Drafts of the 'Short Chronicle'
Mercurius dulcis, or in that of a red opake volatile earth called Cinnaber, or in that of a red or white precipitate, or in that of a fluid salt; & in destillation it forms into vapour, & being agitated in vacuo it shines like fire. And after all these changes it returns again into its first form of Mercury. Eggs grow from insensible magnitudes & change into animals, Tad-poles into Froggs & Worms into Flyes. All Birds Beasts & Fishes, Insects, Trees & other Vegetables with their severall parts, grow out of water & watery tinctures & salts, & by putrefaction return again into watery substances. And water standing a few days in the open air, yields a tincture, which (like that of a Mault) by standing longer yields a sediment & a spirit, but before putrefaction is fit nourishment for animals & vegetables. And among such various & strange transmutations why may not nature change bodies into light & light into bodies?
[Editorial Note 2] <5v>The upper Egypt was in those days divided into many kingdoms reigning at Coptos, Thebes, Thais, Elephantis, &c which by conquering one another grew into one kingdom from which the people were called Coptites & Ἀια-γύπτιοι Egyptians. Over this kingdom reigned Misphragmuthosis in the days of Eli.
After the manner of the common council of the five Lords of the Philistims, the Greeks set up the Amphictyonic Council first at Thermopylæ by the influence of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion, & a few years after at Delphi by the influence of Acrisius. The Councils worshipped Ceres & therefore were instituted after her death. Among the cities whose deputies met at Thermopylæ I do not find Athens, & therefore do not reccon Amphictyon among the kings of that city.
896 Hadad or Benhadad king of Syria dies & is deified at Damascus.
852 Hazael king of Syria dies & is deified at Damascus. These Gods Hadad & Hazael with Arathes the wife of Hadad the Syrians worshipped in the sepulchres or Temples & continued to worship them till the days of Iosephus the Iew, & boasted thier antiquity not knowing, (saith Iosephus, that they were novel.
963 Amphyction brings the 12 Gods of Egypt from Thrace into Greece & these are the Dij magni majorum gentium. About this time the Son & singing weomen of Sesostris began to be celebrated in Thrace by the names of Apollo & the Muses. And in imitation of these Muses the daughters of Pierus a Thracian were also celebrated by the name of Musæ Pierides
956 Sesac is killed by his brother. He had cut channels from the Nile to all the cities of Egypt & thence was called in Egypt by the names of that river Sihor or Seris, Ægyptus & Nilus. The Greeks hearing the Egyptians lament O Siris & Bou Siris called him Osiris & Busiris. The Arabians called him Bacchus. that is, the Great. For all agree that Osiris & Bacchus were the same man. The Phrygians called him Ma-fors or Ma-vors, that is, The Valliant, & by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests [he was painted by an Hercules with pillars, & because] & in his expedition to the straits mouth the Africans & Egyptians fought with clubs he is represented with pillars & a club. This is that Hercules who according to Cicero was born upon the Nile & whom the Tyrians called Melcarthus & the Indians Belus. [He was succeded by his son Orus Vpon his death the Lybians under the conduct of Antæus & Atlas invaded Egypt but were expelled by Orus his son & successor.] Hitherto Iudea had laboured under great vexations: but hence forward Asa king of Iudea had peace ten years.
947 The Ethiopians invade Egypt & drown Orus in the Nile. Bubaste the sister of Orus kills her self by falling from the top of an house, & their mother Isis or Astræa goes mad. And thus ended the reign of the Gods of Egypt.
Phryxus & Helle flee from their stepmother Ino the daughter of Cadmus. Helle is drowned in the Hellespont so named from her but Phryxus arrives at Colchos.
In the Temple or Sepulcher of Amenophis at Abydus above the room where his body lay buried was a circle of 360 cubits in compass plated over with gold . Each cubit represented a day of the year inscribed upon it with the heliacal risings & settings of the stars on that day. And this monument continued till Cambyses spoiled the Egyptian Temples. This monument seems to be in memory of the kings settling the Egyptian year of 365 days. The length thereof might be settled by celestial observations in the days of Ammon & Sesac, but Memnon seems to have established it in the room of the old Lunisolar year & fixt its beginning to one of the cardinal points. Its beginning or Thoth in the first year of Nabonassar fell on the 26th of Febr. And
The five days added to the calendar year of 360 days the Egyptians dedicated to Osiris Isis Orus senior, Typhon & Nephthe the wife of Typhon, saying that those days were added to the year when those five Princes were born. They were added therefore in the reign of Ammon. In the sepulchre of Amenophis at Abydus they placed a circle of – days of Cambyses. After they had found the length of the solar year in the reign of Ammon, they determined the solstices & equinoxes according to the mean motion of the Sun, the equated motion being not yet found out, & there introduced this year in the room of the old Lunisolar year, fixing the beginning thereof at the vernal equinox, & in memory thereof erected this sepuchral monument to Amenophis. Vpon the first year of Nabonassar the Thoth of this year fell upon the 26th of Febr. Which was 33 days & five hours before the vernal Equinox according to the suns mean motion. And the Thoth of this year moved backwards 33 days & 5 hours in 137 years before the Æra of Nabonassar began, that is 884 years before Christ. And if it began on the day next after the vernal equinox, it might begin three or four years earlier. And there we place the death of this king. The Greeks feigned that he was the son of Tithonius & therefore he was born after the return of Sesac into Egypt with Tithonius & many other captives , & so might dye about 76 years old for he lived long.
886. Vlysses in his errors found Calypso (whom Homer calls the daughter of Atlas) in the island Cades or Cales: & the ancients at length feigned that this island (which from Atlas they called Atlantis) had been as big as all Europe & Afric but was sunk into the sea.
883. Dido He tells us himself that he wrote – And Virgil makes Æneas still alive.
865. Hesiod flourished in the age next after the wars of Thebes & Troy & that this age was to end when the men then living grew hoary & dropt into the grave, & therefore it was but of an ordinary length, & Herodotus tells us that Hesiod & Homer were but 400 years older then himself.
Henceforward to the end of the first Messenian war, reigned ten kings of Sparta by one race & nine by another, ten of Messene & nine of Arcadia which (recconing according to the ordinary course of Nature about 18 or 20 years to a reign, one reign with another) will at a medium scarce take up above 200 years. And recconing the seven reigns more in each of the two races of the kings of Sparta to the battel of Thermopylæ to amount to about 140 years more: the return of the Heraclides may be about 340 years earlier then that battel or 820 years before Christ.
820. Cephren reigns in Egypt & built another pyramid. 800 Mycerinus began the third Pyramid & his sister & successor Nitocris finished it. 778 Asychis reigned in Egypt & built the eastern Portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly, & large Pyramid of brick. Egypt begins to break into several kingdoms. 7{5}0 Boccharis reigns in part of Egypt.
[Editorial Note 3]Qu. 8. Do not all fixt bodies when heated beyond a certain degree emit light & shine, & is not this emission performed either by the vibrating motions of their parts? or else by the vibrating motions of some subtle medium which is pervading them & is diffused through their pores [emit by means of their heat, & which as often as it is emitted to a sensible distance from the body appears like flame, but when it only lurks within the pores of the body, makes the body appear like a burning coal of fire?]
Iohanan filius Eliasib & pater Iaduæ adultus erat anno septimo Artaxerxis Longimani et in Sacerdotio summo successit regnante Dario Notho Ezra 10.6. Nehemiah 12.22. 23, 26.
458 Iohanan pater Iaduæ jam adultus
428 Nehemiah fugat Eleazarum vel Iohananis vel Iaduæ fratrem qui matrimonio acceperat filiam Sanballatis Nicaso dictam.
424 Darius Nothus regnat.
425 Sanballates templum in monte Gerazim construit & Eleazarum constituit primum eius sacerdotem summum.
420. 418 Iohanan fit Sacerdos summus Iudæorum
410. 404 Hitherto the Priests & Levites were recconed & written in the chronicles of the Iews before the death of Nehemiah. And either Iohan or Iadua was then High Priest. Nehem. 12.22, 23, 26. And here ends the sacred History.
412 Huc usque Sacerdotes et Levitæ numerabanti sunt & scripti in Chronicis Iudæorum ante mortem Nehemiæ: quo tempore vel Iohanan vel Iadua erat Sacerdos summus Iudæorum. Nehem. 12.22, 23, 26. Et hic desinit historia sacra
390 Alexander Ægus Alexandri magni filius cum matre Roxana occiditur & anno sequente Hercules Alexandri magni filius alter etiam cum matre Barsina occiditur. Et monarchia Græcorum jam in regna quatuor principalia dividitur, eorum regiones post annos quatuor assumerat etiam nomina regum Ptolomæus in Ægypto, Seleucus in Syria et Babylonia, Antigonus cum filio Demetrio in Asia minore, Cassander & paulo post Lysimachus in Macedonia.
282 Philatærus Pergami Præfectus, deficit a Lysimacho Macedoniæ, Thraciæ, Bithyniæ, Phrygiæ, Lydiæ et Lycaomiæ rege.
241 Attalus Pergami Præfectus Asiam occupat et a militibus rex salutatur
168 Regnum Macedonicum ad Romanos transfertur.
131 Regnum Pergamia Romanos dono Attali descendit.
65 Syria in Provinciam a Pompeio reducitur.
30 Alexandria capitur Ægyptus in Provinciam Romanorum religitur. Et sic Imperium Romanorum Imperio Græcorum succedit.
To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of his Majestys Treasury.
May it please your Lordships
In obedience to your Lordships Verbal Order to lay before you a Proposal or Memorial for coyning copper money. I humbly represent that the Copper be imported into a Mint by weight in barrs of a due fineness & size for cutting blanks out of them of such a weight as his Majesty shall appoint; that the fineness be such that when the barrs are heated red hot at one end they will spread thin under the hammer without cracking; that the Scissel be delivered back to the Importer by weight & the Importer be paid for the excess of the Copper imported above the Scissel returned back & after the rate of per pound weight; that it be in the power of the Copper or Mint Master to refuse such copper as doth not beare the assay or is not well sized; that when a parcel of copper money, suppose half a Tun or a Tunn is coyned, the same be well mixed by shovelling it forward & backward in a heap before sufficient witnesses & then assayed in four or five places & the Assays entered in books & the tale of the heap estimated by taking a Medium of all the assays [with an allowance of about the 8th or 10th part of a penny in the pound weight for preventing complaints about the tale]; & the money when put into baggs by weight to be delivered to the people & the weight & price of every bagg entred in books. ☉ ☉ And three pence or four pence allowed in every quarter of a hundred weight for turning the scales, & preventing clamours about the weight or tale. And out of every heap assayed, three or four pieces may be put into a Box & kept to be examined at the years end before whom your Lordships shall appoint & a remedy allowed of an half penny in the pound weight. The Officers requisite in this service will be A Smith for forging the Dyes & Puncheons, A Graver for graving & polishing them A or body of moneyers A Moneyer or body of moneyers for cutting out the Blanks & coyning them & taking care of the coyning tools, A Clerk for entring the proceedings in books. And Another Clerk (who may be called the Kings Clerk) for doing the like in behalf of the King & his people . The Assays may be made by the Moneyers or Smith. And the copper may be blanched either in barrs by the Importer or the blanks by the Moneyer.
[Editorial Note 4]The Introduction
The Greek Antiquities are full of Poetical fictions because they wrote nothing in Prose before the conquest of Asia by Cyrus. The Phereides, Sirus & Cadmus Milesius taught to write in Prose. Phereides Atheniensis about the end of the reign of Darius Hystaspis, wrote of Antiquities & digested his work by Genealogies, & was recconed among the best of the Genealogers. Epimenides the historian proceeded also by Genealogies. And 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 the Archons of Athens or Kings of the Lacedemonians. Hippias the Elian about 30 years before the fall of the Perisan Empire published a Breviary or list of the Olympic Victors. Ephorus the disciple of Isocrates formed a Chronological history of Greece beginning with the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and ending with the siege of Perinthus in the 20th year of Philip the father of Alexander the great But he digested things by generations, & the recconing by Olympiads was not yet in use. The Arundelian Marbles were composed sixty years after the death of Alexander the great, (An. 4 Olymp. 128) & yet mention not the Olympiads. But in the next Olympiad, Timæus Siculus published an history in several books down to his own times according to the Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the kings of Sparta, the Archons of Athens, & the Priestesses of Argos with the Olympic Victories, so as to make the Olympiads & the Genealogies, & successions of Kings, Archons, & Priestesses, & the poetical histories suit with one another according to the best of his judgment; & where he left off, Polybius began & carried on the history. So then about 50 or 60 years after the death of Alexander the great they began to set down the generations reigns & successions in numbers of years, & by putting reigns & successions equipollent to generations & three generations to an hundred or 120 years (as appears by their Chronology) they have made the antiquities of Greece three or four hundred years older then the truth. And some have made the Antiquities of Sicyon, Ægypt, Chaldea, Assyria & Germany about a thousand years older then the first use of Letters. And this was the original of the technical Chronology now in use. Eratosthenes wrote about an hundred years after the death of Alexander the great. He was followed by Apollodorus & these two have been followed ever since by Chronologers. But how uncertain their Chronology is & how doubtful it was reputed by the Greeks of those times, may be understood by these passages of Plutarch. [1]Some reccon Lycurgus, saith he, contemporary to Iphitus & to have been his companion in ordering the Olympic festivals; amongst whom was Aristotel the Philosopher; arguing from the Olympic Disc which had the name of Lycurgus upon it. Others supposing the times by the succession of the kings of Lacedæmon, as Eratosthenes & Apollodorus, affirm that he was not a few years older then the first Olympiad. First Aristotel & some others made him as old as the first Olympiad, then Eratosthenes Apollodorus & others made him above an hundred years older And yet it was in the 18th Olympiad that he gave the Disc. And in another place Plutarch tells us: [2] The congress of Solon with Crœsus some think they can confute by Chronology. But a history so illustrious & verified by so many witnesses, & which is more, so agreeable to the manners of Solon & worthy of the greatness of his mind & of his wisdom I cannot persuade my self to reject because of some Chronical Canons as they call them, which hundreds of Authors correcting, have not yet been able to constitute anything certain amongst them selves about repugnancies. It seems the Chronologers had made the Legislature of Solon so ancient to consist with that congress.
And as for the Chronology of the Latines, that is still more uncertain. Plutarch represents great uncertainties in the Originals of Rome, And so doth Servius. The old Records of the Latines were burnt by the Gauls 64 years before the death of Alexander the great. And Quintus Fabius Pictor the oldest historian of the Latines lived an hundred years later then that King.
Now since Eratosthenes & Apollodorus computed the times by the reigns of the kings of Sparta & (as appears by their Chronology still followed) made the 17 reigns between the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus & the battel at Thermopylæ take up 622 years which is after the rate of 36 years to a reign, & yet a race of 17 kings of that length is no where to be met with in all history, & kings at a moderate recconing reign but about 18 or 20 years a piece one with another: I have drawn up the following Chronological Table so as to make Chronology suit with the course of nature & with the sacred history & with its self without the many repugnancies complained of by Plutarch. I do not pretend to be exact to a year. There may be errors of five or ten years & sometimes twenty, & not much above.
Some by feigning not only long reigns but also many names of Kings who never reigned have made the antiquies of Sicyon Germany, Ægypt, Chaldea Assyria Persia & China above a thousand years older then the truth; & some of them much older then the flood, & yet before the use of Letters. the names and actions of men could not be remembered above 80 or 100 years after their deaths. For which reason I allow no history of things done in Europe above 80 years before letters were brought in by Cadmus, & sometimes where it reconciles difficulties reject the names of kings who did nothing memorable. So in the kingdom of Sicyon that Ægialeus the founder of that kingdom may be contemporary to his brother Phoroneus I have rejected all the kings between Apis & Epopeus & taken those two to be one and the same king. the names Apis Epaphus & Epopeus being one and the same. So also finding that the kings of Egypt named by Herodotus who did anything memorable, are sufficient for the times between the reign of Sesac & Psammiticus I have rejected all the rest who did nothing memorable as feigned by the Priests of Egypt to make their kingdom look ancient. And so all the names of the kings of Assyria set down by Ctesias & his followers I have rejected as feigned because they have no Assyrian names, not having any affinity with the Assyrian names in Scripture except that of Sardanapalus, & I have therefore considered Pul & Tiglathpilasser as the real founders of that empire.
A Short Chronicle from the first memory of things in Europe to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the great.
The times are set down in years before Christ.
The Canaanites who fled from Ioshua retired in great numbers into Egypt & there conquered Timaus Thamus or Thammuz king of the lower Egypt, & reigned there under their kings Salatis, Beon, Apachuas, Aphophis, Ianies, Assis &c untill the days of Eli & Samuel. They fed on flesh & sacrificed men after the manner of the Phenicians & were called Shepherds by the Egyptians who lived only on the fruits of the earth & abominated flesheaters. The upper parts of Egypt were in those days under many kings reigning at Coptos, Thebes, Thais, Elephantis &c which by conquering one another grew by degrees into one kingdom. [from which the people were called by themselves Coptites & by the Greeks Ἀια-γύπτιοι Egyptians.] Over this kingdom reigned Misphramuthosis in the days of Eli.
An. ante Chr. 1120. About this time Methres reigned over the upper Egypt from Syene to Heliopolis & his successor Misphramuthosis made a lasting war upon the Shepherds soon after & caused many of them to fly into Palestine, Idumea, Syria & Libya & under Lelex, Æzeus, Inachus, Pelasgus, Æolus the first, Cecrops, & other captains, into Greece. And these strangers built the first houses in Greece. Before those days Greece & all Europe was peopled by wandering Cimmerians & Scythians from the back side of the Euxine sea who lived a rambling wild sort of life like the Tartars in the Northern parts of Asia. Of their race was Ogyges in whose days the Egyptian Shepherds came into Greece. The rest of the Shepherds were shut up by Misphramuthosis in a part of the lower Egypt called Abaris, or Pelusium.
1100 The Philistims (strengthened by the access of the Shepherds) conquer Israel & take the Arc. Samuel judges Israel.
1085. Hæmon the son of Pelasgus reigns in Thessaly.
1080. Lycaon the son of Pelasgus builds Lycosura. Phoroneus the son of Inachus Phoronicum or Argos, Ægialeus (the brother of Phoroneus & son of Inachus) Ægialeum or Sycion, the oldest towns in Peloponnesus. Till then they built only single houses scattered up & down in the fields. About the same time Cecrops built Cecropia in Attica & Eleusine the son of Agyges built Eleusina. And these towns gave a beginning to the kingdoms of the Arcadians, Argives, Sicyons, Athenians, Eleusinians &c
1070. Amosis or Tethmosis the successor of Misphramuthosis drives the Shepherds out of Abaris & abolishes the Phenician custom in Heliopolis of sacrificing men. By their access the Philistims become so numerous as to bring into the feild against Saul 30000 chariots, 60000 horsmen & people as the sand on the sea shore in multitude.
1069 Saul made king of Israel & by the hand of Ionathan gets a great victory over the Philistims. Eurotas the son of Lelex, & Lacedæmon who married Sparta the daughter of Eurotas, reign in Laconia, & build Sparta. Deucalion flourishes
1060 Samuel dies.
1059 David made king Hellen the son of Deucalion flourishes
1048. The Edomites are conquered by David. Their mariners fly from the red sea to the Mediterranean & take Sidon & the Sidonians who fled from them build Tyre & make Abibalus their first king
1045 The Phenician mariners who fled from the red sea, being used there to long voiages for the sake of Trafic, begin the like voiages on the Mediterranean, & sailing as far as Greece, carry away Io the daughter of Inachus, who with other Greecian weomen came to their ships to buy their merchandise. The Greek seas begin to be infested with Pyrates. 1047 Acrisius marries Eurydice the daughter of Lacedæmon & Sparta.
1044. The Syrians of Zobah & Damascus are conquered by David.
1042. Nyctimus the son of Lycaon reigns. Deucalion still alive.
1041. Many of the Phenicians & Syrians flee from Sidon & come under the conduct of Cadmus, Cilix, Phœnix, Memblianius, Nicteus, Thasus, Alymnus, & other captains into Asia minor, Crete, Greece & Lybia, & introduce letters, Music, Poetry, the Octaeteris, Metalls & their fabrication, & other arts & sciences & customs of the Phenicians. At this time Cranaus the successor of Cecrops reigned in Attica, & in his reign & the reign of Nyctimus the Greeks placed the flood of Deucalion. This flood was succeded by four ages or generations which according to Hesiod ended with the Trojan war, & so place the destruction of Troy four generations (or about 134 years) later then the coming of Cadmus, recconing with the ancients three generations to an hundred years. With these Phoœ;nicians came a sort of men skilled in the religions & mysteries arts & sciences of Phenicia & setled in several places under the names of Curetes, Corybantes, Telchines, & Idæi Dactyli.
1037 Erechtheus reigns in Attica 1035 The daughter of Ceres a woman of Sicily is stoln, & Ceres in seeking her daughter comes into Attica & there teaches the Greeks to sow corn: for which benefaction she was deified after death. She first taught to Triptolemus the young son of Celeus king of Eleusine.
1035. The Idæi Dactyli find out iron in mount Ida in Crete & work it into armour & iron tools & thereby give a beginning to the trade of Smiths & Carpenters in Europe & enable the Greeks to build their houses better. They nurse up the Cretan Iupiter in a cave of the same mountain.
1034. Ammon reigns in Egypt. He conquered Lybia & reduced that people from a wandering salvage life to a civil one, & taught them to lay up the fruits of the earth, & from him Lybia & the deserts above it were anciently called Ammonia. He was the first who built long & tall ships with sails, & had a fleet of such ships on the Red sea, & another on the Mediterranean. Till then they used small & round vessels of burden without sails invented on the Red Sea, & kept within sight of the shore. For enabling them to cross the seas without seeing the shore the Egyptians began in his days to observe the stars. And from this beginning Astronomy & Sailing had their rise. Hitherto the Luni-solar year had been in use: but in his days & in the days of his sons & grandsons by observing the Heliacal risings & settings of the stars they found the length of the Solar Year, & made it to consist of five days more then the twelve Calendar months of the old Lunisolar year. Æolus Xuthus & Domus the sons of Hellen flourish.
1028 Oenotrus the youngest son of Lycaon (the Ianus of the Latines) led the first colony of the Greeks into Italy & there taught them to build houses. Perseus born of Ægina the daughter of Asopus & mother of Æacus born.
1025 Arcas the son of Callisto & grandson of Lycaon & Eumelus the first king of Achaia, received bread-corn from Triptolemus.
1020. Apis Epaphus or Epopeus the son of Phoroneus & Nicteus king of Bœtia slain. Lycus inherits the kingdom of his brother Nicteus. 1020. Æolus the son of Endymion flyes into the country of the Curetes in Achaia & calls it Ætolia, & of Pronoe the daughter of Phorbus begets Pleuron & Calydon who built cities in Ætolia called by their own names. Antiope the daughter of Nicteus is sent to Rome to Lycus by Lamedon the successor of Apis & in the way brings forth Amphion & Zetus.
1019. Solomon reigns & marries the daughter of Ammon, & by means of this affinity is supplied with horses from Egypt. And his merchants from thence also bring horses for all the kings of the Hittites & Syrians. For horses come originally from Lybia & thence Neptune was called equestris. Tantalus king of Phrygia, (or, as others say, Minos) steales Ganimede the son of Tros.
1017. Erechtheus having first celebrated the Panathenæa, joynes horses to a chariot. Solomon by the assistance of the Tyrians sets out a fleet upon the sea. Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus marries Zuthus the son of Hellen.
1015. The Temple of Solomon is founded. Minos reigns in Crete expelling his father, who flyes into Italy & becomes the Saturn of the Latines. Ammon takes Gezer from the Canaanite & gives it to his daughter Solomons wife.
1010 About this time Temples begin to be built in Greece. Ceres being dead Eumolpus institutes her mysteries in Eleusine. The mysteries of Rhea are instituted in Phrygia in the city Cybele. After the example of the Common Council of the five Lords of the Philistims the Greeks set up the Amphictyonic Council first at Thermopylæ by the influence of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion, & a few years after at Delphi by the influence of Aenisius. These Councils worshipped Ceres & therefore were instituted after her death. Among the cities whose deputies met at Thermopylæ I do not find Athens and therefore do not reccon Amphictyon king of that city. Hyagnis the Phrygian invents the Pipe.
1008. Erechtheus slain. Ion the son of Zuthus flourishes. Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Caucon teaches the mysteries of Ceres in Messene. Sesac in the reign of his father Ammon invades Arabia fælix. Cephalus & Casseopeia reside at Ioppa.
1007. Pandion brother of Cecrops II reigns in Attica Pelops the son of Tantalus comes into Peloponnesus & by his riches grows potent.
1006. Car the son of Phroneus builds a Temple to Ceres. Hellen the son of Deucalion reigns in Phthiotis.
1008. Sesac in the reign of his father Ammon invades Afric & Spain & sets up pillars at the straits mouth & in all his conquests, & returns by the coast to Gaul.
1005 Minos prepares a fleet, clears the Greek seas of Pyrates, & sends colonies to the islands of the Greeks some of which were not inhabited before. War between Pandion & Labdacus the grandson of Cadmus.
1004 Andromeda carried away from Ioppa by Perseus.
1002 Sesac reigns in Egypt & adorns Thebes dedicating it to his father Ammon by the name of No-Ammon or Ammon-no, that is the people or city of Ammon. Whence the Greeks called it Diospolis, the city of Iupiter. Sesac also erected Temples & Oracles to his father in Thebes, Ammonia & Æthiopia, & thereby caused his father to be worshipped as a God in those countries & I think also in Arabia fælix. And this was the original of the worship of Iupiter Ammon, & the first mention of Oracle that I meet with in profane history.
1000. Amphyion & Zetus slay Lycus, put Laius the son of Labdacus to flight, & reign in Thebes.
994 Ægeus reigns in Attica. 993 Sisyphus the son of Æolus & grandson of Hellen reigns in Corinth & some say that he built that city.
990 Dædalus & his nephew Talus invent the saw, the Turning Lath, the Wimble, the Chip-ax & other instruments of Carpenters & Ioyners & thereby gave a beginning to those Arts in Europe. Dædalus also invented the making of statues with their feet assunder as if they walked.
988. Minos makes war upon the Athenians for killing his son Androgeus. Æacus flourishes.
987. Dædalus kills Talus & flyes to Minos. A Priestess of Iupiter Ammon being brought by Phenician merchants into Greece, sets up the Oracles of Iupiter at Dodona. And this gave a beginning to the Oracles in Greece. And by their dictates the worship of the dead is every where introduced.
981. Alcmena born of Electryo the son of Perseus by Andromeda & of Eurydice the daughter of Pelops.
980 Lacus recovers the kingdom of Thebes. Athamas the brother of Sisyphus & father of Phryseus & Helle marries Ino the daughter of Cadmus.
979 Rehoboam reigns. Thoas is sent from Crete to Lemnos, reigns in Hephæstia & there works in copper & iron.
974. Sesac spoiles the Temple & invades Syria Persia & India setting up pillars in all his conquests. Ieroboam becoming subject to Sesac sets up the worship of the Egyptian Gods in Israel.
971. Sesac invades India & returns with triumph the next year but one.
970 Thoas marries Callicopis the mother of Æneas & daughter of Otreus king of Phrygia.
968. Theseus reigns having overcome the Minotaur, & soon after unites the twelve cities of Attica under one government. Sesac leaves Prometheus at mount Caucasus & Æetes at Colchos. He had in his army Ethiopians commanded by Pan, & Lybian weomen commanded by Merina or Minerva.
967. Sesac passing over the Hellespont subdues Thrace.
< insertion from f 13v >967. Sesac passing over the Hellespont conquers Thrace, kills Lycurgus, & gives his kingdom & one of his own singing weomen called Calliope to Oeagrus the father of Orpheus. Sesac had in his army Æthiopians commanded by Pan, & Lybian weomen commanded by Merina or Minerva. It was the custome of the Æthiopians to dance when they were entering into a battel, & from their skipping they were painted with Goats feet. Phemonoe the first Priestess of Iuno Argiva. 967 Minos dyes. He was eminent for his dominion, his laws, & his justice. Vpon his sepulchre (visted by Pythagoras was this inscription ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ, the sepulchre of Iupiter.
< text from f 13r resumes >966 Thoas being made king of Cyprus by Sesac goes thither with his wife Callicopis & leaves his daughter Hipsipyle in Lemnos.
965. Sesac is bafled by the Greeks & Scythians, composes the war, is received by Amphictyon at a feast, buries Ariadne, goes back through Asia & Syria into Egypt with innumerable captives amongst whom was Tithonus, & leaves his Lybian Amazons under Marthesia & Lampeto (the successors of Minerva) at the river Thermodon. He left also in Colchos Geographical Tables of all his conquests , & thence Georgaphy had its rise. His singing weomen are celebrated in Thrace by the names of Muses. Minos dies. Vpon his sepulchre (visited by Pythagoras) was this inscription, ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ, the sepulchre of Iupiter.
964 Danaus with his daughters flying from his brother Ægyptus, (that is from Sesac,) comes into Greece. Sesac (using the advice of his Secretary Thoth) distributes Egypt into Nomes & in every Nome erects a Temple & appoints the several Gods Festivals & religions of the Nomes, the Temples being the sepulchres of his great men where where they were to be buried & worshipped with ceremonies & festivals appointed by him. He divided also the land of Egypt by measure amongst his soldiers: & thence Geometry had its rise. Hercules & Eurystheus born.
< insertion from f 13v >963. Amphictyon brings the twelve Gods of Egypt from Thrace into Greece, & these are the Dij magni maiorum gentium.
< text from f 14r resumes >962. Phryxus & Helle flee from their stepmother Ino the daughter of Cadmus. Helle is drowned in the Hellespont so named from her, but Phryxus arrives at Colchos.
960. The war between the Lapythæ & the people of Thessaly, called Centaurs for their skill in horsemanship.
958 Oedipus kills his father Laius. Sthenelus the son of Perseus reigns in Mycene.
956 Sesac is slain by his brother Iapetus who after death was deified in Afric by the name of Neptune & called Typhon by the Egyptians. Orus reigns & routs the Lybians who under the conduct of Iapetus & his sons Antæus or Atlas invaded Egypt. Sesac from his making the river Nile usefull by cutting channels from it to all the cities of Egypt was called by its names, Sihor or Siris, Nilus & Ægyptus. The Greeks hearing the Egyptians lament O-Siris & Bou-Siris, called him Osiris & Busiris. The Arabians from his great acts called him Bacchus, that is, The Great. For all agreed that Osiris & Bacchus were one & the same man. The Phrygians called him Ma-fors or Ma-vors, The valiant, & by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests & his army in his fathers reign fought against the Africans with clubs, he is painted with pillars & a club; & this is that Hercules who according to Cicero was born upon the Nile & according to Eudoxus was slain by Iupiter. ✝ ✝ & according to Diodorus was an Egyptian & went over a great part of the world, & set up the pillar in Afric. He seems to be also the Belus who (according to Diodorus) led a colony of Egyptians to Bablyon & there instituted Priests called Chaldeans, who were free from taxes & observed the stars as in Egypt. Iudah & Israel had laboured under great vexations, but henceforward Asa king of Iudæa had peace ten years.
947 The Ethiopians invade Egypt & drown Orus in the Nile. Thereupon Bubaste the sister of Orus kills her self by falling from the top of an house & their mother Isis or Astræa goes mad. And thus ended the reign of the Gods of Egypt.
946 Zerah the Ethiopian is overthrown by Asa. The people of the lower Egypt make Osarsiphus their king, & call in two hundred thousand Iews & Phenicians agains the Ethiopians. Menes reigns.
944 The Ethiopians under Menes or Amenophis (the young son of Zerah & Cissia) retire from the lower Egypt & fortify Memphis against Osarsiphus. And by these wars the great Empire of Egypt brake in pieces. Eurystheus & Gelanor the sons of Sthenelus reigned in Mycene. Gelanor expelled by Danaus.
943 Evander & his mother Carmenta carry letters into Italy.
< insertion from f 13v >942. Orpheus deified the son of Semele by the name of Bacchus & appointed his ceremonies. For it came now into fashion for the Greeks to deify their own men by the names & with the ceremonies of the Egyptian Gods. So the son of Alcmena was deified by the name of Hercules, the son of Penelope by the name of Pan & the daughters of Pierus by the name of the Muses.
< text from f 14r resumes >940 The great men of Greece hearing of the civil wars & distractions of Egypt resolve to send an Embassy to the nations upon the Euxine & Mediterranean seas subject to that Empire, & for that end order the building of the ship Argo.
939 The ship Argo is built after the pattern of the long ship in which Danaus came into Greece. And this was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Chiron who was born in the golden age, forms the constellations for the use of the Argonauts, & places the solstitial & Equinoxial points in the 15th degrees or middles of the Constellations of Cancer Chelæ Capricorn & Aries. Meton in the year of Nabonassar 316 observed the summer solstice in the eighth degree of Cancer & therefore the solstice had then gone back seven degrees. It goes back one degree in about 72 years, & seven degrees in about 504 years. Count those years back from the year of Nabonassar 316 & they will place the Argonautic Expedition about 936 years before Christ. Gingris the son of Thoas slain & deified by the name of Adonis.
938 Theseus being 50 years old steales Hellena then seven years old. Pirithous the son of Ixion endeavouring to steal Persephone the daughter of Orcus king of the Molossians is slain by the dog of Orcus & his companion Theseus is taken & imprisoned. Helena set at liberty by her brothers.
937 The Argonautic Expedition. Prometheus leaves mount Caucasus being set at liberty by Hercules. Laomedon king of Troy slain by Hercules. Priam succeeds him. Talus a brazen man of the brazen age the son of Minos slain by the Argonauts.
<15r>Æsculapius & Hercules were Argonauts, & Hippocrates was the 18th from Æsculapius by the fathers side & 19th from Hercules by the mothers. And because these generations being noted in history were most probably by the principal of the family & so for the most part by the eldest sons, we may reccon about 28, or at most 30 years to a generation. And thus the 17 intervalls by the fathers side & 18 by the mothers, will at a middle recconing amount unto about 507 years; which counted backwards from the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, at which time Hippocrates began to flourish, will reach up to the time where we have placed the Argonautic Expedition.
936 Theseus is set at liberty by Hercules.
935 The hunting of the Calydonian Boar, slain by Meleager.
930 Amenophis with an army out of Ethiopia & Thebais invades the lower Egypt, conquers Osarsiphus, & drives out the Iews & Canaanites: & this is recconed the second expulsion of the shepherds. 929 The war of the seven captains against Thebes. 929 Callicopis dyes & is deified by Thoas with a Temple & sacred rites & becomes the Venus & the Dea Syria of the ancients & her three waiting weomen become the three Graces.
927 After the death of Hercules Eurystheus drives the Heraclides out of Peloponnesus. He is slain by Hyllus the son of Hercules. Atreus the son of Pelops succeeds him in the kingdom of the Mycene. Hercules & Æsculapius are deified. Menestheus the great grandson of Erechtheus reigns in Athens.
925 Theseus is slain being cast down from a rock.
924 Hyllus invading Peloponnesus is slain by Euhemus.
919 Atreus dies. Agamemnon reigns. In the absence of Menelaus who went to look after what his father had left him, Paris steals Hellena.
918 The second war against Thebes.
912 Thoas dies & for making armour for the kings of Egypt is deified with a sumptuous Temple at Memphis by the name of Baal-Canaan, Vulcan. This Temple was said to be built by Menes the first king of Egypt who reigned next after the Gods, that is, by Menoph or Amenophis who reigned next after the death of Osiris, Isis, Orus, Bubaste, Thoth. The city Memphys was also said to be built by Menes. He built it when he fortified it against Osarsiphus. And from him it was called Menoph, Moph, Noph, & is to this day called Menuf by the Arabians. And therefore Menes who built the city & Temple was Menoph or Amenophis. The Priests of Egypt at length made this Temple above a thousand years older then Amenophis & some of them five or ten thousand years older. But it could not be above two or three hundred years older then the reign of Psammiticus who finished it & died 614 years before Christ. When Menoph or Menes built the city he built a bridge there over the Nile, a work too great to be older then the Monarchy of Egypt.
909 Amenophis builds the Memnonia at Susa.
904 Troy taken. Amenophis was still at Susa, the Greeks feigning that he came from thence to the Trojan war.
903 Demophoon the son of Theseus by Phædra the daughter of Minos reigns at Athens.
901 Amenophis builds small Pyramids in Colchome.
895 Teucer builds Salamis in Cyprus. Hadad or Benhadad king of Syria dyes & is deified at Damascus with a Temple & ceremonies.
887 Amenophis dies & is succeded by his son Ramesses who built the western portico of the Temple of Vulcan.
The five days added by the Egyptians to the old Calendar year of 360 days, the Egyptians dedicated to Osiris, Isis, Orus senior, Typhon & Nephthe the wife & sister of Typhon, & said that they were added when those five Princes were born. They were added therefore in the reign of Ammon the father of those Princes. But this year was not brought into use before the reign of Amenophis. For in his sepulchre or Temple at Abydus, they placed a circle of 365 cubits in compass covered on the upper side with a plate of gold & divided into 365 equal parts to represent all the days of the year, every part having the day & the Heliacal risings & settings of the starrs on that day noted upon it. And this circle remained there till Cambyses spoiled the Temples of Egypt. And from this monument I collect that Amenophis established this year fixing the beginning thereof to one of the four cardinal points of the heavens. For had not the beginning thereof been now fixed, the heliacal risings & settings of the starrs could not have been noted upon the days thereof. The Priests of Egypt therefore in the reign of Amenophis continued to observe the heliacal risings & settings of the starrs upon every day & when by the suns meridional altitudes they had found the solstices & equinoxes according to the suns mean motion (his æquation being not yet known) they fixed the beginning of this year to the vernal Equinox, & in memory thereof erected this monument. Now this year being carried into Chaldæa, the Chaldeans began their years of Nabonassar on the same Thoth with the Egyptians & the Thoth of the first year of Nabonassar fell upon the 26th day of February; which was 33 days & five hours before the vernal equinox according to the suns mean motion. And the Thoth of this year moves backwards 33 days & 5 hours in 137 years & therefore fell on the Vernal equinox 137 years before the Æra of Nabonassar began that is 884 years before Christ. And if it began upon the day next after the Vernal Equinox it might begin thre or four years earlier. And there we place the death of this king. The Greeks feigned that he was the son of Tithonus, & therefore he was born after the return of Sesac into Egypt with Tithonus & other captives & so might be about 70 or 80 years old at his death.
886 Vlysses leaves Calypso in the Island Cadiz or Cales. She was the daughter of Atlas according to Homer. The ancients at length feigned that this Island (which from Atlas they called Atlantis,) had been as big as all Europe Afric & Asia, but was sunk into the sea.
883 Dido builds Carthage & the Phenicians began presently after to sail as far as the straits mouth & beyond. Virgil makes Æneas still alive.
870 869 Hesiod flourishes. He has told us himself that he lived in the age next after the warrs of Thebes & Troy, & that this age should end when the men then living grew hoary & dropt into the grave, & therefore it was but of an ordinary length: & Herodotus has told us that Hesiod & Homer were but 400 years older then himself. Whence it follows that the destruction of Troy was scarce above 450 or 460 years older then the writing of Herodotus his history.
860 Homer flourishes. Mœris reigns in Egypt. He adorned Memphis & translated the the seat of his Empire thither from Thebes. There he built the famous Labyrinth & the northern portico of the Temple of Vulcan & dug the great Lake, from him called the Lake of Mœris, & upon the bottom of it built two great Pyramids of brick. And these things being not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod were unknown to them & done after their days. He wrote also a book of Geometry.
< insertion from f 15v >852 Hazael the successor of Hadad dyes & is deified at Damascus. These Gods Hadad & Hazael together with Arathes the wife of Hadad were worshipped in their sepulchres or Temples till the days of Iosephus the Iew, & the Syrians boasted their antiquity, not knowing, saith Iosephus that they were novel.
< text from f 16r resumes >844 The Æolic Migration. Bœotia formerly called Cadmeis is seized by the Bœotians.
838 Cheops reigns in Egypt. He built the greatest Pyramid for his Sepulchre, & forbad the worship of the former kings, intending to have been worshipped himself.
825 The Heraclides (after three generations or an hundred years recconed from their former expedition) return into Peloponnesus. Hence forward to the end of the first Messenian war reigned ten kings of Sparta by one race & nine by another, ten of Messene & nine of Arcadia, which, recconing according to the ordinary course of nature about 18 or 20 years to a reign one reign with another, will scarce take up above 200 years. And the seven reigns more in each of the two races of the Spartan kings to the battel of Thermopylæ may take up 140 years more & so place the return of the Heraclides about 820 years before Christ.
824 Cephren reigns in Egypt & builds another great Pyramid.
808 Mycerine reigns there & begins the third great Pyramid. He shut up the dead body of his daughter in another one & caused her to be worshipped daily with {odours}.
804 The war between the Athenians & Spartans in which Codrus king of the Athenians is slain.
802 Nitocris the sister of Mycerine succeeds him & finishes the third great Pyramid. Ægypt begins to break into several kingdoms.
794 The Ionic Migration under the conduct of the sons of Codrus.
790 Pul founds the Assyrian Empire.
788 Asychis reigns in Egypt & builds the eastern portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly, & a large Pyramid of brick made of the mud dug out of the Lake Mœris. Ægypt breaks into several kingdoms. Necepsos & Petosiris invent Astrology in Egypt.
776. Iphitus restores the Olympiads. And hence the Æra of the Olympiads is now dated.
776. Iphitus restores the Olympiads, & hence the Æra of the Olympiads is still recconed.
767. Boccharis reigns in the upper part of Egypt.
760. Semiramis reigns at Babylon. Sanchoniatho writes.
749. The Æra of Nabonassar commences. Sabacon the Ethiopian invades Egypt now divided into various kingdoms & burns Boccharis.
740 Tiglathpilasser king of Assyria takes Damascus & captivates the Syrians.
725 So or Sua succeeds Sabacon in Egypt.
721. Salmanassar king of the Assyrians carries the ten tribes into captivity.
719. Sennacherib reigns.
717. Tirhakah reigns in Æthiopia.
714. Sennacherib is put to flight by the Ethiopians & Egyptians.
713. The Medes revolt from the Assyrians. Sennacherib slain. Asserhadon succeeds him.
708. Lycurgus becomes tutor to Charillus or Carilaus the young king of Sparta. Tirhakah reigns in all Egypt. Aristotel makes Lycurgus as old as Iphitus because his name was upon the Disc. But the Disc was one of the five games called the Quinquertium & the Quinquertium was first instituted upon the 18th Olympiad. Socrates & Thucydides ✝ ✝ Socrates & Thucydides made the Institutions of Lycurgus about 300 years older than the end of the Peloponnesian war. I date them from the year before Christ 690 or thereabouts.
< text from f 17r resumes >697. The Corinthians began first of any men to build ships with three orders of oars called Triremes. Hitherto the Greeks had used long vessels of 50 oars. Manasses reigns.
681. Asserhadon takes Babylon.
673. The Iews being conquered by Asserhadon, Manasses is carried captive to Babylon.
671. Asserhadon invades Egypt. The government of Egypt committed to 12 Princes.
668. The western nations of Syria Phenicia & Egypt revolt from the Assyrians. Asserhadon dyes. Manasses returns from captivity.
658. Phraortes reigns in Media. The Prytanees reign in Corinth expelling their kings.
657. The Corinthians overcome the Corcyreans at Sea, & this was the oldest seafight. Archias the son of Evagetus of the stock of Hercules led a colony from Corinth into Sicily & built Syracuse.
655. The first Messenian war begins. It lasted 20 years. Pasammiticus becomes king of all Egypt by conquering the other eleven kings, with whom he had already reigned 15 years. He reigned about 39 years more. Henceforward the Ionians had access into Egypt, & thence came the Ionian Philosophy Astronomy & Geometry.
650. Charops the first decennial Archon of the Athenians. Some of these might dye before the end of the 10 years & the remainder of the 10 years be supplied by a new Archon. And hence the eleven decennial Archons might not take up above 40 or 50 years.
640. Iosias reigns in Iudea.
636. Phraortes king of the Medes is slain in a war against the Assyrians. Astyages succeeds him.
635. The Scythians invade the Medes & Assyrians.
633. Battus builds Cyrene where Iras the city of Antæus had stood.
628 Rome is built.
624. Phalantus leads the Parthenians into Italy & builds Tarentum.
616. The second Messenian war begins. Psammiticus dies. Nechaoh reigns in Egypt. 614. Numa reigns.
611. Cyaxeres reigns over the Medes. Cypselus reigns in Corinth.
610. Creon the first annual Archon of the Athenians.
609. The Princes of the Scythians slain in a feast by Cyaxeres. Iosiah slain.
608. Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar overthrow Nineve, & by sharing the Assyrian Empire grow potent.
607. Cyaxeres makes the Scythians retire beyond Colchos & Iberia, & seizes the Assyrian Provinces of Armenia Pontus & Cappadocia.
606. Nebuchadnezzar invades Syria & Iudea Cyaxeres makes war upon Alyattes king of Lydia.
604. Nabopalasser dies & is succeeded by Nebuchadnezzar.
601. In the sixt year of the war a total Eclips of the Sun predicted by Thales, Apr. 28 between eight & nine in the morning, puts an end to a battel between the Medes & Lydians. They make peace & ratify it by a marriage between Astyages & the son of Cyaxeres & Ariene the daughter of Alyattes.
<18r>600 Darius Medus the son or grandson of Cyaxeres is born.
599 Cyrus is born of Mandane the sister of Cyaxeres.
598 The Messenians being conquered fly into Sicily & build Messana.
596 Susiana & Elan conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Cadmus & Perdiccas fly from Phidon & found the kingdom of Macedon. Phidon introduces weights & measures & the coining of silver money.
590 Numa reigns.
588 The Temple of Solomon is burnt.
584 Phidon presides in the 49th Olympiad.
580 Draco being Archon of the Athenians makes laws for them. Phidon overthrown. Two men chosen by {elders} of the city Elis to preside in the Olympic games.
575 The Amphictyons ‡ ‡ 575 The Amphictyons make war upon the Cyrrheans by the advice of Solon, & take Cyrrha. Clysthenes, Alcmæon & Eurolychus commanded the forces of the Amphictyons, & were contemporary to Phidon. For Leocides the son of Phidon & Megacles the son of Alcmæon, at one & the same time, courted Agarista the daughter of Clysthenes.
< text from f 18r resumes >569 Nebuch{ad}nezzar invades Egypt. Darius the Mede raigns.
566 Tullus Hostilius reigns in Rome.
563 Solon being Archon of the Athenians makes laws for them
557 Periande{r} dies & Corinth becomes free from Tyrants.
555 Nabonne{d}us reigns. His mother Nitocris adorns & fortifies Babylon.
553 The conference between Crœsus & Solon.
550 Pisistratus becomes Tyrant of Athens.
547 Sardes is taken by Cyrus. Darius Medus recoins the Lydian money into Daries. Solon dies Hegestratus being Archon.
538 Babylon is taken by Cyrus.
536 Cyrus overcomes Darius the Mede at Pasargadæ & translates the Empire to the Persians & goes to Ecbatane. The Iews return from captivity.
529. Cyrus dyes, Cambyses reigns.
521. Darius the son of Hystaspis reigns. The Magi are slain. The various religions of the Provinces of Persia being abolished, Hystaspes & Zoroaster institute a new religion of the Magi throughout all the Empire of Persia.
520 the second Temple is built by the command of Darius.
513 Harmodius & Aristogiton slay Hipparchus the son of Pisistratus Tyrant of the Athenians.
510. The kings of the Romans expelled & Consuls created.
491. The battel at Marathon.
485. Xerxes reigns.
480. The passage of Xerxes over the Hellespont into Greece, & the battels at Thermopylæ & Salamis.
464. Artaxerxes Longimanus reigns.
457. Ezra returns into Iudæa. Iohanan the father of Iadua was now grown up, having a chamber in the Temple.
444. Nehemiah returns into Iudæa. Herodotus writes.
431. The Peloponnesian war begins. Thucidides writes.
428. Nehemiah drives away Eleazar the brother of Iadua because he had married Nicaso the daughter of Sanballat.
424. Darius Nothus reigns.
423 Sanballat builds a Temple in mount Gerazim & makes his son in law Eleazar the first High-Priest thereof.
412 Hitherto the Priests & Levites were numbered & written in the Chronicles of the Iews before the death of Nehemiah: at which time either Iohanan or Iadua was High Priest. And here ends the sacred history of the Iews.
332 The Persian Empire conquered by Alexander the great.
331 Darius Codomannus the last king of Persia slain.
A short Chronicle from the first memory of things done in Europe to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the great
set down in years before Christ.
The Canaanites who fled from Iosuha retired in great numbers into Egypt, & there conquered Timaus or Thammuz king of the lower Egypt & reigned there under their kings Salatis, Beon, Apachnas, Apophis, Ianais, Assis, &c untill the days of Eli & Samuel. They fed on flesh, & sacrificed men after the manner of the Phenicians & were called shepherds by the Egyptians who lived only on the fruits of the earth & abominated flesheaters. The upper parts of Egypt were in those days under many kings reigning at Coptos, Thebes, This, Elephantis Syene &c which by conquering one another grew by degrees into one kingdom under Misphramuthosis in the days of Eli.
[3]Anno ante Chr. 1120. Mephres reigned over the upper Egypt from Syene to Heliopolis & his successor Misphramuthosis made a lasting war upon the shepherds soon after & caused many of them to fly into Palestine, Idumenia, Syria & Libya, & under Lelex, Æzeus, Inachus, Pelasgus, Æolus the first, Cecrops & other captains, into Greece. And these strangers built the first houses in Greece. They built them first of clay & boughs of trees. Before those days Greece & all Europe was thinly peopled by wandering Cimmerians & Scythians from the backside of the Euxine sea who lived a rambling wild sort of life like the Tartars in the northern parts of Asia. Of their race was Ogyges in whose days the shepherds came into Greece. The rest of the shepherds who staid in Egypt were shut up by Misphramuthosis in a part of Egypt called Abaris or Pelusium with its Territory & thence that part of Egypt was called Aeria.
[4]1100. The Philistims (strengthened by the the access of the Shepherds) conquer Israel, & take the Ark. Samuel judges Israel.
Hæmon the son of Pelasgus reigns in Thessaly.
[5]1080 Lycaon the son of Pelasgus builds Lycosura; Phoroneus the son of Inachus Phoronicum or Argos; Ægialeus (the brother of Phoroneus & son of Inachus) Ægyaleum or Sicyon: & Eurotas the son of Lelex Sparta the oldest towns in Peloponnesus. Till then they built only single houses scattered up & down on the hills. About the same time Cecrops built Cecropia in Attica; & Eleusine the son of Ogyges built Eleusina. And these towns gave a beginning to the kingdoms of the Arcadians, Argives, Sicyons, Spartans Athenians, Eleusinians . Lacedæmon married Sparta the daughter of Eurotas & from them their town had the names of Lacedæmon & Sparta.
[6]1070 Amosis Thrasis or Sethmosis the successor of Misphramuthosis drives the shepherds out of Abaris & becomes king of all Egypt & abolishes the Phœnician custome in Heliopolis of sacrificing men. By the access of the fugitive shepherds the Philistims became so numerous as to bring into the field against Saul 30000 chariots, 60000 horsmen, & people as the sand of the sea shore in multitude. Deucalion reigns in Lycoria near Parnassus.
[7]1069 Saul made king of Israel & by the hand of Ionathan gets a great victory over the Philistims.
[8]1060 Samuel dyes.
[9]1059 David made king.
[10]1048 The Edomites are conquered by David. Their king flees to Amoses the young king of Egypt & marries the sister of his queen Tahaphenes & their Mariners fly from the red sea some into Egypt & others to the mediterranean with letters & skill in sea affairs & mix with the Philistims, & build Azoth, & begin to build ships, & to navigate the mediterranean, & others fly with letters & Astronomy to the Persian Gulph. Acrisius marries Eurydice the daughter of Lacedæmon & Sparta & of her begets Dan{us}.
1044. The Syrians of Zobah & Damascus are conquered by David. The Phenician merchants who had been used to long voyages on the red sea sail from Sidon as far as Greece & carry away Ino the daughter of Inachus, who with other Grecian weomen came to their ships to buy their merchandise. Asterius reigns in Crete. {Zancle} built in Sicily afterwards called Messana.
1042. The king of Askalon assisted by the fugitive Edomites takes Sidon, & makes the Sidonians fly to Tyre Aradus Cilicia Phrygia Crete Greece & Libya under the conduct of Cadmus, Europa Cilix, Phœnix, Memblianus, Thasus, Alymanus & other captains. The Sidonians build Tyre & make Abibalus the first king thereof. Cadmus & his followers bring into Greece Letters, Musick, Poetry, the Octaeteris, Metalls & their fabrication & other Arts Sciences & customs of the Sidonians, taught principaly by a sort of Phœnicians called Curetes Corybantes Telchines & Idæi Dactyli. At this time Cranaus the successor of Cecrops reigned in Attica & in his reign & the reign of Nychimus the son of Lycaon the Greeks placed the flood of Deucalion at which time Deucalion fled from Lycorea to Athens. This flood was succeeded by four ages or generations which according to Hesiod ended with the Trojan war, & so places the destruction of Troy four generations, or about 134 years later then the coming of Cadmus, recconing with the ancients three generations to an hundred years.
1040 Hellen the son of Deucalion reigns in Phthiotis, & institutes the Panathenaic Games.
1037. Erechtheus reigns in Attica, & in celebrating the Panathenaia joins horses to a chariot.
1035. The Idæi Dactyli nurse up the Cretan Iupiter in a cave in mount Ida & there find out iron & work it into armour & iron tools. Ceres in seeking her daughter comes into Attica & there teaches the Greeks to sow corn. She first taught the art to Triptolemus the young son of Celeus king of Eleusine. And when he was grown up he dispersed it. The Greek seas begin to be infested with Pyrates.
1024 Ammon conquered Libya & reduced that people from a wandering salvage life to a civil one & taught them to lay up the fruits of the earth, & from him all Libya & the deserts above it were anciently called Ammonia. He was the first who built long & tall ships with sails being assisted by the Edomites, & had a fleet of such ships on the Red sea, then conquered Libya & built another fleet of long ships in the Mediterranean on the sea coast of Libya. Till then they used small & round vessels of burden without sails invented on the Red-sea, & kept within sight of the shore. For enabling them to cross the seas without seeing the shore, the Egyptians began in his days to observe the starrs. And from this beginning Astronomy & sailing had their rise. Hitherto the Luni-solar year had been in use in all nations, but in his days & in the days of his sons & grandsons, by observing the heliacal risings & settings of the starrs, they found the length of the solar year & made it to consist of five days more then the twelve Calendar months of the old Luni-solar year.
1032. Æolus Xuthus & Dorus the son of Hellen flourished. Xuthus marries Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus.
1026. Oenotrus the youngest son of Lycaon (the Ianus of the Latines) led the first colony of the Greeks into Italy, & there taught them letters & to build houses, & sow corn. Arcas the son of Callisto & grandson of Lycaon, & Eumelus the first king of Achaia received breadcorn from Triptolemus. Perseus born.
[11]1020. Apis Epaphus or Epopeus the son of Phoroneus & Nicteus king of Bœotia slain. Lycus inherits the kingdom of his brother Nicteus. Antiopa the daughter of Nicteus is sent home to Lycus by Lamedon the successor of Apis & in the way brings forth Amphion & Zetus. Ætolus the son of Endymion & grandson of Aethlius flyes into the country of the Curetes in Achaia & calls it Ætolia, & of Pronoe the daughter of Phorbus begets Pleuron & Calydon who build cities in Ætolia called by their own name. Ægina the daughter of Æsopus & mother of Æcus born.
1019. Solomon reigns & marries the daughter of Ammon, & by means of this affinity is supplied with horses from Egypt. And his merchants bring horses also from thence for all the kings of the Hittites & Syrians. For horses came originally from Libya, & thence Neptune was called equestris. Tantalus king of Phrygia (or as others say Minos) steales Ganimede the son of Tros.
1016.
1016. Solomon by the assistance of the Tyrians sets out a fleet upon the red sea.
1015. The Temple of Solomon is founded. Minos reigns in Crete expelling his father Asterius who flyes into Italy, & becomes the Saturn of the Latines. Ammon takes Gezer from the Canaanite & gives it to his daughter Solomons wife. Minos begins to build Cydonia in Crete.
1010. About this time Temples began to be built in Greece. Ceres being dead Eumolpus institutes her mysteries in Eleusine. The mysteries of Rhea are instituted in Phrygia in the city Cybele. The Amphictyonic Council is instituted at Delphos by Acrisius, having been instituted a little before at Thermopylæ by Amphictyon. Among the cities whose deputies met at Thermopylæ I do not find Athens & therefore do not reccon Amphictyon king of that city. Hyagnis the Phrygian invents the pipe.
1008 Erechtheus slain. Ion the son of Xuthus flourishes. Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Caucon teaches the mysteries of Ceres in Messene. Sesac in the reign of his father invades Arabia fælix. Cepheus & Cassiopeia reside at Ioppa.
1007 Pandion the brother of Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Pelops the son of Tantalus comes into Peloponnesus, & by his riches grows potent.
1006 Sesac in the reign of his father Ammon invades Afric & Spain & sets up the pillars at the straits mouth & in all his conquests & returns home by the coast of Gaul Italy & Sicily. He did this in round vessels of burden before they began to build long ships with sails upon the Mediterranean. Car the son of Phoroneus builds a Temple to Ceres
1005 Minos prepares a fleet, & clears the Greek seas of Pyrates, & sends colonies to the Islands of the Greeks, some of which were uninhabited before. War between Pandion & Labdacus. the grandson of Cadmus. Andromeda carried away from Ioppa by Perseus.
1002 Sesac reigns in Egypt, & adorns Thebes, dedicating it to his father Ammon by the name of No-Ammon or Ammon-no, that is the people or city of Ammon. Whence the Greeks called it Diospolis, the city of Iupiter. Sesac also erected Temples & Oracles to his father in Thebes & in Ammonia & Æthiopia, & thereby caused his father to be worshipped as a god in those countries, & I think also in Arabia felix. And this was the original of the worship of Iupiter Ammon, & the first mention of Oracles that I meet with in prophane history.
1000 Amphion & Zetus slay Lycus, put Laius the son of Labdacus to flight, & reign in Thebes.
994 Ægeus reigns in Attica. Sisyphus the son of Æolus & grandson of Hellen reigns in Corinth & some say that he built that city.
990 Dædalus & his nephew Talus invent the saw & Turning Lath, the Wimble, the Chip-ax & other instruments of Carpenters & Ioyners & thereby give a beginning to those Trades in Europe. Dædalus also invented the making of staues with their feet assunder as if they walked, & his father Eupalamus invented the Anchor.
988 Minos makes war upon the Athenians for killing his son Androgeus. Æacus flourishes.
987 Dædalus kills Talus & flys to Minos. A Priestess of Iupiter Ammon being brought into Greece by Phenician Merchants, sets up the Oracle of Iupiter at Dodona. And this gave a beginning to Oracles in Greece. And by their dictates the worship of the dead was every where introduced in a short time. Theseus born.
981. Alcmena born of Electrio the son of Perseus & Andromeda & of Eurydice the daughter of Pelops.
<23r>980. Laius recovers the kingdom of Thebes. Athamas the brother of Sisyphus & father of Phryxus & Helle marries Ino the daughter of Cadmus.
979 Rehoboam reigns. Thoas is sent from Crete to Lemnos, reigns at Hephæstia & there works in Copper & Iron.
974 Sesac spoiles the Temple & invades Syria Persia & India setting up pillars in all his conquests. Ieroboam becoming subject to Sesac sets up the worship of the Egyptian Gods in Israel.
971 Sesac invades India & returns with triumph the next year but one; in memory of which the Trietrica Bacchi were celebrated. Æneas born.
970 Thoas marries Callicopis the mother of Æneas & Æetes & daughter of Otreus king of Phrygia.
968 Theseus reigns, having overcome the Minotaur; & soon after he unites the twelve cities of Attica under one government. Sesac leaves Prometheus the son of Iapetus at mount Caucasus & Æetes at Colchos.
967 Sesac passing over the Hellespont conquers Thrace, kills Lycurgus king thereof & gives his kingdom & one of his own singing weomen called Calliope to Oeagrus the father of Linus & Orpheus. Sesac had in his army Æthiopians commanded by Pan & Lybian weomen commanded by Merina or Minerva. It was the custome of the Ethiopians to dance when they were entring into battel; & from their skipping they were painted with Goats feet. Phemonoe the first priestess of Iuno Argiva.
966. Thoas being made king of Cyprus by Sesac goes thither with his wife Callicopis & leaves his daughter Hypsipyle in Lemnos.
965 Sesac is batled by the Greeks & Scythians, Minerva slain. Sesac composes the war, is received by Amphictyon the son of {Deucalion}, an Egyptian at a feast, buries Ariadne in Greece, goes back through Asia & Syria with innumerable captives, amongst whom was Tithonus, & leaves his Libyan Amazons under Marthesia & Lampeto (the successors of Minerva) at the river Thermodon. He left also in Colchos Geographical Tables of all his conquests, & hence Geography had its rise. His son Orus & singing weomen were celebrated in Thrace by the name of Apollo & the Muses. Minos dyes. He was eminent for his dominion, his laws & his iustice. Vpon his sepulchre (visited by Pythagoras) was this inscription ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ, The sepulchre of Iupiter.
964. Danaus with his daughters fly from his brother Ægyptus (that is, from Sesac) & come into Greece. Sesac (using the advice of his Secretary Thoth) distributes Egypt into 36 Nomes, & in every Nome erects a Temple & appoints the several Gods, Festivals, & religions of the several Nomes, the Temples being the sepulchres of the first Princes of the Nomes in which they were to be buried & worshipped with ceremonies & festivals appointed by him. He divided also the land of Egypt by measure amongst his soldiers: & thence Geometry had its rise. Hercules & Eurystheus born. Amphictyon brings the twelve great Gods of Egypt from Thrace into Greece, & these are the Dij magni maiorum gentium.
962. Phryxus & Helle flee from their stepmother Ino the daughter of Cadmus. Helle is drowned in the Hellespont so named from her, but Phryxus arrives at Colchos. 9
960. The war between the Lapythæ & the people of Thessaly skilled in horsemanship & called Centaurs . 959 Asa reigns.
958. Oedipus kills his father Laius. Sthenelus the son of Perseus reigns in Mycene.
956. Sesac is slain by his brother Iapetus who after death was deified in Afric by the name of Neptune, & called Typhon by the Egyptians. Orus reigns & routs the Libyans, who under the conduct of Iapetus & his son Antœus or Atlas invaded Egypt. Sesac from his making the river Nile usefull by cutting channels from it to all the cities of Egypt was called by its names Sihor or Siris Nilus & Ægyptus. The Greeks hearing the Egyptians lament O-Siris O-Siris & Bou-Siris called him Osiris & Busiris. The Arabians from his great Acts called him Bacchus, that is, the great. For all agree that Bacchus & Osiris were one & the same man. The Phrygians called him Ma-fors or Ma-vors, The valiant, & by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests, & his army in his fathers reign fought against the Africans with clubs, he is painted with pillars & a club; & this is that Hercules who according to Cicero was born upon the Nile, & according to Eudoxus was slain by Typhon, & according to Didorus was an Egyptian & went over a great part of the world & set up the pillar in Afric. He seems to be also the Belus who according to Didorus led a colony of Egyptians to Bablyon & there instituted Priests called Chaldeans who were free from taxes & observed the starrs as in Egypt. Hitherto Iudah & Israel had laboured under great vexations but henceforward Asa king of Iudah had peace ten years.
947. The Ethiopians invade Egypt & drown Orus in the Nile. Thereupon Bubaste the sister of Orus kills her self by falling from the top of a house, & their mother Isis or Astræa goes mad. And thus ended the reign of the gods of Egypt.
946 Zerah the Ethiopian is overthrown by Asa. The people of the lower Egypt make Osarsiphus their king & call in two hundred thousand Iews & Phenicians against the Ethiopians. Menes or Amenophis the young son of Zerah & Cissa, reigns in Egypt.
944. The Ethiopians under Amenophis retire from the lower Egypt, & fortify Memphis against Osarsiphus. And by these wars the great Empire of Egypt began to break in pieces. Eurystheus & Gelanor expelled by Danaus.
943. Evander & his mother Carmenta carry letters into Italy.
942 Orpheus deifies the son of Semele by the name of Bacchus & appoints his ceremonies. For it came now into fashion for the Greeks to deify their own men by the names & with the ceremonies of the Egyptian Gods. So the son of Alcmene was deified by the name of Hercules, the son of Penelope by the name of Pan, the daughters of Pierus by the names of the Muses.
940. The great men of Greece hearing of the civil wars & distractions of Egypt, resolve to send an Embassy to the nations upon the Euxine & Mediterranean seas subject to that Empire & for that end order the building of the ship Argo.
939. The Ship Argo is built after the pattern of the long ship in which Danaus came into Greece. And this was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Chiron who was born in the golden age forms the Constellations for the use of the Argonauts & places the sostitial & equinoctial points in the 15th degrees or middles of the Constellations of Cancer Chelæ Capricorn & Aries.
938. Gengris the son of Thoas slain by a wild boar & deified by the name of Adonis. 937 Theseus being 50 years old in the absence of Castor & Pollux steals Helena then seven years old. 936 Pirithous the son of Ixion endeavouring to steal Persephone the daughter of Orcus king of the Molossians is slain by the dog of Orcus & his companion Theseus is taken & imprisoned. Helena set at liberty by her brothers Castor & Pollux.
937 The Argonautic Expedition. Prometheus leaves mount Caucasus being set at liberty by Hercules. Laomedon king of Troy slain by Hercules. Priam succeeds him. Talus a brazen man of the brazen age, the son of Minos, slain by the Argonauts.
936 Theseus is set at liberty by Hercules. The hunting of the Calydonian boar.
<25r>930. Amenophis with an army out of Ethiopia & Thebais invades the lower Egypt, conquers Osarsiphus, & drives out the Iews & Canaanites; & this is recconed the second expulsion of the shepherds. Callicopus dyes & is deified by Thoas with a Temple & sacred rites, & becomes the Venus & the Dea Syria of the Ancients; & her three waiting weomen become the three Graces.
928 The war of the seven captains at Thebes.
927 After the death of Hercules Eurystheus drives the Heraclides out of Peloponnesus. He is slain by Hyllus the son of Hercules. Atreus the son of of Pelops succeeds him in the kingdom of the Mycene. Hercules & Æsculapius are deified. Menestheus the great grandson of Erechtheus reigns at Athens.
925 Theseus is slain being cast down from a rock.
924 Hyllus invading Peloponnesus is slain by Echemus.
919 Atreus dyes, Agamemnon reigns. In the absence of Menelaus who went to look after what his father Atreus had left him, Paris steals Helena.
918. The second war against Thebes. Iehosaphat reigns.
912 Thoas dyes, & for having mad armour for the kings of Egypt is deified with a sumptuous Temple at Memphis with the name of Baal-Canaan, Vulcan. This Temple was said to be built by Menes the first king of Egypt who reigned next after the Gods, that is by Menoph or Ammenoph who reigned next after the death of Osiris, Isis, Orus, Bubaste, Thoth. The city Memphys was also said to be built by Menes. He built it when he fortified it against Osarsiphus. And from him it was called Menoph Moph Noph, & is to this day called Menuf by the Arabians.
908 Amenophis builds the Memnonia at Susa.
904 Troy taken.
903 Demophoon the son of Theseus by Phædra the daughter of Minos reigns at Athens.
901 Amenophis builds small Pyramids in Cochome.
896 Teucer builds Salamis in Cyprus. Hadad or Benhadad dyes & is deified at Damascus with a Temple & ceremonies. 893 Ioram reigns in Iudea.
892 The Edomites revolt from Iudæa, & interrupt the navigation of the Iews & Tyrians on the red sea. The Tyrians build ships on the Mediterranean & there begin long voyages to places not yet frequented by the Zidonians. And hence arose the opinion mentioned by Herodotus that the Phenicians came originally from the Red Sea.
890 Dido flyes from her brother Pygmaleon king of Tyre to the coast of Afric, & builds Carthage.
887 Amenophis dyes & is succeeded by his son Ramesses who built the western Portico of the Temple of Vulcan.
885 Vlysses leaves Calypso in the Island Cadiz or Cales. She was the daughter of Atlas according to Homer. The ancients at length feigned that this Island (which from Atlas they called Atlantis) had been as big as all Europe Afric & Asia but was sunk into the sea. 885 Athalia reigns in Iudea.
883 Carthage dedicated. The Phenicians of Tyre begin to sail as far as the straits mouth & beyond. Virgil makes Æneas still alive.
876 Homer flourishes. ✝ ✝ Some a[12] placed him in the days of Orestes the son of Agamemnon, & Cornelius Nepos placed him an hundred years before the first Olympiad.
< text from f 25r resumes >860 Mœris reigns in Ægypt. He adorned Memphis & translated the seat of his Empire thither from Thebes. There he built the famous Labyrinth & the northern portico of the Temple of Vulcan & dug the great Lake from him called the Lake of Mœris, & upon the bottom of it he built two great Pyramids of brick. And these things not being mentioned by Homer or Hesiod were unknown to them & done after their days. He wrote also a Book of Geometry.
852. Hazael the successor of Hadad dyes & is deified at Damascus. These Gods Hadad & Hazael together with Arathes the wife of Hadad were worshipped in their sepulchres or Temples at Damascus till the days of Iosephus the Iew; & the Syrians boasted their antiquity not knowing, saith Iosephus, that they were novel.
844 The Æolic migration. Bœotia formerly called Cadmeis is seized by the Bœotians.
839 Amaziah reigns in Iudea.
838 Cheops reigns in Egypt. He built the greatest Pyramid for his sepulchre, & forbad the worship of the former kings intending to have been worshipped himself.
825. The Heraclides (after three generations or an hundred years recconed from their former expedition) return into Peloponnesus.
824 Cephren reigns in Egypt & builds another great Pyramid.
808 Mycerine reigns there & begins the third great Pyramid. He shut up the body of his dead daughter in a hollow wooden Ox & caused her to be worshipped dayly with odours.
804 The war between the Athenians & Spartans in which Codrus king of the Athenians is slain.
802 Nitocris the sister of Mycerine succeeds him & finishes the third great Pyramid. Ægypt begins to break into several kingdoms.
794 The Ionic Migration under the conduct of the sons of Codrus.
790 The Assyrians being freed from the dominion of Egypt, Pul founds the Assyrian Empire.
788 Asychis reigns in Egypt & builds the eastern Portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly, & a large Pyramid of brick made of mud dug out of the Lake of Mœris. Necepsos & Petosiris invent Astrology in Egypt.
776 Iphitus restores the Olympiads. And hence the Æra of the Olympiads is now dated. 771 Pul invades Israel & is bought off.
768 Boccharis reigns in the upper part of Egypt.
758 Semiramis reigns at Babylon. Sanchoniatho writes. Iotham reigns in Iudea.
747 The Æra of Nabonassar king of Babylon commences. Sabacon the Ethiopian invades Egypt now divided into various kingdoms, & burns Boccharis. Some Egyptians flying from Sabacon carry to Babylon the Astronomy Astrology & year of Egypt.
740 Tiglathpilasser takes Damascus & captivates the Syrians.
726 Ezekiah reigns in Iudea.
725 So or Sua reigns in Egypt & perhaps is the same king with Sabacon
721 Salmanasser king of the Assyrians carries the ten Tribes into captivity.
[13] 719 Sennacherib reigns.
717 Tirhakah governs Æthiopia.
713 Sennacherib besieges Pelusium & is put to flight with a great slaughter by Sethon king of Egypt & Tirhakah who came down with an army from Ethiopia through the desarts. Sethon may be Sebacon still reigning: for Herodotus saith that he reigned over Egypt 50 years. And Tirhakah may be his son.
709 The Medes revolt from the Assyrians. Sennacherib slain. Asserhadon succeeds him.
708 Lycurgus becomes tutor to Charillus or Carilaus the young king of Sparta.
697 The Corinthians build ships with three orders of oars called Triremes. Hitherto the Greeks had used long vessels of 50 oars. Manasses reigns. 606 Asserhadon builds Tarsus & Anchiale.
681. Asserhadon takes Babylon. Lycurgus publishes his laws. Terpander begins to flourish.
673 The Iews conquered by Asserhadon. Manasses carried captive to Babylon.
671. Asserhadon invades Egypt. The government of Egypt committed to twelve Princes. Archilochus & Simonides florent
668. The western nations of Syria Phenicia & Egypt revolt from the Assyrians. Asserhadon dyes. Manasses returns from captivity. 664 Gyges king of Lydia.
658. Phraortes reigns in Media. The Prytanees reign in Corinth expelling their kings. 650 Corcyra built by a colony from Corinth, or 703.
657 The Corinthians overcome the Corcyreans at sea, & this was the oldest sea fight. 730 Archias the son of Evagetus of the stock of Hercules led a colony from Corinth into Sicily & built Syracuse.
655. The first Messenian war begins. It lasted twenty years. Psammiticus becomes king of all Egypt for conquering the other eleven kings, with whom he had already reigned fifteen years. He reigned about 39 years more. Henceforward the Ionians had access into Ægypt, & thence came the Ionian Philosophy Astronomy & Geometry.
650 Charops the first decennial Archon of the Athenians. Some of their Archons might dye before the end of the ten years, & the remainder of the ten years be supplied by a new Archon. And hence the seven decennial Archons might not take above 40 or 50 years.
640 Iosias reigns in Iudea. Rome is built.
636 Phraortes king of the Medes is slain in a war against the Assyrians. Astyages succeeds him.
635 The Scythians invade the Medes & Assyrians.
633 Battus builds Cyrene where Inasa the city of Antæus had stood.
624 Phalantus leads the Parthenians into Italy & builds Tarentum.
618 The second Messenian war begins. Psammiticus dyes. Nechaoh reigns in Egypt. Tyrtæus the poet flourishes.
614 Numa reigns in Rome.
611 Cyaxeres reigns over the Medes. Cypselus reigns in Corinth.
609 Creon the first annual Archon of the Athenians.
The Princes of the Scythians slain in a feast by Cyaxeres. 609 Nineveh besieged. Iosiah slain.
608 Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar overthrow Nineveh, & by sharing the Assyrian Empire grow potent.
607 Cyaxeres makes the Scythians retire beyond Colchos & Iberia & seizes the Assyrian Provinces of Aremnia Pontus & Cappadocia.
606 Nebuchadnezzar invades Syria & Iudea. Cyaxeres makes war upon Alyattes king of Lydia.
604 Nabopolasser dies & is succeded by Nebuchadnezzar
601 In the sixt year of the Lydian war a total Eclips of the sun predicted by Thales April 28 between eight & nine in the morning puts an end to a battel between the Medes & Lydians. They make peace & ratify it by a marriage between Astyages the son of Cyaxeres & Ariene the daughter of Alyattes.
600 Darius Medus the youngest son of Cyaxeres is born.
599 Cyrus is born of Mandane the sister of Cyaxeres.
598 The Messenians being conquered fly into Sicily, & build Messana.
596 Susiana & Elam conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Caranus & Perdiccas fly from Phidon & found the kingdom of Macedon. Phidon introduces weights & measures & the coining of silver money.
588 the Temple of Solomon burnt. 586 Tyre beseiged 13 years by Nebuchadnezzar.
584 Phidon presides in the 49th Olympiad.
580 Phidon overthrown. Draco being Archon of the Athenians makes laws for them. Two men chosen by lot out of the city Elis preside in the Olympic games.
578 Tullus Hostilius reigns. Sappho the Poetess flourishes.
575 The Amphictyons make war upon the Cyrrheans by the advice of Solon & take Cyrrha. Alcmæon & Eurolychus commanded the forces of the Amphictyons, & were contemporary to Phidon. For Leocides the son of Phidon & Megacles the son of Alcmæon, at one & the same time courted Agarista the daughter of Clysthenes.
572. Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt. 569 Darius the Mede succeeds Cyaxeres.
563. Solon being Archon of Athens makes laws for them. Ancus Martius reigns.
562. Solon travells
557. Periander dyes & Corinth becomes free from Tyrants. Crœsus reigns.
555 Nabonnedus reigns. His mother Nitocris adorns & fortifies Babylon.
552 Solon returns to Athens.
550 Pisistratus becomes Tyrant of Athens. Tarquinius Priscus reigns.
549 Solon travells again. The conference between Crœsus & Solon. 549. Solon travells again. The conference between Crœsus & Solon.
< text from f 27r resumes >545 Sardes is taken by Cyrus. Darius Medus recoins the Lydian money into Darics. Solon dyes Hegistratus being Archon.
538. Babylon is taken by Cyrus. Servius Tullius reigns.
536. Cyrus revolts, overcomes Darius the Mede at Pasargadæ, translates the Empire to the Persians & goes to Ecbatane. The Iews return from captivity.
529. Cyrus dyes, is buried at Pasargadæ. Cambyses reigns. 525 Pisistratus dyes. Hipparchus reigns.
521. Darius the son of Hystaspes reigns. The Magi are slain. The various religions of the Provinces of Persia abolished, & a new religion of the Magi institued for all Persia by Hystaspes & Zoroaster.
520 The second Temple is built by the command of Darius. Simonides the Poet flourishes. 515 Tarquinius Superbus reigns.
513 Harmodius & Aristogiton slay Hipparchus the son of Pisistratus, tyrant of the Athenians.
508 The kings of the Romans expelled & Consuls erected.
500 Capua built.
491 The battel at Marathon.
485 Xerxes reigns.
480 The passage of Xerxes over the Hellespont into Greece & the battels of Thermopylæ & Salamis.
464 Artaxerxes Longimanus reigns.
457 Ezra returns from Babylon into Iudea. Iohanan the father of Iadua was now grown up, having a chamber in the Temple.
444 Nehemiah returns into Iudæa. Herodotus writes.
441 The Peloponnesian war begins. Thucydides writes.
428 Nehemiah drives away Eleazar the brother of Iadua because he had married Nicaso the daughter of Sanballat.
424 Darius Nothus reigns.
423 Sanballat builds a Temple in mount Gerazim & makes his son in law Eleazar the first High-priest thereof.
412 Hitherto the Priests & Levites were numbered & written in the Chronicles of the Iews before the death of Nehemiah, at which time either Iohanan or Iadua was High Priest. And here ends the sacred history of the Iews.
405 Artaxerxes Mnemon reigns. The end of the Peloponnesian war.
331 The Persian Empire conquered by Alexander the great.
330 Darius Codomannus the last king of Persia slain. Simeon Iustus High Priest.
323 Alexander the great dyes. His brother Andæus reigns.
317 Andæus slain Alexander Ægeus reigns.
310 Alexander slain. Hercules the son of Alexander the great by Barsina reigns.
305 The Monarchy of the Greeks breaks into smaller kingdoms. Cassander reigns in Macedon, Ptolomy in Egypt, Antigonus in Asia minor & Syria, Lysimachus in Thrace, & Seleuchus beyond Euphrates.
301 The battel at Ipsus. Antigonus slain, & his kingdom divided among the victors. Ptolomy reigns in Egypt, Libya, Palestine & Cælo-Syria; Cassander in Macedon & Greece; Lysimachus in Thrace, Bithynia, Phrygia, Lydia, & some other neighbouring regions; & Seleuchus in the rest of Asia & Syria, & in the regions beyond Euphrates.
A short Chronicle from the first memory of things in Europe to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the great.
The Introduction
The Greek Antiquities are full of poetical fictions because the Greeks wrote nothing in prose before the conquest of Asia by Cyrus the Persian. Then Pherecydes Scyrius & Cadmus Milesius introduced the writing in prose. Pherecydes Atheniensis about the end of the reign of Darius Hystaspis wrote of Antiquities & digested his work by Genealogies, & was recconed one of the best genealogers. Epimenides the historian proceeded also by genealogies; & 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 the kings of the Lacedemonians or Archons of Athens. Hippias the Elean about thirty years before the fall of the Persian empire, published a breviary or list of the Olympic victors; & about ten years before the fall thereof, Ephorus the disciple of Isocrates formed a Chronological history of Greece, beginning with the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus & ending with the seige of Perinthus in the twelfth year of Philip the father of Alexander the great. But he digested things by generations, & the recconing by Olympiads was not yet in use, nor doth it appear that the reigns of kings were yet set down by numbers of years. The Arundelian marbles were composed sixty years after the death of ALexander the great (An. 4. Olymp. 128) & yet mention not the Olympiads. But in the next Olympiad Timæus Siculus published an history in several books down to his own times according to the Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the kings of Sparta, the Archons of Athens, & the Priestesses of Argos with the Olympic victors, so as to make the Olympiads, & the Genealogies of successions of kings archons, & Priestesses & poetical histories suit with one another according to the best of his judgement. And where he left off, Polybius began & carried on the history.
So then, a little after the death of Alexander the great they began to set down the generations reigns & successions in numbers of years, & by putting reigns & successions equipollent to generations, & three generations to an hundred or an hundred & twenty years (as appears by their chronology) they have made the antiquities of Greece three or four hundred years older then the truth. And this was the original of the technical chronology of the Greeks. Eratosthenes wrote about an hundred years after the death of Alexander the great. He was followed by Apollodorus, & these two have been followed ever since by Chronologers.
But how uncertain their Chronology is & how doubtfull it was reputed by the Greeks of those times, may be understood by these passages of Plutarch. Some reccon, saith he, a[14] Lycurgus contemporary to Iphitus, & to have been his companion in ordering the Olympic festivals: amongst whom was Aristotel the philosopher, arguing from the Olympic disc which had the name of Lycurgus upon it. Others supputing the times by the succession of the kings of the Lacedemonians as Eratosthenes & Apollodorus, affirm that he was not a few years older then the first Olympiad. First Aristotel & some others made him as old as the first Olympiad, then Eratosthenes, Apollodorus & some others made him above an hundred years older. And in another place Plutarch b[15] tells us: The congress of Solon with Crœsus, some think they can confute by Chronology. But an history so illustrious, & verified by so many witnesses & (which is more) so agreeable to the manners of Solon, & so worthy of the greatness of his mind & his wisdom, I cannot perswade my self to reject because of some Chronical Canons, as they call them: which hundreds of authors correcting have not yet been able to constitute any certainty among themeselves about repugnances. It seems the Chronologers had made the legislature of Solon too ancient to consist with that congress.
For reconciling such repugnances, Chronologers have sometimes doubled the persons of men. So when the Poets had changed Io the daughtter of Inachus into the Egyptian Isis, Chronologers made her husband Osiris or Bacchus & his mistress Ariadne as old as Io & so feigned that there were two Ariadnes, one the mistress of Bacchus, the other the Mistress of Theseus, & two Minoses their fathers, & a younger Io the daughter of Iasus, writing Iasus corruptly for Inachus. And so they have made two Pandions & two Erechtheuses giving the name of Erechthonius to the first. Homer calls the first Erechtheus. And by such corruptions they have exceedingly perplexed ancient history.
And as for the Chronology of the Latins that is still more uncertain. Plutarch represents great uncertainties in the Originals of Rome. And so doth Servius. The old records of the Latines were burnt by the Gaulls sixty four years before the death of Alexander the great, & Quintus Fabius Pictor, the oldest historian of the Latines lived an hundred years later then that king.
In sacred history the Assyrian empire began with Pul & Tiglathpilesar, & lasted about 170 years. And accordingly Herodotus hath made Semiramis only five generations or about 166 years older then Nitocris the mother of the last king of Babylon. But Ctesias has made Semiramis 1500 years older then Nitocris, & feigned a long series of kings of Assyria whose names are not Assyrian nor have any affinity with the Assyrian names in scripture.
The priests of Egypt told Herodotus that Menes built Memphis & the sumptuous temple of Vulcan in that city: & that Rhampsinitus, Mœris, Asychis, Psammiticus added magnificent porticos to that temple. And it is not likely that Memphis could be famous before Homers days who doth not mention it, or that a temple could be above two or three hundred years in building. And yet the priests of Egypt had so magnified their antiquities before the days of Herodotus, as to tell him that from Menes to Mœris there were 330 kings whose reigns took up as many ages, that is eleven thousand years, & had filled up the interval with feigned kings who had done nothing. And before the days of Diodorus Siculus, they had raised their antiquities so much higher as to place six eight or ten new reigns of kings between those kings whom they had represented to Herodotus to succeed one another immediately.
In the kingdom of Sicyon Chronologers have split Apis Epaphus or Epopeus into two kings whom they call Apis & Epopeus, & between them have inserted eleven or twelve feigned names of kings who did nothing, & thereby they have made its founder Ægialeus three hundred years older then his brother Phoroneus. And some have made the kings of Germany as old as the flood. And yet before the use of letters the names & actions of men could scarce be remembered above eighty or an hundred years after their deaths, & therefore I admit no chronology of things done in Europe above eighty years before Cadmus brought letters into Greece: none of things done in Germany before the rise of the Roman Empire.
Now since Eratosthenes & Apollodorus computed the times by the reigns of the kings of Sparta; and (as appears by their chronology still followed) have made the seventeen reigns of those kings between the return of the Heraclides into Peloponesus & the battel of Thermopylæ take up 622 years, which is after the rate of 36 to a reign, & yet a race of seventeen kings of that length is no where to be met with in all true history, & kings at a moderate recconing reign but 18 or 20 years a piece one with another: I have stated the time of the return of the Heraclides by the last way of recconing placing it 345 years before the battel of Thermopylæ. And making the Trojan war eighty years older according to Thucydides, & the Argonautic expedition a generation older, & the wars of Sesostris in Thrace & death of Ino the daughter of Cadmus a a generation older: I have drawn up the following chronological table so as to make Chronology suit with the course of nature, with Astronomy, with sacred history, & with itself without the many repugnances complained of by Plutarch. I do not pretend to be exact to a year. There may be errors of five or ten years, & sometimes twenty, & not much above.
A short Chronicle
from the first memory of things done in Europe to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the great.
The times are set down in years before Christ.
The Canaanites who fled from Ioshua retired in great numbers into Egypt & there conquered Timaus, Thamus, or Thammuz king of the lower Egypt, & reigned there under their kings Salatis, Beon, Apachnas, Apophis, Ianias, Assis &c untill the days of Eli & Samuel. They fed on flesh, & sacrificed men after the manner of the Phenecians, & were called shepherds by the Egyptians who lived only on the fruits of the earth & abominated flesheaters. The upper parts of Egypt were in those days under many kings reigning at Coptos, Thebes, This, Elephantis & other places which by conquering one another grew by degrees into one kingdom over which Misphragmuthosis reigned in the days of Eli.
Anno ante Christum 1120. About this time Mephres reigned over the upper Egypt from Syene to Heliopolis & his successor Misphramuthosis made a lasting war on the shepherds soon after & caused many of them to fly into Palestine, Idumea, Syria & Libya, & under Lelex, Æzeus, Inachus, Pelasgus, Æolus the first, Cecrops, & other captains into Greece. And these strangers built the first houses in Greece. Before those days Greece & all Europe was peopled by wandering Cimmerians & Scythians from the backside of the Euxine sea who lived a rambling wild sort of life like the Tartars in the northern parts of Asia. Of their race was Ogyges in whose days these Egyptian strangers came into Greece. The rest of the shepherds were shut up by Misphramuthosis in a part of the lower Egypt called Abaris & Pelusium.
Anno 1100 The Philistims strengthened by the access of the shepherds conquer Israel & take the Ark. Samuel judges Israel.
1085, Hæmon the son of Pelasgus reigns in Thessaly.
1080, Lycaon the son of Pelasgus builds Lycosura, Phoroneus the son of Inachus Phoronicum afterwards called Argos. Ægialeus the brother of Phoroneus & son of Inachus Ægialeum afterwards called Sicyon; the oldest towns in Peloponesus. Till then they built only single houses scattered up & down in the fields. About the same time Cecrops built Cecropia in Attica afterwards called Athens, & Eleusine the son of Ogyges built Eleusina. And these towns gave a beginning to the kingdoms of the Arcadians, Argives, Sicyons, Athenians, Eleusinians, &c.
1070, Amosis or Tethmosis the successor of Misphramuthosis drives the shepherds out of Abaris & abolishes the Phœnician custom in Heliopolis of sacrificing men. By their access the Philistims became so numerous as to bring into the field against Saul 30000 chariots 6000 horsmen & people as the sand on the sea shore in multitude. Abas the father of Acrisius & Prœtus comes from Egypt.
1069. Saul is made king of Israel & by the hand of Ionathan gets a great victory over the Philistims. Eurotas the son of Lelex, & Lacedæmon who married Sparta the daughter of Eurotas, reign in Laconia & build Sparta. Deucalion flourishes.
1060. Samuel dyes.
1059. David made king.
1048. The Edomites are conquered by David. Their mariners fly from the red sea to the mediterranean, fortify Azoth, & take Zidon & the Zidonians who fled from them build Tyre & make Abibalus their first king.
1047. Acrisius marries Eurydice the daughter of Lacedæmon & Sparta.
1045. The Phenician mariners who fled from the red sea, being used to long voiages for the sake of trafic, begin the like voiages on the Mediterranean from Sidon, & sailing as far as Greece carry away Io the daughter of Inachus who with other Grecian weomen came to their ships to buy their merchandise. The Greek seas begin to be infested with pyrates. Endymion builds Elis.
1043 The Syrians of Zobah & Damascus are conquered by David.
1042 Nyctimus the son of Lycaon reigns in Arcadia. Deucalion still alive.
1041. Many of the Phenicians & Syrians flee from Sidon, & come under the conduct of Cadmus, Cilix, Phœnix, Memblianus, Nicteus, Thasus, Atymnus & other captains into Asia minor, Crete, Greece & Libya & introduce letters, music, poetry, the Octaeteris, metalls & their fabrication, & other arts sciences & customes of the Phenicians. At this time Cranaus the successor of Cecrops reigned in Attica & in his reign & the beginning of the reign of Nyctimus the Greeks place the flood of Deucalion. This flood was succeeded by four ages or generations of men in the first of which Chiron the son of Saturn & Philyra was born, & the last of which according to Hesiod ended with the Trojan war & so place the destruction of Troy four generations or about 138 years later then that flood & then the coming of Cadmus, recconing with the ancients three generations to an hundred years. With these Phenicians came a sort of men skilled in the religious mysteries Arts & sciences of Phenicia & setled in several places under the names of Curetes, Corybantes, Telchines & Idæi Dactyli.
1039. Helen the son of Deucalion & father of Æolus Xuthus & Dorus flourishes.
1037. Erechtheus reigns in Attica.
<35r>1036 Ceres a woman of Sicily, in seeking her daughter who was stollen, comes into Attica, & there teaches the Greeks to sow corn. For which benefaction she was deified after death. She first taught the art to Triptolemus the young son of Celeus king of Eleusis.
1035. The Idei Dactyli find out iron in mount Ida in Crete, & work it into armour & iron tools & thereby give a beginning to the trades of Smiths & Carpenters in Europe. And by singing & dancing in their armour & keeping time by striking on one anothers armour with their swords, they bring in music & poetry. And at the same time they nurse up the Cretan Iupiter in a cave of the same mountain, dancing about him in their armour.
1034 Ammon reigns in Egypt. He conquered Libya & reduced that people from a wandering salvage life to a civil one, & taught them to lay up the fruits of the earth. And from him Libya & the desert above it were anciently called Ammonia. He was the first that built long & tall ships with sails & had a fleet of such ships on the Red Sea & another on the Mediterranean at Inasa in Libya. Till then they used small & round vessels of burden invented on the red sea, & kept within sight of the shore. For enabling them to cross the seas without seeing the shore: the Egyptians began in his days to observe the stars. And from this beginning Astronomy & sailing had their rise. Hitherto the lunisolar year had been in use: but this year being of an uncertain length, & so unfit for Astronomy, in his days & in the days of his sons & grandsons, by observing the heliacal risings & settings of the stars, they found the length of the solar year, & made it consist of five days more then the twelve calendar months of the old Lunisolar year.
1028. Oenotrus the youngest son of Lycaon (the Ianus of the Latines) led the first colony of the Greeks into Italy, & there taught them to build houses. Perseus born.
1025. Archas the son of Callisto & grandson of Lycaon, & Eumelus the first king of Achaia, received bread-corn from Triptolemus.
1020. Apis Epaphus or Epopeus the son of Phoroneus, & Nicteus king of Bœotia slain. Lycus inherits the kingdom of his brother Nicteus. Æolus the son of Endymion flyes into the country of the Curetes in Achaia & calls it Ætolia, & of Pronoe the daughter of Phorbus begets Pleuron & Calydon, who build cities in Ætolia called by their own names. Antiopa the daughter of Nicteus is sent home to Lycus by Lamedon the successor of Apis, & in the way brings forth Amphion & Zethus.
1019. Solomon reigns & marries the daughter of Ammon, & by means of this affinity is supplied with horses from Egypt. And his merchants from thence also bring horses for all the kings of the Hittites & Syrians. For horses came originally from Libya. And thence Neptune was called equestris. Tantalus the king of Phrygia steals Ganimede the son of Tros king of Troas.
1017. Solomon by the assistance of the Tyrians, who had marriners amongst them acquainted with the red sea, sets out a fleet upon that sea. Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus marries Zuthus the son of Hellen. Erechtheus having first celebrated the Panathenæa joynes horses to a chariot. Ægina the daughter of Æsopus & mother of Æacus born.
1015 The temple of Solomon is founded. Minos reigns in Crete expelling his father who flees into Italy & becomes the Saturn of the Latines. Ammon takes Gezer from the Caananites & gives it to his daughter Solomons wife.
1014 Ammon places Cepheus at Ioppa. Ceres being dead Eumolpus institutes her mysteries in Eleusine. The mysteries of Rhea are instituted in Phrygia in the city Cybele. About this time temples begin to be built in Greece. Hyagnis the Phrygian invents the pipe. After the example of the common council of the five lords of the Philistims the Greeks set up the Amphictyonic council first at Thermopylæ by the influence of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion, & a few years after at Delphi by the influence of Acrisius. Among the cities whose deputies met at Thermopylæ I do not find Athens & therefore doubt whether Amphictyon was king of that city. If he was the son of Deucalion & brother of Hellen he & Cranaus might reign together in several parts of Attica. But I meet with a later Amphictyon who enterteined the great Bacchus. This council worshipped Ceres & therefore was instituted after her death.
1012. Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Caucon teaches the mysteries of Ceres in Messene. Sesac in the reign of his father Ammon invades Arabia felix.
1017. Pandion the brother of Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Pelops the son of Tantalus comes into Peloponnesus marries Hippodamia the granddaughter of Acrisius, takes Ætolia from Ætolus the son of Endymion. & by his riches grows potent.
1010. Car the son of Phoroneus builds a temple to Ceres. Hellen the son of Deucalion reigns in Phthiotis.
1008. Sesac in the reign of his father Ammon invades Afric & Spain, & sets up pillars at the mouth of the streights & in all his conquests & returns by the coast of Gaul & Italy.
1006 Minos prepares a fleet, clears the Greek seas of pyrates, & sends colonies to the islands of the Greeks, some of which were not inhabited before. War between Pandion & Labdacus the grandson of Cadmus.
1005. Andromeda carried away from Ioppa by Perseus.
1002. Sesac reigns in Egypt, & adorns Thebes, dedicating it to to his father Ammon by the name of No-Ammon or Ammon-No, that is, the city or people of Ammon. Whence the Greeks called it Diospolis, the city of Iupiter. Sesac also erected Temples & Oracles to his father in Thebes Ammonia & Ethiopia & thereby caused his father to be worshipped as a God in those countries, & I think also in Arabia Felix. And this was the original of the worship of Iupiter Ammon, & the first mention of Oracles that I meet with in profane history.
1000 Amphion & Zethus slay Lycus, put Laius the son of Labdacus to flight, & reign in Thebes, & wall the city about.
994 Ægeus reigns in Attica.
993 Sisyphus the son of Æolus & grandson of Hellen reigns in Corinth, & some say that he built that city.
990 Dædalus & his nephew Talus invent the saw, the turning lath, the wimble, the chip-ax, & other instruments of Carpenters & joyners & thereby give a beginning to those Arts in Europe. Dædalus also invented the making of statues with their feet asunder as if they walked.
988. Minos makes war upon the Athenians for killing his son Androgeus. Æacus flourishes.
987 Dædalus kills Talus & flies to Minos. A Priestess of Iupiter Ammon being brought by Phenician merchants into Greece, sets up the Oracle of Iupiter at Dodona. And this gives a beginning to Oracles in Greece. And by their dictates the worship of the dead is every where introduced.
981 Electra born of Electryo the son of Perseus & Andromeda, & Eurydice the daughter of Pelops.
980. Laius recovers the kingdom of Thebes. Athamas the brother of Sisyphus & father of Phryseus & Helle marries Ino the daughter of Cadmus.
979. Rehoboam reigns. Thoas is sent from Crete to Lemnos, & reigns there in the city of Hephestia, where he works in copper & iron.
974 Sesac spoils the Temple, & invades Syria Persia & India setting up pillars in all his conquests. Ieroboam becoming subject to Sesac sets up the worship of the Egyptian gods in Israel.
971. Sesac invades India & returns with triumph the next year but one. Whence Trietrica Bacchi. He sets up two pillars on two mountains at the mouth of the river Ganges.
968. Theseus reigns having overcome the Minotaur, & soon after unites the twelve cities of Attica under one government. Sesac havingcarried on his victories to mount Caucasus leaves his nephew Prometheus there, & Æetes at Colchos.
967. Sesac passing over the Hellespont conquers Thrace, kills Lycurgus king thereof, & gives his kingdom and one of his singing weomen to Oeagrus the father of Orpheus. Sesac had in his army Ethiopians commanded by Pan, & Libyan weomen commanded by Merina or Minerva. It was the custome of the Ethiopians to dance when they were entring into a battel, & from their skipping they were painted with Goats feet in the form of Satyrs.
966. Thoas being made king of Cyprus by Sesac goes thither with his wife Callicopis & leaves his daughter Hypsipyle in Lemnos.
965 Sesac is baffled by the Greeks & Scythians, loses many of his weomen with their queen Minerva, composes the war, is received by Amphictyon at a feast, buries Ariadne, goes back through Asia & Syria into Egypt with innumerable captives, among whom was Tithonus the son of Laomedon king of Troy; & leaves his Libyan Amazons under Marthesia & Lampeto, the successors of Minerva, at the river Thermodon. He left also in Colchos geographical Tables of all his conquests; & thence Geography had its rise. His singing weomen were celebrated in Thrace with the name of the Muses. And the daughters of Pierus a Thracian imitating them were celebrated by the same name.
964. Minos making war upon Cocalus king of Sicily, is slain by him. He was eminent for his dominion his laws & his justice. Vpon his sepulchre visited by Pythagoras was this inscription ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ, the sepulchre of Iupiter. Danaus with his daughters flying from his brother Ægyptus (that is from Sesac) comes into Greece. Sesac using the advice of his secretary Thoth, distributes Egypt into XXXVI nomes, & in every nome erects a Temple, & appoints the several Gods, festivals, & religions of the several Nomes. The temples were the sepulchres of his great men where they were to be buried & worshipped after death, each in his own temple with ceremonies & festivals appointed by him; while he & his queen by the names of Osiris & Isis, were to be worshipped in all Egypt. These were the temples seen & described by Lucian eleven hundred years after to be of one & the same age. And this was the original of the several Nomes of Egypt, & of the several Gods & several religions in those Nomes. Sesac divided also the land of Egypt by measure amongst his soldiers, & thence Geometry had its rise. Hercules & Eurystheus born.
963. Amphictyon brings the twelve Gods of Egypt into Greece, & these are the Dij magni majorum gentium, to whom the earth & planets & elements are dedicated.
962 Phrixus & Helle fly from their stepmother Ino the daughter of Cadmus. Helle is drowned in the Hellespont so named from her, but Phryxus arrives at Colchos.
960 The war between the Lapthæ & the people of Thessaly called Centaurs.
958. Oedipus kills his father Laius. Sthenelus the son of Perseus, reigns in Mycene.
956. Sesac is slain by his brother Iapetus who after death was deified in Afric by the name of Neptune & called Typhon by the Egyptians. Orus reigns & routs the Libyans who under the conduct of Iapetus & his son Antæus or Atlas invaded Egypt. Sesac from his making the river Nile useful by cutting channels from it to all the cities of Egypt, was called by its names Sihor or Siris, Nilus, & Ægyptus. The Greeks hearing the Egyptians lament O Siris & Bou Sirus called him Osiris & Busiris. The Arabians from his great acts called him Bacchus, that is, the great. The Phrygians called him Ma-fors or Mavors the valiant, & by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests, & his army in his fathers reign fought against the Africans with clubs he is painted with pillars & a club. And this is that Hercules who according to Cicero was born upon the Nile & according to Eudoxus was slain by Typhon, & according to Diodorus was an Egyptian & went over a great part of the world & set up the pillars in Afric. He seems to be also the Belus who, according to Diodorus, led a colony of Egyptians to Babylon & there instituted priests called Chaldæans who were free from taxes & observed the stars as in Egypt. Hitherto Iudah & Israel laboured under great vexations: but henceforward Asa king of Iudea had peace ten years.
947. The Ethiopians invade Egypt & drown Orus in the Nile. Thereupon Bubaste the sister of Orus kills her self by falling from the top of an house: & their mother Isis or Astræa goes mad. And thus ended the reign of the Gods of Egypt.
946 Zerah the Ethiopian is overthrown by Asa. The people of the lower Egypt make Osarsiphus their king & call in two hundred thousand Iews & Phenicians against the Ethiopians. Menes or Amenophis the young son of Zerah & Cissa reigns.
944. The Ethiopians under Amenophis retire from the lower Egypt & fortify Memphis agains Osarsiphus. And by these wars & the Argonautic expedition the great empire of Egypt breaks in pieces. Eurystheus the son of Sthenelus reigns in Mycene.
943 Evander & his mother Carmenta carry letters into Italy.
942 Orpheus deifies the son of Semele by the name of Bacchus & appoints his ceremonies.
940 The great men of Greece learning of the civil warrs & distractions of Egypt, resolve to send an embassy to the nations upon the Euxine & mediterranean seas subject to that empire, & for that end order the building of the ship Argo.
939 The ship Argo is built after the pattern of the long ship in which Danaus came into Greece. And this was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Chiron who was born in the Golden age, forms the Constellations for the use of the Argonauts, & places the solstitial & equinoctial points in the fifteenth degrees or middles of the constellations of Cancer Chelæ Capricorn & Aries. Meton in the year of Nabonassar 316 observed the summer solstice in the eighth degree of Cancer & therefore the solstice had then gone back seven degrees. It goes back one degree in about seventy & two years, & seven degrees in about 504 years. Count these years back from the year of Nabonassar 316, & they will place the Argonautic expedition about 936 years before Christ.
Gingris the son of Thoas slain & deified by the name of Adonis.
938 Theseus being fifty years old steals Hellena then seven years old. Perithous the son of Ixion endeavouring to steal Persephone the daughter of Orcus king of the Molossians, is slain by the dog of Orcus, & his companion Theseus is taken & imprisoned. Helena set at liberty by her brothers.
937 The Argonautic expedition. Prometheus leaves mount Caucasus being set at liberty by Hercules. Laomedon king of Troy slain by Hercules. Priam succeeds him Talus, a brazen man of the brazen age, the son of Minos, slain by the Argonauts. Æsculapius & Hercules were Argonauts, & Hippocrates was the eighteenth from Æsculapius by the fathers side, & the nineteenth from Hercules by the mothers side. And because these generations being noted in history were most probably by the chief of the family, & for the most part by the eldest sons: we may reccon 28 or at most 30 years to a generation. And thus the seventeen intervals by the fathers side & eighteen by the mothers will at a middle recconing amount to about 507 years. Which being counted backwards from the beginning of the Peloponesian war (at which time Hippocrates began to flourish) will reach up to the time where we have placed the Argonautic expedition.
936. Theseus is set at liberty by Hercules.
934. The hunting of the Calydonian boar, slain by Meleager.
930. Amenophis with an army out of Ethiopia & Thebais invades the lower Egypt, conquers Osarsiphus & drives out the Iews & Caananites. And this is recconed the second expulsion of the shepherds. Callicopis dies & is deified by Thoas with temples at Paphos & Amathus in Cyprus & at Byblus in Syria, & with priests & sacred rites, & becomes the Venus of the ancients, & the Dea Cypria & Dea Syria. And from these & other places where temples were erected to her, she was also called Paphia, Amathusia, Byblia, Cytherea, Salaminia, Cnidia, Erycina, Idalia, &c. And her three waiting weomen became the three Graces.
928 The war of the seven capitains against Thebes.
927 Hercules & Esculapius are deified. Eurystheus drives the Heraclides out of Peloponesus. He is slain by Hyllus the son of Hercules. Atreus the son of Pelops succeeds him in the kingdom of the Mycenæ. Menestheus the great grandson of Erechtheus reigns at Athens.
925 Theseus is slain being cast down from a rock.
924 Hyllus invading Peloponesus is slain by Echemus.
919 Atreus dies. Agamemnon reigns. In the absence of Menelaus who went to look after what his father Atreus had left him, Paris steals Helena.
918 The second war against Thebes.
912. Thoas king of Cyprus & part of Phœnicia dies: & for making armour for the kings of Egypt is deified with a sumptuous temple at Memphis by the name of Baal Canaan, Vulcan. This temple was said to be built by Menes the first king of Egypt who reigned next after the Gods, that is, by Menoph or Amenophis who reigned next after the death of Osiris, Isis, Orus, Bubaste & Thoth. The city Memphis was also said to be built by Menes. He began to build it when he fortified it against Osarsiphus And from him it was called Menoph, Moph, Noph &c., & is to this day called Menuf by the Arabians. And therefore Menes who built the city & temple was Menoph or Amenophis. The priests of Egypt at length made this temple above a thousand years older then Amenophis, & some of them five or ten thousand years older. But it could not be above two or three hundred years older then the reign of Psammiticus who finished it & died 614 years before Christ. When Menoph or Menes built the city he built a bridge there over the Nile: a work too great to be older then the monarchy of Egypt.
909 Amenophis (called Memnon by the Greeks) built the Memnonia at Susa & left Egypt under the government of Proteus his viceroy.
904 Troy taken. Amenophis was still at Susa: the Greeks feigning that he came from thence to the Trojan war.
903 Demophoon the son of Theseus by Phædra the daughter of Minos reigns at Athens.
901 Amenophis builds small Pyramids in Cochome.
895 Teucer builds Salamis in Cyprus. Hadad or Benhadad king of Syria dies, & is deified at Damascus with a temple & ceremonies.
887 Amenophis dies & is succeded by his some Ramesses or Rhampsintius who builds the western portico of the temple of Vulcan./ The Egyptians dedicated to Osiris, Isis, Orus senior, Typhon & Nephthe the sister & wife of Typhon, the five days added by the Egyptians to the twelve Calendar months of the old Lunisolar year, & said that they were added when these five princes were born. They were added therefore in the reign of Ammon the father of these five princes. But this year was not brought into use before the reign of Amenophis. For in his temple or sepulchre at Abydus, they placed a circle of 365 cubits in compass covered on the upper side with a plate of gold, & divided into 365 equal parts to represent all the days of the year, every part having the day of the year & the heliacall risings & settings of the starrs on that day, noted upon it. And this circle remained there till Cambyses spoiled the temples of Egypt. And from this monument I collect that it was Amenophis who established this year, fixing the beginning thereof to one of the four cardinal points of the heavens. For had not the beginning thereof been now fixed the heliacal risings & settings of the starrs could not have been noted upon the days thereof. The priests of Egypt therefore in the reign of Amenophis, continued to observe the heliacal risings & settings of the starrs upon every day. And when by the sun's meridional altitudes they had found the solstices & equinoxes according to the suns mean motion (his Æquation being not yet known) they fixed the beginning of this year to the vernal equinox, & in memory thereof erected this monument. Now this year being carried into Chaldea, the Chaldeans began their year of Nabonassar on the same Thoth with the Egyptians; & the Thoth of the first year of Nabonassar fell upon the 26th day of february: which was 33 days & five hours before the vernal equinox according to the suns mean motion. And the Thoth of this year moves backward 33 days & five hours in 137 years, & therefore fell upon the vernal Equinox 137 years before the Æra of Nabonassar began, that is, 884 years before Christ. And if it began upon the day next after the Vernal Equinox, it might begin three or four years earlier. And there we may place the death of this king. The Greeks feigned that he was the son of Tithonus, & therefore he was born after the return of Sesac into Egypt with Tithonus & other captives, & so might be about 70 or 75 years old at his death.
886 Vlysses leaves Calypso in the island Ogygie (perhaps Cadis or Cales) She was the daughter of Atlas according to Homer. The ancients at length feigned that this island (which from Atlas they called Atlantis) had been as big as all Europe, Africa & Asia but was sunk into the sea.
883 Dido builds Carthage & the Phenicians begin presently after to sail as far as the straits mouth & beyond. Æneas was still alive according to Virgil.
870 Hesiod flourishes. He has told us himself that he lived in the age next after the wars of Thebes & Troy, & that this age should end when the men then living grew hoary & dropt into the grave, & therefore it was but of an ordinary length. And Herodotus has told us that Hesiod & Homer were but 400 years older then himself.
860. Mœris reigns in Egypt. He adorned Memphis, & translated the seat of his empire thither from Thebes. There he built the famous Labyrinth, & the northern portico of the temple of Vulcan, & dug the great lake called the lake of Mœris, & upon the bottom of it built two great pyramids of brick. And these things being not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod were unknown to them, & done after their days. He wrote also a book of Geometry.
852. Hazael the successor of Hadad at Damascus dyes & is deified. These Gods Hadad & Hazael, together with Anathes the wife of Hadad were worshipped in their sepulchres or temples till the days of Iosephus the Iew, & the Syrians boasted their antiquity, not knowing, saith Iosephus, that they were novel.
844. The Æolic migration. Bœotia formerly called Cadmeis is sezied by the Bœotians.
838. Cheops reigns in Egypt. He built the greatest Pyramid for his sepulchre, & forbad the worship of the former kings, intending to have been worshipped himself.
825. The Heraclides, after three generations or an hundred years recconed from their former expedition, return to Peloponesus. Henceforward to the end of the first Messenian warr reigned ten kings of Sparta by one race & nine by another, ten of Messene & nine of Arcadia, which, recconing according to the ordinary course of nature about 18 or 20 years to a reign, one reign with another, will scarce take up above 200 years. And the seven reigns more in each of the two races of the Spartan kings to the battel of Thermopylæ, may take up 140 years more & so place the return of the Heraclides about 820 years before Christ.
824 Cephren reigns in Egypt, & builds another great Pyramid.
808 Mycerine reigns there & begins the third great Pyramid. He shut up the dead body of his daughter in a hollow ox, & caused her to be worshipped daily with odours.
804 The war between the Athenians & Spartans, in which Codrus king of the Athenians is slain.
802 Nitocris the sister of Mycerine succeeds him & finishes the third great Pyramid.
794. The Ionic migration under the conduct of the sons of Codrus.
790. Pul founds the Assyrian empire.
788. Asychis reigns in Egypt, & builds the eastern portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly, & a large Pyramid of brick made of mud dug out of the lake of Mœris. Ægypt breaks into several kingdoms. Gnephactus & Boccharis reign successively in the upper Egypt; Stephanates Nechepsos & Nechus at Sais. Anysis or Amosis at Anysis or Hanes; & Tacellotis at Bubaste.
776. Iphitus restores the Olympiads. And from this Æra the Olympiads are now recconed. Gnephactus reigns at Memphis.
772 Necepsos & Petosiris invent Astrology in Egypt.
762 Boccharis reigns in Egypt.
760. Semiramis begins to flourish. Sanchoniatho writes.
< text from f 40r resumes >751 Sabacon the Ethiopian invades Egypt now divided into various kingdoms & burns Boccharis slays Nechus & makes Anysis fly. Sabacon the Ethiopian invades Egypt now divided into various kingdoms, burns Buccharis slays Nechus & makes Anysis fly.
< text from f 40r resumes >747 The Æra of Nabonassar, Pul being succeeded at Babylon by Nabonassar & at Nineveh by Tiglathpilasser. 747 Pul is succeeded at Nineveh by Tiglathpilaser & at Babylon by Nabonassar. The Egyptians who fled from Sabacon carry their Astronomy & Astrology to Babylon & found the Æra of Nabonassar in Egyptian years of 365 days, beginning on the same day with those of Egypt.
< text from f 40r resumes >740 Tiglathpilassar king of Assyria takes Damascus & captivates the Syrians. Tiglathpilassar king of Assyria takes Damascus & captivates the Syrians.
< text from f 40r resumes >729 Tiglathpilasser is succeeded by Solmanasser. 729 Tiglathpilasser is succeeded by Solmanasser.
< text from f 40r resumes >721. Salmanasser king of the Assyrians carries the ten tribes into captivity.
719. Sennacherib reigns over Assyria
717. Tirhakah reigns in Æthiopia
714 Sennacherib is put to flight by the Ethiopians & Egyptians.
711. The Medes revolt from the Assyrians. Sennacherib slain. Asserhadon succeeds him. This is that Asserhadon-Pul, or Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxis or Sennacherib, who built Tarsus & Anchiale in one day.
710. Lycurgus brings the poems of Homer out of Asia into Greece.
708. Lycurgus becomes tutor to Charillus or Charilaus the young king of Sparta. Aristotel makes Lycurgus as old as Iphitus because his name was upon the Olympic Disc. But the disc was one of the five games called the Quinquertium, & the Quinquertium was first instituted upon the eighteenth Olympiad. Socrates & Thucydides made the institutions of Lycurgus about 300 years older then the end of the Peloponesian warr, that is 705 years before Christ.
701 Sabacon relinquishes Egypt to his son Sevechus or Sethon who becomes priest of Vulcan & neglects military affairs. 701 Sabacon after a reign of 50 years relinquishes Egypt to his son Sevechus or Sethon who becomes Priest of Vulcan & neglects military affairs.
< text from f 40r resumes >697 The Corinthians began first of any men to build ships with three orders of oars called Triremes. Hitherto the Greeks had used long vessels of fifty oars. 698. Manasses reigns. 698. Manasses reigns.
697 The Corinthians began first of any men to build ships with three orders of oars called Triremes. Hitherto the Greeks had used long vessels of fifty oars.
< text from f 40r resumes >687 Tirhakah reigns in Ægypt 687. Tirhakah reigns in Egypt.
< text from f 40r resumes >681. Asserhadon takes Babylon. 681 Asserhadon takes Babylon
< text from f 40r resumes >673. The Iews conquered by Asserhadon & Manasses carried captive to Babylon.
671. Asserhadon invades Egypt. The government of Egypt committed to twelve princes.
668. The western nations of Syria Phenicia & Egypt revolt from the Assyrians. Asserhadon dyes & is succeeded by Saosduchinus. Manasses returns from captivity.
<41r>658. Phraortes reigns in Media. The Prytanees reign in Corinth expelling their kings.
657 The Corinthians overcome the Corcyreans at sea; & this was the oldest sea fight. Archias the son of Evagetus of the stock of Hercules, led a colony from Corinth into Sicily & built Syracuse.
655 The first Messenian war begins. It lasted twenty years. Psammiticus becomes king of all Egypt by conquering the other eleven kings with whom he had already reigned fifteen years. He reigned about 39 years more. Henceforward the Ionians had access into Ægypt: & thence came the Ionian Philosophy Astronomy & Geometry.
650 Charops the first decennial Archon of the Athenians. Some of these Archons might dye before the end of the ten years, & the remainder of the ten years be supplied by a new Archon. And thence the seven decennial Archons might not take up above forty or fifty years.
647 Saosduchinus king of Assyria dyes & is succeeded by Chyniladon.
640 Iosias reigns in Iudea.
636 Phraortes king of the Medes is slain in a war against the Assyrians. Astyages succeeds him.
635 The Scythians invade the Medes & Assyrians
633 Battus builds Cyrene where Irasa the city of Antæus had stood.
625 Nabopalasser revolts from the king of Assyria, & reigns over Babylon.
624 Phalantus leads the Parthenians into Italy & builds Tarentum.
617. The second Messenian war begins. Psammiticus dyes. Nechao reigns in Egypt. Rome is built.
611. Cyaxeres reigns over the Medes.
610 Creon the first annual Archon of the Athenians. The Princes of the Scythians slain in a feast by Cyaxeres.
609 Iosiah slain. Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar overthrow Nineveh & by sharing the Assyrian empire grow great.
607. Cyaxeres makes the Scythians retire beyond Colchos & Iberia & seizes the Assyrian provinces of Armenia Pontus & Cappadocia.
606 Nebuchadnezzar invades Syria & Iudæa. Cyaxeres makes war upon Alyattes king of Lydia.
604 Nabopolasser dyes & is succeeded by his son Nebuchadnezzar who had already reigned two years with his father.
601 In the sixt year of the Lydian war, a total Eclips of the sun predicted by Thales Apr. 28 between eight & nine of the clock in the morning puts an end to a battel between the Medes & Lydians. Whereupon they make peace & ratify it by a marriage between Astyages the son of Cyaxeres & Ariene the daughter of Alyattes.
600. Darius the Mede the son or grandson of Cyaxeres is born.
599. Cyrus is born of Mandane the sister of Cyaxeres, & daughter of Astyages.
598. The Messenians being conquered fly into Sicily & build Messana.
596. Susiana & Elam Conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Caranus and Perdiccas fly from Phidon, & found the kingdom of Macedon. Phidon introduces weights & measures & the coyning of silver money.
588 The temple of Solomon is burnt by Nebuchadnezzar.
584 Phidon presides in the 49th Olympiad.
580 Draco is Archon of the Athenians & makes laws for them. Phidon is overthrown. Two men chosen by lot out of the city Elis to preside in the Olympic games.
575 The Amphictyons make war upon the Cyrrhenians by the advice of Solon, & take Cyrrha. Clysthenes, Alcmæon & Eurolycus commanded the forces of the Amphictyons, & were contemporary to Phidon. For Leocides the son of Phidon, & Megacles the son of Alcmæon, at one and the same time courted Agarista the daughter of Clysthenes.
569 Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt. Darius the Mede reigns.
563 Solon being Archon of the Athenians makes laws for them.
557. Periander dies & Corinth becomes free from tyrants.
555 Nabonnidus reigns at Babylon. His mother Nitocris adorns & fortifies that city.
553 The conference between Crœsus & Solon.
550 Pisistratus becomes tyrant at Athens.
<42r>547. Sardes is taken by Cyrus. Darius the Mede recoins the Lydian money into Darics. Solon dyes, Hegistratus being Archon of Athens.
538 Babylon is taken by Cyrus.
536 Cyrus overcomes Darius the Mede & translates the empire to the Persians. The Iews return from captivity.
529. Darius dyes. Cambyses reigns.
521 Darius the son of Hystaspes reigns. The Magi are slain. The various religions of the several nations of Persia, which consisted in the worship of their ancient kings, are abolished; & by the influence of Hystaspes & Zoroaster the worship of the supreme God at altars without temples is set up in all Persia.
520 The second Temple is built at Ierusalem by the command of Darius.
515. The second Temple is finished & dedicated.
513 Harmodius & Aristogiton slay Hypparchus the son of Pisistratus, tyrant of the Athenians.
508 The kings of the Romans expelled & Consuls erected.
491 The battel of Marathon
485 Xerxes reigns
480 The passage of Xerxes over the Hellespont into Greece & battels of Thermopylæ & Salamis.
464 Artaxerxes Longimanus reigns.
457 Ezra returns into Iudæa. Iohannan the father of Iadua was now grown up, having a chamber in the Temple.
444 Nehemiah returns into Iudea. Herodotus writes.
431 The Peloponesian war begins.
438 Nehemiah drives away Eliezar the brother of Iadua because he had married Nicaso the daughter of Sanballat.
424 Darius Nothus reigns.
422. Sanballat builds a Temple in mount Gerazim & makes his son in law Eleazar the first High Priest thereof.
412. Hitherto the Priests & Levites were numbered & written in the Chronicles of the Iews before the death of Nehemiah: at which time either Iohanan or Iadua was High Priest. And here ends the sacred history of the Iews.
405 Artaxerxes Mnemon reigns. The end of the Peloponesian war.
332 The Persian empire conquered by Alexander the great.
331. Darius Codomannus the last king of Persia slain.
Copy of an
Abstract of Chronology
By Sir Isaac Newton,
Corrected by himself.
<45r> Introduction.
The Greek Antiquitys are full of Poetical fictions, because the Greeks wrote nothing in Prose before the Conquest of Asia by Cyrus the Persian. Then Pherecydes Sirius and Cadmus Milesius introduc'd the writing in Prose. Pherecydes Atheniensis, about the end of the Reign of Darius, wrote of Antiquities, and digested his work by Geneaologies, and was reckoned one of the best Genealogers. Epimenides the Historian proceeded also by Genaologys, and Hellanicus who was twelve Years older than Herodotus, digested his History by the Ages or Successions of the Priestesses of Iuno Argiva. Others digested theirs by the Archons of Athens or Kings of the Lacedemonians. Hippias the Elean, about 30 Years before the fall of the Persian Empire, publish'd a Breviary or list of the Olympick Victors, and about ten years before the fall thereof, Ephorus the disciple of Isocrates form'd a Chronological History of Greece beginning with the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and ending with the Siege of Perinthus in the 20th: Year of Philip the father of Alexander the great. But he digested things by Generations, and the reckoning by Olympiads was not yet in use, nor doth it appear that the Reigns of Kings were yet set down by numbers of Years. The Arundelian Marbles were compos'd, Sixty Years after the death of Alexander the great (An. 4. Olymp. 120.) and yet mention not the Olympiads. But in the next Olympiad Timæus Siculus publish'd an History in several Books down to his own times, according to the Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the Kings of Sparta, the Archons of Athens and the Priestesses of Argos with the Olympic Victors; So as to make the Olympiads and the Genealogies, and Successions of Kings, Archons and Priestesses, and Poetical Historys suit with each other, according to the best of his judgement. And where he left off, Polybius began, and carried on the History. So then a little after the death of Alexander the great, they began to set down the Generations, Reigns, and Successions, in numbers of Years, and by putting Reigns and Successions equipollent to Generations, and three Generations to an hundred or an hundred and twenty Years (as appears by their Chronology) They have made the Antiquities of Greece, three or four Hundred Years older than the truth, and this was the Original of the tecknical Chronology of the Greeks. Eratosthenes wrote about an hundred Years after the death of Alexander the Great, He was followed by Apollodorus and these two have been followed ever since by Chronologers. But how uncertain their Chronology is, and how doubtfull it was reputed by the Greeks of those times, may be understood by these passages of Plutarch. Some reckon Saith He, (a)[16] Lycurgus contemporary to Iphitus, and to have been his Companion in ordering the Olympic Festivals: among whom was Aristotle the Philosopher, arguing from the Olympic Disc which had the name of Lycurgus upon it. Others supputing the times by the Succession of Kings of the Lacedemonians, as Eratosthenes and Apollodorus affirm that he was not a few Years older than the first Olympiad. First Aristotle and some others made him as old as the first Olympiad, then Eratosthenes, Apollodorus and some others made him above an hundred Years older. And in another place Plutarch tells us, (b)[17] "The congress of Solon with Crœsus some think they can confute by Chronology. But an History so illustrious and verify'd by so many Witnesses, and (which is more) so agreeable to the manners of Solon, and so worthy of the greatness of his mind and of his wisdom, I cannot perswade my Self to reject, because of some Chronical Canons, as they call 'em, which Hundreds of Authors correcting have not been able as yet to constitute any certainty among themselves about Repugnancys." It seems the Chronologers had made the Legislature of Solon too ancient to consist with that Congress. For reconcileing such repugnancies, Chronologers have sometimes doubled the persons of men. So when the the Poets had chang'd Io the Daughter of Inachus into the Egyptian Isis, Chronologers made her husband Osiris, or Bacchus, and his Mistress Ariadne as old as Io and so feign'd that there were two Ariadnes, one the Mistress of Bacchus the other the Mistress of Theseus and two Minoses their Fathers, and a younger Io the Daughter of Iasus (writing Iasus corruptly for Inachus.) And so they have made two Pandions & two Erechtheuses giving the name of Erechthonius to the first. Homer calls him Erechtheus. And by such Corruptions they exceedingly perplex'd ancient History.
<46v>And as for the Chronology of the Latins, that is still more uncertain. Plutarch represents great uncetaintys in the Originals of Rome, and so doth Servius. The old Records of the Latins were burnt by the Gauls, Sixty four Years before the death of Alexander the Great, and Quintus Fabius Pictor, the oldest Historian of the Latins, lived an Hundred Years later than that King.
In Sacred History the Assyrian Empire began with Pul and Tiglath-Pileser and lasted about 170 Years. And accordingly Herodotus has made Semiramis only five Generations (or about 166 Years) older than Nitocris the mother of the last King of Babilon. But Ctesias has made Semiramis 1500 Years older than Nitocris, and feign'd a long Series of Kings of Assyria, whose Names are not Assyrian, nor have any affinity with the Assyrian names in Scripture.
The Priests of Egypt told Herodotus, that Menes built Memphis, and the sumptuous Temple of Vulcan in that city; and that Rhampsinitus Mœris, Mychis, Psammitichus added magnificent Portico's to that Temple. And it is not likely that Memphis could be famous before Homer's days who doth not mention it, or that a Temple could be above Two or Three Hundred Years in building. And yet the Priests of Egypt had so magnified their Antiquities before the days of Herodotus, as to tell him, that from Menes to Mœris there were 330 Kings whose Reigns took up as many Ages, that is 11000 Years, and had filled up the intervals with feigned Kings who did nothing. And before the days of Diodorus Siculus, they had raised their Antiquities so much higher as to place Six, eight, or ten new Reigns of Kings between those Kings, whom they represented to Herodotus to Succeed one another immediately.
In the Kingdom of Sicyon, Chronologers have split Apis, Epaphus or Epopeus into two Kings whom they call Apis and Epopeus and between them have inserted Eleven or Twelve feigned feigned names of Kings who did nothing, and thereby they have made Ægialeus 300 years older than his Brother Phoroneus. And some have made the Kings of Germany as old as the Flood. And yet before the use of Letters the names and actions of Men could Scarce be remembered above Eighty or an Hundred Years after their Deaths. And therefore I admit of no Chronologies of things done in Europe above 80 Years before Cadmus brought Letters into Greece; nor of things done in Germany before the rise of the Roman Empire.
Now since Eratosthenes and Apollodorus computed the times by the Reigns of the Kings of Sparta and (as appears by their Chronology still followed) have made the Seventeen Reigns between the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus and the Battle of Thermopylæ take up 622 Years, which is after the rato of 36 Years to a Reign; and yet a Race of Seventeen Kings of that length is no where to be met with in all true History, and Kings at a moderate reckoning Reign, but Eighteen or Twenty Years a piece one with another: I have Stated the time of the return of the Heraclides by this last reckoning. And making the Trojan Warr 80 Years older according to Thucydides, and the Argonautic Expedition a generation older, & the wars of Sesotris in Thrace & death of Ino the daughter of Cadmus a generation older I have drawn up the following Chronological Table, so as to make Chronology suit with the course of Nature, with Astronomy, with Sacred History, and with its Self, without the many repugnancys complain'd of by Plutarch. I do not pretend to be exact to a Year, there may be Errors of Five or Ten Years and sometimes Twenty, and not much above.
A Short Chronicle from the first memory of things in Europe to the Conquest of Persia by Alexander the great.
The times are set down in Years before Christ.
The Canaanites that fled from Ioshua retired in great numbers into Egypt, and there conquered Timaus, Thamus, or Thammuz King of the lower Egypt and there reign'd under their Kings Salatis, Beon, Apachnas, Apophis, Tanais, Assis &c. until the days of Eli and Samuel. They fed on flesh & sacrificed men after the manner of the Phenicians and were called Shepherds by the Egyptians, who lived only on the fruits of the Earth, and abominated flesh eaters. The upper parts of Egypt were in those days under many Kings reigning at Coptos, Thebes, Elephantis, and other places which by Conquering one another grew by degrees into one Kingdom, over which Misphramuthosis reigned in the days of Eli.
About this time Misphramuthosis made a lasting war upon the Shepherds, and caused many of them to fly into Palestine, Idumæa, Syria and Libya under Lelex, Æzeus, Inachus, Pelasgus, Æolus the first, Cecrops, and other Captains into Greece. Before those days all Europe was peopled by wandering Cymmerians and Scythians from the backside of the Euxine Sea, who lived a wandring rambling sort of life like the Tartars in the Northern parts of Asia. Of their race was Ogyges, in whose days these Egyptian Strangers came into Europe. The rest of the Shepherds were Shut up by Misphramuthosis in a part of the lower Egypt called Abaris.
1100.
The Philistins (strengthened by the access of the Shepherds) conquer Israel and take the Ark. Samuel judges Israel.
1085.
Hammon the Son of Pelasgus reigns in Thessaly.
1080.
Lycaon the Son of Pelasgus builds Lycosura; Phoroneus the Son of Inachus Phoronium, afterwards called Argos; and Ægialeus the Brother of Phoroneus and Son of Inachus, Ægialeum, afterwards called Sycion the oldest Townes in Peloponnesus. Till then they built only single Houses, Scattered up and down in the fields. About the same time Cecrops built Cecropia in Attica, afterwards called Athens; and Eleusin the Son of Ogyges built Eleusina. And these Towns gave a beginning to the Kingdoms of the Arcadians, Argives, Sicyons, Athenians, Eleusinians &c.
1070.
Amosis or Tethmosis the Successor of Misphramuthosis, drives the Shepherds out of Abaris. (a)[18] By their access, the Philistines Philistines become so numerous as to bring into the field against Saul 30,000. Chariots, 6000 Horsemen, and People as the Sand of the Sea shore for multitude.
1069.
Saul is made King of Israel and by the hand of Ionathan gets a great victory over the Philistines. Eurotas the son of Lelex, and Lacedæmon who married his daughter Sparta, reign in Laconia, and build Sparta. Deucalion flourishes.
1060.
Samuel dies.
1059.
David made King.
1048.
The Edomites are conquered by David, Their Mariners fly from the red-Sea to the Mediterranean, and take Sidon; and the Sidonians, who fled from them build Tyre, and make Abibalus their first King.
1047.
Acrisius marries Eurydice the daughter of Lacedæmon and Sparta.
1045.
The Phœnician Mariners who fled from the Red-Sea, being used there to long Voyages for the Sake of Trafick, begin the like Voyages on the Mediterranean and Sailing as far as Greece carry away Io the daughter of Inachus, who with other Grecian Woman came to their ships to buy Merchandize. The Greek Seas begin to be infected with Pirates. Endymion builds Elis.
1043.
The Syrians of Zobah and Damascus are conquered by David.
1042.
Nictimus the son of Lycaon reigns.
1041.
Many of the Phœnicians and Syrians that fled from David, come under the conduct of Cadmus, Cilix, Phœnix, Membriarius, Thasus, Atymnus and other Captains into Asia minor, Crete, Greece, and Lybia; and introduce Letters, Musick, Poetry, the the Octaeteris, Metals and their fabrication, and other Arts, Sciences & Customes of the Phœnicians. Polydorus a Youth the Son of Cadmus came with his Father. At this time Cranaus the Successor of Cecrops reign'd in Attica, and in his reign and the beginning of the reign of Nictimus, the Greeks place the flood of Deucalion. This flood was Succeeded by four ages or generations of the Phœnicians, in the first of which Chiron the Son of Saturn and Philyra was born, and the last of which according to Hesiod, ended with the Trojan Warr; and so places the destruction of Troy four generations or about 133 Years later than the coming of Cadmus, reckoning with the Ancients three generations to an Hundred Years. With these Phenicians came a Sort of Men Skilled in the Religions, Misteries, Arts & Sciences of Phenicia, and settled in several Places under the names of Curetes, Idæi, Dactyli, Corybantes & Telchines.
<53r>1039.
Hellen the Son of Deucalion and father of Æolus, Xuthus, and Dorus flourishes.
1037.
Erectheus reigns in Attica.
1036.
Ceres a Woman of Sicily in Seeking her Daughter who was stollen comes into Attica, and there Teaches the Greeks to sow Corn. For which Benefaction she was deify'd after death. She first taught the Art to Triptolemus the young Son of Celeus King of Eleusis.
1035.
The Idæi Dactyli find out Iron in Mount Ida in Crete and work it into Armour, and thereby give a beginning to the trade of Smiths in Europe. And by Singing & dancing in their Armour, and keeping time by Strikeing upon one anothers Armour with their Swords they bring in Musick and Poetry. And at the same time they nurse up the Cretan Iupiter in a Cave of the same mountain, dancing about him in their Armour.
1034.
Ammon reigns in Egypt. He conquered Libya and reduc'd that People from a wandring Savage life to a civil one, and taught 'em to lay up the fruits of the Earth; and from him Libya and the desart about it were anciently called Ammonia, He was the first that built long and tall Ships with Sails, and he had a Fleet of such Ships on the Red-Sea, and another on the Mediterranean, at Irasa in Libya. Till then they used small and round Vessells of burthen invented on the red-Sea, & kept within Sight of the Shore. For enabling them to cross the Seas without Seeing the Shore, the Egyptians began in his days to observe the Stars. And from this beginning Astronomy and Sailing had their rise. Hitherto the Luni-solar Year had been in use: but this Year being of an uncertain length and so unfit for Astronomy, in his days and in the days of his Sons and Grandsons, by observing the Heliacal risings and settings of the Stars, they found the length of the Solar Year, and made it to consist of five days more than the twelve Calendar Months of the old Luni-Solar Year.
1028.
Ænotrus the youngest son of Lycaon (the Ianus of the Latines) led the first Colony of the Greeks into Italy and there taught them to build Houses. Perseus born. Some tell us that Ianus was the Son of Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus.
1025.
Arcas the Son of Calysto & the Grandson of Lycaon, and Eumelus the first King of Achaia receives bread Corn from Triptolemus.
1020.
Apis, Epaphus or Epopeus, the Son of Phoroneus, and Nicteus King of Bœtia Slain. Lycus inherits the Kingdom of his Brother Nicteus. Ætolus the Son of Endymion flies into the Countrey of the Curetes in Achaia, and calls it Ætolia; and of Pronoë the daughter of Phorbus, begets Pleuron and Calydon, who build Cities in Ætolia called by their own names. Antiopa the daughter of Nicteus is Sent home to Lycus by Laomedon the the Successor of Apis, & in the way brings forth Amphion and Zethus.
1019.
Solomon reigns and marries the Daughter of Ammon, and by means of this affinity is Supplied with Horses from Egypt. And his Merchants from thence also bring Horses for all the Kings of the Hittites and Syrians. For Horses came originally from Libya, now Subject to Egypt. And hence Neptune was called Equestris. Tantalus King of Phrygia steals Ganymede the Son of Tros king of Troas.
1017.
Solomon by the assistance of the Tyrians who had Mariners amongst them acquainted with the red-Sea Sets out a Fleet upon that Sea. Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus marries Zuthus the Son of Hellen. Erechtheus having first celebrated the Panathenæa joins Horses to a Chariot: Ægina the daughter of Asopus and mother of Æacus born.
1015.
The Temple of Solomon is founded. Minos reigns in Crete, expelling his father who fled into Italy and becomes the Saturn of the Latins. Ammon takes Gezer from the Cannanite, and gives it to his daughter Solomon's Wife.
<50v>1014.
Ammon places Cepheus at Ioppa. Ceres being dead Eumolpus institutes her Mysteries in Eleusine. The Mysteries of Rhea are instituted in Phrygia in the City of Cybele. About this time Temples begin to be built in Greece. Hyagnes the Phrygian invents the Pipe. After the example of the Common Council of the five Lords of the Philistines, the Greeks erected the Amphictionic Council first at Thermopylæ, by the influence of Amphiction, and then at Delphi, by the influence of Acrisius. Among the Cities whose Deputies met at Thermopylæ, I do not find Athens, and therefore doubt whether Amphiction was King of that City. If he was the Son of Deucalion and Brother of Hellen, He and Cranaus might reign together in Several parts of Attica. But I met with a later Amphiction, who entertain'd the great Bacchus. This Council worshipped Ceres and therefore was instituted after her death.
1012.
Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Caucon teaches the Mysteries of Ceres in Messene. Sesac in the reign of his father Ammon invades Arabia Fælix.
1011.
Pandion the Brother of Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Pelops the Son of Tantalus comes to Peloponnesus and by his riches soon grows potent.
1010.
Car the Son of Phroneus builds a Temple to Ceres. Hellen the Son of Deucalion reigns in Pthiotis.
<52r>1008.
Sesac in the reign of his Father Ammon invades Afric and Spain, and sets up pillars at the Streights Mouth, and in all his Conquests, and returns by the Coasts of Gaul & Italy.
1006.
Minos prepars a Fleet, clears the Greek Seas of Pirates, and sends colonies to the Islands of the Greeks; some of which were not inhabited before. Warr between Pandion and Labdacus the grandson of Cadmus.
1005.
Andromeda carried away from Ioppa by Perseus.
1002.
Sesac reigns in Egypt, and adorns Thebes dedicating it to his father Ammon by the name of No-Ammon or Ammon-No, that is the People of Ammon. Whence the Greeks call'd it Diospolis, the city of Iupiter. Sesac also erected Temples and Oracles to his Father in Thebes, Ammonia, and Ethiopia, and thereby caused his Father to be worshipped as a God in those Countries, and I think also in Arabia fælix. And this was the Original of the worship of Iupiter Ammon, and the first mention of Oracles that I met with in profane History.
1000.
Amphion and Zethus slay Lycus, put Lagus the son of Cadmus to flight, and reign in Thebes, and wall the City about.
994.
Ægeus reigns in Attica.
<52v>993.
Sisyphus the Son of Æolus and Grandson of Hellen reigns in Corinth, and some say that he built that City.
990.
Dædalus and his Nephew Talus invent the Saw, the turning Lath, the Wimble, the Chip-Ax, and other instruments of Carpenters and Ioyners; and thereby give a beginning to these Arts in Europe. Dædalus also invented the making of Statues with their feet asunder, as if they walked.
988.
Minos makes Warr upon the Athenians for killing his son Androgeus. Æacus flourishes.
987.
Dædalus kills Talus and flies to Minos. A Priestess of Iupiter Ammon being brought by Phœnician Merchants into Greece, sets up the Oracle of Iupiter at Dodona. And this gave beginning to Oracles in Greece. And by their Dictates the worship of the dead is every where introduced.
981.
Alcmena born of Electrio, the Son of Perseus and Andromeda, and of Eurydice the daughter of Pelops.
980.
Lagus recovers the Kingdom of Thebes. Athamas the father of Phrixus and Helle, and Brother of Sisyphus, marries Ino the daughter of Cadmus.
<55r>979.
Rehoboam reigns. Thoas is Sent from Crete to Lemnos and reigns there in the City Ephestia, where he works in Copper and Iron.
974.
Sesac spoils the Temple, and invades Syria, Persia, and India, Setting up Pillars in all his Conquests. Iereboam being now Subject to Sesac sets up the worship of the Egyptian Gods in Israel.
971.
Sesac invades India, and returns in Triumph the next Year but one, Whence Tristerica Bacchi.
968.
Theseus reigns having overcome the Minotaur, and soon after unites the twelve Citys of Attica under one Government. Sesac having carried on his Victories to Mount Caucasus, leaves his Nephew Prometheus there and Æetes at Colchos.
967.
Sesac passing over the Hellespont conquers Thrace, kills Lycurgus King thereof, and gives his Kingdom and one of his own Singing Women to Ocagrus the father of Orpheus. Sesac had in his Army Ethiopians Commanded by Pan, and Libyan Women Commanded by Merina or Minerva. It was the Custome of the Ethiopians to dance when they were entring into a Battle and from their Skipping, they were painted with Goats feet in the form of Satyrs.
<55v>966.
Thoas being made King of Cyprus by Sesac goes thither with his wife Callicopis, and leaves his daughter Hipsipyle in Lemnos.
965.
Sesac baffled by the Greeks and Scythians loses many of his Women, with their Queen Minerva, Composes the Warr, is received by Amphiction at a feast, buries Ariadne, goes back thrô Asia and Syria into Egypt, with innumerable Captives; among whom was Tithonus Son of Laomedon, and Brother of Priam King of Troy; and leaves his Libyan Amazons under Marthesia and Lampeto (the Successors of Minerva) at the River Thermodon. He left also in Cholcos Geographical Tables of all his Conquests, and hence Geography had its rise. His Singing Women were celebrated in Thrace by the names of the Muses. And the Daughters of Pierus a Thracian imitating them, were celebrated by the same name.
964.
Minos making War upon Cocalus King of Sicily is Slain by him. He was eminent for his Dominion, his Laws, and his Iustice. Vpon his Sepulcher (visited by Pythagoras) was this inscription ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ, the Sepulcher of Iupiter. Danaus with his Daughters, flying from his Brother Ægyptus (that is from Sesac) comes into Greece. Sesac, useing the advice of his Secretary Thoth, distributes Egypt into 36 Nomes, and in every Nome erects a Temple, and appoints the Several Gods, Festivals, and Religions of the Several Nomes, the Temples, being the Sepulchres of his great Men, where they were to be buried, and worshipped after Death, each in his own Temple, with Ceremonies and Festivals appointed by him; while He and his Queen by the names of Osiris and Isis, were to be worshipped in all Egypt. These were the Temples seen and described by Lucian eleven Hundred Years after to be of one & the same Age. And this was the Original of the Nomes of Egypt, and of the several Gods, and Several Religions, in those Nomes. Sesac divided also the Land of Egypt by measure amongst his Soldiers, and thence Geometry had its rise. Hercules and Eurystheus born.
963.
Amphiction brings the twelve Gods of Egypt from Thrace into Greece, and these are the Dij magni majorum gentium, to whom Earth, and Planets, and Elements, are dedicated.
962.
Phrixus and Helle fly from their Step Mother Ino daughter of Cadmus. Helle is drowned in the Hellespont, so named from her, but Phrixus arrives at Colchos.
960.
The Warr between the Lapithæ and the People of Thessaly, called Centaurs.
958.
Œdipus kills his father Laius. Sthenelus the son of Perseus reigns in Mycene.
<51v>956.
Sesac is slain by his Brother Iapetus, who after death was deified in Afric by the name of Neptune, & called Typhon by the Egyptians. Orus reigns and routs the Libyans who under the Conduct of Iapetus and his Son Antæus or Atlas invaded Egypt. Sesac from his making the River Nile usefull by cutting Channells from it to all the Citys of Egypt, was called by its names Sihor or Siris, Nilus & Egyptus. The Greeks hearing the Egyptians lament O Siris & Bou Siris called him OSiris & Busiris. The Arabians from his great acts call'd him Bacchus, that is, the great, The Phrygians call'd him Ma-fors or Mavors the valiant, and by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests, and his Army in his fathers reign fought against the Africans with Clubs, he is painted with Pillars and a Club. And this is that Hercules who according to Cicero was born upon the Nile; and according to Eudoxus was slain by Typhon, and according to Diodorus was an Egyptian and went over a great part of the world, and set up the Pillars in Afric. He seems also to be the Belus who according to Diodorus led a Colony of Egyptians to Babylon, and there instituted Priests called Chaldeans, who were free from Taxes and observed the Starrs as in Egypt. Hitherto Iudah and Israel had labour'd under great Vexations; but henceforward Asa King of Iudea had Peace Ten Years.
947.
The Ethiopians invade Egypt, and drown Orus in the Nile. Thereupon Bubaste Sister of Orus kills herself by falling from the top of an House, and their Mother Isis or Astrea goes mad. And thus ended the reign of the Gods in Egypt.
946.
Zerah the Ethiopian is overthrown by Asa, Menes or Amenophis the young Son of Zerah and Cessia Reigns. The People of the lower Egypt make Osarsiphus King, and call the two Hundred Thousand Iews and Phœnicians against the Ethiopians.
944.
The Ethiopians under Amenophis retire from the lower Egypt, and fortify Memphis against Osarsiphus. And by these Warrs and the Argonautic Expedition, the great Empire of Egypt breaks in pieces. Eurystheus the Son of Sthenelus reigns in Mycene.
943.
Evander and his Mother Carmenta carry Letters into Italy.
942.
Orpheus deifies the Son of Semele by the name of Bacchus, and appoints his Ceremonies.
940.
The Amphictionic Council hearing of the Civil Warrs and distraction of Egypt, resolve to Send an Embassy to the Nations upon the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas, subject to that Empire, and for that end order the building the Ship Argo.
<54v>939.
The Ship Argo is built after the pattern of the long Ship, in which Danaus came into Greece. And this was the first long Ship built by the Greeks. Chiron who was born in the golden Age forms the constellations for the use of the Argonauts, and places the Sostitial and Equinoctial points in the fifteenth degrees or middles of the Constellations of Cancer, Chelæ Capricorn and Aries. Meton in the Year of Nabonassar 316 observed the Summer Solstice in the eighth degree of Cancer & therefore the solstice had then gone back seven degrees. It goes back one degree in about 72 Years, and Seven degrees in about 504 Years. Count those Years back from the Year of Nabonassar 316. and they will place the Argonautic Expedition about 936 Years before Christ. Gingris the son of Thoas Slain and deified by the name of Adonis.
938.
Theseus being 50 Years old steals Helena, then Seven Years old. Pirithous the Son of Ixion endeavouring to Steal Persephone the daughter of Orcus the King of the Molossians, is Slain by the Dog of Orcus, and his Companion Theseus is taken and Imprisoned. Hellena set at Liberty by her Brothers.
937.
The Argonautic Expedition. Prometheus leaves Mount Caucasus being Sett at Liberty by Hercules. Priam Succeeds him: Talus a Brazen Man of the Brazen Age, the Son of Minos Slain by the Argonauts. Æsculapius & Hercules were Argonauts, and Hippocrates was the 18th. from Hercules by the Mothers side. And because these Generations being noted in History, were most probably by the Principal of the Family, and so for the most part by the eldest Sons, We may reckon 28. or at most 30 Years to a generation. And thus the 17 intervals by the fathers side and 18 by the Mothers, will at a middle reckoning amount unto about 507 Years, which counted backwards from the beginning of the Peloponnensian Warr (at which time Hippocrates began to flourish) will reach up to the time when we have placed the Argonautic Expedition.
936.
Theseus is set at Liberty by Hercules.
934.
The Hunting of the Calydonian Boar, Slain by Meleager
930.
Amenophis with an Army out of Ethiopia and Thebais, invades the lower Egypt, conquers Osarsiphus, and drives out the Iews. And this is reckoned the second expulsion of the Shepherds. Callicopis dies, and is deified by Thoas, with Temples at Paphos and Amathus in Cyprus, and at Byblus in Syria, and with Priests and Sacred Rites, and becomes the Venus of the Antients, and the Dea Cypria, & Dea Syria. And from these and other places where Temples were erected to Her, She was also called Paphia, Amathusia, Byblia, Cytherca, Salaminea, Guidia, Erycina, Idalia, and her three waiting Women became the three Graces.
928.
The War of the 7 Captains against Thebes.
927.
Hercules and Esculapius are deified Eurystheus drives the Heraclides out of Peloponnesus. He is Slain by Hillus the Son of Hercules. Atreus the Son of Pelops succeeds him in the Kingdom of Mycenæ. Menestheus the great Grandson of Erechtheus, reigns at Athens.
925.
Theseus is slain being cast down from a Rock.
924.
Hillus invading Peloponnesus is slain by Echomus.
919.
Atreus dies. Agamemnon reigns. In the absence of Menelaus, who went to look after what his Father Atreus had left him, Paris steals Helena.
918.
The Second Warr against Thebes.
<57r>912.
Thoas King of Cyprus, and part of Phœnicia, dies; and for making Armour for the Kings of Egypt, is deified with a sumptuous Temple at Memphis by the name of Baal-Canaan, Vulcan. This Temple was said to be built by Menes the first King of Egypt, who reigned next after the Gods; that is by Meneph or Amenophis, who reigned next after the death of Osiris, Isis, Orus, Bubaste & Thoth. The City Memphis was also said to be built by Menes. He began to build it when he fortified it against Osarsiphus; and from him it was called Menoph, Moph Noph &c. a and is to this day called Menuf by the Arabians. And therefore Menes who built the City and Temple was Meneph or Amenophis. The Priests of Egypt at length made this Temple above a Thousand Years older than Amenophis, and some of them five or ten thousand Years older. But it could not be above two or three hundred Years in building and was finished by Psammitichus, who died 616 Years before Christ. When Menoph or Menes built the City, he built a Bridge there over the Nile; a work too great to be older than the Monarchy of Egypt.
909.
Amenophis (called Memnon by the Greeks) built the Memnonia at Susa, and left Egypt under the Government of Proteus his Viceroy.
904.
Troy taken. Amenophis was still at Susa, the Greeks feigning that he came from thence to the Trojan Warr.
<57v>903.
Demophoon the Son of Theseus by Phædra the Daughter of Minos, reigns at Athens.
901.
Amenophis builds small Pyramids in Cochome.
895.
Teucer builds Salamis in Cyprus. Hadad or Benhadad King of Syria dies, and is deified at Damascus with Temple and Ceremonies.
887.
Amenophis dies, and is Succeeded by his Son Ramasses or Rhampsinitus; who built the western Portico of the Temple of Vulcan. The Egyptians dedicated to Osiris, Isis, Orus senior, Typhon, and Nepthe the Sister and Wife of Typhon, the five days added by the Egyptians to the twelve Calendar Months of the old Luni-Solar Year; and said they were added, when those five Princes were born. They were added therefore in the reign of Ammon, the Father of those five Princes. But this Year was not brought into use before the Reign of Amenophis. For in his Temple or Sepulchre at Abydus, they placed a Circle of 365 Cubits in compass, cover'd with a plate of Gold, and divided into 365 equal parts, to represent all the days of the Year, every part having the day, and the riseings and Settings of the Stars on that day noted upon it. And this Circle remained there till Cambyses spoiled the Temples of Egypt. And from this Monument I collect that it was Amenophis who established this Year, fixing the beginning thereof to one of the Cardinal points of the Heavens. For had not the beginning thereof been now fixed, the Heliacal riseings and Settings of the Stars could not have been noted upon the days thereof. The Priests of Egypt therefore in the Reign of Amenophis continued to observe the riseings and Settings of the stars upon every day. And when by the Sun's Meridional Altitudes they had found the Solstices and Equinoxes according to the Sun's mean motion (this Equation being not yet known) they fixed the beginning of this Year to the Vernal Equinox, and in memory thereof erected this Monument. Now this Year being carried into Caldea, the Caldæans began their Year of Nabonasser, on the same Thoth with the Egyptians. And the Thoth of the first Year of Nabonassar, fell upon the 26th. day of February, which was 33 days and five Hours before the Vernal Equinox, according to the Sun's mean motion. And the Thoth of this Year moves backwards 33 days and five Houres in 137 Years; therefore fell upon the Vernal Equinox 137 Years before the Æra of Nabonassar began, that is 884 Years before Christ. And if it began upon the day next after the Vernal Equinox it might be three or four Years earlier. And there wee may place the death of this King. The Greeks feigned that he was the Son of Tithonus, and therefore he was born after the return of Sesac into Egypt with Tithonus, and other Captives; and so might be about 70. or 80. Years old at his Death.
886.
Vlysses leaves Calypso in the Island Ogygia, perhaps Cadiz or Cales. She was the Daughter of Atlas according to Homer. The Antients at length feigned that this Island (which from Atlas they called Atlantis) had been as big as all Europe, Africa, and Asia, but was Sunk in the Sea.
883.
Dido builds Carthage, and the Phœnicians began presently after to Sail as far as the Streights mouth, and beyond. Æneas was still alive according to Virgill.
870.
Hesiod flourishes. He has told Us himself that he lived in the Age next after the Wars of Thebes and Troy; and that this Age should end when the Men having grew hoary and dropt into the Grave; and therefore it was but of an ordinary length: and Herodotus has told us that Hesiod and Homer were but about 400 years older than himself.
860.
Mœris reigns in Egypt. He adorned Memphis and translated the Seat of his Empire thither from Thebes. There he built the famous Labyrinth and the Northern Portico of the Temple of Vulcan, and dug the great Lake called the Lake of Mœris, and in the middle of it built two great Pyramids of brick. And these being not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod, were unknown to them, and done after their days. He wrote also a Book of Geometry.
852.
Hazael the Successor of Hadad dies, and is deified at Damascus. These Gods Hadad and Hazael together with Arathes the Wife of Hadad, were worshipped in their Sepulchres till the days of Iosephus the Iew, and the Assyrians boasted their Antiquity not knowing saith Iosephus that they were novel.
844.
The Æolic migration. Bœotia formerly called Cadmeis is Seized by the Bœotians.
838.
Cheops Reigns in Egypt. He built the great Pyramid for his Sepulchre, and forbad the worship of the former Kings, intending to have been worshipped himself.
825.
The Heraclides after three generations, or an Hundred years reckoned from their former Expedition, return into Peloponnesus. Henceforward to the end of the first Messenian Warr, reigned Ten Kings of Sparta by one race, and nine by another, Ten of Messene, and nine of Arcadia, which by reckoning according to the course of Nature about 18 or 20 Years to a Reign, one with another, will scarce take up above two Hundred Years. And the seven Reigns more in each of the two races of Spartan Kings, to the Battle of Thermopylæ, may take up 140 Years more, and so place the return of the Heraclides about 820 Years before Christ.
824.
Cephren reigns in Egypt, and builds another great Pyramid.
808.
Mycerine reigns there, and begins the third great Pyramid. He shuts up the dead body of his daughter in an hollow Ox, and caused her to be worshipped daily with Odours.
804.
The War between the Athenians & Spartans in which Codrus King of the Athenians is Slain.
802.
Nitocris the sister of Mycerine Succeeds him, and finishes the third great Pyramid.
794.
The Ionic migration under the Conduct of the Sons of Codrus.
790.
Pul founds the Assyrian Empire.
788.
Asychis reigns at Memphis and builds the eastern Portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly, and a large Pyramid of Brick made of mud dug out of the Lake Mœris. Egypt breaks into several Kingdoms. Gnephactus & Bocchori, reign Successively in the upper Egypt; Stephonetes, Nechepsos, and Nechus at Sais: Anysis or Amosis at Amysis or Hanes; and Tacellotis at Bubaste.
776.
Iphytus restores the Olympiads. And from this Æra the Olympiads are now reckoned. Gnephactus reigns at Memphis.
772.
Necepsos and Petosiris invent Astrology in Egypt.
762.
Bocchoris reigns in Egypt.
760.
Semiramis reigns at Babylon. Sanchoniatho writes.
747.
The Æra or Nabonassar commences. Sabacon the Ethiopian invades Egypt divided into various Kingdoms, and burns Bocchoris, Slays Necchus, and makes Anysis fly.
740.
Tiglath-Pileser King of Assyria takes Damascus, and Captivates the Syrians.
725.
So, or Sua, Succeeds Sabacon in Egypt.
721.
Salmanassar King of the Assyrians carries the Ten Tribes into Captivity.
<60v>719.
Sennacherib reigns over Assyria.
717.
Tirhakah reigns in Ethiopia.
714.
Sennacherib is put to flight by the Ethiopians and the Egyptians.
713.
The Medes revolt from the Assyrians. Sennacherib Slain. Asserhaddon Succeeds him. This is that Asserhaddon, Pul or Sardanapalus (the son of Anacyndaraxis, or Sennacherib) who built Tarsus and Anchiale in one day.
710.
Lycurgus brings the Poems of Homer out of Asia into Greece.
708.
Tahakah reigns in all Egypt, and invades Spain. Lycurgus becomes Tutor to Charillus or Carilaus, the Young King of Sparta. Aristotle makes Lycurgus as old as Iphitus, because his name was upon the Disc. But the Disc was one of the five Games called the Quinquertium, and the Quinquertium was first instituted upon the 18th: Olympiad. Socrates & Thucydides made the Institutions of Lycurgus about 300 Years older than the end of the Peloponnesian Warr, that is 705 Years before Christ.
705.
The Corinthians begin first of any Men to build Ships with three orders of Oars, called Triremes. Hitherto the Greeks had used long Vessells of 50 Oars. Manasses reigns.
673.
The Iews conquered by Asserhaddon; and Manasses carried Captive to Babylon.
671.
Asserhaddon invades Egypt. The Government of Egypt committed to twelve Princes.
668.
The Western Nations of Syria, Phœnicia and Egypt revolt from the Assyrians. Asserhaddon dies. Manasses returns from Captivity.
658.
Phraortes reigns in Media. The Prytanes reign in Corinth expelling their Kings.
657.
The Corinthians overcome the Corcyreans by Sea; and this was the oldest Sea-Fight. Archias the son of Euagetus of the Stock of Hercules, led a colony into Sicily and built Syracuse.
655.
The first Messenian War begins. It lasted 20 Years, Psammitichus becomes King of all Egypt, by conquering the other eleven Kings, with whom he had already reigned fifteen Years. He reigned about 39 Years more. Henceforward the Ionians had access into Egypt; and thence came the Ionian Philosophy, Astronomy, and Geometry.
<61v>650.
Charops the first decennial Archon of the Athenians. Some of the Athenian Archons might die before the end of 10 Years, and the remainder of the 10 Years be Supplied by a new Archon. And hence the seven decennial Archons might take up not above forty or fifty Years.
640.
Iosias reigns in Iudea.
636.
Phraortes King of the Medes is slain in a War against the Assyrians. Astyages Succeeds him.
635.
The Scythians invade the Medes and Assyrians.
633.
Battus builds Cyrene, where Irasa the City of Anteus had stood.
624.
Phalantus leads the Parthenians into Italy, and builds Tarentum.
617.
The Second Messenian War begins. Psammiticus dies. Necaoh reigns in Egypt. Rome is built.
611.
Cyaxares reigns over the Medes.
<62r>610.
Creon the first of the annual Archons of the Athenians. The Princes of the Scythians Slain in a feast by Cyaxares.
609.
Iosiah Slain. Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar besiege Nineve, and the next Year overthrow it, and by sharing the Assyrian empire grow potent.
607.
Cyaxares makes the Scythians retire beyond Colchos and Iberia, and Seizes the Assyrian Provinces of Armenia, Pontus and Cappadocia.
606.
Nebuchadnezzar invades Syria, and Iudea. Cyaxares makes War upon Alyattes King of Lydia.
604.
Nabopalasser dies and is Succeeded by Nebuchadnezzar, who had already reigned two Years with his Father.
601.
In the Sixth Year of the Lydian War, a total Eclipse of the Sun, predicted by Thales Apr 28 between 8 and 9 a Clock in the morning, puts an end to a Battle between the Medes and Lydians. They make Peace and ratify it, by a marriage between Astyages the Son of Cyaxares, and Ariene the Daughter of Alyattes.
600.
Darius Medus the Son or Grandson of Cyaxares born.
<62v>599.
Cyrus is born of Mandane the Sister of Cyaxares and Daughter of Astyages.
598.
The Messenians being conquered, fly into Sicily and build Messana.
596.
Susiana and Elam conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Caranus and Perdiccas fly from Phidon, and found the Kingdom of Macedon. Phidon introduces Weights and Measures and the Coining of Silver money.
588.
The Temple of Solomon is burnt by Nebuchadnezzar.
584.
Phidon presides in the 49th: Olympiad.
580.
Draco is Archon of the Athenians, and makes Laws for them. Phidon is overthrown. Two Men chosen by Lot out of the City Elis to preside in the Olympic Games.
575.
The Amphictions make War upon the Cyrrhean Pirates by the advice of Solon, and take Cyrrha; Clisthenes, Alcmæon and Eurolycus commanded the Forces of the Amphictions, and were contemporary to Phidon. For Leocydes the Son of Phidon, and Mogadis the Son of Alcmæon at one and the same time courted Agarista the Daughterof Clisthenes.
<63r>569.
Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt; Darius the Mede reigns.
565.
Solon is Archon of the Athenians, and makes Laws for them.
557.
Periander dies, and Corinth becomes free from Tyrants.
555.
Nabonnedus reigns in Babylon. His Mother Nitocris adorns and fortifys the City.
554.
The Conference between Solon and Crœsus.
550.
Pisistratus becomes Tyrant of Athens.
547.
Sardes is taken by Cyrus. Darius Medus recoins the Lydian money into Darics. Solon dies, Hegesistratus being Archon.
538.
Babylon is taken by Cyrus.
536.
Cyrus overcomes Darius the Mede, and translates the empire to the Persians. The Iews return from Captivity.
529.
Cyrus dies. Cambyses reigns.
521.
Darius the son of Hystaspes reigns. The Magi are slain. The various Religions of the several Nations of Persia, which consisted in the worship of their antient Kings are abolished; and by the influence of Hystaspes and Zoroaster, the worship of the Supreme God is set up in all Persia.
520.
The second Temple built at Ierusalem, by the command of Darius.
513.
Harmodius and Aristogiton Slay Hipparchus. the Son of Pisistratus, Tyrant of the Athenians.
508.
The Kings of the Romans expelled, and Consuls erected.
491.
The Battle of Marathon.
485.
Xerxes reigns.
480.
The passage of Xerxes over the Hellespont into Greece, and Battles of Thermopylæ and Salamis.
464.
Ataxerxes Longimanus reigns.
457.
Ezra returns into Iudea. Iohannan the Father of Iadua was now grown up, having a Chamber in the Temple.
444.
Nehemiah returns into Iudea.
<64r>431.
The Peloponnesian War begins.
428.
Nehemiah drives away Eleazar Manasses Brother of Iadua, (b)[19] because he had married Nicaso the Daughter of Sanballet (a)[20]
424.
Darius Nothus reigns.
422.
Sanballet builds a Temple in Mount Gerazim, and makes his Son in Law Eleazar Manasses the first high Priest thereof.
412.
Hitherto the Priests and Levites were number'd and written in the Chronicles of the Iews before the death of Nehemiah; at which time either Iohanan or Iadua was high Priest. And here ends the Sacred History.
405.
Artaxerxes Mnemon reigns. The end of the Peloponnesian War.
359.
Artaxerxes Ochus reigns.
338.
Arogus reigns.
336.
Darius Codomannus reigns.
332.
A short Chronicle from the first memory of things done in Europe to the end of the History of Nehemiah.
1036. Iron is found in Crete by the Idæi Dactyli who work it into armour.
1034. Ammon reigns in Ægypt. He conquered Libya & reduced that people from a wandering, salvage life to a civil one, & taught them to lay up the fruits of the earth & from him Libya & the deserts above it were anciently called Ammonia. He was the first who built the long & tall ships with sails & had a fleet of such ships on the red sea & another on the Mediterranean. Till then they used round vessels of burden invented in the red sea without sails & kept within sight of the shore. In his days the Egyptians began to observe the stars for directing the course of their ships through the middle of the Seas without seeing the shore: & from this beginning Astronomy & Navigation had their rise. About this time his Son Sesac was born called by the Greeks Sesonchis Sesochris & Sesostris, & for his great actions deified in several nations by the several names of Sirus, Osiris, Bacchus, Mars, Belus, Melecartus, Hercules.
1028. Œnarus the youngest son of Lycaon (the Ianus of the Latines) led the first colony of the Greeks into Italy & there taught them to build houses.
1025. Arcas the son of Callisto & grandson of Lycaon, & Eumelus the first king of Achaia received bread corn from Triptolemus.
1020. Apis Epaphus or Epopeus the son of Phoroneus & Nicteus King of Bœtia slain. Lycus inherits the kingdom of his brother Nicteus. Antiope the daughter of Nicteus being sent home to Lycus by Lamedon the successor of Apis bears Amphion & Zethus.
1019. Solomon reigns & marries the daughter of Ammon & by means of this affinity is supplied with Libyan horses from Egypt & his merchants bring horses from thence also for all the kings of the Hittites & Syrians for horses came originally from Syria. Tantalus king of Phrygia (or as others say Minos) steales Ganimede the son of Tros. 1018
1015. The Temple of Solomon is founded. Minos reigns in Crete expelling his father who flys into Italy & becomes the Saturn of the Latines. Tantalus king of Phrygia (or, as others say, Minos) steales Ganimede.
1014. Eumolpus after the death of Ceres institutes her mysteries in Eleusine. The mysteries of Rhea are instituted in Phrygia in the city of Cybele. About this time Temples began to be built in Greece
1012 Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Caucon teaches the mysteries of Ceres in Messene. Sesac in the reign of his father invades Arabia fælix.
1011 Pandion the brother of Cecrops II reigns in Attica. Pelops the son of Tantalus comes into Peloponnesus & by his riches soon grows potent.
1010 Car the son of Phoroneus builds a Temple to Ceres. Hellen the son of Deucalion reigns in Phthiotis.
1008 Sesac in the reign of his father Ammon invades Afric & Spain & sets up pillars at the straits mouth & returns by the coast of Gaule. [Acrisius sets up the Amphictyonic Council.]
1006 Minos prepars a fleet & sends colonies to the lesser islands of the Greeks. Thoas is sent to Lemnos & there applies himself to the manufacturing copper & iron. He invents the Anvil & tongues. War between Pandion & Labdacus,the grandson of Cadmus.
1002 Sesac reigns in Egypt & adorns Thebes dedicating it to his father Ammon by the name of No-Ammon or Ammon-No, that is, the people or city of Ammon: whence the Greeks called it Diospolis the city of Iupiter. Sesac also erected Temples & Oracles to his father in Thebes Ammonia & Æthiopia, & thereby caused his father to be worshipped as a God in those countries. And this was the original of Oracles, & of the worship of Iupiter Ammon.
1000 Amphion & Zethus slay Lycus, put Laius the son of Labdacus to flight & reign in Thebes.
998 Cepheus reigns at Ioppa & Perseus carries away his daughter Andromeda.
994 Ægeus reigns in Attica.
990 Dædalus & his nephew Talus invent the Saw, the Turning Lath, the Wimble, the chip ax & other instruments of the Carpenters & Ioyners & thereby give a beginning to those arts in Europe. Dædalus also began to make statues with their feet assunder as if they walked.
988 Minos makes war upon the Athenians for killing his son Angrogeus.
987 Dædalus kills Talus & flies to Minos.
<68r>970 Thoas marries Callicopis the mother of Æneas & daughter of Otrius king of Phrygia.
966 Thoas being made king of Crete by Sesostris goes thither with his wife Callicopis & leaves his daughter Hypsipyle in Crete.
938 Gingris the son of Thoas slain & deified with a Temple & sacred mysteries by the name of Adonis.
930 Callicopis dies & is deified by Thoas with a Temple & sacred rites & becomes the Venus & Dea Syria of the ancients.
912 Thoas dies & for making armour for the kings of Egypt is deified with a sumptuous Temple at Memphis with the name of Baal Canaan, Vulcan. This Temple was said to be built by Menes the first king of Egypt who reigned after the Gods that is by Menoph or Amenophis who reigned next after Osiris Isis {Thous} & Orus & Bubaste. The Priests of Egypt made it a thousand years older but it could not be above two or three hundred years older then the reign of Psammiticus who finished it.
886
884 The Thoth of the new Egyptian year placed upon the vernal Equinox according to the Lunar mean motion. And in memory of these things there was placed in the Sepulchre of Memnon a circle 360 cubits in compas covered with a plate of gold & divided into 360 parts to represent the days of the year with the heliacal risings & settings of the stars on every day. And this monument remained till Cambyses defaced it & carried away the gold.
94{0} Concilium Aphictyonicum auditis Ægyptiorum bellis civilibus legationem ad gentes maribus Euxino et Mediterraneo finitimas mitendam statuit.
939 Io hanc expeditionem Navis Argo ad exemplar navis in qua Danaus in Græciam venerat, constritur. Hæc fuit prima longa navis a Græcis constructa. Chiron sæculo aureo natus efformat Constellationes & signa cœlestia in usum Argonautarum & puncta æquonoctiorum & solstitiorum in medijs signorum Arietis Cancri Chelarum, & Capricorni collocat. Pirithous – – –
938 Expeditio Argonautica
618 Pherecides & Thales puncta æquonoctialia in gradibus duodecimis signorum collocant.
432 Meton collocat solstitia in octavis signorum.
151 Hypparchus collocat solstitia in quartis signorum & motum eorum in antecedentia primus delegit, statuitque hunc motum esse gradus unius in annis centum. Nam Chronologi ab expeditionem Argonauticam ad ætatem Hipparchi annos 1100 circiter numerabant. Sed Solstitia conficiunt gradum unum in annis 72 et propterea gradus undecim in annis 792, ideoque ab expeditione Argonautica ad tempus observationum Hipparchi anni erant tantum 799 aut non multo plures.
966 A Priestesse of Iupiter Ammon coming from Thebes into Greece set up the Oracle of Iupiter at Dodona. And this gave a beginning to Oracles in Greece.
964 Phemonoe the wife of Icarius the first Priestess of Iuno Argiva, gives oracles in hexameter verses.
956 Sesac is slain by his brother Iapetus who after death was deified in Afric by the name of Neptune, & called Typhon by the Egyptians. Orus reigns & routs the Libyans who under the conduct of Iapetus & his sons Antæus & Atlas invaded Ægypt. Sesac had cut channels from the Nile to all the cities of Egypt & from his making the river useful was called by its names, Sihor or Siris, Nilus & Ægyptus.
Meton in the year of Nabonassar 316 observed the summer solstice in the eighth degree of Cancer & therefore the solstice had then gone back seven degrees. It goes back a degree in 72 or 78 years & seven degrees in about 508 years. Count those years back from the year of Nabonasser 316 & they will place the Argonautic expedition about 940 years before Christ.
Æsculapius & Hercules were Argonauts & Hippocrates was the 18th from Æsculapius by the fathers side & the 19th from Hercules by the mothers. And these generations being noted in history & so being most probably by the chief of the family & by consequence for the most part by the eldest sons, so the – – flourish will reach up to the time where we have placed the Argonautic expedition.
<68v>this Temple above a 1000 years older. But it could not be above two or three hundred years older then the reign of Psammiticus who finished it & died 614 years before Christ. When Menoph or Menes built the city he built a bridge over the Nile, a work too great to be older then the death of Noah.
Thucydides & Socrates made the Institutions of Lycurgus about 300 years older then the end of the Peloponnesian war:
A short Chronicle of things done in Europe till the invasion of Europe by the Persians
Rerum ante Imperium Romanum gestarum
Chronicon parvum
per annos ante æram vulgarem Christi nati digestum.
Rerum ante Imperia quatuor summa gestarum
Chronicon parvum
per annos ante æram vulgarem Christi nati digestum.
annis 1020, id est antiquius quam pro rei veritate annis fere septingentis et eius sequaces, ut introducerent eiusmodi Chronologiam, auxerunt antiquem regum catalogos et numero regum & diuturnitate regnandi.
[Editorial Note 11] <80r>Annis ante Christum 770 China in varia regna divisa fuit regibus inter se pugnantibus.
Historiam duorum e regnis (vizt Chun Cieu) Confucius ab anno ante Christum 720 orditur.
Anno ante Chrustum 658 cœpit Iaponia habere reges.
Anno ante Christum 775 Eclipses Solis notari incipiunt.
Anno ante Christum 551 Confucius nascitur.
Anno ante Christum 480 Confucius terminat historiam bellorum inter Reges per 200 annos.
Anno ante Christum 485 a Regulo Sum extinguitur familia çao quæ sub 25 Regulis steterat annis 636.
Anno a. C. 478 a Regulo Zu extinguitur regnum et familia Chin quæ numeravit 24 Principes per annos 645.
Anno ante Chr. 475 a Regulo Yur extinguitur Regnum V quod sub 20 Regulis steterat 650 annis.
Anno ante Chr. 446 a Regulo regni Zu extinguitur dynastia çai quod sub 25 Principibus steterat annis 676.
Ab anno ante Christum 425 bella inter Regulos per 300 fere annos.
Anno ante Chr. 375, a tribus Regulis Han, Chao, Quei extincta Dynastia Cin quæ sub 38 Principibus steterat an. 741.
Anno ante Chr. 374 a Han Regulo extinguitur Regnum Chim quod sub 23 Dynastis steterat annis 432.
Anno 320 Hiao Cum, Regulis regni Cin præclara administratione ad Imperium viam sternit.
Anno ante Chr. 285 a Regulis Ci, Zu, Guei extinguitur regnum Sum quod sub 32 Dynastis steterat per annos 381. Subactis varijs regnis duo præcipua Cin & Ci inter se depugnant pro imperio toto.
Anno 270 a Regulo regni Zu extinguitur regnum Lu quod sub 34 regulis steterat. A Cin Regulo extinguitur regnum Guei quod sub 37 Regibus steterat. Cin Regulus duos potentissimos Reges occisis 60000 delet.
Anno ante Chr. 245 Xi Hoam Ti incipit regnare vir bellicosus et crudelis. Hic extinctis sex regnis et eorum familijs Han, Guei, Zu, Yen, Chao, Ci, Dynastas omnes cum eorum titulis abrogat: in 36 Provincias imperium distribuit: Titulum Hoam ti (qui hodieque viget) instituit, estque eadem vox qua totius Monarchiæ fundator est usus. Anno imperij 24 murum celebemmum 400 & amplius leucarum extruxit contra Tartaros. Anno proximo libros omnes præter medicos & judiciarios cremari jussit. Anno ante Chr. 220 moritur. A morte russus varia regna resurgunt.
Anno ante Chr. 140 Vu ti regnat bello et litteris clarus. Fragmenta et reliquias incendij librorum undique colligi jubet et in ordinem redigi. Arma longe lateque profert.
And by all this By the Chronological Table of the Monarchy of China published at Paris by P. Couplet it appears that about 1100 years before Christ China was divided into many kingdoms & that these kingdoms continued warring with one another & conquering one another till they became reduced into seven kingdoms & Xi Hoam ti the king of one of them about 230 years before Christ conquered all the rest & founded the monarchy of China & gave the name of Hoam ti to its kings, a name which remains to this day & divided the Empire into Provinces & built the great wall against the Tartars & commanded all his people upon pain of death to burn all the books in China except those which related to medicine or were judiciall. And there are now no histories extant in China but what were written above seventy years after this conflagration. And therefore the story that there was a Monarchy of all China founded by Hoam ti 2697 years before Christ is a fable. The way of writing used by the Chinese was not perfected before the days of Confucius the Chinese Philosopher, & he was born but 551 years before Christ. They tell us that Fohi civilized the people & reigned 115 years, that Xin num succeeded him & invented agriculture, & reigned 140 years, that Hoam ti the third king founded the Monarchy & reigned 100 years, & that the four next kings reigned 332 years, that is, one with another 83 years a piece. The long reigns shew that
<80v>Confucij Liber dictus scientia Sinensis impressus fuit Parisijs Anno Chr. 1687 & eidem adjecta est
A book of Confucius called scientia Sinensis was published at Paris A. C. 1687 & at the end of it is added a Chronological Table of the Monarchy of China. In this Table China is represented divided into many kingdoms above 1100 years before the birth of Christ & that these kingdoms continued warring with one another & conquering one another above 800 years together & at length when they were reduced into seven great kingdoms, Xi Hoam ti the king of one of them conquered the other six & founded the Monarchy of China & divided it into Provinces, & this was about 230 years before the birth of Christ. The same king gave the name of Hoam ti to the succeeding kings of this Monarchy, a name which remains to this day, & built the great wall of China against the Tartars, & commanded all his people on pain of death to burn all the books in China except those which related to medicine or were judicial. And there are now no historical books in China but what were written above 72 years after this conflagration. And therefore the story that Hoam ti founded the Monarchy of China 2697 years before Christ is a fable invented to make that Monarchy look ancient. The way of writing used by the Chinese was not fully invented before the days of Confucius the Chinese Philosopher, & he was born but 551 years before Christ, & flourished only in one of the small Kingdoms into which China was then divided. The histories which were written before the conflagration of the books could relate only to the single kingdom in which each history was written & to the warrs & leagues of that kingdom with its neighbours, & therefore China being then divided into many kingdoms, it is not likely that there could be any history of all China before that conflagration.
China. In this Table China is represented divided into many kingdoms above 1100 years before Christ, some of which lasted 6 or seven hundred years. And 1600 years before Christ, there were at least 76 Kingdoms in China which sent deputies to a common Council. And 1776 years before Christ one of their kings was moved by 800 Potentates in China to make war upon another of their kings. And these Potentates or kings which at first were so numerous, continued warring with one another & conquering one another till at length they were reduced into seven great kingdoms & then Xi Hoam ti the king of one of those seven kingdoms conquered the other six & founded the Monarchy of China & divided it into 36 Provinces, & this was about 230 years before the birth of Christ.
The Empire of China is reputed very ancient, & yet rose up out of many small kingdoms about the same time with the Western Empires, as I understand by the Chronological Table of the Monarchy of China printed at Paris A. C. 1687 at the end of the book of Confucius called Scientia Sinensis. For in this Table China is represented divided
The histories now extant in China were composed above 72 years after the aforesaid conflagration: And if any escaped the flames they related to particular kingdoms. The historical books now most in repute amongst the Chinese are void of Chronology: And Chronologers have m{ade the} reigns of their first kings too long for the course of nature, [& therefore have feigned the Æra of the Cylle of 60 Luni-solar years [upon which the great antiquity of their Empire is founded.] which commences with the reign of Hoam ti 2693 years before Christ.]
<81r>Rerum ante Imperia quatuor summa gestarum Chronicon.
[Editorial Note 1] The first four folios are taken up with cataloguer's notes.
[Editorial Note 2] The remainder of f. 5r and the first few lines of f. 5v are taken up with mathematical calculations apparently unrelated to the rest of the manuscript.
[Editorial Note 3] The remainder of the text on this page is written upside down.
[Editorial Note 4] The remainder of this page is taken up with mathematical calculations of no apparent relevance to the text.
[1] In vita Lycurgi sub initio
[2] In Solon p. 151.
[Editorial Note 5] Folios 9-10 are blank.
[Editorial Note 6] Folio 19 is blank.
[3] Circa Ann. A.C. 1120
[4] 1100
[5] 1080
[6] 1070
[7] 1069.
[8] 1060.
[9] 1059.
[10] 1048.
[11] 1020
[12] a Apud Euseb. in chron.
[13] 715
[Editorial Note 7] Folios 29 and 30 are blank apart from a cataloguer's note on f. 30.
[14] a in the Life of Lycurgus
[15] b. in the life of Solon.
[Editorial Note 8] Folio 43 is blank apart from a cataloguer's note.
[16] (a) Life of Lycurgus.
[17] b. In the Life of Solon.
[18] (a) Lib. 1 Reg. Cap. 13. Commate 5.
[19] (b) ὶαδδοῦς Ioseph. ibidem.
[20] (a) Ioseph. Antiq. Lib. II. Cap. 7.
[Editorial Note 9] Folios 65 and 66 are blank apart from a cataloguer's note on f. 66r.
[Editorial Note 10] Folios 70 and 71 are blank apart from a cataloguer's note on f. 71r.
[21] ✝ regnante Cranao Cecropis successore
[Editorial Note 11] Folio 79 is blank.
