A short chronicle

From the First Memory of things in Europe to the Conquest of Persia by Alexander the great

By Sir Isaac Newton

The introduction

The Greek Antiquities are full of Poetical Fictions, because the Greeks wrote nothing in Prose, before the Conquest of Asia by Cyrus the Persian. Then Pherecydes Scyrius and Cadmus Milesius introduced the writing in Prose. Pherecydes Atheniensis, about the end of the Reign of Darius Hystaspis, wrote of Antiquities, and digested his work by Genealogies, and was reckoned one of the best Genealogers. Epimenides the Historian proceeded also by Genealogies; the Hellanicus, who was twelve years older than Herodotus, digested his History by the Ages of Successions of the Priestesses of Juno Argiva. Others digested theirs by the Kings of the Lacedaemonians, or Archons of Athens. Hippias the Elean, about thirty years before the fall of the Persian Empire, published a breviary or list of the Olympic Victors; and about ten years before the fall thereof, Ephorus the disciple of Isocrates formed a Chronological History of Greece, beginning with the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesius, and ending with the siege of Perinthus, in the twentieth year of Philip the father of Alexander the great, But he digested things by Generations, and the reckoning by Olympiads was not yet in use, nor doth it appear that the Reigns of Kings were yet set down by numbers of years. The Arundelian marbles were composed sixty years after the death of Alexander the great (An. 4. Olymp. 128.) and yet mention not the Olympiads: But in the next Olympiad, Timaeus Sicilus published an history in several books down to his own times, according to the Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the Kings of Sparta, the Archons, and Priestessesof Argos, with the Olympic Victors, so as to make the Olympiads, and the Genealogies and Successions of Kings, Archons, and Priestesses, and poetical histories suit with one another, according to the best of his judgement. And where he left off, Polybius began and carried on the history.

So then a little after the death of Alexander the great, they began to set down the Generations, Reigns and Successions, in numbers of years, and by putting Reigns and Successions equipollent to Generations, and three Generation so an hundred or an hundred and twenty years (as appears by their Chronology) they have made the Antiquities of Greece three or four hundred years older than the truth. And this was the original of the Technical Chronology of the Greeks. Eratosphenes wrote about an hundred years after the death of Alexander the great: He was followed by Apollodorus, and these two have been followed ever since by Chronologers.

But how uncertain their Chronology is was reputed by the Greeks of those times, may be understood by these passages of Plutarch. Some reckon, saith he (In th elife of Lycurgus), Lycurgus contemporary to Iphitus, and to have been his companion in ordering the Olimpic festivals: amongst whom was Aristotle the Philosopher, arguing from the Olympic Disc, which had the name of Lycurgus upon it. Others supputing the times by the succession of the Kings of the Lacedaemonians, as Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, affirm that he was not a few years older than the first Olympiad. First Aristotle and Some others made him as old as the first Olympiad; then Eratosthenes, Apollodorus, and some others made him above an hundred years older: and in another place (in the life of Solon) Plutarch tells us: The congress of Solon with Croesus, some think they can confute by Chronology. But an history so illustrious, and verified by so many witnesses, and (which is more) so agreeable to the manners of Solon, and so worthy of the greatness of his mind and of his wisdom, I cannot persuade myself to reject because of some Chronological Canons, as they call them: which hundreds of authors correcting, have not yet been able to constitute any thing certain, in which they could agree among themselves, about repugnancies. It seems the Chronologers had made the Legislature of Solon too ancient to consist with that Congress.

For reconciling such repugnancies, Chronologers have sometimes doubled the persons of men. So when the Poets had changed lo the daughter of Inachus into the Egyptian Isis, Chronologers made her husband Osiris or Bacchus and his mistress Ariadne as old as lo, and so feigned that there were two Ariadnes, one the mistress of Bacchus, and the other the mistress of Theseus, and two Minors their fathers, and a younger lo the daughter of Jass, writing Jasus corruptly for Inachus. And so they have made two Pandions, and two Erechtheus's, giving the name of Erechthonius to the first; Homer calls the first, Erechtheus: and by such corruptions they have exceedingly perplexed Ancient History.

And as for the Chronology of the Latines, that is still more uncertain. Plutarch represents great uncertainties in the Originals of Rome: and so doth Servius. The old records of the Latines were burnt by the Gauls, sixty and four years before the death of Alexander the great; and Quintus Eabius Pictor, the oldest historian of the Latines, lived an hundred years later than that King.

In Sacred History, the Adrian Empire began with Pul and Tiglathpilaser, and lasted about 170 years. And accordingly Herodotus hath made Semiramis only five generations, or about 166 years older than Nitocris, the mother of the last King of Babylon, But Ctestas hath made Semiramis 1500 years older than Nitocris, and feigned a long series of Kings of Assyria, whose names are not Assyrian, nor have any affinity with the Assyrian names in Scripture.

The Priests of Egypt told Herodotus, that Menes built Memphis and the sumptuous temple of Vulcan, in that City: and that Rhampstnitus, Maeris, Asychis and Psammiticus added magnificent porticos to that temple. And it is not likely that Memphis could be famous, before Homers days who doth not mention it, or that a temple could be above two or three hundred years in building. The Reign of Psammiticus began about 655 years before Christ, and I place the founding of this temple by Menes about 257 years earlier: but the Priests of Egypt had so magnified their Antiquities before the days of Herodotus, as to tell him that from Menes to Maeris (who reigned 200 years before Psammiticus) there were 330 Kings, whose Reigns took up as many Ages, that is eleven thousand years, and had filled up the interval with feigned Kings, who had done nothing. And before the days of Diodorus Siculus they had raised their Antiquities to much higher, as to place six, eight, or ten new Reigns of Kings between those Kings, whom they had represented to Herodotus to succeed one another immediately.

In the Kingdom of Sicyon, Chronologers have Split Apis Epaphus or Epopees into two Kings, whom they call Apis and Epopeus, and between them have inserted eleven or twelve feigned names of Kings who did nothing, and thereby they have made its Founder Aegialeus, three hundred years older than his brother Phoroneus. Some have made the Kings of Germany as old as the Flood: and yet before the use of letters, the names and actions of men could scarce be remembred above eighty or an hundred years after their deaths: and therefore I admit no Chronology of things done in Europe, above eighty years before Cadmus brought letters into Europe, none, of things done in Germany, before the rise of the Roman Empire.

Now since Eratosthenes and Apollodorus computed the times by the Reigns of the Kings of Sparta, and (as appears by their Chronology still followed) have made the seventeen Reigns of these Kings in both Races, between the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus and the Battel of Thermopylae, take up 622 years, which is after the rate of 36 1/2 years to a Reign, and yet a Race of seventeen Kings of that length is no where to be met with in all true History, and Kings at a moderate reckoning Reign but 18 or 20 years a-piece one with another: I have stated the time of the return of the Heraclides by the last way of reckoning, placing it about 340 years before the Battel of Thermopylae. And making the Taking of Troy eighty years older than that Return, according to Thucydides, and the Argonautic Expedition a Generation older than the Trojan War, and the Wars of Sesostris in Thrace and death of Ino the daughter of Cadmus a Generation older than that Expedition: I have drawn up the following Chronological Table, so as to make Chronology suit with the Course of Nature, with Astronomy, with Sacred History, with Herodotus the Father of History, and with it self; without the many repugnancies complained of by Plutarch. I do not pretend to be exact to a year: there may be Errors of five or ten years, and sometimes twenty, and not much above.

The Times are set down in years before Christ

The Canaanites who fled from Joshua, retired in great numbers into Egypt, and there conquered Timaus, Thamus, or Thammuz King of the lower Egypt, and reigned there under their Kings Salatis, Boeon, Apachnas, Apophis, Janias, Assis, &c. untill the days of Eli and Samuel. They fed on flesh, and sacrificed men after the manner of the Phoenicians, and were called Shepherds by the Egyptians, who lived only on the fruits of the earth, and abominated flesheaters. The upper parts of Egypt were in those days under many Kings, Reigning at Coptos, Thebes, This, Elephantis, and other Places, which by conquering one another grew by degrees into one Kingdom, over which Misphragmuthosis Reigned in the days of Eli.

In the year before Christ 1125 Mephres Reigned over the upper Egypt from Syene to Heliopolis, and his Successor Misphragmuthosis made a lasting war upon the Shepherds soon after, and caused many of them to fly into Palestine, Idumaea, Syria, and Libya; and under Lelex, Aezeus, Inachus, Pelasgus, Aeolus the first, Cecrops, and other Captains, into Greece. Before those days Greece and all Europe was peopled by wandring Cimmerians, and Scythians from the backside of the Euxine Sea, who lived a rambling wild fort of life, like the Tartars in the nothern parts of Asia. Of their Race was Ogyges, in whose days these Egyptian strangers came into Greece. The rest of the Shepherds were shut up by Misphragmuthosis, in a part of the lower Egypt called Abaris or Pelusium.

In the year 1100 the Philistims, stregthened by the access of the Shepherds, conquer Israel, and take the Ark. Samuel judges Israel.

1085. Haemon the son of Pelasgus Reigns in Thessaly.

1080. Lycaon the son of Pelasgus builds Lycosura; Phoroneus the son of Inachus, Phoronicum, afterwards called Argos; Aegialeus the brothe of Phoroneus and son of Inachus, Aegialeum, afterward called Sicyon: and these were the oldest towns in Peloponnesus. Till then they built only single houses scattered up and down in the fields. About the same time Cecrops built Cecropia in Attica, afterwards called Athens; and Eleusine, the son of Ogyges, built Eleusis. And these towns gave a beginning to the Kingdoms of the Arcadians, Argives, Sicyons, Athenians, Eleusinians, &c. Deucalion flourishes.

1070. Amosis, or Tethmosis, the successor of Misphragmuthosis, abolishe the Phoenician custom in Heliopolis of sacrificing men, and drives the Shepherds out of Abaris. By their acccess the Philistims become so numerous, as to bring into the field against Saul 30000 chariots, 6000 horsemen, and people as the sand on the sea shore for multitude. Abas, the father of Acrisius and Proetus, comes from Egypt.

1069. Saul is made King of Israel, and by the hand of Jonathan gets a great victory over the Philistims. Eurotas the son of Lelex, and Lacedaemon who married Sparta the daughter of Eurotas, Reigns in Laconia, and build Sparta.

1060. Samuel dies.

1059. David made King.

1048. The Edomites are conquered and dispersed by David, and Some of them fly into Egypt with their young King Hadad. Others fly to the Persian Gulph with their Commander Oannes; and others from the Red Sea to the coast of the Mediterranean, and fortify Azoth against David, and take Zidon; and the Zidonians who fled from them build Tyre and Aradus, and make Abibalus King of Tyre. These Edomites carry to all places their Arts and Sciences; amongst which were their Navigation, Astronomy, and Letters; for in Idumaea they had Constellations and Letters before the days of Job, who mentions them: and there Moses learnt to write the Law in a book. These Edomites who fled to the Mediterranean, translating the word Erythraea into that of Phoenicia, give the name of Phoenicians to themselves, and that of Phoenicia to all the sea-coasts of Palestine from Azoth to Zidon. And hence came the tradition of the Persians, and of the Phoenicians themselves, mentioned by Herodotus, that the Phoenicians came originally from the Red Sea, and presently undertook long voyages on the Mediterranean.

1047. Acrisius marries Eurydice, the daughter of Lacedaemon and Sparta. The Phoenician mariners who fled from the Red Sea, being used to long voyages for the Sake or traffic, begin the hke voyages on the Mediterranean from Zidon; and failing as far as Greece, carry away Io the daughter of Inachus, who with other Grecian women came to their ships to buy their merchandise. The Greek Seas begin to be infested with Pyrates.

1046. The Syrians of Zobah and Damascus are conquered by David, Nyctimus, the Son of Lycaon, reigns in Arcadia. Deucalion still alive.

1045. Many of the Phoenicians and Syrians fleeing from Zidon and from David, come under the conduct of Cadmus, Cilix, Phoenix, Membliarius, Nycteus, Thases, Atymnus, and other Captains, into Asia minor, Crete, Greece, and Libya; and introduce Letters, Music, Poetry, the Octaeteris, Metals and their fabrication, and other Arts, Sciences and Customs of the Phoenicians. At this time Cranaus the Successor of Cecrops Reigned in Attics and in his Reign and the beginning of the Reign of Nyctimus, the Greeks place the flood of Deucalion. This flood was Succeeded by four Ages or Generations of men, in the first of which Chiron the son of Saturn and Philyra was born, and the last of which according to Hesiod ended with the Trojan War; and so places the destruction of Troy four Generations or about 140 years later than that flood, and the coming of Cadmus, reckoning with the ancients three Generations to an hundred years. With these Phoenicians came a Sort of men skilled in the Religious Mysteries, Arts, and Sciences of Phoenicia, and settled in Several places under the names of Curetes, Corybantes, Telchines, and Idaei Dactyli.

1043. Hellen, the son of Deucalion, and father of Aeolus, Xuthus, and Dorus, flourishes.

1035. Erectheus Reigns in Attica. Aethlius, the grandson of Deucalion and father of Endymion, builds Elis. The Idaei Dactyli find out Iron in mount Ida in Crete, and work it into armour and iron tools, and thereby give a beginning to the trades of Smiths and armourers in Europe; and by singing and dancing in their armour, and keeping time by striking upon one another's armour with their Swords, they bring in Music and Poetry; and at the same time they nurse up the Cretan Jupiter in a cave of the same mountain, dancing about him in their armour.

1034. Ammon Reigns in Egypt. He conquered Libya, and reduced that people from a wandering savage life to a civil one, and taught them to lay up the fruits of the earth; and from him Libya and the desert above it were anciently called Ammonia. He was the first that built long and tall ships with sails, and had a fleet of such ships on the Red Sea, and another on the Mediterranean at Irasa in Libya. Till then they used small and round vessels of burden, invented on the Red Sea, and kept within sight of the shore, For enabling them to cross the seas without seeing the shore, the Egyptians began in his days to observe the stars: and from this beginning Astronomy and Sailing had their rise. Hitherto the Lunisolar year had been in use: but this year being of an uncertain length, and so, unfit for Astronomy, in his days and in the days of his sons and grandsons, by observing the Heliacal Risings and Setting of the Stars, they found the length of the Solar year, and made it consist of five days more than the twelve calendar months of the old Lunisolar year. Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus marries Xuthus the son of Hellen. Erechtheus having first celebrated the Panathenaea joins houses to a chariot. Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, and mother of Aeacus, born.

1030. Ceres a woman of Sicily, in seeking her daughter who was stolen, comes into Attica, and there teaches the Greeks to sow corn; for which benefaction she was Deified after death. She first taught the Art to Triptolemus the young son of Celeus King of Eleusis.

1028. Oenotrus the youngest son of Lycaon, the Janus of the Latines, led the first Colony of Greeks into Italy, and there taught them to build houses. Perseus born.

1020. Areas, the son of Callisto and grandson of Lycaon, and Eumelus the first King of Achaia, receive bread-corn from Triptolemus.

1019. Solomon Reigns, and marries the daughter of Ammon, and by means of this affinity is supplied with horses from Egypt, and his merchants also bring horses from thence for all the Kings of the Hittites and Syrians: for horses came originally from Libya; and licence Neptune was called Equestris. Tantalus King of Phrygia steals Ganimede the son of Tros King of Troas.

1017. Solomon by the assistance of the Tyrians and Aradians, who had mariners among them acquainted with the Red Sea, sets out a fleet upon that sea. Those ashstanis build new cities in the Persian Gulph, called Tyre and Aradus.

1015. The Temple of Solomon is founded. Minos Reigns in Crete expelling his father Asterius, who flees into Italy, and becomes the Saturn of the Latinos. Ammon takes Gezer from the Canaanites, and gives it to his daughter, Solomon's wife.

1014. Ammon places Cepheus at Joppa.

1010. Sesac in the Reign of his father Ammon invades Arabia Eoelix, and Sets up pillars at the mouth of the Red Sea. Apis, Epaphus or Epopeus, the son of Phroroneus, and Nycteus King of Boeotia, slain. Lycus inherits the Kingdom of his brother Nycteus. Aetolus the son of Endymion flies into the Country of the Curates in Achaia, and calls it Aetolia; and of Pronoe the daughter of Phorbas begets Pleuron and Calydon, who built cities in Aetola called by their own names. Antiopa the daughter of Nycteus is sent home to Lycus by Lamedon the successor of Apis, and in the way brings forth Amphion and Zethus.

1008. Sesac, in the Reign of his father Ammon, invades Afric and Spain, and sets up pillars in all his conquests, and particularly at the mouth of the Mediterranean, and returns home by the coast of Gaul and Italy.

1007. Ceres being dead Eumolpus institutes her Mysteries in Eleusine. The Mysteries of Rhea are instituted in Phrygia, in the city Cybcle. About this time Temples begin to be built in Greece. Hyagnis the Phrygian invents the pipe. After the example of the common-council of the five Lords of the Philistims, the Greeks set up the Amphictyonic Council, first at Thermopylae, by the influence of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion; and a few years after at Delphi by the influence of Acrisius. Among the cites, whose deputies met at Thermopylae, I do not find Athens, and therefore doubt whether Amphictyon was King of that city. if he was the son of Deucalion and brother of Hellen, he and Cranaus might Reign together in several parts of Attica. But I meet with a later Amphictyon who entertained the great Bacchus. This Council worshipped Ceres, and therefore was instituted after her death.

1006. Minos prepares a fleet, clears the Greek seas of Pyrates, and sends Colonies to the Islands of the Greeks, some of which were not inhabited before. Cecrops II. Reigns in Attica. Caucon teaches the Mysteries of Ceres in Messene.

1005. Andromeda carried away from Joppa by Perseus. Pandion the brother of Cecrops II. Reigns in Attica. Car, the Son of Phoroneus, builds a Temple to Ceres.

1002. Sesac Reigns in Egypt and adorns Thebes, dedicating it to his father Ammon by the name of No-Ammon or Ammon-No, that is the people or city of Ammon: whence the Greeks called it Diospolis, the city of Jupiter. Sesac also erected Temples and Oracles to his father in Thebes, Ammonia, and Ethiopia, and thereby caused his father to be worshipped as a God in those countries, and I think also in Arabia Foelix: and this was the original of the worship of Jupiter Ammon, and the first mention of Oracles that I meet with in Prophane History. War between Pandion and Labdacus the grandson of Cadmus.

994. Aegeus Reigns in Attica.

993. Pelops the Son of Tantalus comes into Peloponnesus, marries Hippodamia the granddaughter of Acrisius, takes Aetolia from Aetolus the son of Endymion, and by his riches grows potent.

990. Amphion and Zethus slay Lycus, put Laius the son of Labdacus to flight, and Reign in Thebes, and wall the city about.

989. Daedalus and his nephew Talus invent the saw, the turning-lath, the wimble, the chipax, and other instruments of Carpenters and Joyners, and thereby give a beginning to those Arts in Europe. Daedalus also invented the making of Statues with their feet asunder, as if they walked.

988. Minos makes war upon the Athenians, for killing his son Androgeus. Aeacus flourishes.

987. Daedalus kills his nephew Talus, and flies to Minos. A Priestess of Jupiter Ammon, being brought by Phoenician merchants into Greece, sets up the Oracle of Jupiter at Dodona. This gives a beginning to Oracles in Greece: and by their dilates, the Worship of the Dead is every where introduced.

983. Sisyphus, the son of Aeolus and grandson of Hellen, Reigns in Corinth, and some say that he built that city.

980. Laius recovers the Kingdom of Thebes. Athamas, the brother of Sisiphus and father of Phrixus and Helle, marries Ino the daughter of Cadmus.

979. Rehoboam Reigns. Thoas is sent from Crete to Lemnos, Reigns there in the city Hephoestia, and works in copper and iron.

978. Alcmena born of Electryo the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and of Lysidice the daughter of Pelops.

974. Sesac spoils the Temple, and invades Syria and Persia, Setting up pillars in many places. Jeroboam, becoming subject to Sesac, sets up the worship of the Egyptian Gods in Israel.

971. Sesac invades India, and returns with triumph the next year but one: whence Trieterica Bacchi. He sets up pillars on two mountains at the mouth of the river Ganges.

968. Theseus Reigns, having overcome the Minotaur, and soon after unites the twelve cities of Attica under one government. Sesac, having carried on his victories to Mount Caucases, leaves his nephew Prometheus there, and Aeetes in Colchis.

967. Sesac passing over the Hellespont conquers Thrace, kills Lycurgus King thereof, and gives his Kingdom and one of his finging-women to Oeagrus the father of Orpheus. Sesac had in his army Ethiopians commanded by Pan, and Libyan women commanded by Myrina or Minerva. It was the custom of the Ethiopians to dance when they were entring into a battel, and from their skipping they were painted with goats feet in the form of Satyrs.

966. Thoas, being made King of Cyprus by Sesac, goes thither with his wife Calycopis, and leaves his daughter Hypsipyle in Lemnos.

965. Sesac is baffled by the Greeks and Scythians, loses many of his women with their Queen Minerva, composes the war, is received by Amphiction at a feast, buries Ariadne, goes back through Asia and Syria into Egypt, with innumerable captives, among whom was Tithonus the son of Laomedon King of Troy; and leaves his Libyan Amazons, under Marthesia and Lampeto, the successors of Minerva, at the river Thermodon. He left also in Colchos Geographical Tables of all his conquests: And thence Geography had its rise. His singing-woman were celebrated in Thrace by the name of the Muses. And the daughters of Pierus a Thracian, imitating them, were celebrated by the same name.

964. Minos, making war upon Cocalus King of Sicily, is slain by him. He was eminent for his dominion, his Laws and his Justice: upon his sepulchre visited by Pythagoras, was this inscription, TOY DIOC, the Sepulchre of Jupiter. Danaus with his daughters flying from his brother Egyptus (that is from Sesac) corner into Greece. Sesac using the advice of his Secretary Thoth, distributes Egypt into xxxvi Nomes, and in every Nome erects a Temple, and appoints the several Gods, festivals and Religions of the several Nomes. The Temples were the sepulchres of his great men, where they were to be buried and worshipped after death, each in his own Temple, with ceremonies and festivals appointed by him; while He and his Queen, by the names of Osris and Isis, were to be worshipped in all Egypt. These were the Temples seen and described by Lucian eleven hundred years after, to be of one and the fame age: and this was the original of the several Nomes of Egypt, and of the several Gods and several Religions of those Nomes. Sesac divided also the land of Egypt by measure amongst his soldiers, and thence Geometry had its rise. Hercules and Eurystheus born.

963. Amphictyon brings the twelve Gods of Egypt into Greece, and these are the Diimagni majorum gentium, to whom the Earth and Planets and Elements are dedicated.

962. Phryxus and Helle fly from their stepmother Ino the daughter of Cadmus. Helle is drowned in the Hellespont, so named from her, but Phryxus arrived at Colchos.

960. The war between the Lapithae and the people of Thessaly called Centaurs.

958. Oedipus kills his father Laius. Sthenelus the son of Perseus Reigns in Mycene.

956. Sesac is slain by his brother Japetus, who after death was deified in Afric by the name of Neptune, and called Typhon by the Egyptians. Orus Reigns and routs the Libyans, who under the conduct of Japetus, and his son Antaeus or Atlas, invaded Egypt. Sesac from his making the river Nile useful, by cutting channel from it to all the cities of Egypt, was called by its names, Sihor or Siris, Nilus and Egyptus. The Greeks, hearing the Egyptians lament, 0 Siris and Bou Siris, called him Osiris and Busiris. The Arabians from his great acts called him Bacchus, that is, the Great. The Phrygians called him Ma-fors or Mavors, the valiant, and by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests, and his army in his father's Reign fought against the Africans with clubs, he is painted with pillars and a club: and this is that Heresies who, according to Cicero, was born upon the Nile; and according to Eudoxus, was slain by Typhon; and according to Diodorus, was an Egyptian, and went over a great part of the world, and set up the pillars in Afric. He seems to be also the Belus who, according to Diodorus, led a Colony of Egyptians to Babylon, and there instituted Priests called Chaldeans, who were free from taxes, and observed the stars, as in Egypt. Hitherto Judah and Israel laboured under great vexations, but henceforward Asa King of Judah had peace ten years.

947. The Ethiopians invade Egypt, and drown Orus in the Nile. Thereupon Bubaste the sister of Orus kills herself, by falling from the top of an house, and their mother Isis or Astraea goes mad: and thus ended the Reign of the Gods of Egypt.

946. Zerah the Ethiopian is overthrown by Asa. The people of the lower Egypt make Osarsiphus their King, and call in two hundred thousand Jews and Phoenicians against the Ethiopians. Menes or Amenophis the young son of Zerah and Cissia Reigns.

944. The Ethiopians, under Amenophis, retire from the lower Egypt and fortify Memphis agsinst Osarsiphus. And by these wars and the Argonatic expedition, the great empire of Egypt breaks in pieces. Eurystheus the son of Sthenelus Reigns in Mycenae.

943. Evander and his mother Carmenta carry Letters into Italy.

942. Orpheus Deifies the son of Semele by the name of Bacchus, and appoints his Ceremonies.

940. The great men of Greece, hearing of the civil wars and distractions of Egypt, resolve to send an embassy to the nations, upon the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas, Subject to that Empire, and for that end order the building of the ship Argo.

939. The ship Argo is built after the pattern of the long ship in which Danaus came into Greece: and this was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Chiron, who was born in the Golden Age, forms the Constellations for the use of the Argonauts; and places the Solstitial and Equinoctial Points in the fifteenth degrees or middies of the Constellations of Cancer, Chelae, Capricorn, and Aries. Meton in the year of Nabonassar 316, observed the Summer Solstice in the eighth degree of Cancer, and therefore the Solstice had then gone back seven degrees. It goes back one degree in about seventytwo years, and seven degrees in about 504 years. Count these years back from the year of Nabonassae 316, and they will place the Argonautic expedition about 936 years before Christ. Gingris the son of Thoas slain, and Deified by the of Adonis.

938. Theseus, being fifty years old, steals Helena then seven years old. Pirithous the son of Ixion, endeavouring to steal Persephone the daughter of Orcus King of the Molossians, is slain by the Dog of Orcus; and his companion Theseus is taken and imprisoned. Helena is set liberty by her brothers.

937. The Argonautic expedition. Prometheus leaves Mount Caucasus, being set at liberty by Hercules. Laomedon King of Troy is slain by Hercules. Priam succeeds him. Talus a brazen man, of the Brazen Age, the son of Minos, is slain by the Argonauts. Aesculapius and Hercules were Argonauts, and Hippocrates was the eighteenth from Aesculapius by the father's side, and the nineteenth from Hercules by the mother's side; and because these generations, being noted in history, were most probably by the chief of the family, and for the most part by the eldest sons, we may reckon 28 or at the most 30 years to a generation: and thus the seventeen intervals by the father's side and eighteen by the mother's, will at a middle reckoning amount unto about 507 years, which being counted backwards from the beginning of the Peloponnesiean war, at which time Hippocrates began to flourish, will reach up to the time where we have placed the Argonautic expedition.

936. Theseus is Set at liberty by Hercules.

934. The hunting of the Calydonian boar slain by Meleager.

930. Amenophis, with an army out of Ethiopia and Thebais, invades the lower Egypt, conquers Osarsiphus, and drives out the Jews and Canaanites: and this is reckoned the second expulsion of the Shepherds. Calycopis dies, and is deified by Thoas with Temples at Paphos and Amathus in Cyprus, and at Byblus in Syria, and with Priests and sacred Rites, and becomes the Venus of the ancients, and the Dea Cypria and Dea Syria. And from these and other places where Temples were erected to her, she was also called Paphia, Amathusia, Byblia, Cytherea, Salaminia, Cnidia, Erycina, Idalia, &c. And her three waiting-women became the three Graces.

928. The war of the seven Captain against Thebes.

927. Hercules and Aesculapius are Deified. Eurystheus drives the Heraclides out of Peloponnesus. He is slain by Hyllus the son of Hercules Atreus the son of Pelops succeeds him in the Kingdom of Mycenae. Menestheus, the great grandson or Erechtheus, Reigns at Athens.

925. Theseus is slain, being cast down from a rock.

924. Hyllus invading Peloponneses is slain by Echemus.

919. Atreus dies. Agamemnon Reigns, In the absence of Menelaus, who went to look after what his father Atreus had left to him, Paris steals Helena.

918. The second war against Thebes.

912. Thoas, King of Cyprus and part of Phoenicia dies; and for making armour for the Kings of Egypt, is reined with a sumptuous Temple at Memphis by the name of Baal Canaan, Vulcan. This Temple was said to be built by Menes, the first King of Egypt who reigned next after the Gods, that is, by Menoph or Amenophis who reigned next after the death of Osiris, Isis, Orus, Bubaste and Thoth. The city Memphis was also said to be built by Menes; he began to build it when he fortified it against Osarsiphus. And from him it was called Menoph, Moph, Noph, &c; and is to this day called Menuf by the Arabians. And therefore Menes who built the city and temple was Menoph or Amenophis. The Priests of Egypt at length made this temple above a thousand years older then Amenophis, and Some of them five or ten thousand years older: but it could not be above two or three hundred years older than the Reign of Psammiticus who finished it, and died 614 years before Christ. When Menoph or Menes built the city, he built a bridge there over the Nile: a work too great to be older than the Monarchy of Egypt.

909. Amenophis, called Memnon by the Greeks, built the Memnonia at Susa, whilst Egypt was under the government of Proteus his Viceroy.

904. Troy taken. Amenophis was still at Susa; the Greeks feigning that he came from thence to the Trojan war.

903. Demophoon, the son of Theseus by Phoedra the daughter of Minos, Reigns at Athens.

901. Amenophis builds Small Pyramids in Cochome.

896. Ulysses leaves Calypse in the Island Ogygie (perhaps Cadis or Cales.) She was the daughter of Atlas, according to Homer. The ancients at length feigned that this Island, (which from Atlas they called Atlantic had been as big as all Europe, Africa and Asia, but was sunk into the Sea.

895. Teucer builds Salamis in Cyprus. Hadad or Benhadad King of Syria dies, and is deified at Damascus with a Temple and Ceremonies.

887. Amenophis dies, and is Succeeded by his son Ramesses or Rhampsinitus, who builds the western Portico of the Temple of Vulcan. The Egyptians dedicated to Osiris, Isis, Orus senior, Typhon, and Nephthe the Sister and wife of Typhon, the five days added by the Egyptians to the twelve Calendar months of the old Luni-solar year, and said that they were added when these five Princes were born. They were therefore added in the Reign of Ammon the father of these five Princes: but this year was scarce brought into common use before the Reign of Amenophis: for in his Temple or Sepulchre at Abydus, they placed a Circle of 365 cubits in compass, covered on the upper side with a plate of gold, and divided into 365 equal pans, to represent all the days of the year; every part having the day of the year, and the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars on that day, noted upon it. And this Circle remained there till Cambyses spoiled the temples of Egypt: and from this monument I collect that it was Amenophis who established this year, fixing the beginning thereof to one of the four Cardinal Points of the heavens. For had not the beginning thereof been now fixed, the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars could not have been noted upon the days thereof. The Priests of Egypt therefore in the Reign of Amenophis continued to observe the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars upon every day. And when by the Sun's Meridional Altitudes they had found the Solstices and Equinoxes according to the Sun's mean motion, his Equation being not yet known, they fixed the beginning of this year to the Vernal Equinox, and in memory thereof erected this monument. Now this year being carried inro Chaldaea, the Chaldaeans began their year of Nabonassar on the same Thoth with the Egyptians, and made it of the same length. And the Thoth of the first year of Nabonassar fell upon the 26th day of February: which was 33 days and five hours before the Vernal Equinox, according to the Sun's mean motion. And the Thoth of this year moves backwards 33 days and five hours in 137 years, and therefore fell upon the Vernal Equinox 137 years before the Aera of Nabonassar began, that is, 884 years before Christ. And if it began upon the day next afrer the Vernal Equinox, it might begin three or four years earlier; and there we may place the death of this King. The Greeks feigned that he was the son of Tithonus, and therefore he was born after the return of Sesac into Egypt, with Tithonus and other captives, and to might be about 70 or 75 years old at his death.

883. Dido builds Carthage, and the Phoenicians begin presently after to sail as far as to the Straights Mouth, and beyond. Aeneas was still alive, according to Virgil.

870. Hesiod flourishes. He hath told us himself that he lived in the age next after the wars of Thebes and Troy, and that this age should end when the men then living grew hoary and dropt into the grave; and therefore it was but of an ordinary length: and Herodotus has told us that Hesiod and Homer were but 400 years older than himself. Whence it follows that the destruction of Troy was not older than we have represented it.

860. Moeris Reigns in Egypt. He adorned Memphis, and translated the seat of his Empire thither from Thebes. There he built the famous Labyrinth, and the northern portico of the Temple of Vulcan, and dug the great Lake called the Lake of Moeris, and upon the bottom of it built two great Pyramids of brick: and these things being not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod, were unknown to them, and done after their days. Moeris wrote also a book of Geometry.

852. Hazael the Successor of Hadad at Damascus dies and is Deified, as was Hadad before: and these Gods, together with Arathes the wife of Hadad, were worshipt in their Sepulchres or Temples, till the days of Josephus the Jew; and the Syrians boasted their antiquity, not knowing, saith Josephus, that they were novel.

844. The Aeolic Migration. Boeotia, formerly called Cadmeis, is seized by the Boeotians.

838. Cheops Reigns in Egypt. He built the greatest Pyramid for his sepulchre, and forbad the worship of the former Kings; intending to have been worshipped himself.

825. The Heraclides, after three Generations, or an hundred years, reckoned from their former expedition, return into Peloponnesus. Henceforward, to the end of the first Messenian war, reigned ten Kings of Sparta by one Race, and nine by another; ten of Messene, and nine of Arcadia: which, by reckoning (according to the ordinary course of nature) about twenty years to a Reign, one Reign with another, will take up about 190 years. And the seven Reigns more in one of the two Races of the Kings of Sparta, and eight in the other, to the battle at Thermopylae; may take up 150 years more: and so place the return of the Heraclides, about 820 years before Christ.

824. Cephren Reigns in Egypt, and builds another great Pyramid.

808. Mycerinus Reigns there, and begins the third great Pyramid. He shut up the body of his daughter in a hollow ox, and caused her to be worshipped daily with odours.

804. The war, between the Athenians and Spartans, in which Codrus, King of the Athenians, is slain.

802. Nitocris, the sister of Mycerinus, succeeds him, and finishes the third great Pyramid.

794. The Ionic Migration, under the conduct of the sons of Codrus.

790. Pul founds the Assyrian Empire. 788. Alychis Reigns in Egypt, and builds the eastern Portico of the Temple of Vulcan very splendidly; and a large Pyramid of brick, made of mud dug out of the Lake of Moeris. Egypt breaks into several Kingdoms. Gnephactus and Bocchoris Reign successively in the upper Egypt, Stephanathis, Necepsos and Nechus, at Sais; Anysis or Amosis, at Anysis or Hanes; and Tacellotis, at Bubaste.

776. Iphitus restores the Olympiads. And from this Aera the Olympiads are now reckoned. Gnephactus Reigns at Memphis.

772. Necepsos and Pelosiris invent Astrology in Egypt.

760. Semiramis begins to flourish. Sanchoniatho writes.

751. Sabacon the Ethiopian, invades Egypt, now divided into various Kingdoms, burns Bocchoris, slays Nechus, and makes Anysis fly. .

747. Pul, King of Assyria, dies, and is succeeded at Nineveh by Tiglathpilasser, and at Babylon by Nabonassar. The Egyptians, who fled from Sabacon, carry their Astrology and Astronomy to Babylon, and found the Aera of Nabonassar in Egyptian years.

740. Tiglathpilasser, King of Assyria, takes Damascus, and captivates the Syrians.

729. Tiglathpilasser is succeeded by Salmanasser.

721. Salmanasser, King of Assyria, carries the Ten Tribes into captivity.

719. Sennacherib Reigns over Assyria. Archias the son of Evagetus, of the stock of Hercules, leads a Colony from Corinth into Sicily, and builds Syracuse.

717. Tirhakah Reigns in Ethiopia.

714. Sennacherib is put to flight by the Ethiopians and Egyptians, with great slaughter.

711. The Medes revolt from the Assyrians. Sennacherib slain. Asserhadon succeeds him. This is that Asserhadon-Pul, or Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxis, or Sennacherib, who built Tarsus and Anchiale in one day.

710. Lycurgus, brings the poems of Homer out of Asia into Greece.

708. Lycurgus, becomes tutor to Charillus or Charilaus, the young King of Sparta. Aristotle makes Lycurgus as old as Iphitus, because his name was upon the Olympic Disc. But the Disc was one of the five games called the Quinquertium, and the Quinquertium was first instituted upon the eighteenth Olympiad. Socrates and Thucydides made the institutions of Lycurgus about 300 years older than the end of the Peloponnesin war, that is, 705 years before Christ.

701. Sabacon, after a Reign of 50 years, relinquishes Egypt to his son Sevechus or Sethon, who becomes Priest of Vulcan, and neglects military affairs.

698. Manasseh Reigns.

697. The Corinthians begin firtst of any men to build ships with three orders of oars, called Triremes. Hitherto the Greeks had used long vessels of fifty oars.

687. Tirhakah Reigns in Egypt.

681. Asserhadon invades Babylon.

673. The Jews conquered by Asserhadon, and Manasseh carried captive to Babylon.

671. Asserhadon invades Egypt. The government of Egypt committed to twelve princes.

668. The western nations of Syria, Phoenicia and Egypt, revolt from the Adrians. Asserhadon dies, and is succeeded by Saolduchinus. Manasseh returns from Captivity.

658. Phraortes Reigns in Media. The Prytanes Reign in Corinth, expelling their Kings.

657. The Corinthians overcome the Corcyreans at sea: and this was the oldest sea fight.

655. Psammiticus becomes King of all Egypt, by conquering the other eleven Kings with whom he had already reigned fifteen years: he reigned about 39 years more. Henceforward the lonians had access into Egypt; and thence came the Ionian Philosophy, Astronomy and Geometry.

652. The first Messenian war begins: it lasted twenty years.

647. Charops, the first decennial Archon of the Athenians. Some of these Archons might dye before the end of the ten years, and the remainder of the ten years be supplied by a new Archon. And hence the seven decennial Archons might not take up above forty or fifty years. Saosduchinus King of Assyria dies, and is succeeded by Chyniladon.

640. Josiah Reigns in Judaea.

636. Phraortes, King of the Modes, is slain in a war against the Assyrians. Astyages succeeds him.

635. The Scythians invade the Medes and Assyrians.

633. Battus builds Cyrene, where Irasa, the city of Antaeus, had stood.

627. Rome is built.

625. Nabopolassar revolts from the King of Assyria, and Reigns over Babylon. Phalantus leads the Parthenians into Italy, and builds Tarentum.

617. Psammiticus dies. Nechaoh reigns in Egypt.

611. Cyaxeres Reigns over the Medes.

610. The Princes of the Scythians slain in a feast by Cyaxeres.

609. Josiah slain. Cyaxeres and Nebuchadnezzar overthrow Nineveh, and, by sharing the Assyrian Empire, grow great.

607. Creon the first annual Archon of the Athenians. The second Messian war begins. Cyaxeres makes the Scythians retire beyond Colchos and Iberia, and seizes the Assyrian Provinces of Armenia, Pontus and Cappadocia.

606. Nebuchadnezzar invades Syria and Judaea.

604. Nabopolassar dies, and is succeeded by his Son Nebuchadnezzar, who had already Reigned two years with his father.

600. Darius the Mede, the son of Cyaxeres, is born.

599. Cyrus is born of Mandane, the Sister of Cyaxeres, and daughter of Astyages.

596. Susiana and Elam conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Caranus and Perdiccas fly from Phidon, and found the Kingdom of Macedon. Phidon introduces Weighs and Measures, and the Coining of Silver Money.

590. Cyaxeres makes war upon Alyattes King of Lydia.

588. The Temple of Solomon is burnt by Nebuchadnezzar. The Messenians being conquired, fly into Sicily, and build Messana.

585. In the sixth year of the Lydian war, a total Eclipse of the Sun, predicted by Thales, May the 28th, puts an end to a Battel between the Medes and Lydians: Whereupon they make Peace, and ratify it by a marriage between Darius Medus the son of Cyaxeres, and Ariene the daughter of Alyattes.

584. Phidon presides in the 49th Olympiad.

580. Phidon is overthrown. Two men chosen by lot, out of the city Elis, to preside in the Olympic Games.

572 Draco is Archon of the Athenians, and makes laws for them.

568. The Amphictious make war upon the Cirrheans, by the advice of Solon, and take Cirrha. Clifthenes, Alcmaeon and Eurolicus commanded the forces of the Amphictions, and were contemporary to Phidon. For Leocides the son of Phidon, and Megacles the son of Alcmaeon, at one and the same time, courted Agarista the daughter of Clifthenes.

569. Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt. Darius the Mede Reigns.

562. Solon, being Archon of the Athenians, makes laws for them.

557. Periander dies, and Corinth becomes free from Tyrants.

555. Nabonadius Reigns at Babylon. His Mother Nitocris adorns and fortifies that City.

550. Pisistratus becomes Tyrant at Athens. The Conference between Croesus and Solon.

549. Solon dies, Hegestratus being Archon of Athens.

544. Sardes is taken by Cyrus. Darius the Mede recoins the Lydian money into Darics.

538. Babylon is taken by Cyrus.

536. Cyrus overcomes Darius the Mede, and translates the Empire to the Persians. The Jews return from Captivity, and found the second Temple.

529. Cyrus dies. Cambyses Reigns,

521. Darius the son of Hystaspes Reigns. The Magi are slain. The various Religions of the several Nations of Persia, which consisted in the worship of their ancient Kings, are abolished, and by the influence of Hystaspes and Zoroaster, the worship of One God, at Altars, without Temples is set up in all Persia.

520. The second Temple is built at Jeruselem, by the command of Darius.

515. The second Temple is finished and dedicated.

513. Harmodius and Aristogiton, slay Hipparchus the son of Pisistratus, Tyrant of the Athenians.

508. The Kings of the Romans expelled, and Consuls erected.

491. The battle of Marathon.

485. Xerxes Reigns.

480. The Passage of Xerxes over the Hellespont into Greece, and battles of Thermopylae and Salamis.

464. Artaxerxes Longimanus Reigns.

457. Ezra returns into Judaea. Johanan the father of Jaddua was now grown up, having a chamber in the Temple.

444. Nehemiah returns into Judaea. Herodotus writes.

431. The Peloponnesian war begins.

428. Nehemiah drives away Manasseh the brother of Jaddua, because he had marred Nicaso the daughter of Sanballat.

424. Darius Nothus Reigns.

422. Sanballat builds a Temple in Mount Gerizim, and makes his son-in-law Manasseh the first High-Priest thereof.

412. Hitherto the Priests and Levites were numbered, and written in the Chronicles of the Jews, before the death of Nehemiah: at which time either Johanan or Jaddua was High-Priest, And here Ends the Sacred History of the Jews.

405. Artaxerxes Mnemon Reigns. The end of the Peloponnesian war.

359. Artaxerxes Ochus Reigns.

338. Arogus Reigns.

336. Darius Codomannus Reigns.

332. The Persian Empire conquered by Alexander the great.

331. Darius Codomannus, the last King of Persia, slain.