Drafts on chronology: section 2f

Herod according to Iosephus reigned 34 years from the taking of Ierusalem by & 37 years from his being declared king by the senate. These years end in Iuly or August two years & an half from the vulgar Æra. And Herod died of a lingering distemper in November following. For the Iews in their Kalendar set down his death upon the 6^th of the Month Kisleu. And Iosephus tells us that in the time of his sickness he sent Embassadors to Augustus at Rome, † † & received letters back which agrees best with summer when the seas were navigable & that there was an eclips of the Moon in the time an Eclips of the Moon in the time of his sickness soon after the sending of the Embassy which Eclips happened upon Aug. 20. He died therefore two years & a month before the vulgar Æra & Christ might be born a few months before. For the children slain in Bethlehem were under two yearlings that is not yet entered upon their second year & the wise men came from the east while Ioseph & Mary lodged in the Inn with the new born child. And by this recconing Christ might be 30 years old in the beginning of the 15^th year of Tiberius & be baptized before he was 31 years old & suffer A. C. 33 counting four passovers after his baptism or rather A. C. 34 counting five. # < insertion from lower down f 1r > # For it seems to me that there were five, the first while Iohn was baptizing Iohn 2.13. the second four months after Iohn's imprisonment. For Christ staid in Iudea baptizing till the imprisonment of Iohn, & then went into Galile four months before the harvest Iohn 4.35. And after this there was a feast of the Iews & Iesus went up to Ierusalem Iohn. 5.1. And therefore this feast was either the second passover or a later feast. And after this there were two more passovers mentioned by Iohn ch 6.4. & 12.1. And between the second & third of these four passovers there was a passover a month before the second chief sabbat when the disciples pluckt & eat the ears of corn Mat. 12.1. For by the ripeness of the corn you may know that this second chief sabbath was the second Passover or passover of the second month (Num. IX.11.) the first fruits of the corn being always offered in the first Passover

Christ began not to preach till after the imprisonment of Iohn Mat. 4.12, 17. After that he went about all Galile teaching in their synagogues & healing all manner of diseases: This was in the first four months till the second passover & longer. For <1v> his fame went through all Syria & there followed him great multitudes from Galilee & from Decapolis & from Ierusalem & from Iudea, By the multitudes which followed him from Ieursalem & Iudea you may know that he was now returned from the second passover. All this was before his sermon in the mount. And this sermon was in spring when the grass & lillies of the field were in their beauty Matt VI.28, 30. And sometime after this there arose a great tempest in the sea Matt VIII.24. which was an argument of winter. And after this Iesus went about all the cities & villages teaching in the synagogues untill the time of harvest approached Mat. IX.35, 37. The harvest was always between the Passover & Pentecost. Then he sent the twelve to preach in all the cities & villages. (Matt. 10.1) which travelling is an argument that it was in the summers half year & that they had already kept the feast of the Passover For he would scarce send them away to preach all of Iudea before they {illeg} had kept this solemnity And Then followed the second chief{illeg} sabbath when the disciples pluct & eat the ripe ears of corn. Matt. XII.1. And from all these things I gather that the preceding Passover in which the first fruits of the corn were offered could not be sooner then the third Passover. It was therefore the third. And after this there were two more.

For After this Passover & the mission of the twelve Iohn hearing of the fame of Iesus sent to him two of his disciples & therefore was still in prison. Mat XI.2. ‡

‡ And thence forward Iesus continued preaching & doing miracles until Iohn was beheaded in prison & the twelve returned to Iesus & Herod & the people hearing of his fame said it is Iohn the baptist who is risen from the dead. Matt XIV.1, 2, 10, 12. Mark VI.14, 20, 30. Luke IX.6, 7, 10. And this was in the winter: for a little before that time Iesus in three several parables alluded to the time of sowing. Mat XIII. And when two of Iohn's disciples had buried his body & came & told Iesus, he departed into a desert place ( perhaps fearing to be apprehended by Herod.) & not long after, when the people heard where he was & followed him thither out of the cities he fed them there with five loaves & two fishes & walked on the sea Matt XIV., 12, 13, 17, 25 Iohn VI.9, 19. & This was in the end of winter a little before the passover Iohn VI.4. which was therefore the fourth passover. ☉ < insertion from lower down f 1v > ☉ he went through the cities & villages teaching ☉ And after his going up to Ierusalem to this feast he sent the seventy to preach in the cities Luke IX.51, 52, 57. & X.1. & afterwards went to the feast of Tabernacles Iohn VII.2 & was crucified the Passover following. He began to preach < text from higher up the middle of f 1v resumes > And after this Passover Iesus sent the 70 to preach in the cities Luke X.1. & went to the feast of Tabernacles Iohn VII.2. & was crucified the passover following. He began to preach 8 or 9 months after the first Passover. In the first year of his preaching he called his disciples & instructed them, in the summer of the second year he sent twelve of them to go through the cities & villages of Iudea & teach the people, in summer of the third year he sent seventy to do the like & on the Passover following he suffered. & after seven years more the gentiles were called.

According to this recconing &c.

For there were five passovers the first Iohn 2.13. during the ministry of Iohn the baptist. Iohn 2.13. After this Passover Iesus continued in Iudea baptizing Iohn 3.22. & Iohn was imprisoned × < insertion from below the line > × Iohn was imprisoned the winter following & when Iesus heard it he went into Galile & began to preach. This was four months before the harvest Iohn 4.35. & by consequence in December. Then followed the second passover Iohn 5.1. From which time he went about all Galilee preaching in their synagogues Mat. 4.23. & many followed him from Ierusalem Mat 4. 25. & the sermon in the mount when the lillies were flourishing in the field, Matt 6.28, 30. & by consequence in spring & the tempest at Sea the next winter Matt. 8.24. & the time of the next harvest approaches Mat. 9.37. & after the 3^d passover & the mission of the twelve Matt. 10.1. Iohn being still in prison & hearing of the fame of Iesus sendeth to him Mat. 11.2. a month after the third passover follows the second chief Sabbath or passover of the second month when the ears of corn were ripe Matt. 12.1. Luke 6.1. & three more parables relating to the seed-time following Matt 13 & the beheading of Iohn the baptist & Herods hearing the fame of Iesus takes him for Iohn & return of the twelve & feeding of five thousand with 5 loaves & two little fishes & Christ walking upon the sea in a tempest & the fourth passover Matt. 13.55. & 14.10, 13, 17, 25 & Iohn 6.4, 9, 19, Luke 9.10, 13. & the mission of the 70 & the feast of Tabernacles Iohn 7.2. & the last Passover Iohn 12.1. < text from f 1r resumes >

According to this recconing the weeks of Daniel will be Iewish, ending with sabbatical years, & the year of Christs passion will be sabbatical. And that it was so may be also gathered also from the allusion of Christ & the Iews to the release of servants in the feast of Tabernacles in the beginning of the sabbatical year, when Christ said to the Iews If ye continue in my word — the truth shall make you free & the Iews, answered We be Abrahams seed & were never in bondage to any man: How sayest thou, Ye shall be made free Iohn 8.32, 33. For it was very usual with Christ in his discourses to allude to things in view & taking occasion from every thing to preach the gospel. // But if the passion be placed a year sooner the difference of a year in recconing by weeks of years is no more to be considered then the difference of a day in recconing by weeks of days.

In explaining the weeks of Daniel We left it in doubt whether Christ died A. C. 33, or 34. The first is the vulgar opinion but the latter seems more probable. For Herod was made king by the Senate - - - -

☉ Herod was made king by the Senate ^a[1] in the end of October or beginning of November 39 years & about two months before the vulgar Æra began & reigned thirty seven years ^b according to Iosephus & died on the sixt day of the Month Kisleu according to the Kalendar of the Iews. He died therefore in November two years & a month before the vulgar Æra began And Christ might be born a few months before his death: for the children slain in Bethlehem were ^c under two-yearlings, that is not yet entred upon their second year; & the wise men came from the east while Ioseph & Mary lodged in the Inn with the new born babe & by this recconing Christ might be baptized in the end of the 15^th or beginning of the 16^th year of Tiberius before he was 31 years old. But if he was born earlier he will be above 31 years old at his baptism.

If from his baptism there be recconed four Passovers to his passion his death will fall upon the year of the vulgar Æra 33. But its more probable that there were five. The first while Iohn was still baptizing, Iohn 2.13. The second four months after Iohn's imprisonment. For Christ staid in Iudea baptizing till the imprisonment of Iohn & then went into Galilee four months before the harvest, Iohn 4.35, & by consequence four months before the Passover. For that harvest was always between the Passover & Pentecost. And after this there was a feast of the Iews & Iesus went up to Ierusalem Iohn 5.1. This feast being after imprisonment of Iohn & by consequence after the feast of Tabernacles was either the second Passover or a later feast. And after this there were two more Passovers mentioned by Iohn chap. 6.4. & 12.1. And between the second & third of these four Passovers there was a fift Passover a week or perhaps a month before the second chief Sabbath when the disciples pluckt & eat the ripe ears of corn. Matt. 12.1. Luke 6.1. For because the corn was then ripe, I understand by the second chief sabbath either the 22^th of Nisan or the secondary Passover or Passover of the second month (Num. 9.11). In the first Passover they offered the first fruits of the corn before the harvest began: in the second the corn was ripe.

Christ began not to preach till after the imprisonment of Iohn Matt. 4.12, 17. After that he went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues & healing all manner of diseases. And his fame went through all Syria & there followed him great multitudes from Galilee & from Decapolis & from Ierusalem & from Iudea Matt. 4.23, 24, 25.. All this required above four months & therefore the second passover was now past: for by the multitudes which followed him from Ierusalem & from Iudæa you may know that he was returned from the second Passover. After all this he preached his sermon in the mount, & this was in Spring suppose in the third or fourth month when the grass & lillies of the field were in their beauty ready to be set down Mat. 6.28, 30. After many other things there arose a great tempest in the sea (Mat. 8.24.) which is an argument that the next winter was now arrived. And after this, Iesus went about all the cities teaching in the synagogues untill the time of the harvest ( & by consequence the third Passover ) approached Matt. 9.35, 37. <2v> And After this Passover he sent the twelve to preach in the cities & villages, the summer half year being fittest for travelling Matt. 10.1. And then followe{d} the second chief sabbath when the disciples pluckt & eat the ripe ears of corn Matt. 12.1.

Hitherto Iohn remained in prison: for at this time upon hearing of the fame of Iesus he sent to him two of his disciples. Matt. 11.2. And henceforward Iesus continued preaching & doing miracles untill seed time arrived & Iesus in three several Parables delivered at once alluded to the time of sowing Matt. 13. & until{l} Iohn was beheaded in prison & the twelve returned to Iesus. Then Herod & some of the people hearing of his fame said, it is Iohn the baptist who is risen from the dead Matt. 14.1, 2, 10, 12. Mark 6.14, 29, 30. Luke 9.6, 7, 10. This rumor was in the end of winter after the third Passover. For when some of Iohn's disciples had buried his body & came & told Iesus he departed into a desart place perhaps fearing to be apprehended by Herod. And not long after, when the people heard where he was & followed him thither out of the cities he fed them there with five loaves & two little fishes, & walked on the sea Matt. 14.12, 13, 17, 25. Iohn 6.9, 19. And this was a little before the Passover (Iohn 6.4.) which was therefore the fourth Passover. And after his going up to Ierusalem to this feast he sent the seventy to preach in the cities Luke 9.51, 52, 57. & 10.1. & afterwards went to the feast of Tabernacles (Iohn 7.2.) & was crucified in the Passover following.

He began to preach eight or nine months after the first Passover & four months before the second. In the first year of his preaching he called his disciples & instructed them. In the summer of the second year he sent twelve of them to go through the cities & villages of Iudea & teach the people. In the summer of the third year he sent seventy to do the like. On the Passover following he suffered & this was in the sa. And after seven years more the Gentiles were called. And according to this recconing He was born in autumn in the beginning of the sabbatical year, two years & three or four months before the vulgar Æra the people going to Ierusalem in the

time of the feast ) & died in the middle of the sabbatical A. C. 34. And in the feast of tabernacles preceding there was a release of servants Iohn 8.32, 33.

first to the coast of the Red sea as the Israelites had done before under the conduct of Moses. And this sea being very shallow & for that reason much calmer then the Mediterranea they readily applyed themselves to navigation upon it in such small vessels as were then in use. Hence it came to pass that when David had conquered Edom & thereby Ezion Gebar & Eloth on the shore of the Red sea came into his possession his son Solomon built a navy in Ezion Gebar & sent it on the Red sea with the fleet of Hiram king of Tyre to Tarshish & Ophir for gold & silver & ivory & Peacocks (or Parrots) & Apes & pretious stones & Almug trees (by which means the Queen of Sheba or Sabea in Arabia fælix heard of Solomon's glory) & Hiram sent with Solomons servants in in Solomons navy his own servants shipmen who had knowledge of the sea. Solomon's servants were therefore novices in sea affairs & Hiram's servants were experienced mariners well acquainted with these seas by former voyages of the Phœicians. For Hiram had also a navy upon the red sea 1 King 10.11, 22.

Strabo after he had described the people of the barren regions upon the creek of the red sea between the Troglodites & Eloth, adds: Next these is the sinus Elanites or Eloth & the region of the Nabateans which is populous & abounds with pastures & the Islands which lye before them are inhabited by men which anciently were quiet but afterwards began in great boats to rob those who navigated from Egypt but were punished for it being opprest by a navy set out against them. When those seas began to be frequented by merchants they began also to be infested with Pyrates till Sesostris set out a navy against them whereby he seems not only to have supprest the Pyrates but also to have put an end to the merchandice of the Israelites & Phœniccians on those seas.

Manetho tells that when the Shepherds were expelled Egypt they went through the wilderness into Syria & built a city in the land which is now called Iudea which might suffice for so many people & called it Ierusalem. He confounds the shepherds with the Israelites as if the Israelites were the shepherds expelled by Misphrasmuthosis & built Ierusalem upon their first coming out of Egypt, where as the Israelites came out of Egypt long before. But whilst he conjoyns the expulsion of the shepherds with the building of Ierusalem he places it about the beginning of the reign of David or not long before. # < insertion from the top of f 4v > # For David reigned seven years in Hebron & then smote the Iebusites & took from them Iebus which is Ierusalem & reigned there 33 years more & built Ierusalem round about & imployed the Canaanites in building it as Solomon did in building his houses & the Temple.^[2] For Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David & timber of Cedars with Masons & Carpenters to build him an house.^[3]

Sidon was anciently the head city of Phenicia so that the inhabitants of seacoasts of Phœnicia were anciently called Sidonians, whence Homer often names Sidon & Sidonians but mentions not Tyre. Iustin tells us A rege Ascaloniorum expugnati Sidonij navibus appulsi Tyrum urbem ante annum ** Trojanæ cladis condiderunt. And accordingly Isaiah calls Tyre the daughter of Sidon, the inhabitants of the Isle whom the Merchan{ts} of Sidon that pass over the Sea have replenished, & the Mart of nations whose revenue is the seed of Sihor the harvest of the river, that is the seed & harvest of the river Nile. Whether this trade of Tyre & Sidon to Egypt began upon the expulsion of the Shepherds or before its probable that many of them when they were shut up in Abaris retired with their shipping to those cities & much increased their trade as well as the number of their people, Iosephus tells us that Tyre was built 240 years before Solomons Temple but the first king of Tyre mentioned in history is Abibalus the father of Hiram & in his days & Hirams the kingdome seems been erected or at least to have grown considerable. For Hiram^[4] added to the cities eastward & built the city greater, & the Temple of Iupiter Olympius which was in an Island he joyned to the city by a ridge of earth thrown between them & adorned the Temple with gifts of gold, & demolishing the ancient Temples built new ones & dedicated the Temples of Hercules & Astartes. build their cities Kings upon founding or enlarging their kingdoms usually build their cities more larger & sumptuous as David & Solomon did Ierusalem & other cities of their kingdom & the Temple Sesac the cities & temples of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar the city Babylon, Dejores Zebatane & Augustus Rome. ^# < insertion from lower down f 3v > # And therefore from the buildings of Hiram & his enlarging of the city it may be concluded that at this time there was a new dominion erected at Tyre & if it be further considered that this dominion extended to the Red sea & that the Phœnicians first inhabited the coasts of that sea & came from thence into Phœnecia, it may be further concluded that this kingdom was founded by those Phœnicians united to the old inhabitants of Tyre that is by the shepherds who, as Manetho tells us, came from Egypt through the wilderness into Phœnecia. And as Hiram their second king added new cities to the kingdom that is, enlarged the kingdom by conquest so its probable that their first king Abibalus founded it by the like conquest unless you had rather say that the old inhabitants of Tyre received the shepherds into their body by compact & by consent erected a new kingdom under Abibalus & enlarged it by their joynt forces under him & his son Hiram. Now the first part of . Now the first part of Hirams reign falling in with the latter part of Davids reign, the reign of Abibalus now must fall in the first part of with the first part of Davids reign & by consequence the expulsion of the shepherds out of Egypt happened in the beginning of Davids reign or not long before as I noted above out of Manetho. < text from the top of f 4v resumes > And therefore from the buildings of Hiram it may be concluded that the kingdom of Tyre then to grow rich & potent] by its trafic & dominion at sea & colonies sent into all parts of both the seas began then to grow rich & potent. We shall not err much therefore if we say that the Phœnicians began to grow potent at sea in the days of David & Solomon, the expulsion of the shepherds out of Egypt putting them upon trafic & the search after new seats. For the first news we hear of the Phenician merchants in Greece is in the story of Io the daughter of Inachus whose rapture as we shall shew hereafter was in the days of David.

Iosephus out of Manetho reccons about 204 years between the reign of Themosis the son of Misphragmuthosis who expelled the Shepherds & that of Sethosis or Sesac, according to which recconing the Shepherds were expelled about 120 or 130 years before the reign of Saul. But the Egyptian chronology is very uncertain & generally errs in the excess of time.* < text from f 3r resumes > By which circumstance he places the expulsion of the shepherds a little before the building of Ierusalem & by consequence about the beginning of the reign of David or not very long before. For David reigned seven years in Hebron & then smote the Iebusites & took from them Iebus which is Ierusalem & reigned there 33 years more & built the city round about & imployd the Phœnicians & Canaanites in building it as Solomon did afterwards in building his house & the Temple. For Hiram. ^[5] Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David & timber of Cedars with Masons & Carpenters to build him an house. [And so Solomon imployed only the Phœnicians & Canaanites Its probable therefore that the shepherds were expelled Egypt in or immediately before in the reign of Abi <4r> Abibalus the father of Hiram & first king of Tyre mentioned in history. in building the Temple. 1 King. 9.21, 22.]

After the Phenicians began to frequent the Mediterranean & trade to Greece the Greeks also began to use the seas & send colonies abroad & had frequent transactions with the nations of Phenicia & Egypt whereby they became civilized in a short time & arts began to flourish among them. And And first the Phœnician Merchants stole away Io the daughter of Inachus & carried her into Egypt. Then the merchants of Crete in revenge stole away Europa the daughter of Agenor a Phenician king & of her Arterius king of Crete begat Minos Rhadamanthus & Sarpedon. At the same time Cadmus being sent by father Agenor to seek his sister Europa brought letters into Greece & Evander with his mother Carmenta soon after carried them to Italy, & this gave a beginning to learning & history in Europe. For before this time the Europeans for want of letters had nothing more of history then the names of a few kings in Greece 3 or 4 Generations backwards, which they were able to remember till Cadmus taught them to commit things to writing. About the same time Cecrops brought a colony from Egypt into Attica & built Athens & Erectheus followed him with a great quantity of corn brought out of Egypt & sowed in Parea & Ceres an Egyptian woman & her son Triptolemus taught the Greeks how to sow . In those days the Greek seas became much infested with Pyrates till Minos built a navy & suppressed them. About that time Sesac built long ships of larger size then formerly in the red sea & Mediterranean & his brother Danaus sailed to Greece in one of them : in imitation of which the Greeks built the ship Argo which was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Then also Dædalus invented sails for ships, so that navigation in a short time became very much improved. And These are the first antiquities of Europe of which we have any certain memory.

Before the invasion of Greece by the kings of Persia the Greeks kept no certain account of time. All their ancienter chronology was guest at by later writers & by making the reign of their kings too long for the ordinary course of nature they have raised their originals too high. If we take three generations of men four generations of weomen & five reigns of kings one with another according to the ordinary course of nature to make an hundred years we may make a better guess.

Thus the 12 kings of Macedon which preceded Orestes will take up 240 years which is 165 years less then the usuall recconing. And the seven first kings of Rome which preceded the Consuls will take up 140 years which is 106 years less then the vulgar recconing. And the 15 kings of the Latines from Æneas & the Trojan war to Numitor & the founding of Rome will take up 300 years which is 130 years less then the usuall recconing. And the first 8 kings of Argus (Inachus, Phoroneus &c, which preceded Sthenelus & Danaus will take up 160 years which is 213 years less then

After the Phœnicians began to frequent the Mediterranean & trade to Greece the Greeks also soon began to use the seas & send colonies abroad & had frequent concerns with the Phœnicians & received colonies from them & formed themselves into common wealths under laws & forms of religion receiving from the Phœnicians the sacrificing of living men & from them, & the Egyptians the worshipping of Iupiter Bacchus Minerva Ceres & other Gods, & the making of images to them in the form of dead bodies with their eyes shut & their leggs bound together like the mummies of Egypt till Dedalus began to carve men alive with their leggs asunder. The first memory of the Phœnicians trading to Greece is in the story of Io the daughter of Inachus whom they stole away & carried into Egypt. Then the merchants of Crete in revenge of this injury stole away Europa the daughter of Agenor a King or Prince of Phœnecia & of her Asterius king of Crete begat Minos Rhadamanthus & Sarpedon. At the same time Cadmus the son of Agenor being sent to seek his sister Europa brought a colony of Phœnicians & Arabians into Greece & taught the rude Greeks the use of the Phœnecian letters & Evander with his mother Carmenta soon after carried those letters into Italy & this gave a beginning to learning & history in Europe. For before this time the Europeans for want of Letters could have nothing more of history then names & actions of a few kings 3 or 4 generations backwards which they were able to remember till Cadmus taught them to commit things to writing.

Emendanda & addenda in Cap. 1

Pag. 6. l. 53. Post. 1689, was ☉adde ♉ 24. ^gr 23.' 27." & north Latitude 37.^gr 26.' 56." And the Equinoctial Colure cuts the Ecliptick in

P. 10. l. 47. Post a Greek ✝ adde. And the Chronologies of Gallia Spain Germany, Scythia, Suedeland, Britain & Ireland, are of a date still later. For Scythia beyond the Danube had no letters till Ulphilas their Bishop formed them which was above 650 years after the death of Alexander the great. And Germany had none till it received them from the western Empire of the Latines, which was above 700 years after the death of that king. The Hunns had none in the days of Procopius who flourished 850 years after the death of that king. And Sweden & Norway received them still later. And things said to be done above three or four generations before the use of letters, are of little credit.

P. 11. l. 10. Post originale ☉ adde. Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians & their Priests recconed from the reign of Menes to that of Sethon who put Sennacherib to flight, three hundred and forty generations of men & as many Priests of Vulcan, & as many kings of Egypt; & that three hundred generations make ten thousand years, (for, saith he, three generations of men make an hundred years;) & the remaining forty & one generations make 1340 years (he should have said 1366.) And so the whole time from the reign of Menes to that of Sethon was 11340 years. And by this way of recconing, & allotting long reigns to the Gods who preceded Menes, Herodotus {tells} us from the Priests of Egypt, that from Pan to Amosis were 15000 years & from Heracules to Amosis 17000 years.

The Greeks & Latines have been more modest in this point &c

Pag. 14. lin. 7. Post Pisistratus ‡ an. 2. Olymp. 65; adde, the first annual Archon of Athens an. 1, Olymp. 5; & the first decennial Archons dying in their regency. And the death of Codrus king of Athens, & the Ionic migration under his sons might be about two hundred years earlier, or about 10 or 20 years after the return of the Heraclides; there reigning twelve Archons for life successively between the death of Codrus & the first decennial Archon, & six kings between the taking of Troy & the death of Codrus, videlicet, Demophoon, Oxyntes, Aphidas, Thymætes, Melanthus & Codrus, the third & fourth of which reigned together but nine years according to Chronologers.

Pag. 22. lin. ult. Post Minos. . adde. For Cadmus in coming to Greece, arrived first at Rhodes, an Island upon the borders of Caria, & left there a Colony of Phœnicians who sacrificed men to Saturn; & the Telchines being repulsed by Phoronæus, retired from Argos to Rhodes with Phorbas, who purged the Islands from serpents, & Triopas the son of Phorbas, carried a colony from Rhodes to Caria. And by this & such like Colonies, Caria was furnished with shipping & sea-men, & called ^e[6] Phœnice, Strabo ^f[7] & Herodotus tell us that the Cares were called Leleges, & became subject to Minos, & lived first in the islands of the Greek seas, & went <6r> thence into Caria a country possest even before by some of the Leleges & Pelasgi. Whence its probable that when Lelex & Pelasgus came first into Greece to seek new seats, they left part of their colonies in Caria & the neighbouring Islands.

Pag. 23. lin. 27. Lege. And this retiring of the Tyrians from the red sea to make long voyages on the Mediterranean, together with the flight of the Edonites from David, gave occasion to the

Ib. lin. lin. 37. Post Gades peopled by Phenicians. adde. So ^d[8]Solinus: In capite Bœticæ insula a continenti septingentis passibus memorantur, quam Tyrij a rubro profecti mari, Erythiam, Pœni sua lingua Gadir, id est sepen, nominarunt.

Ib. lin. 42. Post. wanted new seats ⟐ adde. Edom, Erythra, & Phœnicia are names of the same signification, the words denoting a red colour which makes it probable that the Erythræas who fled from David, setled in Phœnicia, that is, in all the sea coasts of Syria from Egypt to Sidon; & by calling themselves Phenicians in the language of Syria instead of Erythreans, gave the name of all that sea coast.

☉ < insertion from f 5v > ☉ Ib. l. 49 Dele. These Phenicians were - - - - - - with scriptures of the labours of Hercules, & scribe. These Phenicians were the Tyrians who at that time built Carthage in Afric & Carteia in Spain & Gades in the island of that name without the straits & gave the name of Hercules to their chief Commander because he sailed as far as the Egyptian Hercules had done before, & that of Heraclea to the city Carteia which he built. So Strabo^c[9] :Mons Calpe ad dextram est e nostro mari foras navigantibus, et ad quadraginto inde stadia Vrbs Carteia vetusta ac memorabilis, olim statio navibus Hispanorum. Hanc ab Hercule quidem conditam aiunt, inter quos est Timosthenes, qui eam antiquitus Heracleam fuisse appellatam refert, ostendique adhuc magnum murorum circuitum & navalia. This Hercules, in memory of his building & reigning over the city Carteia they called also Meleartus. the king of Carteia Vnder him they sailed as far as Tarressus or Tarshish a place between the two mouths of the river Bœtis, & there met with much silver ^{d [10]} which they purchased for trifles. And after his death they built a temple to him in the Island Gades & adorned {it} with sculptures of the labours of Hercules. < text from f 6r resumes >

Pag. 24. Lin. 11. Lege. And this temple & that which Eurydice erected to her daughter by the name of Iuno Argiva, are the first instances that I meet with in Greece, &c

Ib. l. 60. Post David & Erectheus #, Adde & that the Temple of Iuno Argiva was built about the latter end of Davids reign, or the beginning of Solomons.

Pag. 25. lin 45. Pro Lycurgus Cepheus & Augeo ^a were &c Lege      The first kings of Arcadia were successively, Pelasgus, Lycaon, Nychimus, Arcas, Clytor, Epytus, Aleus, Lycurgus, Echemus, Agapenor, Hippothous, Epytus, Cypselus, Olæus &c, Vnder Cypselus the Heraclides returned into Peloponnesus, as above. Agapenor was one of those who courted Helena. He courted her before he reigned, & afterwards he went to the war at Troy, & thence to Cyprus & there he built Paphus. Echemus slew Hyllus - - - or thereabouts.

Pag. 30. lin. 62. Post 30 years after it. adde. And Homer ~ was of about the same age. For he ^c[13] lived sometime with Mentor in Ithaca, & there learnt of him many things concerning Vlysses, with whom Mentor ^c[14] had there been personally acquainted. Now Herodotus, the oldest historian of the Greeks now extant, ^d[15] tells us that Hesiod & Homer were not above four hundred years older then himself; & therefore they flourished about 100 or 120 years after the death of Solomon; & the taking of Troy was but one generation earlier.

Pag. 31. lin. 20. Pro Arcas the son of Callisto &c scribe. Lycaon died just before the flood of Deucalion as above, & according to Pausanias^[16] was contemporary to Cecrops, & had many children, & so might reign long, & Pelasgus was one generation older, being his father. If their two reigns together be recconed at about 50 or 60 years Pelasgus will be contemporary to the Prophet Samuel.

twelve Princes reigning in so many castles (Gen. 26.16.) And as the posterity of Iacob according to the number of his sons continued in twelve distinct bodies or tribes in Egypt which afterwards were seated in twelve distinct regions in Canaan each with his own Prince & Army & standard (Num. 1 & 2). So the Egyptians according to the number of their first fathers were distinguished from the beginning into several tribes or nations seated in several parts of Egypt each with its own Prince or chief Captain & Army : And as Moses made laws for Israel & united the Tribes under one Temple & High Priest & Common council so Thoth made laws for Egypt & by uniting every tribe under one common Council & Metropolis & Market & Temple & mode of worship & Banner, prevented its breaking into such little kingdoms as were to be met with in Canaan & other places. And this I take to be the original of the Nomes of Egypt. But how these Nomes warred upon one another or confederated, what kingdoms arose out of them & what changes they underwent untill they became one Monarchy is not to be found in history, excepting what we meet with concerning the kingdom in the lower Egypt under which Israel was in bondage, the invasion of that kingdom by the Shepherds & the conquest of the Shepherds by the kingdom of Thebais.

& Egypt tho Mizraim is sometimes put for all Egypt including Pathros (        ) & & most commonly for the kingdom which lay upon the mouths of the Nile.

Egypt (called in scripture Masor, Misraim & the land of Ham & by the Coptites Missir & Cham) is a broad Valley between mountains & desarts running north & south on both sides the Nile 5000 furlongs in a streight line from the mediterranean sea to Syene & Elephantine & the lesser Cataracts of the Nile. Its distinguished into two lands, the lower a flat triangular country upon the mouths of the Nile about 3000 furlongs in compass called Delta by the Greeks & Rahab in scripture, & the upper a long valley on both sides the single streame of the Nile extending about 4200 furlongs from Delta to Syene. This part is again divided into two parts the lower called Heptanomis & the upper called Thebais & in scripture the land of Pathros. Next above the Cataracts was Phylæ called in scripture Phul (          ) & next above them a people who used lances & buckets & clubs knotted with iron. on the eastern side of the Nile were the Ethiopians called Megabars & Blemonyes & in scripture Chus. These extended as far as the Island Meroe & beyond it & {illeg}{ against} on the western side of the {N}ile were the Nubians called and a people not subject to the Ethiopians but under severall kings of their own {illeg} frequently at war Phylæ was a town common to the Ethiopians & Egyptians. There were other Ethiopians westward & southward of these who used lances & large bows & darts & in scripture are called Lud.

Egypt is a long & narrow tract of land running north & south on both sides the Nile between mountains & desarts. The south end of this region with the spacious country beyond it is Ethiopia. The middlemost tract is Thebais called in scripture the land of Pathros & the rest below Thebais was called Mizraim This last was distinguished into two parts the higher & narrow country called Heptanomis by the Greeks, & the lower a broad & flat country upon the mouths of Nile called Delta by the Greeks & Rahab in scripture. The Metropolis of Thebais was Thebes called in scripture No Ammon that is the City of Ammon or Iupiter & by the Greeks Diospolis. In the south end of Thebais between the Nile & the Red sea, westward from Berenice a city upon the red sea & not far from Thebes was the City Coptus & the Nomus Coptites whose people gave the name of Coptites to all the old Egyptians as their reliques are still called. Whence the Greeks formed ἆια Κόπτου, Egypt. Probably the Coptities founded Thebes & thereby spread their name with their dominion. The Metropolis of Heptanomis was Noph Moph or Memphys a city on the western side of the Nile just above the Delta. Near this city were the fields where the Egyptians buried their dead & built Pyramids to their memory. Within a mile or two below Memphys the Nile begins to divide it self into several streames t{o} water the Delta. The main stream runs through the middle of the Delta & is called the Thermusiac river or Sebennitic Ostium. The first stream which parts from it runs on the eastern side of the Delta & is called the Bubastic river or Pelusiac Ostium, t{he} next steam which separates from the main channel runs on the western side of the Delta & called the Canobic ostium. These are the three biggest streams & between them are several others. In the way from Syria into Egypt at the entrance of Egypt about three miles from the sea stands Pelusium, called also Sen, Abaris, Setron & Pithom & westward from it upon the eastern bank of the Bubastic river stood Ramesses. These were the two cities which the Israelites built for Pharaoh & between them lay the land of Goshem where Israel was in bondage. & on the other side of this river was the field & city of Zoan or Tanis. On the eastern border of Egypt about 1500 furlongs above Pelusium stood the city On Aven or Heliopolis whose Priest Potiphera named his daughter Asenath to Ioseph. The way between these two cities was through a Desart over which there was an open access from east into Egypt until Sesach fenced Egypt on that side with a great ditch of water carried from Pelusium to Heliopolis.      A

twelve princes reigning in so many castles (Gen. 25.16) & as the posterity of Iacob according to the number of his sons continued in twelve distinct bodies or tribes in Egypt which afterwards were seated in twelve distinct regions in Canaan each with his own Prince, Army & Standard (Num. 1, & 2) so the Egyptians according to the number of their first fathers were distinguished from the beginning into several tribes or nations seated in several parts of Egypt each with its own Prince or chief Captain & Army. And as Moses made laws for Israel & united the Tribes under one Temple & High Priest & Sanedrim or Common Council so Thoth made laws for Egypt & by uniting every Tribe or Nome under one common Council & Metropolis & Market & Temple & mode of worship & Banner, prevented its breaking into such little kingdoms as were to be met with in Syria & other places. And this I take to be the original of the Nomes in Egypt. But how these Nomes warred upon one another or confederated, what kingdoms arose out of them & what changes they underwent untill they became one Monarchy is not to be found in history, excepting what we meet with concerning the kingdome in the lower Egypt under which Israel was in bondage, the invasion of that kingdome by the shepherds & the conquest & expulsion of the shepherds by the kingdome of Thebais.

In the kingdom where Israel was in servitude are mentioned these cities, Pithom, Ramsesses, On & Zoan Gen. 41.45. Exod. 1.11. Psal. 78.12, 43. Pithom was a city at the entrance of Egypt in the way from Syria about thre miles from the sea. It was otherwise called Sethron, Abaris, Sin & Pelusium. On or Aven was Heliopolis a city in the eastern border of Egypt about 1500 furlongs above Pelusium. The way between them was over a Desart through which there was an open access from the east into Egypt untill Sesach fenced Egypt on that side with a great ditch of water carried from Pelusium to Heliopolis. Almost parallel to this ditch ran the eastern stream of the Nile called the Bubastic river or Pelusiotic ostium lay the country of Tanis or Zoan an ancient city which was built seven years after Hebron, Num. 13.22. These thre cities were the Metropolises of three Nomes, the Sethroite, the Helipolitan & the Tanite. Vpon the eastern bank of the Bubastic river was the city Ramesses & Pharaoh's Court & <9r> between Pithom & Ramesses lay the land of Goshen. For Pithom & Ramesses were cities of treasure (that is fortified cities,) which the children of Israel built for Pharaoh (Exod. 1.11) & therefore were seated in or neare the land where Israel dwelt. And that land was in the territory or country of Ramesses (Gen. 47.11) bordering upon the River (Exod. 1.22. & 2.3, 8) & in the way from Syria to Pharaohs court (Gen. 46.28, 29) & Pharaoh's court was seated upon the same bank of the River (Exod. 2.5 & 7.15, 20 & 8.20) or so neare to that land that Ioseph (the second man in Egypt) upon notice given by his brother Iudah went thence to meet his father in Goshen (Gen. 46.28, 29) & that when the first born of the Egyptians were slain at midnight, Pharaoh sent for Moses & Aaron & by their hand sent away the children of Israel the same night & they prepared for their journey & borrowed jewels & rayment of the Egyptians the same night, & in the morning under the conduct of Moses & Aaron began their journey from Ramesses the city which they had been building & journied that day to Succoth a place in the desart where they baked cakes of unleavened bread (Exod. 12.29, 31, 37 & Num. 33.2). From all which it may seem that Pharaoh then resided in the city of Ramesses tho Zoan became afterwards the royal city of the lower Egypt which is therefore called the field of Zoan, Psal. 78.12, 43.

Doves in the ancient fables of the Greeks are put for Priestesses as Bochart has shewed, the same Greek word πελειαδες signifying both. The ^{[Editorial Note 2]}the Temple of Iupiter Troph And this housing the the dead with glorious names, & Oracles & temples & sacrifices & Festivals , made it easy for Sesostris Iris & Orus to set up the worship of their priests in all the Nomes of Egypt, & for the Greeks after the Example of the Egyptians to set up the worship of their kings & great men in all Greece. All this being done in Egypt before the death of Isis & in Greece before the ruin of Troy & no new Gods with Oracles having been since admitted by the nations into the number of the old ones we may safely conclude that the four ages of the Gods so much celebrated by antiquity ended in Egypt with the death of Isis in Greece with the destruction of Troy.

Strabo places the Soanes or Suanes upon the mountain Caucasus on the north of the Cochos & Dioscurias & Ptolomy on the north side of the mountain. And Strabo saith that they were the stoutest of all the Scythian nations, & had a king & a Council of 300 men & an army of 200000, & that the torrents brought gold to them from the mountains which they gathered with woolly sheepskins, whence the fable of the golden fleece might be occasioned. It seems the progress of Sesostris after his conquest of Persia & India was stopt by this nation, & therefore he left Prometheus at mount Caucasus with a part of his army to guard his conquests from them, & proceeded through Asia minor into Egypt; & meeting there with new repulses he returned throuhg Asia into Egypt leaving several Colonies to cultivate & guard the pass between the Euxine & Caspians seas. So Valerius Flaceus.        And Strabo tells us that there was another body of Amazons seated in Albania,

– & the Teples of Apollo at Delos, at Didyma of the Milesians, at Larissa, of the Argives at Abæ in Phocis. at Claros in Ionia, at Eutresis in Bœotia, at Orope & Tegyræ in Eubœa, at Corype in Thessaly, — several temples of Apollo one in the Island Delos, anotther at Larissa a fort of the Argives, another at Didyma in Ionia built by the Milesians, another at Abæ in Phocis, that

¹ the Temple of Lucothea that is of Ino the daughter of Cadmus built in the kingdom of Cholchos by Phryxus Strabo. l. 11. p. 498. c.) that ⁵ of Ceres at Patræ a city of Achaia. (Pausan l. 7. c. 21) that of of ³ Pasiphae at Thalamiæ a city of Laconia (Plutarch in Agide. . ) ² {tha}t of Ino in the way between Thalamiæ & Oetylus in Laconia (Pausan l. 3. c. 26) ⁴ that of Æsculapius at Epidaurus a city of Poloponnesus frequented by sick for remedies revealed to them by dreams (Pausan l. 2. c. 27.

at Delos

that ofApollo in the Island Delos (                            ) another of Apollo at Larissa a fort of the Argives (Pausan l. 2. c. 24.    ) of Apollo Branchides Macrob. Saturnal. (l . 1. c. 171. Herod l. 41. c). another at Didyma built by the Milesians & consulted by all the Ionians & Æonians , another at Abæ in Phocis Herod l. 1. c. 46. Steph. in Αβαι) &c the Temple of Ceres at Patræ a city of Achaia (Pausan l. 7. c. 21) that of Pasiphae at Thalamiæ a city of Laconia (Plutarch in Agide) that of Leucothea that is of Ino the daughter of Cadmus built in the kingdom of Colchos by Phryxus (Strabo l. 11. p. 498. c.) another of Ino in the way between Thalamiæ & Oetylus in Laconia (Pausan l. 3. c. 26.)

And in like manner the worship of Dead men was set up in Greece by Oracles & these Oracles began to be erected about two generations before the Argonautic expedition, the first Oracles in Greece being that of the Pelasgians at Dodona, set up by a woman brought frō Egypt at the same time that another Egyptian woman set up the Oracle of Iupiter Ammon in Libya & that of Iupiter consulted by Minos in a Cave in Crete And the Oracles of Iupiter consulted by Minos in a Cave in Crete was of about the same age. to set up Oracles they had no variety of names for various Gods but called them only by the name of God, & that by the dictates of the Oracle of Dodona the Pelasgians received the names of - - - - - - - - to the weomen attending on Venus.] And after the example of their Oracles there were a great multitude of other Oracles soon erected in all Greece as the Oracle of Apollo in the Temple of Delphos, that of Iupiter Olympius in the Temple at Olympia near Elis, the Oracle of Apollo in a temple in the Island Delus the Oracle of Iupiter Trophonius in a cave, the Oracle of Apollo <10v> Branchides in a temple at Didyma built by the Milesians, & frequented by all the Ionians & Æolians, another of Apollo in a temple at Larissa a fort of the Argives, another of Apollo in a temple at Abæ in Phocis, another of Ceres in a temple at Patræ a city of Achaia, another of Pasiphae in a temple at Thalimiæ in a city of Laconia another of Leucothea, that is of Ino the daughter of Cadmus in a temple built in the kingdom of Colchos by Phrixus, another of Ino in a temple built in the way between Thalamiæ & Oetylus in Laconia, another of Amphiaraus one of the seven captains who warred against Thebes. Mercury had his Oracle at Pharæ a city of Achaia, the Muses theirs at Træzen a city of Peloponnesus, set up by Adalus the son of Vulcan from whence they were called Ardalides, Hercules had an Oracle at Bura in Achaia, & Apollo had one at Claros instituted by Manto the daughter of Tiresias in the time of the second Theban war called the war of the Epigoni. And several other Oracles were in those days erected in Greece some of which remained in vogue till the times of the Persian Empire & some till the times of the Roman. But when the Romans prevailed the Oracles grew silent meeting with no encouragement. For they did not use to give answers at any time but to such men as brought them presents.

Herodotus tells us that before the Greeks - - - - - - - clouded the history of the ages of the Gods

Now by honouring great men after death with glorious new names & with hymns composed in their praise & with altars & Temples & Priests for sacrificing to them, & & furnishing their Altars & Temples with Oracles to make the nations beleive that the dead were still alive & knew things present & to come & governed humane affairs & by causing the Oracles to dictate the worship of the dead & the forms & ceremonies of worshipping them & to give such answers upon occasions as might tend to the credit of the Oracle, the wealth of the Temple & the honour & advantage of the kings & Priests it became easy for Sesostris Orus Isis & their great counsellour Thoth to set up the worship of their dead friends in all the Nomes of Egypt & for the Greeks after the example of the Egyptians to set up the worship of their dead kings & heros in all Greece: For by these practises the worship of the dead over spread Greece so quickly that Hesiod who lived in the age next after the Trojan war wrote that there were ^[18] then thirty thousand Gods in Greece besides deified sons & daughters of all the rest of the Gods.. And after Greece was replenished with Gods & the worship of the chief of these Gods, was established by custome , it grew difficult to make any new Gods take place amongst the old ones with equal credit & honour. The custome of consecrating dead men continued in use in all ages while the heathen religion lasted, but no new Gods could ever attain the honour of being numbred amongst the Dij magni majorum gentium. Seing therefore that the worshop of the great Gods of Egypt was set up in all the Nomes of Egypt before the death of Isis & the worship of the great Gods of Greece was set up in all Greece before the ruin of Troy; & no new Gods with Oracles have been since admitted by the nations into the number of the old ones: we may safely conclude that the four ages of the Gods so celebrated by antiquity ended in Egypt with the death of Isis & in Greece with the return of the Greeks from the Trojan war.

<11r>

We have told you that Bacchus invaded Greece in the days of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion & was enterteined by Amphictyon at Athens. This was that Amphictyon who by the advice & assistance of Acrisius erected the Amphictyonic Council appointing it to meet every spring & autumn at Delphos in the temple of Apollo & at Thermopylæ in the temple of Ceres. And whose father Deucalion built an altar to the twelve Gods, & thereby made the first step of introducing the worship of the Gods into Greece, In the days of this Deucalion Greece was overflowed not by a flood of real waters but by the armies of Sesostris. For in the allegorical language of the ancients, nations peoples were represented by waters & an invasion by a flood. Whether there was another Deucalion the father of Hellen & king of Athens I leave to be examined.

These several others were set up before the end of the Trojan war

Doves in the ancient fables of the Greeks are put up for Priestesses, as Bochart, & Marsham & Potter ^[19] have shewed. And, saith Herodotus ^[20], the Oracle at Dodona is the oldest in Greece & is very like that at the Egyptian Thebes, & the way of divining in temples came from Egypt. Oracles were set up by the Politicians for giving divinity to dead men & laws to the living. Zaleucus pretended to receive his laws from the Goddess Vesta, Numa his from the Goddess Egeria, Minos his from the Cretan Iupiter. Lycurgus ^[21] backt his laws by the authority of the Delphic Oracle. When Acrisius erected the Amphictyonic Council & a temple was built at Delphos for them to meet in, the Temple was furnished with an Oracle not for governing the Council but for influencing the people & bringing wealth to the Temple & credit to the God.. And the same is to be understood of all the Oracles in Temples built by publick authority.: such as were the Temple of Iupiter in Thebes built by the king of Egypt who reigned in that city; the Temple of Iupiter Ammon in Libya built by Danaus in the reign of his brother Sesostris; [the Temple of Iupiter at Dodona built at the same time by the Pelasgians for all Pelasgia; the Temple of Iupiter Olympius in Olympia neare Elis.] ☉ < insertion from f 12v > ☉^[22] that of Apollo in the island Delos, another of Apollo Branchides at Didyma built by the Melesians & consulted by all the Ionians & Æolians, another of Apollo at Larissa a fort of the Argives, another of Apollo at Abæ in Phocis, the temple of Ceres at Patræ a city of Achaia, that of Pasiphae at Thalamiæ a city of Laconia, that of Leucothea, that is of Ino the daughter of Cadmus, built in the kingdom of Colchos by Phryxus, another of Ino in the way between Thalamiæ & Oetylus in Lacomia < text from f 12r resumes > & as many of the Temples of the Nomes or Provinces of Egypt as had Oracles in them. For Sesostris divided Egypt into 36 Nomes & built a Temple for every Nome or Church & all these Temples had their Councils of Elders or Senators who met at set times of the year to consult & regulate the affairs of the Nome & Temple, the people of the Nome also coming together to sacrifice & feast & to buy & sell. For the several Nomes had their several Gods & several ways of worshipping their Gods & these Gods had their Oracles some of which continued in vogue till the days of Herodotus, as the Oracles of Hercules & Apollo in their cities, that of Minerva in the city Sais, that of Diana in the city Bubastis, that of Mars in the city Pampremis, that of Iupiter in Thebes, those of Apis & Serapis in their temples ; but of all the Oracles that of Latona in the city of Buti remained most in repute. And these Oracles were not all alike but delivered themselves in different manners. And indeed I do not see how Sesostris could have set up so many Gods & so many religions in Egypt as there were Nomes & Temples, if he had not furnished the temple of every Nome with an Oracle in the beginning.

Herodotus^[23] tells us that before the Greeks began to set up Oracles they had no variety of names for various Gods but called them only by name of Gods: & that by the dictates of the Oracle of Dodona the Pelasgians received the names of the Gods of Egypt & propogated them into all Greece. And soon after ^[24] by the dictates of the Delphic Oracle & prophesying of Pegasus Melampus & Orpheus the Greeks received the worship of Bacchus. But under these names they worshipped their own dead men, it being usual to consecrate the dead by new names for promoting their worship ; as by giving the name ² of Bacchus to the son of Semele, ³ that of Hercules to Alcæus the son of Alcmena, that of Pan to the son of Penelope, ¹ that of Iupiter to Minos Trophonius, Agamemnon & other kings, 4 that of Neptune to Erechtheus & Æolus, 7 that of Mars to the father of Alcippa <13r> 6 that of Mercury to the son of Maia, 9 that of Thetis to the mother of Achilles, 5 that of Leucothea to Ino the daughter of Cadmus, 6 that of Palæmon to her Melicertes, 10 those of the Muses to the daughters of Pierus, 11 those of the Graces to the weomen attending on Venus, And so the Egyptians & other nations gave the names of Osiris, Bacchus, Belus, Hyperion, Ilus, Dionysus Mars, Hercules to Sesac & those of the Gods of the Nomes of Egypt to the great men of his court, & those of Baal, Baalim Melech, Melcone Asteroth to the dead kings & Queens of the cities of the east. And this changing of names & calling several dead men by the same new name & the same dead man by several new names has very much clouded the history of the ages of the Gods.

When Bacchus invaded Greece he was entertained by Amphictyon the son of Deucalion, & in memory thereof there were set up at Athens in a cell consecrated to Bacchus, many earthen statues & amongst them the statue of Amphictyon enterteining Bacchus & the Gods, & also the statue of Pegasus of Eleutheris who first introduced the worship of Bacchus amongst the Athenians. This was that Amphictyon who by the advice of Acrisius erected the Amphictyonic Council appointing it to meet every spring & autumn at Delphos in the temple of Apollo & at Thermopylæ in the temple of Ceres. They tell us that when the rain fell which overflowed the kingdom of Deucalion in Thessaly & Lycorea, he fled from the rain to Athens & in memory of his escape built there a Temple to Iupiter Phyxius. This cannot be understood literally without a miracle. For Athens was lower then Thessaly & Lycorea, & no man without a divine admonition would fly from rain before he was in danger by the rising of the waters, & then the waters would hinder his flight. Iupiter Phyxius signifies the Iupiter of them that escape by flying. So the Scholiast of Pindar ^[25] tells us that when Phryxus fled from his stepmother & escaped to Colchos he consecrated the fleece to Iupiter Phyxius. When Sesostris invaded & overflowed Thessaly, Deucalion fled with his son Amphictyon to Athens & there they made their peace with Bacchus. For there Amphictyon enterteined Bacchus & his great men & erected an altar to him, & instituted an annual festival to Iupiter Phyxius which was long observed. And by these & such like practises the worship of the Dij magni majorum gentium was set on foot in Greece.

Deucalion is reputed a Scythian, & might with a body of Scythians invade Thessaly & erect a kingdom there before the coming of Sesostris. Strabo^[26] relates that Bæo a woman of Delphos in a hymn composed by her wrote that the Delphic Oracle was dedicated to Apollo by a people coming from the Hyperboreasis amongst whom were Pagasus, Agyieus, & {Oben} & Deucalion might be their king. And whether there be another Deucalion the father of Hellen & son of Prometheus & another Amphictyon the son of that Deucalion & king of Athens I leave to be examined. For Prometheus was an Egyptian contemporary to Atlas & Sesostris, & Hellen was much older & is by some called the son of Iupiter^[27].

between them without naming the kings who reigned in those intervalls. Those intervalls were therefore invented since the days of Herodotus & are to be neglected, & no more kings allowed then those which he names. And they are these. Iupiter, Ammon & Iuno, Osiris & Isis, Horus, Menes, Busiris I, Busiris II, Osymanduas, Vchoreus, Myris, Sesoosis I, Sesoosis II, Amasis, Actisanes, Mendes vel Marrus, Proteus, Remphis, Chembis, Chephren, Mycerinus or Cherinus, Gnephactus, Boccaris, Sabacus, Duodecim Reges Psammiticus, ** Uaphres, Amasis. In reciting the kings which follow Actisanes & some of those which precede him, namely Menes, Myris, 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, & 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 where they sacrificed red men was called Busiris, & the building of Thebes he ascribes to both Osiris & Busiris. He omits Nitocris Nechus & Psammis & next before Sabacus adds Gnephactus & his son Boccaris. These two kings reigned successively at Memphys after Asychis. And at the same time Anysis or Amosis reigned in the lower Egyp at Amysis or Hanes (Isa. 30.4.) Petabastes Osorchon & Psammis at Tanis, Stepanates, Nechepsus & Necheus at Sais, Senscoris or Sesonchis, Osorchon & Tacellotis at Bubaste & perhaps others at some other places. And Egypt being weakened by this division was invaded & conquered by the Ethiopians under Sabacus, who slew Boccharis & Nechus & made Anysis fly.

After the study of Astronomy was set on foot{illeg} of navigation, & the Egyptians by the heliacal ri{sing}{illeg} of the stars had determined {the} length of the so{lar}{illeg} days & by other observations had fixed the so{lar}{illeg} the fixt stars into asterisms ({all} which was don{e}{illeg} Ammon Sesak & Memnon:) it may be pres{umed}{illeg} {con}tinued to observe the motions of the Planets{illeg} them after their Gods; & Nic{illeg}psos their{illeg} of Petosiris a Priest of Egypt, {in}vented A{illeg} upon the aspects of the Planets. {A}nd{illeg} Sabacon invaded Egypt, a bo{dy}{illeg} Babylon & ca{illeg} A{illeg} & this wa{illeg} of Asa i{illeg} reign, t{illeg} years{illeg} re{illeg}

In the Dynasties of Manetho, Sevechus is made the successor of Sabacus, but I take them both to have been one & the same king. He is that So or Su with whom Hoshea king of Israel conspired against the Assyrians in the 4^th year of Hezekiah, Anno Nabonass. 24. For Herodotus tells us that Sabacus after a long reign relinquished Egypt voluntarily, & that Anysis who had fled from him, returned & reigned again in the lower Egypt, & was succeeded by Sethon, & that Sethon defended Pelusium against the army of Sennacherib & was relieved 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 Sethom signifies only that he overcame the Assyrians with a great destruction. The Scriptures inform us that when Sennacherib invaded Iudea & besieged 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 heard of the kings of Egypt & Ethiopia coming against him, he went from Libnah to Pelusium to oppose them & was there surprized & set upon in the night by them both, & routed with a great a slaughter as if the bowstrings of the Assyrians had been eaten by mise. After this victory Tirhakah carried his arms westward through Libya & Afric to the straits mouth, & was succeeded by Meores or Ammerres. But Herodotus tells us that the Egyptian Priests recconed Sethon the last king who reigned Egypt before the 12 contemporary kings, & by consequence before the invasion of Egypt by the Assyrians.

For Asserhadon king of Assyria in the reign {of} Manasses king of Iudah invaded {& conq}uered Egypt & Ethiopia & reigned over them three years (Isa. 20.3, 4.) {illeg}at {illeg}which was in the year of Nabonassar 81.

^{[Editorial Note 5]}{illeg}in Abaris. And {illeg}{H}eliopolis. And then reigned {illeg}is of the upper {illeg}found in {illeg}t expelling {illeg}ted the

And in the reign of his son Manasses, Asserhadon king of Assyria invaded & conquered Egypt & Ethiopia, & reigned over them three years untill his death (Isa. 20.3, 4.) that is untill the year of Nabonassar 80. Then Egypt became subject to twelve contemporary kings . They reigned 15 years including the reign of Asserhadon whom the Egyptians reccon not among their kings. Then Psammiticus conquered those kings & built the last Portico of the Temple of Vulcan founded by Menes about 260 years before Psammiticus 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 6 years, Vaphres or Hophra 25 years, Amosis 44 years & Psammenitus six months. Egypt was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar in the last year of Vaphres, Anno Nabnass. 179 & remained in subjection to Babylon 40 years, (Ier. 44.3, & Ezek. 19. 12, 13, 14, 17, 19) that is almost all the reign of Amasis a plebeian set over Egypt by the conqueror. Cyrus reigned over Egypt & Ethiopia aacording to Xenophon, & the 40 years ended with his death. 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^[29] 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 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 Egytian Obeliscs were of a sort of stone dug neare Syene in Thebais, & that the first Obelisc 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. Mephres therefore reigned over all the upper Egypt from Syene to Heliopolis. His successor

The histories of the Persians now extant in the east represent that the oldest Dynasties of the kings of Persia were those whom they call Pischdadians & Kaianides, & that the Kaianides immediately succeeded the Pischdadians. And the three last kings of the second Dynasty they call Ardshir Diraz, Darab his bastard son & Darab who was conquered by Ascander Roumi, that is Artaxerxes Longimanus & his bastard son called Darius Nothus & Darius who was conquered by Alexander the Greek. They omit the kings between the two Dariuses, which shews that their history of this kingdom is imperfect: but by the names of the kings here mentioned tis certain that the Dynasty of the Kaianides was that of the Medes & Persians mentioned in scripture & therefore the Dynasty of the Pischdadians was that of Elam conquered by Cyaxeres a little after the fall of Nineveh.

✝ < insertion from f 16v > ✝ The first three kings of the second Dynasty they call Kai Cobad, Kai Caus & Kai Cosros, & derive the name Kaianides from the word Kai which they say in the old Persian language signified a Giant or great King. The three next kings they called Lohorasp, Kischtasp, & Bahaman & tell us that Bahaman was Ardschir Diraz, that is Artaxerxes Longimanus, so called from the great extent of his power. And yet they say that Bahaman went westward into Mesopotamia & Syria & conquered Balthaser the son of Nebuchadnezzar & gave the kingdom to Cyrus his Lieutenant general over Media Assyria & Chaldea, & here they takae Bahaman for Darius the Mede. By Kischtasp they mean Darius Hystaspes they say that he was contemporary to Ieremiah Daniel & Ezra & to Zardust or Zoroaster the legislator of the Ghebers or Fireworshippers, & established his doctrines throughout all Persia. And by Lohorasp they mean Cyaxeres. For they say 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 & others call Raham & Gudars 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 Cyaxerxes, calling Nebuchadnezzar his General because he assisted him in the taking of Nineveh. The oriental historians therefore between Cyaxeres & Darius Hystapis {illeg}{have} Darius the Mede, by the name of Bahaman, but confound his actions with those of Artaxerxes Longimanus. They say that Kischtasp was the son & successor of Lohorasp; & here they take him for Darius the Mede confounding this Darius with Darius Hystaspes By telling us that Lohorasp was the fourth king of the second Dynasty they place the beginning of this Dynasty about three reigns or sixty years before the fall of Nineveh & by consequence at that time when the Medes revolted from the Assyrians, & by this kings conquering the Provinces of Persia they put an end to the first Dynasty soon after the fall of Nineveh.

In this first Dynasty the Oriental historians reccon eleven successive kings. And these kings at about 18 or 20 years to a reign will take up about 200 years & thereby place the beginning of this Dynasty about 20 years before the Olympiads, that is, about the time that the oriental nations revolted from Egypt, or soon after. And yet the Oriental historians make this Dynasty much ancienter. For they tells 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, to the second a reign of 150 years, to the third a reign of 60 years to the 4^th a reign of 120 years, to the fift 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 first days of David Solomon & Rehoboam) so very ancient & so long lived, since <17r> the Persians have done the like to the kings who began to reigne in Persia two hundred years after the death of Solomon making them older then Adam.

The oriental historians tell us also that in those days the Scythians on the north side of the river Oxus which runs westward into the Caspian sea having erected there a potent kingdom called the kingdom of Touran or Turquestan, invaded Persia frequently in the reign of one of their kings called Afrasiab; & that in the reign of the eighth king of the Pischadadians, Afrasiab conquered Persia & reigned over it twelve years together, & then was repulsed by the tenth King of the Pischadadians, & invaded it again in the reign of the eleventh & last king of the Pischadadians called Kischtasp the son of Zab; & was at length slain in the mountains of Media by the third king of the second Dynasty. Whence its probable that the three first kings of the second Dynasty were contemporary to the three or four last of the first Dynasty, & that the Scythians whom Cyaxeres slew in a feast in the latter end of his fathers reign or beginning of his own were Afrasiab and his captains or some of them.

The Persians in their histories have no memory of the wars of Sesac or of the dominion of Egypt over Persia, or of any thing ancienter in Persia then the Dynasty of the Pischadadians. They begin their history with that Dynasty as the Ethiopians do theirs with the Dynasty of their Gods & make it older then Adam tho it was not much older then the Olympiads. So then the first great Empire in the world on this side India was that of Egypt founded by Ammon & Sesac & this Empire lost some Provinces upon the Euxine & Mediterranean seas about the time of the Argonautic expedition, but kept its dominion over Chaldea, Elam, Assyria, Armenia & Cappadocia till the reign of Mæris or his successor Sephis. And then those nations becoming free set up the kingdoms of Elam Assyria Babylon & Media. And these are the first great Empires in the world on this side India. Great Empires &c Great empires are always accompanied with great imperial cities, & the first city which reigned over all Egypt was Thebes, the first which reigned over all Phœnicia between Egypt & Euphrates was Ierusalem, the first which reigned over all Assyria was Nineveh, the first which reigned over all Chaldea was Babylo{n,} the first which reigned over all Media was Ecoatane, the first which reigned over the gr{eates}t part of Asia minor was Sardes, the first which reigned over all Greece was Macedon, & the first which reigned over all Italy was Rome. Persepolis was the capital of the Medo-Persian Empire, & Darius Hystaspis built it out of the spoiles carried from Egypt by Cambyses. These great Empires arose out of smaller kingdoms by conquest & were the first that did so; & those kingdoms arose out of others still smaller, & those out of single cities each of which at first had its own king, & those out of small single cities each of which at first had its own king, & those out of small villages built by mankind upon the first peopling of the earth, & those began not to be built in Europe before the days of Eli & Samuel.

Herodotus tells us that all Media was peopled by δήμοι towns without walls till they revolted from the Assyrians & that after that revolt they set up a king over them & built Ecbatane which walls for his seat, the first town which they walled about. And it will be difficult to name a town in all Europe which was built with walls before the warrs of Sesostris. The antiquities of Libya were not much older then those of Europe for 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 Sesac) was their first king & caused the people who then wandered up & down, to dwell in towns & cities, & reducing them from a lawless & savage course of life taught them to use & lay up the fruits of the earth, & do many other things usefull for mans life. When Ioshua conquered the land of Canaan, every city of the Canaanites had its own king like the cities of Europe before they conquered one another : which is an argument that towns began to be built in that land not many ages before the days of Ioshua. For the Patriarchs wandred there in tents & fed their flocks wherever they pleased, the field of Phenicia not being yet appropriated for want of people. The countries first inhabited by <17v> mankind were in those days so thinly peopled that four kings from the coasts of Shinar & Elam, invaded & spoiled the Rephaims & the inhabitants of the countries of Moab Ammon Edom Amalec & the kingdoms of Sodom Gomorrah Admah & Zeboim & yet were pursued & beaten by Abraham with an armed force of only 318 men the whole force which Abraham & the Princes confederate with him could raise. And Egypt was so thinly peopled before the birth of Moses that Pharaoh said of the Israelites; Behold the people of the children of Israel are more & mightier then we; & to prevent their multiplying & growing too strong, caused their male children to be drowned. These footsteps there are of the first peopling of the earth by mankind not long before the days of Abraham & of the overspreading it with villages towns & cities & their growing into kingdoms first smaller & then greater untill the rise of the Monarchies of Egypt, Elam, Assyria, Babylon Media & Persia, Greece & Rome, the first great Empires on this side India.

out of gratitude for the benefits they had received of him. He being therefore king of Cyprus & part of Phenicia & in so great esteem & honour among them for his benefactions, 'tis not to be doubted but that after his death his friends & subjects deified him according to the custome of that age. In several respects he had several names. His proper name was Thoas or Theias. From his skills on the Harp he was called Cinyras; from his skill in works by fire את;שא בא, Ἥφαιστος Ignis-piter, & Διαμίχιος Baal machinator; & perhaps from the place where he was worshipped Baal-Cana, Volcanus, the God of Canaan.

While Sesostris & his great men were thus deified by the nations, the commander of his fleet in the Mediterranean was not to be buried in obscurity: for he was the great Neptune of the ancients. For the Cretans ^a[30] affirmed that Neptune was the first that began to handle sea affairs & set out a Fleet having obteined this Prefecture of Saturn, whence posterity recconed things done in the sea to be under his government, & mariners honoured him with sacrifices. By Saturn I understand here the father of Iupiter Belus, Neptune & Pluto. For Ammon who was the Iupiter of Egypt & Libya was the Saturn of some other nations. Neptune was therefore an Egyptian being the brother of Iupiter Belus & Pluto. And even his name Neptune is Egyptian signifying a Lord of the sea coasts. For the ^b[31] outmost parts of the earth & promontories & whatever borders upon the sea the Egyptians call Nephthys. The God ^c[32] was first worshipped in Africa & from thence his worship was propagated into other countries & therefore he was king over some part of Afric bordering on the sea where there were good harbours for shipping. Now ^d[33] in all the sea coasts of Egypt from Ioppa in Palestine to Parætonium in Afric, for the space of 625 miles there was not one safe harbour to be found except Pharus. At Parætonium was a very good harbour & from thence along the sea coasts of Cyrene (including Marmonica) were several other good ones, & there Bochart & Arias Montanus place the Naphtuhim a people sprung from Misraim Gen. 10.13. For all this region as far the river Triton was imbued with the manners & language of the Egyptians, being peopled by colonies from Egypt as we shewed above. Stephanus ^e[34] tells us that this region had many names as Libya properly so called, Olympia, Oceania, Hesperia, Ammonis, Cyrenæ. Its probable that it had the name Hesperia from its bordering westward on Egypt & the name Oceania from its being a long & narrow tract of land bordering on the sea & being fitted with good harbours. The names Ammonis, Naphtuhim, Hesperia & Oceania discover it to be the kingdom of Ammon & his son Neptune, the people Naphtuhim & their king Neptune deriving their names from the sea coasts which the Egyptians called Nephthys. Cyrene was famous for the breed & management of good horses. And thence ^f[35] Neptune Pallas & the Amazons were called Equestres. The scholiast upon Pindar (Ptyh. Ode. 4) saith: Equestrem Neptunum Poeta vocat non ex præsenti occasione sed quia Neptunus Libyes docuit equos currui jungere. And Pausanias: Equestris vocatur quod equitationem Neptunus invenisse dicatur. And Pamphus, ^h[36] who is reputed the author of the <19r> oldest Hymns amongst the Athenians calls Neptune Ἵππων τε δοτῆρα, νεῶν τ' ἰθυχρηδέμνων The inventor of horses & of tall ships with sails.

Herodotus (l. 6.) tells us that Leocides the son of Phidon & Megacles the son of Alcmæon at one & the same time courted Agarista the daughter of Clisthenes, king of Sicyon, & the Amphityons by the advice of Solon made Alcmæon & Clisthenes & Eurolycus king of Thessaly commanders of their army against Cyrrha. And hence Phidon Alcmæon, Clisthenes, Eurolycus & Solon were all of them contemporary to one another & the war against Cyrrha was in their days. They were also contemporary to Crœsus For Solon in his travells visited Crœsus, & Alcmæon enterteined & conducted the Messengers whom Crœsus sent to consult the Oracle at Delphos An. 1 Olymp. 56 according to the Marbles, & for so doing was sent for by Crœsus & rewarded with much riches.  < insertion from the middle of f 20r >  — rewarded with much riches. Megacles the son of Alcmæon married Agarista, And Pisistratus when he obteined the tyranny at Athens married the daughter of Megacles & Agarista, & Clisthenes the son of Megacles & Agarista expelled the sons of Pisistratus An. 1 Olymp. 67 according to the Marbles. The Cyrræans therefore were conquered about two generations by the eldest sons before the expulsion of the sons of Pisistratus, or about the 53 Olympiad. And thus the Legislature of Solon may have been about the 55^t Olympiad – – – Draco about the 50^th Olympiad. But the old Chronologers placed the conquest of Cyrra An. 2 Olymp. 47 & thereby made Solon too old to be conversant with Crœsus, as Plutarch complains.

The kingdom of Macedon – – p. 13, 14 - - - - - upon the 46^th Olympiad or thereabout. It could not be earlier because Phidon was contemporary to Alcmæon Clisthenes Eurolycus & Solon as above.

Iphitus presided – p. 15 – not to be admitted. < text from f 20r resumes > According to the Marbles the message of Crœsus was An. 1 Olymp. 56 & the Cyrrhæans were conquered An 2 Olymp. 47. But that of Solon may be contemporary to C I had rather place the message of Crœu An. 1 Olymp. 57 & the conquest of Cyrrha An. 1 Olymp. 53. And thus the Legislature of Solon may have been about thee 55^th Olympi{ad} the return of Solon to Athens after a travel of ten years, about the 58^th Olympiad, the conversation of Solon with Crœsus about the 59^th Olympiad, the taking of Sardec an 2 or 3 Olymp. 59 & the Legislature of Draco in the 50^th or 51^th Olympiad.

Iphitus presided both in the Temple of — p. 15 — not to be admitted.

Between the taking of Troy & the death of Codrus king of Athens their reigned six kings over Athens videlicet Demophoon Oxyntes Aphidas Thymetes Melanthus & Codrus; the third & fourth of which reigned together but nine years according to Chronologers. If we should allow 21 years a piece to the other four, the death of Codrus will be 13 years after the return of the Heraclides. Then reigned twelve Archons for life successively which if we should reccon their reigns one with another at about 15 years a piece one with another (for they were all elected & by consequence grown up to years of discretion before they reigned) they might take up 180 years. Then reigned seven decennial Archons which might take up 40 or 50 years some of them dying before their tenn years were expired. And then reigned the annual Prytanees till the tyranny of Pisistratus which might begin about the 58^th Olympiad. About two years after the death of Codrus - - -

Pausanus represents that Melas – – – –

Thus do these four prophesies, that of the image composed of four metals, that of the four beasts, that of the Ram & He-goat & that of the scripture of truth treat all of them the same subject & tend all of them to the same purpose, as if the latter were but repetitions of the former under various modes & forms of representing things. And therefore I consider them all together as four parts of one great prophesy which must be compared with one another for understanding the whole; each of them conteining the state of the Iews, & Christians & of the kingdoms which they live under during all times till the the resurrection of the dead & day of judgement. When the first of these prophecies was given, Daniel by recovering the dream of Nebuchadnezzar & interpreting it, gained the reputation of the wisest of men from whom no secret could lye hid, as is mentioned by Ezekiel who lived in those days. Thou art wiser then Daniel, saith he to the king of Tyre, there is no secret that they can hide from thee. Ezek. XXVIII.2. The first prophesy of the four was therefore certainly Daniels. And they were all of a piece. And the Apocalyps is written upon the same subject & in the same figurative style.

240-6         From Ægialus to Xeuxippus were twelve kings inclusively, & there reigns after the rate of 20 years a piece one with another take up 240 years. And so long it was fro Apis or Epopeus & Nickus were slain in battel about the 10^th year of Solomon as above & And from Apis to Xeuxippus were eight reigns inclusively which at 20 years a piece one with another amount unto 160 years which counted from the 10^th year of Solomon place the death of Xeusxippus <20v> 130 years after the death of Solomon or     55 years after the taking of Troy & so long after the taking of that city Eusebius places it. And the four preceding kings might reign 80 years & so place the begin̄ing of the reign of Ægialeus & his brother Phoroneus about the 10^th year of Samuel.

For the first four kings, Agialeus, Europs, Telchin, Apis, after the rate of about 20 years a piece one with another take up about 80 years, & Apis or Epopeus & Nicteus were slain in battle about the tenth year of Solomon, & the 80 years counted upwards3 from1 thence2 place the beginning of the reigns of Ægialeus & his brother Phoroneus about the eleventh year of Samuel. And the eight reigns following that of Apis, after the same rate, take up 160 years which counted forwards from the tenth year of Solomon, place the death of Xeuxippus about 55 years after the taking of Troy, & there Eusebius places it. [Between Adrastus & Pelasgus I have omitted Polyphides as being unknown to the ancienter Greeks. If he be inserted, the death of Xeuxippus will be about 75 years after the taking of Troy, which recconing agrees better with the opinion of those who tell us that upon the return of the Heraclides into Peloponesus, Melanthus king of Messenæ fled from them to Athens & became king of that city.]

be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake some to everlasting life & some to shame & everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, & they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever & ever.

I place the end of the reign of Sesac upon the 5^th year of Asa because in that year Asa became free from the dominion of Egypt so as to be able to fortify Iudæa & raise that great an army with which he met Zerah & routed him. The Libyans therefore under Typhon (that is Iapetus ) & his son Atlas, invaded Egypt in the 5^t year of Asa & raised that famous warr between the Gods & Giants from whence the Nile had the name of Eridanus. But Orus by the assistance of the Etiopians prevailed, & reigned till the 14^th or 15^th yeare of Asa. And then the Ethiopians under Zerah invaded Egypt drowned Orus in Eridanus & were routed by Asa so that Zera could not recover himself & Zerah was succeeded by Amenophis a youth of the royal family of the Ethiopians. But the people of the lower Ægypt revolted from him & set up Osarsiphus a priest over them & called in to their assistance a great body of men from Phœnicia I think a part of the army of Asa, & thereupon Amenophis with his army of Ethiopians retired to Memphis & there turning the river Nile into a new channel fortified that city against Osarsiphus, & then retired into Ethiopia & stayed there 13 years & then , came back with a great army & subdued the lower Egypt. While Amenophis was in Æthiopia & Ægypt was in its greatest distraction, And then it was as I conceive that the Greeks hearing thereof contrived the Argonautic expedition, & sent the flower of Greece in the ship Argo to perswade the nations upon the sea coasts of the Euxine & Mediterranean seas to revolt from Egypt & set up for them selves, as the Libyans Ethiopians & Iews had done before. And this is a further argument for placing that Expedition about 44 years after the death of Solomon. Amenophis might return from Ethiopia & conquer the lower Egypt about 8 or 9 years after that expedition & having subdued the lower Egypt, & setled his government over it he might, for putting a stop to the revolting of the nations, lead his army into Persia & build the Memnonia at Susa, fortifying that city as the Metropolis of his dominions in those parts.

Pag. 26. lin. 25. Danaus, Perseus &c are setled.

After navigation in long ships with sails & one order of oars had been propagated from Egypt to Phœnicia & Greece & thereby the Tyrians had carried on their trade with Spain & Britain & other remote nations about one hundred & forty or fifty years, the Corinthians began to improve navigation by building bigger ships with three orders of Oars called Triremes. p. 18. For Thucydides tells us that the Corinthians were the first of the Greeks who built long ships with three orders of — later then the days of Solomon & Rehoboam.

And in those days the king of the north (who besides his newly northern dominions reigneth over Iudea, Egypt, Libya & Ethiopia, shall go forth with great fury to destroy & to make away many & he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas (the dead Sea & the Mediterranean) in the glorious holy mountain; but he shall come to his end. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince who standeth for the children of thy people & was annointed to reign over them. And there shall be —

And the king shall do according to his will & he shall exalt himself & magnify himself above every God & shall speak marvellous things against the God of Gods [the ancient of days,] & shall prosper till the indignation [or long captivity of the Iews] be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers [those who were holpen with a little help] nor the desire of weomen [in lawful matrimony, but set up the professions of Muncks & Nuns] nor regard any God; for he shall magnify himself [or his own will] above all. And in his estate shall he honour Mahuzzims [putting his trust in potent saints, the souls of dead men] together with a strange God a new God whom his fathers, [those who were holpen with a little help] knew not, shall he honour them with gold & silver & with pretious stones & & valuable things [dedicated to them.] Thus shall he do in the most strong holds [or temples of his Gods] with a strange God whom he shall acknowledge & increase with glory & cause them [the Mahuzzims or Guardians to to rule over many & divide [among them] the land [over which he reigns] for a patrimony.

And at the time of the end shall the king of the south [or the Empire of the Saracens] push at him. And the king of the north [the Empire of the Turks shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots & with horsemen & with many ships, & [by conquering Constantinople A. C. 1453] he shall enter into the countries & shall overflow & pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land [of Iudea] & many [in those parts] shall be overflown. But these shall escape out of his handcountries, even Edom & Moab & the chief of the Children of Ammon [to whom his caravans in their way to Mecca pay tribute.] He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, & the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold & silver & over all the pretious things of Egypt. And the Libyans & the Etiopians shall be at his steps.

But tidings out of the east & out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy & utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain: yet he shall come to his end [in the battel of the great day] & none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people [the prince of princes, he & his army on white horses shall stand up] & there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. And at that time thy peo{ple}

as he left sons surviving him.

The first kingdom after the flood was that of Noah reigning over all his posterity till the confusion of languages. Till that time all mankind lived together in one society & by conversing together the whole earth was of one language & of one speech. And it came to pass as they journied from the east that they found a plane in the land of Shinar & they dwelt there And they said to one another Go to, let us make brick & burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone & slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build a city & tower whose top may reach unto heaven & let us make a name least we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth Gen. 11. This was Noahs kingdom the people building the city Babel for its seat & raising a Tower so high that in seeking for food for themselves & their cattel they might see the same from all parts of the great plane of the land of Shinar & know whether to resort least they should be scattered from their main body.

But the Lord came down to see the city & tower & said: The people is one & they have all one language; & this they have begun to do: & now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down & there confound their language that they may not understand one anothers speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, & they left of to build the city. That is, by the counsel of God they fell out amongst themselves & (by discord) were forced to separate & seek new seats , going in several bodies to several parts of the earth according to their tribes & families, & by the want of conversation becoming various peoples & nations & tongues & languages.

<22v>

~ Noah sent away his younger sons Ham & Iapheth & staid with Sem his eldest at Babel. And Sem sent away his younger children placing them upon the rivers Tigris & Euphrates above the plains of Shinar, & staid with Elam his eldest at Babel. For he placed his second son Ashur in Assyria a region next above Shinar & next to it also in degree of fertility, & his third son Arphaxad in Arraphathitis a region next above Assyria & next to it also in fertility & also in the northeast part of Mesopotamia lying upon Tigris, the sons of Ioctan dwelling there. & his youngest son Aram in the country on both sides Euphrates called Aram by the Hebrews, that is, in Syria Mesopotamia & Armenia. Arphaxad possessed also the northeast corner of Eufrates lying upon Tigris, the sons of Ioctan dwelling there. Cham placed his four sons Chus Mizraim Phut & Canaan , round the Persian gulph & in Egypt, & Mauritania & Canaan & Iaphet placed his sons round the Euxine sea & in other parts of the isles of the Gentiles. And again the Grandsons of Noah subdivided their territories among their children as is manifest by the Geography of Moses, & particularly Chus stayed with his eldest son in Euxiana called the land of Chus by Moses, & Cutha in 2 King. 17. & Chazestan by the Arabians & Cossæans by Ptolemy & his second son Havilah was seated or the mouth of Euphrates westward. But Nimrod being the youngest son of Chus & therefore seated after his brothers & being a mighty hunter & by conquering wild beasts being emboldened & inured to violence & enabled to conquer men was not content with his lot but invaded the land of Shinar & thereby began to be a mighty one in the earth. For the beginning of his kingdom was Babel & Erech & Accad & Calneh in the land of Shinar. And Elam fled from him & seated himself on the next river Choaspis giving the name of Vlay to the river & Elymais to the region & leaving Babylonia to be peopled by Nimrod: Whence Babylonia is called the land of Nimrod Micha 9. And This was done soon after the division of the earth because Nimrod was two generations older then Peleg in whose days the earth was divided. Afterwards Nimrod being not yet content with his seat went out thence to invade Assyria & then built Nineveh & Rehoboth & Calah the metropolis of Calachene & Resen (le{illeg} Resen Larissam) between Nineveh & Calah. But it being the custome in those days for every father to divide his territory between all his sons: it is to be conceived that Nimrod divided his territory & cities between his sons & they theirs between their sons & so on till every city had its king. . And thence it is that we hear nothing more of the kingdome founded by Nimrod For I shall shew presently that the Assyrian Empire so much established in history grew up by conquest out of many small kingdoms long after the days of Nimrod. Yet Nimrod by reason of the greatness of his conquests & dominion being called the Lord, which in the Chaldean language is Belus, seems to have retained that name after death amongst his subjects, & to have been the first king whom they worshipped by that name. For idolatry began soon after < insertion from f 23r > his death amongst the Chaldees. Ios. 24.2, 14. < text from f 22v resumes >

And as Nimrod invaded Babylonia & Assyria so other wars arising frequently between the kings of cities or countries about their possessions put things frequently into disorder as in the case of the five kings invading Arabia Petræa & the southern parts of Canaan in the days of Abraham. And this made it necessary for those of a Tribe or neighbourhood to consult together for their common safety & chuse out wise & valiant men to lead their armies against their enemies & fortify places with walls within which should be many houses for the people to resort unto out of the fields & villages in time of danger. And this ....... proper king

After this manner the fertile places upon the rivers Vlai Tigris Euphrat{es} & the Nile seem to have been planted with cities & the cities thinly peopled before the days of Abraham. But places less fertile were planted later. The Holy land was so thinly peopled with villages in Abrahams days that he & lot fed their herds & flocks <023r> wherever they pleased, & that Abraham fo{unde}d room {illeg} to build the city Beersheba in the southern border of Canaan. And Arabia Petræa was so thinly peopled as to be invaded & subdued by the four kings whom Abraham beat with 318 men, & that the twelve sons of Ismael dwelt from Havilah unto Shur that is before Egypt as thou goest to Assyria, & were named by their towns & by their castles twelve Princes according to their nations (Gen. 25.) that is, Princes of twelve cities which were founded by them & grew into 12 nations. And about the same time that the Israelites peopled this country the Horites peopled mount Seir. For Seir the Horite or Son of Hori placed his sons Lotan Shobal Zibeon Anah Dishon Ezer Dishan, in this mount. And these were Dukes of Seir, or heads of families & founding of cities, & Timnah their sister was Esau's concubine, & Aholibamah the daughter of Anah was his wife. And in the next generation, Esau seated his sons the Dukes of Edom in the same mount, & they in time expelled the Horites. And after the same manner it may be conceived that the lands of Moab & Ammon were peopled first by the Emims & Zuzims & then by the Moabites & Ammonites in the days of Abraham Isaac & Iacob. And even in that fertil country the lower Egypt they continued building new cities till Abrahams days For Tsoan or Tanis a royall city thereof was built seven years after Hebron And Hebron was founded in Abrahams days being first called Mamre from Mamre the Amorite the brother of Eshcol the brother of Aner who were contemporary to Abraham, then Kirjath Arba from Arba the father of Anak & lastly Hebron by the Israelites when they took it from Sheshai Ahiman & Tolmai the three sons of Anak in the days of Ioshua.

So then the first kingdoms were single cities

parts of Egypt which renders them the less memorable. In the time of the monarchy of Egypt

Herodotus sets down their kings in this order.

Between Rhampsinitus & Cheops are to be inserted Amenophes & Mæris . For Manetho reccons Sesostris Rampsinitus & {illeg} For Manetho reccons

- - over the lower Egypt. For he is distinguished from the race of the {Thebain} Kings by his being a Memphite & reigning there, & and Proteus is a Greek word of the same signification with Adad in Syriac & Primus or Princeps in Latine or a Prince in English, & therefore seems to be not the proper name of a man but a title of honour. For had it been a proper name the Greeks would have retained the Egyptian word without translating it whereas Herodotus tells us that it is the Kings name in Greek. Phruron, Nilus.

In the chronical canons of Eusebius & Dynasties of Africanus out of Manetho Suphus Pyris put the successor of Soris, Lachares the ✝ of the Labyr. of Sesostris, Thuor of Amenemes      Saophis of Ayres Siphaosis of Maris

In the Greek chronical canons published by Scaliger      Thuoris is the successor Amenophis or Amenemes & said to be the Polybus of Homer in whose reign Troy was taken. And Aiyres, Soris, & Maris are the predecessor of Saophis or Syphoasos or Hermes. So that Amenophis Mæris & Saophus or Cheops succeeded one another.

Αμμενέμμης, Θούωρις by Homer called Polybus under whom Troy was taken Ἀιύρης, Σαῶφις. Μαρις Σιφωασος ὁ καὶ Ηρμῆς Αμενωφις, Θούαρις Σῶρις Σοῦφις

Saophis called also Phiops Cheops Chembis & Chemmis was a merchant - - - - Pyramids. For among the successors of Sesostris Herodotus & Diodorus reccon the founders of the three great Pyramids neare Memphys & ascribe the biggest of them to Cheops or Chemmis. another of them to his brother & successor <024v> Cephren ( called also Suphis Sen Saophis Mente Iuphis Metha {Saphis Achescas Ocharas}) & the third either by the daughter of Cheops whom Manetho calls Nitocris or by Mycerinus the son of Suphis & successor of Cephren who In the Chronical canons is called also Moscheres & Mencheres.

His successor Asychis – – – – wifes & children.

In the reign of Anysis the Kingdom of Egypt seems to have been divided Stephanathis Necepsos & Nechos successively in Sais & Gnephacthos (called also Neochabis & Technatis) & his son & successor Boccharis reigned in some other part of Egypt. For Sabbacus the Ethiopian invading Egypt took Boccharis & burnt him alive, made Anysis fly & slew Nichus. This Nechus was the father of Psimmiticus who reigned afterwards & his predecessor Nicepsos Diodorus makes Boccharis the 4^th King from Mycerinus but names not the intermediate Kings. And in another place calling him {Uchoresus} He saith that Uchoresus was eighth King from Osymandes & built Memphys & fortified it with a lake & reigned there & the most of the following Kings preferred it to Thebes & removed their court thither, & from that time the magnificence of Thebes decreased & that of Memphys increased to the times of Alexander the great King of Macedon who built Alexandria that drained & outgrew Memphys as that had done Thebes.

In the Dynasties of Africanus Sabacon the Ethiopian reigned in Egypt eight years Senechus his son 14 & Tirhaca 18. These were kings of both Ethiopia {&} Egypt. Senechus seems to be the So or Sua who reigned in Egypt at the time of captivating the 10 tribes 2 King. 17.4. Tirhaca was that Tirhakah who came out against < insertion from f 25r > Sennacherib in behalf of Hezekiah < text from f 24v resumes > & Tirhakah king of Ethiopia who came out against Sennacherib king of < insertion from f 25r > Assyria 2 King. 19.21. < text from f 24v resumes > seems to be that Pharaoh king of Egypt on whom Hezekiah trusted when Sennacherib king of Assyria invaded Iudea 2 King. 18.21. Fof Herodotus giving account how they Assyrians were slain, saith that Sethon Priest of Vulcan was beseiged in Pelusium by Sennacherib & freed by mise eating the bowstrings & Quivers of the Assyrians & the latchets of their Arms & that he saw the statue of Sethon holding a mouse in its hand in memory of this deliverance. Whence its probable that Herodotus took him to be king of Egypt.

After Ægypt was freed from the Ethiopians there was an interregnum 2 years & then reigned 12 Kings together for 15 years, Then Psammiticus the son of Nechus, & one of the twelve subdues the rest & became king of all Egypt.

The reign of the Ethiopians over Egypt according to Herodotus lasted fifty years & began & ended under Sabacus: but in the Dynasties of Africanus Sabacus reigned but 8 years & had 2 successors     Senechus his son who reigned 14 year & Tirhakah who reigned 18. Senechus seems to be the Sua or So who reigned in Egypt at

S^r

The day appointed by the Commissioners of the Navy for considering Mons^r Barderis matters being put off by himself I designed to

But whether it was or was not the Sheephers (as they called the Arabians) at length invaded & reigned over both Ægypt for a long time together

And Out of these four kingdoms & perhaps some others at length arose the Monarchy of Egypt but how those kingdoms arose out of smaller ones is harder to relate.

About 60 years after it began to spread into Syria & grow great its greatness. The kings which reigned henceforward at Nineveh were P

The kings which reigned henceforward at Nineveh were Phul, Tiglath Phulassar, Palmanassar, Señacherib, & Assarhaddon Assar-haddon-phul or Sardanapalus.. Phul invaded Israel in the reign of Menahen king of Israel but was bought off. In the reign of Tiglath Phulassar the Kingdom & City of Babylon was founded by Assyrians under the conduct of Nabonassar, & thereby the Assyrian Monarchy became divided into two kingdoms, the one reigning at Nineve the other at Babylon. Whether this division was made by a revolt or by the last will & testament of Phul or otherwise by the consent of T. Phulassar, is not said in history. One of the two latter is is more probable because Tiglath Philasar was potent enough to have made war upon Nabonassar & yet bent his forces another way. For about this time he warred & in Phœnicia captivated Galile with the two Tribes & an half & placed them in Chalah & Chabor Chara & to the river of Ssozan, places lying in the western border of Media between Assyria & the Caspian sea. (2 King. 15.29. & 1 Chron. 25.26.) & about the 4^th or 5^t year of Nabonassar came to the assistance of the king of Iudah against the kings of Israel & Syria which had been seated at Damascus ever since the days of King David & carried away the Syrians into captivity to Kir (2 King. 15.37. & 16.5, 9.) ^b[37] the region of upper or {mountainous} Media & ^b[38] placed other nations in the {region} of <026v> The next king Salenassar (called Enem-assar by Tobit ch. 1) a^[39] invaded all Phœnicia took the city Samaria & captivated Israel & placed them at in the neighbouring cities of the Medes^[40] in Chalah & Chabor by the river Gozany & where the Syrians were placed before.

The next king Sennacherib invaded Phœnicia & & b^[41] Egypt, & took several cities of Iudah but laying < insertion from f 27r > siege to Ierusalem he lost < text from f 26v resumes > in one night 185000 men by a vehement plague & thereupon to save the reliques of his army returned in haste to Nineveh, & the At the same time did Merodach Bel-adon or Mardopkempad king of Babylon send an embassy to Hezekiah king of Iudah. Isa. 39. The next king Assarhaddon (corruptly called Sarchedon by ^p[42] Tobit, Asar-dan by the seventy ^q[43] Sar-gon by Isaias & the great & {not} Asnappar by ^r[44] Ezra) reunited the kingdom of Babylon to that of Nineveh so reigned over the whole Assyrian Monarchy. He invaded^c[45] Iudea took {Azot} ^d[46] carried Manasse{b} captive to Babylon & ^e[47] peopled Samaria with captives brought ^f[48] from Babylon & from Cuthah or Susa & from Ava & from Hamath or Antioch, & from Sepharvaim, nations whose kings he had ^g[49] conquered He ^h[50] captivated also Egypt & the Ethiopia which was above Thebais.. sumptuous <027r> sumptuous buildings, & if we may beleive Xenephon, he reigned also over the Province of Assyria. But whether he or the Medes had the Province or whether they parted it between them However this is certain that by the building of Babylon & fall of Nineveh the kingdom of the Assyrians did not cease but was only translated to a new seat, Herodotus who ascribes the subversion of Nineve to the Medes alone reccons that they subdued Media. But Nebuchadnezzar & the Medes joyned &c may be disputed, but whilst Assyria belonged originally to the same kingdom with Babylon its most probable that the Medes conceded in this to the Babylonians & were requited by something else. However this is certain that by the building .for these reasons

First because the Kingdom & city of of Babylon was founded by Assyrians. Behold, saith Isaiah^[51], the land of the Chaldeans this people was not till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof.

Secondly because the Kings of Babylon were all of them Assyrians till the reign of Darius the Mede. For Ptolomy to his Canon of all the Kings of Babylon which preceded Cyrus prefixes this title Canon regum Assyriorum & Medorum. This appears also by the names of the Babylonian Kings & Nobles compounded of Assyr, such as are nabon-assar, Nabo-phul-assar, Nabu-chadon-assar, Nabu-assar-hadon, Beltes-assar, Bels-assar, Nergal-assar, Shesheb-assar, For so were the Assyrian names often compounded as in these instances, Tiglat-phul-assar, Assar-haon Salman-assar, Shar-assar. Where note that chadonhadon or adon signifies Dominus.

Thirdly the people of Babylonia & Assyria were of the same stock, their common father being Nimrod. For he reigned first in Shinar & then in Assyria.

Fourthly the dominions of Babylon & Nineve were the very same excepting that Babylon reigned over Moab & Ammon & Edon & perhaps not over all Assyria.

Lastly the ancients used to reccon the kingdom of Babylon one of the two branches of the Assyrian Monarchy. So :^{b[53] b[54]} Strabo Assyrij Babylone ac Nini regiam habuerunt. & ^c[55] Herodotus: Sola Assyriorum regia fuit babylon post eversam Ninum. And again: Medi et Ninum ex pugnaverunt et Assyrios subegerunt excepta portione Babylonica. And hence it is that the Greeks & Latins in recconing <027v> up all the great Monarchies, never reccon the Babylonian Monarchy distinct from the of the Assyrians but include it therein. For they reccon the Assyrian Monarchy the first, that of the Medes the second that of the Persians the third & that of the Greeks & Latins the fourth & fift.

The first Monarchy of great extent is generally recconed the Assyrian seated at Nineve. It stood according to Herodotus 520 years untill the defection of the Medes & about an hundred years more untill Nebuchadnezzar & Cyaxerxes overthrew it & so began about 150 years before the reign of Saul. But we are not to reccon the it stood all that time in its greatness. The cities of Rome, Sardes, Athens, Corinth, Tyre & others kept long registers of their kings while their dominions were but small, & the like it is to be understood of Nineve. During the time of the Iudges of Israel unlike after the reign of David Syria & Mesopotamia were subject to kings of other cities (Iud. 3.8. 2 Sam. 8 & 10) & therefore Nineve had not yet extended it dominion on this side Euphrates. The first mention I meet with of a king of Nineveh is in the prophesy of Ionah who lived about 230 years before the fall of this kingdom. And at that time the City was a very great one of 3 days journey, but the greatness was rather in extent of ground then multitude of people. For it conteined not much above 120000 persons which could not discern between their right hand & their left Ionah 4.11. Reccon these to be infants under 2 years old & that there were six times more people in the city & the whole number of people will be but about 720000 whereas in the Egyptian Thebes there were numbred 700000 persons fit for war. kingdoms now in being. Whence we may reccon that the kingdom of Assyria was now grown a considerable one but not yet arrived to its greatness. About 60 years after it began to spread into Syria: & from that time <028v> other nations who afterwards, as Herodotus tells us, fell off from it.

The kingdom being now in its height began from this time to decline by the defection of some of the conquered nations. And the first of the nations who fell off the Medes. They first asserted their liberty without a king & then made Dejoces king over them & lived under four successive kings, Dejoces, Phraortes, Cyaxerxes & Astyages for 150 years together till the reign of Cyrus, & by consequence fell off from the Assyrian Monarchy in the reign of Sennacherib soon after the great loss of his army in Palestine by a sudden plague, 2 King. 19. For that loss happened 156 years before the reign of Cyrus & by reason of the subsequent defection of the Medes, Tobit tells us that the reign of reign of Sennacherib was troubled so y^t he could not go from Nineve into Media as he had done before in the reign of Enemessar^[56] (so he calls Salmanassar) the former king. Dejoces the first king of the Medes founded Ecbatane reigned 53 years & propagated the kingdom westward into Armenia as far as the river Halys the common bound of his & the Lydia kingdoms. Phraortes his son reigned 22 years & conquered the Persians & made war also upon the kings of Assyria but was overthrown by him in battel & slain. Cyaxerxes the son of Phraortes thereupon prosecuting the the war, overcame the Assyrians in battel & laid siege to Nineve but was forced from the siege by a great incursion of Scythians who overcame him in battel & reigned over his kingdom for 28 years together but there Phraortes invited them to a feast made them drunk & slew them, & having thus recovered his kingdom returned to the war against the Assyrians & by the help of Nebuchadnezzar overthrew that kingdom. In confirmation of all this you may see the very great slaughter of the Assyrians & Scythians by Cyaxerxes & of the Persians by Phraortes described in Ezekiel chap. 32.22, 24, 26.

The city & kingdom of Babylon was founded by Nabonassar an Assyrian about 34 years before the {de}fection of the Mede

& compare them with the records of the Greeks. This I note to shew the uncertainty of such opinions about this monarchy as rest upon the authority of the Iews: of which kind are the opinions y^t the return of the captivity was in the 28^th year of Cyrus, y^t Artaxerxes was the common name of all the kings of Persia, & that Sanballat lived in the time of Darius Codomannus & built the temple of the Samanites in mount Gerazim in the very end of his reign when Alexander the great made wars upon him.

The earth was at first divided into many small kingdoms according to the number of cities. These by conquering one another grew greater & greater till they arrived at the bigness they are now at.

The first Monarchy of great extent is accounted the Assyrian. Its seat was Nineve a city founded by Ninus or Nimrod who was mighty in the earth. The beginning of his kingdom was in the land of Sennarr & thence he went into Assyria & built Nineve Gen. 10. As Egypt is called the land of Ham not because he peopled it (for so he did Phœnicia & all Afric) but because it was his kingdom: so Assyria is called the land of Nimrod because it was his kingdom Micha 5.6.

Nineve was of old a very great city. Ionah who lived above an hundred years before the captivity of the 10 tribes (2 King. 14. <029v> tells us it was then a very great city of three days journey Strabo makes it 48 miles, Diodorus 60 miles about, so y^t it was much greater then Babylon. By the greatness thereof even in Ionah's days may be gathered that it had been then the metropolis of an ancient flourishing kingdom. And yet if it conteined not much above 12000 people (Ionah 4.11.) it was only great in extent of ground & fell much short of Paris & London in number of people & others

If the race of kings borrowed by Eusebius from the fabulous writings of Ctesias be rejected, we have little or nothing certain of this kingdom before the reign of Phul. Till then it seems to have been kept within the bounds of Assyria: for Syria & Mesopotamia had kings of their own (Iud. 38. 2 Sam. 8 & 10.) Phul was the first king of Assyria who is read to have made war on this side Euphrates (2 King. 15.19.) This was about 40 or 50 years before the captivity of the 10 tribes. Soon after Tiglath Peleser ruined the Kingdom of Syria & captivated it with the two tribes & an half (2 King. 16.9. 1 Chron. 5.26.) & afterwards Shalmanesser captivated all the rest of Israel. And as this kingdom was propagated now as far westward as to the Mediterranean so no doubt it was propagated at the same time into other quarters . For the Medes were now become subject to the Assyrians (2 King. 17.6. Tobit 1.13, 14.)

Out of this kingdom thus grown great were two others split: that of Babylon & that of the Medes. First Nabonassar an Assyrian founded both the Kingdom & City of Babylon & peopled it with the Arabians collected thither into a body from the neighbouring regions (Isa. 23.13.) These Arabians seem to be of the posterity of Chavilah the son of Chus. For Chus after he had lived some time in Egypt with his Father Ham, went thence into the east & placed his sons round the Persian gulf from the furthest part of Arabia felix to the furthest part of Persia, & the lot of Chavilah was between the Persian gulf, Babylon & the country of Amaleck lying in the way from Egypt to Assyria (Gen. 2.11, & 25.18. 1 Sam. 15.7.) These Arabians the ^a[58] Greeks & Latins called Chaulotæans whence came the name of Chaldæans to those in Babylon.

The Chaldeans dated all their years from the first year of the reign of their founder Nabonassar which year was 747 years before the birth of Christ according to the vulgar account{.} And these years consisted always of 365 days without any leap year & in the time of the Babylonian & Persian Monarchies began in winter.

At length by the fall of the Assyrian Monarchy the Kingdoms of Babylonia & Media grew great. For till then the Kingdom of Babylon seems to have comprehended <030r> nothing more then the Provinces of Babylon & Susa. but when this kingdom fell Nebuchadnezzar invaded Syria Phœnicia & Mesopotamia which had hitherto belonged to the Assyrians by upon their fall were seized by the King of Egypt. But for understanding these things its requisite to connect the chronology of the kingdom of Babylon with that of the kingdom of Iudah.

The years of Nabpolassar the father of Nebuchadnezzar &c

Zedekiah therefore began

Before all this, Paraoh Necho in passing through Iudea to make war upon the king of Assyria & beseige Carchemish or Cerusium a town of Mesopotamia upon Euphrates, slew Iosiah King of Iudah who opposed him & three months after where he had beaten the Assyrians & taken Carchemish & was returned into the land of Hamath or Antioch, sent & captivated Iehoabaz the successor of Iosiah & made Iehojakim king in his stead & put the land to tribute (2 King. 23. 2 Chron. 35.:) whence Iehojakim, began his reign towards the end of summer in the 37^th year of Nabonassar. For he reigned 11 years incomplete, & his 4^th year fell in with the first of Nebuchadnezzar over Iudea (Ier. 25.1.) Thus Pharaoh became Lord of what the King of Assyria had hitherto possest on both sides Euphrates & made the King of Iudah also his servant. I know some would have the King of Assyria against whom Pharaoh now warred to be the King of Babylon as if there were now more kingdoms of Assyria then one. For: its certain that the Kingdom of Assyria was still in being & at this time distinct from that of Babylon.

This war of Pharaoh seems occasioned by a conspiracy of the Kings of Media & Babylon at the same time against the Kings of Assyria. For Ahasuerus or Cyaxerxes King of the Medes & Nebuchadnezzar the son of the king of Babylon now joyned together against the king of Assyria overthrew his kingdom & destroyed Nineve Tobit. 14.15.. And so great was the fall of this kingdom that Ezekiel has thus described it. Thus saith the Lord God, in the day when he went down to the grave, I caused a mourning, – I caused Lebanon & to mourn for him, & all the trees of the field <030v> fainted for him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit Ezek. 31.15. The same Prophet describes at large how very great this kingdom was before its fall & how at its fall the tributary nations deserted him & the neighbouring kingdoms shared his provinces. Strangers, saith he, & the terribl{e} of the nations have cut him off & have cast him upon the mountains, & in all the valleys his branches are fallen, & his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land, & all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow & have left him. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain & all the beasts of the field (that is all the kingdoms) shall be upon his branches. Ezek. 31.12. So then this kingdom continued a great one till the day of its fall. The occasion of its overthrow was this.

The Medes as Herodotus relates, fell off from the kingdom of the Assyrians 150 years (or a little more) before the reign of Cyrus, that is in the reign of Senacherib a little after that great overthrow of his army in Palestine. For by reason of this defection of the Medes Tobit tells us y^t the reign of Sennacherib was troubled to y^t he could not go. from Nineve into Media as he had done before in the reign of Enemessar (so he calls Salmanassar) the former king (Tob. 1.15.) They Medes first asserted their liberty without a king & then made Dejojes king over {y^m}. He founded Ecbatane & propagated the kingdom westward as far as the river Halys in Armenia the common terminus of his & the Lydian kingdoms. His son & successor Phraortes made war upon the Persians & conquered them. He Phraortes made war also upon the king of Assyria but was overthrown by him in battel & slain. His son Cyaxerxes prosecuting the war overcame the Assyrians in battel & laid siege to Nineve but was forced from the siege by a great incursion of Scythians who overcame him in battel & reinged over his kingdom 28 years together, But then were invited by Phraortes to a feast & slain in drink. Phraortes having thus freed his kingdom from a foreign power returned to the war against the Assyrians & conquered that kingdom excepting the portion of Babylon & the relation is well confirmed by what Ezekiel writes of the great ✝ ✝slaughters which had then happened to the Assyrians Persians & Scythians. Ezek. 32.24, 24, 26. Thus far Herodotus. He makes no mention of the Babylonians assisting the Medes as Tobith doth: but Diodorus out ofCtesias, makes Nineve destroyed by the Medes & Babylonians together, tho he has placed the destruction of it 250 years too soon. The Iews in their Chronicle Seder Olam Rabbah ascribe the action to the Babylonians & ^{[Editorial Note 6]} <031r> note also the time placing it the year before Nebuchadnezzars first expeditio{n into} Iud{ea} Anno primo subegis Nebugdonozor Niniven, secundo ascendens in Iudæam subjugavit Ioachim factusque est Ioachim illi servus annis tribus. In the first year of his reign (that is in the fourth of Ioachim's) Nebuchadnezzar subdued Nineve, in the second ascending into Iudea he subdued Ioachim. But whilst Nebuchadnezzar in his first year warred against Pharaoh at {Earchemish} by Euphrates, its more reasonable to place the fall of Nineve year or two before.

After this some Scythians being banished from home & by reason of their skills in hunting received by Cyaxerxes, presented him one day with a boy drest like veneson & fled to Alyattes king of Lydia, Cyaxerxes demanded them & Alyattes refused to deliver them & thereupon arose a war between the two kings which lasted five years & ended in the sixt by means of a total Eclips of the Sun predicted by Thales which happened in the time of a battel & parted them by the darkness.. This eclips by the computation of Petavius fell upon the 9^th of Iuly in the 151^th year of Nabonassar & by consequence the war began in the 145^th year. Herodotus places the eclips in the reign of Cyaxerxes; Tully, ^a[59] Pliny,^{[60] c[61]} Eusebius & ^d[62] Solinus in the reign of Astyages his son : the first perhaps by inadvertency because Cyaxerxes began the war & Thales predicted the Eclips (as ^e[63] Eudemus writes) in his reign, the last because it came to pass in his son's reign. Suppose therefore that Cyaxerxes died a year or two before the eclips an. Nabonas. 149 & since he reigned 40 years (as Herodotus writes) his reign will begin an. Nabonass. 109 & if the slaughter of the Scythians be placed in his 28^th year & the fall of Nineve in his 30^th year, that fall will happen neare the end of the 2^d year of Iehojakim as above. I know that from the death of Cyaxerxes to the reign of Cyrus there will be 40 years according to this account & yet Herodotus makes the reign of Astyages the successor of Cyaxerxes & predecessor of Cyrus to be but 35 years. But Eusebius & Syricellus make his reign 38 years & a canon among the Isagogical Canons published by Scaliger makes it 40, which is o^e account.

Aleppo taken by the Tartare in the reign of Nasser Iosef Sultan of Syria & Egypt p. 63. 1 Malek at Dhaler 3^d son of Saladin succeeded his father at Aleppo An. Hegir 589 ({6} 1193 or 94) & died an. Hegir. 613. 1216 & was succeed in the kingdom of Alepp{o} by his son Malec al Aziz who died an Hegir 634, 1238. & was succeeded by his son Malek al Nasser who took Damascus & was slain at the taking of Aleppo by Holagou 1259.

Aladin Caicobad ben Kaichosrou tenth king of Natolia reigned 26 years was at length subdued by Hocata Kan, & died An. Hegine 636, or 1238

Alp-Arslan succeeded his unkle Thogrulbeg an. Hegir. 445. 1063, & reigned over all Persia beyond Tigris as far as the river Oxus. He was slain an. Hegir 465. A. C. 1072

Almansor laid the foundation of Bagdat in An. Hegir 145 & finished the building of it in a. 149.

Malech shah the son & successor of Alp Arslan, in an. Hegir 467 sent his cousin Soliman the son of Cutulmish with an army to conquer Syria & in a little time he conquered it as far as Antioch. Malec sha died an. Hegir. 485 after a reign of 20 years. In his life time he distributed a great part of his dominions amongst his friends. He gave his Couzin Soliman the son of Cutulmish the country of Roum which he had taken from the Greek Emperor, extending from Euphrates into Asia minor, the village Arzeroun (now called Erzertim) being the capital. The country of Aleppo to Aksankor: that of Mosul to Tchaghimiscch, & Maredin to Catmour.

Gaiathoddin {Caicosru} son of Caicobad tenth king of Roum reinged 8 years & then was deprived by the Tartars, an. Hegir. 644. A. C. 1246. Solyman reinged 20 years & died A. H. 664 Caicosrum the son of Rocknoddin Solyman the son of Caicosru, the 12^th Sultan of Roum reigned 18 years & then was killed an. H. 682, A. C. 1283 by order of Ahmed Khan Emperor of the Moguls or Tartars, & Garathedden Massud the son of Cai Kaus succeeded him by order of Argum Khan the successor of Ahmed Khan. Masud died A. Hegir. 687, & was succeeded by his Nepheu Caicobad the son of Feramorg the son of Caicans He revolted from the Tartars & Gazan Khan Emperor of the Tartars slew him & put an end to his kingdom A. Hegir. 700. A. C. 1300.

Rocknoddin Solyman Melec cum fratre Aladin. Solyman poisoned his brother Aladin & then was poisoned by the Tartars.         Raconadius = Melec = Azatines

Aladin fidius & successor Giathoddin = Gaiazadin – Azatines Michaelem Palæologum ad se profugum comiter habuit, in bello contra Baidonem Ducem Tartarorum Græcas copias Palæologo commisit, proditione suorum fugatur & magna ditionis parte exutus, pòst regiam quoque amittit & exul ad Palæologum tum Imperatorem se deportare cogitur simul uxorem & liberos secum ducens. Aliquandint Constantinoploi substitit, deinde ad Ænum oppidum. Postea a Tartanis captus & abductus in Tartaris bijt. Filios habuit 1 Salyman Raconaduim ² Azadinum, utrosque Melicum dictoque 3 Aladinum Caicobad Roonadinus Soliman parti susccessit 1244, 1245 or 1246. He poisoned his brother Aladin & was soon after poisoned by the Tartars having reigned 20 years Or rather Azatines (or Gaiathoddin) & his brother Melec Roconadinus Solyman were beaten by the Tartars as above & fled to the Greek Emperor & died in exile & the 3^d son (a child of 7 years old 1 at his fathers death) to whom of right the kingdom belonged the others being bastards, succeeded in part of the kingdom. And Melec the son of Azatines sometime after endeavoured to recover the kingdom

– & died A. C. 1244 & left three young Children Melec Rocknodin Solyman ¹¹9 years old, Gaiathodin or Azartines 9 years old & Aladin Caicobad seven years old the right heir, the two elder brothers being bastards. But Solyman reigned first & in the first or second year of the Greek Emperor Iohn Palæologus (A. C. 1261) was beaten by the Tartars & fled with his brother Azartines to the Greeks, & Aladin succeeded in part of the kingdom being in subjection to the Tartars. His kingdom was weak <032v> & the Princes of the Turks who fled the Euphrates & sheltered themselves under his protection.

For the better understanding these things I should tell you that in the Histories of Persia written since the conquest thereof by the Saracens the Kings of Persia in the first Dynasty are called Pischdadians, in the second Caianides in the third.                     The three last kings of the Cainides are Ardshir Daraz, Darius his bastard son & Darius who was conquered by Askander Roumi, that is Artaxerxes, Longimanus, Darius Nothus & Darius who was conquered by Alexander the Greek . The kings between the two Darius's are omitted which shews that the history is imperfect They reccon Ardshir the sixt king of this Dynasty And for these reasons this Dynasty was that of the Medes & Persians founded by Cyaxerxes. And the Dynasty of the Pischdadians was that of the Persians threatened by the Prophet Ieremy & mentioned by Ezekiel as newly destroyed. For the Persian historians make the first Dynasty end where the second begins.

They tell us also that there was a potent kingdom of Tartars or Scythians seated in Turguestan ot Usbec/ Tartary on the north side of the river Oxus & east side of the Caspian sea, whose king Afrasiab in the reign of the seventh king of the Pischdadian conquered the Persians & were soon after repulsed & driven back again beyond that river by Zab or Zoub a Prince descended from the former kings of Persia but returned with a potent army from beyond that river, & overcame Gushtasp the son of Zab & conquered all Persia putting an end to the race of the Pischdadian kings, & after a few weeks was driven out of Persia by the assistance of the first king of the second Dynasty & returning with a fresh army was routed & slain in the mountains of Media by the third king of the second Dynasty. [Whence it seems to me that in the reign of Cyaxerxes these Tartars invaded Persia on both sides the Caspian sea, sending Madyes westward to invade the Medes & Assyrians while Afrasiab invaded the Persians from the north east; & that the kingdom of the Pischdadians arose about the same time with the kingdom of the Assyrians there being but seven kings of the dynasty before it was invaded by the Tartars.

The eastern historians tell us indeed that the seven first kings of the Pischdadian Dynasty lived some of them a thousand years a piece & reigned all together above three thousand years. But this amounts to no more then to let us know that the Pischdadians & their contemporaries the Assyrians reigned in the fabulous ages of the Persians.

The same historians have made the kings of the second Dynasty reign too long To the first king of this Dynasty they assyine a reigne of 120 years. To the second a reign of 150 years. To the third a reign of 60 years. To the 4^th a reign of 120 years. To the fift, as much To the sixt called Artaxerxes Longimanus a reign of 112 years 112. By which it may be understood that we are to expect little of certainty from the Persian records concerning these ancient times.

While the Assyrians reigned at Nineveh & the Medes at Ecbatane & the Chaldeans at Babylon there were some other some other kingdoms in P Persia was into kingdoms. And particularly There was the kingdom of Elam, & the kingdom of Sheshak conquered by Babyl (Ier. 25.25, 26 [& 51.41.) The Histories of Persians written since the conquest of thereof by the Saracens tell its of several Dynastics of that the kings of the two first Dynasties of the Persians were called the Pischdadian & the Caiarides & that the three last kings of this second Dynasty were Ardsahir 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. The kings between the two Dariuse's are omitted & this shews that the history is imperfect: but by the names of these kings it appears that this Dynasty was that of the Medes & Persians mentioned in scripture. They tell us this Dynasty immediately follo{w}ed the first Dynasty they of the Pischdadians: & therefore this first Dynasty was that mentioned by Ieremy (c. 25.25.) & Ezekiel.

Those oriental historians tell us also ..... third king of the second Dynasty. Whence it seems to me ..... ages of the Persians & borders upon Usbec Tartary. For this kingdom had frequent wars with a potent kingdom of those Tartars or Scythians then seated on the northern side of that river. The histories of the Persians written since the conquest of Persia by the Saracens mention these two kingdoms calling them the kingdoms of Persia & Touran or Turguestan, & say that this kingdom of Persia was the first or oldest Dynasty of the kings of Persia & was immediately succededed by the second Dynasty. The kings of the first Dynasty they call Pischdadians, those of the second Caianides. And the three last kings of the 2^d Dynasty they name Ardsahir 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 the two Darius's which shews that their history of this kingdom is imperfect. But by the names of the three kings its easy to understand 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 that which was contemporary to the kingdom of Assyria & fell in the reign of Zedekiah.

Those oriental historians tell us also that Afrasiab king of Touran or Scythia beyond Oxus, in the reign of the seventh king of the Pischdadians passed that river & conquered the ....... & Cyaxerxes

Now while there were but seven kings of the Pischdadians before these wars of the Scythians began, it seems to me that this kingdom of the Persians arose about the same time with the kingdom of the Assyrians. The eastern historians tell us indeed that some of these Pischdadian Kings lived a thousand years a piece & that they reigned all together above three thousand years. But .... of the Persians.

Illustrissimo Domino D^no Abbatio de Bignon Is. Newton Salutem.

Quod munuscalum meum vobis non ingratum fuerit quam maxime gandeo. Et vestro judicio apprime tribuendum esse ceses nero si viris doctis post hac non displisuerint quæ in Libro meo tractantur. Quippe quæ numia brevitate redduntur subobscura, et ab hypothesibus Philosophicis hypotheticarum minus grata sunto, & ob rerum difficultatem a paucissimus legi possunt, At auspicijs vestis scienties florere in Gallia in omnium ore est, et {ijsdem} auspicijs Mathesis ad Philosophiam spectans, uti spero, flerebit. Vale

While the Assyrians reigned at Nineveh, there were some other Kingdoms in the remoter parts of Persia. For the Persian Historians tell us that the old dynasty of the kings of Persia was that of Pischdadians, & the second Dynasty was that of the Caranides

and his successors at length by conquering all Greece and the East erected the third Monarchy.

The rise of Kingdoms in Italy was like that in other places for Dionisius Halicarnassaus writes how the Region where Rome was afterwards built was first peopled by barbarians called Siculi. This Region saith he was afterwards taken from them by a long war by the Aborigines who till then lived in the Mountains in towns without walls spread all over the Region, but after the Pelasgi and other Greeks intermixed with them & helped them in their war against their Neighbours, the Siculi being expelledthey compassed many Cities with walls & became possest of all the territory between the two rivers Livis and He speaks of the Aborigines & Pelasgi here as of two peoples intermixed, but a little after he takes them to be but two names of one and the same people brought hither out of Peloponesus by Oenotrus the son of Lycaon as above; and thus describes how in the beginning they peopled the western part of Italy. Oenotrus saith he having found a larger Region fit for pasturage & tillage but yet for the most part uninhabited and where it was inhabited peopled but thinly: in a certain part of it purged from the barbarians he built Cities little and numerous in the Mountains: which manner of building was familiar to the ancients. Then he tells how after they were grown numerous so as to want room they made war upon the Siculi as above and forced them to leave Italy & seat themselves in the next Island, which was ever since from them called Sicily. This was that war in which the Aborigines first compassed many cities with walls as above. Out of such Cities as these arose afterwards divers <034v> Kingdoms in Italy amongst which the Aborigines or Latines for a long time made but a small figure tho augmented by the new Colonies of Ianus & Saturnus and Evander. They had a King before the Trojan war but without being united under him. For about 32 years after that war Afranius the son of Æneas built the City Alba and instituted there a Council of all the Cities under him with Sacrifices to Iupiter: In the time of which solemnity one of the young men of best note governed the City; and this Council was no doubt (like those of the Greeks) erected for uniting all the cities into one policy. The Vestal fire was also kept in Alba. This Kingdom allowing their Kings a reign of 21. years a piece one with another continued about 294 years, and then Romulus with a few Latines layd the foundation of Rome about 20 miles from Alba. Strabo^[64] tells us that this Æqui, Volsci and some Aborigines and the Rutuli & other greater and lesser Cities dwelt about Rome when it was first built and that they dwelt there freely village by village without being subject to any com̄on nation and that Romulus built Rome in a place assumed not by choice but by constraint which was neither fortified by nature nor had ground enough to supply the City nor men to inhabit it. For the Inhabitants of the Region lived each a part and rearhed to the very walls of the City, and regarded not the Albani. Suchwere Collatia Antonna Fidena, Lavinium, and other such like small Cities not above 4 or 5 miles from Rome. To get men therefore he built an Asylum withdrew a conflux of people, and with these he warred with the King of the Sabines at Lavinium & by compact inhabited his Kingdom and being now grown strong it may be presumed that other little free Cities around <035r> about easily complyed with him. For Dionysius Halicarnassaus^[65] tells us that this new kingdom as Romulus left it consisted of thirty Courts or Councells in so many towns, each with the sacred fire kept in the prytanæum of the Court, for the Senators who met there to performe sacred rites after the manner of the Greeks. Whence the Senators were called Curiales. But when Numa the successor of Romulus reigned, he having the severall fires in their own Courts instituted one com̄on to them all at Rome.

Synesius^[66] tells us that the Mountain Bombæa in Libya now Cyrene was hollowed and by the concurse of art and nature made a most safe retreat being to one that entered it full of intricate windings and passages like a Labyrinth & difficult to be got out of. And that some compared it to the Syringes and subterranean vaults in Egypt. This Mountain therefore and the Syringes in Egypt were the habitations of the first men; Like the labyrinth in Mount Ida in Crete and the Caturūbi in Italy. In the Syringes were Pillars of brick or stone on which the first inventions of arts & sciences were written by the ancient Egyptians. And no doubt this practice was begun before the Egyptians quitted those habitations to live in towns. A late Author tells us that in the westerne side of the mountain which runs in a right line on the easterne side of the Nile six hundred miles beginning about an hundred miles above Memphys, & ending at Syena, and the lesser Cataracts, there were Cells made all the way of which nothing appeared without but the doors, but upon entring into some of them he found them to be square rooms regularly cut in the rock and painted on the sides of the Rooms with various old paintings of men women and Children and boats upon the nile &c. In some of the rooms were pillars & stateus of men & women and figures of the Gods of Egypt with the heads of birds doggs <035v> oxen &c. In the sides of the rooms were passages into other rooms, and in the floors of all the rooms were square pitts descending downwards to vaults or cellars below: Whence it seems to follow that after the first Inhabitants by digging habitations in the mountains of Egypt had found out veins of mettalls, with the ways of excocting them and working them into tools and utensils they applying such tools not only to digging in rocks for Gold but also to the making these regular habitations and at length to cutting and carving of stones into regular figures; & before they quitted their habitations to live in Towns, they found out also other various arts painting and Navigation upon the Nile & embalming the dead after the way of Mummies. For the Boats upon the Nile were in form of funerall processions, and in Some of the Rooms were figures of Mummies. It seems therefore that most arts & sciences began in Egypt and were propagated thence to the Arabians and from them by the red Sea to the Chaldeans.

Of the original way of living in Caves of the Earth there are severall other instances. The Troglodyles on the Westerne border of the red Sea for many hundred miles together live in Caves of the earth without arts & sciences and government to this day; The Arabians live either in rocks or little hutts or tents. When Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed Lot and his family returned to the original way of living in a Cave in the side of a hill: And Tavernier in his Iourney from Aleppo through Mosull into Persia describes severall habitable Caves and Grottos made in Mountains and Rocks in Syria <036r> Mesopotamia and Assyria for poor people and sometimes he describes whole towns living in Caves.

When the Egyptians [quitted their way of living in Caves &] began to build houses and towns is uncertain. Probably the invention of sowing Corn put them first upon building houses in the lower Egypt for the convenience of tilling that Country the same being otherwise uninhabitable by reason of the yearly overflowing of the Nile. In Abrahams days the Towns of Syria seem to have been but few and Small and newly built & some of them were built in the days of Abraham as Beersheba Abraham and Lot lived in Tents, fed their flocks where they pleased and had a right to the wells which they dug.

We have showed above that when Cities were first built every City had its proper King and government. These Cities were at first but few in Number with very large fields, but in time as they grew populous sent out people to build villages in their fields for the Convenience of pasturage and tillage.

The herdsmen and Shepherds at first wandered up & down in tents seeking pasturage and water for their herds and flocks as the Arabians and the Tartars do to this day. And in Phœnicia and such other places as were fruitfull and well watered fixing their seats and buildings Cities and villages where they found the best pastures and water. After this manner Phœnicia began to be thinly peopled with Cities a little before the days of Abraham, And as the people encreased the Cities also encreased all the days of Abraham Isaac and Iacob. For when Abraham came first into Canaan the fields were not so far stockt and appropriated but that he and Lot fed their herds and <036v> flocks wherever they pleased, And the wells which they dug were their own. He first wandered in tents and dug the well which he called Beersheba then he built an altar there and planted the place with trees and lived there he & Isaac & Iacob, and the place became the City Beershaba. Iacob in his way from Mesopotamia came to Succoth and built him an house and made booths for his Cattle: therefore was the place called Succoth (Genes. 33.17.) And this was the Original of the City Succoth. The City Schechem had its name from Schechem the son of Hamor the Hivite Prince of the Country in the days of Iacob (Ios. 24.1, 32) the place where Iacob and Laban made a Covenant in mount Gilead and raised a heap of stones for a witness and called the heap Mizpah became the City Mizpah a principal City of Gilead (Gen. 31.48, 49. Iudg. 11.11, 29, 34. The City Hebron was built in the field of Mamre the Amorite the brother of Eschrol the brother of Aner who were contemporary to Abraham, and was thence called Mamre (Genes. 13.18. and 23.19. 35.27.) Afterwards it was called Kiriath Arba or the City of Arba: which Arba was a great man among the Anakins being the father of Anak their King & the Grandfather of Sheshay Ahiman and Talmai whom Caleb conquered in the days of Ioshua (Ioshua 14.15. & 15.13, 14. & Iudg. 1.20.) And then the Israelites called this City Hebron (Iudg. 1.10.) when Abraham came first into the land of Canaan, before he had dwelt there tenn years, he came & dwelt in the plane of Mamre & Mamres was then a young man (Gen. 13.18. & 14.13, 24.) and <037r> therefore the City Mamre whose feild was called the plains of Mamre was built about the same time that Abraham came into the Land of Canaan: And Tsoan or Tanis a Royal City of the lower Egypt was built seaven years after. (Num. 13.22.)

The Land of Canaan being more fruitfull then Arabia was therefore peopled with towns more early and for that reason Ismael, Moab, Ammon & Esau the Children of Abarham Lot, & Iacob went into Arabia, finding more room in that Country. Ismail had twelve Sons whose names are writed in Scripture by their towns and by their Castles twelve princes according to their Nations. (Gen. 25.16.) that is his twelve Sons built twelve towns and Castles which they called by their own names & reigning in them became twelve princes in the southern borders of Arabia Petræa. Esau had five sons and eleven grandsons which were Dukes that is princes reigning over so many Cities in Mount Seir. And Seir from whom the mountain had its name had seaven sons who were all of them Dukes that is founders of so many Cities & Nations in mount Seir. And this in the days of Isaac. For one of the wives of Esau was Aholibamah the daughter of Anah whose father of Grand father was Seir the Horite or Son of Hori, and the Concubine of Eliphaz the eldest Son of Esau was Timna the Sister of Lotan the Son of Seir. (Gen. 36.2, 12, 20, 22, 25.) Those Horites were driven out by the posterity of Esau; and so were the Emims by the posterity of Moab, and the Zuzims or Zamzummims by the posterity of Ammon. And how thinly Arabia petræa was inhabited by the Horites, Emims and Zuzims and Amalekites in the days of Abra <037v> Abraham may appear from hence , that they were all invaded and subdued by the four Kings whome Abraham beat with an army of 318 men. Gen. 13.

Ægypt being next to Canaan & Arabia petræa we reckon planted with Cities and towns about the same time with those Countries. For Tsoan or Tanis a Royal City of the lower Egypt was built seaven years after Hebron (Num. 13.22.) But what Kings reigned in the lower Egypt before the shepherds invaded it and what in the upper Egypt before they expelled the shepherds I do not finde recorded, and therefore shall begin the history of the Kings of Egypt with the expulsion of the shepherds. For before those days the Egyptians had no Letters, and their hieroglyphicks are not understood.

After Numa Servius Tullius, the field being divided, as above, into about 30 territories, on the hills and such places as being fortifyed by the nature of the place might safily protect the husbandmen, he prepared refuges which the Greeks call δήμους. Hither every body fled out of the fiels when any enemies came, and how they staid all night. Those had also their Magistrats to whose care it belonged to know the names of the husbandmen who contributed within the limits of that refuge, and their farms whereby they gott their living , and as often as it was necessary to call the Countrymen to their Arms, and to lay a Tax upon them those Magistrates called them together and taxed them. And that the number of the Country people might safily be known and reckoned he com̄anded them to build & dedicate Altars to the Gods who were Inspectors and Keepers of the refuge: which Altars they should yearly <038r> honour with sacrifices being all assembled together and institutes a most honourable feast which they called the village feast and create Laws concerning those sacra which the Romans observe.

Then being very desirous to unite and conjoyn the Cities of the Latine Nation into one body polytick lest being weakened by intestine discords and wars they should be deprived of their liberty by their neighbouring barbarians, he called together the cheife men out of the severall Cities declaring to them for what great designe about their com̄on advantage he had conveyed them. And by this speech he perswaded them to build a Temple with inviolable refuge at Rome at their common charge, in which the people of all the Cities being yearly assembled might performe publick and private sacrifices and buy & sell at set times. And if any quarrell or difference arose between them it might be determined at these Sacra. The decission of the Controversy being permitted to the arbitriment of the rest of the Cities. He built therefore at the com̄on charge of the Cities The Temple of Diana in the hill Aventinus, and wrote the Laws of the Compact made between these people in a pillar of brasse which remains to this day being erected in the Temple of Diana, and has the Character of the Greek Letters which the Greeks used of old. Thus far Dionysius. By this unquestionable record you may see how difficult it was to unite the Dividend Cities into one polity. You have also in the Refuges or fortified towns a Specimen of the first Cities & Kingdoms into which men convened when they began to make war upon one another. The Franks and Britains continued divided into many small Kingdoms till Iulius Cæsar invaded them, And the ancient Constitution of Spain was like that of other nations. For Strabo^[67] speaking in generall of the Collonies which the Greeks sent abroad into this and other Nations saith. <038v> The reason why the Greeks wandered to the barbarous nations seems to be the distraction of those Nations into small parties and Dynasties of such as through haughtiness: would not combine with one another: whence it hapned that they were weake against those who invaded them. This haughtiness prevailed chiefly among the spaniards being accompanied also with their crafty nature and double mindedness. For they following a treacherous and thievish way of life, being bold in little things but attempting nothing great, neglected the acquisition of great power & society. For if they would have combined to defend themselves by their joynt forces, the Carthaginians could not by an incursion have conquered the greater part of Spain without opposition, nor before them the Tyrians and Celti, who are now called Celtiberi & Verones, nor afterwards the Theives Variatho & Sertorius, & if any others designed a greater Dominion. Also the Romans by parts warring upon first one then another Dynasty of the Spaniards, spent much time in subduing them severally untill they conquered them all in the space of 200 years or above.

What Strabo tells us of the Greek Colonies may be safely applied to the Phœnician, namely that they by reason of the smallness & weaknesse of the ancient Kingdoms safily conquered where ever they pleased to seat themselves. Thus Carthage a Colony of the Phœnicians grew great before the Romans conquered it, but in the Region ^(a)[68] which lay between the Kingdom of Carthage & Mauritania and extended in length from Tritus to Melgonium ^a[69] six thousand furlongs. Strabo describes the Kingdoms of the ancient Inhabitants to have continued small and numerous till the Romans invaded them. <039r> For saith he, ^(b)[70]) that Region was divided after various manners seing those among whome it was divided were very many and the Romans according to their emergent Circumstances were friends to some and enemies to others so as in various manners to give to one and take from another. And as for Mauritania. Tertullian tells us ^c[71] Unicuique Provinciæ et Civitati suus deus est, ut Syriæ Astartes, ut Arabiæ Disares — ut Mauritaniæ Reguli sui. And who those Reguli were S^t Cyprian ^d[72]) thus expounds Mauri vero manifesto Reges suos volunt nec ullo velamento hoc nomen obtexunt Inde per gentes et provincias singulas varia Deorum religio mutatur dum non unus ab omnibus Deus colitur sed propria cuique majorum suorum cultura servatur.

And in generall all the southerne parts of Africa continue to be divided into many small Kingdoms to this day. East India continued divided into such Kingdoms till the reign of Alexander the Great, Germany & the Northerne parts of Europe till the Empire of the Romans. And America till the Invasion of the spaniards.

Chap. II.

For better understanding the ancient state of the Nations and how the four Monarchies arose, the Chronology of those times is to be rectifyed. That of the Oriental Nations is stated by the Scripture, The Annals of the Phœnicians and the Æra of Nabonassar, but that of the Greeks and Latines is very uncertain. For the Europeans had no Chronology ancienter then the Persian Monarchy And whatever chronology they have of ancienter times has beene framed since by reasoning and conjecture. Plutarch tells ^a[73] us that the philosophers anciently delivered their opinions in verse as Orpheus, Hesiod, <039v> Parmenides, Zenophanes Empedocles, Thales, but afterwards left off the use of verses: And that Aristarchus, Timocharis Aristillus, Hipparchus did not make Astronomy the more contemptible by describing it in prose after Eudoxus Hesiod Thales had wrote of it in verse./ Among those that wrote in verse are to be reckoned Pythagoras ^b & Solon ^c[74] For Solon ^c[75] wrote in verse the Atlantic discourse as he had learnt it of the priests of Egypt, but did not finish it. And even all the seaven wise men were addicted to poetry as ^d[76] as Anaximenes affirmed. Till those days the Greeks wrote only in verse and while they did so there would c. be no Chronology, nor any other history then such as was mixed with poetical fancies. Pliny ^e[77] in reckoning up the inventors of things tells us that Pherecides Syrius taught to compose Discourses in prose in the reign of Cyrus and Cadmus Milesius to write history. And in another place ^f[78] he saith that Cadmus Milesius was the first that wrote in prose. And Iosephus ^g[79] saith that there were no Inscriptions in the Temples and publick monuments of the Greeks so old as the Trojan War, and that the oldest publick writing was the Laws of Draco a little before the days of Pisistratus. And Suidas ^h that Draco made his laws in the 39.^th Olympiad & that amongst the Greeks there was no publick Table older then these laws. Iosephus ^i[80] saith further that the Greeks who first attempted to write history, that is Cadmus Milesius & Acusilaus Aegibus and those that followed them were but a little before the expedition of the persians against the Greeks, and that these first writers varied much from one another about the same things. Hellenicus frequently differed from Acusilaus about the Genealogies and <040r> Acusilaus corrected Hesiod & Ephorus corrected Acusilaus & Timæus Ephorus very often. It seems those first Historians indeavoured out of the old Poets to state the Genealogies of the ancient Greeks that by them and the successions of Kings or priests conserved in Some Cities they might recover an Account of times past. One of those Historians was Phererides Atheniensis who in the reign of Darius Hystaspis or soon after wrote of the Antiquities and ancient Genealogies of the Athenians in ten books, and was one of the first European writers of this kinde; & one of the best whence he had the name of Genealogus, and by Dionysius Halicarnassensis^[81] is said to be second to none of the Genealogers. Another was Epimenides ^m[82] not the philosopher but an historian who wrote of the ancient Genealogies. Another was Acusilaus Argivus of whom Suidas saith that he was a most ancient historian, & wrote Genealogies out of Tables of Brass which his father as was reported found in a Corner of his house who hid them there may be doubted. Hellanicus who was twelve years older then Herodotus digested his History by the ages (or successions) of the priestesses of Iuno Argiva, others digested theirs by those of the Archons of Athens or Kings of the Lacodemonians. And hence it came into fashion in those days to reckon times past either by the Number of Generations or by the successions of Kings counted for so many generations or by round Numbers of years gathered from thence by conjecture as you may see in Herodotus and some others. At length the Greeks attempted to count the number of Olympic victors and to reckon by the Olympiads. And first <040v> Hippias the Elean, as Plutarch tells us^[83] Published a Breviary of the Olympiads supported by no certain arguments. that is by conjecture without the authority of former writers He was contemporary to Plato, & Plato wrote a dialogue to deride him for his ignorance.. For the Arundelian marbles now composed sixty years after the death of Alexander the great. (An. 4. Olymp. 128) and yet mention not the Olympiads, so that this Æra was not then received, tho it be now the principal Æra of the Greeks. In the next Olypiad Timæus Siculus a very learned author wrote a history in severall books down to his owne times according to the Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the Kings of Sparta the Archons of Athens and the preistesses of Argos with the Olympionic Victors so as to make the Olympiads suit with the Genealogies and poetical Histories according to the best of his Iudgment, and where he left off Polybius began and carried on the history. And Istor at the same time wrote against Timæus composing a contrary history of ancient Attica in many books, and calling him Epitimæus for his frequent and bitter reprehensions. About the same time or a little after Philochorus wrote of the Olympiads of the Kings and Archons of Attica against Demon another Historian. And other Authors followed each confuting those that wrote before and adding something of his owne. And this seems to be the original of counting by the Olympiads and of the technicall Chronology of the Greeks: which how uncertain it is, and how little credit it gained among the Greeks of those times may be <041r> understood by this passage of Plutarch.^[84] The Congresse saith he, of Solon with Cræsus some think they can confute by Chronology. But a History so illustrious & rectified by so many witnesses and which is more, so agreeable to the manners of Solon, and worthy of the greatness of his mind & of his wisdom I cannot perswade my selfe to reject because of some chronical Canons as they call them, which six hundred correcting, have not yet been able to constitute any thing certain in which they could agree amongst themselves about repugnance. And as for the Chronology of the Latines that was still more uncertain. Plutarch ^a[85] represents great uncertainty in the originals of Rome, and so doth Servius. ^b[86] The old Records of the Latines were burnt by the Gauls 64 years before the death of Alexander the great. And Q. Fabius Pictor the oldest Historian of the Latines lived an hundred years later then the King.

Diodorus in the beginning of his History tells us that he did not define by any certain space the times preceding the Trojan war, because he had no certain foundation to rely upon; But from the Trojan war according to the reconing of Apollodorus Atheniensis whome he followed there were eighty years to the returns of the Heraclides into Peloponesus & from that period to the first Olympiad there were three hundred and twenty eight years, computing the times from the Kings of the Lacedemonians. Apollodorus wrote his Chronology about 200 years after the death of Alexander the great, and Diodorus his history about sixty years after that, and yet in all this <041v> time Chronologies could frame nothing more certain about the times between that war and the Olympiads then by computing from the Kings of the Lacedemonians, that is from their number. Euphorus & his Contemporaries Callisthenes & Theopompus omitted the first ages as uncertain and began their histories with the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus. These writers flourished in the reign of Philip and Alexander, Ephorus & Theopompus being the Schollar of Isocrates Varro reckoned all the ages before the first Olympiad to be fabulous & those which followed to be historical. Had the Number of years of every Kings Reign been anciently recorded Chronologers by sum̄ing up those years would safily have determined the length of times past, but for want of such records they were fair to guess at the length of times past by the number of Kings which had reigned in this or that city or by the Number of successive Priests of Iuno Argiva or by the number of successive generations in this or that family. And this guessing has occasioned the uncertainty of the times preceding the Olympiads and the many Contradictions of Chronologers about those and the following times down to the reign of the Kings of Persia, the Greeks having no Historians before the time of that Empire, no Chronologers before the Empire of the Greeks.

Now all Nations before they began to keep exact Accounts of time have been prone to raise their Antiquities and make the lives of their first <042r> Fathers longer then they really were. And this humor has been promoted by the ancient contention between severall nations about their antiquity For this made the Egyptians and Chaldeans rayse their antiquities higher then the truth by many thousands of years. The seaventy have added to the ages of the Patriarchs. And Ctesias has made the Assyrian Monarchy above 1400 years older then the truth. The Greeks and Latines are more modest in their Originals but yet have exceeded the truth. For in stating the times by the reigns of those their Kings which were ancienter then the Persian Monarchy they have put those Reigns equipollent to generations &, accordingly made them one with another about an age a piece, reckoning three ages to an hundred years. For they make the seaven Kings of Rome who preceded the Consuls to have reigned 244 years which is one with another 35 years a piece. And the 14 Kings of the Latines between Æneas & Numitor or the founding of Rome to have Reigned 425 years which is above 30 years a piece, & the first tenn Kings of Macedon (Caranus &c.) to have reigned 353 years which is above 35 years a piece, and the first ten Kings of Athens (Cecrops &c:) 351 years which is 35 years a piece, and the 8 first Kings of Argos (Inachus Phoroneus &c.) to have reigned 371 years which is above 46 years a piece. And between the return of the Heraclides and the end of the first Messenian war the ten Kings of Sparta by one race (Eurysthenes, Agis &c) the nine by the other race (Proclos, Sous &c.) the ten of Messene (Cresphontes Epytus &c) and the nine of Accadia (Cypselus, Olæas &c.) took up 379 years which is 38 years <042v> a piece to the tenn Kings and 42 years a piece to the nine. And between the return of the Heraclides & the beginning of the first Messenian war. The eight Kings of Sparta by one of the races (Eurysthenes, Agis &c) reigned 359 years, that is one with another 45 years a piece, and the five Kings of this race between the end of the first Messenian war, and the beginning of the reign of Darius Histaspis (Eurycrates, Anaxander &c.) reigned 202 years which is above 40 years a piece Thus the Greeks have made the Kings of their severall Cities who lived before the times of the persian Monarchy to reign about 35 or 40 years a piece one with another, which is a length so much beyond the Course of Nature as is not to be credited. For by the ordinary Course of Nature Kings reign one with another about 18 or 20 years a piece. And if in some instances they reign 5 or 6 years longer, in others they reign as much shorter. Eighteen or twenty years is a Medium. So the 15 Kings of Iudah who succeded Solomon reigned 390 years which is one with another 22 years a piece. The 15 Kings of Israel after Solomon reigned 259 years which is 17 1/4 years a piece. The 18 Kings of Babylon (Nabonasser &c) reigned 209 years which is 11 2/3 years a piece. The ten Kings of Persia (Cyrus &c) reigned 208 years which is almost 21 years a piece. The 16 successors of Alexander the Great in Syria (Seleurus &c) reigned 244 years which is 15 1/4 a piece. The 11 in Egypt (Ptolomeus Lagi &c) reigned 277 years which is 25 years a piece. The 10 in Macedonia (Aridæus &c) 156 years which is 15 1/2 years a piece. The 28 Kings of England (William the <043r> Conqueror and his successors) 634 1/2 years which is 22 2/3 years a piece. The first 24 Kings of France (Taramond &c) 458 years which is 19 years a piece: The next 24 Kings of France (Ludovicus Balbus &c) 451 years which is 18 3/4 years a piece. The next 15. (Philippus Valesius &c.) 315. which is 21 years a piece. And all the 63 Kings of France 1224 years which is 19 1/2 years a piece.

So then the Greeks have made the reigns of their ancient Kings too long, & by that means have raised their Antiquities too high. The Olympiads being quadrennial could not be stirred; but in adjusting the Reigns of their Kings to the Olympiads they have made them reign earlier then they really did.

For Lycurgus who in the 18^th Olympiad restored the Discus they have made as old as Iphitus who restored the Olympiads, & Iphitus they have made above an hundred years older then the Æra of the Olympiads, and the return of the Heraclides into Peloponesus they have made about 328 years older then this Æra, though it was scarce above 60 or 70 years older; and the Trojan war they have made 200 years older then Sesak, tho by the consent of all antiquities it was later then Sesostris who is Sesak and fell in with the days of Belus the father of Dido.

And as they have raised higher the times of their Kings, so to helpe out their Chronology they have endeavored to raise the Æra of the Olympiads proportionaly higher by feinging that before the first Olympiad wherein Coræbus was victor there were celebrated about 28 other Olympiads, the memory of which was entirely lost. Let these 28 imaginary Olympiads be rejected and the Reigns of the ancient <043v> Kings of Greece be shortened in due proportion & adjusted to the times of the true Olympiads & of the Kings of Phœnicia and Palestine to whome they were contemporary, and we shall finde that those ancient Kings of Greece reigned about 18 or 20 years a piece one with another as the Kings of all nations have done ever since. In all History of certain credit I have not found tenn Kings together who reigned one with another full 30 years a piece. In all the Chronology of the Greeks preceding the Persian Monarchy the Kings of Greece are made to reign one with another above 30 years a piece; and therefore their reigns are feigned too long for the Course of Nature, and must be shortned.

Generations from Father to Son may be reckoned one with another about 34 years a piece or three generations to an hundred years. But if the Generations proceed by the eldest Sons they are shorter; so that three of them may be reckoned to Eighty years. And the Reign of Kings is still shorter because Kings are succeeded not only by their eldest Sons but sometimes by their brothers, and sometimes they are slain, or deposed and succeeded by others of an equal or greater age, especially in elective & turbulent Kingdoms. But the Greeks in computing times past by the Reigns of their Kings, and chiefly by those of the Kings of Sparta have equalled those Reigns to Generations, as if the Kings had always succeeded from Father to Son: and by this means they have raised their Antiquities much too high, as we shall finde by repeating the

wards Servius Tullius, the feild being divided, as above, into about 30 territories, on the hills & such places as being fortified by the nature of the place might easily protect the husbandemen, he prepared refuges which the Greeks call δημους. Hitherto every body fled out of the field when any enemies came & here they often staid at night. These had also their magistrates to whose care it belonged to know the names of the husbandmen who contributed within the limits of that refuge & their farms whereby they got their living & as often as it was necessary to call the countrimen to their arms & to lay a tax upon them, those Magistrates called them together & taxed them. And that the number of the country people might easily be known & recconed he commanded them to build & dedicate altars to the Gods who were inspectors & keepers of the refuge, which altars they should yearly honour with sacrifices being all assembled together & instituted a most honourable feast which they called the village-feast & wrote laws concerning those sacra which the Romans still observe. — Then being very desirous to unite & conjoyn the cities of the Latine nation into one body politick least being weakened by intestine discords & wars they should be deprived of their liberty by the neighbouring barbarians he called together the chief men out of the several cities declaring to them for what great designe about their common advantage he had convened them: — And by this speech he persuaded them to build a Temple with an inviolable refuge at Rome at their common charge in which the people of all the cities being yearly assembled might perform publick & private sacrifices & buy & sell at set times & if any quarrel or difference arose between them it might be determined at these sacr, the decision of the controversy being permitted to the arbitriment of the rest of the Cities. he built therefore at the common charge of the cities the Temple of Diana in the hill Aventinus, & wrote the laws of the compact made between these people in a pillar of brass which remains to this day being erected in the temple of <045r> Diana & has the characters of the greek letters which Greece used of old. Thus far Dionysius. By this unquestionable record you may see how difficult it was to unite the divided cities into one polity. You have also in the refuges or fortified towns a specimen of the first cities & kingdoms into which men convened when they began to make war upon one another.⨳

The Francks & Britains continued divided into many small kingdoms till Iulius Cæsar invaded them, & the ancient constitution of Spain was like that of the other nations. For Strabo^[87] speaking in general of the Colonies which the Greeks sent abroad into this & other nations saith. The reason {why} the Greeks wandered to the barbarous nations seems to be the distraction of those nations into small parties & dynasties of such as through haughtiness would not combine with one another: whence it happened that they were weak against those who invaded them. This haughtiness prevailed chiefly ~ among the Spaniards being accompanied also with their crafty nature & double mindedness. For they following a treacherous & thievish way of life, being bold in little things but attempting nothing great, neglected the acquisition of great power & society. For if they would have combined to defend themselves by their joynt forces the Carthaginians could not by an incursion have conquered the greater part of Spain without opposition, not before them the Tyrians & Celti who are now called Celtiberi & Verones, nor afterwards the thieves Variatho {& Ser}Sertorius, & if any others designed a greater dominion. Also the Romans by parts warring upon first one & then the another dynasty of the Spaniards, spent much time in subduing them severally untill they conquered them all in the space of 200 years or above.

What Strabo tells us of the Greek colonies, may be applied also to the Phœnicians, namely that they by reason <046r> of the smalness & weakness of the ancient kingdoms easily conquered whoever they pleased to seat themselves. Thus Carthage a colony of the Phœnicians grew great before the Romans conquered it, but in the region ^a[88] which lay between the kingdom of Carthage & Mauritania & extended in length from Tritus to Melagonium six thousand furlongs, Starbo describes the kingdoms of the ancient inhabitants to have continued small & numerous till the Romans invaded them. For, ^b[89] saith he, that region was divided after various manners, seeing those among whom it was divided were very many & the Romans according to their emergent circumstances were friends to some & enemies to others so as in various manners to give to one & take from another. And as for Mauritania ^c[90] Tertullian tells us, Unicuique provinciæ et civitati suus Deus est ut Syriæ Astartes ut Arabiæ Disares — ut Mauritaniæ reguli sui. And who these Reguli were ^d[91] S^t Cyprian thus expounds: Mauri verò manifestè reges suos colunt, nec ullo velamento hoc nomen obtexunt. Inde per gentes & provincias singulas varia Deorū religio mutatur dum nom unus ab omnibus Deus colitur sed propria cuique majorum suorum cultura servatur.

If we pass from hence into India we shall find that country divided into many kingdoms even when Alexander the great invaded it, which was above two hundred years after Media & Persia were grown into a Monarchy.

One of the first great kingdoms in the world was that of Egypt. For ^f[92] Pliny in recconing up the first inventors of things ascribes to the Egyptians the invention of a royal city & to the inhabitants of Attica that of a popular one. Which is as much as to say that Athens was by the Greeks accounted the first city in the world under which other cities united into a popular dominion by a Common Council, & the Egyptian Thebes the first city which became the seat of a Monarchy . For Thebes was famous in Homers days when the four monarchies & their head cities were not yet talked of. For, ^g[93] saith Strabo, Homer knew nothing of the Empires of the Medes & Assyrians, otherwise ^h[94] naming the Egyptian Thebes & her riches & those of the Phœnicians, he would not have passed over in silence the riches of Babylon <047r> Nineveh & Ectabane. The antiquity of this kingdome makes it difficult to give an account of the originals of Egypt but some footsteps there are thereof in history.

For in the seven years of plenty Ioseph laid up the corn in the cities of Egypt, the corn of the field which was round about every city laid he up in the same Gen. 41.48. And therefore the cities of Egypt being in those days the places in which the Egyptians inned their harvests they must have been not much further asunder then o^R villages & therefore as numerous & small as the ancient cities of Syria & δήμοι of the Medes & Greeks. Which is an argument that the first constitution of Egypt was like that of other nations. For these cities like δήμοι of Greece united under common Councils & thereby grew into kingdoms.

For the common Councils of the Greeks were set up in imitation of those set up before in Egypt, & the remains of such Councils continued in several parts of Egypt till the days of Herodotus. The Oracle, saith he, at Dodona is very like that at the Egyptian Thebes, & the way of divining in the Greeks Temples is taken from Egypt. For the Egyptians were the first authors of making Conventions & Solemnities & Councils & the Greeks learnt these things from them. Of which thing I have this argument that their way was in use from ancient times but that of Greece lately instituted. Neither do the Egyptians assemble once every year but frequently, as in other places so chiefly & most studiously in the City Bubastis to the honour of Diana, secondly in the city Busiris to the honour of Isis. In which city seated in the middle of the Egyptian Delta is the greatest Temple of Isis. Isis is she who in Greek is called Δημήτης that is Ceres. Thirdly in the city of Sais to the honour of Minerva. Fourthly in Heliopolis to the honour of the sun. Fiftly in the city of Butis to the honour of Latona. Sixtly in the city of Pampremis to the honour of Mars. Herodotus adds that these Conventions were celebrated with great sacrifices & other solemnities & were so numerous that in Bubaste alone there met seven hundred thousand men & weomen besides children. You have a specimen of them in the three annual feasts of the Iews. <048r>

This was peculiar to the Egyptians that they worshipped their Gods not in the images of men like the other nations but in those of various beasts. The temples of Egypt, saith^[96] Lucian, are beautifull & large being built of costly stones but if you seek a God within you will find either an Ape or a Stork or a Swallow or a Cat. To represent things by Hieroglyphics was the sacred language of the ancient Egyptians & the birds beasts & fishes which they worshipped were nothing else then the Hieroglyphicks symbols or banners of their first kings & their worshipping them was certainly older then the days of Moses because described & prohibited in the second commandment. Thou shalt not make to thy self any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters below the earth thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them (Exod. 20.) that is thou shalt not make nor worship the likeness or image of any fowle in the heaven or beast or insect in the earth or fish in the waters as thy fathers worshipped them in Egypt. Deut.4.16, 17, 18. Iosh. 24.14. When therefore we are told that the Egyptians worshipped a Crocodile in Arsinoe the Ichneumon in the city of Hercules, and Eagle & a Ram in Thebes, a Goat & the god Pan in the temple of the Mendesians, a sheep in Sais, a Cat & Diana in Bubastis, a Dog & Mercury in Cynopolis, the fish Oxyrinchus in the city Oxyrinchus, the fish Latus in Latopolis, a wolf in Lycopolis, a Cynocephalus or Ape in Hermopolis, a Lyon in Leontopolis, a mouse and spider in Athribis & other creatures in other cities: we are to understand that in these Symbols the several cities worshipped their founders & first kings & that this worship was older then Moses & even as old as the idolatry of Egypt. By the founders of cities I mean nor their first inhabitants but those who erected common Councils in them & thereby founded their dominion over other which cities and <049r> built them accordingly. The worshipping of such kings gave the first beginning to Idolatry in Egypt Chaldea & the neighbouring nations from whom it spread into Europe & other places. And the multitude of cities in Egypt which had their several Temples, Gods, Conventions, High Priests & modes of worship argues the multitude of kingdoms & nations in Egypt when idolatry began.

The manner how the first cities of Egypt grew into kingdomes will be best understood by the constitution of the kingdom of Athens. For the Athenians were a colony of Egypt & Cecrops the first king of Athens was an Egyptian of the Nome or Province of Sais & ^a[97] formed that kingdome after the mode of the Egyptian kingdoms. He taught Athens the worship of the Egyptian Goddess Minerva who was worshipped in Sais. He distinguished the people into three orders the Gentry soldiers & mechanicks as the Egyptians did, for the Egyptian Gentry were their Priests. He ordeined that the soldiers should be husbandmen & till all the land in time of peace as the soldiers did in Egypt. He first joyned one man & one woman according to a law in Egypt ordeined by Vulcan. He first introduced the Egyptian Gods among the Greeks & as the Egyptian Priests ware linnen garments so did the Athenian. And, saith Diodorus, the sacrifices and ancient customes of the Athenians & Egyptians were alike. Now whilst he thus imitated the Egyptian customes in other things we may reccon that he imitated them also in the Athenian polity of uniting many δήμοι & little cities into greater polities by common Councils For we have told you out of Pliny that the people of Attica were the first among the Greeks who thus united & out of Herodotus that the Greeks in these things followed the example of the Egyptians.

It was the custome of the first ages for every king to have in his city a Prytaneum or place of public worship for his people. And if any cities united into one polity under any common city they erected a common Prytaneum in that city without abolishing the particular ones. This was done in Italy after the example of the Greeks & in Greece after the example of the Egyptians. And as the Prytanea in the several cities of Greece were the remains of ancient kingdoms, so were the temples conventions & religions in Egypt. So when Moses tells <050r> us that Ioseph married the daughter of Potiphera Priest of On, we may understand that On had been once the Metropolis of a kingdom but before Ioseph's days the Priests of on lost their dominion as kings & became subject to the kings of another city. And the like of as many other cities as had Temples or Prytanea, without kings & also of the smaller cities whose Prytaneaus were disused & extinct. For as in Greece when single cities became united into bigger kingdoms, their Prytaneums in time became disused & the common Prtytaneum the capital city only remained, so it is to be understood of Egypt.

These capital cities with their Prytaneums & Conventions seem to have laid the foundation of the Nomes or nations of Egypt, every Nome having a capital city with a Temple & Priest & God & annual conventions for the whole Nome & a Iudge for doing justice: so that the Nomes seem to be the remains of ancient kingdoms, the Priests of the capital cities retaining their Priesthood long after they lost their armies & power as kings. For in the first ages all kings were high Priests & Iudges, [& all high Priests were kings (after Melchizedec's order of Priesthood)] till they became subject to other kings more potent then themselves. These little kingdoms of Egypt began to grow into bigger kingdoms before the days of Ioseph & by degrees grew in one monarchy before the days of Solomon. And then Sesak made a new regulation of the Nomes & built their Temples more sumptuously. How they grew into one monarchy is the next thing to be explained.

those Councils with great sacrifices & festivals for assembling the people, & by means of those great councils grew into kingdoms first less & then greater, the captains of their armies becoming their kings. For the remains of such Councils continued in several parts of Egypt till the days of Herodotus. The Oracle, saith he, at Dodona is very like that at the Egyptians Thebes, & the way of divining in the Greeks Temples is taken from Egypt. For the Egyptians were the first authors of making conventions & solemnities & Councils & the Greeks learnt these things from them. Of which thing I have this argument, that their way was in use from ancient but that of the Greeks lately instituted. Neither do the Egyptians assemble once every year but frequently, as in other places, so chiefly & most studiously in the city of Bubastis to the honour of Diana, secondly in the city of Busiris to the honour of Isis. In which city seated in the middle of the Egyptian Delta is the greatest temple of Isis. Isis is she who in Greek is called Δῃμήτηρ> that is Ceres. Thirdly in the city of Sais to the honour of Minerva. Fourthly in Heliopolis to the honour of the Sun. Fiftly in the city Butis to the honour of Latona. Sixtly in the city Pampremis to the honour of Mars. Thus for Herodotus, mentioning only the principal Conventions & omitting the rest. These conventions he saith were celebrated with great sacrifices & other solemnities & were so numerous that in Bubaste alone there met seven hundred thousand men & weomen besides children. You have a specimen of them in the three annual festivals of the Iews. They seem to have laid the foundation of the Nomi or Provinces into which Egypt {divided} & by {{consequence}} to have been as numerous {illeg}{illeg}his testi{illeg}{illeg} ges & towns united into Poli by the means of after the same manner afterwards by their ex reigns of Cecops Amphict{yon} & the first kingdoms I so early recconed. Athe{ns} knew <051v> make Herodotus^[98] say that the Egyptians could never live a moment of time without a king.

fift year of Asa & then began to revolt, that is at the death of Sesostris. For Herodotus tells us that Sesostris was the only king that enjoyed the empire. Sesostris therefore began his reign in the 17 year of Solomon & warred till the 14^th year of Rehoboam & then returned from his wars into Egypt & reigned there eleven years more in which time he employed the conquered nations in building the Cities & Temples of Egypt & doing other great works & died in the fift year of Asa. Whence I gather that he was the brother of Solomon's Queen. For since he conquered the Libyans in his fathers lifetime, he may be recconed above 20 years old when he began to reign & so was about the age of Solomon's spouse & her little sister who had no breasts.

Pheron is said to be the son of Sesostris. Pliny calls him Nuncoreus & Diodorus Sesostris the second. They say he made no wars but upon throwing a dart into the river Nile became blind & after ten years upon a miraculous recovery of his sight placed memorable guifts in the Temples & particularly in Heliopolis two Obelisks an hundred cubits long & eight broad, one of which was carried to Rome by Caius. I suspect that he reigned only under his father & died before him because according to Manetho Rhampses was the eldest son & successor of Sesostris. Or rather I suspect that he was the same king with Sesostris. For one of his names was Sesostris & another Pheron or Pharaoh the common name of the kings of Egypt, & as Pheron fell blind so Sesostris in his old age fell blind & slew himself. And if Pheron was once blind I had rather beleived that he died blind like Sesostris then that he recovered his sight in such a miraculous way as Herodotus describes.

Proteus reigned next after Pheron according to Herodotus, but he seems rather to have been a Viceroy set over the lower Egypt then a soveraign king. Fof he was a Memphite of ignoble extraction & reigned at Memphys & is thereby distinguished from the race of the Theban kings. And the name Proteus being a Greek word <054r> which signifies a chief man or Prince, seems to be not the proper name of a man but a title of honour. For had it been a proper name the Greeks would have retained the Egyptian word without translating it whereas Herodotus tells us that it is the kings name in Greek that is the Greek word of the same signification with his name or title in the Egyptian language, & Diodorus tells us that this man's name was Cetes. There were several Princes of Egypt called Proteus one of which came with Cadmus into Europe. And its probable that the frequent changing of the person might give occasion to the Greeks to feign that Proteus put on all shapes. Some make him a Phœnician reigning neare Pharus where Alexandria was afterwards built as Tzetzes^[99]

And this agree best with his being a God of the sea But the Proteus of Herodotus reigned in Memphys & left a sumptuous Temple there to the south of the Temple of Vulcan. In this Temple was the house of Venus Hospita by which name Herodotus conjectured that Helena the daughter of Tyndarus was meant having heard that she stayed in Egypt with Proteus & was called Venus Hospita & being told so by the Priests of Egypt. For when Alexander stole her from her husband Menelaus the Greek, in his flight he was driven with her upon the coast of Egypt & there suspected by Thonis governor of the place & sent to Proteus at Memphys & Proteus examining the matter deteined Helena (as Herodotus relates) & sent home Alexander. Then the Greeks demanding her of the Trojans made war upon Troy thinking Alexander had carried he thither but after the destruction of Troy Menelaus went for her into Egypt. And to this history saith Herodotus Homer alludes in mentioning the errors of Paris with Helena by sea upon the coast of Sidon before the war & voyage of Menelaus into Egypt after it. By this History the Proteus of Herodotus reigned in the time of the Trojan war, & therefore governed the lower Egypt under Amenophis or Memnon.

and by consequence in or neare the beginning of the reign of Iosiah while he was yet a Minor & the Government was in the hands of the High Priest & Ancients of Ierusalem: at which time was Phraortes vanquished & slain by the Assyrians, & therefore he & Arphaxad were coincident in time & so must be one & the same of the Medes. These wars were made in the 12^th & 13 years of Nebuchadnezzar & Arphaxad slain in the 12^th year according to Ieromes version of the original Chaldee; & Phraortes was slain by the Assyrians 75 years before the 30 years reign of Cyrus according to Herodotus, & by consequence in the year of Nabonassar 11 or 12^th year of Chiniladan. And therefore if Arphaxad & Phraortes be one & the same king of the Medes Nebuchadonasar & Chiniladan agree in the years of their reign & actions & are one & the same king of Assyria. This 12^th year falls in with the 7^th or 8^th year of Iosiah in the 8^th year of his reign while he was yet young began to seek after the God of David his father (2 Chron. 34.3.) & by the extraordinary impression which this great danger & deliverance made upon him in his youth became the best of all the kings of Iudah. And in the 12^t year of his reign being delivered from the army of the Assyrians he began to purge Iudah & Ierusalem from Idolatry, & destroy the high places & groves & Altars & images of Baalin. And in the eighteenth year upon the death of his enemy Nebuchadonasar & division of the Assyrian Monarchy he began to repair the Temple & restore the true worship. From that division arose a new Æra of the kingdom of Babylon to which Ezekiel relates in the beginning of his Prophesy where he saith: Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year [that is in the 30^thyear of the Chaldeans] which was the 5^th year of Iehojachins captivity, the word of the Lord came unto me in the land of the Chaldeans. Ezek. 1.1.

Phraortes was succeeded by his son Cyaxerxes otherwise called Oxyares Astibares & Ashuerus, who was more warlike then any of his predecessors & brought the army of the Medes into better order & discipline & in revenge of his fathers death prosecuted the war against the Assyrians routed them in the beginning of his reign & laid siege to Nineveh, but was on a sudden set upon & opprest in battel by a great inundation of Scythians who s from thence made their way towards Egypt but were met & bought off by Psammiticus & returning infested the kingdom of the Medes for about 28 years together from their first inrode. But at length Cyaxerxes invited the Scythians to a feast made them drunk slew many of them subdued or expelled the rest returned to the war against Nineveh & together with Nebuchadnezzar who married a Mede & commanded the army of his father Nabopolasser king of Babylon took & demolished the City, Sardanapalus being the last king thereof ^a[100] Polyistor takes Sardanapalus for this Nabopolasser, but he was rather his contemporary.. This action the Greeks usually ascribe to the Medes the Iews to the Babylonians Tobit Iosephus & Ctesias to both.

In the meane time Pharaoh Necho the successor of Psammiticus came with a great army out of Egypt the King of Assyria & being denyed passage through Iudea beat the Iews at Magiddo or Magdolus before Egypt, slew Iosiah their king marched to Carchemish or Cerculium a town of Mesopotamia upon Euphrates & took it, possest himself of the cities of Syria sent for Iehoahaz the new king of Iudah to Riblah or Antioch deposed him there, made Iehojakim king in the room of Iosiah & put the kingdom of Iudah to tribute.

But ^a[101] Nebuchadnezzar ^b[102] assisted by the Astibares king of the Medes in the third ^a[103] year of Iehojakim, the year ^c[104] after they had destroyed Nineveh, & in the 18^th or 19^th year of his father Nabopolasser came with an army ^{a b[105][106]} of Babylonians, Medes, Syrians, Moabites & Ammonites to the number of 10000 chariots 180000 foot & 120000 {horse} & laid wast Samania, Galilee, Scythopolis & the Iews in Galeatis & besieged ^d[107] Ierusalem & took king Iehojakim alive & bound him in chains for a time & carried to Babylon Daniel & others of the people & ^d[108] part of what gold & silver & brassthey found in the Temple. And in ^e[109] the 4^th year of Iehojakim they routed the army of Pharaoh at Carche <056r> mish by Euphrates & by pursuing this war ^f[110] took from the King of Egypt whatever apperteined to him from the river of Egypt to the river of Euphrates. And ^g[111] whilst Nebuchadnezzar was acting in Syria he heard of the death of his father Nabopolasser, & having ordered his affairs in those parts he returned to Babylon leaving the captives & his army with his servants to follow him. And from hence forward he applied himself to adorn Babylon with magnificent walls & gates & stately p{a}laces & pensile gardens as Berosus relates.

Iudea was now in servitude under the King of Babylon being subdued in the third year of Iehojakim so that the first year of his reign over Iudea was the fourth of Iehojakims (Ier. 25.1.) & tho their kings rebelled against him yet it prospered not. For the King of Babylon came against them with an army & in the eighth year of his reign over Iudea & eleventh or last year of Iehojakims took Ierusalem & bound Iehojakim in fetters to carry him to Babylon & after three months more took also his son Iehojakin in the end of the year & carried him to Babylon,^[112] & in his 19^th year & the eleventh year of Zedekiah in the fourth & fift months of the year took & burnt the City & Temple. This or the preceding year was a sabbatic year (Ier. 34.14, 15, 16.) & fell in with the 158^th or 159^th year of Nabonassar & therefore his first year fell in with the 140^th or 141^th year of Nabonassar, that is with the 18^th or 19^th year of his father Nabopolassar who reigned 21 years according to the Canon. Berosus & Iosephus. Nebuchadnezzar therefore invaded Iudea & Syria in the 17^th or 18^th year of his father in the year of Nabonassar 130 or 140, & after three or 4 years, hearing of the death of his father returned to Babylon & his armies followed him & yⁿ Iehojakim rebelled For Iehojakim served him three years & then turned & rebelled against him. 2 King. 24.1.

< insertion from lower down f 55v > Nebuchadnezzar (according to the Canon & Berosus) reigned after the death of his father 43 years & died in the year of Nabonassar 186. The Iewish year in which he dies was the 37^th of the captivity of Iehojachin, 2 King. 25.37. In this year On the 27^th day of the last Iewish month his son & successor Evilmerodach brought Iehojakin out of Prison, & by the singular frinedship wherewith he treated him it may be presumed that he released him in the very beginning of his reign & by consequence that Nebuchadnezzar died in the last month of the Iewish year, that is in the second or third month of the year of Nabonasser. From that month of the year Nabonasser 186 {subduct} 37 entire years & the epocha of the 37 years will fall upon or near the beginning of the year of Nabonasser 149. In This year therefore or the year before (accordingly as you reccon the the year of the captivity inclusively or exclusively) began the first year of Zedekiah, & eleven years <056v> eleven years after that is in the year of Nabonasser 160 or the year before Ierusalem was taken & burnt. Not in the year 160 for that was two years after the sabbatick year & therefore in the year before as we affirmed above.

<057r> years according to the Canon & Berosus & then ^a[113] slain by his sisters husband Nergalasser who in behalf of his young son Laboasserdach reigned four years according to the Canon & Besosus. And then his son Laboasserdach (according to Berosus,) reigned nine months more Some take him for Belsazer but he was too young. Belsazer was born before the 5^t year of Zedechiah (Baruch 10, 11, 12) & therefore was above 32 years old at the death of Nebuchadnezzar. ^a[115] Laboasserdach was slain in a feast by a conspiracy of his friends who by common consent gave the Kingdom of Nabonnidus a Babylonian & one of the conspirators Iosephus calls him Belsaser & Herodotus confirms it by saying that he was the son of Nitocris an eminent Queen of Babylon & of Labynitus, meaning that Labynitus who reigned in Babylon at the time of the great Eclips predicted by Thales & therefore was the great Nebuchadnezzar. In the ^b[116] seventeenth year of his reign which by summing up the years mentioned above is the 69^th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign over Iudea Cyrus invaded Babylonia routed the army of Nabonidus in battel & laid siege to Babylon & Babylon ^c[117] held out & the next year which is the seventithe of the Iewsih servitude was taken (Ier. 51.46.) in summer (v. 39) in the time of a Feast when the Babylonians were dissolute & in drink (Herod. l. 1. Ier. 51.39, 57) by diverting the river Euphrates & entring the City through the emptied channel (Herod. l. 1. Xenophon l. 7) & by consequcne after midsummer. For the river by the melting of the snow in Armenia overflows yearly in the beginning of summer but in the heat of summer grows low & Athenæus (lib. 12) tells us out of Berosus that on the 16^th day of the month Lous (which answers to August) the Babylonians kept a feast annually which lasted five days together, in which the servants ruled over their masters as in the Saturnalia. This feast therefore by reason of its duration & the lowness of the river being so fit for Cyrus's purpose was probably chosen to put his designe in execution While Cyrus beseiged Babylon Nabonidus lay shut up in Borsippa & by reason of the great strength of both places the impatient Iews used this Proverb: Babylon & Borsippa are a bad signe to the law. But Babylon being taken Nabonidus surrendered himself & Cyrus gave him <058r> the government of Carmania & released the Iews from their seventy years captivity.

The same account of these seventy years may be gathered from the reign of the Kings of Tyre. For Iosephus relates out of the Phœnician records that Tyre was beseiged by Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years together in the reign of its King Ithobalus. Now this siege began after the eleventh year of Iehojakims captivity when Ierusalem had been newly taken & burnt with the Temple (Ezek. 26.) & it ended in a little before the seven & twentieth year of the same captivity (Ezek. 29.17.) that is in or a little before the 35^th year of Nebuchadnezzar reign over Iudea: & in the end of that siege Ithobalus their king was slain (Ezek. 28.8, 9, 10.) & after him according to the Tyrian records Baal & others as in the following Table.

In the 14^th year of Iromus say the Tyrian records the reign of Cyrus began in Babylonia. Subduct therefore six years & something more (the rest of the reign of Iromus) from the 76 years & 3 months, & there will remain 70 years for the reign of the kings of Babylon over Iudea untill the reign of Cyrus.

Some date the seventy years from the captivity of Iehojakin others from that of Zedekiah, but they are plainly the duration of the reign of the King of Babylon over Iudea & over the neigbouring nations & ended with this fall of his kingdom & with the first year of Cyrus 2 Chron. 36.21, 22. Ier. 25.1, 12. Yet there seems to be another seventy years of Gods indignation against Ierusalem & the cities of Iudah which began with the siege of Ierusalem in the 18^th year of Nebuchadnezzar Anno Nabonass. 158 & ended with the rebuilding of the Temple in the second year of Darius Hystaspis Anno. Nabonass. 228 Zech. 1.12.

Now its very remarkable that this Prophecy was the

For understanding this matter its further to be observed that the Trojan warr was in the 3^d generation after the voyages of Cadmus & Europa recconing about 25 years to a generation to a generation amounts to 70 or 80 years.. For Homer represents that Idomenus & Meriones the sons of Deucalion & grand sons of Minos the son of Iupiter were at the Trojan warr. He allows but one Minos whom he calls the son of Iupiter & father of Deucalion. This Minos was the son of Europa & Asterius king of Crete or as others say of Europa & the Cretan Merchant who brought her from Phœnicia & according to the Poets of Europa & Iupiter. Minos had many children videlicet Androgeus, Deucalion, Astrea, Ariadne, Phædra, Acacillis & was contemporary to Ægeus king of Athens & his children to Theseus the son of For Minos made warr upon Ægeus and died soon after him & Ægeus For Ariadne fell in love with Theseus & followed him from Crete to Naxos & was there taken away from him by Bacchus, who was the son of Semele & grandson of Cadmus, Afterwards Deucalion reigning after Minos at Crete gave his sister Phædra to Theseus King of Athens in marriage. Theseus was about 40 years older then Hellena for he took her captive when she was but ten years old & he forty. And Demophoon the son of Theseus & Phædra was at the Trojan warr & so was Menestheus the successor of Theseus. Ino the daughter of Cadmus was stepmother to Phrixus who sailed from Thebes to Colchos just before the voyage of the Argonauts

Now considering all of these things & composing them together it seems to me the rapture of Europa affecting the Phœnicians they noted it in their Annals,& there the Phœnician historians above mentioned found it conjoyned with the league which Hiram made with Solomon. But the rapture of Hellena & voyage of Menelaus in search of her not concerning the Phœnicians, they noted not that in their Annals but the Historians understanding that the raptures of Io, Europa, Medea & Hellena had relation to one another, concluded that they followed one another within some short time such as might be recconed within the compass of the reign of one king. I place the rapture of Europa therefore in the beginning of the reign of Solomon & thence reccon to the destruction of Troy three generations, which after the rate of 30 years to a generation may end about the 54^th or 60^th year after the death of Solomon. About which time I reccon that Memnon was in the vigor of his age making upon foreign nations tho he came not as far as Troy. Homer reccons that the last year of the Trojan ‡‡ warr to be the 20^th from the rapture of Hellena. Subduct these 20 years & the first 14 years of Rehoboams reign & there will remain about 16 or 26 years between the return of Sesach into Egypt & the rapture of Hellena, which I account a competent time for the voyages of Phyrxus & the Argonauts during the reign of Æetes. For I reccon that Sesach in the return of Æetes with part of his army at Colchos to govern the nations conquered in those parts, that Phyrxus to avoid the malice of his stepmother Ino the daughter of Cadmus, fled from Thebes to Colchos with his goods in a ship on which a Ram was carved & was there deteined by Æetes that the Argonauts followed him to bring back the ship & goods & brought back also Medea the daughter of Æetes ✝ < insertion from f 58r > Æetes ✝ that in their return or soon after Hercules with six ships invaded the Trojans slew Laomedon, brought away his horses & daughter Hesione, & set Priamus on the throne, that Æetes & Priam sending embassadors to the Greeks for satisfaction but without success, Priam ordered his son Alexander to revenge the injury privately & thereupon Alexander insinuated himself into the friendship of Menelaus & at length stole away his wife & goods. All which might conveniently be done with the space of twenty years. < text from f 57v resumes >

All nations have be prone to make their first antiquities ancienter then the truth. And this they have done by making the reigns of their kings too long <058v> by turning collateral reigns into successive ones, by repeating the same king under different names, & sometimes under the same name & by feigning kings. So the Greeks of one Minos have made two & I suspect they have done the same by Cecrops, Erictheus & Pandion & some others. And the reigns of their ancient kings they have made much too long for the ordinary course of nature. allotting them one with another 30 or 40 years apiece or above whereas Thirty years a piece for generations & twenty years apiece for reigns seems to me a moderate allowance taking them one with another. And sometimes the kings are in great measure fabulous as in the catalogues of the ancient kings of Assyria Media Peloponasesus & Germany. And by the like means they have made Inachus eight hundred years older then David to whom I reccon him contemporary.

For illustrating of these recconings it further observable that Theseus was contemporary to Androgeus Ariadne & Phædra the children of Minos the son of Europa & to Bacchus the son of Semele the daughter of Cadmus & so was two generations later then Cadmus & Europa, And Hellen may be recconed a generation younger then Theseus, On which accompt if by a moderate recconing we allow one or two years from the rapture of Europe to the birth of Minos & about 24 years more to the birth of Androgeus Ariadne & Phædra & eighteen or twenty years more to the murder of Androgeus & ten or twelve years more to the of Theseus into Crete & his accquaintance with Ariadne & Phædra, the daughters of Minos & about 10 or 15 years more to his rapture of captivating Hellena & six or eight years more to the rapture of Hellena by ALexander there will be about 55 or 60 years from the rapture of Europa to the rapture of Hellen by Alexander. And the like number of years may be gathered by allowing about 20 years from from the rapture of Europa to to the birth of Bacchus & 25 or 30 years more to the rapture of Ariadne by Bacchus from Theseus & 10 or 15 years more to the rapture of Hellen by Alexander. In these recconings I allow but one Minos, him who was the son Of Europa & Asterius . For as the Egyptians by putting their contemporary kings in successive order, by respecting the name of the same person, & by making their kings reign longer then they did have raised their antiquities much beyond the truth so have the Greeks used the same artifice & therefore the way to approach the truth in the history of these nations is to lower their antiquities by all reasonable abatements. [The first Minos is by the Poets called the son of Iupiter, the second was the father of Deucalion Androgeus, Ariadne Phædra & Astræa, Homer mentions them both as the same man] Homer allows but one Minos, whose grandson Idomoneus was at the Trojan war & is made by Homer to speak thus

May it please your Lordships

Chap. 1. The Chronology of the ancient Greeks from the time of the Trojan war.

Chap. 2. The Chronology of the Greeks before the trojan war.