Drafts on chronology: section 2e

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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 dor the course of nature. For seven reigns at 20 years a piece amount 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 add 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 Cræsus.

Polydectes king of Sparta being slain before the birth of his son Charillus or Charilaus, left the kingdom to his brother Lycurgus the legislator, & Lycurgus upon the birth of Charillus became Tutor to the child, & published his laws in the reign of Agesilaus the successor of Dorissus in the other race of the kings of Sparta. Now the names of Lycurgus being on the Olympic Disk, Aristotle concluded thence that Lycurgus was the companion of Iphitus in restoring the Olympic games. But Iphitus did not restore all those games. He restored the racing in the first Olympiad, Coæbus being victor.^[2] In the 14^th Olympiad the double stadium was added, Hypænus being victor. And in the 18^th Olympiad the Quinquertium & Wrestling were restored, Lampus & Eurybatus (two Spartians) being Victors. Now the Disk was one of the games of the Quinquertium, & Pausanius^[3] tells us that there were three disks kept in the Olympic treasury at Altis, & produced in those games. Doubless these were they which had the name of Lycurgus on them, being dedicated by him. So then the game of the Disk was restored in the 18^th Olympiad, & at that time Lycurgus & Agesilaus flourished, & Charillus was a child. From the return of the Heraclides to the beginning of the reign of Agesilaus there were six reigns, & from the same return to the beginning of the reign of Polydectes in the other race of the Spartan kings there were also six reigns, & these reigns at 19 years a piece (the medium between 18 & 20) amount to 114 years; & if we may reccon about seven years more to the childhood of Charillus & restoration of the Quinquertium in the 18^th Olympiad, the return of the Heraclides will be about 300 years ancienter then the death of Cyrus as above. Chronologers have been therefore much mistaken in making Lycurgus Charillus & Agesilaus as old as Iphitus, & all of them almost two hundred years older then the 18^th Olympiad.

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Socrates died three years after the end of the Peloponnesian was, & Plato introduces him saying, that the Institutions of Lycurgus were not of three hundred years standing or not much more. And Thucydides^[4], in the reading followed by Stephens, saith that the Lacedemonians had from ancient times used good laws & been free from tyranny, & that from the time that they had used one & the same administration of their common wealth to the end of the Pelopennesian war there were three hundred years & a few more. From the end of that war count backwards 300 years & the reconning will end at the 19^th Olympiad. And therefore the laws of Lycurgus were made about the time of that Olympiad or but a little before

Athenæus^[5] tells us out of ancient authors (Hellanicus, Sosimus & Hieronymus) that Lycurgus the Legislator was contemporary 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 festivals in the 26^th Olympiad. Terpander therefore was victor in the 26^th Olympiad, & Lycurgus flourished in the same age. Terpander was^[6] a Lyric Poet & imitated Orpheus and Homer & sung his own verses & Homer's & 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. 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, Alcman, Arion, Stesichorus, Mimnermus, Alcæus, Sappho, Theognis, Anacreon, Pindar, by whom the Music & Poetry of the Greeks was brought to its perfection.

The Amphictyons by the advice of Solon made Alcmæon the son of Megacles an Athenian & Clisthenes king of Sicyon & Eurolycus king of Thessaly commanders of their army in their war against Cyrrha & the Cyrrhæans were conquered an. 2 Olymp. 47 according to the Marbles. This Alemæon^[7] enterteined & conducted the messengers which Cræsus sent to consult the Oracle at Delphos, & for so doing was sent for by Cræsus & rewarded with much riches. Clisthenes proclaiming that he would marry his daughter Agarista within a year to the most deserving, there came to court her Megacles the son of this Alcmæon & Leocides the son of Phidon the Argive & several others & Clisthenes gave his daughter to Megacles. This was that Phidon king of Argos who appointe weights & measures & coined silver money in Ægina & invading Elis presided in the Olympiads, as Herodotus sufficiently describes. Phidon therefore was contemporary to Alemæon & both of them to Clisthenes & Solon & their sons Megacles & Leocides were contemporary to one another & to Pisistratus. For Megacles Pisistratus & Lycurgus commanded <3r> the three factions into which the Athenians were divided a little before the tyranny of Pisistratus, & when Pisistratus obteined the tyranny he married the daughter of Megacles, & he & Pisistratus ejected one another by turns, & at length Clisthenes the son of Megacles & Agarista expelled the sons of Pisistratus an. 1 Olymp 67 according to the Marble. So then Phidon flourished in the 47^th Olympiad, or thereabouts, that is, about 60 years before the death of Cyrus or 240 after the return of the Heraclides.

Ætolus^[8] the son of Endymion about four generations before the Argonautic expedition being driven out of Elea by Salmonens the grandson of Hellen retired with his people into the region which from him was called Ætolia. From him descended Oxylus the son of Hæmon the son of Thoas the son of Andræmon. Hercules & Andræmon married two sisters, Thoas warred& Troy Oxylus with a body of Ætolians returned with the Heraclides into Peloponnesus & recovered Elea, & by the friendship of the Heraclides had the care of the Olympic temple commited to him, & the Heraclides for his service done them granted to him further upon oath that the country of the Eleans should be free from invasions & be defended by them from all armed force. And when the Eleans were thus consecrated, Oxylus restored the Olympic games; & after they had been again intermitted, Iphitus^[9] their king who was descended from Oxylus restored them again. This second restoration was above one generation after the return: for Iphitus was not the immediate son of Oxylus, his fathers name being as some say Hæmon, as others Praxonidas the son of Hæmon; nor above two generations younger because by our chronology stated above there was but about 60 or 70 years between the return of the Heraclites & the first Olympiad in which Choræbus was victor. Iphitus was therefore the grandson of Oxylus & by consequence the son of Praxonidas the son of Oxylus the son of Hæmon.

Iphitus^[10] præsided both in the temple of Iupiter Olympus & in the Olympic games & so did his successors till the 26^th Olympiad; & so long the Victors were rewarded with a Tripus: But then the Pisæans getting above the Eleans began to preside & rewarded the Victors with a crown & instituted the Carnea to Apollo & continued to preside till Phidon interrupted them, that is till about the time of the 48^th Olympiad. For^[11] in the 48^th Olympiad the Eleans entred the country of the Pisæans with an army suspecting their designs but were prevailed with to return home quietly. Afterwards the Pisæans confederated with several other Greek nations (videlicet Phidon & those under him) & made war upon the Eleans & in the end were beaten. In this war I conceive it was that Phidon presided suppose in the 49^th Olympiad. For^[12] in the 50^th Olympiad, for putting an end to the contentions between the kings about presiding, two men were chosen by lot out of the city of Elis to preside, & their number in the 65^th Olym <4r> piad was increased to nine & afterwards to ten, & these judges were called Hellenodicæ, judges for or in the name of Greece. Pausanias tells us that the Eleans called in Phidon & together with him celebrated the eighth [he should have said the 49^th] Olympiad, but Herodotus that Phidon removed the Eleans. And both might be true. The Eleans might call in Phidon against the Pisæans, and upon overcoming them claim the presiding in the games & be refused by Phidon & then confederate with the Spartans and by their assistance overthrow the kingdom of Phidon & recover from the Pisæans their ancient right of presiding in the games.

When Phidon had introduced coinage, Solon after his example regulated the weights & money of the Athenians. For the pound weight which before conteined seventy & thre{e} drachms, Solon appointed to consist of an hundred drachms. And whereas the mulcts in Draco's laws (which were made about 60 or 80 years before the death of Cyrus) were called Oxen Solon appointed mulcts in drachms of silver. For the Greeks at first used masses of metal stamped with an Ox or a Sheep or a Hogg for the convenience of buying & selling cattel, and thence these masses of metal were called Oxen & pecunia, & some of them from their shape, Oboli, they being in the form of long barrs. Such money Homer & Draco call Oxen, & such was the iron money of Lycurgus, & the money of all Greece before Plidon & Solon regulated it by weight. Herodotus^[13] tells us that the coinage of gold & silver & the buying & selling of drink & victualls for money began in Asia minor. Phidon brought coinage from thence into Greece for the use of the Merchants of Ægina. The Romans being poorer coined no copper money before the reign of Ancus Martius, no silver money till about three years before the first Punic war An. 1 Olymp. 128, no gold money till about 62 years after that. Solon might coin in the 53^th Olympiad, Ancus Martius for want of gold & silver might follow the example of Philon & Solon in copper money some years later. When the Heraclides returned into Peloponnesus under the conduct of Temenus Cresphontes & Aristodemus, Temenus became king of Argos, & was succeeded by his son Cisus, & then the kingdom ceased & became divided among the posterity of Temenus untill Phidon recovered it: & Strabo tells us that Phidon <5r> was the tenth from Temenus, not the tenth king (for between Cisus & Phidon they reigned not) but the tenth by generation from father to son including TeMenus or the ninth excluding him, & these nine generations taking up the 240 years from Temenus to Phidon there were about 80 years to three generations which being by the chief of the family is a moderate recconing. But Chronologers reccon about 511 years from the return of the Heraclites to the 47^th Olympiad & account Phidon the 7^th from Temenus which is after the rate of 85 years to a generation & therefore not to be admitted.

Some make Phidon as ancient as Iphitus & tell us that the kingdom of Macedon was founded by his brother Caranus before the Olympiads. But Herodotus^[14] who lived nearest those times & was best able to inform himself is most to be credited; & he tells us that Perdiccas founded that kingdom & that from the founding thereof reigned these kings, Perdiccas, Argesus, Philippus, Acropus, Alcetas, Amyntas, Alexander, the last of which was contemporary to Xerxes. Let their reigns be recconed at about 18 years a piece one with another & counted backwards from the death of Xerxes, & they will place the founding of that kingdom about 63 years before the death of Cyrus & by consequence in the days of Phidon & his brother Caranus. Perdiccas was^[15] of the posterity of Temenes & fled from Argos into Macedonia, & the same seems true of Caranus because he was the brother of Phidon king of Argos. Whence it's probable that Caranus & Perdiccas were companions in some common expedition & led colonies from Argos into Macedonia; the wars whereby Phidon conquered his kindred & reunited the kingdom of Argos & others was conquered^[17] by others giving occasion to their flight. For Phidon subdued to himself the whole possession of Temenus then divided into many parts; & was soon after overthrown by the Eleans & Spartans together. In these things Thucydides^[18] agrees with Herodotus. For he tells us that there were eight kings of Macedon before Archelaus the son of Perdiccas the son of Alexander, & therefore Alexander was the seventh as above. He tells us also that the progenitors of Alexander were of the posterity of Temenus & came from Argos & obteined the sea coasts of Macedonia & reigned there expelling the inhabitants of Pieria by war. Vnder Perdiccas the first of the eigth kings, the Temenides left their seats in Argos to the Greeks who conquered Phidon & sought new seats in Macedonia, expelling the Pierians, who in like manner fled from their seats to Pangæum. And this seems to be the original of the kingdom of Macedon.

By the preceding computations the Argonautic Expedition was about 413 years earlier then the death of Cyrus, & <6r> by consequence about 39 years later then the death of Solomon. Now the Trojan war was about one generation later then the expedition: for the sons of the Argonauts were at that war. Whence Æsculapius, whose sons Podalirius & Machaon were at that war, was contemporary to the Argonauts, & accordingly^[19] I find him & several Argonauts together at the hunting of the Calydinian Bore. Now from Æsculapius to Hippocrates inclusively are recconed 18 male generations by the fathers side & 19 generations by the mothers side. And because these generations being taken notice of in history were most probably by the principal of the family & so for the most part by the eldest sons we may reccon about 80 or 90 years to three generations. And thus the 17 intervals by the fathers side & 18 by the mothers will at a middle recconing amount to about 497 years, which counted backwards from the middle of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus when Hippocrates flourished will reach up to the 39^th year after the death of Solomon as above. But Chronologers reccon about 790 years from the Argonautic Expedition to the middle of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, which being after the rate of 45 years to a generation, is much too long for the course of nature.

We have hitherto recconed by genealogies & the reigns of kings, this being the foundation of the Chronology of the Greeks. And by shewing how erroneously the Greeks have recconed from thence & setting right the recconing we have brought Chronology much nearer to the truth & obviated such objections as might arise from the authority of the Greek Chronologers. And now because arguments drawn from Astronomy are accounted the surest, we shall confirm our recconing by an argument of that sort.

Chap. III.

The first Astronomers I meet with in Phrygia & Greece were Endymion <7r> Aristæus, Linus, Musæus, Chiron, Atreus, Ancæus Orpheus, Palamedes^[21] All these flourished a little before the Trojan war. Then came on dark times till Thales & Anaximander revived Astronomy. Homer & Hesiod mention several Constellations & therefore the Constellations were formed before their days & by consequence before the destruction of Troy, there being no Astronomers celebrated between that war & the days of Thales. Sophocles^[22] tells us that Palamedes the son of Nauplius found out Aritmetic & measuring & the heavenly signes & the measures & the revolutions of the stars & turnings of the Beare & setting of the Dog & improved Navigation & the art of war. This is that Palamedes who added four letters to the alphabet & invented the game at Chess, & was so much honoured by the Greeks that they made him commander of their army for a time in the room of Agamemnon. Vlysses to avoyd going to the Trojan war feigned himself mad & Palamedes discovered the fraud & after they went to the war Vlysses by a fraudulent accusation caused Palamedes to be slain by the Greeks, & when the Greeks had taken Troy & were returning home, Nauplius in revenge of his sons death made a fire in the night upon the high rock Caphareus in Eubœa where he was king, & the Greeks sailing towards the light as to a safe port, split many of their ships against the rock. Frome all which I gather that Palamedes was a young man when he to the wars at Troy & formed the Constellations a little before the beginning of that war. And hence it is that all the first Constellations relate to the times preceding that war. In the Constellations of Perseus, Andromeda, Cepheus, Cassiopœa & Cete you have the story of Perseus. In those of Vrsa major & Arctophylax you have Callisto & her son Arcas. In those of the ship Argo, the Dragon Hydra, Medea's cup, the Crow or Raven denoting the death of Hydra, the golden Ram, the fiery Bull & the twins Castor & Pollux, you have the Argonautic expedition. Engonasis, Sagitta, Vultur cadens, Draco, Cancer, Leo relate to Hercules. There's Orion the son of Euryale the daughter of Minos, with his Dogs & Hare & river Endamus.. There's Ariadnes Crown, Orpheus's Harp, Bellerophon's Horse, Læda's Swan, Neptune's Dolphin, Ganimede's Eagle, Æsculapius with his serpent, Chiron the master of Iason with his Altar & sacrifice, & Erichthonius king of Athens & Astræa. There's Virgo or Astræa Sagittary or Crotus the Centaur the son of the nurse of the Muses,, Capricorn or Pan, Aquarius or Ganimede, the Fishes of Venus & their mother the south Fish.. All these Constellations relate to the Argonautic expedition & the times immediately preceding it. There is nothing in them relating to the times after that expedition, (excepting some new Constellations as Antinous, Coma Berenices, Libra & the little Beare formed long after the rest) & therefore the primitive Constellations were formed presently after that Expedition or perhaps about 20 or 25 years after when Iason, Hercules, Leda, Castor, Pollux, Orpheus & Æsculapius were dead & deified so that they might be honoured in the Constellations, & the Heros who lived after that expedition were not yet dead or not in so much repute as to be capable of that honour.

Now Achilles Tatius tells us that some anciently placed the solstice in the beginning of Cancer, others in the eight degree of

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Aristæus, Linus, Musæus, Chiron, Atreus, Ancæus Orpheus, Palamedes.^[23] All these flourished a little before the Trojan war. Then came on dark times till Thales & his scholars revived Astronomy. Homer & Hesiod mention several Constellations & therefore the Constellations were formed before their days & by consequence before the destruction of Troy, there being no Astronomers celebrated between that war & the days of Thales. And even the Constellations themselves discover the age in which they were formed. For they relate to the Argonautic expedition & the times next preceding it & to nothing later. In the Constellations of the ship Argo, the Dragon called Hydra, with Medea's cup & a Raven upon its carcass the symbol of death, & in those of the golden Ram, the fiery Bull & the twins Castor & Pollux you have the story of the Argonautic expedition. In those of Perseus, Andromeda, Cepheus, Cassiopœa & Cete you have the story of Perseus. Engonasis, Sagitta, Vultur cadens, Draco Cancer, Leo relate to Hercules: Vrsa major & Arctophylax to Callisto & her son Arcas: Vrsa minor to one of the nurses of Iupiter: Auriga to Erichthonius: Bootes, Plaustrum & Virgo (as some say) to Icareus & hos daughter Erigone. There's Orion the grandson of Minos with his Dogs & Hare & River. There's Orpheus's Harp, Bellereophon's horse, Læda's Swan, Neptune's Dolphin, Ganimede's Eagle, Iupiter's Goat, with her Kidds, Bacchus's Asses, Æsculapius (or Phorbas) with his serpent, & Chiron the master of Iason with his Altar & Sacrifice. There's Virgo or Astræa or Ceres, Sagittary or Crotus the Centaur the son of the nurse of the Muses, Capricorn or Pan, Aquarius or Ganimede, the Fishes of Venus & Cupid & their parent the south Fish. In all these Constellations, (which with Deltoton are all the old ones mentioned by Aratus) there's nothing relating to the Theban or Trojan wars nothing to the times after the Argonautic expedition & therefore they were formed in or presently after that expedition or rather for the use of the Argonauts. For Navigation gave a beginning to Astronomy the starrs being at first observed for the use of saylors.  Aristæus the Astromer < insertion from f 8v > 

Aristæus the Astronomer married Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus & therefore was about three generations older then the Argonauts. He was born & educated in Libya his mother Cyrene being carried thither from Greece & got with child, as was pretended by Apollo; & ^a[30] from thence he brought into Greece the inventions of making cheese & bee-hives & honey & planting Olive yards & making Oyle & of observing & determining the solstices by the risings & settings of the starrs. Atlas^[31] an Egyptian who was about one generation older then the Argonauts & governed Libya then a Province of Egypt, & was skilled in Philosophy Astronomy & navigation, made a Sphere, & in memory thereof is painted with a sphere upon his back. And the Greeks soon followed his example. For^[32] Chiron the Master of Iason < insertion from above the line of f 8v > the chief of the Argonauts delineated σχήματα ὀλύμπου the Asterisms as <9r> Clemens out of the ancient author of the Gigantomachia informed us. < text from f 8v resumes > made a sphere & is reported the first among the Greeks who made one. But the Asterisms of the Greeks were different from those of the Egyptians & Libyans. These things might be done by Chiron & Musæus while the ship Argo was building not sooner because that ship was one of the Asterisms, nor later because Chiron was at that time very ancient, being born in the golden age, & , being the grandfather of the Argonauts Peleus & Telamon. The sphere was therefore made for the use of the Argonauts: For the Asterisms were at first delineated for the use of Navigators. The people of the Island Corcyra^[33] attributed the invention of the sphere to Nausicae the daughter of Alcinous being king of the Pheaces in that Island, and she might learn it from the Argonauts who in their return home sailed to that Island^[34] & made some stay there with her father. Sophocles tells us that Palamedes < text from f 8r resumes > Sophocles^[35] tells us that Palamedes the son of Nauplius king of Eubœa found out Arithmetick & measuring & the heavenly signes & the measures & revolutions of the stars & turnings of the Beare & setting of the Dog & improved Navigation & the art of war. This is that Palamedes who added four letters to the Alphabet. He was so much honoured by the Greeks that they generally followed his counsells & made him commander of their army for a time in the room of Agamemnon. Nauplius was a very skilfull sayler & one of the Argonauts & survived the destruction of Troy, & might teach his son Palamedes & Palamedes was slain at Troy & therefore measured the stars (that is their distances) & formed or reformed the signes & asterisms before he went to that war. Musæus might set the stars on the globe by viewing the heavens as a Painter draws a face, & Palamedes by his measures might draw the signes & asterisms & solstices & Equinoxesmore exactly. In those days^[36] Astronomers understood also the motion of the sun in the Ecliptic from west to east <9r> & the return of his eclipses & observed the solstices. For in the Island Syrie or Syrus there was an Heliotropium or place prepared for observing the Solstice as Bochart^[37] shews out of Homer & his old Scholiast: which Heliotropium remained there till the days of Diogenus Laertius. Servius^[38] saith that Atreus found an eclips of the sun which came to pass, that is he predicted it or at least found out the reason of it.

Now Achilles Tatius^[39] tells us that some anciently placed the solstice in the beginning of Cancer, other in the eighth degree of Cancer, others about the twelft & others about the 15^th degree. This variety of opinions proceeded from the Precession of the Equinox. At first the solstice was in the 15^th degree or middle of the Constellation of Cancer, then in the 12^th, 8^th & 1^st degree successively. The Iews began their year with that new Moon which fell upon the Vernal Equinox or within half a month before or after it. This year they brought out of Egypt changing only the beginning thereof from the autumnal equinox to the vernal. And to make the first month begin in the first signe the Egyptians in their sphere & the Greeks in theirs might place the Equinoxes & Solstices in the middles of the signes. For the Greeks had their knowledge from Egypt & began the Attic year sometimes before & sometimes after the summer solstice, as Iews did their year both before & after the Vernal Equinox.

After the times of the Argonautic Expedition & Trojan war the communication between Greece & Egypt ceased & Astronomy lay neglected till Psammiticus let the Greeks into Egypt & Thales travelled thither. For^[40] Thales revived Astronomy observed the stars himself, was reputed the first of the Greeks who could predict Eclipses, & wrote a book of the Tropicks & Equinoxes & predicted them. And his scholar Anaximander^[41] erected Gnomons to observe the Solstices & Equinoxes & made a Sphære. For the Constellations were first delineated on Spheres, & the art of making Planispheres being difficulter was invented later. Pliny^[42] tells us that Thales determined the Occasus matutinus of the Pleiades to be upon the 25^t day after the Autumnal Equinox, & thence Petavius^[43] computes the Longitude of the Pleiades in ♈ 23. ^deg. 53'. Now the bright star of the Pleiades in the end of the year 1660 was in ♉ 25 15'. 51" by the observations of Hevelius & thence recconing backwards a degree for every 72 years (which is the known motion of the Equinox) that star will be found in ♈ 23. 53' six hundred years before Christ that is in the 41^th year of Thales: & therefore Thales did not retain the place of the Equinox determined by Astronomers who lived before the Trojan war but observed it himself & placed it where it was in his own age. His publishing a book about the Solstices & Æquinoxes & predicting them that others might examin the matter, shews that he proposed a new opinion & appealed to experience about it, & his predicting Eclipses shews that he knew the true position of the Ecliptic. And therefore we may reccon him the first who removed the solstices & equinoxes from the 15^thdegrees of the signes & placed them in the twelft.

After Thales had revived Astronomy & rectified the solstice, the Greeks became intent upon reforming their Lunisolar year. And first they mended their Dieteris, Tetraeteris, & Octaeteris. Then Meton^[44] found out the exacter Cycle of 19 years & in order to publish it, he & Euctemon observed the solstice in the year of Nabonassar 316, & Columella^[45] tells us that they placed it in the 8^th degree of Cancer: which opinion being publishe to the people in the Tables of that Cycle became generally received & continued long in vogue. Now recconing with Astronomers that the Equinox goes backwards one degree in about 72 years & by consequence three degrees in 216 years & seven degrees in 504 years & considering that Thales was born anno 1 Olymp 35 according to Laertius, & that from the 24^th year of his age (about which time he might make his first Observations) to the year when Meton & Euctemon observed the solstice there were but 184 years, which time is too short by 32 years for the passing of the solstice from the twelft to the eighth degree of Cancer: let the error be ascribed to the Observations which in those days                               

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Cancer, others about the twelft & others about the 15^th degree. This variety of opinions proceeded from the Precession of the Equinox. At first the solstice was in the 15^th degree or middle of the Constellation of Cancer, then in the 12^th, 8^th & 1^st degree successively. The Iews began their year with that new Moon which fell upon the Vernal Equinox or within half a month before or after it. This year they brought out of Egypt changing only the beginning thereof from the autumnal equinox to the vernal. And to make the first month begin in the first signe the Egyptians in their sphere & the Greeks in theirs might place the Equinoxes & Solstices in the middles of the signes. For the Greeks had their knowledge from Egypt & began the Attic year both before & after the summer solstice, as Iews did their year both before & after the Vernal Equinox.

After the times of the Argonautic Expedition & Trojan war, Astronomy lay neglected till the days of Thales. He^a[46] revived it, observed the stars, was the first who could predict Eclipses, & wrote a book of the Tropicks & Equinoxes & predicted them & his scholar Anaximander^[47] made a Sphære & Gnomons to observe the Solstices & Equinoxes. Pliny^[48] tells us that Thales determined the Occasus matutinus of the Pleiades to be upon the 25^t day after the Autumnal Equinox, & thence Petavius computes the Longitude of the Pleiades in ♈ 23.^degr. 53'. Now the bright star of the Pleiades in the end of the year 1660 was in ♉ 25.^deg. 15'. 51" by the observations of Hevelius, & thence recconing backwards a degree for every 72 years (which is the known motion of the Equinox) that star will be found in ♈ 23 53' six hundred years before Christ that is in the 40^th year of Thales & therefore Thales did not retain the place of the Equinox determined by Astronomers who lived before the Trojan war but placed it where he found it in his own age. His publishing a book about the Solstices& Equinoxes & predicting them shews that hehe receded from the opinion of former Astronomers & appealed to experience & his authority to do this was greater then any other mans & without doing it he could scarce have predicted Eclipses & the Solstices. We may therefore reccon him the first who removed the Solstices & equinoxes from the 15^thdegrees of the signes & placed them in the 12^th.

After Thales had revived Astronomy & rectified the Solstice, the Greeks became intent upon reforming their Lunisolar year. And first they mended their Dieteris, Tetraeteris & Octaeteris. Then Meton found out the exacter Cycle of 19 years & in order to publish it he & Euctemon observed the Solstice in the year of Nabonassar 316 & Columella tells us that they placed it in the eighth degree of Cancer: which opinion published to the people in the Tables of that Cycle became generally received & continued long in vogue. Now recconing with Astronomers that the Equinox goes backwards one degree in about 72 years & by consequence 3 degrees in 216 years & 7 degrees in 504 years, & considering that Thales was born Anno 1 Olymp 35 according to Laertius & that from the 24^th year of his age (about which time he might make his first Observations) to the year when Meton & Euctemon observed the solstice there were but 184 years, which time is too short by 32 years for the passing of the solstice from the 12^t to the 8^th degree of Cancer: let the error be ascribed to the Observations, which in those days <11r> were but coarse) & let it be equally divided between the Observations of Thales & those of Meton by saying that the solstice was in the beginning of the 12^th degree of Cancer about 16 years before the Observations of Thales & in the end of the 8^th degree about 16 years after the Observations of Meton, & from this last period, Anno Nabonass. 332, count backwards 504 years, the time in which the solstice moves seven degrees backwards & so might pass from the 15^th to the 8^th degree of Cancer, & the recconing will end 61 years after the death of Solomon. And therefore it was about that time that the Equinoxes & Solstices fell upon the end of the 15^th degrees of the Signes, or that Palamedes formed the Asterisms of the Zodiac in such manner that the Equinoxes & Solstices might fall upon the middles of them.

Eudoxes was either contemporary ^a[49] to Meton or a little ^b[50] later. but followed the older Astronmers & published a new Octaeteris & a book of Phænomena in prose wherin he described the old Sphere of the Greeks with the Constellations. Aratus wrote the same things in verse & Hipparchus Bithynus wrote a third book upon them both: which books of Aratus & Hipparchus are still extant. Geminus has given us an Ephemeris of the suns passing through the twelve signes, beginning the signes of Libra & Capricorn, & by consequence those also of Arius & Cancer, with the Equinox & Solstice of Euctemon, & placing the winter solstice of Euoxus on the 4^th day of Capricorn, that is, three days later then the winter solstice of Euctemon, & the spring Equinox of Eudoxus on the sixt day of Aries, that is, five days later then the spring Equinox of Euctemon. Whence its evident that Eudoxus did not observe the Equinox himself but following the traditions of the ancient Astronomers, placing it were it was in the days of Thales or before & knowing nothing of its motion. And for this reason in describing the sphere of the Ancients, he copied after their Equinoxes & Solstices as well as after their Constellations For he placed the Equinoxes & Solstices in the middles of the Constellations of Aries Chelæ Cancer & Capricorn, as is affirmed by Hipparches & appears manifestly by the description of the Equinoctial & Tropical circles in Aratus who copied after Eudoxus, & more plainly by the words of Eudoxus cited by Hipparchus, & still more plainly by the position of the Colures. For Hipparchus tells us that Eudoxus drew the Colure of the solstices through the middle of the great Beare & the middle of Cancer & the neck of Hydrus & the star between the Poop & Mast of Argo & the tail of the south fish, & through the middle of Ca-pricorn & of Sagitta & through the neck & right wing of the Swan & left hand of Cepheus; & that he drew the Æquinoctial Colure through the left hand of Arctophylax & along the <12r> middle of his body & cross the middle of Chelæ & through the right hand & foreknee of the Centaur & through the flexure of Eridanus & head of Cetus & the back of Aries across & through the head & right hand of Perseus.

In the end of the year 1660 the middle of the Aselli & Præsepe, a small Constellation in the middle of the Constellation of Cancer was in ♌ 3. 15. 21. And at the same time the middle between the cloudy star in the forehead of Capricorn & the last bright star in his tail was in ♒ 8. 25. 51 & the point opposite to this point was in ♌ 8. 25.51. And the Colure drawn in the middle between ♌ 3. 15. 21 & ♌ 8. 25. 51 passes as neare as can be through the middles of both Asterisms of Cancer & Capricorn & cuts the Ecleptic in ♌ 5. 50. 36 & ♒ 5. 50. 36. The tail of the south Fish through which this Colure is to pass is marked out in the heavens by three great stars, the only stars placed in it, one of the third magnitue, whose Longitude in the end of the year 1660 was ♒ 5^c. 51.' 5" & south latitude 15^deg. 10'. 0", another of the fourth magnitude whose longitude at the same time was also ♒ 5^d. 51'. 5" & south latitude 17^d. 20'. 0", the third of the third magnitude in ♒ 6. 0. 55 with south latitude 21^d. 30'. 0": and the Colure found as above passes within half a minute of the two first of these stars & within ten minutes of the third. It passes also through the middle of the great Bear & by the first star in the head of Hydra & between the Poop & Mast of Argo & by the stars of Sagitta on one side & the neck & north wing of Cygnus on the other, & through the left hand of Cepheus; &.so has all the characters of the solsticial Colure of the Ancients described by Eudoxus.

The back of Aries through which the solsticial Colure should pass is a star of the sixt magnitude whose longitude in the end of the year 1660 was ♉9^d. 22'. 57" & north latitude 6^d. 7' 20". And the Colures drawn through this star to the Ecliptic in an angle of 66^d. 30', the complement of the angle in which the Ecliptic cuts the Equator, did then cut the Ecliptic in ♉ 6. 41. 34 as I find by Trigonometry. The head of Cetus through which this Colure should pass is a starr of the fourth magnitude whose Longitude at the time aforesaid was ♉ 2. 43. 13 & south Latitude 5. 51. 53 & the Colure drawn through this star to the Ecliptic in an angle of 66^d 30' did cut the Ecliptic in ♉ 5. 16. 53. In the right hand of the Centaur rightly delineated is a star of the 4^th magnitude whose longitude in the end of the year 1660 was ♏ 15. 13. 5 & south latitude 20^d. 52'. 0" & the Colure passing through it did cut the Ecliptic in ♏ 5. 41. 38, & ♉ 5. 41. 38. In the extreme flexure or elbow of Eridanus is a star of the 4^thmagnitude of late referred to the breast of Cetus but anciently not. Tis the only star in Eridanus through which this Colure can pass. Its longitue in the end of the year 1660 was ♈ 24. 59. 45 & south latitude 25. 18. 19 & the Colure drawn through it did then cut the Eciptic in ♉. 6 51. 34. The head of Perseus rightly delineated is a star of the fift magnitude whose longitude in the end of the yeas 1660 was ♉ 23. 12. 1 & north latitude 34^d. 19'. 16" & the Colure drawn through it did then cut the Ecliptic in ♉. 5^d. 55'. 56". And the right hand of Perseus rightly delineated is a star of the 4^th magnitude whose longitude was then ♉ 24. 00. 29 & north latitude 37. 26. 50, & the Colure drawn through it did cut the Ecliptic in ♉ 4^d. 33'. 24". And the Colure drawn as neare as may be through all these six stars, <13r> did then cut the Ecleptic in ♉ 5. 50. 16 & ♏ 5. 50. 16 as I find by taking the sixt part of the summ of the six Longitudes where the six Colures drawn severally through the said six stars did cut the Ecleptic. And this Colure thus found passes through the left hand of Arctophylax & along the middle of his body & is just 90 degrees from the solsticial Colure found above, as it ought to be, & so has all the characters of the equinoxial Colure of the Ancients described by Eudoxes.

So then the Equinoxes & Solstices in the end of the year 1660 were gone back 35^d. 50' . 16" from their first places & therefore recconing with Astronomers that they go back a degree in 72 years & by consequence 35^d. 50' in 2580 yeares & counting these years backwards from the end of the year 1660, the recconing will place the description of the Globe by Palamedes about 60 years after the death of Solomon.

Hipparchus Rhodius the great Astronomer flourished almost 300 years after Meton & by 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 & went backwards one degree in about an hundred years. For^[51] such was the motion of the Equinox between the days of Palamedes & the days of Hipparchus according to the Chronology of the ancient Greeks. To make it go back a degree in 72 years (which is the truth)The time between Palamedes & Hipparchus must be shortened in the proportion of 100 to 72: & by this means Palamedes will flourish about 60 or 70 years after the death of Solomon. Thus far the Arguments taken from Astronomy.

Chap. IV.

<14r>

<14v>

& seven degrees in 504 years; count backwards these years from the year of Nabonassar 316 & the summer solstice will fall upon the end of the 15^thdegree or middle of Cancer in the 45^th year after the death of Solomon & {up}on the beginning of the 12^th degree in the 100^th year of Nabonassar which was the 24^th year of Psammiticus king of Egypt that is eight years after the conquest of Egypt by Psammiticus & as much before the birth of Thales supposing Thales to be born an. 1 Olymp 35 as is the common opinion. Psammiticus was one of the twelve kings of Egypt during the first fifteen years of his reign, then conquered all Egypt by the assistance of the Greeks & thereby opened a communication between Egypt & Greece & the solstice was then in the 12^t degree of Cancer & the Greeks might then bring from Egypt the opinion that the solstice was in that degree & thereby give occasion to Thales a few years after to examin the matter by observing the solstice himself. For he found it gone back into the 11^th degree of Cancer as above. So then about 45 years after the death of Solomon, that is about the time of the Argonautic Expedition, the solstices were in the middle of the signes, where they ought to be at the first formation of the signes & making of the globe.

– – – – Now by his placing the Pleiades in ♈ 23. 53', the solstice was then in the 11^th degree of ♊

Thus by three several ways of reconning we have shewed that the Solstices & Equinoxes fell upon the middle of the constellations Cancer, Capricorn, Aries & Chelæ in the times between the Argonautic expedition & Trojan war. The second way is the exactest & most to be depended upon & since it places the solstices upon the middle of the Signs 60 years after the death of Solomon, that is just before the Tr. war I conclude that as Chiron & Musæus formed the Asterisms & the delineated them upon the globe for the use of the Argonauts so Palamedes reformed the globe & delineated the stars upon it more exactly for the use of the Greeks in their expedition against Troy, & did it in such a manner that the middle of the cardinal Signes might fall upon the Equinoxes & Solstices.

<15r>

Chap. IV.
The time of the Argonautic Expedition &
Trojan war stated by the records of the
Tyrians & Carthaginians, & by the
reign of Sesostris.

To these two sorts of arguments taken from the genealogies & reigns of the Greeks & from Astronomy I will now add a third sort taken from the antiquities of the East where Chronology was much ancienter then in Greece. For Tatian an Assyrian in his book against the Greeks relates that amongst the Phœnicians fourished three ancient historians Theodotus, Hypsicrates & Mochus who all of them delivered in their Histories (translated into Greek by Lætus) that under one of the kings happened the rapture of Europa, the voyage of Menelaus into Phœnicia & the league & friendship between Solomon & Hiram when Hiram gave his daughter to Solomon & supplied him with timber for building the Temple, & that the same is affirmed by Menander of Pergamus. Vnder one of the kings, that is, within the compass of the age of a man: for so the phrase is used by Isaiah chap. XXIII.15. Iospehus^[56] lets us know that the Annals of the Tyrians from the time of Abibalus & Hiram were extant in his days, & that Menander of Pergamus translated them into Greek, & that Hiram's friendship to Solomon & assistance in building the Temple was mentioned in them. And by the testimony of Menander & the three ancient Phœnician Historians above mentioned, the rapture of Europa happened in the same age with the building of Solomons Temple. Let the authority therefore of the Eastern historians who were very ancient & copied from the original Annals of their Cities be set against that of the Greek Chronologers who were neither ancient nor had ancient Annals nor agree amongst themselves.

The Trojan war was in the days of Cinyrus king of Byblus & Cyprus & in the days of Belus king of Tyre the father of Pygmaleon & Dido. For when the Greeks were preparing to make war upon Troy Cinyras sent Agamemnon a breast-plate as Homer mentions: & Venus the mistress of Cinyras & of his son Adonis lay with Anchises in her youth & by him had Æneas who warred against the Greeks at Troy & after that war sailed to Italy about the same time that Dido fled from her brother Pigmaleon & built Carthage as Virgil relates. And Teucer^[57] after the destruction of Troy (the Marble saith seven years after) being barred by his father Telamon from returning home into the Island Salamis sailed to Cyprus & there built a new city which he called Salamis, & married the daughter of Cinyras, & he & his posterity reigned there till Artaxerxes Mnemon king of Persia took Cyprus from Evagoras the last of that race. Also^[58] Agapenor the captain of the Arcadians , after the destruction of Troy sailed to Cyprus & built there <16r> a new Paphus & Temple of Venus about sixty furlongs from the old Paphus built by Cinyras. And Theopompus^[59] tells that the Greeks who followed Agamemnon (meaning Teucer, Agapenor & their companions) seized Cyprus & ejected Cinyras. It seems they did it by the assistance of Belus: for he & his son Pigmaleon reigned over Cyprus or some part thereof & there built^[60] the cities Citium, Lapethus & Carpathia, & Virgil introduces Dido speaking thus,

Servius adds: Cyprum subactam Belus concessit Teucro ut in ea collocaret imperium. Belus therefore took Cyprus from Cinyras & there gave seats to the Greeks who assisted him in that conquest. Servius tells us that this Belus was called Methres, & Iosephus calls him Matgenus, & tells us out of the Tyrian Annals that he reigned nine years & that Carthage was built in the seventh year of his son & successor Pigmaleon, & the Temple of Solomon founded in the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelft year of Hiram. And setting down the reigns of the several kings of Tyre, he reccons from the reign of Hiram (meaning from his birth) to the building of Tyre 155 years & 8 months. Let the first 19 years of Hirams life which preceded his reign & the first 11 years of his reign which preceded the founding of the Temple be deducted, & there will remain 125 years & 8 months from the founding of the Temple to the building of Carthage, as may be also gathered by summing up the years of the Kings of Tyre. Now the Temple being founded in the fourth year of Solomon in the second month of the year, that is, 36 years & some months before his death, deduct those years & months & Carthage will be founded 89 years after the death of Solomon. Seing therefore that Matgenus began his reign 15 years before the founding of that City & reigned nine years, the coming of Teucer to Cyprus will be not less then 74 years nor more then 83 years after the death of Solomon & Troy was taken not above seven years before. Appian in his history of the Punic wars tells us in round numbers that Carthage stood 700 years. Solinus^[61] adds the odd number of years in these words. Hadramyto & Carthagini author est a Tyro populus. Carthaginem (ut Cato in Oratione Senatoria autumat) cum rex Hiarbas rerum in Libya potiretur. Elissa mulier extruxit domo Phœnix, et Carthadam dixit, quod Phœnicum ore exprimit civitatem novam; mox sermone verso Carthago dicta est; quæ post annos septingentos triginta septem exciditur quam fuerat <17r> extructa. This history of Carthage Cato & the Romans without doubt had from the Carthaginians whom they conquered. Elissa was the genuine name of Dido. She was first called Elissa & afterwards by her heroic actions acquired the name of Dido. Carthage was destroyed in the Consulship of Lentulus & Mummius in the year of the Iulian Period 4568, from whence count backwards 737 years complete & the Encænia or Dedication of the City will fall upon the 16^th year of Pigmaleon. The foundation of the city was laid in the 7^th year of his reign but the Æra thereof began with the Dedication. Strabo^[62] mentioning the first men who leaving the sea coasts ventured into the deep & undertook long voiages, names Bacchus, Hercules, Iason, Vlysses & Menelaus & that the dominion of Minos over the sea was also celebrated & the navigation of the Phœnicians who went beyond the Pillars of Hercules & built cities there & in the middle of the sea coasts of Afric presently after the war of Troy. These Phœnicians were Tyrians^[63] & at that time built Gades in the Island of that name without the mouth of that straits, & there they built also^[64] a Temple to the Tyrian Hercules & adorned it with sculptures of the twelve labours of Hercules & of his Hydra & the horses to whom he threw Digmedes to be devoured, In this temple was the golden belt of Teuces & the golden Olive of Pygmaleon bearing Smaragdine fruit. And by these consecrated gifts of Teucer & Pygmaleon you may know that this temple was built in their reign. Pomponius derives it from the time of the Trojan war. ‡ Pliny, Solinus & Isidorus tell us &c. < insertion from f 17v > ‡Pliny, Solinus & Isidorus tell us that Erythia at Gades had its name from the Tyrians who came from the red sea, Erythia dicta est quoniam Tyrij aborigines eorum, orti a rubro mari ferebantur Plin. l. 4. c. 22. In capite Bœticæ insula a continenti septingentis passibus memoratur quam Tyrij a mari rubro profecti Erytheam, Pœni sua lingua Gadir id est sepem nominarunt: Solin cap. 26 Quam Tyrij a rubro mari profecti occupantes in lingua sua Gades id est septum nomina verunt: Isidorus. These Tyrians traded on the red sea in the fleet of Solomon & Hiram but afterwards quitted that sea & came to the mediterranean. For Iehosaphat built ships at Ezion Geber in the reign of Ahazia to go to Tarshish. Ahaziah reigned two years & died about two years before the reign of Pigmalion & then the Edomites who had ever since the reign of David been governed by a Deputy revolted & set up a king of their own & the the ships were broken & the merchants of Tyre & Iudah driven from the red sea. Hitherto Sidon had traded on the Mediterranean & Tyre on the Red sea there being friendship between the Iews & Tyrians And this is the reason why Homer celebrates Sidon for arts & navigation but makes no mention of Tyre. But now the Tyrians being forced from the red sea began to trade upon the mediterranean & make long voyages going to places not yet possest by the Sidonians & thereby became more famous for navigation then the Sidonians did before, & gave the names of Erythia to Gades & Tartessus or Tarshish to the river Bœtis which flows into the ocean neare Gades & to the Island & City at the mouth of that river. For this was one of the remotest places they then sailed unto & here the Tyrians at their first coming found very much silver & therefore they looked upon this place as their new Tarshish. Aristotel^[65] tells us that the first Phenicians when they sailed to Tartessus purchased so much silver for oyle & other naval trash that the ships could not carry it away & therefore at their departure they made all their utensils & even their anchors of silver. So then the Tyrians came from the red sea to the mediterranean in the beginning of the reign of Pygmalion, or a year or two before, Teucer then reigning in Cyprus. < text from f 17r resumes >

Manetho tells us that the brothers Ægyptus & Danaus were by the Egyptians called Sethosis & Armais & that Sethosis being strong in horses & ships left the government of Egypt to Armais, & invaded Cyprus, Phœnicia & the Assyrians & Medes, subduing all before him: & being lifted up with these successes went on more boldly subverting the eastern cities & provinces & by his being long abroad gave opportunity to Armais to rebel. Whereupon Sethosis returned hastily to Pelusium & recovered his kingdom but not without a great escape. For Armais invite him to a feast, made him drunk & in the night set fire to the house intending to burn him & his wife & as many of his children as were with him. But Sethosis (whom Herodotus & Diodorus in telling this story call Sesostris & Sesoosis) escaped & Armais fled to Greece in a long ship of fifty oars carrying with him fifty of his daughters. For it seems during his dominion in Egypt he had married his daughters to the sons of Sethosis & commanded them all to kill their husbands the same night, thinking by this stratagem to destroy Sethosis & his whole family at once & thereby to gain the kingdom to himself. Now Sethosis & Armais or, as the Greeks call them, Ægyptus & Danaus flourished about two generations before the destruction of Troy & one before the Argonautic expedition as I gather by these arguments. 1 When Sesostris returned into Egypt he left a colony of Egyptians at Colchos under the government of Æetes, & Phryxus fled to Ætes married his daughter Chalciope, had four children by her & died before the Argonautic <18r> expedition, but Ætes survived that Expedition & his daughter Medea was then in her prime & married Iason. 2 The ship Argo was the first long ship built by the Greeks & they built it after the pattern of the long ship in which Danaus & his Daughters came into Greece, Argus the son of Danaus being the master-builder. It had fifty oars like that of Danaus, & before it was built the Greeks sailed in round vessels invented in the red sea by king Erythra. It was built therefore a little after the coming of Danaus into Greece while his ship was still in being. 3 Archander & Archilites married two of the daughters of Danaus & were the sons of Achæus (a king of Thessaly, from whom the Greeks were called Achivi) & Achæus was the son of Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens. And therefore the daughters of Danaus were three generations younger then Erechtheus & by consequence contemporary to Theseus the son of Ægeus the son of Pandion the son of Erechtheus, & Theseus flourished from the days of Minos the son of Europa till after the Argonautic expedition. 4 Vpon the comeing of Danaus into Greece his daughter Amymone being sent to find out water was got with child in the feilds & bare Nauplius who married Clymene grand-daughter of Minos, & by her had Palamedes. Now Nauplius was one of the Argonauts & lived till after the destruction of Troy without being decrepid with old age. For the Greeks having injuriously slain his son Palamedes at Troy, when they had taken that city & were returning home, he in revenge drew their fleet upon rocks by making a fire upon the high rock Caphareus in Eubœa where he was king, & slew those who were ship-wrackt & escaped to the shoar. At the time of the Argonautic expedition he was therefore a young man as were almost all the Argonauts, suppose of about 20 or 30 years of age, & therefore Danaus came into Greece a little above 20 years before that Expedition. So also Orpheus one of the Argonauts was born just after the return of Sesostris into Egypt as will appear hereafter. 5 When Sesostris returend back into Egypt he carried with him a great number of captives amongst whom was Tithonus a beutiful young man the son of Laomedon king of Troy. For Tithonus went into Ethiopia above Egypt (for so the Greeks call Thebais) & warred there, that is, in the army of the Egyptians & spent the rest of his life among them there & at Susa with Memnon who by the universal consent of the Greeks reigned over Egypt & Persia in the time of the Trojan war, & was born a little after the expedition of Sesostris & captivity of Tithonus, the Greeks feigning that Tithonus was his father. Priam was the younger brother of Tithonus, but became decrepid with old age before the taking of Troy. The expedition of Sesostris was therefore in the reign of Laomedon when his sons Tithonus & Priam were children & Memnon, Nauplius & Orpheus were not yet born. And from all these arguments I conclude that this expedition er was about 60 or 70 years before the taking of Troy & 20 or 30 years before the Argonautic expedition & by consequence in the reign of Rehoboam the son of Solomon, & therefore it was the same expedition with that of Sesak. For Sesak^[66] came out of Egypt with twelve hundred chariots & sixty thousand horsmen & foot without number <19r> and took the fenced cities of Iudah, & God said the Princes of Israel shall be his servants that they may know my servitude (that is the servitude of my people) & the servitude תוכלממ תוצראה of the kingdoms of the earth. And his army consisted of Libyans Troglodytes & Ethiopians: which shews that the Egyptians conquered those nations before. And in like manner Sesostris^[67] had a very great army in chariots, horse & foot & first conquered Arabia [Troglodytica] & Libya & Ethiopia & then invaded Iudea & the nations eastward & northward as far as India Colchos & Thrace. Sesostris & Sesak therefore at the same time reigned over the same dominions & with like forces made the same new conquests & therefore were one & the same king. He whom the Egyptians called Sethos or Sethosis & the Greeks Sesoosis & Sesostris the Iews called Sesak. For Iosephus^[68] affirms that Herodotus ascribes to Sesostris the actions of Sesak mentioning his expedition against Ierusalem & conquest of Palestine & erring only in the name of the king. Which is all one as to say that Sesak was that conqueror whom Herodotus calls Sesostris. The old Scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius, out of Dicæarchus,^[69] calls him Sesonchosis, saying that Sesonchosis who was king of all Egypt & reigned after Orus the son of Osiris & Isis, conquered all Asia & a great part of Europe, & erected pillars of his conquests, and made laws & found out horsmanship & left a colony at Æa with laws writ in Tables & with Geographical Tables of his Conquests by land & Sea & that Theopompus calls him Sesostris. Now Sesonchosis or as others call him, Sesonchis, is the same name with Sesak, much after the manner that Memphis is the same name with Moph. Now Sesak came out of Egypt in the fift year of Rehoboam to Invade Iudea & the nations & spent nine years in the expedition & therefore it was in the fourteenth year of Rehoboam that he returned back into Egypt & that Danaus fled from Egypt with his fifty daughters: & the Argonautic expedition was a little above twenty years after.

As Sesak in the 5^t year of Rehoboam invaded Iudea with a great army of Ethiopians Libyans & Troglodites so Zerah in the 15^th year of Asa invaded Iudea with another great army of Ethiopians & Libyans, but with a very different success. For Zezak was routed so that he could not recover himself. The way of the Libyans into Iudah was through Egypt & therefore Zezak reigned over Egypt as well as over Ethiopia & Libya, & the Monarchy of Egypt after the death of Sesostris was translated from the Coptites to the Ethiopians. for Zerah was an Ethiopian & so was his successor Memnon, & Pliny tells us, Ægyptiorum bellis attrita est Ethiopia vicissim imperitando serviendoque clara et potens <20r> etiam usque ad T{rojana} bella Memnone regnante. Æthiopia served Ægypt in the r{eign of Sesostris & no} longer, for Herodotus tells us that he alone enjoyed the Empire of Ethiopia. After his death his captains like those of Alexander the great) fell into civil wars & the Ethiopians gained the dominion over Egypt & Libya & then invaded Iudea under the conduct of Zerah. And by the translation of the Monarchy to the Ethiopians & the revolt & victory of Asa the dominion of Egypt was sore shaken & the remoter nations had a fair occasion to assert their liberty from that Monarchy for the victory of Asa was such that the Ethiopians could not recover themselves.^[70] which advantage the Greeks neglected not to improve. For at that time they built the ship Argo, & sent in it an Embassy of the flower of all Greece to the several nations. Such a general Embassy could scarce be sent without the consent of the Amphictyonic Councel. The golden fleece at Colchos was pretended for a blind, but their business was with other nations besides Colchos. For^[71] they went through the kingdom of Colchos to the Armenians & 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, Cizicus king of the Doleans Lycus king of the Mariandini & the coasts of Mysia & Taurica Chersonesus^[72] & the nations upon the river Tanais & the people about Byzantium, & the coasts of Epire Corcyra Melita Italy Sicily Sardinia & Gallia in the Mediterranean & from thence they crossed the sea to Afric & there conferred with Eurypylus king of Cyrene^[73] And Strabo^[74] tells us that in Armenia & Media & the neighbouring places there were frequent monuments of the expedition of Iason, & about Sinope & its sea coasts & Propontis & the Hellespont & in the Mediterranean there were left many marks of the expeditions of Iason & Phrixus & of the navy of Colchos following Iason as far as Crete & Italy & Asia in quest of Medea. Vpon what occasion the Greeks should send an Embassy of the Princes of Greece to so many nations then subject to Egypt is unconceivable unless it were to perswade them to take the present occasion of revolting & asserting their liberty against the Ethiopians as the Iews had newly done & entring into friendship with the valiant Greeks who had maintained their liberty against Sesostris himself by force of arms. Now the news of the revolt & victory of Asa might be brought to Greece by the Merchants of Phœnicia before the end of the year. Let the next year be allowed for building the ship Argo & assembling the flower of Greece, & the Argonautic expedition will ensue in the year following, that is in the 17^th year of Asa, & 37^th after Solomon's death.

<21r>

Solomon & Hiram had a fleet of merchant ships upon the red sea which went to Ophir & Tarshish & spent three years in the voyage. By their slow motion it's plain that they were such round vessels without sails as had been invented in that sea by king Erythra & went along the shoars. And of such vessels the fleet of Minos was also composed. For Dædalus & his son Icarus were the first Greeks who applied sails to ships^[75] & they did it for making an escape from Crete just before the death of Minos in two small vessels built by Dædalus for himself & his son so that by the help of their sails they might out-run the fleet of Minos which used only oars. And for doing this Dædalus was celebrated as if he had invented wings. Argo was the first long ship built by the Greeks: but the Egyptians had long ships before such as was that of Danaus. Sesostris had a fleet of long ships upon the Red Sea & another upon the Mediterranean & was the first king of Egypt who had such ships, & his ships had sails said to be invented by Isis & Neptune. For the weaving of linnen was very ancient in Egypt as appears by the Mummies wrapt up in linnen & by the use of linnen among the Israelites in the wilderness. Now by the fleets of such ships Sesostris easily became absolute lord of the Red sea, Mediterranean & Euxin, these ships being swifters & fitter for fighting then any other & the only ships in which men durst leave the shore & lanch out into the deep With such Fleets he invaded the coasts of the Red sea & Mediterranean & their Islands & put an end to the navigation of Solomon & dominion of Minos in the Greek seas; seizing many Island of the Cycladed which had been under the dominion of Minos & making a navigable channel from the Nile almost to the Red sea for promoting the communication between that sea & Egypt, so that after the reign of Hiram & Solomon we hear no more of the merchandize of the Phenicians & Iews upon that sea. Sesostris was therefore later then Solomon Hiram & Minos For had he invaded Iudea before the fift year of Rehoboam, he must invaded it before the days of Solomon whose whole reign was peaceable & flourishing & before the days of David whose whole reign was victorious & by consequence long ships with sails being invented in his reign would have been in use upon the red sea & Mediterranean long before the days of Solomon Hiram & Minos.  Theseus was fifty &c

< insertion from f 21v >

Theseus was fifty years old when he & Perithous stole Helena^[76] & went to steale the daughter of Aidoneus king of the Molossians. In this last expedition Perithous was slain & Theseus made a prisoner. Now Apollonius^[77] tells us that Theseus was prisoner when Iason assembled the Argonauts, & therefore Theseus was about 13 years old at the death of Solomon. Helena was seven years old or, as some say, ten, when she was stole by Theseus, & about 15 years older (according to Clemens^[78]) when she was stole by Paris, & Homer tells us that she arrived at Troy twenty ^e[79] years before the destruction of that city. so that Troy was destroyed about 35 years after the Argonautic expedition & by consequence 72 years after the death of Solomon, or perhaps a year or two later. And if Teucer arrived at Cyprus seven years after the destruction of that city, as the marble represents, he arrived there in the sixt year of Matgenus the father of Pigmaleon & Dido: which agrees sufficiently with the chronology of Virgil.

When Paris stole Helena < text from f 21r resumes > When Paris stole Helena, Menelaus her husband was absent in Crete looking after the estate which his unkle Atreus had left him, & therefore Atreus died the same year, & Hercules died four years before according to Clemens,^[80] that is about 49 years after the death of Solomon. And after the death of Hercules happened successively the death of Eurystheus, Hyllus, Atreus & Thyestes. First Eurystheus king of the Mycenians was slain by the Heraclides & Athenians under Hyllus & Theseus. The Hyllus was slain in a single combat by Echemus & then Atreus died & Paris

<22r>

Hyram & Minos Theseus was fifty years old when he & Perithous stole Helena & went to steale the daughter of Aidoneus king of the Molossi. In this last expedition Perithous was slain by the kings dog & Theseus was made prisoner. Now Appolonus tells us that Theseus was prisoner when Iason assembled the Argonauts & therefore Theseus was about 13 years old at the death of Solomon. Hellena was seven years old or as some say ten when she was stole by Theseus & about 15 years older when she was stole by Paris & she arrived at Troy twenty years before the destruction of that city as Homer tells us. So that Troy was destroyed about 35 years after the Argonautic expedition & by consequence 72 years after the death of Solomon or perhaps a year or two later, ✝✝ And if Teucer arrived at Cyprus seven years after the destruction of that city as the Marble represents, he arrived there in the sixt year of Matgenus the father of Pigmaleon & Dido: Which agrees sufficiently with the Chronology of Virgil. of Troy

When Paris stole Helena Menelaus her husband was absent in Crete &c – – – & that Hellena may not be too young to be their sister nor too old to be stole by Paris, we have recconed her stole by Paris about 15 years after the Argonautic expedition, that is, when she was about 22 or 25 years old.

Androgeus the eldest son of Minos being at Athens – – – – – the middle of Davids reign. For Theseus was 50 years old when he stole Hellena & therefore was born about the 27^th year of Solomon & twenty years after when he returned victor from Crete & succeeded his Father Ægeus, in the kingdom of Athens, Minos was an old man & soon after was slain in Siciliy in the pursuit of Dædalus.

The games instituted by Minos

<23r>

stole Helena & Menelaus sailed in quest of her to Sidon Atreus succeeded first Pelops in the kingdom of Elis & then Eurystheus in the kingdom of Mycene & was succeded by Thyestes & Thyestes by Agamemnon according to Homer^[81], & Troy was taken in the 18^th year of Agamemnon as "^[82] Chronologers reccon, so that Thyestes reigned 2 years. . Castor & Pollux succeeded their father Tyndareus in the kingdom of Sparta & were succeeded in it by Menelaus. They were Argonauts & that Helena may not be too young to be their sister nor too old to be stole by Paris, we have recconed her stole by Paris about 15 years after the Argonautic Expedition, that is, when she was about 22 or 25 years old , & Pelops was born about the 10^th year of David: not much later because he was the father of Pittheus the father of ‡

Androgeus the eldest son of Minos being at Athens in the time of the Athenæan games became victor in them all & was soon after slain by the contrivance of Ægeus the father of Theseus & thereupon Minos made war upon the Athenians & compelled them that they should every eight years send seven beardles youths (such as was Androgeus) to the games to be celebrated in Crete in honour of Androgeus. For the Octaeteris was then in use among the Greeks being called ἐνιαυτὸς the cyclar year to distinguish it from ἔτος the solar year. For Apollodorus tells us that Cadmus ἀίδιον ἐνιαυτὸν ἐσθήτευσεν Ἄρει. Ἠν δε ὁ ἐνιαυτὸς τοτε ὀκτὼ ἔτη, served Mars a whole cyclar year, & that this year then consisted of eight solar years. And Homer

Cnossos, a great city where Minos reigned the auditor of the great Iupiter every nine years. And Strabo: Minos descended every ninth year into the cave of Iupiter as Plato relates & received precepts from him & delivered them to men. By recconing from the eighth year to the next eighth year inclusively they named this a period of nine years. By this Octaeteris the Greeks in the first ages celebrated the Pythea & divers other festivals. They seem to have received it from the Phenicians & in the beginning to have used the same Octaeteris in all Greece & Italy & the Islands adjacent. And therefore if the – Athenæan games & those of Minos were celebrated upon the first year of the Octaeteris as is most probable, the expedition of Theseus will be 24 years after the death of Androgeus. The Athenians paid this tribute of Children <24r> three times & in the third payment the victory of Theseus & soon after the death of Minos put an end to this tribute. Now suppose that Androgeus & the children which were paid for him by way of recompence, were of about the same age, for I know no other reason why this tribute should be in beardless youths, & since Androgeus & Theseus at this age were victors suppose that they were about 20 years of age, & the expedition & victory of Theseus will have happened about 7 or 8 years after the death of Solomon & the birth of Androgeus 24 years before that of Theseus, that is about the 3^d or 7^th year of Solomon's reign & by consequence the birth of Minos about the middle of Davids reign .

The games instituted by Minos were said to be performed in a Labyrinth built by Dædalus, & as Androgeus perished after his victory so Theseus after his victory was to perish in the Labyrinth unless he could find the way out & escape. But Ariadne the daughter of Minos seing the performance of Theseus in those games fell in love with him & by the contrivance of Dædalus helped him out of the Labyrinth & escaped with him out of Crete, & in their way to Athens they landed in the Island Dia or Naxus & there met with the forces of Bacchus who being stronger at Sea then Theseus took Ariadne from him There Glaucus the son of Neptune ^a[84] lay with her & Bacchus afterwards had children by her, two of which called Phlias & Eumedon were Argonauts. If in the Argonautic expedition the elder of them may be supposed about 28 years old (for the Argonauts were young men) his birth will fall upon the 9^th year of Rehoboam & thus Ariadne might be carried away by Bacchus about the 1^th or 8^th year of Rehobeam as above. This Bacchus was not the son of Semele but another Bacchus who^[85] was potent at sea & led an army as far as India & past his army over Euphrates at Zeugma   by a bridge tyed with vine & ivy branches &^[86] came over the Hellespont, slew Lycurgus king of the Thracians & Pentheus the grandson of Cadmus subdued Thrace, led his army to Argos & fought with Perseus who slew many of his Mænades or Amazons, & after this war was composed the Greeks did him great honour, & built a Temple to him at Argos called the Temple of the Cretian Bacchus because Ariadne was buried in it, as Pausanius relates. This Bacchus & Sesostris were both of them kings of all Egypt, both reigned at the same time, both were very potent by sea & led an army eastward as far as India & westward into Thrace & Greece & in memory of their conquests set up pillars with inscriptions in divers places, & agreeing in all these things they must be one & the same king & by consequence the rapture of Ariadne happened at that time wh{en} Sesostris invaded the Islands of the Cyclades, that is between the 5^t & 14^th year of Rehoboam, so that the error cannot be great in placing it on the 1^th or 8^th year of that <25r> king as above. This Bacchus gave the kingdom of Lycurgus to Tharops & one of his minstrills called Calliope he gave to Oeagrus the son of Tharops & of Oeagrus & Calliope was born Orpheus who sailed with the Argonauts in his youth.

Plutarch^a[87] tells us that the people of Naxus, contrary to what others write, pretended that there were two Minoses & two Ariadnes & that the first Ariadne married Bacchus & the latter was carried away by Theseus. It seems Chronologers make the great Bacchus who married Ariadne to be about two generations older then Theseus & to make out this opinion they split Minos & Ariadne into two. But we have shewed that the rapture of Ariadne by Bacchus was not above one generation before the Argonautic expedition Theseus being then a young man & therefore there was but one Ariadne & one Minos. Homer, Hesiod, Thucydides, Herodotus, Strabo & several others knew of but one Minos, & Homer^[88] describes him to be the son of Iupiter & Europa & the brother of Rhadamanthus & Sarpedon & the father of Deucalion the Argonaut & grandfather of Idomoneus who warred at Troy, & that he was the Legislator of Crete & judge of Hell. Herodotus^[89] makes Minos & Rhadamanthus the sons of Europa contemporary to Ægeus. And Apollodorus & Hyginus^[90] say that Minus the father of Androgeus Ariadne & Phædra was the son of Iupiter & Europa & brother of Rhadamathus & Sarpedon. The rapture of Europa & voiage of Cadmus in quest of her, happened therefore just before the birth of this Minos suppose about the middle of Davids reign or within four or five years before.

Athamas king of a region in Bœotia married Ino the daughter of Cadmus & soon after put her away & married Nephele by whom he had Phryxus & Helle & Nephele dying he took Ino again. And she treated Phryxus & Helle so injuriously that they fled from Greece by Sea & Phryxus escaped to Colchos, married Calchiope the daughter of Æetes the king & by her had Argus & three other children & died before the Argonautic expedition. And therefore Ino lived till the reign of Æetes, that is till after the expedition of Sesostris, who left Æetes with a colony of Egyptians at Colchos. At the flight of Phryxus she was scarce above sixty years of age, for Athamas buried her & married a third wife. Subduct those 60 years from the 15^th year of Rehoboam, the year after the end of the expedition of Sesostris, & the birth of Ino will be after the 34^th year of David & therefore Cadmus continued to get children till towards the end of David's reign, & so was of about the same age with David or but a little younger

Theras the Tutor of Eurysthenes & Procles, was the son of Autesion, the son of Tisamenes, the son of Thersander, <26r> the son of Polynices the son of Oedipus the son of Laius the son of Labdacus the son of Polydorus the son of Cadmus.Thersander was slain in the Trojan war & Polynices & his brother Eteocles slew one another in the war of the seven captains against Thebes about ten years after the Argonautic Expedition. From this war to the return of the Heraclides were about 104 years, which distributed among the four generations from Polynices to Theras make about 26 year to a generation. To the four preceding generations from Polydorus to Polynices allow another 104 years & the recconing will end upon the 23^th year of Davids reign: at which time therefore Polydorus should be of about the same age with Polynices in the war of the seven captains & of Theras at the return of the Heraclides suppose about 30 years of age. And therefore he was born in Phenicia & came with his father Cadmus into Greece & Labdacus was born about the middle of Davids reign & Laius about the fift year of Solomon's & Œdipus about the 31^th year of that king.. And if Cadmus may be supposed about 25 years older then his eldest son Polydorus, he will be of about the same age with David as above. The history of the family of Cadmus is as follows. Polydorus the son of Cadmus 

< insertion from f 26v >

 The history of the family of Cadmus is as follows. Polydorus the son of Cadmus married^a[91] Nicteis the daughter of Nicteus & dying left his kingdom & young son Labdacus under the administration & tuition of Nicteus. Then Epopeus king of Egyales (afterwards called Sicyon) stole Antiopa the daughter of Nicteus & thereupon Nicteus made war upon him & in a battel wherein Epopeus overcame, both were wounded & died soon after. Nicteus left the tuition of Labdacus & administration of the kingdom to his brother Lycus & Epopeus or, as Hyginus ^b[92] calls him, Epaphus left his kingdom to Lamedon who presently ended the war by sending home Antiopa & she in returning home brought forth Amphion & Zethus. Labdacus being grown up received the kingdom of Lycus & afterwards dying left it again to his administration. When Amphion & Zethus were about 20 years old at the instigation of their mother Antiopa they killed Lycus made Laius the young son of Labdacus fly to Pelops, seized the city Thebes, compassed it with a wal & from their kinswoman Thebe called it Thebes. And then Amphion married Niobe the sister of Pelops & by her had several children amongst whom was Chloris the mother of Periclymenus who was one of the Argonauts Amphion & Niobe were therefore about two generations older then the Argonauts. If Laius when he fled from them may be supposed about ten years old, the birth of Amphion & Zethus & death of Nicteus & Epopeus will fall upon the 35^th year of Davids reign or thereabout. Amphion with almost all his family perished by the plague & Zethus soon after dying the Thebans called back Laius & made him their king. He married Iocasta the sister of Creon & by her had Oedipus who ignorantly slew his father & married his mother. Between the death of Laius & reign of Oedipus Creon administred the kingdom for Iocasta & in ^c[93] the reign of Creon Hercules was born at Thebes. therefore if Oedipus may be supposed about 20 years old when he slew his father the birth of Hercules will be about 12 years after the death of Solomon.

< text from f 26r resumes >

Cadmus^a[94] pretended to come into Europe in quest of his sister Europa but really came with his family & a great number of Phenicians & Arabians to seek new seats & planted several colonies in several parts of Greece. For he was accompanied with his brothers Cilix Phœnix & Thasus^b[95] & wife Hermione^c[96] & mother Telephassa^d[97] who was buried in the Island Thasus & with his young son Polydorus & perhaps some other children. The voiage of his mother argues that his father Agenor was dead before. He led one Colony into Bœotia & left another in Rhodus^e[98] & another under his brother Thasus in the Island Thasus neare Thrace^f[99] & another in Eubœa & another in Chalc^*[100] & his companion Proteus led another into Bisaltia in Thrace^g[101] & Cilix at the same time led another into Cilicia^h[102] & Phœnix others into Bithynia & Membliarius another into the Island Thera neare Crete^i[103] & Alymnus another into Crete. And while he left his with a multitude of people to seek new seats, its to be presumed that they were disturbed & prest with difficulties at home & forced to fly: which circumstance points out the time of their flight. Saul was made king to deliver Israel out of the hand^k[104] of the Philistims. His reign was troublesome & inglorious & they prevailed over him at his death. But Davids reign was very victorious. After his removal to Ierusalem^l[105] he beat the Philistims in several battles & subdued them & Edom & Amalek & Moab & Ammon & Syria of Zoba & of Damascus conquering all the countries from the red sea to Euphrates & making his enemies fly from their seats as appears by the ^m[106] flight of the Edomites into Egypt. The victory which completed greatness was that over Edom & Syria three years before the birth of his son Solomon that is in the 16^th year of his reign. For Mephibosheth was five years old at the death of Saul (2 Sam. 4.4) & had a young son when David sent for him to eat at his Table (2 Sam 12) & after this the king of the Ammonites died & the next year David made war upon Harun his son & beat the Ammonites & their confederates the Syrians (2 Sam. 10) & the third year destroyed the Ammonites & besieged Rabbah their capital city & lay with Batshebah (2 Sam. 11) & the 4^th year Bathsheba had a son who died & the fift year Solomon was born & after that Rabbah was taken (2 Sam 12) & a year before the death of David Rehoboam was born (1 King. 14.21) Let Mephibosheth & Solomon be supposed 20 years old at the birth of their {eld}est sons (for if either of them was older the other must be younger) & the victory of David over the Ammonites &Syrians will fall upon the 16^thyear of his reign <27r> Damascus is at present the Metropolis of Phœnicia & the Syria of Damascus & Syria Zobah conquered by David was all the inland part of Phœnicia comprehending the country of the Hevæi or Hivites who dwelled in mount Libanus from mount Baal Hermon unto the entring in of Hamath ‡ < insertion from f 26v > ‡ Iud. 3.3. Ios. 3.10. that is the Hivites who dwelt in the mountains called Libanus & Antilibanus by the Greeks, & in the valley between them. For Mount Hermon was in the eastern part of Holy-Land next Antilibanus & Hamath or Epiphania lay beyond Libanus being the northern bound of the Holy land, 1 King. 8.65.. All this country to the entring of Hamath was given to the seed of Abraham & was conquered by David, but Hamath was not given them nor conquered. For Toy king of Hamath had wars with Hadadezar king of Zobah & congratulated David upon his victory over Hadadezar^n[107] Now the conquest of all this country made the inhabitants fly to Zidon < text from f 27r resumes > conquest of all this country made the inhabitants fly to Zidon the next sea port town & there take shippin under the conduct of Cadmus to seek new seats. For they were one of the ten nations which the Israelites were to drive out, being sometimes called Ivites & sometimes Cadmonites that is eastern people (Gen. 15.19.) & mount Hermon which was a part of their country being put for the east in opposition to mount Tabor on the west Psal. 89.13. From the names Cadmonites, Hermonites & Hivites or Hevæans came the names of Cadmus & his wife Hermione or Harmonia & the fable of their being transformed into serpents as Bochart^[108] well observes. For איוח Hevæus or Hivæus in the Syriac signifies a Serpent. If their flight from Sidon under the conduct of Cadmus to seek new seats may be placed within a year or two after the conquest of their country by David it will fall upon the 17^th or 18^th year of Davids reign. In this expedition of Cadmus it is to be conceived that there was a mixture of all the nations whom David had conquered before & driven out of their seats, as of the children of Ammon who were confederate with the Syrians & of the Moabites & Amalekites & Edomites & Philistims. For David destroyed the children of Ammon (2 Sam. 11.1) & slew two thirds of Moab (2 Sam. 10.2) & every male in Edom those excepted who fled to Egypt & other places (1 King. 11.15, 16) & took Gath & her towns from the Philistims. And among the Phœnicians who came with Cadmus into Greece there were Arabians^p[109] & Erythreans or inhabitants of the red sea that is Edomites^q[110]. And in Thrace there setled a people who were circumcised & called Odomantes that is (as some think) Edomites. And the nations conquered & driven out by David fled in great multitudes to seek new seats not only in Asia minor & Greece but also in Libya on all the sea-coasts neare the Syrtes^r[111]. And there also from the names of the people & their native country the names of Cadmus & Harmonia were given to their leader & his wife & from the city Sidon She was also called Sithonis^r[112]. Nonnus saith that these colonies of Cadmus built an hundred walled cities on the coast of Libya & that out of these cities many Libyans followed Bacchus in his wars^r[113]. Whence it appears that these colonies of Cadmus were very numerous & that the great Bacchus was later then Cadmus.

<28r>

Chap. V.

The red sea being very shallow & for that reason calmer then the Mediterranean was navigable in smaller vessels such as men could make in the beginning. And the short voyages between the many Islands with which that sea abounded, were an invitation to try that sea firs. There navigation had its rise & was propagated thence to the mediterranean. For Pliny tells us: Nave primus in Græciam ex Ægypto Danaus advenit; ante ratibus navigabatur inventis in mari rubro inter insulas a rege Erythra King Erythra is the king of Edom usually supposed to beEsau. For Esau, Edom & Erythra are words of the same signification & signify red. Whence that sea was called mare Erythræum the red sea or sea of Edom. From these Edomites the Phenician Merchants seem to have had their rise. For those merchants traded first upon the Red sea & went from thence to the Mediterranean just before the return of Io as the Phenicians themselves & the Persians related to Herodotus^[115] And so Dionysius Afer^[117] says, the Phœniceans sprang originally from those men <29r> who were native Erythræans & invented shipping & merchandise by sea & Astronomy, & that they inhabited Ioppa, Gaza, Elais, Tyre, Berytus, Byblus, Sidon, Tripolis &c. And his old interpreter Priscian:

And Strabo^[118] tells us that some report that the Phœnicians & Sidonians, were colonies of the inhabitants of the Ocean & that they were called Phœniceans [Punici] because the sea is red.

How and when the Phenicians came from the Red Sea may be gathered from the history of David. For when David smote Edom, Ioab stayed there with all Israel six months untill he had smitten every male in Edom. 1 King. 11.15, 16. This made Hadad the young king of Edom fled into Egypt with certain Edomites his fathers servants, & as many of the Edomites as coul escape fled to the Philistims & to Sidon & other places where they could be protected. For Stephanus in Azot tells us τάυτην ἔκτισαν εἷς τῶν ἐπανελθόντων ἀπ' Ερυθρᾶς θαλάσσης φευγάδων. A fugitive or exul from the Red Sea built Azot or Ashdod. That is, a fugitive Prince of Edom fortified it against the Israelites. By this victory over the Edomites, Ezion Gebar & Eloth (sea ports of the Edomites on the Red Sea) came into the hands of David & his successors. And Solomon built a Navy in Ezion Gebar & sent it on the Red sea^[119] with the fleet of Hiram king of Tyre to Tarshish & Ophir for gold & silver & ivory & Peacocks [or Parrots] & Apes and pretious stones & Almug trees; by which means the Queen of Sheba or Sabæa in Arabia fælix heard of Solomon's glory; & Hiram sent with Solomon's servants in Solomon's Navy his own servants shipmen who had knowledge of the sea. Solomon's Servants where therefore novices in sea affairs & Hiram's servants were experienced shipmen who had knowledge of those seas by former voiages, for Hiram had also a Navy on the Red sea 1 King. 10.11, 22. Thus the trade of the Edomites on the Red sea came into the hands of Solomon & Hiram untill the Egyptians invaded that sea & left only the Mediterranean to the Tyrians.

When the Edomites were driven from their seats it may be presumed that they sent out colonies upon the Mediterranean, & of this there are footsteps. For Herodotus^[120] tells us that the Gephyræans were Phœnicians who came with Cadmus into Bœotia & affirmed of themselves that they were originally from Erethria, & Stephanus^[121] that 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. Erythra in Ionia was a seaport town & a colony of forreigners. The inhabitants said^[122] that they came from Crete under the conduct of Erythrus the son of Rhadamanthus; but their God was Phenician. For^[123] they worshipped the statue of Hercules brought <30r> from Tyre, & in memory of it's coming from thence they kept it standing upon the wood of the ships which brought it. By their God you may know that they were Phenicians, & by their name that they came from the Erythrean sea. Erythra was also a city of Ætolia & another in Asia neare Chius &c. Vide pag. seq < insertion from f 30v > Erythra was also a city of Ætolia & another in Asia neare Chius the country of the Erythrean Sybil, & Erythræa acra was a promontory in Libya & Erythræum a promontory in Crete, & Erythros a place neare Tybur & Erythini a city & country of Paphlagonia & Erythia or Erythræa the Island of Gades peopled by the Phœnicians.

< text from f 30r resumes >

Herodotus^[124] tells us that the Phenicians were the authors of dissentions who coming from the red sea to the Mediterranean & seating themselves on the sea-coasts of Syria, quickly undertook long voyages & in carrying Egyptian & Assyrian wars passed over to other coasts & chiefly to Argos: for Argos was then the chief city of Greece. That the Phenicians coming hither exposed their merchandise, & after 5 or 6 days when they had sold almost all, certain weomen came to the sea amongst whom was Io the daughter of Inachus. And whilst they bought what they like, the Phenicians set upon them & seizing Io & some others, carried them into their ship & sailed into Egypt, & this was the beginning of injuries. That in requital of this injury some Greeks of the Island Crete afterwards coming to Tyre (he should say Sidon) carried away Europa & a while after the Greeks committed also a second injury in carrying away Medea from Colchos. And when the king of Colchos sent an embassadour to demand his daughter back & that the raptors might be punished, the Greeks answered that as they (to wit the Egyptians of whom the kingdom of Colchos was a Colony) had not punished the raptors of Io, so neither would the Greeks punish those of Medea. In the next age Paris stole Helena & these things occasioned the ruin of Troy. From these passages of Herodotus it appears that the trade of the Phœnicians to Greece began upon their first coming from the Red sea, & that the rapture of Io happened in the beginning of this trade & that the rapture of Europa was committed soon after in revenge of the rapture of Io. And therefore since the rapture of Europa happened about the 17^th or 18^th year of Davids reign, & the Edomites were driven by David from the red sea a little before whereby the trade of that sea came into the hands of the Israelites: its reasonable to beleive that these Edomites were the Erythræan Phœnicians who came from the red sea to the Mediterranean & being deprived of their estates & country & trade on that sea, were necessitated to seek out a new trade upon the Mediterranean for getting a livelyhood, & by consequence that the rapture of Io happened between the 8^th year of Davids reign when he was made king of all Israel & went from Hebron to Ierusalem & the 17^th or 18^th year of his reign when Europa was stole & Cadmus sent in quest of her. And therefore Io & her brother Phoroneus flourished in Davids reign, & their father Inachus flourished in the reign of Samuel & Saul. And since the Greeks feigned <31r> that Io after she was carried into Egypt became the Goddes Isis the reign of Osiris & Isis in Egypt according to the opinion of the ancient Greeks who made the fable, was later then eighth year of Davids reign. The Greeks tell us, that Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus was the first woman with whom Iupiter lay, & therefore the raptures of Io & Europa were later then the corruption of Niobe.

The principal trafic with Egypt has been in all ages for corn. This was a commodity which Egypt abounded with & Greece in those days wanted. For plowing & sowing was not yet in use among the Greeks. Tzetzes tells us that Cecrops sent Argus into Sicily & Libya commanding him to procure corn which grews there & send it into Greece; & thence it seems that the sowing of corn was propagated from Egypt into Libya & from Libya into Sicily before it came into Greece. Erechtheus in a time of famin procured a great quantity of corn from Egypt & for this benefaction was made king of Athens. This I reccon done about the middle of Davids reign, Erechtheus being then about 36 or 40 years old: not much older because his daughter Procris converst with Minos king of Crete & his grand son Thespis had 50 daughter who lay with Hercules & his daughter Orithya was the mother of Calais & Zete two of the Argonauts & his son Orneus was the father of Peteos the father of Menestheus who warred at Troy; not much younger because his second son Pandion was the father of Ægeus the father of Theseus & his daughter Creusa was the mother of Achæus the father of Archander & Archilites who married the daughters of Danaus & had wars with Lamedon the predecessor of Sicyon. In those days Hellen the son of Deucalion king of Thessaly from whom the people were called Hellenes, left his kingdom between his sons Æolus Dorus & Xuthus. From Æolus & Dorus their people were called Æoles & Dores, but Xuthus was expelled Thessaly by his brothers & fled to Athens in the reign of Erechtheus & married his daughter Creusa by whom he had two sons Achæus & Ion. Ion married Helice the daughter of Selinus king of Ægialus & succeeded Selinus in the kingdom & gave the name of Iones to the people who were before called Ægialean Pelasgians. Achæus by the help of the Athenians & Ægyaleans recovered his fathers kingdom in Thessaly & gave the name of Achivi to the people. In a war between the Athenians under Erechtheus & the Elusinians under Eumolpus the Athenians being assisted by the Ægialeans made Ion their captain, & Erechtheus on one side & Immaradus the son of Eumolpus on the other were slain in battel. Whereupon the sons of Erechtheus falling out about their fathers kingdom, Xuthus adjudged it to Cecrops the eldest son, but Cecrops after he had by the assistance of Ion reigned a while was expelled the kingdom by his brothers & Pandion the <32r> second son succeeded. He had war with Labdacus the grandson of Cadmus, & therefore Erechtheus was slain before the death of Labdacus who died young & left his young son Laius under the tuition of Lycus before the reign of Amphion & Zethus. And to make room for all these things & for the reign of the successors of Erechtheus it seems to me that Erechtheus was slain about the tenth year of Solomons reign being then above 60 years old because his grandson Ion was above 20. Afterwards his son Pandion left the kingdom divided between his four sons giving Diacria to Lycus, Paralia to Pallas, Megaris to Nisus & Athens with the region Acte to his eldest son Ægeus the father of Theseus.

When corn was first brought out of the corn countries into Greece, it may be presumed that the merchants would endeavour to bring weomen along with the corn to instruct & assist the Greeks in the making of bread especially when the brought a great quantity of corn out of Egypt & perhaps some other places for Erechtheus. For at that time Ceres is said to have come to Athens. She pretended to come in quest of her daughter, who as Diodorus^[125] relates, was taken from her in Sicily, whence its probable that she came from Sicily. After she had staid a while at Athens, she travelled from thence to Eleusis a city of Attica, & being there enterteined by the daughters of Celeus king of Eleusis, she instructed his young son Triptolemus & taught him how to sow corn. He sowed it in Eleusine in a field called Rharia from Rharus the father of Celeus, & as the corn increased he dispersed it over the cities of Greece, & this was the original of sowing corn in Greece. Afterwards Bacchus coming into Greece taught them how to till the ground with oxen, for at first they tilled it with their hand labour , tho some say that Ceres taught to plow with Oxen, confounding Isis with the Ceres of the Greeks.

Ceres ^a[126] lay with Iasion the brother of Harmonia the wife of Cadmus & therefore was contemporary to Cadmus & taught the sowing of corn in the latter part of Davids reign. After her death Celeus Emolpus & others^b[127] in memory of these things instituted the Eleusinia sacra with ceremonies brought from Egypt And soon after was the war between the Athenians & Eleusinians in which Erechtheus & Immaradus were slain & therefore the Eleusinia sacra were instituted a little after the beginning of the reign of Solomon. For the war was composed on these conditions ^c[128] that the Eleusians should in other things be subject to the Athenians but should retain the initia to themselvers, & Eumolpus & the daughters of Celeus perform the sacrifices to the Goddess Ceres. & her daughter Proserpina. Ceres & Isis are by Herodotus^d[129] & others taken for the same Goddess, which argues that they flourished about the same time.

Arcas^[130] the son of Callisto the daughter of Lycaon the <33r> son of Pelasgus received corn from Triptolemus & taught his people to sow & make bread of it & therefore Arcas reigned in Arcadia in the latter part of Davids reign & Pelasgus in Peloponnesis three generations or about 80 years before, that is in the latter part of the Highpriesthood of Eli. # < insertion from f 32v > # For^[132] Arcas was the father of Aphidamas the father of Aleus the father of Lycurgus Cepheus & Auge. Auge lay with Hercules & Ancæus the son of Lycurgus was the companion of Hercules in the Argonautic expedition being then a youth & a little after was slain in hunting the Chalydonian Boar in the life time of his father Lycurgus, & Echemus the grandson of Cepheus slew Hyllus the son of Hercules. Cepheus was one of the Argonauts being sent by Lycurgus as governour to his son Ancæus & Aleus was alive at the Argonautic expedition being then an old man suppose of about 75 years of age And therefore Arcas was about four generations or 107 years older then Hercules or about 35 years old in the middel of Davids reign being two generations older then Aleus. Ancæus left a young child Agapenor who being grown up went to the war at Troy & afterwards led a Colony to Cyprus. From Pelasgus the people of his kingdom were called Pelasgians & from Arcas that part of the Pelasgians over whom he reigned were called Arcadians.

Triptolemus^[133] also conveyed corn to Eumelus the first king of Achaia & taught him & his son agriculture & how to build a city & Eumelus named the city Aroas from the tillage of the earth.

< text from f 33r resumes >

In the reign of Car^[134] the son of Phoroneus, Temples were first erected to Ceres in Megara, & Car erected a Temple to her there & therefore Car was contemporary to Solomon & Phoroneus to David & Inachus to Samuel & Saul as above.

Celeus^[135] was the son of Rharus the son of Cranaus the successor of Cecrops in the kingdom of Athens, & therefore Cecrops was two generations & a reign, or about 74 years older then Erectheus, & flourished in the latter part of the Highpriesthood of Eli. For Celeus & Erechtheus were contemporary as above. Between Cranaus & Erechtheus Chronologers place Amphictyon, Erichthonius & Pandion, representing Pandion to be the son of Erichthonius & father of Erechtheus. But I take Erichthonius & his son Pandion to be the same kings with Erechtheus & his son Pandion, it being usual with Chronologers to split one king into two. My reasons are these. 1 Erechtheus is by Homer^[136] called the son of the earth nurst up by Minerva: which is the character of Erechthonius.✝

< insertion from f 32v >

✝

Vpon which place the old Scholiast notes Ἐρεχθῆος του βασιλέως τῶν Ἀθηναίων, τοῦ καὶ Ἐρεχθονιου καλουμένου. Erechtheus. a king of Athens called also Erichtonius. And so also ^c[137] & Ierome say that Erichthonius the fourth king of Athens is by Homer called Erechtheus & Ierome in the catalogue of kings calls him Erechtheus saying^[138] Atheniensibus regnavit quaturs Erechtheus. And hence Plato alluding to Erichtonius in his basket, saith: the people of magnanimous Erechtheus is beautifull, but it behaves us to behold him taken out. < text from f 33r resumes > 2 2 They agree in being elected kings. Erechtheus did not inherit his fathers kingdom but was elected by the people for his benefaction of corn. 3 Erechtheus was the first who ^d[139] gave the name of Athens to that city & therefore instituted the games which were at first ^e[140] called Athenæa & then Panathenæa & are ascribed to Erechthonius. 4 If there were an Erichthonius two generations older then Erechtheus he would be contemporary to Cranaus the grandfather of Celeus whereas he is represented to succeed Amphictyon the successor of Cranaus. 5 Pandion who warred with Labdacus was the Son of Erechtheus as above, and Chronologers make him the son of Erichthonius 6 The Greeks had no chariots before the coming of Cadmus nor Smiths & Carpenters to make any, the invention of iron being later. And therefore 'twas Erechtheus who joynd four horses to a chariot, & succeeded Amphictyon. X < insertion from f 32v > X Καὶτοι καὶ ἵππων ὐπ' Ερεχθέως πρῶτον ζευχθῆναι λέγεται. For it is reported that a chariot was first joyned to horses by Erechtheus. Themist. Orat. XIX. < text from f 33r resumes >

<34r>

Lelex was an Egyptian & his son Myles first of any man set up a hand-mill in Greece in a place thence called Alesia that is, the Mill or Quern, & taught his people how to grind corn. Myles was either the father or brother of Eurotas the father of Sparte the wife of Lacedæmon & mother of A{m}yclas & Eurydice. And Eurydice was the wife of Acrisius & mother of Danae the mother of Perseus the father of Gorgophone. And Amyclas was the father Leucippus the father of Arsinoe otherwise called Coronis the mother of Æsculapius the Argonaute. Amyclas was also the father of Cynortes the father of Perieres the husband of Gorgophone. And Gorgophone was the Grand-mother of the Argonauts Lynceus, Idas, Castor & Pollux & of Phœbe & Ilaira the wives of Castor & Pollux & of Clytemnestra & Helena their sisters & of Penelope the wife of Vlysses. And Perseus was the father of Alcæus Electryo & Sthenelus, whereof Alcæus & Electryo were the grandfathers of Hercules & Sthenelus was the father of Eurystheus who was born the same year with Hercules & Iphicles that is about 12 yeares after the death of Solomon. From all which compared together I gather that Perseus was about 15 years old at the death of Solomon & Eurydice about 50 years old at the death of David, allowing about 40 years to two generations by the mothers side one of which was by a young unmarried girle. And if Acrisius may be supposed 5 or 10 years older then his wife he will be about 55 or 60 years old at the death of David. And Myles being one female & two male generations older then Eurydice may be recconed about 44 years old & Lelex about 70 at the death of Eli. Lelex therefore came with a colony from Egypt in the days of Eli & Myles set up a Mill to grind corn in the days of Samuel or a little before & Acrisius & Amphictyon king of Athens the founders of the Amphictyonic Council erected that Council in the reign of David & Perseus carried away Andromeda from her father Cepheus in the reign of Solomon.

Cepheus lived at Ioppa in Phœnicia when Perseus carried away his daughter, but was an Ethiopian, that is, a native of Thebais or perhaps of Ethiopia above Thebais on the Arabic side of the Nile. They tell us that he was skilled in Astronomy & from his residing at Ioppa a seaport town, & his skill in Astronomy which was the study of Navigators I seem to gather that he was a commander at sea under the king of Egypt & by means of the friendship between that king & Solomon his son in law, was permitted {by} Solomon to use the port at Ioppa. Some say that he built the <35r> city Ioppa & reigned there & perhaps he might build a house or palace there to reside in with his family during his negotiation.

The Greeks before the days of Pelasgus fed on hearbs & roots, but meeting often with such as were noxious, Pelasgus taught them to feed upon the acorns of the Beech tree, & this food continued in use amongst them till the plowing & sowing of corn. ✝ And besides I do not find that the Greeks had any shipping so early. The city Sidon having its name from the fishes taken on its coast might have fishing boats long before & the Egyptians might have vessels of their papyr or flagg, but the Greeks had no manuel arts, they could neither build ships nor repair those which came with colonies from other places, they had no Smiths or Carpenters, no tools of iron or brass to work with, no steel iron copper or brass to make tools of till the Idæi Dactyli found out iron in mount Ida in Crete in the days of Minos & Cadmus found out copper in Bœotia from which invention the copper-stone has ever since been called Cadmia. And this makes me of opinion that when Myles brought or procured corn out of Sicily Libya or Egypt, he brought or procured from thence a Mill also to grind it, there being at that time no artificers in Greece to make such an engin.

And since Europa was carried into Crete before the Cretans had tools of iron to build ships, it inclines me to suspect that she was not stole by the Cretans but came with a colony of Phenicians to Crete under the conduct of her brother Atymnus about the same time that Cadmus & his other brothers came with other colonies to other places or a little before & that the Idæi Dactyli who found out iron & many other things usefull for life^[141] were some of those Phœnicians who came with Atymnus & Europa. For^[142] For Europa landed in the river Lethæusat the city Gortyna, & the people of that city worshipped her brother Atymnus as a God, which is an argument that he came thither with his sister, & was buried there.

Inachus had several sons who reigned in several parts of Peloponnesus & there built towns, as Phoroneus who built Phoronicum afterwards called Argos from Argus his grandson Ægyalus who built Ægyalea afterwards called Sicyon from Sicyon the grandson of Erechtheus, Phegeus who built Phegea afterwards called Psophis from Psophis

<36r>

the daughter of Lycaon. Phoroneus had also several children as Apis, Car, Spartas, who reigned in several places. And this division & subdivision of territories has made a great confusion in the history of the kingdoms of Peloponnesus.

The first kings of Sicyon were^[143] Ægyalus, Europs, Telchin, Apis or Epaphus or Epopius, Lamedon, Sicyon, Polybus, &c. Between Apis & Epaphus or Epopeus Chronologers reccon many other kings & thereby raise the originals of this kingdom very high: But for so many intermediate kings there is no room. None of those kings gave their names to any cities regions or people as was the custome in those days. None of them had wars with any nation. Epopeus^[144] was the first king of the Sicyon who made war & without war kingdoms do not use to stand long. Apis is recconed by some^[145] the son of Phoroneus by other the son of Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus & by others the grandson of Ægyalus the brother of Phoroneus & therefore since Phoroneus reigned in the first part of David's reign Apis could not reign sooner then in the latter part of Davids reign & Epopeus was slain about the 35^th year of Davids reign as above & therefore could not reign after Apis. Herodotus^[146] tells us that Apis in the Greek tongue is Epaphus & we shewed above that Epaphus & Epopeus are the same king. He was so richt that from him Peloponnesus was called Apia befor the coming of Pelops.^[147] The Greeks feign that this king went into Egypt & there became the great God whom the Egyptians call Apis, Epaphis Seraphis & Osiris & therefore in the opinion of the ancient Greeks the reign of Osiris in Egypt was later then the reign of Apis in Greece & by consequence contemporary to the reign of Solomon. After Lamedon^[148] had reigned some years at Sicyon he made war upon Archander & Architeles the sons of Archæus the grandson of Erechtheus & in that war was assisted by Sicyon the son of Metion the son of Erechtheus & dying left his kingdom to Sicyon. And Sicyon was succeeded by his grandson Polybus who was contemporary to Adrastus king of Argos & by consequence to the Argonautic expedition & war of the seven captains. This kingdom was at first called Ægyalia^[149] & from Sicyon tooke the name of Sicyonia & the head city that of Sicyon.^[150]

Between Poroneus & Acrisius Chronologers reccon up many kings of Argos, namely Apis, Argus, Pirasus, Phorbas, Triopas, Iasus Crotopus, Sthenelus, Danaus, Lynceus, Abas &c. And yet for so many intermediate successive kings there is no room. Its probable that Acusilaus feigned this list in his brazen table because he made Phoroneus the oldest king in Greece, even older then Pelasgus. They might be collateral Princes of Argus but could not all be successive kings reigning between Phoroneus & Acrisius <37r> For some of them as Sthenelus Danaus & Lynceus were later then Perseus the grandson of Acrisius, & others as Pirasus Phorbas & Triopas were contemporary to Inachus & Phoroneus. For Polycaon the younger son of Lelex married Messene the daughter of Triopas the son of Phorbas & therefore Phorbas & his brother Pirasus were as old as Lelex who was older then Inachus Clemens^[151] makes Phorbas as old as Actæus the predecessor of Cecrops & Triopas as old as Cecrops Argus was reputed the granchild of Phoroneus & for that reason flourished after Acrisius . Iasus was the father of that Io who was carried into Egypt & therefore is written corruptly for Inachus. Hýginus (Fab 145) writes it not Iasus but Inachus. Of one Inachus & one Io Chronologers have made two, & instead of the second Inachus written Iasus. Apis is the Epaphus or Epopeus mentioned above. If we may suppose him the same with Abas, the kings of Argos will be these Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis or Abas, Acrisius , Perseus, Sthenelus, Danaus, Lynceus, Abas; together with Prætus, Megapenthes, Anaxagoras & their successors who were contemporary to Acrisius Perseus Sthenelus & their successors. For the kingdom of Argos became divided & subdivided into several kingdoms, & Perseus & Megapenthe exchanged kingdoms with one another. But if Apis & Abas be not the same, they might be contemporary, Apis reigning over Sicyon, & Abas over Argos.

< insertion from f 36v >

^‡ The Eleans^[152] recconed Aëthlius the son of Æelos their first king He was the father of Endymion the father of Pæon, Epeus & Ætolus Epeus succeeded his father in the kingdom & from him the people were called Epeans. In his reign Pelops came into Peloponnesus & succeeded Oenomans in the kingdom of Pisa, & soon after Ætolus killed Apis the son of Phoroneus. Whence I gather that Æolus was as old as Inachus. Aëthlius is sometimes called the son of Iupiter & then by Iupiter Æolus is to be understood. And since Endymion was an Astronomer & the native Greeks were ignorant of arts & sciences, we may reccon that this family came from Egypt.     I have now carried up

< text from f 37r resumes >

^‡ I have now carried up the chronology of the Greeks as high as the reigns of Actæus & Cecrops, Inachus, Lelex, Ægyales, Pelasgus & Deucalion & this is as high as the first memory of things done in Greece. For these were the oldest kings of Greece of which there is any certain memory. They all flourished about 60 or 80 years before Cadmus brought letters into Greece & it is not to be imagined things could be remembered which were done above an hundred years before the use of letters. Chronologers make the kingdoms of Sicyon & Germany above 1000 years older then the first use of letters in the reign of David & that of Argos above 800 years older & that of Athens above 500 years older. But how come they to know this? Could the history of Athens be preserved for five hundred years together without the use of letters? Or could Sicyon & Germany remember their originals five hundred years before Attica remembred any thing of hers? For we find by daily experience that the memory of such things as are not committed to writing wears out in three or four generations. When letters first came in its reasonable to believe that the Greeks might commit to writing so much of the antiquities of the several kingdoms of Greece as they could remember & by consequence that the antiquities of all those kingdoms might reach up to two, three or four generations before the coming in of letters & no higher. Which single consideration overthrows the chronology of the Greeks & confirms that which we have delivered above. And the like has happened in Asia minor. For Priamus king of Troy was the son of Laomedon the <38r> son of Ilus the son of Tros the son of Erichthonius the son of Dardanus the son in law of Teucer tions or about 160 years older then Priam & so flourished in the days of Eli or Samuel. For his successor Dardanus was the brother of Iasion who lay with Ceres & whose sister was said to be the wife of Cadmus. Erichthonius had a numerous breed of horses, & may be that Erichthonius who is delineated in the heavens. So also in Italy the first memory of things reaches no highter then the days of Saturn & Ianus who fourisched but two or three generations before letters were brought in by Evander & his mother Carmenta. Let this therefore remain a truth that the antiquities of the several kingdoms of Greece & Troy & of the Aborigines in Italy reach about two or three or at most four generations highter then the first use of Letters & that there is no memory of any thing done in Europe & Asia minor before the Hightprieshood of Eli.

And indeed Europe was not peopled very long before. For Diodorus tells us the seven Islands called Æolided between Italy & Sicily were desert & uninhabited till Liparus & Æolus about the time of the Trojan war went thither & peopled them & that Malta & Gaulus or Gaudus on the south side of Sicily were first peopled by Phenicians & so was Madera without the straits. He tells us also that the Cyclade Islands were at first desolate & uninhabited but Minos the son of Europa king of Crete having a powerfull fleet sent many colonies out of Crete & peopled many of the Cyclades & particularly that Carpathus was first seized by the soldiers of Minos. Syme lay wast & desolate till Triops came thither with a colony under Chthonius. Strongylæ or Naxus was first inhabited by the Thracians in the days of Boreas. Samus was at first desart & inhabited only by a great multitude of terrible wild beasts. 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 & made it habitable by destroying the serpents: in memory of which he is delineated in the heavens in the constellation of Ophiuchus. The discovery of this & some other islands made a report that they rose out of the sea. Claræ jamdudum insulæ Delos & Rhodos memoria produntur enatæ; postea minores, ultra Melon Anaphe, inter Lemnum & Hellespontem Nea, inter Nebedum & Teon Alone &c: Plin. l. 2. c. 87. In Asia Delos emersit & Hiera et Anaphe et Rhodus: Ammian l. 17. And even the island Cyprus which lay next to Phœnicia seems peopled not long before the days of Cadmus. For Eratosthenes^[153] tells us that Cyprus was at first so overgrown with wood that it could not be tilled, & that they first cut down the wood for melting of Copper & Silver, afterwards when they began to sail safely upon the mediterranean they built ships & even navies of it, & when by this means they <39r> could not destroy the wood they gave every man leave to cut down what wood he pleased & to possess all the grownd which he cleared of wood. So Europe at first abounded very much with woods, one of which called the Hercynian took up a great part of Germany being full nine days journeys broad & above 40 long in Cæsars days. but now those woods are almost cut down to make room for inhabitants, & this has been done since the invention of iron in the reign of Minos.

The first inhabitants of Greece lived in caves & woods without towns or houses, without arts or sciences like sauvages. The Egyptians who came with Cecrops Lelex Inachus & Pelasgus in the days of Eli taught them to build houses or huts & live together in towns. Doxius the son of Cælus taught them to build houses of clay. The brothers Euryalus & Hyperbius taught them to harden they clay into bricks by burning & build therewith. In the days of Pelasgus they were taught to cloath themselves with hogskins & build cottages & feed upon acorns of the beech instead of hearbs & roots; in the days of his son Lycaon that began to build cities & Lycaon built the city Lycosura which was the oldest city in Greece; & about the same time Cecrops & Phoroneus built the cities Cecropia & Phoronica & in the next generation cities were multiplied, for the sons of Lycaon (who were many & shared their fathers kingdom) built every one of them a city in his own dominion. And this was the state of Greece till the Phenicians came with Cadmus in the reign of David & brought in letters & corn & agriculture & metals & armour & navigation & merchandise & astronomy & poetry & music & dancing & chariots drawn with hores & Olympic games & festivals & the Ampictyonic Council & fairs for buying & selling & sacred rites & mysteries & initiations & sepulchers in the form of temples & worshipping the dead & the other arts & sciences & customes of Phœnicia. The riches of Phenicia consisted much in metals as may appear by the spoiles which David took from his enemies. He took shields of gold & very much copper from the Syrians the countrymen of Cadmus; & Toi king of Hamath sent him a present of all manner of vessels of gold silver & copper, & all this David dedicated to the Lord with the silver & the gold which he had taken from all the nations, from Syria & Edom & Moab & Ammon & the Philistims & Amalec, amounting to ten thousand talents of gold & an hundred thousand talents of silver & brass & iron without weight. And this sort of riches made the Phenicians skilfull in minerals & in excocting & manufacturing metals & put Cadmus & his colonies upon searching in the mountains for them. For Cadmus^[154] taught how to mine & dig up stones & minerals & excoct metals & found gold in the Panæa mountain & from his finding copper the copperstone hath ever since been called Cadmia. And copper being once found the Phenicians were skilful in casting it into all sorts of utensils & tools & armour, 1 Kings 7.14. For the Greeks began to use armour of copper before the invention of iron. And at the same time Tantalus & the Pelopides grew rich by the metals of Phrygia & Sipylus.^[155] Some say that Erichthonius found out silver and whether this was Erechthonius king of the Trojans <40r> or Erechtheus king of Athens, he flourished in the later end of Davids reign & beginning of Solomon's. Others^[156] say that Æacus the son of Ægina found out silver & he being the grandfather of Ajax & Achilles & great grandfather of Epeus who built the wooden horse at Troy, he flourished in the end of Solomon's reign & in the reign of Rehoboam & might then find out new silver mines. In the days of Minos the son of Europa the Idæi Dactyli found out iron in mount Ida in Crete, & the Telchines coming from Cyprus into Rhodes wrought iron & copper there, & others wrought those metalls in Lemnos. For iron being once found out, the Phœnicians were skilfull in manufacturing it & forming it into weapons & into edged tools for hewing & carving of wood which gave Minos an opportunity of building a fleet & gaing the dominion of the Greek seas before any other Prince of Greece. In those days Cinyras invented the Anvil & Hammer & Tongues & Laver & the making of tyles & Dædalus & his nephew Talus invented the Chip-ax & saw & wimble & perpendicular & compass & turning-lath & glew, & the invention of these things set up the trades of smiths & carpenters in Greece which are the foundation of all other manual arts.

Herodotus^[157] tells us that the Phœnicians who came with Cadmus brought many doctrines into Greece. For amongst those Phenicians were a sort of men called Curetes^[158] 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, some in Eubœa where before the invention of iron they wrought in Copper in a city thence called Chalcis, & some in Lemnos, Imbrus, & other places. And a considerable body of them setled in Ætolia which was thence called the country of the Curetes untill Ætolus the son of Endymion invaded it & called it by his own name. Where they setled they wrought first in copper till iron was invented & ten also in iron & when they had made themselves armour they danced in it at the sacrifices with tumult & clamour & bells & pipes & drumms & sword with which they struck upon one anothers armour in musical time, appearing seized with a divine fury. And this is recconed the original of musick in Greece. Studium musicum inde cæptum cum Idæi Dactyli modulos crepitu & tinnitu æris deprehensos in versificum ordinem transtulissent: Solinus Polyhist. c. 11. Studium musicum ab Idæis Dactylis cæptum: Origen. l. 14. c. 6. Clemens^[159] calls the Idæi Dactyli barbarians & saith that they were reputed the first wise men to whom both the letters which they call Ephesian & the invention

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or Erechtheus king of Athens, he flourished in the later end of Davids reign & beginning of Solomon's. Others^[160] say that Æacus the son of Ægina found out silver & he being the grandfather of Ajax & Achilles & greatgrandfather of Epeus who built the wooden horse at Troy, he flourished in the end of Solomons reign & in the reign of Rehoboam, & might then find out new silver mines. In the days of Minos the son of Europa the Idæi Dactyli found out iron in mount Ida in Crete & the Telchines coming from Cyprus into Rhodes, wrought iron & copper there & others wrought those metals in Lemnos. For iron being once found out the Phœnicians were skilful in manufacturing it & forming it into weapons & into edged tools for hewing & carving of wood which gave Minos an opportunity of building a fleet & gaing the dominion of the Greek seas before any other Prince of Greece. In those days Cinyras invented the Anvil & Hammer & Tongues & Laver & the making of tyles & Dædalus & his nephew Talus invented the Chip-ax & saw & wimble & perpendicular & compas & turning lath & glew, & the invention of these things set up the trades of smiths & carpenters in Greece which are the foundation of all other manual arts.

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of musical rhimes is referred. It seems that when the Phenician letters ascribed to Cadmus were brought into Greece, they were at the same time brought also into Phrygia & Crete by the Curetes who setled in those countries, & called Ephesian from the city Ephesus where they were first taught. For the Curetes^[164] & particularly the Idæi Dactyli who found out iron invented many other things usefull to life & for their skill & knowledge & mystical actions were accounted wise men & conjurers. In Phrygia their mysteries were about Rhea called also Cybele & magna Mater: in Crete they were about her son Iupiter. They represented^[165] that when Iupiter was born in Crete, his mother Rhea caused him to be educated in a cave in mount Ida under their care & tuition & that they danced about him in armour with a great noise that his father Saturn might no heare him cry, & when he was grown up assisted him in conquering his father Saturn & in memory of these things instituted their mysteries.

And hence I conclude the Iupiter of the Idæi Dactyli was Minos, & that the Rhea of the Phrygians was his mother Europa. For the Idæi Dactyli came into Crete with Europa & the brother Atymnus a little before Minos was born, attended on him all his life, went with him into Sicily & were left there at his death. Asterius & Minos were the two first kings of all Crete mentioned in history & on that account the Saturn & Iupiter of the kingdom. Minos was the most potent & famous of all the kings of Crete & so deserves the name of the Cretan Iupiter above them all. He was the greatest warrior & most potent of all the kings of Greece in that age & the first who gained the dominion of the seas & therefore deserves above them all to be painte with a scepter in one hand & a thunderbolt in the other. He was the law-maker of Crete & was so famous for justice as to be accounted the judge of hell & hence justice became the character of Iupiter. Europa being a Phenician would be apt to commit the care of her child to her countrimen the Curetes, & by their instruction he became so wise & just. Mount Ida was excavated by art with many walks & intricate passages which they called the Labyrinth, & there they might secure & educate the child. There they might dig minerals & make armour & after Minos was grown up they might by the help of this armour overcome the native Cretans, expell Asterius & set Minos on the throne & then celebrate these actions by dancing in armour at the sacrifices. He was buried in the same cave where he was educated: for^[166] Pythagoras went down into the Idæan cave to see his sepulchre. Whence Lucian^[167] tells us that the Cretans do not only relate that Iupiter was born & build among them but also shew his sepulchre. And Cicero^[168] in numbering three Iupiters, saith that the third was <44r> the Cretan Iupiter Saturn's son whose sepulchre was shown in Crete, & the Scholiast upon Callimachus^[169] lets us know that this was the sepulchre of Minos. By Saturn Cicero who was a Latine, understands the Saturn of the Latines: for when Saturn was expelled his kingdom he fled from Crete by sea into Italy. And because he lay hid in Italy the Latines gave him the name of Saturn & called Italy Saturnia & Latium & themselves Latines. Antrum Iovis in Creta visitur & sepulchum ejus ostenditur & ab eo Saturnum fugatum esse manifestum est, inde Latium de latebra ejus nomen accepit. Hic literas imprimen et signare {numeris} in Italia primus instituit. Cyprian. de Idolor. varietate

About the same time that Saturn fled, some other Greeks carried colonies into Italy, as Ianus who received Saturn into part of his kingdom, & Oenotrus the youngest son of Lycaan. And this was the first memory of the things done in Italy, the reign of this Saturn before he was expelled by his son Iupiter, being the golden age of the Latines.

The Poets feigned that the old world perished by Deucalion's flood & was repaired by a new generation of men arising from stones which Deucalion & his wife cast over their heads, & called the four first ages of this new world, the golden, the silver, the brazen & the iron ages: & the Latines being colonies of the Cretans & Greeks carried their fables into Italy. Now the flood of Deucalion was according to the Marble, about ten years before the coming of Cadmus into Europe. & by consequence the reign of Asterius fell in with the golden age, as it ought to do. He was therefore the Saturn of the Europeans & their Iupiter who reigned in the silver age was his son Minos.

Apollonius^[170] tells us that Chiron was begot of Phylira by Saturn in the golden age when Iupiter was educated among the Idæi Dactyli, & that^[171] Talus who was the son of Minos & guarded the island Crete in armour of copper, was the last man of the brazen age & died when the Argonauts in returning home arrived at that island. These three ages therefore had a particular respect to the kingdom of Crete in the days of Asterius, Minos, & the sons of Minos & by consequence the fourth age was the age in which the grandsons of Minos flourished: for Hesiod^[172] tells us expresly that the fourth age ended with the warrs at Thebes & Troy.

Hesiod^[173] describes these four ages to be four generations of men every one of which ended when the men of the generation dropt into the earth & were deified & a new generation arose, & saith that he himself lived in the fift age which should be destroyed by Iupiter when the men of that age should grow hoary headed; & describing every age to be worse then the former he translates the name of the iron age from the fourth <45r> to his own as being the worst of the five. And since Chiron was born in the golden age & lived till the Argonautic expedition or a little longer, the silver age & copper age could not exceed the length of ordinary generations. The golden age began with the coming of Europa & the Curetes into Crete in the reign of Asterius, or with the beginning of his reign over all Crete. From thence to the destruction of Troy was about 134 years, which being divided into four equal ages allows about 33 or 34 years to an age or an hundred years to three ages, & of this length were the two first ages together, extending to the death of Minos; the third age extending from the death of Minos to the end of the Argonautic expedition; & the fourth age extending from thence to the taking of Troy.

In the first of these four ages men lived on the spontaneous fruits of the earth without the labour of plowing & sowing. In the second the Greeks began to plow & sow & grow potent at sea & by the invention of iron to multiply arts. In the third they grew more warlike but used armour & utensils of copper, the use of iron, as Hesiod lets us know, being not yet spread abroad. In the end of the third & beginning of the fourth they built a long ship & invented the Constellations & began to make long voyages at sea. In the fourth they increased their riches in metalls improved navigation & grew more injurious & violent then before. And these are the characters of the four ages according to the Poets.

The people of Elis^[174] in giving an account if their own originals, say that Saturn reigned first in the kingdom of heaven, & that the men who were called the golden age built a temple to him in Olympia, & that his wife Rhea when Iupiter was born committed the custody of the child to the Idæi Dactyli otherwise called Curetes, & that five of these Idæi Dactyli (whose names were Hercules, Pœonius, Epimedes, Iasius & Idas) coming afterwards from Ida a mountain in Crete into Elis, there instituted the game of racing once in four years, which was the original of the Olympic games. The Iupiter therefore who reigned in the silver age was certainly the Iupiter of the Idæi Dactyli, & the Parable of the reign of Saturn & Iupiter in the golden & silver ages was brought by them into Greece, & being formed by them commenced with their first coming into Crete.

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And because they brought the celebration of the Olympic games into Greece, it may be concluded that they came from Phœnicia. For those games were celebrated at Tyre^[175] in honour of the Tyrian Hercules before the conquest of Phœnicia by the Greeks.

And since those games were celebrated at end of every four years, & the space of eight years was the ^a[176] Annus magnus of Cadmus & ^b[177] Minos & was used ^c[178] in many religions of Greece & particularly in celebrating the Ludi Pythici at Delphos; we may reccon that the Octaeteris & Tetraeteris were brought from Phœnicia into Crete & Greece by the Curetes. And the Dieteris was as old, being used by all nations in celebrating the Bacchinalia.

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before the Phœnicians began to sail as far as Greece. For when the Philistims took Sidon, some of Sidon made their escape by sea to Tyre, which without shipping they could not have done. When therefore the Phenicians began to sail as far as Greece & to set on foot a trade between Greece & Egypt, it may justly be presumed that the principal commodity with which they supplied the Greeks from Egypt was corn. And this was first done in the days of Myles the son of Lelex king of Laconia & of Erectheus king of Athens.

Lelex was ^a[179] an Egyptian, and his son Myles ^b[180] first of any men set up a hand mill in Greece in a place thence called Alesia that is the Quern or Mill, & taught his people how to grind corn. Myles was ^c[181] the father or brother of Eurotas the father of Sparte the mother of Eurydice the wife of Acrisius & mother of Danae, & therefore Myles was two or three generations older then Acrisius, recconing four such generations to an hundred years because they were by the elder sons or by daughters . Now when the Egyptians under Sesostris invaded Greece, that is, about the 12^t or 14^th year of Rehoboam, Acrisius collected the Amphictyonic councel against them & made his grandson Perseus captain of the forces of Greece as shall be shewed hereafter. And therefore Acrisius was at that time an old man, & so was Myles three generations or 75 years before, that is in the middle of the reign of David if he lived so long, & so also was Lelex one generation earlier or about the middle of the reign of Saul if he lived so long. And therefore Lelex was contemporary to Samuel & came into Greece in his days & Miles set up Mills for grinding of corn in the reign of Saul or at least before the middle of Davids reign.

Erechtheus^[182] had several sons Cecrops, Pandion, Metion, Thespis, Orneus, & daughters Orithyia, Procris & Creusa. Xuthus^[183] upon the death of his father Hellen a king in Thessaly, being expelled Thessaly by his elder brothers Æolus & Dorus, fled to Athens & married Creusa, by whom he had two sons Achæus & Ion. Ion married Helice the daughter of Selinus king of Ægialus & succeeded Selinus in the kingdom. Achæus by the help of the Athenians & Ægialeans recovered his fathers kingdom in Thessaly & his sons Archander & Archilites married two of the daughters of Danaus. In a war^[184] between the Athenians & Eleusinians the Athenians made Ion their captain & in that war Erechtheus was slain. Vpon his death his sons falling <49r> out about their fathers kingdom, Xuthus adjudged it to Cecrops the eldest son, & thereupon Cecrops after he had by the assistance of Ion reigned a while, was expelled the kingdom by his brothers & Pandion succeeded. He was ^a[185] the father of Ægeus the father of Theseus who in the time of the Argonautic expedition was about 45 years old. Metion (or Eumetion) ^b[186] was the father of Eupalamus the father of Dædalus who flourished in the reign of Oedipus & built the Labyrinth in Crete when Theseus was a child. Thespis had 50 daughters ^c[187] who lay with Hercules in his youth. Orneus ^d[188] was the father of Peteus the father of Menestheus who warred at Troy. Orithyia by Boreas ^e[189] had Calaus & Zete who were in the Argonautic expedition. & Procris f^[190] with Minos king of Crete. From all which compared together I conclude that Erechtheus was almost three generations (or an hundred years) older then the Argonauts & therefore flourished in the latter half of Davids reign. Now ^g[191] Erechtheus in a time of famin procured a great quantity of corn from Egypt & for this benefaction the people of Athens made him their king: & therefore the trafic of carrying corn from Egypt to Greece began before his reign & by consequence in or a little before the reign of Cadmus.

When the Phenicians brought corn from Egypt into Greece they would be apt to bring weomen out of Egypt to instruct & assist the Greeks in the making of bread for promoting the merchandise of the corn, especially when they brought a great quantity of corn out of Egypt for Erechtheus. For^[192] at that time Ceres is said to have come to Athens. She pretended to come in quest of her daughter who perhaps had been carried away by Merchants, & under that pretense travelled from Athens to Eleusis, & being there enterteined by the daughters of Celeus king of Eleusis nurst up & instructed his young son Triptolemus and taught him how to sow corn. He sowed it in Eleusine in a field called Rharia from Rharus the father of Celeus & as the corn increased he dispersed it over the cities of Greece. Afterwards^[193] Bacchus coming into Greece taught them how to till the ground with Oxen, for at first they tilled it with their hand-labour.

Ceres^[194] lay with Iasion the brother of Harmonia the wife of Cadmus, & Triptolemus lived till Osiris or Sesostris came into Greece: & therefore Ceres came into Greece in the days of Cadmus & taught the sowing of corn in the latter part of David's reign. After her death <50r> Celeus Eumolpus & others^[195] in memory of these things instituted the Eleusinia sacra with ceremonies brought from Egypt. And soon after was the war between the Athenians & Eleusians in which Erechtheus on one side & Immaradus the son of Eumolpus on the other side were slain. This war therefor putting an end to the reign of Erechtheus, seems to have been about the middle of Solomons reign, for Erechtheus reigned long. Then reigned his sons Cecrops & Pandion in the days of Solomon & Ægeus in the days of Rehoboam. Pandion had war with Labdacus the grandson of Cadmus.

Arcas^[196] the son of Callisto the daughter of Lycaon the son of Pelasgus received corn from Triptolemus & taught his people to sow & make bread of it, & therefore Arcas may be recconed contemporary to Solomon or Rehoboam & Pelasgus to Samuel & Saul. Triptolemus^[197] also conveyed corn to to Eumelus the first king of Achaia, & taught him & his son Agriculture & how to build a city, & Eumolus named the city Aroas from the tillage of the earth

In the reign of Car^[198] the son of Phoroneus Temples were first erected to Ceres in Megara & Car erected a Temple to her there, & therefore Car was contemporary to Solomon & Phoroneus to David as above.

Erechtheus was^[199] the son of Pandion the son of Erichthonius & I take Erichthonius to be an Egyptian. For he first of any man taught the Greeks to draw a chariot with horses: which invention came from Libya & Egypt. And as Cecrops to denote him a foreigner of unknown parents was called ἀυτόχθων the son of the earth, & to signify that he was of two nations & languages the Egyptian & the Greek, was represented a man above & a serpent below, so was Erechthonius. The Greeks, not knowing his parents derived him from foreigners Vulcan & Minerva by a miraculous birth of the earth, & the Egyptians recconed his grandson Erechtheus^b[200] to be an Egyptian by his family. Now Erechthonius being two generations, or about 50 or 60 years, older then Erechtheus may be recconed contemporary to Samuel & Saul: but I do not take him or his son Pandion to have been king of Athens. Erechtheus seems to have been the first of the family who was king of that City: for he was elected king for procuring a great quantity of corn from Egypt in a famin as above, & then he changed the name of the people from Cranaans to Athenians.^[201] Vnder Cecrops they were called Cecropians, under Cranaus Cranaans, under Erechtheus Athenians & under Cecrops II & Ion Ionians.^[202] Every new king in those days giving a new name to the people. And therefore I reccon not Erechthonius but Erechtheus to have been the successor of Amphictyon: Cranaus the predecessor of Amphictyon was the father of Rharus the father of Celeus & therefore scarce two generations older then Erechtheus. And if Cecrops be recconed about 10 or 20 years older then his successor Cranaus <51r> , he will be contemporary to Samuel.

So then Cecrops, Erechthonius & Lelex were contemporary to Samuel & in his reign led colonies from Egypt into Greece. Its probable that when the Theban army under Misphragmuthosis invaded & subdued the lower Egypt & a great body of the shepherds retired to Abaris & were there shup up, others (amongst whom were Cecrops Erechthonius & Lelex & perhaps Pelasgus) escaped out of the Canobic ostium of the Nile in such vessels as they could meet with upon that river & fled to Libya Phenicia, Cyprus, Asia minor & Greece. For the Athenians were recconed a colony of Egyptians coming from Sais a Province of Egypt upon the Canobic ostium of the Nile. These lived for a while without commerce with Phenicia & Egypt & only endeavoured to reduce the Greeks from a salavage way of live, but in the next generation a trade was opened between Greece & Phœnicia whereby the Greeks began to be supplied with corn & other merchandise from Phenicia & Egypt. And then the Phenicians being pressed by the wars of David sent out new colonies, Cadmus led a colony into Bœotia, & ^a[203] left another in Rhodes, & ^b[204] another under his brother Thasus in the Island Thasus neare Thrace & his companion ^c[205] Proteus led another into Bisaltia in Thrace & Cilix at the same time ^d[206] led another into Cilicia & Membliarus ^e[207] another into the Island Thera neare Crete

Cecrops is therefore justly recconed one of the first Egyptians who led colonies into Greece. He joyned one man & one woman & ^a[208] first called Iupiter God & set up an altar at Athens & after him came the whole genealogy of the Gods of Greece. He was the first that civilized the people of Attica & gathered them into cities, Phoroneus the first that built cities about Argos, Polycaon the son of Lelex the first that built cities in Messene & Lycaon the son of Pelasgus the first that built cities in Arcadia. Their fathers Inachus Lelex & Pelasgus were the first kings & began to civilize their people & the sons assembled them in cities & by this circumstance you may know that these men lived much about the same time. Cecrops in sailing from Egypt the sea coasts came first to Phenicia & Cyprus & then to Greece. He seems to be one of the Shepherds because ^b[209] a colony which he left in Cyprus sacrificed yearly a man to his daughter Agraulus, an impiety which the genuine Egyptians were free from. By the like colonies the sacrificing of men came also into Greece. For Erechtheus ^c[210] sacrificed his daughter & there <52r> fore his family was of the race of the shepherds. But circumcision (the religion of the genuine Egyptians) was nowhere in Greece introduced by any of the colonies. When Cecrops came first into Greece, the Cares sailed between the Islands of the Cyclades & infested the sea-coasts of Attica. And this navigation made way for the trade between Greece & Phenicia & the rapture of Io & Europa.

Cadmus pretending to be sent in quest of his sister Europa & coming into Phocis ^a[211] followed an Ox which he had bought of the heardsmen of Pelagon & which was marked on both sides with a white spot resembling the full Moon. This was in imitation of the Ox Apis & shews that he was of the religion of the Egyptians who worshipped that Ox. And thence its probable that as the Israelites in the time of Moses & Ieroboam in the time of Solomon by staying in Egypt learnt the worship of the calf so did the ancestors of Cadmus in the reign of the shepherds. Strabo^[212] lets us know that the people which accompanied Cadmus into Europe were mixt of Phenicians & Arabians: which Arabians I take to be such as fled from the red sea & other places to Zidon in the wars of David. Conon in his 32^th Narration saith that when Cadmus was sent to seek Europa he was accompanied with Proteus who fearing the tyranny of Busiris came with Cadmus out of Egypt, & married Chrysonome the daughter of Clytus king of a region in Thrace & by the assistance of Clytus expelled the Bisaltes & became king of their country.

Herodotus^[213] tells us that the Gephyreans, as they themselves reported, were originally from Erythræa. But, saith he, by inquiring, I find that they were Phenicians who came with Cadmus into Bœotia & dwelt in the Tanagrian country, & being expelled thence first by the Argives & then by the Bœotians they retired to Athens where they built Temples which had nothing common with other temples but were distinct. He adds that the Phenicians who came with Cadmus of whom the Gephyreans were a part, brought many doctrines into Greece, & particularly letters, & that the Iones learnt letters of the Phenicians & called them Phœnician letters. Since these Gephyrians were originally Erythreans, its probable that the city Erythræ in Bœotia was built by Erythreans who came with Cadmus.

Some think that the letters which Cadmus brought from Phenicia came originally from Egypt, which is improbable because Cecrops Erichthonius & Lelex came from Egypt before without letters. Navigation & Merchandise occasioned the invention of Astronomy & Arithmetic, & Letters were as necessary to a Merchant, & therefore its reasonable <53r> to ascribe the invention of all these things to the Phœnicians or if you please to the inhabitants of the red sea who were the first merchants. Then Moses might learn them when he dwelt in the land of Midian & from thence the Erytheans might bring them into Phenicia.

Conon in his 37^th Narration tells us that when Cadmus was sent by the king of the Phenicians to seek Europa the Phenicians were very potent & having conquered a great part of Asia placed their royal seat at the Egyptian Thebes. Whence I learn that the kingdom of Egypt seated at Thebes was founded & grew potent about the times of Agenor & Cadmus & that when they conquered Asia they first subdued Phenicia & made it a Province of Egypt, so that the Phenicians spake of the kingdom of Egypt & its conquests as their own.

For Cepheus & his daughter Andromeda contemporary to Perseus Perseus . And Apollodorus makes this Cepheus & his brother Phineus to be the sons of Belus a king of Egypt the same Belus who was reputed the brother of Agenor the father of Cadmus & Europa. Be the genealogy true or false it shews that the ancients derived the family of Cepheus from Egypt. He was accounted an Ethiopian, that is an Egyptian of Thebais. Now Conon in his 40^th Narration saith that Cepheus the father of Andromeda reigned from the Mediterranean to the Red sea, & that his kingdom was called Ioppa from the city Ioppa upon the Mediterranean. And Stephanus in Ιόπη tells us that this city was built by Cepheus. And Solinus c. 47. that they there shewed the rock to which Andromeda was chained. From all which it seems that Cepheus being of the Royal family of the kings of Egypt was by them placed at Ioppa & reigned over the Phenicians, building Ioppa for the seat of his kingdom & that in his days the Egyptians conquered Asia.

Among the sons of Belus the Greeks also reccon Ægyptus & Danaus & therefore they flourished after the coming of Cadmus into Europe & were contemporary to Cepheus. Belus in the language of the Egyptians & Libyans is Amnon, or (as the Greeks & Latines call him) Iupiter Amon; & his wife ^a[214] Iuno Ammonia & therefore Ammon was the father of Ægyptus Danaus & Cepheus & brother of Agenor. In his reign happened the story of Agenor & Cadmus & in the next reign the story of Ægyptus Danaus & Cepheus. Now Manetho ^b[215] tells us that Ægyptus & Danaus were Sethosis & Armais, & that Sethosis having forces by sea & land left the government of Egypt to his brother Armais while he invaded & conquered Cyprus, Phœnicia, Media, Persia & other nations. Whence its plain that Sethosis was the same conqueror with Sesostris. When he conquered the Phenicians then he made his brother Cepheus their king. The Greeks

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Ægypt was conquered successively by the Ethiopians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians & the Persians under Cambyses. Then they revolted & were again conquered by the Persians under Artexerxes Ochus. & by these conquests they gradually lost their learning untill Ochus destroyed & carried away their records. After which the Greeks left of travelling into Egypt for knowledge. Manetho & Erathosthines wrote long after the victory of Ochus which makes their accounts of the kings of Egypt very confused. Herodotus travelled into Egypt almost 100 years before that victory & [almost 200 years before Manetho wrote his history & ] in giving an account of the ancient state of Egypt he tells

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have transmitted to posterity many things concerning Sesostris all which had been forgotten had those things been done before the use of letters brought into Europe by Cadmus. And therefore Sesostris reigned after the rapture of Europa & by consequence after the days of Saul, David & Solomon. For Herodotus saw some of Sesostris his pillars erected in Palestine in memory of his conquering that country, & such a conquest cannot agree either to the warlike & victorious reigns of Saul & David or the peaceable & flourishing reign of Solomon; nor is there any mention of an invasion of Iudea by the Egyptians in the days of the Iudges or at any time before the fift year of Rehoboam. And on the other hand, all antiquity reccon Sesostris older then the Trojan war, & something older then the Argonautic expedition. The Greeks built the ship Argo after the patern of the long ship in which Danaus upon the return of Ægyptus or Sesostris into Egypt sailed with his fifty daughters to Greece & Argus the son of Danaus was the master builder.^[216]. Sethoses therefore returned into Egypt before the Argonautic Expedition & not above one generation before & by consequence invaded the nations in the reign of Rehoboam & so can be no other king then Sesak.

The same king is confirmed by Iospehus^[217] who affirms that Herodotus ascribes to Sesostris the actions of Sesak erring only in the name of the king. Which is all one as to say that Sesak was that conqueror whom Heroredotus calls Sesostris. The old Scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius^[218] out of Dicæarchus calls him Sesonchosis, saying that Sesonchosis who was king of all Egypt & reigned after Orus the son of Osiris & Isis, conquered all Asia & a great part of Europe, & erected pillars of his conquests, & made laws & found out horsmanship & left a colony at Æa with laws writ in Tables & with Geographical Tables of his conquests by land & sea, & that Theopompus calls him Sesostris. Now Sesonchosis or, as others call him, Sesonchis is the same name with Sesak much after the manner that that Memphis is the same name with Moph, or that the Susanchites (Ezra 4.) are the people of Susa or Shushan called Sheshach by Ieremiah, chap. 25 & 51.

Herodotus^[219] in giving an account of the ancient state of Egypt, tells us that the Priests of Egypt affirming Menes to be their first king, read to him out of a book the names of 330 following kings of Egypt who all reigned before Sesostris & amongst whom were eighteen Ethiopians & a <55r> forreign woman named Nitocris who acquired the kingdom by a memorable revenge of her brothers death, & that the Priests affirmed nothing done by any of the rest except one who was the last of them & was called Mæris. But Menes & Mæris reigned at Memphys & together with other ^/ kings of Memphys built there the most magnificent Temple of Vulcan, & therefore were later then Sesostris, as we shall further shew hereafter; & so was Nitocris later if she reigned over both Egypt & Ethiopia as Iosephus mentions, & built the third Pyramid at Memphys as is affirmed by Manetho. Herodotus therefore justly passes over in a few words all the ages of Egypt before Sesostris as obscure & conteining nothing memorable, & begins his history of the kings of Egypt with this king, the former kings except two or three of his immediate predecessors reigning not over all Egypt successively, but divers of them at once in severall parts of Egypt, which renders them the less memorable. In the time of the Monarchy of Egypt Herodotus who has given us the best account of this kingdom sets down their kings in the following order, if Menes Mæris & Nitocris be duly inserted. Sesostris Pheron, Menes, Proteus, Rhampsinitus, Mæris, Cleops, Cephren, Mycerinus, Nitocris, Asychis, Anyis, Sabacon the Ethiopian, Anysis again, Sethon Priest of Vulcan, Twelve contemporary kings, Psammiticus, Necho, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, Psammenitus. Before Sesostris is to be placed his father Belus or Ammon, & before Ammon may be set Tethmosis, Thmosis or Amosis the successor of Misphragmuthosis & founder of the Egyptian monarchy. Menes is the first of the kings who reigned at Memphys. The kings before him reigned at Thebes. These were deified & became the Gods of Egypt & next after the Gods reigned Menes. The history of the deified kings is full of obscurity, but seems to be as follows.

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Diodorus recites the same kingd of Egypt with Herodotus but in a more confused order, & repeates some of them twice or thrice under various names. [] His kings are these. Iupiter (Ammon) & Iuno, Osiris & Isis, Horus, Menes, Busiris I, Busiris II, Osymanduas, Vchoreus, Myris, Sesoosis I, Sesoosis II, Amasis, Actisanes, Mendes or Marrus, Proteus, Remphis, Chembis, Chephren, Mycerinus or Cherinus, Grephactus, Boccharis, Sabacus, Twelve Kings, Psammiticus, * * Vaphres, Amasis. In reciting the kings which follow Actisanes & some of those which precede him namely Menes, Myrïs, Sesoosis I, & Sesoosis II, Diodorus agrees with Herodotus. Amasis & Actisanes an Ethiopian who conquered him, I take to be the same with Anysis & Sabacus in Herodotus. Osimanduas is the same with Menes in Herodotus. And Busiris is the same with Osiris, the Greeks deducing the names from the Egyptian lamentations O-Siris, Bu-Siris. For Diodorus saith that the tumb of Osiris were they sacrificed red men was called Busiris, & the building of Thebes he ascribes to both Osiris& Busiris. These kings being understood, the Kings mentioned by Diodorus may be reduced to this order. Iupiter (Ammon) & Iuno . Osiris Busiris or Sesoosis, & Isis. Horus, Busiris II or Sesoosis II. Menes or Osimanduas. Remphis. Vchoreus, Myris, Mendes or Marrus. Chembris. Cephren. Mycerinus. * * Gnephactus Boccaris & Amasis. Actisanes or Sabacus. * Twelve contemporary kings. Psammiticus. *.*. Vuaphres. Amosis. And this race of kings, if you insert Nitocris, Asychism, Sithon Nechus & Psammis in their proper places, will agree with that of Herodotus.

The Dynasties of Manetho are too confused to be reduced in good order.

Whilst Grephactus or Thenphactus & his son Boccaris reigned in the upper Egypt at Memphis, other reigned in several parts of the lower Egypt; as Anysis or Amosis at Anysis or Hanes (Isa. 30.4.) Stephanates Necheptos & Nechus successively at Sais; Petubastes, Osorthon & Psammis at Tanis; or Zoan Osorchon & Tacellotis at Bubaste. And Egypt being weakned by this division, was invaded & conquered by the Ethiopians under Sabacus, who slew Boccaris & Necus & made Anysis fly. In the reign of Petubastes the Olympiads began according to Africanus.

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After the study of Astronomy was set on foot for the use of navigation, & the Egyptians by the heliacal risings & settings of the stars had determined the length of the solar year of 365 days, & by other observations had fixed the solstices & formed the fixt stars into asterisms (all which was done in the reign of Ammon Sesak & Memnon) it may be presumed that they continued to observe the motions of the Planets. For they named them after their Gods; & Nechepsos or Nicepsos their king by the assistance of Petosiris a Priest of Egypt invented Astrology grounding it upon the aspects of the Planets. And in the reign of Nabonasser when the Ethiopians under Sabacus invaded Egypt, a body of Egyptians fled from him tot Babylon & carried thither the Egyptian year & the study of Astronomy & Astrology, & founded the Æra of Nabonassar; dating it from the first year of that kings reign which was in the 22^th year of Boccaris according to Africanus. From the 15^th year of Asa in which Zerah was beaten & Menes or Amenophis began his reign, to the beginning of the Æra of Nabonassar, were 200 years; & this intervall of time allows room for 10 or 11 reigns of kings at about 18 or 20 years to a reign one with another. And so many reigns there were according to the account set down above out of Herodotus & Diodorus, & therefore that account as it is the oldest so it agrees with the course of nature, & leaves no room for the great intervalls of nameless kings which we have omitted.

In the Dynasties of Manetho, Sevechus is made the successor of Sabacus, & I take him to be the Sethon of Herodotus. For Sabacus is that So or Sua with whom Hoshea king of Israel conspired against the Assyrians in the fourth year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 24. And Herodotus tells us that Sabacus after a long reign relinquished Egypt voluntarily, & that Anysis who fled from him returned & reigned again in the lower Egypt, & was succeeded by Sethon, & that Sethon went to Pelusium against the army of Sennacherib & was releived by a great multitude of mise which eat the bowstrings of the Assyrians; in memory of which the statue of Sethon (seen by Herodotus) was made with a mouse in its hand. A mouse was the Egyptian Symbol of destruction, & 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 Iudea & beseiged Lachish & Libnah (which was in the 14^th year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 34) the king of Iudah trusted upon Pharaoh king of Egypt, that is upon Sethon, & that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia came out also to fight against Sennacherib (2 King. 18.21 & 19.9.) Which makes it probable that when Sennacherib^[220] heard of the kings of Egypt & Ethiopia coming against him, he went from Libnah towards Pelusium to oppose them, & was there surprised & set upon in the night by them both & routed with as great a slaughter as if the bowstrings of the Assyrians had been eaten by mise. After this victory Tirhakah succeeding Sethon carried his arms westward throught Libya and Afric to the straights mouth, & was succeeded perhaps by Merres or Ammerres: tho Herodotus tells us that the Priests of Egypt recconed Sethon the last king of Egypt who reigned before the division of Egypt into twelve kingdoms & by consequence before the invasion of Egypt by the Assyrians.

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For Asserhadon king of Assyria, in the middle of the reign of Manasses king of Iudah, invaded & conquered Egypt & Ethiopia & reigned over them three years (Isa. 20.3, 4) that is untill his death, which was in the year of Nabonassar 81; & then Egypt became subject to twelve contemporary kings. These kings reigned together fifteen years, including the reign of Asserhadon whom the Egyptians reccon not among their kings, & then were conquered by Psammiticus who built the last Portico of the Temple of Vulcan founded by Menes about 260 years before. He reigned 54 years including the 15 years of the 12 kings. For he was one of them. Then reigned his son Nechus or Nechaoh 17 years, Psammis six years, Vapres or Hophra 25 years, Amasis 44 years, Psammenitus six months. Egypt was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar in the last year but one of Hophra, Anno Nabonass. 178 & remained in subjection to Babylon 40 years (Ier. 44.30 & Ezek. 19.12, 13, 14, 17, 19.) that is, almost all the reign of Amasis a plebeian set over Egypt by the conqueror. The 40 years ended with the death of Cyrus: for he reigned over Egypt & Ethiopia according to Xenophon. At that time therefore those nations recovered their liberty but after four years more they were invaded & conquered by Cambyses, Anno Nabonass. 223, & have ever since remained in servitude, as was predicted by the Prophets.

To the division of Egypt into more kingdoms then one both before & after the war of Sennacherib, the Prophet Isaias^[221] seems to allude in these words. I will set, saith he, the Egyptians against the Egyptians & they shall fight every one against his neighbour, city against city & kingdom against kingdom, & the spirit of Egypt shall fail. – And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord [videlicet Asserhadon] & a fierce king shall reign over them – Surely the Princes of Zoan [or Tanis] are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellours of Pharaoh is become bruitish. How say ye unto Pharaoh I am the son of the wise, the son of the ancient kings. – The Princes of Zoan are become fools; the Princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, they that were the stay of the tribes thereof. – In that day there shall be a high way out of Egypt into Assyria, & the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians.

Pliny tells us that the Egyptian Obelisks were of a sort of stone dug neare Syene in Thebais, & that the first Obelisk was made by Mitres (that is, Mephres) who reigned in Heliopolis & afterwards other kings made others, Sachis (that is, Sesochis or Sesak) four each of 48 cubits in length, Ramises two, Smarres (that is Marrus or Mæris) one of 48, Eraphius (or Hophra) one of 48, & Nectabis one of 80. Mepres therefore extended his dominion over all the upper Egypt from Syene to Heliopolis. His successors Mephramuthosis & Amosis or Tethmosis conquered the lower Egypt expelling the Shepherds, & then reigned Ammon & Sesak who erected the first great Empire in the world.

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Macrisi an Arabian historian cited by Vanslebuis in his voyage into Egypt, represents that Ischemun, Atrib, Sa & Coptus four sons of Misraim reigned over four equal parts of Egypt videlicet Coptus over the upper part of Egypt from Isvan (or Syene) to the city Coptus, Ischemun over all the country below Coptus to the city Menuf or Memphis, Atrib over the lower Egypt now called Delta, & Sa over Libya between Egypt & Barbery, & that Coptus overcame all his brethren & chose the city Menuf for his royal seat: & that from him the race of the ancient Egyptians have been ever since called Coptites & their country Ἀίγυπτος Ægyptus, the Greeks giving it that name by changing Κ into Γ: & that the city Menuf continued the royal seat of the Kings of Egypt untill Nebuchadnezzar sackt it. If by the four sons of Mizraim you understand not four single men but four nations sprung from Mizraim which at first had kings in every city & at length grew into the four kingdoms above mentioned: there may be much of truth in this history. The people of Coptus might conquer & reign over all the upper Egypt from Coptus to Syene, & afterwards they might conquer the middle part of Egypt down to Memphys & then the lower Egypt expelling the shepherds, & lastly the people of Sais & Libya as far as the lesser Syrtes. And in the time of these wars the Coptites might remove their royal seat first to Thebes in or before the reign of Ammon, & then to Memphis in the reign of Vchoreus or Mæris as above, & reign in Memphis till first the Ethiopians under Sabacus, then the Assyrians under Asserhadon & lastly the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar invaded them.

[

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preserving the division of Egypt into equal shares amongst the soldiers this king wrote a book of surveying which gave a beginning to Geometry. And after the example of the two brick Pyramids which he built, Cheops, Cephren & Mycerinus who reigned successively after him, built the three great Pyramids of marble. Mycerine died before the third was finished & his successor Nitocris finished it. Then reigned Asychis who built the eastern Portica of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly, & a large Pyramid of brick, made of the mud dug out of the lake of Mæris. And these are the kings who reigned at Memphys & spent their time in adorning that city untill Egypt was again divided into many small kingdoms. For Nitocris & Asychis were succeeded at Thebes & Memphys by Gnephactus ( (otherwise called Neochabis, Nectaris, Techmates) & his son Boccharis, at Sais by Stephanates, Necepsus & Nachus at Tanis by Petubastes, Osorchon, Psammis & Zet or Sethon, & at Anysis or Hanus (Isa. 30.4) by * & Anysis or Amosis a blind man of that city. Herod. l. 2. And Egypt being weakened by this & perhaps some other divisions was again invaded & gradually conquered by the Ethiopians under Sabacus or Sabacon who slew Bocchoris & Nechus & made Anysis fly.

Isaias^[223], speaking of the times next preceeding the reign of Sabacon, mentions the kingdoms seated at Zoan or Tanis & Noph or Memphis. I will set, saith he, the Egyptians against the Egyptians & they shall fight every one against his neighbour, city against city & kingdom against kingdom, & the spirit of Egypt shall fail. – And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord [videlicet Sabacon] & a fierce king shall reign over them – Surely the Princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise Counsellours of Pharaoh is become bruitish. How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of the ancient kings. – The Princes of Zoan are become fools; the Princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, they that were the stay of the Tribes thereof. – In that day there shall be a high way out of Egypt into Assyria, & the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians.

After the study of Astronomy was set on foot for the use of Navigation, & the Egyptians by the heliacal risings & settings of the stars had determined the length of the Solar year of 365 days & by other observations had fixed the Solstices & formed the fixt stars into Asterisms (all which was done in the reign of Ammon Sesak & Memnon) it may be presumed that they continued to observe the motions of the Planets. For they named them after their Gods; & Nicepsos by the assistance of Petosiris a Priest of Egypt invented Astrology grounding it upon the aspects of the Planets. And when the Ethiopians under Sabacon invaded Egypt, a body of Egyptians fled from him tot Babylon, & carried thither the Egyptian year, & the study of Astronomy & Astrology & founded the Æra of Nabonassar & this was in the 22^th year of Boccharis.. Diodorus tells us that Belus led a colony of Egyptians to Babylon & there instituted Priests exempt from taxes after the manner of Egypt, who observed the starrs, but who was this Belus is doubted.

After Sabacon reigned Seuechus, Tirhakak & Merres or Ammeres successively. Seueches seems to be that Sua or So king of Egypt with whom Hoshea king of Israel conspired against the Assyrians in the 4^th year of Hezekiah, thrree years before the captitvity of the ten Tribes (2 King. XVII. 4.) And Tirhakah reigned over Ethiopia & Egypt in the 14^th year of Hezekiah (2 King XVIII.21, 24 & XIX.9) & therefore succeeded Seueches between the 4^th & 14^th year of Hezekiah: And in the reign of Manasses , Asserhadon king of Assyria invaded & conquered Egypt & Ethiopia, three years before his death, that is, in the year of Nabonassar 77.

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Ma{c}risi an Arabian historia{n, }cited by Vanslebuis in his voyage into Egypt, represents that Ischemun, Atrib, Sa & Coptus four son's of Misraim, reigned over four equal parts of Egypt; videlicet, Coptus over the upper part of Egypt from Isvan (or Syene) to the city Coptus, Ischemun over all the country below Coptus to the city Menuf or Memphis, Atrib over the lower Egypt now called Delta, & Sa over Libya between Ægypt & Barbary, & that Coptus overcame all his brethren & chose the city Menuf for his royal seat: & that from him the race of the ancient Egyptians have been ever since called Coptites & their country Ἀίγυπτος Ægyptus, the Greeks giving it that name by changing Κ into Γ: & that the city Menuf continued the royall seat of the Kings of Egypt untill Nebuchadnezzar sackt it. If by the four sons of Mizraim you understand not four single men but four nations sprung from Mizraim which at first had kings in every city & at length grew into the four kingdoms above mentioned: there may be much of truth in this history. The people of Coptus might conquer & reign over all the upper Egypt from Coptus to Syene, & afterwards they might conquer the middle part of Egypt down to Memphys, & then the lower Egypt expelling the shepherds, & lastly the people of Sais & Libya as far as the lesser Syrtes. And in the time of these wars the Coptites might remove their royal seat first to Thebes in or before the reign of Ammon & then to Memphis in the reign of Mæris, as above, & reign in Memphis till first the Ethiopians under Sabacon, then the Assyrians under Asserhadon & lastly the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar invaded them.

As the Gods or ancient kings & Princes of Greece Egypt & Syria of Damascus have been made much ancienter then the truth, sp have those of Chaldea & Assyria. For Diodorus ^a[224] tells us that when Alexander the great was in Asia the Chaldeans recconed 473000 years since they first began to observe the motion of the stars. And Ctesias & the ancient Greek & Latin writers who copy from him, have made the Assyrian Empire as old as Noah's flood within 60 or 70 years & tell us the names of all the kings of Assyria down from his feigned son Ninus to Sardanapalus the last king of that Monarchy. But the names of his kings except one or two, have no afinity with the names of the Assyrians mentioned in scripture. For the Assyrians were usually named after their Gods Bel or Pul, Chaddon, Haddon, Adon or Adonis, Melech or Moloch, Atsur or Assur, Nebo, Nergal, Merodach; as in these names Pul, Tiglath-Ppul-assur, Salmon-asser, Adra-melech, Shar-asser, Asser-haddon, Sardanapalus or Asser-haddon-pul, Nabonasser or Nabo-adon-asser, Bel-adan, Chiniladan or Chen-el-adon, Nabo-pul-asser, Nebu-chadon-asser, Nebuzaradon or Nebo-asser-adon, Nergal-asser, Nergal-shar-asser Labo-asser-dach, Shesheb-asser, Beltes-asser, Evil-merodach, Shamgar-nebo, Rabsaris or Rab-asser, Nebu-shasban, Mardo cempad or Merodac-empad. Such were the Assyrian names: but those in the Canon of 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 <62r> generations older then the mother of Labynitus. He represents that the city Ninus was founded by a man of the same name & Babylon by Semiramis: whereas either Nimrod or Assur founded those & 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 but 500 years, & the numbers of Herodotus concerning those old time are all of them too long. He makes Nineveh destroyed by the Medes & Babylonians three hundred years before the reign of Astibares & Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed it, & sets down the names of seven or eight feigned Kings of Media between the destruction of Nineveh & the reigns of Astibaris & 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, Tiglathpulasser, Salmonasser, Senacherib, Asserhaddon &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 & Babylonians, that Sardanapalus was the last king of all the Assyrian empire, that Astibares & Astyages were kings of the Medes: but he has made all things too ancient, & out of vain glory taken too great a liberty in feigning names & stories to please his reader.

When the Iews were newly returned from the Babylonian captivity, the confessed their sins in this manner. Now therefore, our God, ––––––– let not all the trouble seem littel before thee which hath come upon us, on our kings, on our Princes, & on our Priests, & on our Prophets, & on our fathers & 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 & his successors afflicted Israel & conquered the nations round about & upon the ruin of many small & 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, & 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 &, perhaps extended it into Assyria. But this kingdom was but of small extent if compared with the Empires which rose up afterwards. And if it had been greater yet it was but of short continuance, it being the custome in those <63r> early ages for every father to divide his territories amongst his sons. So Cham was king of all Afric & Iaphet of all Asia minor & Europe, but they left no standing kingdoms. After the days of Nimrod we hear no more of the Assyrians or of Nineveh or Babylon till the days of Ionah. In the time of the Iudges of Israel & reign of David we find Syria & Mesopotamia subject to kings of other cities & Hadadezer king of Zobah reigned on both sides Euphrates (Iud. III.8 2 Sam. VIII & X.) The kingdoms of Israel Moab, Ammon, Edom, Philistia, Sidon, Damascus & Hamath the great, continued subject to other Lords till the reign of Pul & his successors, & so did the house of Eden (Amos. I.5. 2 King. XIX.12) & Haran or Carrhæ (Gen. XII. 2 King. XIX.12) & Sepharvaim in Mesopotamia & Calneh neare Bagdag (Gen. X.10 Isa. X.8. 2 King. XVII.31.) Sesak & Memnon were great conquerors in the east, but in their histories there's not a word of an Assyrian empire then standing to oppose them. On the contrary Susiana Media Persia, Bactria, Armenia & Cappadocia continued subject to the kings of Egypt till the reign of Mocris as above. Homer mentions Bacchus & Memnon kings of Egypt & Persia, but knew nothing of an Assyrian empire. Ionah prophesied when Israel was in affliction under the king of Syria, & this was in the latter part of the reign of Iehoahaz & first part of the reign of Ioas kings of Israel, & by consequence about 120 years before the captivity of the ten tribes. Nineveh was then a city of large extent, but full of pastures for cattel, so that it conteined but about 120000 persons. It was not yet grown so great & potent as not to be terrified at the preaching of Ionah, to fear being invaded by its neighbours & ruined within forty days. Its king was not yet called king of Assyria but only king of Nineveh (Ionah III.6, 7) & his Proclamation for a fast was not published in several nations, nor in all Assyria but only in Nineveh & perhaps the villages thereof: but soon after when the dominion of Nineveh was established at home & exalted over all Assyria properly so called, & this kingdom began to make war upon the neighbouring nations, its kings were no longer called kings of Nineveh but kings of Assyria.

Amos prophesied in the reign of Ieroboam the son of Ioas king of Israel soon after Ieroboam had subdued the kingdoms of Damascus & Hamath, that is, about 70 or 80 years before the captivity of the ten Tribes, & he thus reproves Israel for being lifter up by these conquests.^[225] Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our strength? Behold I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, & 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 conceales till the Assyrians should appear & discover it. In the prophesies of Isaiah, Ieremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Zephany, & Zechary, which were written after this Monarchy grew up, its openly named upon all occasions; but in this of Amos not once, tho the captivity of Syria & Israel be often threatned. He only saith in general that Syria should <64r> go into captivity unto Kir, & that Israel notwithstanding her present greatness should go into captivity beyond Damascus, & 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 םקמ signifies when applied to men, as in Amos V.2. 1 Sam. XII.11. Psal. CXIII.7. Ier. X.20 & L.32. Hab. I.6. Zech. XI.16. Amos mentions the Assyrians but once, & it is only to tell us that they had been in captivity. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, & the Philistims from Caphtor, & the Assyrians from Kir? Amos IX.7. They were therefore returned from captivity, & at the writing of this prophesy made no great figure in the world, but were to be raised up against Israel & by consequence rose in the days of Pul & his successors For after Ieroboam had conquered Damascus & Hamath, his successor Menahem destroyed Tipsah with its territories upon Euphrates because in his expedition against Shallum who usurped the crown 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, & being the first upon record who began to fulfill it, may be justly recconed the first conqueror & founder of this empire. For God stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria & the spirit of Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, 1 Chron. V.26.

I have hitherto taken a view of the times reputed fabulous by the Greeks & Latines, & shewed that before the reign of Pul & the beginning of the Olympiads there were no great Empires in the world on this side of India except that of Egypt founded by Ammon & Sesak, which was but of short continuance. Towns began to be built in Europe not above an hundred & eighty years before the Argonautic expedition, & the founder of every town was its first king. The first city that reigned over all Italy was Rome, & the first that reigned over all Greece was Macedon. Media before the days of Dejoces was peopled by villages & Ecbatane was the first city of the Medes which reigned over all the rest as Herodotus relates. Nineveh was the first capital city of all Assyria, Babylon the first of all Chaldea, Thebes the first of all Egypt & Ierusalem the first of all Phœnicia between Egypt & Euphrates. The earth in those days was overspread with woods which have been since cut down by degrees to make room for mankind. Phœnicia & the regions upon Tigris were but thinly peopled in the days of the Patriarchs. Four kings from the coasts of Shinar & Elam invaded & spoiled the Rephaims, & the inhabitants of the countries of Moab Ammon Edom & Amalek & the Amorites & kings of Sodom Gomorrha Admah & Zeboim, & yet were pursued & beaten by Abraham & three other kings of Canaan with an armed force of only 318 men. The Patriarchs fed their flocks wherever they pleased, the fields of Syria & Palestine being not yet appropriated. And Egypt was so thinly peopled that Pharaoh said of the Israelites: Behold the people of the children of Israel are more & mightier then we; & to prevent their multiplying, caused their male children to be drowned. The chariots of iron of all Egypt in the days of Moses were but six hundred, & the chariots of Iabin king of Hazor in the land of Canaan in the days of Deborah & Barak were <65r> nine hundred. The Canaanites spread & gave new names to places & built new cities all the days of the Patriarchs & the cities continued each under its own king till the days of Ioshua, & the Canaanites that fled from Ioshua conquered Egypt. And while the world was but thinly peopled, & kingdoms were small & numerous & uncivilized, & letters were not yet in use an exact account of particular kingdoms is not to be expected for want of sufficient records. It may suffice to have shewed in general that the antiquities of the Egyptians, Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldæans, Persians & Greeks are made too ancient by the heathens, & to have given an Idea of the dark ages more consistent with the course of nature & more consonant to the scriptures which are by far the oldest records now extant. And having brought down this general account of the times to the beginning of the Olympiads & Æra of Nabonasser without undertaking to be exact in the histories of particular kingdoms, it remains that I proceed now to consider the great empires which have risen since the end of the fabulous ages, beginning with the Assyrian Empire which arose about the same time that the Olympiads began.

<66r>

go into captivity unto Kir, & that Israel notwithstanding her present greatness should go into captivity beyond Damascus, & that God would raise up a nation to afflict them, meaning that he would raise up above them from a condition, a nation whom they yet feared not. For so the Hebrew םקמ signifies when applied to men, as in Amos V.2. 1 Sam XII.11. Psal CXIII.7. Ier. X.20, & L.32. Hab. I.6. Zech XI.16. Amos mentions the Assyrians not once, At the writing of this prophesy made no great figure in the world, but were to be raised up against Israel, & by consequence rose upin the days of Pul & his successors For after Ieroboam had conquered Damascus & Hamath, his successor Menahem destroyed Tipsah 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, & being the first upon record who began to fulfill it, may be justly recconed the first conqueror & founder of this Empire. For God stirred up the spirit of Pul & the spirit of Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, 1 Chron. V.26.

The histories of the Persians now extant in the East represent^[226] that the two oldest Dynasties of the kings of Persia were those whom they call Pischdadians & Kaianides, & say that the Dynasty of the Kaianides immediately succeeded that of the Pischdadians. And the three last kings of the second Dynasty they call Ardschir Diraz, Darab his bastard son & Darab who was conquered by Ascander Roumi, that is Artaxerxes Longimanus, Darius Nothus & Darius who was conquered by Alexander the Greek. They omit the kings between these two Darius's, which shews that their history of this kingdom is imperfect: but by the names of the kings here mentioned, tis certain that by the second Dynasty they mean that of the kings of Media & Persia mentioned in scripture: & by consequence by the first Dynasty they mean either the kings of the Assyrian empire or others who reigned in Persia eastward of Assyria.

The Saracen historians who write of the Persian antiquities call Ardschir Diraz also by the name of Bahaman, & ascribe to Bahaman the actions of Darius Medus & Darius Hystaspis, taking perhaps Diraz & Darius for one & the same name. For they say that Bahaman went westward into Mesopotamia & Syria & conquered Balthasar the son of Nebuchadnezzar, & gave <67r> the kingdom of Babylon to Cyrus his Lieutenant general over Media Assyria & Chaldea: & here they take Bahaman for Darius Medus. They say also that Bahaman was the grandson of Kischtasp or Hystaspes & that Kischtasp was contemporary to Zaradust or Zoroaster the legislator of the Ghebers or fire-worshippers, & established his doctrines throughout all Persia, & that the father of this Bahaman was not a king: & here they take Bahaman for Darius Hystaspis. And this confusion of persons makes it further appear that the oriental histories of those ancient kingdoms are very imperfect & uncertain.

And the same is further confirmed by the long reigns which the Oriental historians ascribe to the kings of those two Dynasties. For they tell us that some of the Pischdadian kings lived a thousand years a piece & that they reigned all together above three thousand years. And to the first king of the second Dynasty they assigne 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, & to the sixt called Artaxerxes Longimanus a reign of 112 years. So then we need not 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) so very ancient & so long lived since the Persians have done the like to the kings who reigned in Persia above 200 years after the days of Solomon.

The oriental historians say that the fourth king of their second Dynasty, whom they call Lohorasp, was the father of Kischlasp & the grandfather of Cyrus & the great grandfather of that Bahaman above mentioned who was the grandson of Kischtasp, that is, of Darius Hystaspis; & by these recconings they make Lohorasp as old as Cyaxeres. They say also that Lohorasp was the first of their kings who reduced their armies to good order & discipline, & Herodotus affirms the same thing of Cyaxeres. And they say further that Lohorasp went eastward & conquered many Provinces of Persia, & that one of his Generals whom the Hebrews call Nebuchadnezzar & other call Raham & Gudarz went westward & conquered all Syria &Iudea, & took the city Ierusalem & destroyed it. And by these circumstances they take Lohorasp for one & the same king with Cyaxeres, calling Nebuchadnezzar his General because he assisted him in the taking of Nineveh [before they seperated from one another & went, the one eastward against the provinces of Persia, & the other westward against Syria & Phœnicia]. Seing therefore that Lohorasp was the fourth king of the second Dynasty of the Persians, this Dynasty began about three reigns or sixty years before the fall of Nineveh, & by consequence at that time when the Medes & other nations revolted from the Assyrians.

The oriental historians tell us also that in those days the Scythians of Touran or Turquestan on the north side of the river Oxus which runs westward into the Caspian sea, having <68r> erectec there a potent kingdom called the kingdom of Touran or Turquestan, , invaded Perisa frequently under their king Afrasiab, & that in the reign of the eighth king of the Pischdadians, Afrasiab conquered Persia & reigned over it twelve years together & then was repulsed by the tenth king of the Pischdadians, & invaded it again in the reign of the eleventh & last king of the Pischdadians whom they called Kischtasp, & was at lenght slain in the mountains of Media by the third king of the second Dynasty. If for reducing the reign of Afriasab to such a lenght as exceeds not the course of nature, we may suppose that the Scythians under Afrasiab by their first invasion of Persia gave occasion to that revolt of the Medes & other nations from the Assyrians which is mentioned by Herodotus; there will be but seven kings of the Pischdadians before the reign of Afrasiab & the revolt of the Medes, & three more of the Caianides before the reign of Lohorasp or Cyaneres. And these ten reigns being recconed at about 18 or 20 years a piece will place the beginning of the Dynasty of the Pischdadians about 180 or 200 years before the taking of Nineveh by Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar. So then the Persians have no memory of any thing do{n}e in Persia above 200 years before the reign of Nebuchadnezzar; & their history of the two first Dynasties of their kings is very dark & full of uncertainties.

I have hitherto taken a view of the times reputed fabulous by the Greeks & Latines, & shewed that before the reign of Pul & the beginning of the Olympiads there were no great Empires in the world (on this side of India) except that of Egypt founded by Ammon & Sesak, which was but of short continuance. Towns began to be built in Europe not above two hundred years before the Argonautic expedition; And the first houses were rude & small, there being no iron tools & by consequence no Carpenters nor artificers in all Europe before the days of Minos king of Crete who was contemporary to Solomon: & the first towns were small unwalled villages. Troy was not walled before the days of Lamedon the father of Priam. Thebes was not walled before the reign of Amphion & Zethus who were contemporary to La{ios} the great grandson of Cadmus. And it will be difficult to name a town in all Europe which was walled before the death of Solomon. The founder of every town was its first king, & the town which gained dominion over other towns & set up a form of government became a city, & the first city which reigned over all Italy was Rome & the first which reigned over all Greece was Macedon. Media before the days of Dejoces was peopled by villages & Ecbatane was the first city of the Medes which reigned over all the rest as Herodotus relates. Nineveh was the first capital city of all Assyria, Babylon the first of all Chaldea, Thebes the first of all Egypt, & Ierusalem the first of all Phœnicia between Egypt & Euphrates. Numa was the first lawgiver of the Romans, Zeleuces of the Locri, Draco of the Athenians, Lycurgus of the Spartans, Phoroneus of the Argives, Minos of the Cretans, Ammon & Sesac of the <69r> from a rambling vagabond salvage way of life to love together in towns & cultivate arts & imployments convenient for life. The first ships were small round vessels of burden with oars for going over lakes & between the islands of that shallow sea which lies between Egypt & Arabia & the first long & tall ships with sails were built by Ammon & Sesac in the days of David & Solomon, & the ship Argo which was the first long ship built by the Greeks, was built 40 years after the death of Solomon in imitation of a ship which Danaus brought from Egypt. The earth in those early ages was overspread with wood & infested with wild beasts, & the first men lived in fertil planes well watered with rivers such as were those upon Tigris & the Nile where kingdomes & civility began. And the beasts have been since destroyed & the woods cut down to make room for mankind. Many islands of the Mediterranean covered with woods & inhabited only by Serpents & wild beasts have been peopled by Phorbas Æolus Rhadamanthus & others since the coming of Cecrops & Lelex with colonies from Egypt. The island Cyprus when first discovered by the Phœnicians was covered all over with wood, & the Hercynian wood now cut down covered a great part of Europe even till the days of the Roman Empire. Phœnicia & the regions upon the Tigris were but thinly peopled in the days of the Patriarchs. Four kings from the coasts of Shinar & Elam invaded & spoiled the Rephaims, & the inhabitants of the countries of Moab Ammon Edom & Amalek & & the kings of Sodom Gomorrha Admah & Zeboim, & yet were pursued & beaten by Abraham & three other kings of Canaan with an armed force of only 318 men. The Patriarchs fed their flocks wherever they pleased, the fields of Syria & Palestine being not yet appropriated. And Egypt was so thinly peopled that Pharaoh said of the Israelites Behold the people of the children of Israel are more & mightier then We; & to prevent their multiplying, caused their male children to be drowned. The chariots of iron of all Egypt in the days of Moses were but six hundred, & the chariots of Iabin king of Hazor in the land of Canaan in the days of Deborah & Barak were nine hundred. The Canaanites spread & gave new names to places & built new cities all the days of the Patriarchs, & the cities continued each under its own king till the days of Ioshua, & the Canaanites who fled from Ioshua conquered Egypt, & Arabia Petræa & Nabatæa as well as Phenicia have been peopled by the seed of Abraham besided the nations sprung from Keturah whom Abraham sent eastward. And the remoter regions were peopled & civilized still later. Corn was not known in Europe before the days of David. Diodorus tells us that the Libyans had a tradition that Vranus the father of Hyperion & grandfather of Helius & Selene, that is Ammon the father of Sesak was their first king & caused the people who then wandered up & down to dwell in towns & cities, & reducing them from a lawless & salvage course of life taught them to use & lay up the fruits of the earth & do many other things useful for mans life. Thucydides lets us know that the Greeks were wanderers till the times of the Trojan war. The Germans were wanderers till the times of the Roman Empire, & a great part of the Tartars & West Indians are wanderers to this day.

< insertion from f 68v >

✝The Empire of China is reputed very ancient, & yet rose up out of many small kingdoms about the same time with the western Empires as I find related in the Chronological Table of the Monarchy of China printed at Paris at the end of the Book of Confucius called Scientia Sinensis. For in this Table China is represented divided into many kingdoms four or five hundred years before the birth of Christ some of which kingdoms had lasted six or seven hundred years. . And 1600 years before the birth of Christ there were at least seventy & six kingdoms in China which sent Deputies to a Common Council. And 1776 years before Christ, one of their kings was moved by eight hundred Potentates in China to make war upon another of their kings. And these Potentates or Kings which at first were so numerous, continued warring with one another & conquering one another till at length they were reduced into seven great kingdoms, & then Xi Hoam ti the king of one of those kingdoms conquered the other six & founded the Monarchy of China & divided it into 36 Provinces; & this was about 220 years before the birth of Christ. The same King gave the name of Hoam ti to the succeeding Kings of this Monarchy, a name which remains to this day, & built the great wall of China against the Tartarsm & commanded his people upon pain of death, to burn all the books in China except those which related to medicine or were judicial. And therefore the story that Hoam ti founded the Monarchy of China 2697 years before the birth of Christ is a fable invented to make that Monarchy look ancient. The histories now extant in China were composed above 72 years after the burning of the books, & if any escaped the flames they related to particular kingdoms. The historical books now most in repute in China are void of Chronology, & the reigns of their first kings are made too long for the course of nature. Let their Monarchy be founded but once by Hoam ti & it will not be above 246 years older then the birth of Christ. And Fo hi who is said to have reduced the eastern people of China from a barbarous & bruitish way of life & taught them humanity, will not perhaps be above six or eight hundred years older. And if a greater antiquity be contended for, it ought to be upon better authority then that of Books written since the rise of the Roman Empire.     Now while – –

< text from f 69r resumes >

^✝ Now while the world was but thinly peopled & kingdoms were small & numerous & uncivilized, & letters were not yet in use, an exact account of particular kingdoms is not to be expected for want of sufficient records. It may suffice to have shewed in general that the antiquities of the Egyptians, Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldæans, Persians, & Greeks, are made too ancient by the heathens, & to have given an idea of the dark ages more consistent with the course of nature & more consonant to the Scriptures, which are by far the oldest Records now extant. And having brought down this general account of the times to the beginning of the Olympiads & Æra of Nabonassar without undertaking to be exact in the histories of particular <69v> kingdoms , it remains that I now proceed to consider the great empires which have risen since the end of the fabulous ages, beginning with the Assyrian Empire which arose about the same time that the Olympiads began.