<1r>

daughter of Cypselus. The posterity of Cresphontes & Cypselus reigned long in Messene & Arcadia & Aristodemus by his two sons propagated two races of kings at Sparta. Their names down to the times of the first Messenian war are as in the following Tables.

 Aristodemus Crespontes Cypselus Euris{t}henes Procles Æpytus Olœas Hegesis or Agis Sous Glaucus Bucolion Echestratus Euripon Istmius Phialus Leobotis or Labotas Prytanis Doriagus or Dorissus Eunomus Dotadas Simus Agesilaus Polydectis Sybotas Pompus Archelaus Charilus Phintas Ægineta Teleclus Nicander Antiochus Polymnestor Alcamines Theopompus Euphaes Æchmis Polydorus Aristodemus

Polydorus was slain in the end of that war & Aristodemus was slain five months before, & Theopompus was then a decrepid old man & died soon after that war & Æchmis reigned in the time of that war. So then from the return of the Heraclides to the end of that war there were eleven Kings of Sparta by one race & ten by another & ten of Messenes & nine of Arcadia. Now their reign according to chronologers took up 379 years, that is the eleven kings one which another reigned 34$\frac{1}{2}$ years the ten 38 years & the nine 42 years a piece, which is much too long for the course of nature. Pausanias tells us out of Tyrtæus a very old Poet who flourished in the time of the second Messenian war, that the first Messenian war lasted twenty years. Euphaes reigned in Messene 13 years & Aristodemus six years & some months & it lasted all their two reigns & five months more. Deduct the 20 years of this war from the 379 & there will be 359 years from the return of the Heraclides to the beginning of this war which interval of time being taken up by the reign of the eight first kings of Messene makes 45 years a piece to a reign one reign which another which is very much too long for the course of nature.

Euryleon the son of Ægeus commanded the main body of the Messenians in the fift year of the first Messenian war, & was in the fift generation from Oiolycus the son of Theras the brother in law of Aristodemus & Tutor of his sons Eurysthenes & Procles as Pausanias relates & by consequence from the return of the <2r> Heraclides which was in the days of Theras to the battel in the fift year of the Messenian war there were six generations. Now this interval of time according to the vulgar chronology, took up 364 years which making about 60 years to a generation one generation with another is very much too long for the course of nature.

By all these instances Chronologers in collecting times past from the number of successive kings have made the time between the return of the Heraclides & the first Messenian war very much too long, & it ought to be corrected & reduced to such a length as suits best which the course of nature which will be done by recconing the reigns of the kings at about 18 or 20 years a piece one with another. Let us reccon therefore the eleven kings of Sparta by one race at 18 years a piece & the ten by another race at 20 years a piece & the ten of Messene also at 20 years a piece one which another & the interval between the return of the Heraclides & the end of the first Messenian war will amount to about 200 years, which is full long enough. For thus the nine kings of Arcadia will reign 22$\frac{1}{4}$ years a piece one which another & the eight first kings of Messene will reign 180 years, that is 22$\frac{1}{2}$ years a piece one which another & the six generations from Theras to Euryleon will take up 185 years which is 31 years to a generation one which another. Thus is this period of time confirmed by six several ways of recconing.

In the race of the Spartan kings descended from Eurysthenes after Polydorus reigned these kings, Eurycrates I, Anaxander, Eurycrates II, Leon, Anaxandrides, Cleomenes, Leonidas, &c and in the other race after Theopompus reigned Zeuxidamus, Anaxidamus, Archidamus, Agasicles, Ariston, Demaratus, Leotychides &c, according to Pausanias, or Anaxandridas, Archidemus, Anaxileus, Leutychides, Hippocratides, Ariston, Demaratus Leutychides II according to Herodotus. Leonidas was slain at Thermopylæ in the sixt year of Xerxes & Leutychides the successor of Demaratus was then alive, so that in one race there were seven kings between the end of the first Messenian war & the sixt year of Xerxes & in the other race there were between six & <3r> seven kings according to Pausanias or between seven & eight according to Herodotus. Which reigns according to Chronologers took up the space of 244 years which is much too long for the course of nature. For seven reigns at 20 years a piece amounts to no more then 140 years, that is 89 years to the death of Cyrus & 51 years more to the invasion of Greece by Xerxes; & if we should ad half a reign more it will make but 99 years to the death of Cyrus. So then the return of the Heraclides was about 289 or 299 years (or in round numbers 300) ancienter then the death of Cyrus. For [1] Anaxandrides & Ariston kings of Sparta were contemporary to Crœsus

Athenæus tells us out of ancient authors (Hellanicus, Sosimus & Hieronymus) that Lycurgus the Legislator was contemporary ✝ to < insertion from f 3v > ✝ to Terpander the Musician & that Terpander was the first man who got the victory in the Carnea in a solemnity of musick instituted in those festivalls in the 26th Olympiad. Terpander therefore was victor in the 26th Olympiad, & Lycurgus flourished in the same age. Terpander was a Lyric Poet & imitated Orpheus & Homer & sung his own verses & Homers & wrote the Laws of the Lacedemonians in verse & therefore flourished after Lycurgus had brought the Poesy of Homer out of Asia & published it in Greece & was in credit when Lycurgus made his Laws or soon after.[5] He overcame four times in the Pythic games & was the first who distinguished the modes of Lyric music by several names. And Ardalus & Clonas soon after did the like for wind music. And from henceforward several eminent Musicians & Poets flourished in Greece as Archilochus. Polymnestus, Thaletas, Xenodamus, Xenocritus, Sacadas, Tyrtæus, Telesilla, Aleman, Arion, Stesichorus, Mimnermus, Alcæus, Sappho, Theognis, Anacreon, Pindar, by whom the Music & Poetry of the Greeks was brought to its perfection

< text from f 3r resumes >

It seems to me therefore that Cecrops, Cranaus, {Pandion} Erechtheus, Cecrops II, Pandion the brother of Cecrops, Ægeus the adopted son of Pandion, & Theseus the son of Ægeus &c reigned successively at Athens; Ægialeus, Europs, Telchin, Apis or Epopeus, Lamedon, Sicyon &c at Sicyon: & Phoroneus, Apis, Argus, Criasus &c at Argos. Abas was contemporary to Lacedæmon & Sparta & to Apis the Argive, & his sons Acrisius & Prætus reigned in several parts of Argos. And if Acrisius at length inherited Argos he must have been the same man with Criasus the successor of Argus: for the ancient names have been very liable to corruption. Acrisius left Argos to his grandson Perseus, but Perseus changed kingdoms with Megapenthe the son of Prætus & built Mycene, & was succeeded by his son Sthenelus & Sthenelus left his kingdom between his sons Eurystheus & Gelanor. Eurystheus reigned in Mycene, but Gelanor was ejected by Danaus the Egyptian about 10 or 20 years before the Argonautic Expedition. In this Expedition Castor & Pollux were beardless young men & their sister Helena was then a child. These were the children of Tyndareus & Leda, & Tyndareus was the son of Perieres & Gorgophone, & Perieres was the son of Cynortes the son of Amyclas, the son of Lacedæmon & Sparta, & Sparta was the daughter of Eurotas the son of Lelex, & Lacedæmon was the son of Taygeta. And Gorgophone was the daughter of Perseus the son of Danae the daughter of Acrisius & Eurydice. And Eurydice was the sister of Amyclas & daughter of Lacedæmon & Sparta. And Hercules was the son of Alcmena the daughter of Electryo & Eurydice & Electrio was the son of Perseus & Andromeda. And Mestor the brother of Electrio married Lysidice the daughter of Pelops. And therefore Eurotas & Taygeta were one, Lacedæmon & Sparta two, Acrisius & Amyclas three, Pelops Perseus & Andromeda five, Perieres Gorgophone & Electryo six Tyndareus seven & Castor Pollux Helena & Hercules eight generations younger then Lelex. And by all these recconings the oldest kingdoms in Greece could scarce be above three generations older then the coming of Cadmus into Greece. For Cadmus was five generations older than Eteocles & Polyni{ces} who slew one another in their youth in the first Theban war, about seven years after the Argonautic Expedition. But its difficult to set right the genealogies reigns & chronology of the fabulous ages & I leave these things to be further examined.

Herodotus tells us that the Phenicians who came with Cadmus, brought many doctrines into Greece. For amongst those Phenicians were a sort of men called Curetes, who were skilled in arts & sciences above other men, & setled, some in Phrygia where they were called Corybantes, some in Crete where they were called Idæi Dactyli, some in Samothrace where they were called Cabyri, some in Rhodes where they were called Telchines – – – – – of an Egyptian original.

Hesiod[9] describing the four ages of the Gods & Demigods <6r> represents them to be four generations of men each of which ended when the men then living grew old & dropt into the grave & tells us that the fourth ended with the wars of Thebes & Troy. And Apollonius Rhodius[10] saith that when the Argonauts came to Crete they slew Talus a brazen man who remained of those that were of the brazen age & guarded that Island. Talus was the son of Minos & therefore the sons of Minos lived in the brazen age, & the reign of Minos falls in with the silver age. For < insertion from f 5v > For the Greeks began to plow & sow in the silver age, & Ceres who taught them to do it flourished in the reign of Celeus, Erechtheus & Minos. And < text from f 6r resumes > the Mythologists say that the last woman with whom Iupiter lay was Alcmena the mother of Hercules, & the birth of Hercules was about the same time with the death of Minos. And Apollonius Rhodius tells us that Saturn deceived Rhea & begot Chiron of Philyra when he reigned over the Titans in Olympus & Iupiter was educated by the Idæan Curetes in the Cretan Cave, that is, in the golden age. Now Chiron lived till the end of the Argonautic Expedition & two of his grandchildren were in that Expedition & therefore he might then be about 80 or 85 years old & so be born in the reign of Asterius & Europa the parents of the Cretan Iupiter, & not before. And since this Iupiter was bred up in the Cretan cave by the Curetes in the golden age & when grown up expelled his father, & his father fleing into Italy became the Saturn of the Latines; his mother Europa must have been the Rhea & Cyoete & magna mater of the Curetes. Its probable that this fable of the four ages was invented by the Curetes in memory of the first four kings of Crete, Asterius, & his son Minos, & grandson Deucalion who was an Argonaut, & great grandson Idomoneus who upon returning home from the Trojan war sacrificed his son & for that fact was expelled the kingdom of Crete.

< text from f 6r resumes >

Hesiod enumerating the four ages tells us that he lived in the fift age & that this age should end when the men then living should grow hoary. And therefore he might flourish within 40 or 50 years after the end of the Trojan war, & not much later. But Homer might be one or two generations later then Hesiod

<6v>

Pausanias [11] tells us that those among the Eleans who commemorated the originals of that country related that Saturn was the first who reigned in the kingdom of heaven, & that the men who were called the golden age built a Temple to him in the city Olympia; & that afterwards Rhea committed her new born son Iupiter to the Idæi Dactyli called also the Curetes, & that some of the Curetes came afterwards from Ida a mountain of Crete into Elis, being five brothers whose names were Hercules, Pæoneus, Epimedes, Iasius, & Idas; & that fifty years after the flood of Deucalion, Clymenus the son of Cardys of the posterity of the Idæan Hercules, coming from Crete, restored those games, but was expelled the kingdom by Endymion the son of Aëthlius. And then Pelops one generation younger then Endymion coming into Elis celebrated those games more sumptuously. And the sons of Pelops being expelled Elis, Amythaon the brother of Æson & son of Cretheus restored them. And after the reign of Oxylus they were intermitted till the reign of Iphitus. These games therefore were first instituted in the golden age by the Idæan Hercules presently after Deucalions flood, & the Saturn & Iupiter who reigned in the golden & silver ages were kings of Crete.

[1] ✝ Herod. l. 1

[2] Pausanias. l. 5. c. 8

[3] Pausan. l. 6. c. 19

[4] Athæn. l. 14. p. 625.

[5] Plutarch. de Musica. Clement Strom. l. 1 p. 308.

[6] Pausan. l. 6. c. 22.

[7] Pausan. l. 5. c. 9.

[8] Herod. l. 1.

[9] Hesiod Oper{a} v. 108.

[10] Argonaut. l. 4 v. 1638, & Scholia in eundem.

[11] Pausan. l. 5, c. 7, 8