seven kings according to Pausanias or between seven & eight according to Herodotus. Which reigns according to Chronologers took up the space of 244 years, wchwhich is much too long dor the course of nature. For seven reigns at 20 years a piece amount to no more then 140 years, that is 89 years to the death of Cyrus & 51 years more to the invasion of Greece by Xerxes; & if we should add half a reign more, it will make but 99 years to the death of Cyrus. So then the return of the Heraclides was about 289 or 299 years (or in round numbers 300) ancienter then the death of Cyrus. ForHerod. l. 1. c. 67. Anaxandrides & Ariston kings of Sparta were contemporary to Cræsus.

Polydectes king of Sparta being slain before the birth of his son Charillus or Charilaus, left the kingdom to his brother Lycurgus the legislator, & Lycurgus upon the birth of Charillus became Tutor to the child, & published his laws in the reign of Agesilaus the successor of Dorissus in the other race of the kings of Sparta. Now the names of Lycurgus being on the Olympic Disk, Aristotle concluded thence that Lycurgus was the companion of Iphitus in restoring the Olympic games. But Iphitus did not restore all those games. He restored the racing in the first Olympiad, Coæbus being victor.Pausan. l. 5. c. 8. In the 14th Olympiad the double stadium was added, Hypænus being victor. And in the 18th Olympiad the Quinquertium & Wrestling were restored, Lampus & Eurybatus (two Spartians) being Victors. Now the Disk was one of the games of the Quinquertium, & PausaniusPausan. l. 6. c. 19. tells us that there were three disks kept in the Olympic treasury at Altis, & produced in those games. Doubless these were they wchwhich had the name of Lycurgus on them, being dedicated by them him. So then the game of the Disk was restored in the 18th Olympiad, & at that time Lycurgus & Agesilaus flourished, & Charillus was a child. From the return of the Heraclides to the beginning of the reign of Agesilaus there were six reigns, & from the same return to the beginning of the reign of Polydectes in the other race of the Spartan kings there were also six reigns, & these reigns at 19 years a piece (the medium between 18 & 20) amount to 114 years; & if we may reccon abotut seven years more to the childhood of Charillus & restoration of the Quinquertium in the 18th Olympiad, the return of the Heraclides will be about 300 years ancienter then the death of Cyrus as above. Chronologers have been therefore much mistaken in making Lycurgus Charillus & Agesilaus as old as Iphitus, & all of them almost two hundred years older then the 18th Olympiad.

Aristæus, Linus, Musæus, Chiron, Atreus, Ancæus Orpheus, Palamedes.Lucian de Astrolog. Laertius Proæm. Oprheus Argonaut Achilles Tatius Isag. All these flourished a little before the Trojan war. Then came on dark times till Thales & his schorlalrs revived Astronomy. Homer & Hesiod mention several Constellations & therefore the Constellations were formed before their days & by consequence before the destruction of Troy, there being no Astronomers celebrated between that war & the days of Thales. And even the Constellations themselves discover the age in wchwhich they were formed. For they relate to the Argonautic expedition & the times next preceding it & to nothing later. & therefore In the Constellations of the ship Argo, the Dragon called Hydra, wthwith Medea's cup & a Raven upon its carcass the symbol of death, & in those of the golden Ram, the fiery Bull & the twins Castor & Pollux you have the story of the Argonautic expedition. In those of Perseus, Andromeda, Cepheus, Cassiopœa & Cete you have the story of Perseus. Engonasis, Sagitta, Vultur cadens, Draco cCancer, Leo relate to Hercules: Vrsa major & Arctophylax to Callisto & her son Arcas: Vrsa minor to one of the nurses of Iupiter: Auriga to Erichthonius: Bootes, Plaustrum & Virgo (as some say) to Icareus & hos daughter Erigone. There's Orion the grandson of Minos with his Dogs & Hare & River. There's Orpheus's Harp, Bellereophon's horse, Læda's Swan, Neptune's Dolphin, Ganimede's Eagle, Iupiter's Goat, with her Kidds, Bacchus's Asses, Æsculapius (or Phorbas) wthwith his serpent, & Chiron the master of Iason with his Altar & Sacrifice. There's Virgo or Astræa or Ceres, Sagittary or Crotus the Centaur the son of the nurse of the Muses, Capricorn or Pan, Aquarius or Ganimede, the Fishes of Venus & Cupid & their parent the south Fish. In all these Constellations, (wchwhich with Deltoton are all the old ones mentioned by Aratus) there's nothing relating to the Theban or Trojan wars nothing to the times after the Argonautic expedition & therefore they were formed in or presently after that expedition or perhaps within 20 or 25 years after when Iason, Hercules, Leda, Castor, Pollux, Orpheus & Hercules were dead & deified so that they might be honoured in the Constellations, & the Heros who lived after that Expedition were not yet dead or not yet so much repute as to be capable of that honour. or rather for the use of the Argonauts. For Navigation gave a beginning to Astronomy the starrs being at first observed for the use of mariners saylors. AtlasDiador. l. 4. c. 2. p. 163. Plin. l. 2. c. 8. Albricus c. 22. Servius in Virgil. Æn. IV. 745. an Egyptian who governed Libya then a Province of Egypt, was a Sea god & by consequence a sailer & is reputed one of the oldest Astronomers. He made a sphere & in memory thereof is painted wthwith a sphere upon his back. ButAchil. Tat. Isag. p. ult. the Asterisms of the Egyptians were different from those of the Greeks. Among the Greeks ChironClemens Strom. 1. p. 306, 30632 the centaur Master of Iason delineated the Asterisms & MusæusLaertius Proæm. l. 1. the son of Eumolpus & Master of Orpheus was the first who made a sphere  They wasere contemporary to yethe Argonauts & might make his sphere soon after that Expedition. These things they might do in their old age ✝ presently after the Argonautic Expedition.  Aristæus the Astromer 8v These things they might do while the ship Argo was building Those of attribute the invention of the Sphere to Nausicaa the daughter of Alcinous king of the Phæaces. the Island Corcyra The people of the Island CorcyraSuidas in Αναγαλλις attributed the invention of the Sphere to the Nausicaae the daughter of Alcinous king of the Phæaces in that Island. And she might learn it from the Argonauts who in their return home sailed to that islandApollodor. l.1. c. 9. sect. 25 & made some stay there, A her father Alcinous being then king of the place.

Aristæus the Astronomer wmarried Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus & therefore was about three generations older then the Argonauts. He was born & educated in Libya being carried thither by his mother Cyrene being carried thither from Greece & got with child, as was pretended by Apollo; & aa Diodor. l. 4. p. 195. Iustin. l. 13. c. 7. from thence he brought into Greece the inventions of making cheese & bee-hives & honey & planting Olive yards & making Oyle & of observing & determining the solstices by the risings & settings of the starrs. AtlasDiodor l. 4. c. 2. p. 163. Plin. l. 2. c. 8. Albricus c. 22. Servius in Virgil. Æn. 4. v. 745. an Egyptian who was about one generation older then the Argonauts & governed Libya then a Province of Egypt, & was skilled in Philosophy Astronomy & navigation, made a Sphere, & in memory thereof is painted with a sphere upon his back. And the Greeks soon followed his example. ForClemens Strom. 1. p. 306, 332. Laertius Proæm. l. 1. Chiron the Master of Iason the chief of the Argonauts delineated σχήματα ὀλύμπου delineated the Asterisms as Clemens out of the ancient author of the Gigantomachia informed us. made a sphere & was is reported the first among the Greeks who made one. But the Asterisms of the Greeks were different from those of the Egyptians & Libyans. These things might be done by Chiron & Musæus while the ship Argo was building not sooner because that ship was one of the Asterisms, nor later because Chiron was at that time very ancient, being born in the golden age, & , the sphere being made being the grandfather of the Argonauts Peleus & Telamon. The sphere was therefore made for the use of the Argonauts: For the Asterisms were at first delineated for the use of Navigators. The people of the Island CorcyraSuidas in Αναγαλλις attributed the invention of the sphere to Nausicae the daughter of Alcinous being king of the Pheaces in that Island, and she might learn it from the Argonauts who in their return home sailed to that IslandApollodor. l.1. c. 9. sect. 25 & made some stay there with her father. Sophocles tells us that PalamedesSophoclesSoph. apud Achillē Tatium in Isag. p. 1. Servius in Æn. II tells us that Palamedes the son of Nauplius king of Eubœa found out Arithmetick & measuring & the heavenly signes & the measures & revolutions of the stars & turnings of the Beare & setting of the Dog & improved Navigation & the art of war. This is that Palamedes who added four letters to the Alphabet. He was so much honoured by the Greeks that they generally followed his counsells & made him commander of their army for a time in the room of Agamemnon. Nauplius was a very skilfull sayler & one of the Argonauts & survived the destruction of Troy, & might teach his son Palamedes & Palamedes was slain at Troy & therefore measured the stars (that is their distances) or Right ascentions & Declinations & formed or reformed the Signes & Astrerisms a little before he went to that war being then a young man. Musæus might set the stars on the globe by viewing the heavens as a Painter draws a face, & Palamedes by his measures might draw the signes & asterisms more exactly. A & formed or reformed the signes & asterisms before he went to that war. Musæus might set the stars on the globe by viewing the heavens as a Painter draws a face, & Palamedes by his migh measures might draw the signes & asterisms more & solstices & Equinoxesmore exactly. In those daysLucian. de Astrologia. Achil. Tat. c. 20. Astronomers understood also the motion of the sun in the Ecliptic from west to east & & the return of his eclipses & observed the solstices. For in the Island Syrie or Syrus there was an Heliotropium or place prepared for observing the Solstice as BochartBochart Canaan l. 1 c. 14. p. 445. Laert. in Ananag Pherecyde. shews out of Homer & his old Scholiast: wchwhich Heliotropium remained there till the days of Diogenus Laertius. ServiusServ. ad Æn. 1. v. 572 saith that Atreus found an eclips of the sun wchwhich came to pass, that is he predicted it or at least found out the reason of it.

Now Achilles TatiusAchil.Tat. p c. 23. tells us that some anciently placed the solstice in the beginning of Cancer, other in the eighth degree of Cancer, others about yethe twelft & others about the 15th degree. This variety of opinions proceeded from the Precession of the Equinox. At first the solstice was in the 15th degree or middle of the Constellation of Cancer, then in the 12th, 8th & 1st degree successively. 9rThe Iews began their year with that new Moon wchwhich fell upon the Vernal Equinox or within half a month before or after it. This year they brought out of Egypt changing only the beginning thereof from the autumnal equinox to the vernal. And to make the first month begin in the first signe the Egyptians in their sphere & the Greeks in theirs might place the Equinoxes & Solstices in the middles of the signes. For the Greeks had their knowledge from Egypt & began the Attic year sometimes before & sometimes after the summer solstice, as Iews did their year both before & after the Vernal Equinox.

After the times of the Argonautic Expedition & Trojan war the communication between Greece & Egypt ceased & Astronomy lay neglected till the reign of Psammiticus let the Greeks into Egypt & Thales travelled thither. ForLaertius in Thalete Plin. l. 2. c. 11. Thales revived Astronomy observed the stars himself, was reputed the first of the Greeks who could predict Eclipses, & wrote a book of the Tropicks & Equinoxes & predicted them. And his scholar AnaximanderLaertius in Anaximandro. Plin. l. 7. c. 56 erected Gnomons to observe the Solstices & Equinoxes & made a Sphære. For the Constellations were at first delineated on Spheres, & the art of making Planispheres being difficulter was invented later. PlinyPlin l. 18. c. 25./ tells us that Thales determined the Occasus matutinus of the Pleiades to be upon the 25t day after the Autumnal Equinox, & thence PetaviusPetav. Var. Dissert. l. 1. cap. 5. can 19. computes the Longitude of the Pleiades in ♈ 23. deg. 53'. Now the bright star of the Pleiades in the end of the year 1660 was in ♉ 25 15'. 51" by yethe observations of Hevelius & thence recconing backwards a degree for every 72 years (wchwhich is the known motion of the Equinox) that star will be found in ♈ 23. 53' six hundred years before Christ that is in yethe 401th year of Thales: & therefore Thales did not retain the place of the Equinox determined by Astronomers who lived before the Trojan war but observed it himself & placed it where it was in his own age. His publishishingpublishing a book about yethe Solstices & Æquinoxes & predicting them that others might examin the matter, shews that he proposed a new opinion & appealed to experience about it, & his predicting Eclipses shews that he knew the true position of the Ecliptic. And therefore we may reccon him yethe first who removed the solstices & equinoxes from the 15thdegrees of the signes & placed them in the twelft.

After Thales had revived Astronomy & rectified the solstice, the Greeks became intent upon reforming their Lunisolar year. And first they mended their Dieteris, Tetraeteris, & Octaeteris. Then MetonPetav. Doct. Temp. l. 4. c. 26. found out the exacter Cycle of 19 years & in order to publish it, he & Euctemon observed the solstice in the year of Nabonassar 316, & ColumellaColumella l. 9. c 14. Plin. l. 18. c. 25 tells us that they placed it in the 8th degree of Cancer: wchwhich opinion being publishe to the people in the Tables of that Cycle became generally received & continued long in vogue. Now recconing with Astronomers that the Equinox goes backwards one degree in about 72 years & by consequence three degrees in 216 years & seven degrees in 504 years & considering that Thales was born anno 1 Olymp 35 according to Laertius, & that from the 24th year of his age (about wchwhich time he might make his first Observations) to the year when Meton & Euctemon observed the solstice there were but 184 years, wchwhich time is too short by 32 years for the passing of the solstice from the twelft to the eighth degree of Cancer: let the error be ascribed to the Observations wchwhich in those days were

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

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

The Astronomers Meton & Euctemon to publish their Lunar Cycle of 19 years observed the Solstice in the year of Nabonassar 316, & Columella tells us that they After Thales had revived Astronomy & rectified the Equinox Solstice, the Greeks became intent upon reforming their Lunisolar year. And first they mended their Dieteris, Tetraeteris & Octaeteris. Then Tetraeteris & Octaeteris. Then Meton found out the exacter Cycle of 19 years & in order to publish it he & Euctemon observed the Solstice in the year of Nabonassar 2316 & Columella tells us that they placed it in the eighth degree of Cancer: which opinion published to the people in the Tables of that Cycle became generally received & continued long in vogue. Now recconing with Astronomers that the Equinox goes backwards one degree in about 72 years & by consequence 3 degrees in 216 years & 7 degrees in 504 years, & considering that Thales was born Anno 1 Olymp 35 according to Laertius & that from the 24th year of his age (about wchwhich time he might make his first Observations) to the year when Meton & Euctemon observed the solstice there were but 184 years, wchwhich time is too short by 32 years for the passing of the solstice from the 12t degre to the 8th degree of Cancer: let the error be ascribed to the Observations, wchwhich in those days were11r were but coarse) & let it be equally divided between the Observations of Thales & those of Meton by saying that yethe solstice was in the beginning of the 12th degree of Cancer about 16 years before the Observations of Thales & about in the end of the 8th degree about 16 years after the Observations of Meton, & from this last period, Anno Nabonass. 332, count backwards 504 years, the time in wchwhich the solstice moves seven degrees backwards & so might pass from the 15th to the 8th degree of Cancer, & the recconing will end 61 years after the death of Solomon. And therefore it was about that time that the Equinoxes & Solstices fell upon the end of the 15th degrees of the Signes, or that Palamedes formed the Asterisms of the Zodiac in such manner that the Equinoxes & Solstices might fall upon the middles of them.

Eudoxes was either contemporary aa Euseb. Chron. to Meton or a little bb Diogen Laert. in vita Eudoxi. later. He travelled into Egypt & having conversed with Astronomers of both nations published a new Octaeteris & wrote a book of the Constellations wherein he make the but followed the older Astronmers & published a new Octaeteris & a book of Phænomena in prose wherin he described the old Sphere of the Greeks wthwith the Constellations. Aratus wrote the same things in verse & Hipparchus Bithynus wrote a third book upon them both: wchwhich books of Aratus & Hipparchus are still extant. Geminus has given us an Ephemeris of the suns passing through the twelve signes, beginning the signes of Libra & Capricorn, & by consequence those also of Arius & Cancer, with the Equinox & Solstice of Euctemon, & placing the winter solstice of Euoxus on the 4th day of Capricorn, that is, three days later then the winter solstice of Euctemon, & the spring Equinox of Eudoxus on the sixt day of Aries, that is, five days later then the spring Equinox of Euctemon. Whence its evident that Eudoxus did not observe the Equinox himself pbut placed following the traditions of the ancient Astronomers, placing it were it was in the days of Thales or before & knowing nothing of its precession motion. And for this reason in describing the sphere of the Ancients, he copied after their Equinoxes & Solstices as well as after their cConstellations For he placed the Equinoxes & Solstices in the middles of the Constellations of Aries Chelæ Cancer & Capricorn, as is affirmed by Hipparches & appears manifestly by the description of the Equinoctial & Tropical circles in Aratus who copied after Eudoxus, & more plainly by the words of Hipparchus Eudoxus cited by Hipparchus, & still more plainly by the position of the Colures. or great circles passing For Hipparchus tells us that Eudoxus drew the Colure of the solstices through the middle of the great Beare & the middle of Cancer & the neck of Hydrus & the star between the Poop & Mast of Argo & the tail of the south fish, & through the middle of Ca-pricorn & of Sagitta & through the neck & right wing of the Swan & left hand of Cepheus; & that he drew the Colures Æquinoctial Colure through the left hand of Arctophylax & along the middle12r middle of his body & cross the middle of Chelæ & through the right hand & foreknee of the Centaur & through the flexure of Eridanus & head of Cetus & the back of Aries across & through the head & right hand of Perseus.

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

The back of Aries through wchwhich the solsticial Colure should pass is a star of the sixt magnitude whose longitude in the end of the year 1660 was ♉9d. 22'. 57" & north latitude 6d. 7' 20". TheAnd the Colurses drawn through this star to the Ecliptic in an angle of 66d. 30', the complement of the angle in wchwhich the Ecliptic cuts the Equator, did then cut the Ecliptic in ♉ 6. 41. 34 as I find by Trigonometry. And The head of Cetus through wchwhich this Colure should pass is a starr of the fourth magnitude whose Longitude at the time aforesaid was ♉ 2. 43. 13 & south Latitude 5. 51. 53 & the Colure drawn through this star to yethe Ecliptic in an angle of 66d 30' did cut the Ecliptic in ♉ 5. 16. 53. In the right hand of the Centaur rightly delineated is a star of the 4th magnitude whose longitude in the end of the year 1660 was ♏ 15. 13. 5 & south latitude 20d. 52'. 0" & the Colure passing through it did cut the Ecliptic in ♏ 5. 41. 38, & ♉ 5. 41. 38. In the extreme flexure or elbow of Eridanus is a star of the 4thmagnitude of late referred to the breast of Cetus but anciently not. Tis the only star in Eridanus through wchwhich this Colure is to can pass. Its longitue in the end of the year 1660 was ♈ 24. 59. 45 & south latitude 25. 18. 19 & the Colure drawn through it did then cut the Eciptic in ♉. 6 51. 34. The right hanead of Perseus rightly delineated is a star of the fift magnitude whose longitude in the end of yethe yeas 1660 was ♉ 23. 12. 1 & north latitude 34d. 19'. 16" & the Colure drawn through it did then cut the Ecliptic in ♉. 5d. 55'. 56". And the right hand of Perseus rightly delineated is a star of the 4th magnitude whose longitude was then ♉ 24. 00. 29 & sonorth latitude 37. 26. 50, & the Colure drawn through it did cut the Ecliptic in ♉ 4d. 33'. 24". And the Colure drawn as neare as may be through all these six stars, Colures did13r did then cut the Ecleptic in ♉ 5. 15. 50. 16 & ♒ ♏ 5. 50. 16 as I find by taking the sixt part of the summ of the six Longitudes of the po where the six Colures drawn severally through the said six stars did cut the Ecleptic. And this Colure thus found passes through the left hand of Arctophylax & along the middle of his body & is just 90 degrees from the solsticial Colure found above, as it ought to be., & hso has all the characters of the equinoxial Colure of the Ancients described by Eudoxes.

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

Hipparchus Rhodius the great Astronomer flourished almost 300 years after Meton & by comparing his own Observations with those of former Astronomers concluded that t first of any man that the Equinoxes had a motion backwards in respect of the fixt stars & went backwards about one degree in about an hundred years. And ForVide Ricciol. Almagest. Tom. 1 Lib. 3. c. 15 & 16 & Schol ad Lib. 6, c. 16. such was the motion of the Equinox between the days of Palamedes & the days of Hipparchus according to the Chrolnology of the ancient Greeks. but To make it go back a degree in 72 years (which is the truth)The time between Palamedes & Hipparchus must be shortened in the proportion of 72 100 to 100 72: by wchwhich & by this means Palamedes will flourish about 60 or 70 years after the death of Solomon. Thus far the Arguments taken from Astronomy.

& seven degrees in 504 years; count backwards these years from the year of Nabonassar 316 & the summer solstice will fall upon the end of the 15thdegree or middle of Cancer in the 45th year after the death of Solomon & upon the beginning of the 12th degree in the 100th year of Nabonassar which was the 8th years before the birth of Thales, supposing Thales to be born an 1 Olymp 35 as is the common opinion the 24th year of Psammiticus king of Egypt that is eight years after the conquest of Egypt by Psammiticus & as much before the birth of Thales supposing Thales to be born an. 1 Olymp 35 as is the common opinion. Psammiticus was one of the twelve kings of Egypt during the first fifteen years of his reign, then conquered all Egypt by yethe assistance of the Greeks & thereby opened a communication between Egypt & Greece & the solstice was then in the 12t degree of Cancer & the Greeks might then bring from Egypt the opinion that the solstice was in theat 12th degree of Cancer & thereby give occasion to Thales a few years after to examin the matter by observing the solstice himself. For he found it in gone back into the 11th degree of Cancer as above. So then about 45 years after the death of Solomon, that is about Now by determining the time of the Argonautic Expedition, the solstices were in the middle of the signes, where they ought to be at the first formation of yethe signes & making of yethe globe.

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

Thus by three several ways of reconning we have shewed that the Solstices & Equinoxes fell upon the middle of the constellations Cancer, Capricorn, Aries & Chelæ in the times between the Argonautic & about 50 or 60 years after the dea in the times between the Argonautic expedition & Trojan war. The second way is the exactest & most to be depended upon & thence & since it places the solstices upon yethe middle of yethe Signs 60 years after the death of Solomon, that is just before yethe Tr. war I conclude that as Chiron & Musæus formed the globe for Asterisms & the gl celestial delineated them upon the globe for the use of the Argonauts so Palamedes reformed the globe & delineated the stars upon it more exactly for the use of the Greeks in their expedition against Troy, & at that time had that is about 60 years after the death of Solomon placeding the Equinoxes & Solstices, as exactly as he could, placing upon the middle of the signes. Thus far at the Equinoxes & & did it in such a manner that the Equinoxes & Solstices might fall upon yethe middle of yethe Signes cardinal Signes might fall upon the Equinoxes & Solstices.

To these two sorts of arguments taken from the genealogies & reigns of the Greeks & from Astronomy I will now add a third sort taken from the records of the Phœnicians & Iews wh antiquities of Phenicia & Iudea the East where Chronology was much ancienter then in Greece. For Tatian an Assyrian in his book against the Greeks relates that amongst the Phœnicians fourished three ancient historians Theodotus, Hypsicrates & Mochus who all of them delivered in their Histories (translated into Greeck by Lætus) that under one of the kings happened the rapture of Europa, the voyage of Menelaus into Phœnicia & the league & friendship between Solomon & Hiram when Hiram gave his daughter to Solomon & supplied him with timber for building the Temple, & that the same is affirmed by Menander of Pergamus. Vnder one of the kings, that is, within the compass of the age of a man: for so the phrase is used by Isaiah chap. XXIII.15. IospehusAntiq. l. 8. c. 2, 5 & l. 9. c. 14. lets us know that the Annals of the Tyrians from the time of Abibalus & Hiram were translated into Greek extant in his days, & that Menander of Pergamus translated them into Greek, & that Hiram's friendship to Solomon & assistance in building the Temple was mentioned in them. And by the testimony of Menander & the three ancient Phœnician Historians above mentioned, the rapture of Europa happened in the same age with the building of Solomons Temple. Let the authority there-foffore of the Eastern historians who were very ancient & ha copied from the original Annals of their Cities be set against that of the Greek Chronologers who were neither ancient nor had ancient Annals nor agree amongst themselves.

The Trojan war was in the days of Cinyrus king of Byblus & Cyprus & in the days of Belus king of Tyre the father of Pygmaleon & Dido. For when the Greeks were preparing to make war upon Troy Cinyras sent Agamemnon a breast-plate as Homer mentions: & Venus the mistress of Cinyras & of his son Adonis lay with Anchises in her youth & by him had Æneas who warred against the Greeks at Troy & after that war sailed to Italy about the same time that Dido fled from her brother Pigmaleon & built Carthage as Virgil relates. And TeucerMarm. Arundel. Strabo l. 14. p. Pausan. Attic. c. 3. p. 8, & Corinth c 29, p. 178. Anton. Liberal. cap. 39. after the destruction of Troy (the Marble saith seven years after) being barred by his father Telamon from returning home into the Island Salamis sailed to Cyprus & there built a new city wchwhich he called Salamis, & married the daughter of Cinyras, & he & his posterity reigned there till Artaxerxes Mnemon king of Persia took Cyprus from Evagoras the last of that race. AlsoStrabo l. 14. Agapenor the captain of the Arcadians , after the destruction of Troy sailed to Cyprus & built there a new16r a new Paphus & Temple of Venus about sixty furlongs from the old Paphus built by Cinyras. And TheopompusTheopomp. l. 12 apud Photium. tells that the Greeks who followed Agamemnon (meaning Teucer, Agapenor & their companions) seized Cyprus & ejected Cinyras. It seems they did it by the assistance of Belus: for he & his son Pigmaleon reigned over Cyprus or some part thereof & there builtSteph. in Lapetho et Carpasia. the cities Citium, Lapethus & Carpathia, & Virgil introduces Dido speaking thus,

Servius adds: Cyprum subactam Belus concessit Teucro ut in ea collocaret imperium. Belus therefore took Cyprus from Cinyras & there gave seats to the Greeks who assisted him in that conquest. Servius tells us that this Belus was called Methres, & Iosephus calls him Matgenus, & tells us out of the Tyrian Annals that he reigned nine years & that Carthage was built in the seventh year of his son & successor Pigmaleon, & the Temple of Solomon founded in the end of the eleventh & or beginning of the twelft year of Hiram. And setting down the reigns of the several kings of Tyre, he reccons from the reign of Hiram (meaning from his birth) to the building of Tyre 155 years & 8 months. Let the first 19 years of Hirams life wchwhich preceded his reign & the first 11 years of his reign wchwhich preceded the founding of the Temple be deducted, & there will remain 125 years & 8 months from the founding of the Temple to the building of Carthage, as may be also gathered from by summing up the years of the Kings of Tyre. Now the Temple being founded in the fourth year of Solomon in the second month of the year, that is, 36 years & some months before his death, deduct those years & months & Carthage will be founded 89 years after the death of Solomon. Seing therefore that Matgenus began his reign 15 years before the founding of that City & reigned nine years, the coming of Teucer to Cyprus will be not less then 74 years nor more thethen 83 years after the death of Solomon & Troy was taken not above seven years before. Appian in his history of the Punic wars tells us in round numbers that Carthage stood 700 years. SolinusSolin. c. 30 adds the odd number of years in these words. Hadramyto & Carthagini author est a Tyro populus. Carthaginem (ut Cato in Oratione Senatoria autumat) cum rex Hiarbas rerum in Libya potiretur. Elissa mulier extruxit domo Phœnix, et Carthadam dixit, quod Phœnicum ore exprimit civitatem novam; mox sermone verso Carthago dicta est; quæ post annos septingentos triginta septæem exciditur quam fuerat extructa.17r extructa. This history of Carthage Cato & the Romans without doubt had from the Carthaginians whom they conquered. Elissa was the genuine name of Dido. She was often first called Elissa & afterwards by her heroic actions acquired the name of Dido. Carthage was destroyed in the Consulship of Lentulus & Mummius in the year of the Iulian Period 4568, from whence count backwards 737 years complete & the Encænia or Dedication of the City will fall upon the 16th year of Pigmaleon. The foundation of the city was laid in the 7th year of his reign but the Æra thereof began with the Dedication. StraboStrabo l. mentioning the first men who leaving the sea coasts ventured into the deep & undertook long voiages, names Bacchus, Hercules, Iason, Vlysses & Menelaus & that the dominion of Minos over the sea was also celebrated & the navigation of the Phœnicians who went beyond the Pillars of Hercules & built cities there & in the middle of the sea coasts of Afric presently after the war of Troy. It was therefore presently after that war that the Phenicians under the conduct of Dido built Carthage, & other cities on yethe middle of the sea coasts of Afric. Among these cities I reccon Carthage one of the first Dido flying to a region not yet frequented by the Phœnicians that she might lye hid from her brother Pigmaleon. The Tyrians did not grow famous for navigation till after the days of Homer. At that time the Tyrians These Phœnicians were TyriansBochart. lCanaan l. 1. c. 34. & at that time built Gades in the Island of that name without the straits mouth of that straits, & there they built alsoPhilostratus in vita Apollonij l. 5. c. 1. & apud Photiū a Temple to the Tyrian Hercules & adorned it with various sculptures & gifts, as with the sculptures of the twelve labours of Hercules & of his Hydra & the horses to whom he threw Digmedes to be devoured, & there was also In this temple was also the golden belt of Teuces & the golden Olive of Pygmaleon with bearing Smaragdine Bearies fruit. And by these dediconsecrated By these guifts of Teucer & Pygmaleon you may know that this temple was built in their reign. Pomponius derives it from the time of the Trojan war. ‡ Pliny, Solinus & Isidorus tell us &c. 17v‡Pliny, Solinus & Isidorus tell us that Erythia at Gades had its name from the Tyrians who came from the red sea, Erythia dicta est quoniam Tyrij aborigines eorum, orti a rubro mari ferebantur Plin. l. 4. c. 22. In capite Bœticæ insula a continenti septingentis passibus memoratur quam Tyrij a mari rubro profecti Erytheam, Pœni sua lingua Gadir id est sepem nominarunt: Solin cap. 26 Quam Tyrij a rubro mari profecti occupantes in lingua sua Gades id est septum nomina verunt: Isidorus. These Tyrians traded on the red sea in the fleet of Solomon & Hiram but afterwards quitted that sea & came to the mediterranean. For Iehosaphat built ships at Ezion Geber to go to in the reign of Ahazia to go to Tarshish. Ahaziah reigned two years & died about two years before the reign of Pigmaleion & then the Edomites who had ever since the reign of David been governed by a Deputy revolted & set up a king of their own & the the ships were broken & the merchants of Tyre & Iudah drivnen from the red sea. Hitherto Sidon had traded on the Mediterranean & Tyre on the Red sea there being friendship between the Iews & & Tyrians but now And this is the reason why Homer celebrates Sidon for arts & navigation but makes no mention of Tyre. But now the Tyrians being forced from the red sea began to make trade upon the mediterranean & make long voyages going to places not yet possest by the Sidonians & thereby became more famous for navigation then the Sidonians did before, & gave the names of Erythia to Gades & Tartessus or Tarshish to the river Bœtis wchwhich flows into the ocean neare Gades & to the Island & City at the mouth of that river. For this was one of the remotest places they then sailed unto & here the Tyrians at their first coming found very much silver & therefore they looked upon this place as their new Tarshish. AristotelAristot. in libris mirabilium. tells us that the first Phenicians when they sailed to Tartessus purchased so much silver for oyle & other naval trash that the ships could not carry it away & therefore at their departure they made all their utensils of & even their anchors of silver. So then yethe Tyrians came from the red sea to the mediterranean in the beginning of the reign of Pygmalion, or a year or two before, Teucer then reigning in Cyprus.

Manetho tells us that Sethosis whom the Greeks call Ægyptus being strong in the brothers Ægyptus & Danaus were by the Egyptians called Sethosis & Armais & that Sethosis being strong in horses & ships left the government of Egypt to Armais, & invaded Cyprus, Phœnicia & the Assyrians & Medes, subduing all before him: & being lifted up wthwith these successes went on more boldly subverting the eastern cities & provinces & by his being long abroad gave opportunity to Armais to rebel. Whereupon Sethosis returned hastily to Pelusium & recovered his kingdom but not without a great escape. For Armais invite him to a feast, made him drunk & in the night set fire to the house intending to burn him & his wife & as many of his children as were with him. But Sethosis (whom Herodotus & Diodorus in telling this story call Sesostris ) & Sesoosis) escaped & Armais fled to Greece in a long ship of fifty oars carrying with him fifty of his daughters. For it seems during his dominion in Egypt he had married his daughters to the sons of Sethosis & commanded them all to kill their husbands the same night, thinking by this stratagem to destroy Sethosis & his whole family at once & thereby to gain the kingdom to himself. Now Sethosis & Armais or, as the Greeks call them, Ægyptus & Danaus flourished about two generations before the destruction of Troy & one before the Argonautic expedition as I gather by these arguments. 1 When Sesostris returned into Egypt he left a colony of Egyptians at Colchos under the government of Æetes, & Phryxus fled to Ætes married his daughter Chalciope, had four children by her & died before thaet Argonautic expedition18r expedition, but Ætes survived that Expedition & his daughter Medea married was then in her prime & married Iason. 2 The ship Argo was the first long ship built by the Greeks & they built it after the pattern of the long ship in wchwhich Danaus & his Daughters came into Greece, Argus the son of Danaus being the master-builder. It had fifty oars like that of Danaus, & before it was built the Greeks sailed in round vessels built invented in the red sea by king Erythra. It was built therefore a little after the coming of Danaus into Greece while his ship was still in being. 3 Archander & Archilites married two of the daughters of Danaus & were the sons of Achæus (a king of Thessaly, from whom the Greeks were called Achivi) & Achæus was the son of Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus king of Athens. And therefore the daughters of Danaus were three generations younger then Erechtheus & by consequence contemporary to Theseus the son of Ægeus the son of Pandion the son of Erechtheus, & Theseus flourished from the days of Minos the son of Europa till after the Argonautic expedition. 4 Vpon the comeing of Danaus into Greece his daughter Amymone being sent to find out water was got with child in the feilds & bare Nauplius who married Clymene grand-daughter of Minos, & by her had Palamedes. Now Nauplius was one of the Argonauts & lived till after the destruction of Troy without being decrepid with old age. For the Greeks having injuriously slain his son Palamedes at Troy, when they had taken that city & were returning home, he in revenge drew their fleet upon rocks by making a fire upon the high rock Caphareus in Eubœa where he was king, & slew those who were ship-wrackt & escaped to the shoar. At the time of the Argonautic expedition he was therefore a young man as were almost all the Argonauts, suppose of about 20 or 30 years of age, & therefore Danaus came into Greece a little above 20 years before that Expedition. So also Orpheus one of the Argonauts was born just after the return of Sesostris into Egypt as will appear hereafter. 5 When Sesostris returend back into Egypt he carried with him a great number of captives amongst whom was Tithonus a beutiful young man the son of Laomedon king of Troy. For Tithonus went into Ethiopia above Egypt (for so the Greeks call Thebais) & spent warred there, that is, in the army of the Egyptians & spent the rest of his life among them there & at Susa with Memnon who by the universal consent of the Greeks was reigned over Egypt & Persia in the time of the Trojan war, & was born af a little after the expedition of Sesostris & captivity of Tithonus, the Greeks feigning that Tithonus was his father. Priam was the younger brother of Tithonus, but became decrepid with old age before the taking of Troy. The expedition of Sesostris was therefore in the reign of Laomedon when his sons Tithonus & Priam were children & Memnon, Nauplius & Orpheus were not yet born. And from all these arguments I conclude that this expedition er was about 60 or 65 70 years before the taking of Troy & 20 or 30 years before the Argonautic expedition & by consequence in the reign of Rehoboam the son of Solomon, & therefore it was the same expedition with that of Sesak. For Sesak2 Chron. 12. came out of Egypt with twelve hundred chariots & sixty thousand foor horsmen & foot without number and19r and took the fenced cities of Iudah, & God said the Princes of Israel shall be his servants that they may know my servitude (that is the servitude of my people) & the servitude תוכלממ תוצראה of the kingdoms of the earth. And his army consisted of Libyans Troglodytes & Ethiopians: wchwhich shews that the kings of Egypt had Egyptians conquered those nations before. And in like manner Diodorus SesostrisDiodor. l Herod. l. 2 had a very great army in chariots, horse & foot & having first conquered Arabia [Troglodytica] & Libya & Ethiopia & then invaded Iudea & the nations eastward & northward as far as India Colchos & Thrace. Sesostris & Sesak therefore at the same time reigned over the same dominions & with like forces made the same new conquests & therefore were one & the same king. He whom the Egyptians called Sethos or Sethosis & the Greeks Sesoosis ,& Sesostris Sesonchis & Sesonchosis the Iews called Sesak. For IosephusAntiq. l. 8. c. 4. affirms that Herodotus ascribes to Sesostris the actions of Sesak mentioning his expedition against Ierusalem & conquest of Palestine & erring only in the name of the king. Which is all one as to say that Sesak was that conqueror whom Herodotus calls Sesostris. The old Scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius, out of Dicæarchus,Schol. Apol. Argonaut l. 4. v 272. calls him Sesonchosis, saying that Sesonchosis who was king of all Egypt & reigned after Orus the son of Osiris & Isis, conquered all Asia & a great part of Europe, & erected pillars of his conquests, and made laws & found out horsmanship & left a colony at Æa wthwith laws writ in Tables & with Geographical Tables of his Conquests by land & Sea & that Theopompus calls him Sesostris. Now Sesonchosis or as others call him, Sesonchis, & is the same name with Sesak, much after the manner that Memphis is the same name with Moph,. or that the Susanchites (Ezra 4) are the people of Susa or Shushan called Ses Sheshach by Ieremiah chap. 25 & 51 Now Sesak came out of Egypt in the fift year of Rehoboam to Invade Iudea & the nations & spent nine years in the expedition & therefore it was in the fourteenth year of Rehoboam that he returned back into Egypt & that Danaus fled from Egypt with his fifty daughters: & the Argonautic expedition was a little above twenty years after.

As Sesak in the 5t year of Rehoboam invaded Iudea with a great army of Ethiopians Libyans & Troglodites so Zerah in the 15th year of Asa invaded Iudea with another great army of Ethiopians & Libyans, but with a very different success. For Zezak was routed so that he could not recover himself. The way of the Libyans into Iudah was through Egypt & therefore Zezak reigned over Egypt as well as over Ethiopia & Libya, & the Monarchy of Egypt after the death of the Coptites Sesostris was translated from the Coptites to the Ethiopians. for Zerah was an Ethiopian & so was his successor Memnon, & Pliny tells us, Ægyptiorum bellis attrita est Ethiopia vicissim imperitando serviendoque clara et potens etiam20r etiam usque ad Trojana bella Memnone regnante. Æthiopia served Ægypt in the reign of Sesostris & no longer, for Herodotus tells us that he alone enjoyed the Empire of Ethiopia. After his death his captains like those of Alexander the great) fell into civil wars & the Ethiopians gained the dominion over Egypt & Libya & then invaded Iudea under the conduct of Zerah. And by the translation of the Monarchy to the Ethiopians & the revolt & victory of Asa the dominion of Egypt was sore shaken & the remoter nations had a fair occasion to assert their liberty from that Monarchy for the victory of Asa was such that the Ethiopians could not recover themselves.2 Chron. 14.13 which advantage the Greeks neglected not to improve. For at that time they built the ship Argo, & sent in it an Embassy of the flower of all Greece to the several nations. Such a general Embassy could scarce be sent without the consent of the Amphictyonic Councel. The golden fleece at Colchos was pretended for a blind, but their business was with other nations besides Colchos. ForStrabo l. 1. p. 48 they went through the kingdom of Colchos to the Armenians & through Armenia to the Medes: wchwhich could not have been done if they had not made peace friendship wthwith the nations through which they passed. They visited also Laomedon king of the Trojans Phineus king of the Thracians, Cizicus king of the Doleans Lycus king of the Mariandini & the coasts of Mysia & Taurica ChersonesusApollon. Argon. l. 4. & the nations upon the river Tanais & the people about Byzantium, & the coasts of Epire Corcyra Melita Italy Sicily & Corcyra Sardinia & Gallia in the Mediterranean & from thence they crossed the sea to Afric & there conferred with Eurypylus king of CyrenePindar. Ode Pyth. Ode 4. And StraboStrabo l. 1, p. 21, 45, 46. tells us that in Armenia & Media & the neighbouring places there were frequent & very monuments of the expedition of Iason, & about Sinope & its sea coasts & Propontis & the Hellespont & in the Mediterranean there were left many marks of the expeditions of Iason & Phrixus & of the navy of Colchos following Iason as far as Crete & Italy & Asia in quest of Medea. Vpon what occasion the Greeks should send an Embassy of the Princes of Greece to so many nations then subject to Egypt is unconceivable unless it were to perswade them to take yethe present occasion of revolting & asserting their liberty against the Ethiopians as the Iews had newly done & entring into friendship with the valiant Greeks who had maintained their liberty against Sesostris himself by force of arms. Now the news of the revolt & victory of Asa might be brought to Greece by the Merchants of Phœnicia before the end of the year. Let the next year be allowed for building the ship Argo & assembling the flower of Greece, & the Argonautic expedition will ensue in the year following, that is in the 17th year of Asa, & 37th after Solomon's death.

37th after Solomons death Hyram & Minos Theseus was fifty years old when he & Perithous stole Helena & presently after went to steale the daughter of the K Aidoneus king of the Molossi. In wchwhich this last expedition Perithous was slain by the kings dog & Theseus was made prisoner. And Now Appolonus tells us that Theseus was prisoner there when Iason assembled the Argonauts & therefore Theseus was therefore about 13 years old at the death of Solomon. Hellena was seven years old or as some as some say ten when she was stole by Theseus & & about 15 years older when she was was stole by Paris & she arrived at Troy twenty years before the destruction of that city as Homer tells us. So that Troy was destroyed about 35 years after yethe Argonautic expedition & & by consequence 72 years after yethe death of Solomon or perhaps a year or two later, ✝✝ And if Teucer arrived at Cyprus seven years after the destruction of ytthat city & 79 or 80 years after the death of Solomon that is in the 6t year of Matgenus the that is as the Marble represents, he arrived there in yethe sixt year of Matgenus the father of Pigmaleon & Dido: Which agrees sufficiently wthwith the Chronology of Virgil. After yethe destruction of Troy

When Paris stole Helena Menelaus her husband was absent in Crete &c – – – & that hHellena may not be too young to be their sister nor too old to be stole by Paris, let us suppose she may be supposed about 22 or 24 years old when Paris stole her or about 15 years older then when Theseus stole her as above we have recconed her about 15 years older when she was stolen by Paris then when she was stole by Theseus may we have recconed her stole by Paris about 15 years after the about 15 years after the Argonautic expedition, & by con that is, when she was about 22 or 25 years old.

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

The games instituted by Minos

death of Solomon Atre Eurystheus was succeeded by Atreus & Atreus by Thyestes & Thyestes by Agamemnon according to Homer, & if Troy was taken in the 15th year of Agamemnon, as Chronologers reccon, Thyestes will have reigned 5 years & between this victory & the death of Atreus happened the death of Hillus, stole stole Helena & Menelaus sailed in quest of her to Sidon Atreus succeeded first Pelops in the kingdom of Elis & then Eurystheus in the kingdom of Mycene & was succeded by Thyestes & Thyestes by Agamemnon according to Homerιλ. β. v. 105, & Troy was taken in the 198th year of Agamemnon as "" Clemens Strom. 1 p. 321 Tatian Chronologers reccon, so that Thyestes reigned 2 years. Castor & Pollux Agamemon was therefore three generations or about 80 years older then younger then Pelops being the son of Plisthenes the son of Atreus the son of Pelops & therefore if Agamemnon may be supposed about 28 or 30 years old at the death of Atreus & stealing of Helena by Paris, Pelaps will be born about 12 years before the death of David. Castor & Pollux succeeded their father Tyndareus in the kingdom of Sparta & were succeeded in it by Menelaus. They were Argonauts & that Helena may not be too young to be their sister nor too old to be stole by Paris, let us suppose that when he stole her she was about 25 years old. For she was then fifteen years older according to ClemensClem. Strom. 1. p. 336. then when Theseus stole her. And since Theseus stole her when she was ten & he fifty years old he will be was born about nine years before the death of Solomon we have recconed her stole by Paris about 15 years after the Argonautic Expedition, that is, when she was about 22 or 25 years old , & Pelops was born about the 10th year of David: not much sooner later because he was the father of Pittheus the father of ‡

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

Cnossos, a great city where Minos reigned the auditor of the great Iupiter every nine years. And Strabo: Minos descended every ninth year into the cave of Iupiter as Plato relates & received precepts from him & delivered them to men. By recconing from the eighth year to the next eighth year inclusively they made this named this a period of nine years. By this Octaeteris the Greeks in the first ages celebrated the Pythea & divers other festivals. They seem to have received it from the Phenicians & in the beginning to have used the same Octaeteris in all Greece & Italy & the Islands adjacent. And therefore if the – Athenæan games & those of Minos were celebrated upon the first year of Minos as is the Octaeteris as is most probable, the expedition of Theseus will be 24 years after the death of Androgeus. The Athenians paid theis tribute of Children theree24r three times & in the third payment Theseus the victory of Theseus & soon after the death of Minos put an end to this tribute. Now supposeing that Androgeus & the children wchwhich were paid for him by way of recompence, were of about the same age, for I know no other reason why this tribute should be in beardless youths, & since Androgeus & Theseus at this age were victors suppose that they were about 20 years of age, & the expedition & victory of Theseus will have happened about 10 7 or 11 8 years after the death of Solomon & the birth of Androgeus 24 years before that of Theseus, that is about the 6th3d or 77th year of Solomon's reign & by consequence the birth of Minos about the middle of Davids reign . or within three of four years after

The games instituted by Minos were said to be performed in a Labyrinth built by Dædalus, & as Androgeus perished after his victory so Theseus after his victory was to perish in the Labyrinth unless he could find the way out & escape. But Ariadne the daughter of Minos seing the performance of Theseus in those games fell in love with him & by yethe contrivance of Dædalus helped him out of the Labyrinth & escaped with him out of Crete, & in their way to Athens they landed in the Island Dia or Naxus & there met with the forces of Bacchus who being stronger at Sea then Theseus took Ariadne from him There Glaucus the son of Neptune lay with her & There Glaucus the son of Neptune aa Euanthes apud Athenæum l. 7. p. 296. lay with her (as Euanthes writes) & Bacchus afterwards had children by her, two of wchwhich called Phlias & Eumedon were Argonauts. If in the Argonautic expedition the elder of them may be supposed about 258 years old (for the Argonauts were young men) his birth will fall upon the 129th year of Rehoboam & thus Ariadne might be carried away by Bacchus about yethe 110th or 118th year of Rehobeam as above. This Bacchus was not the son of Semele but another Bacchus whoPausan. l. 10. c.29 was potent at sea & led an army as far as India & past his army over Euphrates at Zeugma by a bridge tyed with vine & ivy branches &Pausan. l. 1. c. 20. & l. 2. c. 23. came over the Hellespont, slew Lycurgus king of yethe Thracians & Pentheus led his army to the grandson of Cadmus subdued Thrace, led his army to Argos & fought with Perseus who slew many of his Mænades or Amazons, & after this war was composed the Greeks did him great honour, & built a Temple to him at Argos called the Cresian Temple of the Crestian Bacchus because Ariadne was buried in it, as Pausanius relates. This Bacchus & Sesostris were both of them kings of all Egypt, both reigned at the same time, both were very potent by sea & led an army eastward as far as India & westward into Thrace & Greece & in memory of their conquests set up pillars with inscriptions in divers places, & agreeing in all these things they must be one & the same king & by consequence the rapture of Ariadne happened at that time when Sesostris invaded the Islands of the Cyclades, that is between the 5t & 14th year of Rehoboam, so that yethe error cannot be great in placing it on the 110th or 118th year of that king 25r king as above. This Bacchus gave the kingdom of Lycurgus to Tharops & one of his minstrills called Calliope he gave to Oeagrus the son of Tharops & of Oeagrus & Calliope was born Orpheus who sailed wthwith the Argonauts in his youth.

Plutarchaa in Theseo. tells us that the people of Naxus, contrary to what others write, pretended that there were two Minoses & two Ariadnes & that the first Ariadne married Bacchus & the latter was carried away by Theseus. It seems Chronologers make the great Bacchus who married Ariadne to be about two generations older then Theseus & to make out this opinion they were split Minos & Ariadne into two. But we have shewed that the rapture of Ariadne by Bacchus was not above one generation before the Argonautic expedition Theseus being then a young man & therefore there was but one Ariadne & one Minos. Homer, Hesiod, Thucydides, Herodotus, Strabo & several others knew of but one Minos, & Homerc. λIl. ν & ξ. Odys. λ & τ. describes him to be the son of Iupiter & Europa & the brother of Rhadamanthus & Sarpedon & the father of Deucalion the Argonaut & grandfather of Idomoneus who warred at Troy, & that he was the Legislator of Crete & judge of Hell. HerodotusHerod. l. 1 makes Minos & Rhadamanthus the sons of Europa contemporary to Ægeus. And Apollodorus & HyginusApollod. l. 3. c. 1. Hygin. Fab. 40, 41, 42, 178. say that Minus the father of Androgeus Ariadne & Phædra was the son of Iupiter & Europa & brother of Rhadamathus & Sarpedon. The rapture of Europa & voiage of Cadmus in quest of her, happened therefore just before the birth of this Minos suppose about the middle of Davids reign or within four or five years before.

Athamas king of a region in Bœotia married Ino the daughter of Cadmus & soon after put her away & married Nephele by whom he had Phryxus & Helle & Nephele dying he took Ino again. And she treated Phryxus & Helle so injuriously that they fled from Greece by Sea & Phryxus escaped to Colchos, married Calchiope the daughter of Æetes the king & by her had Argus & three other children & died before the Argonautic expedition. And therefore Ino lived till the reign of Æetes, that is till after the expedition of Sesostris, who left Æetes wthwith a colony of Egyptians at Colchos. At the flight of Phryxus she was scarce above sixty years of age, for Athamas buried her & married a third wife. Subduct those 560 years from the 15th year of Rehoboam, the year after the end of the expedition of Sesostris, & the birth of Ino will be after the 34th year of David's rei & therefore Cadmus continued to get children till towards the end of David's reign, & so was of about the same age wthwith David or perh rather 4 or 5 years but a little younger

Theras the Tutor of Eurysthenes & Procles, was the son of Autesion, the son of Tisamenes, the son of Thersander, the26r the son of Polynices the son of Oedipus the son of Laius the son of Labdacus the son of Polydorus the son of Cadmus.Thersander was slain in the Trojan war & Polynices & his brother Eteocles slew one another in the war of the seven captains against Thebes about ten or twelve years after the Argonautic Expedition. From this war to the return of the Heraclides were about 104 years, wchwhich distributed among the four generations from from Polynices to Theras make about 26 year to a generation. To the four preceding generations from Polydorus to Polynices allow another 104 years & the recconing will end upon the 243th year of Davids reign: at wchwhich time therefore Polydorus should be of about the same age with Polynices in the war of the seven captains & of Theras inat the return of the Heraclides suppose about 3or 30 years of age. And therefore he was born in Phenicia & came with his father Cadmus into Greece & Labdacus was born about the middle of Davids reign & Laius about the sfixft year of Solomon's & Œdipus about the 31th years after the death of Solomon of that king.. And if Cadmus may be supposed about 25 years older then his eldest son Polydorus, he will be of about the same age with David as above. The history of the family of Cadmus is as follows. Polydorus the son of Cadmus 

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

HerodotusHerod. l. 5. tells us that the Phenicians who came with Cadmus brought many doctrines into Greece, and StraboStrabo l. 10. p. 475 that the Idæi Dactyli who found iron invented many other things usefull to life & for their skill & knowledge were accounted conjurers. And Clemens Alexandrinus Clem. Strom. 1. that some of the Idæi Dactyli were reputed to be the first wise men to whom both the letters which they call Ephesian & the invention of musical rhimes is referred, for wchwhich reason they are called Dactyli by musicians. Clemens calls them barbarians & says they were Phrygians, but by their bringing letters into Crete you may know that they were originaly Phenicians & came into Crete about the same time that Cadmus brought letters into Greece, touching perhaps upon the coast of Phrygia in their way thither, & by the calling of those letters Ephesian may be gathered that other Phenicians taught the like letters at Ephesus. And what is here said of their bringing in music & rihimes is confirmed by other authors. Studium musicum inde cæptum cum Idæi Dactyli modulos crepitu & tinnitu æris deprehensos in versificum ordinem transtulissent: Solinus Polyhist. c. 11. Studium musicum ab Idæis Dactylis cæptum: Origen. l. 14. c. 6. By Davids skill on the harp it appears that the playing on that instrument was in good perfection in Palestine in the days of Saul42r Saul, & thence it came to pass that soon after the coming of the Phœnicians into Europe, Amphion a Theban of the family of Cadmus grew famous for his skill on the harp & was the first among the Greeks who is celebrated for playing on that instrument. The Idæi Dactyli also instituted Olympic games every fourth year in Crete in honour of their Hercules & were the first who instituted such games in Europe & they seem to have done it after the example of the like games in Tyre 2 Maccab. 4. Whence I learn that they brought in also the Tetraeteris or Cycle of four Luni-solar years. And since Minos their disciple used the Octaeteris as above, they are also to be accounted the authours of that cycle. These Idæi Dactyli taught the worship of Iove in Crete, pre representing that Saturn would have devoured him but in his stead by mistake was presented with a stone in clouts & finding in his likeness & when Saturn found himself deceived he sought every where for Iupiter & that the Curety Curetes danced about him danced in armour with drumms & cymbals to preserve him from his father. The fable seems taken from the history of Saul & David the two first kings (or Saturn & Iupiter) of Israel, & applied to Asterius & Minos the two first kings of Crete. When Saul would have slain his new son-in-law David, & for that end sent for him in bed, his wife Michal dressed an image in cloaths & laid it in the bed in the room of David & let David escape, & then Saul finding himself deceived sought for David in all places but David was preserved in caves & secret places by an armed multitude so that Saul could not find him & at length took the kingdom from the house of Saul The stone wchwhich Saturn devoured is by Authors called a Bætylus or Beth-el, wchwhich name is Hebrew & signifies a house of God. The Syrians first worshipped their Gods in rude stones then shaped the stones square or round & at length (as art improved) carved them into the images of men & supposed these stones inhabited by their Gods. Damascius tells us that on the top of mount Libanus he saw many Bætyls in a round form. And by these circumstances you may know that the story of Saturns devouring a Bætyl had it rise in Phenicia & so might well relate to David who was then the king Lord of almost all Phœnicia & the greatest king in Asia as Minos was soon after the greatest king in Erurope.

of musical rhimes is referred. It seems that when the Phenician letters ascribed to Cadmus were brought into Greece, they were at the same time brought also into Phrygia & Crete by the Curetes who setled in those countries, & called Ephesian from the city Ephesus where they were first taught. For the CuretesStrabo l. 10. p. 4. 468, 472, 473. Diodor. l. 5. c. 4. & particularly the Idæi Dactyli who found out iron invented many other things usefull to life & for their skill & knowledge & mystical actions were accounted wise men & conjurers. In Phrygia their mysteries were about Rhea called also Cybele & magna mMater: in Crete they were about her son Iupiter. They representedStrabo l. 10 p. 468, 472. Diodor. l. 5. c. 4. Lucian. de sacrificijs. Apollodor. l. 1. c. 1. sect. 3 & c. 2 sect. 1. that when Iupiter whas born in Crete, his mother Rhea caused him to be educated in a cave in mont mount Ida under their care & tuition & that they danced about him in armour wthwith a great noise that his father Saturn might no heare him cry, & when he was grown up assisted him in conquering his father Saturn & in memory of these things instituted their mysteries.

And hence I conclude the Iupiter of the Idæi Dactyli was Minos., & that the Rhea of the Phrygians was his mother Europa. For the Idæi Dactyli came into Crete with Europa & the brother Atymnus a little before Minos was born, attended on him all his life, went with him into Sicily & were left there at his death. Asterius & Minos were the two first kings of all Crete mentioned in history & on that account the Saturn & Iupiter of the kingdom. Minos was the most potent & famous of all the kings of Crete & so deserves the name of the Cretan Iupiter above them all. He was the greatest warrior & most potent of all the kings of Greece in that age & the first who gained the dominion of the seas & therefore deserves above them all to be painte wthwith a scepter in one hand & a thunderbolt in the other. He was the law-maker of Crete & was so famous for justice as to be accounted the judge of hell & hence justice became the character of Iupiter. Europa being a Phenician would be apt to commit the care of her child to her countrimen the Curetes, & by their instruction he became so wise & just. Mount Ida was excavated by art with many walks & intricate passages wchwhich they called the Labyrinth, & there they might secure & educate the child. There they might dig minerals & make armour & after Minos was grown up they might by the help of this armour overcome the native Cretans, expell Asterius & set Minos on the throne & then celebrate these actions by dancing in armour at the sacrifices. He was buried in the same cave where he was educated: forPorphyr. in vita Pythag. Pythagoras went down into the Idæan cave to see his sepulchre. Whence LucianLucian. in sacrificijs. tells us that the Cretans do not only relate that Iupiter was born & build among them but also shew his sepulchre. And CiceroCic. de Nat. Deor. l. 3 in numbering three Iupiters, saith that the third was the44r the third was the Cretan Iupiter Saturn's son whose sepulchre was shown in Crete, & the Scholiast upon CallimachusOde 1 in Iovv. 8 lets us know that this was the sepulchre of Minos. By Saturn Cicero who was a Latine, understands the Saturn of the Latines: for when Saturn was expelled his kingdom he fled from Crete by sea into Italy. And because he lay hid in Italy the Latines gave him the name of Saturn & called his kingdom Italy Saturnia & Latium & themselves Latines. Antrum Iovis in Creta visitur & sepulchum ejus ostenditur & ab eo Saturnum fugatum esse manifestum est, inde Latium de latebra ejus nomen accepit. Hic literas imprimen et signare numeris in Italia primus instituit. Cyprian. de Idolor. varietate

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

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

ApolloniusApollon. Argonaut. l. 2. v. 1237. tells us that Chiron was begot of Phylira by Saturn in the golden age when Iupiter was educated by among the Idæi Dactyli, & thatApollon ib. Talus who was educatehe son of Minos & guarded the island Crete in armour of copper, was the last man of the brazen age & died when the Argonauts in returning home arrived at that island. These three ages therefore had a particular respect to the kingdom of Crete in the days of Asterius, Minos, & the sons of Minos & by consequence the fourth age was the age in wchwhich the grandsons of Minos flourished: for HesiodHesiod. Ἔργων v. 160 tells us expresly that the fourth age ended with the warrs of at Thebes & Troy.

HesiodHesiod ib. v. 108. describes these four ages to be four generations of men every one of wchwhich ended when the men of the generation dropt into the earth & were deified & a new generation arose, & saith that he himself lived in the fift age wchwhich should be destroyed by Iupiter when the men of that age should grow hoary headed; & describing every age to be worse then the former he translates the name of the iron age from the fourth to45r to his own as being the worst of the five. And since Chiron was born in the golden age & lived till the Argonautic expedition or a little longer, the silver age & copper age could not exceed the length of ordinary generations. From The golden age began with the coming of the coming of Europa & the Curetes into Crete to the destr in the reign of Asterius, or with the beginning of his reign over all Crete. From thence to the destruction of Troy was about 134 years, wchwhich being divided into four equal ages allows about 33 or 34 years to an age or an hundred years to three ages, & of this length were the two first ages together, extending to the death of Minos; the third age extending from the death of Minos to the end of the Argonautic expedition; & the fourth age extending from thence to the taking of Troy.

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

The people of ElisPausan. l. 5. c. 7. in giving an account if their own originals, say that Saturn reigned first in the kingdom of heaven, & that the men who were called the golden age built a temple to him in Olympia, & that his wife Rhea when Iupiter was born committed the custody of the child to the Idæi Dactyli otherwise called Curetes, & that five of these Idæi Dactyli (whose names were Hercules, Pœonius, Epimedes, Iasius & Idas) coming afterwards from Ida a mountain in Crete into Elis, there instituted the game of racing once in four years, wchwhich was the original of the Olympic games. The Iupiter therefore who reigned in the silver age was certainly the Iupiter of the Idæi Dactyli, & the Parable of the reign of Saturn & Iupiter in the golden & silver ages was brought by them into Greece, & being formed by them commenced with their first coming into Crete.

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

Lelex was aa Pausan. l. 1. c. 39, 44. an Egyptian, and his son Myles bb Pausan. l.. 3. c. 20. first of any men set up a hand mill in Greece in a place thence called the Q Alesias that is the Quern or Mill, & taught his people how to grind corn. Myles was cc Pausan. l. 3. c. 1. the father or brother of Eurotas the father of Sparte the mother of Eurydice the wife of Acrisius & mother of Danae, & therefore Myles was two or three generations older then Acrisius, recconing four such generations to an hundred years because they were by the elder sons &or by daughters . Now when the Egyptians under Sesostris invaded Greece, that is, about the 12t or 14th year of Rehoboam, Acrisius collected the Amphyictyonic councel against them & made his grandson Perseus captain of the forces of Greece as shall be shewed hereafter. And therefore Acrisius was at that time an old man, & so was Myles three generations or 75 years before, that is in the middle of the reign of David if he lived so long, & so also was Lelex one generation earlier or about the middle of the reign of Saul if he lived so long. And therefore Lelex was contemporary to Samuel & came into Greece in his days & Miles set up Mills for grinding of corn in the reign of Saul or at least before the middle of Davids reign.

ErechtheusApollodor. l. 3. c. 14 had several sons Cecrops, Pandion, Eupalamus Metion, Thespis, Orneus, & daughters Orithyia, Procris & Creusa. XuthusPausan. l. 7. c. 1. & l. 1. c. 31, 38 upon the death of his father Hellen a king in Thessaly, being expelled Thessaly by his elder brothers Æolus & Dorus, fled to Athens & married two sons Creusa, by whom he had two sons Achæus & Ion. Ion married Helice the daughter of Selinus king of Ægialus & succeeded Selinus in the kingdom. Achæus by the help of the Athenians & Ægialeans recovered his fathers kingdom in Thessaly & his sons Archander & Archilites married two of the daughters of Danaus. In a warP between the Athenians & Eleusinians the Athenians made Ion their captain & in that war Erechtheus was slain. Vpon his death his sons falling out 49r out about their fathers kingdom, Xuthus adjudged it to Cecrops the eldest son, & thereupon Cecrops after he had by the assistance of Ion reigned a while, was expelled the kingdom by his brothers & Pandion succeeded. He was aa Pausan. l. 1. c. 5 the father of Ægeus the father of Theseus who in the time of the Argonautic expedition was about 45 years old. Eupalamus was the father of Metion Metion (or Eumetion) bb Apollodor. l. 3. c. 14. Pausan. l. 7. c. 4. & l. 9. c. 3. & l. 10. c. 17. was the father of Eupalamus the father of Dædalus who flourished in the reign of Oedipus & built the Labyrinth in Crete when Theseus was a child. Thespis had 50 daughters cc Diodor. l. 4. Pausan in Bœote l. 9. c. 27 who lay with Hercules in his youth. Orneus dd Pausan. l. 2. p. 168. c. 25. was the father of Peteus the father of Menestheus who warred at Troy. Orithyia by Boreas ee Orphei Argonaut v. 216. Hygin. Fab. XIV. had Calaus & Zete e who were in the Argonautic expedition. & Procris she lay ff Apollodor. l. 3. c. 14. with Minos king of Crete. By From all which compared together I conclude that Erechtheus was almost three generations (or an hundre years) (or an hundred years) older then the Argonauts & about half a generation younger then Cadmus recconing three generations to an hundred years & therefore flourished in the latter half of Davids reign. Now gg Diodor. l. 1. c. 17 Erechtheus in a time of famin procured a great quantity of corn from Egypt & for this benefaction the people of Athens made him their king: & therefore the trafic of carrying corn from Egypt to Greece began before his reign & by consequence in or a little before the reign of Cadmus.

When the Phenicians brought corn from Egypt into Greece they would be apt to bring weomen out of Egypt to instruct & assist the Greeks in the making of bread for promoting the merchandizse of the corn, especially when they brought a great quantity of corn out of Egypt for the making of bread Erechtheus. ForDiodor. l. 1. p. 17 at that time Ceres is said to have come to Athens. She pretended to come in quest of her daughter who perhaps had been carried away by Merchants, & under that pretense travelled from Athens to Eleusis, & being there enterteined by the daughters of Celeus king of Eleusis nurst up & instructed his young son Triptolemus and taught him how to sow corn. He sowed it in Eleusine in a field called Rharia from Rharus the father of Celeus & as the corn increased he dispersed it over the cities of Greece. AfterwardsDiodor. l. 3. p. 138 B Bacchus coming into Greece taught them how to till the ground with Oxen, for at first they tilled it with their hand-labour.

CeresHomer Odys. 5. Diodor. l. 5. p. 237. lay with Iasion the brother of Harmonia the wife of Cadmus, & Triptolemus lived till Osiris or Sesostris came into Greece: & therefore Ceres came into Greece in the days of Cadmus & taught the sowing of corn in the latter part of David's reign. After her death Celeus50r Celeus Eumolpus & othersDiodor. l. 1. p. 17 in memory of these things instituted the Eleusinia sacra with ceremonies brought from Egypt. And soon after was the war between the Athenians & Eleusians in which Erechtheus on one side & Immaradus the son of Eumolpus on the other side were slain. This war therefor putting an end to the reign of Erechtheus, seems to have been about the middle of Solomons reign, for Erechtheus reigned long. Then reigned his sons Cecrops & Pandion in the days of Solomon & Ægeus in the days of Rehoboam. Pandion had war with Labdacus the grandson of Cadmus.

ArcasPausan. l. 8. c. 4 the son of Callisto the daughter of Lycaon the son of Pelasgus received corn from Triptolemus & taught his people to sow & make bread of it, & therefore Arcas may be recconed contemporary to Solomon or Rehoboam & Pelasgus to Samuel & Saul. TriptolemusPausan. l. 7. c. 18. also conveyed corn to taught agriculture to to Eumelus the first king of Achaia., & taught him & his son Agriculture & how to build a city, & Eumolus named the city Aroas from yethe tillage of the earth

In the reign of CarPausan. l. 1. c. 39, 40. the son of Phoroneus Temples were first erected to Ceres in Megara & Car erected a Temple to her there, & therefore Car was contemporary to Solomon & Phoroneus to David as above.

Erechtheus wasPausan. l .1. c. 5. Hygin. Fab. 48. the son of Pandion the son of Erichthonius & I take Erichthonius to be an Egyptian. For he first of any man taught the Greeks to draw a chariot with horses: wchwhich invention came from Libya & Egypt. And as Cecrops to denote him a foreigner of unknown parents was called ἀυτόχθων the son of the earth, & to signify that he was of two nations & languages the Egyptian & the Greek, was represented a man above & a serpent below, so was Erechthonius. The Greeks, derived not knowing his parents derived him from foreigners Vulcan & Minerva by a miraculous birth of yethe earth, & the Egyptians recconed his grandson Erechtheusbb Diodor. l. 1. p. 17 to be an Egyptian by his family. Now Erechthonius being two generations, older or about 50 or 60 years, older then Erechtheus may be recconed contemporary to Samuel & Saul: but I do not take him or his son Pandion to have been king of Athens. Erechtheus seems to have been the first of the family who reigned there was king of that City: for he was elected king for procuring a great quantity of corn from Egypt in a famin as above, & then he changed the name of the people from Cranaans to Athenians.Herod. l. 8 Vnder Cecrops they were called Cecropians, under Cranaus Cranaans, under Erechtheus Athenians & under Cecrops II & Ion Ionians.Conon Narrat. 27. Every new king in those days giving a new name to the people. And therefore I reccon not Erechtheusonius but Erechthoeus nius to have been the successor of Amphictyon: or if you please of Cranaus. For Amphictyon was not so old, the Amphictyonic cCouncil not being instituted till the reign of Theseus Cranaus the predecessor of Amphictyon was the father of Rharus the father of Celeus & therefore scarce two generations older then Erechtheus. And if Cecrops was of about the same age with Cranaus be recconed about 10 or 20 years older then Cranaus his successor Cranaus or he51r or but a little older, he will be contemporary to Samuel. & Saul.

So then Cecrops, Erechthonius & Lelex were contemporary to Samuel & in his reign led colonies from Egypt into Greece. Its probable that when the Theban army under Misphragmuthosis invaded & subdued the lower Egypt & a great body of the shepherds retired to Abaris & were there shup up, others (amongst whom were Cecrops Erechthonius & Lelex & perhaps Pelasgus) escaped out of the Canobic ostium of the Nile in such vessels as they could meet with upon that river & fled to Libya Phenicia, Cyprus, Asia minor & Greece. For the Athenians were recconed a colony of Egyptians coming from Sais a Province of Egypt upon the Canobic ostium of the Nile. These lived for a while without commerce with Phenicia & Egypt & only endeavoured to reduce the Greeks from a salavage way of live, but in the next generation a trade was opened between Greece & Phœnicia whereby the Greeks began to be supplied with corn & other merchandise from Phenicia & Egypt. And then the Phenicians being pressed by the wars of David sent out new colonies, Cadmus led a colony into Bœotia, & aa Diodor. l. 5. p. 227. left another in Rhodes, & bb Pausan. l. 5. c. 25. Conon Narrat. 237. Steph. in Θάσσος. Herod l. 2. Apollodor. l. 3. c. 1. another under his brother Thasus in the Island Thasus nerare Thrace & his companion cc Conon Narrat. 32 Proteus letd another into Bisaltia in Thrace & Cilix at the same time dd Apollodor. l. 3. c. 1. led another into Cilicia & Membliarus ee Steph. in Θήρα. another into yethe Island Thera neare Crete

Cecrops is therefore justly recconed one of the first Egyptians who led colonies into Greece. He joyned one man & one woman & aa Euseb. Præp. l. 10. c. 9. first called Iupiter God & set up an altar at Athens & after him came the whole genealogy of the Gods of Greece. He was the first that civilized the people of Attica & gathered them into cities, Phoroneus the first that built cities about Argos, Polycaon the son of Lelex the first that built cities in Messene & Lycaon the son of Pelasgus the first that built cities in Arcadia. Their fathers Inachus Lelex & Pelasgus were the first kings & began to civilize their people & the sons assembled them in cities & by this circumstance you may know that these men lived much about the same time. Cecrops in sailing from Egypt by Phœnicia the sea coasts came first to Phenicia & Cyprus & then to Greece. He seems to be one of the Shepherds because bb Porphyrius περὶ ἀποχῆς l. 2. 54 Hygin. Fab. 46. a colony wchwhich he left in Cyprus sacrificed yearly a man to his daughter Agraulius, an impiety wchwhich the genuine Egyptians were free from. By the like colonies the sacrificing of men came also into Greece. For Erechtheus cc Damaratus apud Clement. Admonit. ad Gent. p. 27 Hygin. Fab. 46. sacrificed his daughter & therefore 52rfore his family was of the race of the shepherds. But circumcision (the r religion of the genuine Egyptians) was nowhere in Greece introduced by any of the colonies. When Cecrops came first into Greece, the Cares sailed between the Islands of the Cyclades & infested the sea-coasts of Attica. And this navigation made way for the trade between Greece & Phenicia & the rapture of Io & Europa.

Cadmus pretending to be sent in quest of his sister Europa & coming into Phocis aPausan. l. 9. c. 12 followed an Ox wchwhich he had bought of the heardsmen of Pelagon & wchwhich was marked on both sides with a white spot resembling the full Moon. This was in imitation of the Ox Apis & shews that he was of the religion of the Egyptians who worshipped that Ox. And thence its probable that as the Israelites in the time of Moses & Ieroboam in the time of Solomon by staying in Egypt learnt the worship of the calf so did the ancestors of the shephers Cadmus in the reign of the shepherds. StraboStrabo l .10. p. 447 & l. 9. p. 401. lets us know that the people wchwhich accompanied Cadmus into Europe were mixt of Phenicians & Arabians: wchwhich Arabians I take to be such as fled from the red sea & other places to Zidon in the wars of David. Conon in his 32th Narration saith that when Cadmus was sent to seek Europa he was accompanied with Proteus who fearing the of tyranny of Busiris came with Cadmus out of Egypt, & married Chrysonome the daughter of Clytus king of a region in Thrace & by the assistance of Clytus expelled the Bisaltes & became king of their country.

HerodotusHerod. l. 5 tells us that the Gephyreans, as they themselves reported, were originally from Erythræa. But, saith he, by inquiring, I find that they were Phenicians who came with Cadmus into Bœotia & dwelt in the Tanagrian country, & being expelled thence first by the Argives & then by the Bœotians they retired to Athens where they built Temples wchwhich had nothing common with other temples but were distinct. He adds that the Phenicians who came with Cadmus of whom the Gephyreans were a part, brought many doctrines into Greece, & particularly letters, & that the Iones learnt letters of the Phenicians & called them Phœnician letters. Since these Gephyrians were originally Erythreans, its probable that the city Erythræ in Bœotia was built by Erythreans who came with Cadmus.

Some think that the letters wchwhich Cadmus brought from from Phenicia came originally from Egypt, wchwhich is improbable because Cecrops Erichthonius & Lelex came from Egypt before wthwithout letters. Navigation & Merchandise occasioned the invention of Astronomy & Arithmetic, & Letters were as necessary to a Merchant, & therefore its reasonable to53r to ascribe the invention of all these things to the Phœnicians or if you please to the inhabitants of the red sea who were the first merchants. Then Moses might learn them when he dwelt in the land of Midian & from thence the Erytheans might bring them into Phenicia.

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

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

Among the sons of Belus the Greeks also reccon Ægyptus & Danaus & therefore they flourished after the coming of Cadmus into Europe & were contemporary to Cepheus. Belus in the language of the Egyptians & Libyans is Amonon, or (as the Greeks & Latines call him) Iupiter Amon; & his wife aa Pausan. l. 5. c. 15. Iuno Ammonia & therefore Ammon was the father of Ægyptus Danaus & Cepheus & brother of Agenor. In his reign happened the story of Agenor & Cadmus & in the next reign the story of Ægyptus Danaus & Cepheus. Now Manetho bb Apud Ioseph. cont. App. p. 1041. tells us that Ægyptus & Danaus were Sethosis & Armais, & that Sethosis having forces by sea & land left the government of Egypt to his brother Armais while he invaded & conquered Cyprus, Phœnicia, Media, Persia & other nations. Whence its plain that Sethosis was the same conqueror with Sesostris. When he conquered the Phenicians then he made his brother Cepheus their king. The Greeks

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

have transmitted to posterity many things concerning Sesostris all wchwhich had been forgotten had those things been done before the use of letters brought into Europe by Cadmus. And therefore Sesostris reigned after the rapture of Europa & by consequence after the days of Saul, David & Solomon. For Herodotus saw some of Sesostris his pillars erected in Palestine in memory of his conquering that country, & such a conquest cannot agree either to the warlike & victorious reigns of Saul & David or the peaceable & flourishing reign of Solomon; nor is there any mention of an invasion of Iudea by the Egyptians in the days of the Iudges or at any time before the fift year of Rehoboam. And on the other hand, all antiquity reccon Sesostris older then the Trojan war, & something older then the Argonautic expedition. For The Greeks built the ship Argo after the patern of the long ship in wchwhich Danaus upon the return of Ægyptus or Sesostris into Egypt sailed with his fifty daughters to Greece & Argus the son of Danaus was the master builder.Hygin. Fab. 14 & Poet. Astronom. l. 2. c. 37. Schol. vet. Apollonij Argonaut l. 1. initio.. Sethoses therefore returned into Egypt a little before the Argonautic Expedition suppose about 10 or 20 or at most 30 years & not above one generation before before & by consequence invaded the nations in the reign of Rehoboam & so can be no other king then Sesak.

The same king is confirmed by IospehusAntiq. l. 8. c. 4. who affirms that Herodotus ascribes to Sesostris the actions of Sesak erring only in the name of the king. Which is all one as to say that Sesak was that conqueror whom Heroredotus calls Sesostris. The old Scholiast of Apollonius RhodiusIn Schol. Apoll. Argonaut. l. 4. v. 272. out of Dicæarchus calls him Sesonchosis, saying that Sesonchosis who was king of all Egypt & reigned after Orus the son of Osiris & Isis, conquered all Asia & a great part of Europe, & erected pillars of his conquests, & made laws & found out horsmanship & left a colony at Æa wthwith laws writ in Tables & with Geographical Tables of his conquests by land & sea, & that Theopompus calls him Sesostris. Now Sesonchosis or, as others call him, Sesonchis is the same name with Sesak much after the manner that that Memphis is the same name with Moph, or that the Susanchites (Ezra 4.) are the same people of Susa or Shushan called Sheshach by Ieremiah, chap. 25 & 51.

HerodotusHerod. l. 2 in giving an account of the ancient state of Egypt, tells us that the Priests of Egypt affirming Menes to be their first king, read to him out of a book the names of 330 following kings of Egypt who all reigned before Sesostris & amongst whom were eighteen Ethiopians & a forreign 55r forreign woman named Nitocris who acquired the kingdom by a memorable revenge of her brothers death, & that the Priests affirmed nothing done by any of the rest except one who was the last of them & was called Mæris. But Menes & Mæris reigned at Memphys & together with other / kings of Memphys built there the most magnificent Temple of Vulcan, & therefore were later then Sesostris, as we shall further shew hereafter; & so was Nitocris later if she reigned over both Egypt & Ethiopia as Iosephus mentions, & built the third Pyramid at Memphys as is affirmed by Manetho. Herodotus therefore justly passes over in a few words all the ages of Egypt before Sesostris as obscure & conteining nothing memorable, & begins his history of the kings of Egypt with this king, the former kings except two or three of his immediate predecessors reigning not over all Egypt successively, but divers of them at once in severall places parts of Egypt, wchwhich renders them the less memorable. In the time of the Monarchy of Egypt Herodotus who has given us the best account of this kingdom sets down their kings in the following order, if Menes Mæris & Nitocris be duly inserted. Sesostris Pheron, Menes, Proteus, Rhampsinitus, Mæris, Cleops, Cephren, Mycerinus, Nitocris, Asychis, Anyis, Sabacon the Ethiopian, Anysis again, Sethon Priest of Vulcan, Twelve contemporary kings, Psammiticus, Necho, Psammis, Apries, Amasis, Psammenitus. Before Sesostris is to be placed his father Belus or Ammon, & before Ammon may be set Tethmosis, Thmosis or Amosis the successor of Misphragmuthosis & founder of the Egyptian monarchy. Menes is the first of the kings who reigned at Memphys. The kings before him reigned at Thebes. These were deified & became the Gods of Egypt & next after the Gods reigned Menes. The history of the deified kings is full of obscurity, but seems to be as follows.

Pyramid of brick made of mud dug out of the Lake of Mæris. And these are the kings who reigned at Memphys & spent their time in adorning that city untill Egypt became again divided into severall small kingdoms.

Diodorus recites the same kingd of Egypt with Herodotus but in a more confused order, & repeates some of them twice or thrice under various names. [And where Herodotus places the kings in continual succession Diodorus makes great intervalls of many reigns between them without naming the kings who reigned in those intervalls. Those intervalls were therefore invented since the days of Herodotus & are to be neglected & no more kings allowed then he Diodorus names. And they] His kings are are these. Iupiter (Ammon) & Iuno, Osiris & Isis, Horus, Menes, Busiris I, Busiris II, Osymanduas, Vchoreus, Myris, Sesoosis I, Sesoosis II, Amasis, Actisanes, Mendes or Marrus, Proteus, Remphis, Chembis, Chephren, Mycerinus , or Cherinus, Grephactus, Boccharis, Sabacus, Twelve Kings, Psammiticus, * * Vaphres, Amasis. In reciting the kings which follow Ati Actisanes & some of those wchwhich precede him namely Myris Menes, Myrïs, Sesoosis I, & Sesoosis II, Diodorus he agrees with Herodotus. Amasis & Actisanes an Ethiopian who conquered him, I take to be the same with Anysis & Sabacus in Herodotus. Osimanduas is the same wthwith Menes in Herodotus. And Busiris is the same with Osiris, the Greeks deducing the names from the Egyptian lamentations O-Siris, Bu-Siris. For Diodorus saith that the tumb of Osiris was called Busiris were they sacrificed red men was called Busiris, & the building of Thebes he ascribes to both Osiris& Busiris. These kings being understood, the Kings mentioned by Diodorus may be reduced to this order. Iupiter (Ammon) & Iuno the mother of the Gods. Osiris Busiris or Sesoosis, & Isis. Horus, Busiris II or Sesoosis II. Menes or Osimanduas. Remphis. Vchoreus, Myris, Mendes or Marrus. Chembris. Cephren. Mycerinus. * * Gnephactus Boccaris & Amasis. Actisanes or Sabacus. * Twelve contemporary kings. Psammiticus. *.*. Vuaphres. Amosis. And this race of kings, if you insert Nitocris, Asychism, Sithon Nechus & Psammis in their proper places, will agree with that of Herodotus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

go into captivity unto Kir, & that Israel notwithstanding her present greatness should go into captivity beyond Damascus, & that God would raise up a nation to afflict them, meaning that he would raise up above them from a estate condition, a nation whom they yet feared not. For so the Hebrew םקמ signifies when applied to men, as in Amos V.2. 1 Sam XII.11. Psal CXIII.7. Ier. X.20, & L.32. Hab. I.6. Zech XI.16. Amos mentions the Assyrians butnot once, [& it is to tell us that they had been in captivity. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, & the Philistims from Caphtor & the Assyrians from Kir? Amos IX.7. They were therefore returned from captivity, &] at At the writing of this prophesy made no great figure in the world, but were to be raised up against Israel, & by consequence rose upin the days of Pul & his successors For after Ieroboam had conquered Damascus & Hamath, his successor Menahem destroyed Tipsah with bits territories upon Euphrates because they opened not to him. And therefore Israel continued in its greatness till Pul (probably grown formidable by some victories) caused Menahem to buy his peace. Pul therefore reigning presently after the prophesy of Amos, & being the first upon record who began to fulfill it, may be justly recconed the first conqueror & founder of this Empire. For God stirred up the spirit of Pul & the spirit of Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, 1 Chron. V.26.

The histories of the Persians now extant in the East representVide Biblithecam orientalem Herbelotij. that the two oldest Dynasties of the kings of Persia were those whom they call Pischdadians & Kaianides, & say that the Dynasty of the Kaianides immediately succeeded that of the Kaia Pischdadians. And the three last kings of the second Dynasty they call Ardschir Diraz, Darab his bastard son & Darab who was conquered by Ascander Roumi, that is Artaxerxes Longimanus, Darius Nothus & Darius who was conquered by Alexander the Greek. They omit the kings between these two Darius's, which shews that their history of this kingdom is imperfect: byut by the names of the kings here mentioned, tis certain that by the second Dynasty they mean that of the kings of Media & Persia mentioned in scripture: & by consequence by the first Dynasty they mean that of the kings of Medi either the kings of the Assyrian empire or others who reigned in Persia easwardeastward of Assyria. And perhaps this might be the kingdom which carried the Assyrians captive to Kir. Amos. 9.7.

The Saracen historians who write of the Persian antiquities call Ardschir Diraz also by the name of Bahaman, & ascribe to Bahaman the actions of Darius Medus & Darius Hystaspis, taking perhaps Diraz & Darius for one & the same name. For they say that Bahaman went westward into Mesopotamia & Syria & conquered Balthasar the son of Nebuchadnezzar, & gave the67r the kingdom of Babylon to Cyrus his Lieutenant general over Media Assyria & Chaldea: & here they take Bahaman for Darius Medus. They say also that Bahaman was the grandson of Kischtasp or Hystaspes & that Kischtasp was contemporary to Zaradust or Zoroaster the legislator of the Ghebers or fire-worshippers, & established his doctrines throughout all Persia, & that the father of this Bahaman was not a king: & here they take Bahaman for Darius Hystaspis. And this confusion of persons makes it further appear that the oriental histories of those ancient ki kingdoms are very imperfect & uncertain.

And the same is further confirmed by the long reigns which the Oriental historians ascribe to the kings of those two Dynasties. For they tell us that some of the Pischdadian kings lived a thousand years a piece & that they all reigned all together above three thousand years. And to the first king of the second Dynasty they assigne a reign of 120 years, to the second a reign of 150 years to the third a reign of 60 years, to the fourth a reign of 120 years, to the fifth as much, & to the sixt called Artaxerxes Longimanus a reign of 112 years. So then we need not wonder that the Egyptians have made the kings in the first Dynasty of their Monarchy (that wchwhich was seated at Thebes in the days of David & Solomon) so very ancient & so long lived since the Persians have done the like to the kings who reigned in Persia above 200 years after the days of Solomon.

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

The oriental historians tell us also that in those days the Scythians of Touran or Turquestan on the north side of the river Oxus which runs eawestward into the Caspian sea, having erected4768r erectec there a potent kingdom called the kingdom of Touran or Turquestan, on the north side of the river Oxus which runs westward into the Caspian sea, invaded Perisa frequently under their king Afrasiab, & that in the reign of the eighth king of the Pischdadians, Afrasiab conquered Persia & reigned over it twelve years together & then was repulsed by the tenth king of the Pischdadians, & invaded it again in the reign of the eleventh & last king of the Pischdadians whom they called Kischtasp, & was at lenght slain in the mountains of Media by the third king of the second Dynasty. If for reducing the reign of Afriasab to such a lenght as exceeds not the course of nature, we may suppose that the Scythians under Afrasiab by their first invasion of Persia gave occasion to that revolt of the Medes & other nations from the Assyrians which is mentioned by Herodotus; there will be but seven kings of the Pischdadians before the reign of Afrasiab & the revolt of the Medes, & three more of the Caianides before the reign of Lohorasp or Cyaneres. And these ten reigns being recconed at about 18 or 20 years a piece will place the beginning of the Dynasty of the Pischdadians about 180 or 200 years before the taking of Nineveh by Cyaxeres & Nebuchadnezzar. So then the Persians have no memory of any thing done before in Persia above 200 years before the reign of Nebuchadnezzar; & their history of the two first Dynasties of their kings is very dark & full of uncertainties.

I have hitherto taken a view of the times reputed fabulous by the Greeks & Latines, & shewed that before the reign of Pul & the beginning of the Olympiads there were no great Empires in the world (on this side of India) except that of Egypt founded by Ammon & Sesak, wchwhich was but of short continuance. Towns began to be built in Europe not above two hundred years before the Argonautic expedition; And the first houses were rude & small, there being no iron tools & by consequence no Carpenters nor artificers in all Europe before the days of Minos king of Crete who was contemporary to Solomon: & the first towns were small unwalled villages. Troy was not walled before the days of Lamedon the father of Priam. Thebes was not walled before the reign of Amphion & Zethus who were contemporary to Laios the great grandson of Cadmus. And it will be difficult to name a town in all Europe wchwhich was walled before the death of Solomon. The founder of every town was its first king, & the town wchwhich gained dominion over other towns & set up a form of government became a city, & the first city which reigned over all Italy was Rome & the first which reigned over all Greece was Macedon. Media before the days of Dejoces was peopled by villages & Ecbatane was the first city of the Medes wchwhich reigned over all the rest as Herodotus relates. Nineveh was the first capital city of all Assyria, Babylon the first of all Chaldea, Thebes the first of all Egypt, & Ierusalem the first of all Phœnicia between Egypt & Euphrates. Numa was the first lawgiver of the Romans, Zeleuces of the Locri, Draco of the Athenians, Lycurgus of the Spartans, Phoroneus of the Argives, Minos of the Cretans, Ammon & Sesac of the Egyptians69r from a rambling vagabond salvage way of life to love together in towns & cultivate arts & imployments convenient for life. The first ships were small round vessels of burden with oars for going over lakes & between the islands of that shallow sea wchwhich lies between Egypt & Arabia & the first long & tall ships with sails were built by Ammon & Sesac in the days of Solomon & David & Solomon, & the ship Argo which was the first long ship built by the Greeks, was built 40 years after the death of Solomon in imitation of a ship which Danaus brought from Egypt. The earth in those early ages was overspread with wood & infested with wild beasts, & the first men lived in fertil planes well watered with rivers such as were those upon Tigris & the Nile where kingdomes & civility began. And the beasts have been since destroyed & the woods cut down to make room for mankind. Many islands of the Mediterranean covered with woods & inhabited only by Serpents & wild beasts have been peopled by Phorbas Æolus Rhadamanthus & others since the coming of Cecrops & & Lelex with colonies from Egypt. The island Cyprus when first discovered by the Phœnicians was covered all over with wood, & the Hercynian wood now cut down covered a great part of Europe even till the days of the Roman Empire. Phœnicia & the regions upon the Tigris were but thinly peopled in the days of the Patriarchs. Four kings from the coasts of Shinar & Elam invaded & spoiled the Rephaims, & the inhabitants of the countries of Moab Ammon Edom & Amalek & the Amorites & the kings of Sodom Gomorrha Admah & Zeboim, & & yet were pursued & beaten by Abraham & three other kings of Canaan with an armed force of only 318 men. The Patriarchs fed their flocks wherever they pleased, the fields of Syria & Palestine being not yet appropriated. And Egypt was so thinly peopled that Pharaoh said of the Israelites Behold the people of the children of Israel are more & mightier then We; & to prevent their multiplying, caused their male children to be drowned. The chariots of iron of all Egypt in the days of Moses were but six hundred, & the chariots of Iabin king of Hazor in the land of Canaan in the days of Deborah & Barak were nine hundred. The Canaanites spread & gave new names to places & built new cities all the idays of the Patriarchs, & the cities continued each under its own king till the days of Ioshua, & the Canaanites who fled from Ioshua conquered Egypt, & Arabia Petræa & Nabatæa as well as Phenicia have been peopled by the seed of Abraham besided the nations sprung from Keturah whom Abraham sent eastward. And the remoter regions were peopled & civilized still later. Corn was not known in Europe before the days of David. Diodorus tells us that the Libyans had a tradition that Vranus the father of Hyperion & grandfather of Helius & Selene, that is Ammon the father of Sesak was their first king & caused the people who then wandered up & down to dwell in towns & cities, & reducing them from a lawless & salvage course of life taught them to use & lay up the fruits of the earth & do many other things useful for mans life. Thucydides lets us know that the Greeks were wanderererswanderers till the times of the Trojan war. The Germans were wanderers till the times of the Roman Empire, & a great part of the Tartars & West Indians are wanderers to this day.