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mainly in English with some Latin and Greek
Section 2D of a huge collection of disordered fragmentary drafts on ancient history in which Newton correlates Jewish, Greek and Egyptian chronology. Much of the historical material later found its way into the posthumous 'Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended' (1728). These papers also contain a draft interpretation of the visions of Daniel.
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Gabriel Wells for £90 and presumably acquired by Yahuda not long afterwards.
Achilles Tatius
any men measured the heavens & earth & inscribed the
knowledge thereof in columns for the use of posterity;
that the Chaldæans translated it to themselves ascribing
the invention to Belus: & that the wise men of
Greece ascribe it partly to their Gods, partly to their
Heroes & partly to the wise w
them. The first Astronomers I meet with in Phrygia
& Greeceæ
sæus, Atreus, Ancæus, Orpheus, Palamedes. All these
flourished before the Trojan war. Then came on dark
times till Thales & his scholars revived Astronomy.
Homer & Hesiod mention several Constellations & there
fore the Constellations were formed before their days
& by consequence before the destruction of Troy,
there being no Astronomers celebrated between that
war & the days of Thales. And even the Constella
tions themselves discover the age in ch
formed. For they relate to the Argonautic expedi
tion & the times next preceding it & to nothing
later. In the Constellations of the ship Argo, the
Dragon called Hydra with Medea's cup & a Raven upon
its carcass, the symbol of death, & in those of the
golden ram, the fiery bull & the twins Castor &
Pollux, you have the stry story of the Argonautic
expedition. In those of Perseus, Andromeda, Cepheus,
Cassiopeia & Cete, you have the story of Perseus. Engo
nasis, Sagitta, Ultur Cadens, Draco, Cancer, Leo relate
to Hercules; Vrsa major & Arctophylax to Callisto &
her son Areas; Vrsa minor to one of the nurses
of Iupiter; Auriga to Erechthonius; Bootes, Plaustrum
& Virgo, as some say to Icareus, asothers his daughter
Erigone. There's Orion the granson of Minos with his
dogs & Hare & River
phon's Horse, Læda's Swan, Neptune's Dolphin, Gani
mede's Eagle, Iupiter's Goat ,
Asses, Æsculapius (or Phorbar
the master of Iason with his Altar & Sacrifice. There's
Virgo or Astræa or Ceres, Sagittary or Crotus the Centaur
Aquarius or Ganimede, the Fishes of Venus & Cupid,
& their parent the south Fish. In all these Constellations
(ch
there's nothing relating to the Theban or Trojan wars,
nothing to the times after the Argonautic expedition, &
therefore they were formed in or after presently after
that expedition, or rather for the use of the Argo
nauts. For navigation gave a beginning to Astronomy,
the stars being at first observed for the use of saylors.
Aristæus the Astronomer married Autonoe the
daughter of Cadmus & therefore was about three genera
older then the Argonauts. He was born & educated
in Libya, his mother Cyrene being carried thither from
Greece & got with child, as was pretended by Apollo; & from thence a
cheese & bee hives & honey & planting & olive-yards
& making oyle & of observing & determining the sol
stices by the risings & settings of the stars. b
Egyptian who was about one generation older then the
Argonauts & governed Libya then a province of Egypt
& was skilled in Philosophy Astronomy & Navigation
made a sphere & in memory thereof is p
a sphere upon his back. And the Greeks soon followed
his example. For c
of the Argonauts, delinerated
Asterisms, as Clemens Alexandrinus out of the ancient
author of the Gigantomd
the master of Orpheus & one of the Argonauts made
a sphere & is reputed the first among the Greeks
who made one. But the e
different from those of the Egyptians & Libyans. These
things might be done by Chiron & Musæus while
the ship Argo was building: not sooner because that
ship was one of the Asterisms; nor later because Chiron
was at that time very ancient, being born in the golden
age & being the grandfather of the Argonauts Peleus &
Telamon. The sphere was therefore made for the use
of the Argonauts: for the Asterisms were at first de
lineated for the use of Navigators. The fe
island Corcyra attributed the invention of the sphere to
Nausicae the daughter of Alcinous king of the Pheaces
in that island, & she might learn it from the Argonauts
who g
some stay there with her father. Sophocles h
Palamedes the son of Nauplius king of Eubœa found out
sures & revolutions of the stars & turnings of the Bear &
setting of the Dog & improved navigation & the art of war.
Nauplius was a very skilfull saylor & one of the Argonauts &
survived the destruction of Troy & might teach his son Palamedes, &
Palamedes was slain at Troy, & therefore measured the stars (that
is, their distances) & formed or reformed the signes & asterisms
before he went to war. Musæus might set the stars on e
globe by viewing the heavens as a Painter draws a face & Pala
medes by his measures might draw the signes & asterisms & sol
stices & equinoxes more exactly. In those days
understood also the motion of the Sun in the Ecliptic
from west to East & the reason of his eclipses & observed
the Solstices. Strabok
aquatic instruments & Atreus for teaching that e
of the Sun was contrary to the conversion of the heavens, were
made kings; & Servicusl
of the sun ch
least found out the reason of it: And Iustin m
found out the rising of the stars in the solstice. And in the island
Syrie or Syrus there was an Heliotropium or place prepard
for observing the solstice as Bochartn
old Scholiast: which Heliotropium remained there till the days
of Diogenes Laertius.
Now Achilles Tatius
placed the solstice in the beginning of Cancer, others
in the eigth degree of Cancer, others about the twelft
& others about the fifteenth degree. This variety of
opinions preceeded from the Precession of the Equinox then
unknown to the Greeks. At first the solstice was in the 15th
degree or middle of the Constellation of Cancer, then in the
12th 8th & 1st degree successively. The Iews began their
year with that new moon ch
Equinox or within half a month before or after it. This year
they brought out of Egypt, changing only the beginning
thereof from the autumnal Equinox to the vernal. And
to make the first month begin with the first signe, the E
gyptians in their sphere & the Greeks in theirs might place
the Equinoxes & Solstices in the middles of the signes. For the
Greeks had their knowledge from Egypt & began the Attic
year sometimes before & sometimes after the vernal Equinox
summer solstice as the Iews did their year both before &
after the Vernal Equinox.
After the times of the Argonautic expedition & Trojan
war the communication between & Greece & Egypt ceased &
Astronomy lay neglected till Psammiticus let the Greeks into
Egypt. The Thalesa
himself was reputed the first of the Greeks who observed them
could predict Eclipses & wrote a book of the Tropicks & Equinoxes & predicted them, & his scholar bwrote a book erected
gnomons to observe the solstices &equinoxes & made a sphere.
For the Constellations were at first delineated on spheres, &
the art of making planispheres being difficulter was invented c
matutinus of the Pleiades to be upon the 25th day of
after the autumnal Equinox; & thence dv
putes the Longitude of the Pleiades in deg. 53'. Now
the bright star of the Pleiades in the end of the year
1660 was in d..15'. 51" by the observations of Hevelius
& thence recconing backwards a degree for every 72
years (ch
star will be found in d.. 53' six hundred years
before Christ, that is, in the 41th year of Thales,
supposing him born an. 1 Olymp. 35 as is the received opinion.
And therefore Thales did not retain the place of the
Equinox determined by Astronomers who lived before the
Trojar war, but observed it himself & placed it where it
was in his own age. His publishing a book about the solstices
& equinoxes & predicting them that other might examin the
matter shews that he proposed a new opnion & appealed
to experience about it & his predicting Eclipses shews that
he knew the true position of the Ecliptick. Now the Pleia
des being then in d. 53', the summer solstice was
the 11th degree of Cancer.
After Thales had revived Astronomy & rectified the
solstice, the Greeks became intent upon reforming their
Lunisolar year. And first they mended their Dieteris, Tetra
eteris & Octaeteris. Then Meton found out the exacter ca
mon observed the solstice in the year of Nabonassar 316
& Columella b
of Cancer. Which opnion being published to the people in
the tables of that Cycle became generally received & conti
nued long in vogue. Now recconing with Astronomers that
the Equinox goes backwards one degree in about 72 years
& by consequence three degrees in 216 years & seven ~
degrees in 504 years, & considering that Thales was born
count backwards these years from the year of Nabonassar
316 & the summer solstice will fall upon the middle of
Cancer or end of the 15th degree of that signe in the 45th
year after the death of Solomon, & upon the beginning of
the 12th degree in the 100th year of Nabonassar ch
ninth year of the reign of Psammiticus over all Egypt. Psam
miticus was one of the 12 contemporary kings of Egypt during
the first 15 f years of th
the help of the Greeks & thereby opened a communication
between Egypt & Greece, & the solstice was at that time in
the
Egypt into Greece might obtein among the Greeks, & give occasion
to
the solstice thife
11th degree of Cancer as above. So then, about 45 years
after the death of Solomon, that is about the time of the Argo the Solstices were in the middle of the signes
nautic Expedition
where they ought to be at the first formation of the signes
upon the surface of the globe.
Eudoxus was either contemporary ab
Octaeteris & a book of Phænomena in prose wherein he de
scribed the old Sphere of the Greeks with the constellations.
Aratus wrote the same things in verse & Hipparchus Bithymus wrote
a third book upon them both: which books of Aratus & Hippar
chus are still extant. Gemimus has given us an Ephemeris of
the Sun's passing through the twelve signes, beginning the signes
of Libra & Capricorn (& by consequence those also of Aries
& Cancer) with the Equinox & Solstice of Euctemon; &
placing the winter solstice of Eudoxus on the fourth day of
Capricorn, &three
of Euctemon, & the spring Equinox of Eudoxus on the
sixt day of Aries, that is five
spring Equinox of Euctemon. Whence its evident that
Eudoxus did not observe the Equinox himself but followed
the traditions of the ancient Astronomers placing it where
it was in or before & knowing nothing
of its motion. And for this reason in describing the sphere of
the ancients, he copied after their Equinoxes & Solstices as well
as after their Constellations. For he placed the Equinoxes & Sol
stices in the middles of the Constellations of Aries Chelæ Cancer &
Capricorn, as is affirmed by Hipparchus & appears manifestly
by the description of the Equinoctial & Tropical circles in Aratus
who copied after Eudoxus, & more plainly by the words of
Eudoxus cited by Hipparchus & still more plainly by the position
of the Colures. For Hipparchus tells us that Eudoxus drew the
Colure of the Solstices through the middle of the great Bear &
the middle of Cancer & the neck of Hydrus & the star between
the Poop & Mast of Argo & the tail of the South fish & through
the middle of Capricorn & of Sagitta & through the neck & right
wing of the Swan & left hand of Cepheus; & that he drew
the Equinoctial colure throught the left hand of Arctophylax &
along the middle of his body & cross the middle of Chelæ, &
through the right hand & foreknee of the Centaur & through
the flexure of Eridanus & head of Cetus & the back of Aries
across & through the head & right hand of Perseus.
In the end of the year 1660 the middle of the Aselli
& Præsepe, a small constellation in the middle of the constella
tion of Cancer was in
middle between the cloudy star in the forehead of Capricorn
& the last bright star in his tail was in
point opposite to this point was in
drawn in the middle between
as neare as can be through the middles of both Asterisms of
Cancer & Capricorn, & cuts the Ecliptick in
Colure is to pass is marked out in the heavens by three great
stars, the only stars placed in it, one of the third magnitude
whose Longitude in the end of the year 1660 was
& south Latitude 15. 10. 00, another of the fourth magnitude
whose longitude at the same time was also d. 20'. 00", third of the third magnitude in
6d. 00'. 55" with south latitude 21d. 30'. 00" : and the Colure found
as above passes within half a minute of the two first of these
stars & within 9' 50" of the third. It passes also through the
middle of the great Bear & by the first star in the head
of Hydra & between the Poop & Mast of Argo, & by the stars
of Sagitta on one side & the neck & north wing of
Cygnus in the other, & through the left hand of Cepheus,
& so has all the characters of the solsticial Colure of the
Ancients described by Eudoxus.
The back of Aries ♈ through ch
should pass is a star of the sixt magnitude whose longitude
in the end of the year 1660 was d. 22'. 57" & north la
titude 6d. 7'. 20". And the Colure drawn trough this star to
the Ecliptick in an angle of 66d 30' the complement of the
angle in ch
cut the Ecliptic in d. 41'. 34", as I find by Trigonometry.
The head of Cetus through which this Colure should pass is
a star of the fourth magnitude whose Longitude at the
time aforesaid was d. 43'. 13" & south Latitude 5d. 51'. 53"
& the Colure drawn through this star to the Ecliptick in
angle of 66d 30', did cut the Ecliptick in d. 16'. 53".
In the right hand of the Centaur rightly delineated is a
star of the fourth magnitude whose Longitude in the end
of the year 1660 was
20d 52' 00" & the Colure passing through it did cut the ~
Ecliptic in
or elbow of Eridanus is a star of the 4th magnitude of
late referred to the breast of Cepheus Cetus but anciently
not. Tis the only star in Eridanus through which this ~
Colure can pass. Its longitude in the end of the year 1660
was d. 59'. 45" & south Latitude 25d. 18'. 19", & the ~
Colure drawn through it did then cut the Ecliptic in
star of the fift magnitude whose longitude in the end
of the year 1660 was
16" & the Colure drawn through it did then cut the E
cliptic in d. 55'. 4
rightly delineated is a star of the 4th magnitude whose longitude was then d. 00'. 29" & north latitude 37d. 26'. 50"
& the Colure drawn through it did cut the Ecliptic in d 33' 24". And the Colure drawn as near as may
be through all these six stars, did then cut the Ecliptic
in
sixt part of the summ of the six longitudes where the
six Colures drawn severally through the said six stars
did cut the Ecliptic. And this Colure thus found passes
through the left hand of Arctophylax & along the
middle of his body, & is just – 90 degrees from the solstitial
Colure found above, as it ought to be, & so has all the Charac
ters of the Equinoxial Colure of the Ancients described by Eu
So then the solstices & Equinoxes we in the end of
the year 1660 were gone back 35d. 50'. 16" from their
first places, & therefore recconing with Astronomers
that they go back a degree in 2580 72 years & by
consequence 35d. 50'. 16" in 2580 years & four months,
& counting these years backwards from the end of the
year 1660, the recconing will reduce the solstices to
the middle of the signes or asterisms of Aries & Libra
about sixty years after the death of Solomon. And this ch
Hipparchus Rodius the great Astronomer flourished
almost 300 years after Meton & Euctemon & by com
paring his own observations with those of former Astro
nomers concluded first of any man that the Equi
noxes had a motion backwards in respect of the fixt
stars & went backwards one degree in about an
hundred years.
Equinox between the days of Palamedes & the days
of Hipparchus according to the Chronology of the ancient Greeks. To make it go back a degree in ch
Palamedes & Hipparches must be shortened in the
proportion of 100 to 72 & by this means Palemedes
will
Thus by three several ways of recconing we have
shewed that the solstices & Equinoxes fell upon the
middle of the constellations of Cancer, Capricorn,
Aries & Chelæ in the times between the Argonautic
expedition & Trojan War. The second of the three
ways is the exactest & most to be depended upon, &
since it places the solstices & equinoxes upon the
middle of the signes ju sixty years after the death of
Solomon, that is, just before the Trojan war, I conclude
that as Chiron & Musæus formed the Asterisms & deli
neated them upon the globe for the use of the Argo
nauts, so Palamedes reformed the globe & delineated set
the stars upon it more exactly for the use of the
Greeks in their expedition against Troy, & did it in
such manner that the middle of the cardinal signes
might fall upon the solstices & Equinoxes observed by
himself.