benevolence, and Paternal Affection to his People, establishes and confirmsall their Liberties; and, by his Valour and Magnanimity, guards and defends them.

That Sincerity and Openness of mind, which is the darling quality of this Nation, is become more

conspicuous, by being placed upon the Throne; And we see, with Pride, OUR SOVEREIGN the most

eminent for a Virtue, by which our country is so desirous to be distinguished. A Prince, whose views and

heart are above all the mean arts of Disguise, is far out of the reach of any temptation to Introduce


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Blindness and Ignorance. And, as HIS MAJESTY is, by his incessant personal cares, dispensing Happiness

at home, and Peace abroad; You, MADAM, lead us on by Your great Example to the most noble use of that

Quiet and Ease, which we enjoy under His Administration, whilst all Your hours of leisure are employed in

cultivating in Your Self That Learning, which You so warmly patronize in Others.

YOUR MAJESTY does not think the instructive Pursuit, an entertainment below Your exalted Station; and

are Your Self a proof, that the abstruser parts of it are not beyond the reach of Your Sex. Nor does thisStudy end in barren speculation; It discovers itself in a steady attachment to true Religion; in Liberality,

Beneficence, and all those amiable Virtues, which increase and heighten the Felicities of a Throne, at the

same time that they bless All around it. Thus, MADAM, to enjoy, together with the highest state of publick

Splendor and Dignity all the retired Pleasures and domestick Blessings of private life; is the perfection of

human Wisdom, as well as Happiness.

The good Effects of this Love of knowledge, will not stop with the present Age; It will diffuse its Influence

with advantage to late Posterity: And what may we not anticipate in our minds for the Generations to comeunder a Royal Progeny, so descended, so educated, and formed by such Patterns!

The glorious Prospect gives us abundant reason to hope, that Liberty and Learning will be perpetuated

together; and that the bright Examples of Virtue and Wisdom, set in this Reign by the Royal Patrons of

Both, will be transmitted with the Scepter to their Posterity, till this and the other Works of Sir ISAACNEWTON shall be forgot, and Time it self be no more: Which is the most sincere and ardent wish of

MADAM,

May it please YOUR MAJESTY,

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

John Conduitt.


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THE CONTENTS.

A Short Chronicle from the first Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest ofPersia by AlexandertheGreat.

The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amended.

Chap. I.Of the Chronology of the First Ages of the Greeks.

Chap. II.Of the Empire ofEgypt.

Chap. III.Of the AssyrianEmpire.

Chap. IV.Of the two Contemporary Empires of the Babylonians andMedes.

Chap. V.A Description of the Temple ofSolomon.

Chap. VI.Of the Empire of the Persians.

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Tho'The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amended, was writ by the Author many years since; yet helately revis'd it, and was actually preparing it for the Press at the time of his death. ButThe ShortChronicle was never intended to be made public, and therefore was not so lately corrected by him. To thisthe Reader must impute it, if he shall find any places where the Short Chronicle does not accurately agree

with the Dates assigned in the larger Piece. The Sixth Chapter was not copied out with the other Five,which makes it doubtful whether he intended to print it: but being found among his Papers, and evidently

appearing to be a Continuation of the same Work, and (as such) abridg'd in the Short Chronicle; it wasthought proper to be added.

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A SHORT CHRONICLE

FROM THEFirst Memory of Things inEurope,TO THEConquest ofPersia byAlexanderthe Great.

The INTRODUCTION.

The GreekAntiquities are full of Poetical Fictions, because the Greeks wrote nothing in Prose, before theConquest ofAsia by Cyrus thePersian. ThenPherecydes Scyrius and Cadmus Milesius introduced the

writing in Prose.Pherecydes Atheniensis , about the end of the Reign ofDarius Hystaspis, wrote ofAntiquities, and digested his work by Genealogies, and was reckoned one of the best Genealogers.

Epimenides the Historian proceeded also by Genealogies; andHellanicus, who was twelve years older thanHerodotus, digested his History by the Ages or Successions of the Priestesses ofJuno Argiva. Othersdigested theirs by the Kings of theLacedmonians, or Archons ofAthens.Hippias theElean, about thirtyyears before the fall of thePersian Empire, published a breviary or list of the Olympic Victors; and aboutten years before the fall thereof,Ephorus the disciple ofIsocrates formed a Chronological History ofGreece, beginning with the return of theHeraclides intoPeloponnesus, and ending with the siege of

Perinthus, in the twentieth year ofPhilip the father ofAlexanderthe great: But he digested things byGenerations, and the reckoning by Olympiads was not yet in use, nor doth it appear that the Reigns ofKings were yet set down by numbers of years. TheArundelian marbles were composed sixty years after thedeath ofAlexanderthe great (An. 4. Olymp. 128.) and yet mention not the Olympiads: But in the nextOlympiad, Timus Siculus published an history in several books down to his own times, according to the

Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the Kings ofSparta, the Archons ofAthens, and the Priestesses ofArgos, with the Olympic Victors, so as to make the Olympiads, and the Genealogies and Successions ofKings, Archons, and Priestesses, and poetical histories suit with one another, according to the best of hisjudgment. And where he left off,Polybius began and carried on the history.

So then a little after the death ofAlexanderthe great, they began to set down the Generations, Reigns andSuccessions, in numbers of years, and by putting Reigns and Successions equipollent to Generations, andthree Generations to an hundred or an hundred and twenty years (as appears by their Chronology) they havemade the Antiquities ofGreece three or four hundred years older than the truth. And this was the originalof the Technical Chronology of the Greeks.Eratosthenes wrote about an hundred years after the death of

Alexanderthe great: He was followed byApollodorus, and these two have been followed ever since byChronologers.

But how uncertain their Chronology is, and how doubtful it was reputed by the Greeks of those times, maybe understood by these passages ofPlutarch. 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 ofLycurgus upon it. Others supputingthe times by the succession of the Kings of the Lacedmonians, as Eratosthenes andApollodorus, affirmthat he was not a few years older than the first Olympiad. FirstAristotle and some others made him as oldas the first Olympiad; thenEratosthenes,Apollodorus, and some others made him above an hundred yearsolder: and in another placePlutarch[2]tells us: The congress ofSolon with Croesus, some think they canconfute by Chronology. But an history so illustrious, and verified by so many witnesses, and (which ismore) so agreeable to the manners ofSolon, and so worthy of the greatness of his mind and of his wisdom,
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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 ofSolon too ancient to consist with that Congress.

For reconciling such repugnancies, Chronologers have sometimes doubled the persons of men. So when the

Poets had changedIo the daughter ofInachus into theEgyptian Isis, Chronologers made her husbandOsiris orBacchus and his mistressAriadne as old asIo, and so feigned that there were twoAriadnes, onethe mistress ofBacchus, and the other the mistress ofTheseus, and two Minos's their fathers, and a younger

Io the daughter ofJasus, writingJasus corruptly forInachus. And so they have made twoPandions, andtwoErechtheus's, giving the name ofErechthonius to the first;Homercalls the first,Erechtheus: and bysuch corruptions they have exceedingly perplexed Ancient History.

And as for the Chronology of theLatines, that is still more uncertain.Plutarch represents greatuncertainties in the Originals ofRome: and so doth Servius. The old records of theLatines were burnt bythe Gauls, sixty and four years before the death ofAlexanderthe great; and Quintus Fabius Pictor, theoldest historian of theLatines, lived an hundred years later than that King.

In Sacred History, theAssyrian Empire began withPuland Tiglathpilaser, and lasted about 170 years. And

accordinglyHerodotus hath made Semiramis only five generations, or about 166 years older thanNitocris,the mother of the last King ofBabylon. But Ctesias hath made Semiramis 1500 years older thanNitocris,and feigned a long series of Kings ofAssyria, whose names are notAssyrian, nor have any affinity with the

Assyrian names in Scripture.

The Priests ofEgypttoldHerodotus, that Menes built Memphis and the sumptuous temple ofVulcan, in thatCity: and thatRhampsinitus, Mris,Asychis andPsammiticus added magnificent porticos to that temple.And it is not likely that Memphis could be famous, beforeHomer's days who doth not mention it, or that atemple could be above two or three hundred years in building. The Reign ofPsammiticus began about 655years before Christ, and I place the founding of this temple by Menes about 257 years earlier: but thePriests ofEgypthad so magnified their Antiquities before the days ofHerodotus, as to tell him that fromMenes to Mris (who reigned 200 years beforePsammiticus) there were 330 Kings, whose Reigns took upas many Ages, that is eleven thousand years, and had filled up the interval with feigned Kings, who had

done nothing. And before the days ofDiodorus Siculus they had raised their Antiquities so much higher, asto 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 ofSicyon, Chronologers have splitApis Epaphus orEpopeus into two Kings, whom theycallApis andEpopeus, and between them have inserted eleven or twelve feigned names of Kings who didnothing, and thereby they have made its Foundergialeus, three hundred years older than his brother

Phoroneus. Some have made the Kings ofGermany 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 theirdeaths: and therefore I admit no Chronology of things done inEurope, above eighty years before Cadmusbrought letters intoEurope; none, of things done in Germany, before the rise of theRoman Empire.

Now sinceEratosthenes andApollodorus computed the times by the Reigns of the Kings ofSparta, and (as

appears by their Chronology still followed) have made the seventeen Reigns of these Kings in both Races,between the Return of theHeraclides intoPeloponnesus and the Battel ofThermopyl, take up 622 years,which is after the rate of 36 years to a Reign, and yet a Race of seventeen Kings of that length is no whereto be met with in all true History, and Kings at a moderate reckoning Reign but 18 or 20 years a-piece onewith another: I have stated the time of the return of theHeraclides by the last way of reckoning, placing itabout 340 years before the Battel ofThermopyl. And making the Taking ofTroy eighty years older thanthat Return, according to Thucydides, and theArgonautic Expedition a Generation older than the TrojanWar, and the Wars ofSesostris in Thrace and death ofIno the daughter ofCadmus a Generation older thanthat Expedition: I have drawn up the following Chronological Table, so as to make Chronology suit with


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the Course of Nature, with Astronomy, with Sacred History, withHerodotus the Father of History, andwith it self; without the many repugnancies complained of byPlutarch. I do not pretend to be exact to ayear: there may be Errors of five or ten years, and sometimes twenty, and not much above.

A SHORT CHRONICLE

FROM THEFirst Memory of things in Europe to the Conquest ofPersia by Alexanderthe great.

The Times are set down in years before Christ.

The Canaanites who fled fromJoshua, retired in great numbers intoEgypt, and there conquered Timaus,Thamus, orThammuzKing of the lowerEgypt, and reigned there under their Kings Salatis,Bon,

Apachnas,Apophis,Janias,Assis, &c. untill the days ofEli and Samuel. They fed on flesh, and sacrificedmen after the manner of thePhnicians, and were called Shepherds by theEgyptians, who lived only onthe fruits of the earth, and abominated flesh-eaters. The upper parts ofEgyptwere in those days undermany Kings, Reigning at Coptos, Thebes, This,Elephantis, and other Places, which by conquering oneanother grew by degrees into one Kingdom, over which Misphragmuthosis Reigned in the days ofEli.

In the year before Christ 1125 Mephres Reigned over the upperEgyptfrom Syene toHeliopolis, and hisSuccessorMisphragmuthosis made a lasting war upon the Shepherds soon after, and caused many of themto fly intoPalestine,Iduma, Syria, andLibya; and underLelex,zeus,Inachus,Pelasgus,olus the first,Cecrops, and other Captains, into Greece. Before those days Greece and allEurope was peopled bywandring Cimmerians, and Scythians from the backside of theEuxine Sea, who lived a rambling wild sortof life, like the Tartars in the northern parts ofAsia. 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 lowerEgyptcalledAbaris orPelusium.

In the year 1100 thePhilistims, strengthned by the access of the Shepherds, conquerIsrael, and take theArk. SamueljudgesIsrael.

1085.Hmon the son ofPelasgus Reigns in Thessaly.

1080.Lycaon the son ofPelasgus buildsLycosura;Phoroneus the son ofInachus,Phoronicum, afterwardscalledArgos;gialeus the brother ofPhoroneus and son ofInachus,gialeum, afterwards called Sicyon:and these were the oldest towns inPeloponnesus. 'Till then they built only single houses scattered up anddown in the fields. About the same time Cecrops built Cecropia inAttica, afterwards calledAthens; and

Eleusine, the son ofOgyges, builtEleusis. And these towns gave a beginning to the Kingdoms of theArcadians,Argives, Sicyons,Athenians,Eleusinians, &c.Deucalion flourishes.

1070.Amosis, orTethmosis, the successor ofMisphragmuthosis, abolishes thePhnician custom inHeliopolis of sacrificing men, and drives the Shepherds out ofAbaris. By their access thePhilistimsbecome so numerous, as to bring into the field against Saul30000 chariots, 6000 horsemen, and people asthe sand on the sea shore for multitude.Abas, the father ofAcrisius andPrtus, comes fromEgypt.

1069. Saulis made King ofIsrael, and by the hand ofJonathan gets a great victory over thePhilistims.Eurotas the son ofLelex, andLacedmon who married Sparta the daughter ofEurotas, Reign inLaconia,and build Sparta.


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1060. Samueldies.

1059.Davidmade King.

1048. TheEdomites are conquered and dispersed byDavid, and some of them fly intoEgyptwith theiryoung KingHadad. Others fly to thePersian Gulph with their CommanderOannes; and others from the

Red Sea to the coast of the Mediterranean, and fortifyAzoth againstDavid, and takeZidon; and theZidonians who fled from them build Tyre andAradus, and makeAbibalus King ofTyre. TheseEdomitescarry to all places their Arts and Sciences; amongst which were their Navigation, Astronomy, and Letters;for inIduma they had Constellations and Letters before the days ofJob, who mentions them: and thereMoses learnt to write the Law in a book. TheseEdomites who fled to the Mediterranean, translating thewordErythra into that ofPhnicia, give the name ofPhnicians to themselves, and that ofPhnicia toall the sea-coasts ofPalestine fromAzoth toZidon. And hence came the tradition of thePersians, and ofthePhnicians themselves, mentioned byHerodotus, that thePhnicians came originally from theRedSea, and presently undertook long voyages on the Mediterranean.

1047.Acrisius marriesEurydice, the daughter ofLacedmon and Sparta. ThePhnician mariners whofled from theRed Sea, being used to long voyages for the sake of traffic, begin the like voyages on theMediterranean fromZidon; and sailing as far as Greece, carry awayIo the daughter ofInachus, who with

otherGrecian women came to their ships to buy their merchandize. The Greek Seas begin to be infestedwith Pyrates.

1046. The Syrians ofZobah andDamascus are conquered byDavid.Nyctimus, the son ofLycaon, reigns inArcadia.Deucalion still alive.

1045. Many of thePhnicians and Syrians fleeing fromZidon and fromDavid, come under the conduct ofCadmus, Cilix,Phnix, Membliarius,Nycteus, Thasus,Atymnus, and other Captains, intoAsia minor,Crete, Greece, andLibya; and introduce Letters, Music, Poetry, the Octaeteris, Metals and theirFabrication, and other Arts, Sciences and Customs of thePhnicians. At this time Cranaus the successorofCecrops Reigned inAttica, and in his Reign and the beginning of the Reign ofNyctimus, the Greeksplace the flood ofDeucalion. This flood was succeeded by four Ages or Generations of men, in the first ofwhich Chiron the son ofSaturn andPhilyra was born, and the last of which according toHesiodended

with the Trojan War; and so places the Destruction ofTroy four Generations or about 140 years later thanthat flood, and the coming ofCadmus, reckoning with the ancients three Generations to an hundred years.With thesePhnicians came a sort of men skilled in the Religious Mysteries, Arts, and Sciences of

Phnicia, and settled in several places under the names ofCuretes, Corybantes, Telchines, andIdiDactyli.

1043. Hellen, the son ofDeucalion, and father ofolus,Xuthus, andDorus, flourishes.

1035.Erectheus Reigns inAttica.thlius, the grandson ofDeucalion and father ofEndymion, buildsElis.TheIdi Dactyli find out Iron in mountIda in Crete, and work it into armour and iron tools, and therebygive a beginning to the trades of smiths and armourers inEurope; and by singing and dancing in theirarmour, and keeping time by striking upon one another's armour with their swords, they bring in Music andPoetry; and at the same time they nurse up the Cretan Jupiterin a cave of the same mountain, dancing

about him in their armour.

1034.Ammon Reigns inEgypt. He conqueredLibya, and reduced that people from a wandering savage lifeto a civil one, and taught them to lay up the fruits of the earth; and from himLibya and the desert above itwere anciently calledAmmonia. He was the first that built long and tall ships with sails, and had a fleet ofsuch ships on theRed Sea, and another on the Mediterranean atIrasa inLibya. 'Till then they used smalland round vessels of burden, invented on theRed Sea, and kept within sight of the shore. For enabling themto cross the seas without seeing the shore, theEgyptians began in his days to observe the Stars: and fromthis beginning Astronomy and Sailing had their rise. Hitherto the Lunisolar year had been in use: but this


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year being of an uncertain length, and so, unfit for Astronomy, in his days and in the days of his sons andgrandsons, by observing the Heliacal Risings and Setting of the Stars, they found the length of the Solaryear, and made it consist of five days more than the twelve calendar months of the old Lunisolar year.Creusa the daughter ofErechtheus marriesXuthus the son ofHellen.Erechtheus having first celebrated the

Panathena joins horses to a chariot.gina, the daughter ofAsopus, and mother ofacus, born.

1030. Ceres a woman ofSicily, in seeking her daughter who was stolen, comes intoAttica, and thereteaches the Greeks to sow corn; for which Benefaction she was Deified after death. She first taught the Artto Triptolemus the young son ofCeleus King ofEleusis.

1028. Oenotrus the youngest son ofLycaon, theJanus of theLatines, led the first Colony ofGreeks intoItaly, and there taught them to build houses.Perseus born.

1020.Arcas, the son ofCallisto and grandson ofLycaon, andEumelus the first King ofAchaia, receivebread-corn from Triptolemus.

1019. Solomon Reigns, and marries the daughter ofAmmon, and by means of this affinity is supplied withhorses fromEgypt; and his merchants also bring horses from thence for all the Kings of theHittites andSyrians: for horses came originally fromLibya; and thenceNeptune was calledEquestris. Tantalus King of

Phrygia steals Ganimede the son ofTros King ofTroas.

1017. Solomon by the assistance of the Tyrians andAradians, who had mariners among them acquaintedwith theRed Sea, sets out a fleet upon that sea. Those assistants build new cities in thePersian Gulph,called Tyre andAradus.

1015. The Temple ofSolomon is founded. Minos Reigns in Crete expelling his fatherAsterius, who fleesintoItaly, and becomes the Saturn of theLatines.Ammon takes Gezerfrom the Canaanites, and gives it tohis daughter, Solomon's wife.

1014.Ammon places Cepheus atJoppa.

1010. Sesac in the Reign of his fatherAmmon invadesArabia Flix, and sets up pillars at the mouth of theRed Sea.Apis,Epaphus orEpopeus, the son ofPhroroneus, andNycteus King ofBotia, slain.Lycusinherits the Kingdom of his brotherNycteus.tolus the son ofEndymion flies into the Country of theCuretes inAchaia, and calls ittolia; and ofPronoe the daughter ofPhorbas begetsPleuron and Calydon,who built cities intolia called by their own names.Antiopa the daughter ofNycteus is sent home to

Lycus byLamedon the successor ofApis, and in the way brings forthAmphion andZethus.

1008. Sesac, in the Reign of his fatherAmmon, invadesAfric and Spain, and sets up pillars in all hisconquests, and particularly at the mouth of the Mediterranean, and returns home by the coast ofGauland

Italy.

1007. Ceres being deadEumolpus institutes her Mysteries inEleusine. The Mysteries ofRhea are institutedinPhrygia, in the city Cybele. About this time Temples begin to be built in Greece.Hyagnis thePhrygian

invents the pipe. After the example of the common-council of the five Lords of thePhilistims, the Greeksset up theAmphictyonic Council, first at Thermopyl, by the influence ofAmphictyon the son of

Deucalion; and a few years after atDelphi by the influence ofAcrisius. Among the cites, whose deputiesmet at Thermopyl, I do not findAthens, and therefore doubt whetherAmphictyon was King of that city. Ifhe was the son ofDeucalion and brother ofHellen, he and Cranaus might Reign together in several parts of

Attica. But I meet with a laterAmphictyon who entertained the greatBacchus. This Council worshippedCeres, and therefore was instituted after her death.


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1006. Minos prepares a fleet, clears the Greekseas of Pyrates, and sends Colonies to the Islands of theGreeks, some of which were not inhabited before. Cecrops II. Reigns inAttica. Caucon teaches theMysteries ofCeres in Messene.

1005.Andromeda carried away fromJoppa byPerseus.Pandion the brother ofCecrops II. Reigns inAttica. Car, the son ofPhoroneus, builds a Temple to Ceres.

1002. Sesac Reigns inEgyptand adorns Thebes, dedicating it to his fatherAmmon by the name ofNo-Ammon orAmmon-No, that is the people or city ofAmmon: whence the Greeks called itDiospolis, the cityofJupiter. Sesac also erected Temples and Oracles to his father in Thebes,Ammonia, andEthiopia, andthereby caused his father to be worshipped as a God in those countries, and I think also inArabia Flix:and this was the original of the worship ofJupiter Ammon , and the first mention of Oracles that I meet within Prophane History. War betweenPandion andLabdacus the grandson ofCadmus.

994.geus Reigns inAttica.

993.Pelops the son ofTantalus comes intoPeloponnesus, marriesHippodamia the granddaughter ofAcrisius, takestolia fromtolus the son ofEndymion, and by his riches grows potent.

990.Amphion andZethus slayLycus, putLaius the son ofLabdacus to flight, and Reign in Thebes, andwall the city about.

989.Ddalus and his nephew Talus invent the saw, the turning-lath, the wimble, the chip-ax, and otherinstruments of Carpenters and Joyners, and thereby give a beginning to those Arts inEurope.Ddalus alsoinvented the making of Statues with their feet asunder, as if they walked.

988. Minos makes war upon theAthenians, for killing his sonAndrogeus.acus flourishes.

987.Ddalus kills his nephew Talus, and flies to Minos. A Priestess ofJupiter Ammon, being brought byPhnician merchants into Greece, sets up the Oracle ofJupiteratDodona. This gives a beginning toOracles in Greece: and by their dictates, the Worship of the Dead is every where introduced.

983. Sisyphus, the son ofolus and grandson ofHellen, Reigns in Corinth, and some say that he built thatcity.

980.Laius recovers the Kingdom ofThebes.Athamas, the brother ofSisyphus and father ofPhrixus andHelle, marriesIno the daughter ofCadmus.

979.Rehoboam Reigns. Thoas is sent from Crete toLemnos, Reigns there in the cityHephstia, and worksin copper and iron.

978.Alcmena born ofElectryo the son ofPerseus andAndromeda, and ofLysidice the daughter ofPelops.

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

971. Sesac invadesIndia, and returns with triumph the next year but one: whence Trieterica Bacchi. Hesets up pillars on two mountains at the mouth of the riverGanges.

968. Theseus Reigns, having overcome the Minotaur, and soon after unites the twelve cities ofAttica underone government. Sesac, having carried on his victories to Mount Caucasus, leaves his nephewPrometheusthere, andetes in Colchis.


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967. Sesac, passing over theHellespontconquers Thrace, killsLycurgus King thereof, and gives hisKingdom and one of his singing-women to Oeagrus the father ofOrpheus. Sesac had in his army

Ethiopians commanded byPan, andLibyan women commanded by Myrina orMinerva. It was the customof theEthiopians to dance when they were entring into a battel, and from their skipping they were paintedwith goats feet in the form of Satyrs.

966. Thoas, being made King ofCyprus by Sesac, goes thither with his wife Calycopis, and leaves hisdaughterHypsipyle inLemnos.

965. Sesac is baffled by the Greeks and Scythians, loses many of his women with their Queen Minerva,composes the war, is received byAmphiction at a feast, buriesAriadne, goes back throughAsia and SyriaintoEgypt, with innumerable captives, among whom was Tithonus, the son ofLaomedon King ofTroy; andleaves hisLibyan Amazons, underMarthesia andLampeto, the successors ofMinerva, at the riverThermodon. He left also in Colchos Geographical Tables of all his conquests: And thence Geography hadits 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 ofSicily, is slain by him. He was eminent for his Dominion,his Laws and his Justice: upon his sepulchre visited byPythagoras, was this inscription, the

Sepulchre ofJupiter.Danaus with his daughters flying from his brotherEgyptus (that is from Sesac) comesinto Greece. Sesac using the advice of his Secretary Thoth, distributesEgyptinto xxxviNomes, and ineveryNome erects a Temple, and appoints the several Gods, Festivals and Religions of the severalNomes.The Temples were the sepulchres of his great men, where they were to be buried and worshipped afterdeath, each in his own Temple, with ceremonies and festivals appointed by him; while He and his Queen,by the names ofOsiris andIsis, were to be worshipped in allEgypt. These were the Temples seen anddescribed byLucian eleven hundred years after, to be of one and the same age: and this was the original ofthe severalNomes ofEgypt, and of the several Gods and several Religions of thoseNomes. Sesac dividedalso the land ofEgyptby measure amongst his soldiers, and thence Geometry had its rise.Hercules and

Eurystheus born.

963.Amphictyon brings the twelve Gods ofEgyptinto Greece, and these are theDii magni majorumgentium, to whom the Earth and Planets and Elements are dedicated.

962.Phryxus andHelle fly from their stepmotherIno the daughter ofCadmus.Helle is drowned in theHellespont, so named from her, butPhryxus arrived at Colchos.

960. The war between theLapith and the people ofThessaly called Centaurs.

958. Oedipus kills his fatherLaius. Sthenelus the son ofPerseus Reigns in Mycene.

956. Sesac is slain by his brotherJapetus, who after death was deified inAfric by the name ofNeptune, andcalled Typhon by theEgyptians. Orus Reigns and routs theLibyans, who under the conduct ofJapetus, andhis SonAntus orAtlas, invadedEgypt. Sesac from his making the riverNile useful, by cutting channelsfrom it to all the cities ofEgypt, was called by its names, SihororSiris,Nilus andEgyptus. The Greeks

hearing theEgyptians lament, O Siris andBou Siris, called him Osiris andBusiris. TheArabians from hisgreat acts called himBacchus, that is, the Great. ThePhrygians called him Ma-fors orMavors, the valiant,and by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests, and his army in his father's Reignfought against theAfricans with clubs, he is painted with pillars and a club: and this is thatHercules who,according to Cicero, was born upon theNile, and according toEudoxus, was slain by Typhon; andaccording toDiodorus, was anEgyptian, and went over a great part of the world, and set up the pillars in

Afric. He seems to be also theBelus who, according toDiodorus, led a Colony ofEgyptians toBabylon,and there instituted Priests called Chaldeans, who were free from taxes, and observed the stars, as inEgypt.HithertoJudah andIsraellaboured under great vexations, but henceforwardAsa King ofJudah had peaceten years.


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947. TheEthiopians invadeEgypt, and drown Orus in theNile. ThereuponBubaste the sister ofOrus killsherself, by falling from the top of an house, and their motherIsis orAstra goes mad: and thus ended theReign of the Gods ofEgypt.

946.Zerah theEthiopian is overthrown byAsa. The people of the lowerEgyptmake Osarsiphus theirKing, and call in two hundred thousandJews andPhnicians against theEthiopians. Menes orAmenophis

the young son ofZerah and Cissia Reigns.

944. TheEthiopians, underAmenophis, retire from the lowerEgyptand fortify Memphis againstOsarsiphus. And by these wars and theArgonautic expedition, the great Empire ofEgyptbreaks in pieces.

Eurystheus the son ofSthenelus Reigns in Mycen.

943.Evanderand his motherCarmenta carry Letters intoItaly.

942. Orpheus Deifies the son ofSemele by the name ofBacchus, and appoints his Ceremonies.

940. The great men ofGreece, hearing of the civil wars and distractions ofEgypt, resolve to send anembassy to the nations, upon theEuxine and Mediterranean Seas, subject to that Empire, and for that endorder the building of the shipArgo.

939. The shipArgo is built after the pattern of the long ship in whichDanaus came into Greece: and thiswas the first long ship built by the Greeks. Chiron, who was born in the Golden Age, forms theConstellations for the use of theArgonauts; and places the Solstitial and Equinoctial Points in the fifteenthdegrees or middles of the Constellations ofCancer, Chel, Capricorn, andAries. Meton in the year of

Nabonassar316, observed the Summer Solstice in the eighth degree ofCancer, and therefore the Solsticehad then gone back seven degrees. It goes back one degree in about seventytwo years, and seven degrees inabout 504 years. Count these years back from the year ofNabonassar316, and they will place the

Argonautic expedition about 936 years before Christ. Gingris the son ofThoas slain, and Deified by thename ofAdonis.

938. Theseus, being fifty years old, stealsHelena then seven years old.Pirithous the son ofIxion,

endeavouring to stealPersephone the daughter ofOrcus King of the Molossians, is slain by the Dog ofOrcus; and his companion Theseus is taken and imprisoned.Helena is set at liberty by her brothers.

937. TheArgonautic expedition.Prometheus leaves Mount Caucasus, being set at liberty byHercules.Laomedon King ofTroy is slain byHercules.Priam succeeds him. Talus a brazen man, of the Brazen Age,the son ofMinos, is slain by theArgonauts.sculapius andHercules wereArgonauts, andHippocrateswas the eighteenth fromsculapius by the father's side, and the nineteenth fromHercules by the mother'sside; 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 thusthe seventeen intervals by the father's side and eighteen by the mother's, will at a middle reckoning amountunto about 507 years; which being counted backwards from the beginning of thePeloponnesian war, atwhich timeHippocrates began to flourish, will reach up to the time where we have placed theArgonauticexpedition.

936. Theseus is set at liberty byHercules.

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

930.Amenophis, with an army out ofEthiopia and Thebais, invades the lowerEgypt, conquers Osarsiphus,and drives out theJews and Canaanites: and this is reckoned the second expulsion of the Shepherds.Calycopis dies, and is Deified by Thoas with Temples atPaphos andAmathus in Cyprus, and atByblus inSyria, and with Priests and sacred Rites, and becomes the Venus of the ancients, and theDea Cypria and


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into common use before the Reign ofAmenophis: for in his Temple or Sepulchre atAbydus, they placed aCircle of 365 cubits in compass, covered on the upper side with a plate of gold, and divided into 365 equalparts, to represent all the days of the year; every part having the day of the year, and the Heliacal Risingsand Settings of the Stars on that day, noted upon it. And this Circle remained there 'till Cambyses spoiledthe temples ofEgypt: and from this monument I collect that it wasAmenophis who established this year,fixing the beginning thereof to one of the four Cardinal Points of the heavens. For had not the beginningthereof been now fixed, the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars could not have been noted upon thedays thereof. The Priests ofEgypttherefore in the Reign ofAmenophis continued to observe the HeliacalRisings and Settings of the Stars upon every day. And when by the Sun's Meridional Altitudes they hadfound 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 Chalda, the Chaldans began their year ofNabonassaron the sameThoth with theEgyptians, and made it of the same length. And the Thoth of the first year ofNabonassarfell upon the 26th day ofFebruary: 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 in137 years, and therefore fell upon the Vernal Equinox 137 years before thera ofNabonassarbegan; thatis, 884 years before Christ. And if it began upon the day next after the Vernal Equinox, it might begin threeor four years earlier; and there we may place the death of this King. The Greeks feigned that he was theSon ofTithonus, and therefore he was born after the return ofSesac intoEgypt, with Tithonus and othercaptives, and so might be about 70 or 75 years old at his death.

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

870.Hesiodflourishes. He hath told us himself that he lived in the age next after the wars ofThebes andTroy, and that this age should end when the men then living grew hoary and dropt into the grave; andtherefore it was but of an ordinary length: andHerodotus has told us thatHesiodandHomerwere but 400years older than himself. Whence it follows that the destruction ofTroy was not older than we haverepresented it.

860. Mris Reigns inEgypt. He adorned Memphis, and translated the seat of his Empire thither fromThebes. There he built the famous Labyrinth, and the northern portico of the Temple ofVulcan, and dug the

great Lake called the Lake ofMris, and upon the bottom of it built two great Pyramids of brick: and thesethings being not mentioned byHomerorHesiod, were unknown to them, and done after their days. Mriswrote also a book of Geometry.

852.Hazaelthe successor ofHadadatDamascus dies and is Deified, as wasHadadbefore: and theseGods, together withArathes the wife ofHadad, were worshipt in their Sepulchres or Temples, 'till the daysofJosephus theJew; and the Syrians boasted their antiquity, not knowing, saithJosephus, that they werenovel.

844. Theolic Migration.Botia, formerly called Cadmeis, is seized by theBotians.

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

825. TheHeraclides, after three Generations, or an hundred years, reckoned from their former expedition,return intoPeloponnesus. Henceforward, to the end of the first Messenian war, reigned ten Kings ofSpartaby one Race, and nine by another; ten ofMessene, and nine ofArcadia: which, by reckoning (according tothe ordinary course of nature) about twenty years to a Reign, one Reign with another, will take up about190 years. And the seven Reigns more in one of the two Races of the Kings ofSparta, and eight in theother, to the battle at Thermopyl; may take up 150 years more: and so place the return of theHeraclides,about 820 years before Christ.


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824. Cephren Reigns inEgypt, and builds another great Pyramid.

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

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

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

794. TheIonic Migration, under the conduct of the sons ofCodrus.

790.Pulfounds theAssyrian Empire.

788.Asychis Reigns inEgypt, and builds the eastern Portico of the Temple ofVulcan very splendidly; and alarge Pyramid of brick, made of mud dug out of the Lake ofMris.Egyptbreaks into several Kingdoms.Gnephactus andBocchoris Reign successively in the upperEgypt; Stephanathis;Necepsos andNechus, atSais;Anysis orAmosis, atAnysis orHanes; and Tacellotis, atBubaste.

776.Iphitus restores the Olympiads. And from thisra the Olympiads are now reckoned. GnephactusReigns at Memphis.

772.Necepsos andPetosiris invent Astrology inEgypt.

760. Semiramis begins to flourish; Sanchoniatho writes.

751. Sabacon theEthiopian, invadesEgypt, now divided into various Kingdoms, burnsBocchoris, slaysNechus, and makesAnysis fly.

747.Pul, King ofAssyria, dies, and is succeeded atNineveh by Tiglathpilasser, and atBabylon byNabonassar. TheEgyptians, who fled from Sabacon, carry their Astrology and Astronomy toBabylon, andfound thera ofNabonassarinEgyptian years.

740. Tiglathpilasser, King ofAssyria, takesDamascus, and captivates the Syrians.

729. Tiglathpilasseris succeeded by Salmanasser.

721. Salmanasser, King ofAssyria, carries the Ten Tribes into captivity.

719. Sennacherib Reigns overAssyria.Archias the son ofEvagetus, of the stock ofHercules, leads aColony from Corinth into Sicily, and builds Syracuse.

717. Tirhakah Reigns inEthiopia.

714. Sennacherib is put to flight by theEthiopians andEgyptians, with great slaughter.

711. The Medes revolt from theAssyrians. Sennacherib slain.Asserhadon succeeds him. This is thatAsserhadon-Pul, orSardanapalus, the son ofAnacyndaraxis, orSennacherib, who built Tarsus andAnchiale in one day.

710.Lycurgus, brings the poems ofHomerout ofAsia into Greece.


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708.Lycurgus, becomes tutor to Charillus orCharilaus, the young King ofSparta.Aristotle makesLycurgus as old asIphitus, because his name was upon the Olympic Disc. But the Disc was one of the fivegames called the Quinquertium, and the Quinquertium was first instituted upon the eighteenth Olympiad.Socrates and Thucydides made the institutions ofLycurgus 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, relinquishesEgyptto his son Sevechus orSethon, who becomesPriest ofVulcan, 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 inEgypt.

681.Asserhadon invadesBabylon.

673. TheJews conquered byAsserhadon, and Manasseh carried captive toBabylon.

671.Asserbadon invadesEgypt. The government ofEgyptcommitted to twelve princes.

668. The western nations ofSyria,Phnicia andEgypt, revolt from theAssyrians.Asserhadon dies, and issucceeded by Saosduchinus. Manasseh returns from Captivity.

658.Phraortes Reigns in Media. ThePrytanes 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 allEgypt, by conquering the other eleven Kings with whom he hadalready reigned fifteen years: he reigned about 39 years more. Henceforward theIonians had access into

Egypt; and thence came theIonian Philosophy, Astronomy and Geometry.

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

647. Charops, the first decennial Archon of theAthenians. Some of these Archons might dye before theend of the ten years, and the remainder of the ten years be supplied by a new Archon. And hence the sevendecennial Archons might not take up above forty or fifty years. Saosduchinus King ofAssyria dies, and issucceeded by Chyniladon.

640.Josiah Reigns inJuda.

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

635. The Scythians invade the Medes andAssyrians.

633.Battus builds Cyrene, whereIrasa, the city ofAntus, had stood.

627.Rome is built.

625.Nabopolassarrevolts from the King ofAssyria, and Reigns overBabylon.Phalantus leads theParthenians intoItaly, and builds Tarentum.


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617.Psammiticus dies.Nechaoh reigns inEgypt.

611. Cyaxeres Reigns over the Medes.

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

609.Josiah slain. Cyaxeres andNebuchadnezzaroverthrowNineveh, and, by sharing theAssyrian Empire,grow great.

607. Creon the first annual Archon of theAthenians. The second Messenian war begins. Cyaxeres makesthe Scythians retire beyond Colchos andIberia, and seizes theAssyrian Provinces ofArmenia,Pontus andCappadocia.

606.Nebuchadnezzarinvades Syria andJuda.

604.Nabopolassardies, and is succeeded by his SonNebuchadnezzar, who had already Reigned two yearswith his father.

600.Darius the Mede, the son ofCyaxeres, is born.

599. Cyrus is born ofMandane, the Sister ofCyaxeres, and daughter ofAstyages.

596. Susiana andElam conquered byNebuchadnezzar. Caranus andPerdiccas fly fromPhidon, and foundthe Kingdom ofMacedon.Phidon introduces Weights and Measures, and the Coining of Silver Money.

590. Cyaxeres makes war uponAlyattes King ofLydia.

588. The Temple ofSolomon is burnt byNebuchadnezzar. The Messenians being conquered, fly into Sicily,and build Messana.

585. In the sixth year of theLydian war, a total Eclipse of the Sun, predicted by Thales, May the 28th, putsan end to a Battel between the Medes andLydians: Whereupon they make Peace, and ratify it by a marriagebetweenDarius Medus the son ofCyaxeres, andAriene the daughter ofAlyattes.

584.Phidon presides in the 49th Olympiad.

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

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

568. TheAmphictions make war upon the Cirrheans, by the advice ofSolon, and take Cirrha. Clisthenes,Alcmon andEurolicus commanded the forces of theAmphictions, and were contemporary toPhidon. ForLeocides the son ofPhidon, and Megacles the son ofAlcmon, at one and the same time, courtedAgarista

the daughter ofClisthenes.

569.NebuchadnezzarinvadesEgypt.Darius the Mede Reigns.

562. Solon, being Archon of theAthenians, makes laws for them.

557.Perianderdies, and Corinth becomes free from Tyrants.


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555.Nabonadius Reigns atBabylon. His MotherNitocris adorns and fortifies that City.

550.Pisistratus becomes Tyrant atAthens. The Conference between Crsus and Solon.

549. Solon dies,Hegestratus being Archon ofAthens.

544. Sardes is taken by Cyrus.Darius the Mede recoins theLydian money intoDarics.

538.Babylon is taken by Cyrus.

536. Cyrus overcomesDarius the Mede, and translates the Empire to thePersians. TheJews return fromCaptivity, and found the second Temple.

529. Cyrus dies. Cambyses Reigns,

521.Darius the son ofHystaspes Reigns. The Magi are slain. The various Religions of the several NationsofPersia, which consisted in the worship of their ancient Kings, are abolished; and by the influence of

Hystaspes andZoroaster, the worship of One God, at Altars, without Temples is set up in allPersia.

520. The second Temple is built atJerusalem by the command ofDarius.

515. The second Temple is finished and dedicated.

513.Harmodius andAristogiton, slayHipparchus the son ofPisistratus, Tyrant of theAthenians.

508. The Kings of theRomans expelled, and Consuls erected.

491. The Battle ofMarathon.

485.Xerxes Reigns.

480. The Passage ofXerxes over theHellespontinto Greece, and Battles ofThermopyl and Salamis.

464.Artaxerxes Longimanus Reigns.

457.Ezra returns intoJuda.Johanan the father ofJaddua was now grown up, having a chamber in theTemple.

444.Nehemiah returns intoJuda.Herodotus writes.

431. ThePeloponnesian war begins.

428.Nehemiah drives away Manasseh the brother ofJaddua, because he had marriedNicaso the daughterofSanballat.

424.Darius Nothus Reigns.

422. Sanballatbuilds a Temple in Mount Gerizim and makes his son-in-law Manasseh the first High-Priestthereof.


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412. Hitherto the Priests and Levites were numbered, and written in the Chronicles of theJews, before thedeath ofNehemiah: at which time eitherJohanan orJaddua was High-Priest, And here Ends the SacredHistory of theJews.

405.Artaxerxes Mnemon Reigns. The end of thePeloponnesian war.

359.Artaxerxes Ochus Reigns.

338.Arogus Reigns.

336.Darius Codomannus Reigns.

332. ThePersian Empire conquered byAlexanderthe great.

331.Darius Codomannus, the last King ofPersia, slain.


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THE CHRONOLOGY OF ANCIENT KINGDOMS AMENDED.

CHAP. I.

Of the Chronology of the First Ages of the Greeks.

All Nations, before they began to keep exact accounts of Time, have been prone to raise their Antiquities;

and this humour has been promoted, by the Contentions between Nations about their Originals.Herodotus[3] tells us, that the Priests ofEgyptreckoned from the Reign ofMenes to that ofSethon, who putSennacherib to flight, three hundred forty and one Generations of men, and as many Priests ofVulcan, andas many Kings ofEgypt: and that three hundred Generations make ten thousand years;for, saith he, threeGenerations of men make an hundred years: and the remaining forty and one Generations make 1340years: and so the whole time from the Reign ofMenes to that ofSethon was 11340 years. And by this wayof reckoning, and allotting longer Reigns to the Gods ofEgyptthan to the Kings which followed them,

Herodotus tells us from the Priests ofEgypt, that fromPan toAmosis were 15000 years, and fromHerculestoAmosis 17000 years. So also the Chaldans boasted of their Antiquity; forCallisthenes, the Disciple of

Aristotle, sent Astronomical Observations fromBabylon to Greece, said to be of 1903 years standing beforethe times ofAlexanderthe great. And the Chaldans boasted further, that they had observed the Stars473000 years; and there were others who made the Kingdoms ofAssyria, Media andDamascus, mucholder than the truth.

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

TheEuropeans, had no Chronology before the times of thePersian Empire: and whatsoever Chronologythey now have of ancienter times, hath been framed since, by reasoning and conjecture. In the beginning ofthat Monarchy,Acusilaus madePhoroneus as old as Ogyges and his flood, and that flood 1020 years olderthan the first Olympiad; which is above 680 years older than the truth: and to make out this reckoning hisfollowers have encreased the Reigns of Kings in length and number.Plutarch[4]tells us that thePhilosophers anciently delivered their Opinions in Verse, as Orpheus,Hesiod,Parmenides,Xenophanes,

Empedocles, Thales; but afterwards left off the use of Verses; and thatAristarchus, Timocharis,Aristillus,Hipparchus, did not make Astronomy the more contemptible by describing it in Prose; afterEudoxus,Hesiod, and Thales had wrote of it in Verse. Solon wrote [5]in Verse, and all the Seven Wise Men wereaddicted to Poetry, asAnaximenes[6]affirmed. 'Till those days the Greeks wrote only in Verse, and whilethey did so there could be no Chronology, nor any other History, than such as was mixed with poeticalfancies.Pliny,[7]in reckoning up the Inventors of things, tells us, thatPherecydes Syrius taught to composediscourses in Prose in the Reign ofCyrus, andCadmus Milesius to write History. And in [8] another placehe saith thatCadmus Milesius was the first that wrote in Prose.Josephus tells us[9]that Cadmus MilesiusandAcusilaus were but a little before the expedition of thePersians against the Greeks: and Suidas[10] calls
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Acusilaus a most ancient Historian, and saith that he wrote Genealogies out of tables of brass, which hisfather, as was reported, found in a corner of his house. Who hid them there may be doubted: For theGreeks[11]had no publick table or inscription older than the Laws ofDraco.Pherecydes Atheniensis, in theReign ofDarius Hystaspis , or soon after, wrote of the Antiquities and ancient Genealogies of the

Athenians, in ten books; and was one of the firstEuropean writers of this kind, and one of the best; whencehe had the name ofGenealogus; and byDionysius[12] Halicarnassensis is said to be second to none of theGenealogers.

Epimenides, not the Philosopher, but an Historian, wrote also of the ancient Genealogies: and

Hellanicus, who was twelve years older thanHerodotus, digested his History by the Ages or Successions ofthe Priestesses ofJuno Argiva. Others digested theirs by those of the Archons ofAthens, or Kings of the

Lacedmonians.Hippias theElean published a Breviary of the Olympiads, supported by no certainarguments, asPlutarch[13] tells us: he lived in the 105th Olympiad, and was derided byPlato for hisIgnorance. This Breviary seems to have contained nothing more than a short account of the Victors in everyOlympiad. Then [14]Ephorus, the disciple ofIsocrates, formed a Chronological History ofGreece,beginning with the Return of theHeraclides intoPeloponnesus, and ending with the Siege ofPerinthus, inthe twentieth year ofPhilip the father ofAlexanderthe 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 anyotherra, was not yet in use among the Greeks. TheArundelian Marbles were composed sixty years afterthe death ofAlexanderthe great (An. 4. Olymp. 128.) and yet mention not the Olympiads, nor any otherstandingra, but reckon backwards from the time then present. But Chronology was now reduced to areckoning by Years; and in the next Olympiad Timus Siculus improved it: for he wrote a History in

Several books, down to his own times, according to the Olympiads; comparing theEphori, the Kings ofSparta, the Archons ofAthens, and the Priestesses ofArgos with the Olympic Victors, so as to make theOlympiads, and the Genealogies and Successions of Kings and Priestesses, and the Poetical Histories suitwith one another, according to the best of his judgment: and where he left off,Polybius began, and carriedon the History.Eratosthenes wrote above an hundred years after the death ofAlexanderthe great: He wasfollowed byApollodorus; 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, maybe understood by these passages ofPlutarch. 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 ofLycurgus upon it. Others supputingthe times by the Kings ofLacedmon, as Eratosthenes andApollodorus, affirm that he was not a few yearsolder than the first Olympiad. He began to flourish in the 17th or 18th Olympiad, and at lengthAristotle

made him as old as the first Olympiad; and so didEpaminondas, as he is cited bylian andPlutarch: andthenEratosthenes,Apollodorus, and their followers, made him above an hundred years older.

And in another placePlutarch[17]tells us: The Congress ofSolon with Crsus, some think they can confuteby Chronology. But a History so illustrious, and verified by so many witnesses, and which is more, so

agreeable to the manners ofSolon, and worthy of the greatness of his mind, and of his wisdom, I cannotpersuade 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 agreeamongst themselves, about repugnancies.

As for the Chronology of theLatines, that is still more uncertain.Plutarch[18]represents great uncertaintiesin the Originals ofRome, and so doth Servius[19]. The old Records of theLatines were burnt[20] by theGauls, an hundred and twenty years after the Regifuge, and sixty-four years before the death ofAlexanderthe great: and Quintus Fabius Pictor,[21] the oldest Historian of theLatines, lived an hundred years laterthan that King, and took almost all things fromDiocles Peparethius , a Greek. The Chronologers ofGallia,Spain, Germany, Scythia, Swedeland,Britain andIrelandare of a date still later; forScythia beyond the

Danube had no letters, 'till Ulphilas their Bishop formed them; which was about six hundred years after thedeath ofAlexanderthe 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. TheHunns, had none in the days ofProcopius, who flourished 850 years after the death of that King: and Sweden andNorway received themstill later. And things said to be done above one or two hundred years before the use of letters, are of littlecredit.
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Diodorus, [22]in the beginning of his History tells us, that he did not define by any certain space the timespreceding the Trojan War, because he had no certain foundation to rely upon: but from the Trojan war,according to the reckoning ofApollodorus, whom he followed, there were eighty years to the Return of the

Heraclides intoPeloponnesus; and that from that Period to the first Olympiad, there were three hundredand twenty eight years, computing the times from the Kings of theLacedmonians.Apollodorus followed

Eratosthenes, and both of them followed Thucydides, in reckoning eighty years from the Trojan war to theReturn of the

Heraclides: but in reckoning 328 years from that Return to the first Olympiad,

Diodorustells

us, that the times were computed from the Kings of theLacedmonians; andPlutarch[23] tells us, thatApollodorus,Eratosthenes and others followed that computation: and since this reckoning is still receivedby Chronologers, and was gathered by computing the times from the Kings of theLacedmonians, that isfrom their number, let us re-examin that Computation.

TheEgyptians reckoned the Reigns of Kings equipollent to Generations of men, and three Generations toan hundred years, as above; and so did the Greeks andLatines: and accordingly they have made their KingsReign one with another thirty and three years a-piece, and above. For they make the seven Kings ofRomewho preceded the Consuls to have Reigned 244 years, which is 35 years a-piece: and the first twelve KingsofSicyon,gialeus,Europs, &c. to have Reigned 529 years, which is 44 years a-piece: and the first eightKings ofArgos,Inachus,Phoroneus, &c. to have Reigned 371 years, which is above 46 years a-piece: andbetween the Return of theHeraclides intoPeloponnesus, and the end of the first Messenian war, the tenKings ofSparta in one Race;Eurysthenes,Agis,Echestratus,Labotas,Doryagus,Agesilaus,Archelaus,Teleclus,Alcamenes, andPolydorus: the nine in the other Race;Procles, Sous,Eurypon,Prytanis,

Eunomus,Polydectes, Charilaus,Nicander, Theopompus: the ten Kings ofMessene; Cresphontes,Epytus,Glaucus,Isthmius,Dotadas, Sibotas,Phintas,Antiochus,Euphaes,Aristodemus: and the nine ofArcadia;Cypselus, Olas,Buchalion,Phialus, Simus,Pompus,gineta,Polymnestor,chmis, according toChronologers, took up 379 years: which is 38 years a-piece to the ten Kings, and 42 years a-piece to thenine. And the five Kings of the Race ofEurysthenes, between the end of the first Messenian war, and thebeginning of the Reign ofDarius Hystaspis;Eurycrates,Anaxander,Eurycrates II,Leon,Anaxandrides,Reigned 202 years, which is above 40 years a-piece.

Thus the GreekChronologers, who follow Timus andEratosthenes, have made the Kings of their severalCities, who lived before the times of thePersian Empire, to Reign about 35 or 40 years a-piece, one withanother; which is a length so much beyond the course of nature, as is not to be credited. For by the ordinarycourse of nature Kings Reign, one with another, about eighteen or twenty years a-piece: and if in someinstances 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 ofJudah who succeeded Solomon, Reigned390 years, which is one with another 22 years a-piece. The fifteen Kings ofIsraelafterSolomon, Reigned259 years, which is 17 years a-piece. The eighteen Kings ofBabylon,Nabonassar&c. Reigned 209years, which is 11 years a-piece. The ten Kings ofPersia; Cyrus, Cambyses, &c. Reigned 208 years,which is almost 21 years a piece. The sixteen Successors ofAlexanderthe great, and of his brother and sonin Syria; Seleucus,Antiochus Soter, &c. Reigned 244 years, after the breaking of that Monarchy intovarious Kingdoms, which is 15 years a-piece. The eleven Kings ofEgypt;Ptolomus Lagi, &c. Reigned277 years, counted from the same Period, which is 25 years a-piece. The eight in Macedonia; Cassander,&c. Reigned 138 years, which is 17 years a-piece. The thirty Kings ofEngland; William the Conqueror,William Rufus, &c. Reigned 648 years, which is 21 years a-piece. The first twenty four Kings ofFrance;

Pharamundus, &c. Reigned 458 years, which is 19 years a-piece: the next twenty four Kings ofFrance;Ludovicus Balbus, &c. 451 years, which is 18 years a-piece: the next fifteen,Philip Valesius, &c. 315

years, which is 21 years a-piece: and all the sixty three Kings ofFrance, 1224 years, which is 19 years a-piece. Generations from father to son, may be reckoned one with another at about 33 or 34 years a-piece, orabout three Generations to an hundred years: but if the reckoning proceed by the eldest sons, they areshorter, so that three of them may be reckoned at about 75 or 80 years: and the Reigns of Kings are stillshorter, because Kings are succeeded not only by their eldest sons, but sometimes by their brothers, andsometimes they are slain or deposed; and succeeded by others of an equal or greater age, especially inelective or turbulent Kingdoms. In the later Ages, since Chronology hath been exact, there is scarce aninstance to be found of ten Kings Reigning any where in continual Succession above 260 years: butTimus and his followers, and I think also some of his Predecessors, after the example of theEgyptians,
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have taken the Reigns of Kings for Generations, and reckoned three Generations to an hundred, andsometimes to an hundred and twenty years; and founded the Technical Chronology of the Greeks upon thisway of reckoning. Let the reckoning be reduced to the course of nature, by putting the Reigns of Kings onewith another, at about eighteen or twenty years a-piece: and the ten Kings ofSparta by one Race, the nineby another Race, the ten Kings ofMessene, and the nine ofArcadia, above mentioned, between the Returnof theHeraclides intoPeloponnesus, and the end of the first Messenian war, will scarce take up above 180or 190 years: whereas according to Chronologers they took up 379 years.

For confirming this reckoning, I may add another argument.Euryleon the son ofgeus,[24] commandedthe main body of the Messenians in the fifth year of the first Messenian war, and was in the fifthGeneration from Oiolicus the son Theras, the brother-in-law ofAristodemus, and tutor to his sons

Eurysthenes andProcles, asPausanias[25]relates: and by consequence, from the return of theHeraclides,which was in the days ofTheras, to the battle which was in the fifth year of this war, there were sixGenerations, which, as I conceive, being for the most part by the eldest sons, will scarce exceed thirty yearsto a Generation; and so may amount unto 170 or 180 years. That war lasted 19 or 20 years: add the last 15years, and there will be about 190 years to the end of that war: whereas the followers ofTimus make itabout 379 years, which is above sixty years to a Generation.

By these arguments, Chronologers have lengthned the time, between the return of theHeraclides into

Peloponnesus and the first Messenian war, adding to it about 190 years: and they have also lengthned thetime, between that war and the rise of thePersian Empire. For in the Race of the Spartan Kings, descendedfromEurysthenes; afterPolydorus, reigned[26]these Kings,Eurycrates,Anaxander,Eurycratides,Leon,

Anaxandrides, Clomenes,Leonidas, &c. And in the other Race descended fromProcles; afterTheopompus,reigned[27] these,Anaxandrides,Archidemus,Anaxileus,Leutychides,Hippocratides,Ariston,Demaratus,

Leutychides II. &c. according toHerodotus. These Kings reigned 'till the sixth year ofXerxes, in whichLeonidas was slain by thePersians at Thermopyl; andLeutychides II. soon after, flying from Sparta toTegea, died there. The seven Reigns of the Kings ofSparta, which followPolydorus, being added to theten Reigns above mentioned, which began with that ofEurysthenes; make up seventeen Reigns of Kings,between the return of theHeraclides intoPeloponnesus and the sixth year ofXerxes: and the eight Reignsfollowing 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 withanother, 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 theHeraclides, and Reign ofAristodemus, the father ofEurysthenes andProcles; and they will place the Return of theHeraclides intoPeloponnesus, 159 yearsafter the death ofSolomon, and 46 years before the first Olympiad, in which Corbus was victor. But thefollowers ofTimus have placed this Return two hundred and eighty years earlier. Now this being thecomputation upon which the Greeks, as you have heard fromDiodorus andPlutarch, have founded theChronology of their Kingdoms, which were ancienter than thePersian Empire; that Chronology is to berectified, by shortening the times which preceded the death ofCyrus, in the proportion of almost two toone; for the times which follow the death ofCyrus are not much amiss.

The Artificial Chronologers, have madeLycurgus, the legislator, as old asIphitus, the restorer of theOlympiads; andIphitus, an hundred and twelve years, older than the first Olympiad: and, to help out theHypothesis, they have feigned twenty eight Olympiads older than the first Olympiad, wherein Corbuswas victor. But these things were feigned, after the days ofThucydides andPlato: forSocrates died threeyears after the end of thePeloponnesian war, andPlato[28]introduceth him saying, that the institutions ofLycurgus were but of three hundred years standing, or not much more. And[29]Thucydides, in the readingfollowed by Stephanus, saith, that the Lacedmonians, 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 thePeloponnesian war, and they will place the LegislatureofLycurgus upon the 19th Olympiad. And, according to Socrates, it might be upon the 22d or 23d.

Athenus[30] tells us out of ancient authors (Hellanicus, Sosimus andHieronymus) thatLycurgus theLegislator, was contemporary to Terpanderthe Musician; and that Terpanderwas the first man who got thevictory in the Carnea, in a solemnity of music instituted in those festivals in the 26th Olympiad. He
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overcame four times in thosePythic games, and therefore lived at least 'till the 29th Olympiad: andbeginning to flourish in the days ofLycurgus, it is not likely thatLycurgus began to flourish, much beforethe 18th Olympiad. The name ofLycurgus being on the Olympic Disc,Aristotle concluded thence, that

Lycurgus was the companion ofIphitus, in restoring the Olympic games: and this argument might be theground of the opinion of Chronologers, thatLycurgus andIphitus were contemporary. ButIphitus did notrestore all the Olympic games. He[31] restored indeed the Racing in the first Olympiad, Corbus beingvictor. In the 14th Olympiad, the double

stadiumwas added,

Hypnusbeing victor. And in the 18th

Olympiad the Quinquertium and Wrestling were added,Lampus andEurybatus, two Spartans, beingvictors: And the Disc was one of the games of the Quinquertium. [32]Pausanias tells us that there were threeDiscs kept in the Olympic treasury atAltis: these therefore having the name ofLycurgus upon them, shewthat they were given by him, at the institution of the Quinquertium, in the 18th Olympiad. NowPolydectesKing ofSparta, being slain before the birth of his son Charillus orCharilaus, left the Kingdom to

Lycurgus his brother; andLycurgus, upon the birth ofCharillus, became tutor to the child; and after abouteight months travelled into Crete andAsia, 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 growingold: and Terpanderwas a Lyric Poet, and began to flourish about this time; for[33]he imitated Orpheus and

Homer, and sungHomer's verses and his own, and wrote the laws ofLycurgus in verse, and was victor inthePythic games in the 26th Olympiad, as above. He was the first who distinguished the modes of Lyricmusic by several names.Ardalus and Clonas soon after did the like for wind music: and fromhenceforward, by the encouragement of thePythic games, now instituted, several eminent Musicians and

Poets flourished in Greece: asArchilochus,Eumelus Corinthius ,Polymnestus, Thaletas,Xenodemus,Xenocritus, Sacadas, Tyrtus, Tlesilla,Rhianus,Alcman,Arion, Stesichorus, Mimnermnus,Alcus,Sappho, Theognis,Anacreon,Ibycus, Simonides,schylus,Pindar, by whom the Music and Poetry of theGreeks were brought to perfection.

Lycurgus, published his laws in the Reign ofAge

Isaac Newton - The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended

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