131r
have gone backwards four degrees & so have been in the fourth degree of Aries
in the days of Hipparchus, & by consequence have then gone back eleven degrees since
the Argonautic Expedition, that is in 1090 years according to the ancient chronology
of the ancient Greeks then in use. And this after the rate of about 99 years, or in the
next round numbers an hundred years to a degree, as was then stated by Hipparchus.
But it really went back a degree in seventy & two years & eleven degrees in 792
years. Count these 792 years backward from the year of Nabonassar 602 (the
year from which we counted the 286 years) & the recconing will place the Argo
nautic expedition about 43 years after the death of Solomon. The Greeks have
therefore made the Argonautic expedition about three hundred years ancienter
then the truth, & thereby given occasion to the opinion of the great Hipparchus, that
the Equinox went backward after the rate of only a degree in an hundred years.
Hesiod tells us that sixty days after the winter solstice the star Arcturus rose
just at sunset. Till his days & long after, the solstices were placed in the middles
of the constellations of ♋ & ♑, their motion not being then knowns & the Sun's Apogee
was then in ♉ 24gr. In those sixty d And thence it follows that Hesiod flou
rished about an hundred years after the death of Solomon.
133r
have gone backwards four degrees & so have been in the fourth degree ifof Aries
in the days of Hipparchus, & by consequence have then gone back eleven degrees since
the Argonautic Expedition, that is, after the of in 1090 years according to the
chronology of the ancient Greeks then in use. And this is after the rate of about 99 years
or in the next round number an hundred years to a degree as was then stated by
Hipparchus.. But it really went back a degree in seventy & two years, & eleven
degrees in 792 years. Count these 792 years backwards from the year of Nabonassar
602 (the year from wchwhich we counted the 286 years,) & the recconing will place
the Argonautic Expeditions about 43 years after the death of Solomon. The Greeks
have therefore made the argonautic expedition about three hundred
then the truth, & there by given occasion to the opinion of the great Hipparchus, that the
Equinox went backward after the rate of only a degree in an hundred years.
Hesiod tells us that sixty days after the winter salsticesolstice the star Arcturus rose
just at Sunset. Till his days & long after, the solstices were placed in the middles of
the constellations of
then in ♉ 24gr. In those sixty days & almost six hours more from noon to sunset, the Sun
would move from the winter Solstice into ♓ 0gr 10′ & the opposite point of the ecliptic
wchwhich rose at the same time with Arcturus, would be in ♍ 0gr. 10.′ The north latitude of
Arcturus is 30gr 57′, & the elevation of the pole at mount Helicon neare Athens where
Hesiod lived, was 37gr. 45′ according to Ptolomy. And thence Ricciolus (lib. vi Almagest.
cap. xx. Prob. viii) teaches how to compute the excess of the longitude of Arcturus above
the longitude of the said opposite point of the Ecliptic. And by the computation I find that
this excess is, 11gr. 14′. Which being added to ♍ 0gr. 10′ gives the longitude of Arcturus
♏ 11gr. 24′. When the sun sets visibly his upper limb is 33′ below the Horizon,
being so much elevated by the refraction of the Atmosphere, & his center is still 16′
lower, in all 49′ below the horizon. And the part of the Ecliptic between the Horizon
& the center of the sun, is an arch of 62′ minutes. And when the star rises visibly, it
is 33′ below the Horizon, being so much elevated by the refraction. And the Arch between
the Horizon & the starr in the parallel of the stars latitude is 41 minutes. And these 62 & & 41 minutes amount unto 103 minutes, wchwhich being added to the longitude of the star found above gives its correct longitude in ♍ 13gr. 7. The longitude of this star at the time of the Argonautic Expedition was ♍ 13gr. 24′. 52″, as above. And the difference 17′. 37″, is so small as scarce to be sensible in the coarse observations of the ancients, & will vanish by allowing a minute of time between the observation of the setting sun whereby the eyes of the spectator would be dazzelled, & the observation of the rising star after the eyes were recovered.
From all these circumstances grownded upon the coarse observations of the ancient Astronomers, we may reccon it certain that the Argonautic Expedition was not earlier then the reign of Solomon. And if these Astronomical arguments be added to the former arguments taken from the length of the reigns of kings according to the course of nature: from them all we may safely conclude that the Argonautic Expedition was after the death of Solomon, & most probably that it was about 43 years after it.
The Trjojan war was one generation later then that Expedition as was said above, several captains of the Greeks in that war being sons of the Argonauts. And the ancient Greeks recconed Memnon or Amenophis King of Egypt to have reigned in the times of that war, feigning him to be the son of Tithonus the elder brother of Priam, & in the end of that war to have come from Susa to the assistance of Priam. Amenophis was therefore of the same age with the elder children of Priam, & was with his army at Susa in the last year of that war; & after he had there finished the Memnonia, he might return into Egypt & adorn it with buildings & Obelisks & statues, & dye there about 90 or 95 years after the death of Solomon when he had determined & setled the beginning of the new Egyptian year of 365 days upon the Vernal Equinox, so as to deserve the monument above mentioned in memory thereof.
Rehoboam was born in the last year of King David, being 41 years old at the death of Solomon (1 Kings. xiv.21) & therefore his father Solomon was born in the 18th year of king Davids reign, or before. And two or three years before his birth David beseiged Rabbah the Metropolis of the Ammonites, & committed adultery with Bathsheba. And the yeare before this siege began, David vanquished the Ammonites & their confederates the Syrians of Zobah, & Rehob & Ishtob, & Maacah, & Damascus, & extended his dominion over all those nations as far as to the entring in of Hamath & the river Euphrates. And before this was began he smote Moab & Ammon & Edom, & made the Edomites fly, some of them into Egypt with their king Hadad then a little child, & others to the Philistines where they fortified Azoth against Israel, & others by sea to the Persian gulph & other places whether they could escape. And before this, he had several battels with the Philistines. And all this was after the eighth year of his reign, in wchwhich he came from Hebron to Ierusalem. We cannot err therefore above two or three years if we place this victory over Edom in the eleventh or twelft year of his reign, & that over Ammon & the Syrians in the fourteenth. After the flight of Edom, the king of Edom grew up & married Tahaphenes or Daphnis the sister of Pharaohs Queen, & before the death of David had by her a son called Genubah; & this son was brought up among the children of Pharaoh. And among these children was the chief or first born of her mothers children whom Solomon married in the beginning of his reign, & her little sister who at that time had no breasts, & her brother who then sucked the breasts of his mother (Cant. VI.9, & VIII.1, 8.)144r VIII.1, 8) And of about the same age with these children was Sesac or Sesostris. For he became king of Egypt in the reign of Solomon (1 King. XI.40) & before he began to reign he warred under his father, & whilst he was very young conquered Arabia Troglodytica & Libya, & then invaded Æthiopia, & succeeding his father, reigned till the fift year of Asa. And therefore he was of about the same age with the children of Pharaoh above mentioned & might be one of them, & be born neare the end of Davids reign, & be about 45 years old when he came out of Egypt wthwhich a great army to invade the east. And by reason of his great conquests, he was celebrated in several nations by several names. The Chaldeans called him Belus wchwhich signifies the Lord. The Arabians called him Bacchus wchwhich in their language signifies the great. The Phrygians & Thracians called him Ma-fors, Mavors, Mars which signifies the valieant: & thence the Amazons whom he carried from Thrace & left at Thermodan, called themselves the daughters of Mars. The Egyptians before his reign called him their Hero or Hercules; & after his death by reason of his great works done to the river Nile, dedicated that river to him & deified him by its names, Sihor, Nilus & Ægyptus. theAnd the Greeks hearing them lament O Sihor, Bu Sihor, called him Osiris & Busiris. Arrianaa Arrian. lib. 7. tells us that the Arabians worshipped only two Gods, Cælus & Dionysus, & that they worshipped Dionysus for the glory of leading his army into India. The Dionysus of the Arabians was Bacchus, & all agree that Bacchus was the same king of Egypt with Osiris: & the Cælus or Vranus or Iupiter Vranus of the Arabians I take to be the same king of Egypt with his father Ammon, according to the Poet,
Quamvis Æthiopum populis Arabumque beatis
Gentibus, atque Indeis, unus sit Iupiter Ammon.
I place the end of the reign of Sesac upon the fift year of Asa because in that year Asa became free from the Dominion of Egypt, so as to be able to fortify Iudea & raise that great army with which he met Zerah & routed him. Osiris was therefore slain in the fift year of Asa by his brother Iapetus whom the Egyptians called Typhon Python & Neptune. And then the Libyans under Iapetus & his son Atlas invaded Egypt & raised that famous war between the Gods & Giants from whence the Nile had the name of Eridanus. But Orus the son of Osiris by the assistance of the Ethiopians prevailed & reigned till the 15th year of Asa. And then the Ethiopians under Zerah invaded Egypt, drowned Orus in Eridanus, & were routed by Asa so that Zerah could not recover himself. Zerah was succeeded by Amenophis a youth of the Royal family of the Ethiopians, & I think the son of Zerah. But the people of the lower Egypt revolted from him, & set up Osarsiphus over them, & called to their assistance a great body of men from Phænicia, I think a part of the army of Asa. And thereupon Amenophis with the remains of his fathers army of Ethiopians retired from the lower Egypt to Memphis, & there turned the river Nile into a new channel under a new bridge which he built between two mountains; & at the same time he built & fortified that city against Osarsiphus, calling it by his own name Amenoph. And then he retired into Ethiopia & stayed there thirteen years. And then came back with a great army & subdued the lower Egypt, expelling the people wchwhich had been called in from Phænicia. And this I take to be the second expulsion of the shepherds. Dr Castelbb in Moph tells us that in Coptic this city is called Mariphtha. Whence by contraction came its names Moph, Noph.
1 After the victory of Asa over Zerah; & the following revolt of the lower Egypt from Zerah to Osarsiphus, Amenophis the successor of Zerah might presenlypresently fly with the remainder of Zerahs army of Ethiopians from Osarsiphus to Memphis & spend about two years in turning the Nile & in building & fortifying that city, & thirteen years more in Æthiopia; & then return from Ethiopia with a great army to conquer the lower Egypt.
While Amenophis stayed in Ethiopia, Ægypt was in its greatest distraction. And then it was, as I conceive, that the Greeks hearing thereof contrived the Argonautic Expedition, & sent the flower of Greece in the ship Argo to perswade the nations upon the sea coasts of the Euxine & Mediterranean seas to revolt from Egypt & set up for themselves, as the Libyans Æthiopians & Iews had done before. And this is a further argument for placing that expedition about 43 years after the death of Solomon. Amenophis might return from Æthiopia & conquer the lower Egypt about eight or nine years after that expedition, & having setled his government over it, he might for putting a stop to the revolting of the nations, eastern nations, lead his army into Persia & leave Proteus at Memphis to govern Egypt in his absence, & lead his army into Persia, & stay sometime at Susa & build the Memnonia, fortifying that city as the metropolis of his dominions in those parts.
Androgeus the son of Minos, upon his overcoming in the Athenæa or quadrennial games at Athens in his youth, was perfidiously slain out of envy. And Minos thereupon made war upon the Athenians, & compelled them to send every eighth year to Crete seven beardless youths & as155r
And then it was, as I conceive, that the Greeks hearing thereof contrived the Argonautic Expedition, & sent the flower of Greece in the ship Argo to perswade the nations upon the sea coasts of the Euxine & Mediterranean seas to revolt from Egypt & set up for themselves, as the Libyans Ethiopians & Iews had done before. And this is a further argument for placing that expedition about 44 years after the death of Solomon. Amenophis might return from Ethiopia & conquer the lower Egypt about eight years after that expedition, & having setled his government over it, he might for putting a stop to the revolting of the nations, lead his army into Persia, take & stay at Susa, & build the Memnonia, fortifying that city as the metropolis of his dominions in those parts.
Androgeus the son of Minos, upon his overcoming in the Athenæa or quadrennial games at Athens in his youth, was perfidiously slain out of envy; & Minos thereupon made war upon the Athenians & compelled them to send every eighth year to Crete, seven beardless youths & as many young virgins, to be given as a reward to him that should get the victory in the like games instituted in Crete in honour of Androgeus. These games seem to have been celebrated in the beginning of the Octaeteris, & the Athenæa in the beginning of the Tetraeteris then brought into Crete & Greece by the Phenicians. And upon the third payment of the tribute of children, that is, about seventeen years after the said war was at an end, & about nineteen or twenty years after the death of Androgeus, Theseus became victor & returned from Crete with Ariadne the daughter of Minos. And coming to the island Naxus or Dia, aa Evanthes apud Athenæum l. 67. p. 296. Ariadne was there relinquished by him him by Glaucus a commander at sea, & became the mistress of the great Bacchus, who at that time returned from India in triumph, & by bb Hygenus Fab. 14. him she had two sons Phlyas & Eumedon who were Argonauts. This Bacchus was seen after caught in bed with Venus the mother of Æneas in PhygiaPhrygia, according to Homer c,Homer. Odyss. l. 8, v. 292. just before he came over the Hellespont & invaded Thrace, And he married Ariadne the daughter of Minos according to Hesiodd.Hesiod. Theogon. v. 945. And therefore by the testimony of both Homer & Hesiod who wrote before the Greeks & Egyptians corrupted their antiquities, this Bacchus was one generation older then the Argonauts. And so being king of Egypt at the same time with Sesostris, they must be one & the same king. For they agree also in their actions. Bacchus invaded India & Greece; & after he was routed by the army of Perseus, & the war was composed, the Greeks did him great honours, & built a temple to him at Argos, & called it the temple of the Cresian Bacchus because Ariadne was buried in it, as Pausanias ee Pausan. l. 2, C. 23. relates. Ariadne therefore died in the end of the war just before the return of Sesostris into Egypt, that is in the 14th year of Rehoboam. She was taken from Theseus upon the return of Bacchus from India, about the tenth year of Rehoboam & then became thise mistress of Bacchus, & accompanied him in his traiumphs. And therefore the expedition of Theseus to Crete & the death of his father Ægeus was about nine or ten years after the death of Solomon. Theseus was then a beardless young man, suppose about 18 or 20 or 22 years old, & Androgeus was slain about 20 years before, being then about 20 or 22 years old; & his father Minos might be about 25 years older & so be born about the middle of Davids reign, & be about 70 or 79 years old when he pursued Dædalus into Crete; & Europa & her brother Cadmus might come into Europe two or three years before the birth of Minos.
Tragus (in his 18th book) tells us: A rege Ascaloniorum expugnati Sidonij navibus appulsi Tyrum urbem ante annum Trojanæ cladis condiderunt. And Strabo aa Strabo l. 16 that Aradus was built by the men who fled from Sidon. Hence bb Isa. 23.2, 12 Isaiah calls Tyre the daughter of Zidon, the inhabitants of the isle whom the merchants of Zidon have replenished. And cc 1 King. 5.6. Solomon in the beginning of his reign calls the people of Tyre Zidonians. My servants, saith he in a message to Hiram king of Tyre, shall be with thy servants, & unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou desirest: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like the Zidonians. The new inhabitants of Tyre had not yet lost the name of Zidonians, nor had the old inhabitants (if there were any considerable number of them) gained the reputation of the old new ones for skill in hewing timber, as they would have done had navigation been long in use at Tyre. The artificers who came from Zidon were not yet dead, & the flight of the Zidonians was in the reign of David, & by consequence in the beginning of the reign of Abibalus the father of Hiram, & the first king of Tyre mentioned in history. David in the twelft year of his reign conquered Edom as above, & made some of the Edomites & chiefly the merchants & seamen fly from the red sea to the Philistines upon the Mediterranean where they fortified Azoth. For dd Steph. in Azoth. Stephanus tells us: ταυτήν ἔκτισαν εἱς των ἐπανελθόντων ἀπ᾽ Ἐρυθρας θαλάσσης φευγάδων: One of the fugitives from the red sea built Azoth. That is, A Prince of Edom who fled from David fortified Azoth166r Azoth for the Philistims against him. The Philistims were now grown very strong by the access of the Edomites, & shepherds & by their assistance invaded & look Zidon, that being a town very convenient for the merchants who fled from the red sea. And then did the Zidonians fly by sea to Tyre & Aradus, & to other havens in Asia minor Greece & Libya wthwhich wchwhich by meanes of their trade they had been acquainted before; the great warrs & victories of David their enemy prompting them to fly by sea. For they ee Conon Narrat. 37. came went with a great multitude not to seek Europa as was pretended, but to seek new seats, & therefore fled from their enemies. And when some of them fled under Cadmus & his brothers to Cilicia, Asia minor, & Greece, others fled under other commanders to seek new seats in Libya, & there built many walled towns, as ff Nonnus Dionysiac. l. 13. v. 333 & seq. Nonnus affirms. And their leader was also there called Cadmus, wchwhich word signifies an eastern man; & his wife was called Sithonis a Zidonian. And many from those cities went afterwards with the great Bacchus in his armies. And by these things the taking of Zidon & the flight of the Zidonians under Abibalus, Cadmus, Cilix, Thasus, Membliarius, Alymnus & other captains to Tyre, Aradus, Cilicia, Rhodes, Caria, Bithynia, Phrygia, Callisthe, Thasus, Samothrace, Crete, Greece, & Libya, & the building of Tyre & Thebes, & beginning of the reign of Abibalus & Cadmus over those cities are fixed upon the fifteenth or sixteenth year of Davids reign or thereabouts. By means of these colonies of Phenicians the people of Caria learnt sea-affairs in such small vessels with oars as were then in use, & began to frequent the Greek seas & people some of the islands therein before the reign of Minos. For Cadmus in coming to Greece arrived first at Rhodes an island upon the borders of Caria, & left there a colony of Phenicians who sacrificed men to Saturn; & the Telchines being repulsed by Phoroneus, retired from Argos to Rhodes with Phorbas who purged the island from Serpents; & Triopas the son of Phorbas carried a colony from Rhodes to Caria, & there possessed himself of a promontarypromontory thence called Triopium. And by this & such like colonies Caria was furnished with shipping & seamen, & gg Athen. l. 4. C. 23. called Phænice. Strabo & Herodotus hh Strabo l. 10, p. 661. Herod. l. 1. tell us that the Cares were called Leleges & became subject to Minos, & lived first in the islands of the Greek seas, & went thence into Caria a country possest before by some of the Leleges & Pelasgi. Whence it's probable that the Pelasgi when Lelex & Pelasgus came first into Greece to seek new seats, they left part of their colonies in Caria & the neighbouring islands.
The Sidonians being still possessed of the trade of the Mediterranean as far as Greece & Libya, & the trade of the red sea being richer, the Tyrians traded on the red sea in conjunction with Solomon & the kings of Iudah till after the Trojan warr. And so also did the merchants of Aradus Arvad or Arpad. For in the Persian gulph aa Strabo l. 16. were two islands called Tyre & Aradus which had temples built like the Phenician. And therefore the Tyrians & Aradians sailed thither & beyond to the coasts of India while the Zidonians frequented the Mediterranean. And hence it is that Homer celebrates Zidon & makes no mention of Tyre. But at length bb 2 Chron. 21.8, 10. & 2 King. viii.20, 22. in the reign of Iehoram king of Iudah, Edom revolted from the dominion of Iudah & made themselves a king. And the trade of Iudah & Tyre upon the red sea being thereby interrupted, the Tyrians built ships for merchandice upon the Mediterranean, & began there to make long viages to places not yet frequented by the Zidonians, some of them going to the coasts of Afric beyond the Syrtes & building Adrumetum, Carthage, Leptis, Vtica, & Capsa, & others going to the coasts of Spain, & building Carteia, Gades & Tartessus, & others going further to the fortunate islands & to Britain & Thule. Iehoram reigned eight years, & the two last years was sick in his bowels, & before that sickness Edom revolted because of Iehoram's wicked reign. If we place that revolt about the middle of the first six years, it will fall upon the fift year of Pigmaleon king of Tyre, & so was about twelve or fifteen years after the taking of Troy. And then by reason of this revolt, the Tyrians retired from the red sea & began long viages upon the Mediterranean. For in the seventh year of Pigmaleon, his sister Dido sailed to the coast of Afric beyond the Syrtes & there built Carthage. And this retiring of the Tyrians from the red sea to make long viages on the Mediterranean, together with the flight of the Edomites from David, gave occasion to the tradition