70 years are accomplished at Babylon I will visit you Ier. 29.10 For I will rise up against them saith the Lord of hosts and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant both son and nephew saith the Lord. Esa 14.22 And againe When there commeth a Nation out of the North and layeth Babel wast then in those dayes and at that time saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come weeping and enquiring the way to Sion Ier. 50.4 Now that no part of this could goe beyound the death of Belshazzar the third King is apparant out of Daniels prophecy For this saith he is the interpretation of the thing MENE God hath numbred thy Kingdome and finished it Dan. 5.26 Where note that if Nebuchadnezzars Kingdome were numbred and finished at the death of Belshazzar then must no part either of his Kingdome or of the 70 years be after that time for not onely were the years of the Kingdome but of the Captivity to end then their dates by Scripture depending each upon other It is therefore said in Esay that Tyrus which we know was one of them that was to bear Babels yoake shall be forgotten 70 years according the dayes of one King Esa 23.15 Which expression according to the dayes of one King is certainly meant of one Kingdome and is expounded so by a like phrase in Dan. 7.17 23. Of one Kingdome I say viz. The Kingdome of Babylon which was Nebuchadnezzars Kingdome continued onely to him his son and his sons son as was before mentioned out of Ier. 27.7 and Esay 14.22 Upon consideration of which sure it was Hist World lib. 3. c. 1. sect 4. that Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World could say They who meerly follow the authority of the Scripture without borrowing any helpe from others name onely three Kings viz. Nebuchadnezzar Evilmerodach and Belshazzar For which they have not onely the filence of Daniel for their warrant who names none other but even the promise of Ieremiah also precisely and in a manner purposely teaching the same Jer. 27.7 In which text be words expressing the continuance of the Chaldaean Empire and number of the Kings so as will hardly be qualified with any distinction And indeed I finde no other necessity of qualification to be used herein then such as may grow out of mens desire to reconcile the Scriptures unto prophane Authours Which desire were not unjust if the consent of all Histories were on the one side and the letter of the holy Text were single on the other side Thus he very gravely and judiciously and therefore without some handsome way of reconcilement I shall build no more upon the Authority of this Fragment of Berosus then I have hitherto done But perhaps a way may be found Suppose we then this to be propable That after Evilmerodach had reigned two years that then he gave himselfe to sloth and luxury and thereupon appointed Naragalrazar his sisters husband to be his Deputy which continued for the space of four years at the end whereof Evilmerodach either dyed or was slain by his Debuty who thereupon strove what he could to establish the Kingdome to his owne son Labosardach albeit he were a child But Nabonidus otherwise called Balthasar or Belshazzar impatient of such an injury prevailes against him For though for nine moneths space he was a little molested yet at the end thereof he was quietly possessed of his Fathers throne which he held for the space of seventeen years and was then slain at the taking of Babylon by King Cyrus who in the second year of his expedition took the City and so ended the time of Babels Kingdome in which the Nations were to serve Nebuchadnezzar his son and his sons son This I confesse would seeme something probable were all things correspondent but here is so short a time for the reign of these Kings that they will be all dead and gone before the Captivity was ended which can by no means be I remember therefore what is conjectured by the knight before mentioned in his History of the World lib. 3. cap. 1. sect 13. viz. That the seven years or six years and nine moneths given by Berosus to Evilmerodach Naragalrazar and Labosardach are not to be reckoned after the death of Nebuchadnezzar but rather before namely in the time of his Madnesse and living Wilde during which time Evilmerodach having expected the recovery of his Father about some three moneths reigned two years then Naragalrazar having put him downe rules four years and last of all Labosardach nine moneths in the end whereof Nebuchadnezzar is againe restored Which opinion though differing from that of Lyranus and Pererius who make Evilmerodach the sole Regent in his Fathers absence and is also differing from that of Josephus who speaking of Nebuchadnezzars madnesse saith none durst invade the Kingdome all those seven years yet for all that I think no wise man will lightly esteeme it for it serves better to reconcile Berosus to the Scriptures then any other opinion that hitherto hath been extant Scaliger in his Animadversions upon Eusebius expounds Berosus otherwise and saith Evilmerodach succeeded Nebuchadnezzar whom Naragalrazar slew thereby to advance his own son the nephew of Nebuchadnezzar to the Septer which himself swayed as Protectour in the minority of his son who was called Labosardach But Naragalrazar being dead and his son more fit for a Chamber then a Throne Nabonidus conspired against him slew him This Nabonidus saith Scaliger is Darius Medus and Labosardach is that Belshazzar mentioned by Daniel according to his interpretation of the Prophet out of Berosus and Megasthenes which indeed is but his interpretation who we know was in all thing singular and in most things peremptory and therefore though he scorneth all other Chronologers who subscribe not to his magisteriall Dictates yet are his bare words no warrant nor scornes good proofes to make us think his Tenets the onely true ones no not here in this now under question For the Oracle of the Prophet points us out no other then Nebuchadnezzar Evilmerodach and Belshazzar as already hath been proved Unto which let me add that Herodotus calleth the last King of Babylon Labynitus and who was this but Nabonidus in Berosus and who was Nabonidus but Belshazzar called by the Babylonians Naboandel as saith Josephus who was Belshazzar but he whom Cyrus conquered as Xenophon plainly with the Prophet Daniel beareth witnesse Note also further that Darius Medus was a Mede by birth and not a Babylonian being Darius of the seed of the Medes Dan. 9.1 And if a Mede by birth then how could Nabonidus be Darius Medus who even in Berosus himselfe is said to be a Babylonian And as Daniel is against him so also Esay shewing that he came not to his Kingdom by Election For behold I will stur up the Medes against thee Esa 13.17 The Medes therefore assaulted Babylon and took it together with the Persians not by favour but by
parts of Europe Syria and Egypt and these things done with such celerity that he might well appear to Daniel in one of his Visions with * Quia nihil fuit velocius Alexandri victoria as Saint Hierom observeth wings on his backe Dan. 7.6 Apelles knew no such Prophecie and yet to signifie his great swiftnesse and agility he added to his Picture a Thunderbolt and Lysippus another painter drew him in this fashion looking up towards Heaven and as it were uttering these words Jupiter asserui terram mihi tu assere coelum Jupiter I have taken the earth to my selfe do thou take the Heaven Which Poesie pleased him and gave him great content insomuch that none afterwards might take his Picture except Lysippus at length growing to be more and more taken with an itch of vaine glory he called himselfe the son of Jupiter arrogating such a worship to be due unto him as was conferred on the Gods which when Callisthenes refused to give he caused him to be killed Howbeit before he had glutted himselfe with the pleasures of Asia he was more milde and better-minded for as Josephus hath recorded meeting Jaduah the high Priest of the Jewes in his Pontificall robes Joseph Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 8. he fell down before him and gave him reverence and being asked by Parmenio why he did so he answereth I worship not the man but God in the man who in the same habit had appeared to him and gave him encouragement to go forward in that enterprise concerning the conquest of Asia And indeed upon this appearance he grew confident went on couragiously and with good successe untill the time came that he must be broken off which was in the first year of the 114 Olympiad as most Authours reckon aster which foure other hornes sprang up in his stead CHAP. XIV Of the four Hornes which came up in stead of the great Horne broken off as was prophecyed Dan. 8.8.21.22 As also the beginning of that Date of the Kingdome of the Greekes so often mentioned in the Bookes of the Maccabees and in Josephus THese foure Hornes were the four successours of Alexander or rather the foure Kingdomes into which his great and mighty Monarchy was divided after him not instantly or immediately after he was dead but by the time that his whole stocke and posterity were rooted out And for this we have the warrant of Daniel in another place of his prophecy namely in the eleventh Chapter at the fourth verse in which place is said His Kingdome shall be divided towards the foure windes of Heaven but not to his posterity This was not untill twelve yeares after the death of Alexander for then none of his posterity being left alive neither Mother Brother Wife nor child his Captaines composed the differences that were between them by entring into a League among themselves and began to reigne bringing the dominion of the whole for which they strove into four Heads and so there were foure Kingdomes though not according to the dominion which he ruled nor in such power as he had Daniel sheweth it Dan. 8.22 and Dan. 11.4 The most eminent among these and which had most to do with the Jews was the Kingdome of the Syro-Grecians or the Kingdome of the Greekes in Syria and Babylon For Ptolomy the sonne of Lagus obtained Egypt and is called he and his successours after him the King of the South In the North Antigonus held Asta minor In the West Cassander possessed the Kingdome of Macedonia and in the East Seleucus Nicanor obtained the Kingdome of Babylon and Syria in whose first yeare that date so often mentioned in the Bookes of the Maccahees and in Josephus tooke beginning That in the first Booke of Maccabees on the thirteenth day of March in the yeare of the Iulian Period 4402. That in the second Booke of the Maccabees at the Spring time of the next yeare between both which was another beginning on the sixth day of September in the same yeare with the first And thus we have the severall heads of this Aera of Seleucus The first is called Minjan staros that is Aera Contractuum Eusebius calleth it Aera Edessenorum and others the Aera of the author of the first Booke of Maccabees and is followed by Josephus They that cast it into the 436. yeare of Nabonassar are right if they marke how they account it which must be thus The 436. yeare of Nabonassar began in the yeare of the Iulian Period 4401 on the ninth day of November and on the thirteenth day of March next after whilst the same yeare of Nabonassar was still running on the first yeare of the Greekes began This first yeare therefore of the Kingdome of the Greekes began in the yeare of the Iulian Period 4402. as at the first was said on the thirteenth day of March at the Summer time of which year entred in the first year of the 117 Olympiad The second is called Aera Antiochena seu Alexandrea sive * Id est a duobus coâ—â—bus seu duobus imperiis quae ex uno orientali Alexandrino enata sunt Orig De temp p. 24. Lydiat De emend tem pag. 83.84 Dilkarnaim beginning on the sixth of September in the same year with the former The third is Aera Chaldaica seu Macedonica beginning in the Spring time of the following year falling therefore into the yeare of the Iulian Period 4403. and is called the Aera of the Author of the second Booke of Maccabees followed as I conceive by Ptolomy Lib. magni operis 11. cap. 7. who beginneth his account in the yeare of Nabonassar 437. In the 148 year of this Kingdome according to the first account Judas Maccabeus purged the Temple and the holy places which the Heathen had polluted and defiled building a new Altar and restoring the Sacrifices as is recorded in 1 Macc. 4.52 53. This was in the year of the Julian Period 4549 and year of the World 3840 on the 25 day of Casleu If this year were annus Embolimaeus then must the 25 day of Casleu be on the two and twentieth or three and twentieth of November as Calvisius reckoneth But as I account it was not annus Embolimaeus and therefore the 25 of Casleu was on the * Because the first of Nisan was April 6. f. 1. and so it must be by reason of the Equinox two and twentieth day of December f. 2. In the year next after was the beginning of a year of Rest on the 21 day of September and is mentioned after the death of Antiochus when Eupator beseiged Jerusalem 1 Macc. 6.48 49. In the yeare therefore of the Julian Period 4550 this Sabbathical year began and reached to the seventh moneth of the next year In the year of the same Period 4578 began another and in the year 4676 another All of them spoken of in Josephus and two of them in the History of the Maccabees CHAP. XV. Of the little
the just number of 430. years The fourth is from the comming out of Egypt till King Salomon began the building of the Temple in the fourth yeare of his reigne and is a Period of 479. years compleat or of 480. begunne The fifth is from the first founding of the Temple to the destruction thereof by Nebuchadnezzar in the ninteenth yeare of his reigne almost ended in the first yeare of the 48. Olympiad and is a Period of 423. yeares and about 103. dayes The sixth is from thence to the time that Zerobabell began againe to build it in the second yeare of Darius King of Persia and is a Period of 68. years and some dayes more The seventh is from thence to the beginning of Daniels LXX weeks in the twentieth yeare of Artaxerxes Longimanus when Jerusalem was againe fully restored and the wals thereof built up and finished by Nehemiah in a streight of time this being a Period of 65. years as shall be afterwards proved The eighth is from thence to the beginning of Christs Ministery in the seventie and fourth Julian yeare at the Autumne of the yeare of the Julian Period 4742. and is a Period of 483. years called by Daniel Seven weeks and Sixtie two weeks as is recorded Dan. 9.25 These seven and sixtie two make sixtie nine and end at Autumne but Christ was baptized on the sixth of January before In the beginning therefore of the seventieth or last week exactly betweene the first and second Passeover after his Baptisme when his Harbinger John had now finished his message and was cast into Prison a time precisely and purposely noted in the Evangelicall story Christ first began to preach in Galilee the Gospell of the Kingdome and proclaimed himselfe to be the MESSIAH For after John was put in Prison saith Marke 1.14 Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdome of God and saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The time is fulfilled that is as Master Mede expounds it the last Week of the seventy is come and the Kingdome of God is at hand From that time saith Matthew cap. 4.17 Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand This was that day whereof Christ himselfe said at Nazareth that that Scripture was fulfilled The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath annointed me to preach the Gospell to the poore c. and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord Luke 4.18.19 This the time and place whence Saint Peter reckoned the beginning of Christs Prophecy in his Sermon to Cornelius That word saith he which was published through out all Judea and began from Galilee after the Baptisme which John preached c. Acts 10.37 Learned Scaliger also here hath well observed For though he expound Daniels Weekes otherwise then I have done yet this he saith Dimidium autem Septimanae pertinet ad praedicationem Messiae quod nemo ignorat Scal. De Emend temp lib. 6. edit 1. Praedicatio autem non a Baptismo incipit quod hactenus omnibus persuasum fuit sed à vinculis Johannis Baptistae Thus he Who hereupon accounteth from the imprisonment of John to the Resurrection of Christ three yeares and a halfe saying A vinculis Johannis praedicatione ad Resurrectionem anni tres cum semisse And againe Male hactenus tempus Praedicationis a Baptismo definitum Thus in his first Edition and in his second thus Hinc incipit saith he praedicatio Christi Meaning that from the imprisonment of John between the first and second Passeover was the beginning of Christs preaching The ninth is from hence to the Passion of Christ in the middle of this last week and is a Period of three years and six moneths For in the fourth year of this week three years and an halfe after Christ Jesus began his Prophecie being made our High Priest he offered himselfe upon the Crosse a Sacrifice for Sin was dead buried and rose again Then ascended up into heaven to be installed and to sit at the right hand of God and from thenceforth to reigne till he have subdued all his enemies under his feet The time of this Period is confessed even by some among the Jewes three years and a halfe the glory of God stood upon Mount Olivet and preached saying Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near as Rabbi Janna noteth The next to this is the tenth Period and is from the Passion of Christ to the end of the last Jubilee at the Autumne of the year foregoing the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans containing the number of thirty six years and and a halfe or thereabout This Rest or Jubilee was the last that ever the Jews saw in their owne Land for in the next year after it was ended their Temple and City was utterly destroyed and they themselves cast out even in the year of the World 4074. and year of the Julian Period 4783. Which year was also the seventieth year of Christ according to the common account the 115. Julian year the second year of Vespasian and year of Rome built 822. And surely the Providence of God herein is clearly seen for as they began their account for Rests and Jubilees in the last year of Moses six moneths before they passed over Jordan when they had conquered and began to possesse a part of that Land which God had given them for their Tribes to inherit So in like manner this reckoning ended with them when the time was at hand that it should be taken away from them and they cast out till the time of the fulnesse of the Gentiles come Luke 21.24 And to this in one place doth Scaliger well agree for though in his fifth book De emendatione Temporum he begins this reckoning in the seventh year after they came into Canaan yet afterward in his seventh book in his notes upon that Kalender called Computus Judaicus he plainely saith Ingressus Israelis in terram est primus annus Septimanae That is the entrance of Israel into the Land is the first year of the Week And so I account for the first year of the first Week was not ended untill the Autumne next after Joshua conducted the people of Israel over Jordan This last year of Moses was in the year of the Julian Period 3263. Num. 32.33 when the Kingdome of Sihon King of the Amorites and the Kingdome of Og King of Bashan was conquered and given to the children of Gad and to the children of Ruben and to halfe the tribe of Manasseth the Son of Joseph for a possession this conquest being about six moneths before Joshua passed over Jordan as Codoman noteth The seventh year from hence inclusively was therefore the beginning of the first year of Rest in the year of the Iulian Period * And was the yeare of the Jews Period 2317. 3269. And the seventh seven in like manner the first Iubilee in the year of
which accordingly came to passe in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar when cleane riddance is made of all out of their owne Land signified by that part of haire which for a time was bound up and at the last taken and burnt Finally the length of this Period is likewise proved by two Sabbathicall years the one in the dayes of Hezekia the other in the dayes of Zedechia Kings of Judah and both these noted in Scripture the one by the Prophet Esay Chapter 37. verse 30. The other by the Prophet Jeremiah Chapter 34. verse 8. That which the Prophet Esay mentions began in the eighteenth yeare of Hezekia in the yeare after the Temple was founded 302 and yeare of the Julian Period 4004 and was Sabbathicall till the Autumne next after at which time they sowed their fields which had rested from the Autumn before as the law required For this we are to note That that expedition which Senacharib began against the Kingdome of Iudah and Jerusalem in the latter end of the 14 year of Hezekia was an expedition of * Esay 20.3.4 three yeares and intended chiefly the invading of Egypt and therefore ended not till after the harvest time of the year of the Julian Period 4004 when his host was slain by an Angell For in the year of the same Period 4001 the fourteenth year of Hezekia tending towards an end Senacharib began it and invaded some part of the Kingdome of Judah first where he took no few of the defenced Cities thereof Esa 36.1 About which time Hezekia fell sick and upon his recovery had a promise not onely that his life should be prolonged for fifteen years but also that he and his City should be delivered out of the hand of the Assyrian Esay 38.5.6 Which story is indeed mentioned after the death of Senacharib but in generall termes in respect of the time as thus In diebus illis In those dayes Petavius therefore had no just cause to blame Torniellus for his account herein And as God had made this promise so he accomplished it and drew away Senacharib into Egypt where he incountred with Sethon the King thereof in the year of the Julian Period 4002 and came not into Judea againe untill the year 4004 the harvest of which year was thereupon spoyled and troden out in the fields The next year had no harvest at all by reason of the year of Rest which began at the Autumne before But in the year 4006 there was an harvest again as was foretold in Esay 37.30 And thus is that place in Esay to be understood The other Sabbathicall year began in the ninth year of Zedecbia 119. years after the former This was in the year of the Julian Period 4123. In the next year the tenth of Zedechia began In the next after that viz. in the year of the Julian Period 4125. his eleventh ended not till about the beginning of the fourth Moneth in the yeare after viz. in the year of the Julian Period 4126. in which year before the full end of Nebuchadnezzars nineteenth year of reigne and soon after the end of Zedechias eleventh year the Temple was burnt having then stood 423. yeares three Iulian Moneths and about eight dayes And why I say were 119 yeares from the eighteenth of Hezechia to the ninth of Zedechia is because Hezechia who reigned 29 years reigned 11 after his eighteenth yeare Manasses 55. Amon 2. Josiah 31. Jehoahaz 3. Jehoiakim 11 years Jechoniah 3 Moneths and Zedechia 11 years whose last year was as I have already said fully finished before the fifth moneth in the which the Temple was burnt And why also from the fourth of Salomon to the eighteenth of Hezechia were three hundred years and one compleat is in regard that the reigns of the Kings of Judah and Israel rightly compared each with other do make it so as in the following Table may be seen Years of the Iulian Period Yeers of the World Ye Of rest Jubilees Yeers of the Temple A Table of the Yeers of the Kings of JuDAH and ISRAEL during the time that the Temple stood 3703 2994 7 7 1 4 ¶ In this Yeer on the second day of the second Moneth King Salomon began to build the Temple At the seventh Moneth the ninth Jubilee began See 2 Chron. 3.2 3704 2995 1 Jub ix 2 5 3705 2996 2  3 6 3706 2997 3  4 7 3707 2998 4  5 8  3708 2999 5  6 9  3709 3000 6  7 10  3710 3001 7 1 8 11 In this Yeer at the seventh moneth the Temple was Dedicated 1 Kings 8.2 It was in the beginning of a Yeer of Rest 3711 3002 1  9 12 3712 3003 2  10 13 3713 3004 3  11 14  3714 3005 4  12 15  3715 3006 5  13 16  3716 3007 6  14 17  3717 3008 7 2 15 18  3718 3009 1  16 19  3719 3010 2  17 20  3720 3011 3  18 21  3721 3012 4  19 22  3722 3013 5  20 23 About this time King Salomon finished the Buildings of his own House 2 Chron. 8.1 3723 3014 6  21 24 3724 3015 7 3 22 25 3725 3016 1  23 26  3726 3017 2  24 27  3727 3018 3  25 28  3728 3019 4  26 29  3729 3020 5  27 30  3730 3021 6  28 31  3731 3022 7 4 29 32  3732 3023 1  30 33 About this time as is supposed Salomons strange Wives Concubines entice him to Idolatry but before he died he repented and among his other Books writeth that of the Preacher as a recantation for his former errours and sins that he had committed and having reigned forty yeers died in the yeer of the World 3031. 3733 3024 2  31 34 3734 3025 3  32 35 3735 3026 4  33 36 3736 3027 5  34 37 Yeers of the Julian Period Yeers of the World Ye Of rest Jub Ye Of the Temple A Table of the Kings of JUDAH and ISRAEL during the time that the Temple stood 3737 3028 6  35  3738 3029 7 5 36    3739 3030 1  37  The KINGDOM divided  Kings of Judab Kings of Israel 3740 3031 2  38 1 Rehoboam the son of Salomon reigned over Judah 17. yeers 1 Kin. 24.21  1 Ieroboam reigned over Israel 22. yeers 1 Kin. 14.20 the last of which yeers was incompleat as appeareth by the reign of his son Nadab Salomons idolatry caused by his strange Wives Concubines together with Rehoboams tyranny was the cause of this rent or division 3741 3032 3  39 2  2 3742 3033 4  40 3  3 3743 3034 5  41 4  4 3744 3035 6  42 5 In this year Sesac King of Egypt made an inroad to Jerusalem and spoiled the Temple carrying from thence the
Ahasuerus which was his Imperial name and was so called as being the first that obtained the Persian Monarchie by the right of inheritance for such saith Master Lydiat is the signification of the word Ahasuerus or Assuerus Nor will Scaliger himselfe but confesse that it was ordinary with these Kings to change their names when they tooke the Government of the Empire upon them as Cluverus observeth in his Computo Chronologico Cambyses therefore is not unfitly taken for Ahasuerus Ezra 4.6 Next after whom was Magus the Magician who reigned under the name of the brother of Cambyses the other son of Cyrus called by Ctesias not Smerdis as in Herodotus but Tanyoxarces or Tanyoxerxes the same sure which Ezra calleth Artaxerxes or Arthashast Ezra 4.7 So that thus we have the first Artaxerxes he who was before Darius And as for the other after him we need not make question but he was Artaxerxes Longimanus For though Longimanus did not immediately succeed Darius yet was he the first King after him who shewed favour in the restoring Jerusalem If they say the reigne of the Magician was too short to have any hand in the hindring the building of the Temple I answer it was not so short as some may imagine for though he reigned but seven moneths after the death of Cambyses yet was not that the whole time of his reigne for he sat in the throne a good while before even most of the time that Cambyses was out of Persia making war in Egypt and in Ethiopia and against the Ammonians To all which Petavius well accordeth in his twelfth book and 25 Chapter De Doctrina Temporum where noting the Kings of Persia in that order wherein they stand in the book of Ezra thus he saith The first is Cyrus then Assuerus cap. 4.6 to whom the Jews were accused Then Artaxerxes verse 7. who also favoured the Jews enemies and forbad the building of the Temple Afterwards Darius cap. 5. in whose second year the Temple is restored And after him Artaxerxes That Artaxerxes saith he who is mentioned next after Assuerus was not Longimanus but either the same with Assuerus as Josephus thinketh supposing Cambyses to be signified by both those names to whom Torniellus agreeth Or else to speak truely Assuerus is Cambyses and Smerdis the Magician Artaxerxes who cunningly held the Empire eight moneths after Cambyses and hath some of his acts remembred by Herodotus as that he should free his subjects from tribute and grant them a cessation from military employments for the space of three years yea even for almost six years did this personated brother of Cambyses lie hid saith Ctesias and carryed himselfe so cunningly as if he had been Tanyoxerces indeed whom Herodotus call Smerdis Quare ad hunc trahi non immerito potest quod in Esdra legitur Praefectos adversus Judaeos literas ad Artaxerxem dedisse Petav. De Doctr. Tempor lib. 12. c. 25. Learned Langius likewise assenteth hereunto and hath lately declared himselfe against Scaliger in this particular Quid enim vetat saith he reliquorum Regum more hos cum imperium capescerent nomen mutasse ex Cambyse Oxyarem sive Assuerum ex Smerde supposititio quem Ctesias Tanyoxarcen vocat Artoxarcen factum fuisse Thus he with much more to the same purpose in his second book and ninth Chapter De annis Christi And thus in this Section I have shewed the true time of the building of Zorobabels Temple and proved it to be not in the dayes of Darius Nothus but in the dayes of Darius the sonne of Hystaspis who began his reigne in the year of the Julian Period 4193 which was fifteen years after Cyrus proclaimed liberty for the Jews to returne home againe into their owne Country Which account doth exactly agree to the Caelestiall Observations of Ptolomie joyning the twentieth year of this Darius with the 246 of Nabonassar as also the one and thirtieth with the 257 of Nahonassar the first whereof was in the year of the Julian Period 4212 and the next in the year of the same Period 4223. In both which years the Moon is noted by him to be Eclipsed The first according to our Julian account was on the nineteenth day of November And the other on the 25 of Aprill Before which there is another Eclipse noted by him in the seventh year of Cambyses whereto he joyneth the 225 of Nabonassar and was in the year of the Julian Period 4191. The first of Darius Hystaspis must therefore needs be in the year of the said Period 4193. SECT VII Of the seventh Period from the second year of Darius Histaspis to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus THis seventh Period is a Period of 65 years which I cannot better demonstrate then by running through the reignes of all the Kings of Persia from the first of Cyrus to the end of the last Darius whom Alexander conquered I begin then with Cyrus who by the consent of all Authours began to reigne in the first year of the 55 Olympiad viz. in the latter part thereof which was in the year of the Julian Period 4155 at the Summer time whereof the second year of the said Olympiad began He reigned 30 years as Ctesias and most Authours write of which seven were over Babylon according to Xenophon or nine according to Ptolomie in his Mathematicall Canon of the Kings of Babylon But I like best to follow Xenophon The next after Cyrus was Cambyses who had some kinde of Dominion in the third year of Cyrus as Daniel sheweth but from his Fathers death who dyed in the year of the Julian Period 4185 to his owne death he had but seven years and five moneths as it is testifyed by Herodotus and confirmed by Ptolomie In Ctesias his fragment we finde 18 which I beleeve to be a corruption and should more rightly be eight the last of which was incompleat as by the seven years and five moneths noted in Herodotus well appeareth This King Cambyses went to war in Egypt in the third year of the sixty third Olympiad which was in the year of the Julian Period 4188 as Diodorus sheweth lib. 2. during which time of his war there and in Ethiopia and against the Ammonians his Kingdome at home was governed partly by his owne brother Tanyoxerxes and partly by one of the Magoi of Persia who slew his brother and then counterfeted his person and under the vaile of his name held the Empire til the death of Cambyses and seven moneths after at which time the chiefe Nobles of Persia discovering the fraud slew him and advanced Darius the son of Hystaspis to the throne in the year of the Julian Period 4193. The next therfore that reigned after this counterfeit brother of Cambyses was Darius the son of Hystaspis the years of whose reigne are so diversly computed by sundry Authors as that it may seem hard to say how long he reigned For Tertullian lib. contra Judaeos gives him
Period 4259 on the tenth of Tisri which then was on the sixth day of October the sun being then in the seventh degree of Libra From whence to the beginning of Christs Ministery in the year of the said Period 4742. were 483 years which ended not on the sixth of October but on the third because the Sun was also then in the same point of heaven that he was at the first which third of October was now the second day of the Week and seventh day of the seventh Moneth After this was the middle of the last Week on the third day of Aprill in the year of the same Period 4746 for the third year of it ended on the third of October next before from whence if we account 182 dayes which make halfe a year we shall come to the third of April just middle of this last Week on which very day our Saviour suffered as afterwards shall be more fully proved And thus having respect to the motion of the Sun is this account so exact as I cannot but admire to find it so CHAP. IX Of the LXX years in the Prophecy of the Prophet Jeremiah HAving finished the proofes of the severall Periods so far as is necessary I come now to some other things pertinent also to Chronologie And first of the 70 years in Jeremy commonly called the LXX years of Judah's Captivity which some begin in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar at the destruction of the City and Temple because then was not onely a desolation of the Kingdome and People but of the Fields and Grounds which were to lie desolate untill the Land had enjoyed her Sabbaths for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill threescore and ten years as is recorded in 2 Chron. 36.21 But against this may be excepted That they who reckon from hence may as well account from a time which is foure years after For if they stand upon it to prove that there must be a Desolation not onely of the People but of the Fields and Ground and that the Land was to lie desolate and keep a Sabbath free from all Inhabitants for the full and compleate time of 70 years and that thereupon the 70 years in Jeremy could not begin till such a Desolation if so then this I say must needs fall into the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar because the Land was not freed from all her Inhabitans till then nor the Desolations of Judah fully finished untill that year as may be seen in Jer. 52.30 Nor secondly doth that place in 2 Chron. 36.21 of keeping Sabbath 70 year prove a continuall Sabbath of so long time but rather sheweth that the Land during the years of her Desolation beginning from the absence of her inhabitants kept a Sabbath to fill up the number of 70 years To fill up the number that 's all The text therefore meaneth not as they would have that no part of that number was begun till then but that there should not be any people againe in the Land untill the whole number of 70 years formerly begun should be fully finished but where or when they began that text mentions not Others therefore reckon from the transmigration of Jechonia in the eighth year of Nebuchannezzar and they build cheifly upon two grounds The one because the Prophet Ezekiel accounts from thence calling the time after it The time of our Captivity Ezek. 40.1 The other is a proofe from the Prophet Jeremy who when he sent an Epistle to those who were carried away with Jechonia telleth them plainly that when 70 years are accomplished at Babylon that they shall returne againe Jer. 29.10 But here also may be excepted First that the Prophets did usually date their Prophecies from some remarkable accident or other and therefore this Prophet Ezekiel who was carried away with Jechonia and had Visions after he came to Babylon could doe no lesse then date them from the time of that Captivity For he not onely began to prophecy in the Land of Chaldea after he was carried away thither but also dated his Prophecies with respect to that time and calleth it Our Captivity because it had relation to those who were carried away at the same time when he was captivated This is all here therefore is no such absolute warrant for the beginning of the foresaid seventy yeares as some at the first may think And secondly for that Epistle which was sent to the Captives by Ieremiah it is true indeed that they to whom he wrote were carried away with Iechonia but for all that there is nothing in it to prove that the 70 years began but then For the Prophet in the letter to them doth not say that they should returne after they had accōplished 70 years at Babylon but without defining any beginning or time from whence after 70 years were accomplished By which it appeareth plainly enough that this alleaged cannot prove the beginning of the 70 years for we see there is no necessity to begin the reckoning of them when that Epistle was sent but rather from the time when Iudah first began to be a stranger in her owne Land and to bewaile her case at Babylon which was not begun in Iechonias but in Daniel and Iehoiakim with some other of the Kings seed together with part of the Vessels of the house of God Dan. 1.2 Which appeares further to be so in regard that the whole time of Babels Kingdome was but 70 years Esa 23.15 during which time not onely the Jews but the other neighbouring Nations were to serve the King of Babylon These Nations saith the Prophet Ieremy shall serve the King of Babylon 70 years and when seventy years are fulfilled I will make the Land of the Chaldeans a perpetuall desolation Ier. 25.11.12 And againe They shall serve him and his sons and his sons son Ier. 27.7 Which time among these that it was but 70 years is cleare by that before mentioning not onely how long the Nations were to serve the King of Babylon but also how long that Kingdome was to stand Esay therefore saith And it shall come to passe in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years according to the days of one King Esa 23.15 Which expression According to the dayes of one King is meant of one Kingdome as appeareth by a like phrase in Dan. 7.17.23 And this one Kingdom was sure enough the Kingdom of Babylon which was Nebuchadnezzars Kingdom continued only to him his son his sons son as already hath been said Beside When 70 years are accomplished at Babylon I will visite you saith the Lord in Ier 29.10 And if when 70 years be accomplished at Babylon then must the beginning be from the time of the Captivity of the first of the Jews that Nebuchadnezzar carried thither even in the beginning of his Kingdome And when was this but when God had given Iehoiakim into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar with part of the vessels of the house of
God at which time not onely was Iehoiakim bound in fetters to be carryed to Babylon but Daniel with certaine more of the Children of Israel and of the Kings seed and of the Princes were brought thither by Ashpenaz the master of the Eunuches and taught there the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans Daniel 1.3 4. Nor doth the same Prophet elsewhere but understand the beginning of these yeares thus For I understood saith he by books the number of the yeares whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish 70 yeares in the desolations of Jerusalem Dan 9.2 In which text the word is plurall Desolations to shew that the 70 years must include all the Calamities which fell upon Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon beginning even from the first of them and were not ended untill the reign of the Kingdome of Persia namely when Cyrus King of Persia had conquered Babylon and thereupon could say All the Kingdomes of the Earth hath the Lord God of Heaven given me and hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36.20.23 There is saith Petavius a double intervall of 70 yeares expressed in the Scriptures the one by the Prophet Jeremiah the other by the Prophet Zachary and is altogether strange and differing from the former The first intervall is from the first yeare of Nebuchadnezzar to the two and twentieth year of Cyrus when he tooke Babylon The second is from the Desolations of the Temple and City to the second yeare of Darius the sonne of Hystaspis Thus he in his twelfth booke and twenty fourth Chapter De Doctrina Temporum And certainly he was not farre from truth in all this as by that which I have already written may be seen I account I confesse a little otherwise but decline not his grounds for in the first seventy I come two years lower then the two and twentieth of Cyrus and begin not the second when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the City and burnt the Temple but when he laid his last siege against Jerusalem in the yeare of the Julian Period 4125. of which see more in the eighth Chapter and sixth Section And now of all in this Chapter hitherto this is the conclusion that Nebuchadnezzar being sent by his father upon an expedition into Egypt and Syria came against Jerusalem and besieged it in the third year of Jehoiakim by such time at his third year was ended and his fourth a little entred the Lord gave Jehoiakim into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God This was in the year of the Iulian Period 4107. in the ninth Moneth by reason whereof the Jews kept a Fast in that Moneth as is mentioned Ier. 36.9 The Scripture accounteth this for the first yeare of Nebuchadnezzars reigne as well it might for not only now was Nebuchadnezzar taken in as a consort with his father in the Empire but also whilst he was employed in this expedition his father died even in the twentieth year of his reigne as afterwards shall be proved And note that Iehoiakim being now taken by this rod of Gods anger to whom Judah and other Neighbouring Nations must be put in Subjection was bound in fetters to be carried to Babylon among the other Captives 2 Chron. 36.6 but went not For afterwards in the way by an agreement of servitude he was released and sent home againe and so became his servant 2 Kin. 26.1 This was about the Spring time of the yeare of the Julian Period 4108. from whence the 70 years in Jeremy began as without all further scruple may be freely granted especially considering that the first draught must be given to Judah as may be seen in Jer. 25.18.29 CHAP. X. Of the time when Tyrus and Egypt were subdued and taken by Nebuchadnezzar according to the Prophecies of Esay Jeremiah and Ezekiel THat the Jews and other neighbouring Nations were delivered into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar in the first yeare of his Kingdome already hath been proved Jer. 25.9.11 and albeit they refused to beare his yoake yet by degrees he brought them all under Jerusalem he tooke and destroyed in the nineteenth yeare of his reigne at which time Tyrus thought her selfe safe and secure enough She therefore rejoyced at the fall of that great City and is thereupon threatned with destruction for the power and might of Nebuchadnezzar was to come against her This was spoken in the eleventh year of Jechoniah's Captivity which all men know was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar and therefore till after this time there was no siege laid against Tyrus witnessed by the Prophet Ezek. 26.1.2 and at the seventh verse most plainly For thus saith the Lord God Behold I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon Where note that he was not yet come but was after this time to come against her Scaliger therefore casts his account amisse when he reckoned that Tyrus was besieged and taken before the time of this threatning That Tyrus was besieged thirteene years we have it from Iosephus in his first book against Apion who had it out of the Annals of the Phoenicians These eighteen yeares siege were in the reigne of Ithobalus and began in the seventh yeare of his reigne which was also the three and twentieth of Nebuchadnezzar as appeareth by accounting on to the 14 year of Irom from the 14 year of Irom must at least in some part of it fal into the first year of Cyrus as Ioseph here sheweth that is into his first year over Babylon and not into his first yeare over Persia And thus will this account agree wel with that already mentioned out of the 26. Chapter of Ezekiel although it differ much from that which Ioseph Scaliger mainly strives for And note also that from the time at which Tyrus began to be besieged to the death of Irom are 54 yeares which by this account is as right as can be I conclude therefore that Tyrus was taken in the end of the yeare of the Iulian Period 4141. or in the beginning of the next year whilst the seven and twentieth year of Iechoniah's Captivity was still running on for then doth Ezekiel mention the taking of it even after a long siege and service against it as may be seen Ezek. 29.17.18 After which Tyrus is to be forgotten till the end of those seventy yeares which were the date of Nebuchadnezzars Kingdome began from the beginning of the Captivity as the Peophet meaneth in Esa 23.15 A like Phrase is in Gen 11.32 and in Exod 12.40 as Philippus in his Chronologie upon that place in Esay hath observed In oblivione eris ô Tyre 70 annis Tyrus dicitur in oblivione futura 70 annis non quod totos illos annos oblivio tenuerit sed terminarit Thus he and thereupon referrs us to Gen. 11.32 and to Exod. 12.40 And thus we have the right time both for the besieging and taking of Tyrus A list of them that
violence being assisted by Cyrus kinsman to Darius as Josephus writeth And good reason had Josephus for it Joseph antiq lib. 10. ca. 12. For the fall of Babylon was by the joynt forces of two as in another Chapter of the same Prophecy may be seen For thus hath the Lord said unto me Goe set a whatchman let him declare what he seeth And behold he saw a Charet with a couple of horses Esa 21.7 and at the ninth verse And behold here commeth a Charet of men and a couple of Horsemen and he answered and said Babylon is fallen is fallen But by whom is it fallen this the second verse sheweth in these words Goe up O Elam besiege O Media By which we see that the Elamites and Medians or the Persians and Medes united into one body but under two Commanders were the people foretold to come with joynt forces for the destruction of Babylon these being that Ram with two hornes in the eighth of Daniel For the Ram which thou sawest having two hornes are the Kings of Media and Persia Dan 8.20 And hereupon it came to passe that at the taking of Babylon and death of Belshazzar the Kingdome was divided among the Medes and the Persians Dan 5.28 Howbeit the chiefe authority and power might be in the Medes and therefore saith Jeremy Make bright the arrows gather the shields the Lord hath raised up the Spirit of the Kings of the Medes for his device is against Babylon to destroy it Jer. 51.11 Which though it were yet the dexterity in expediting this businesse and in using that Stratageme of * See Xenoph. in his Cyrop li. 7. and Jer. 51.36 dividing the great river Euphrates is ascribed by Xenophon unto Cyrus Nor doth Herodotus but name him the onely authour and beginner of this War the reason whereof is because by his valour and skill the victory was gotten Which being obtained Cyrus forthwith intitles Darius to the Kingdome both because he was his Uncle and also his Elder as Saint Jerom observeth and as Xenophon likewise gives a touch at telling us what Cyrus first said to Cyaxares after the taking of Babylon namely that there was provided for him in Babylon a choyce Palace with stately Edifices that if he come thither he might keep his Court there as in his owne Xenoph. lib. 8. Which is as if it should be said he had now conquered it for him and he might if he pleased freely receive it agreeing therein with the Prophet Daniel who saith that when Belshazzar was slain Darius Medus received the Kingdome being about threescore and two year old Dan. 5.30.31 But then again because at this victory there were Parsin parters to share the Empire not of Madai onely but also of Elam we must know that Cyrus King of Paras or Elam excluded not himselfe but was fellow in Empire with Darius and so the Kingdome was divided between the Medes and the Persians as in the hand-writing upon the wall was declared And so likewise the Jews which were to serve the Chaldeans during the time of their Kingdome which hath been already proved tobe 70 years served them till the reigne of the Persians 2 Chron. 36.20 Nor was this uniting but known to those Greeks in whom the Persian Armies are called Medes as I shall afterwards mention To whom the seventy Translaters applyed themselves when they put for the Hebrew text Paras the terme Medes in this text of the Chronicles And further as for Nabonidas formerly mentioned questionlesse he was the same with Belshazzar for neither doth Josephus nor Berosus attribute to either of them more then 17 years Nor doth Josephus tell us any other thing then that Belshazzar was by the Babylonians called Naboandel as before was noted a name not far differing from Nabonidus in Berosus but differing far enough from Darius Medus To which Josephus doth once again bear witnesse in saying that Darius together with Cyrus his allie destroyed the state of the Babylonians as before was also noted affirming moreover that he was the son of Astyages and is otherwise called by the Greeks And therefore in very truth Darius Medus was not Nabonidus but Cyaxares the second as Xenophon plainly and perspicuously hath related Beside all which this also may be added That the Babylonians would not be so simple to deliver their Empire to a man who was a Mede seeing they thought not so well of the Medes as of other Nations because the bounds of their Kingdome were enlarged far and trenched much upon the Chaldean greatnesse which made them therefore fearfull and suspicious over them To which opinion as saith Pererius Herodotus addes no little force Perer. on Da. Herodot lib. 1 writing that Nitocris Queen of Babylon and mother to Labynitus did greatly fortifie the City of Babylon against the forces and invasions of the Medes Nay more when the Lord rendred unto Babylon and to all the Inhabitants of Chaldea all their evill that they had done in Sion he then stirred up the Nations with the Kings of the Medes and the Captaines thereof and all the Land of his Dominion Jer. 51.24 28. and Esa 13.17 There is therefore more in it I see then the bare delivering of the Kingdome to a man born in Media and brought up in Babylon Hist World lib 3 cap. 2. sect 2.3 for as Sir Walter Raleigh truely gathered from hence the Medes were cheife actors in the subversion of the Babylonian Empire And though the Greeks saith he ascribe the conquest of Babylon to Cyrus alone yet the Scriptures teach uss that Darius was not onely King of Media and had the Persians to be his followers but that the Army victorious over Belshazzar was his being compounded of the strength of both Nations to wit the Medes and Persians with other the vassals of Darius which were all led under the conduct of Cyrus who was cheife General of the Army and had the honour of the victory wholly given to him who was the instrument preordained and forenamed by God himselfe for this action even for the sake of his Church Esa 45.1 2 3 4. And againe It is not saith he more certaine that Belshazzar Iost his life and Kingdome Ide lib. 3. ca. 1. sect 5. then that his Kingdome was divided and given to the Medes and Persians Neither did the Medes and Persians fall out about it as by supposing Nabonidus to have been Darius they should be thought to have done but these two Nations did compound the body of the Empire and were accounted Lords of the subject Provinces insomuch that the Greek Historians did commonly call those Wars which Darius and after him Xerxes made upon Greece The Wars of the Medes Dan. 8.20 yea to cleare this point saith the same authour still even Daniel himselfe resembles that King with whom Alexander fought unto a Ram with two hornes calling him the King of the Medes and the Persians Wherefore saith he the whole Nation of Chronologers were not
Syrians who succeeded Alexander and Alexander also himselfe are said to reigne as Grecians and not as two Kingdomes divers from one Monarchy Whereupon we read in the eighth Chapter of Daniel that the two horned Ram is expresly meant of the Medes and Persians verse 20 and that the Goate fignifieth the whole Kingdome of the Gecians Dan. 8.20.21.22 viz. of Alexonder and his successours For at the one and twentieth verse The Goate is the King of Grecia and the great horne which is betwixt his eyes is the first King Now that being broken whereas four stood up for it four Kingdomes shall stand up of that Nation but not in his strength If then there be a first King there must be no more then one and if more then one the Monarchy could not end in Alexander and if the Monarchy did not end with Alexander then the Seleucian or Syrian Kings must necessarily be part of the third Monarchy and they being part of the third Monarchy the fourth and last is the Monarchy of the Romans And now also lest it should be thought that the third Beast of the seventh Chapter doth not likewise comprehend the whole Kingdome of Grecia both of Alexander and his successours the words of the sixth verse stand thus After this I beheld and loe there was another like a leopard which had upon his back four wings of a fowle the beast had also four heads and Dominion was given him These wings were Emblems of Alexanders speedie conquests together with that suddain division of one body into four parts soone after the great horne was broken off The four heads are his four successours even as is seen in the eighth Chapter and signified there by the four hornes of a Goate By which it appeareth that both Alexander and his successours are comprehended under both Beasts for what the one expresseth by foure heads is in the other also meant by four horns then which there can be nothing plainer Thirdly Antiochus Epiphanes is described by that little horn which came fourth of one of the foure hornes of the Goate Chap. 8.9 Which beast is taken as hath been already seen for Alexander and his successours answering to the third beast of the seventh Chapter But if Antiochus belonging to the Seleucian Kingdome be a part of the third Beast he cannot also signifie the fourth or any part thereof for then one Beast should be both the third and fourth Monarchy Fourthly the Kingdome of this fourth Beast endeth with the destruction of that little horne which came up among the ten horns Chap. 7.11 and then the everlasting Kingdome of Christ succeedeth but the Kingdome of the Seleucians ended not with Antiochus many of that line succeeded afterwards and there was almost as many years from Antiochus Epiphanes death unto the comming of Christ as there were from Alexanders death to Antiochus Fifthly it is said that the life of each Beast was prolonged for a certaine time and season Dan. 7.12 But Alexanders reigne lasted no longer then six years and a few moneths after the destruction of the second Beast or Persian Monarchy And in so short a season what Periods or conversions of times could be observed Sixthly Saint Johns Beast in the Revelation is described according to the pattern of Daniels fourth Beast having ten horns and a mouth speaking great things and reigning also under the regiment of that blasphemous mouth for the space of 42 moneths or for a Time Times and halfe a Time as may be seen in the thirteenth and seventeenth Chapters of the Revelation Wherefore seeing one and the same Beast is described in both Prophecies neither in Daniel nor in the Revelation can be signified by either of them the Kingdomes of the Seleucians and Syrians For look what things concerning this Beast are told to Daniel more succinctly and abstrusely the same are revealed to Saint John more largely and as it were with a kinde of explanation And may not the ten toes in the feet of the Image serve as certaine tokens to shew that although the Beast had always ten horns in respect of the principal Provinces under it yet the ten hornes called by the name of ten Kings are not to be looked for in the first dayes of the Monarchy but in the declining estate and weakned times of the Empire as the toes signifie Seventhly it is said Dan. 2.28 There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and hath shewed to the King what shall be in the latter dayes But the latter dayes are the dayes since the first comming of Christ this time being the last houre and the last age 1 Joh. 2 18. as Saint John hath told us whereas the Syrians or Seleucians both began and ended long before Christ was born The latter dayes therefore were not come till they were gone and the prolonging of their kingdom come to an end for as I said before the life of each Beast was prolonged for a certaine time and season Dan. 7.12 Eighthly in the dayes of these Kings or Kingdomes viz. before they be all destroyed the God of heaven shall raise up the eternall Kingdome of Christ and of his Saints Dan. 2.44 But if the fourth Kingdome be interpreted of the Seleucians then these kingdomes were all extinguished before Christs kingdome began whether we reckon it from his first or second comming whereas on the contrary Christs birth fell into the reigne of the Romans who are not utterly to be destroyed in all and every relique till his comming againe to judgement Which is manifest by that of Daniel also in the seventh Chapter namely that there shall remaine some shew or relicts of the fourth Beast untill the thrones be set verse 9. and the Books be opened verse 10. and till the son of Man come in the cloudes of heaven verse 13. and till he get all dominion and honour and Kingdomes and that all People Nations and tongues may serve him verse 14. and untill the Ancient of dayes cause judgement to be given verse 22. and till his everlasting Kingdome come which never shall have an end verse 27. All which doe properly belong unto the day of judgement and second comming of Christ and therefore the fourth Monarchy must needs be meant of the Roman Empire and not of the Syrian or Seleucian Kingdome which was decayed and gone before Christ was born for it fell first of all to Tigranes King of Armenia and afterwards to the Romans in the dayes of Lucullus and Pompey Yea and at the death of Cleopatra Augustus was sole Monarch the longest surviver of the four heads and hornes being then expired in the losse of Egypt And so the fourth Beast trampled the rest under his feet as was foretold Dan. 7.7 And note that the Iews in not expecting the comming of the Messiah untill the Roman Monarchy be destroyed have put a false glosse upon Daniel For it is as Helvicus well observeth a vaine interpretation which they bring For Daniel in
chap. 2. vers 44 45. doth not say that the Kingdome of the Messiah shall come after the end of the fourth Monarchy Helvic vindic locorum S. Scripturae pag. 306. 307. Sed durante adhuc tempore seu periodo illorum regnorum that is in the dayes of those Kingdomes or before they be all destroyed Ergò falsò expectant id post finem Romani imperii Nam durante ipso quarto regno debebat regnum aliud spirituale scilicet aeternum alterius conditionis suscitari quod est regnum Messiae They doe therefore in vaine look for it after the end of the Roman Empire For even during the fourth Kingdome another Kingdome to wit a spirituall and an eternall one of another condition was to be raised up which is the Kingdome of the Messiah Nor doe some of their owne Writings but confirme this truth For as the same Authour saith still in libr. Sanhedrim cap. Chelek it is expresly written Helvic ibid. That the son of David shall not come untill a wicked Kingdome beare rule that is saith Rabbi Salomon the Kingdome of the Romans And in Midras Tillim upon the two and twentieth Psalme Surge in Edom id est Romanis cum futurum est ut astare nobis facias regem Messiam meaning That God would cause to stand up for them in the dayes of the Romans the King Messiah And thus I have delivered what I think to be true concerning the fourth Kingdome in Daniel firmely grounding upon such proofes as in my judgement cannot but carry the whole dispute against Junius and all his followers whom I honour both for their great learning and paines although I cannot be their disciple in this particular CHAP. XVII Of the times and distances of the taking of Jerusalem by Pompie Herod and Titus THat which must be the chiefest Load starre in these particulars must be the time of the taking of Jerusalem by Herod Antiq. lib. 14. cap. 28. for which Josephus gives us two plaine Characters the one that it was befieged and taken in a Sabbathical year viz. after it began and before it was ended the other that it was taken in that yeare when M. Agrippa and Canidius Gallus were Consuls The time of their Consulship was in the ninth Iulian year and year of the Iulian Period 4677 which was the fourth year of the 185 Olympiad and year of the building of Rome 716. And indeed in that year was a year of Rest which began from the Autumne before and was not ended untill the Autumne thereof how then could it be taken on the tenth day of the seventh moneth as Langius saith it was I am sure it agreeth nothing at all to Josephus to say that it was taken so late in the year for as he hath told us not onely was it besieged in a Sabbathical year but even after it was taken the year of Rest was not ended which makes him therefore say that the fields and grounds lay still untilled and were not sowne because of the year of Rest See this in his Antiquities lib. 15. cap. 1. and compare it with what is in lib. 14. cap. 28. Dion saith it was taken on the Sabbath day lib. 49. and Josephus saith it was in the third moneth at such time as the Iews kept a solemne Fast The third moneth was Sivan on whose three and twentieth day was a Fast observed by reason of the Idolatry of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin Now in this year the first of Sivan was on the 31 day of May feria sexta the three and twentieth of Sivan must therefore needes be on the two and twentieth day of June feria septima or on the Sabbath day For the Cycle of the Sun was one the Dominicall letters G. F. and the Cycle of the Moon three Seven and twenty years before this Dion lib. 37. Pompie also took Jerusalem even on the same day of the Moneth which according to Dion and Xiphilin was then also Sabbath day And indeed so I finde it for in the year of the Iulian Period 4650 the Cycle of the Sun was two the Dominicall letter E. and the Cycle of the Moone 14. By which is gathered that the first of Sivan now was on the thirtieth day of May feria sexta the three and twentieth therefore must be June the 21 feria septima or Sabbath day as the Dominicall letter sheweth And herein doe Josephus Dion and Xiphilin well accord all of them directing us to the foresaid year of the Iulian Period 4650 to which if 27 be added according to the direction of Josephus we have then the year of the Julian Period 4677 when Herod took it as at the first was said And note moreover that whereas Josephus saith when Pompey tooke this City C. Antonius and M. Tull. Cicero were Consuls that it is true of that year which I account for though at that very time when the City was taken they were not in that office yet in that year they began even in the year of the Julian Period 4650 their office not expiring untill the same time of the next year which I thought good to mention because the not observing it hath been an occasion of seeking this time one year too late The like may be also said of the 179 Olympiad which began also in the same year although a little after the City was taken for the City was taken in June the Olympiad began not untill the July next after And as for the third moneth when it was taken which learned Langius would not have to be the third moneth of the year but of the siege and thereupon directeth his Reader to Josephus De bello Judaic lib. 1. cap. 5. where the history of the taking Jerusalem by Pompey is also related To that I answer that it hindreth not from accounting so as I have done For the third moneth of the seige might be also the third moneth of the year and is here proved to be so in regard of the day of the Fast and day of the week when the City was taken yea and of the year also which must be by Iosephus his owne account 27 years distant from the taking thereof by Herod I conclude therefore that Pompey going forth against Ierusalem in Nisan and taking it in the third moneth after must needes take it in Sivan which because it was on such a day as the Iews kept a solemne Fast must be on the three and twentieth day of the same which three and twentieth day of Sivan was this year on the one and twentieh day of June and on the Sabbath day as before was said Indeed when Herod took it the seige lasted longer by the space of two moneths De bell Jud. lib. 1. cap. 13. as Josephus plainly sheweth It began therefore sooner not in Nisan which entred not till the second of Aprill but some moneths before Ibid viz. lib. 1. cap. 13. Antiq. lib. 14. cap.
27. even when the worst of Winter was past which in one place of Josephus is translated rigor hyemis as thus ubi autem rigor hyemis cessit c. and in another place ubi tempestas desaeviit Now we know that even in our Northerne Climate the worst of Winter is past long before Aprill which in hotter Countries must be passed sooner then with us by far I reckon therfore that Herod came against Jerusalem in the beginning of February and laid seige against it and that the Iews resisted him for five months space before he took it for he took not the City till the 22 of June next after which was the three and twentieth of Sivan and Sabbath day as well in this year as in that when Pompey took it the authorities else of Dion and Xiphilin will be nothing worth no nor the authority of Iosephus for the Sabbathical year which was running on whilst the City was beseiged and withall was not ended when Herod had taken it which well regarded will give no leave to that opinion maintaining that he took it not till the tenth day of the seventh moneth called Tisri as I have already shewed Note also further Antig. lib. 14. cap. 28. that on the fortieth day after Herod returned from the marriage of Mariamne and that he and Sosius both of them bent their forces against the City the first Wall was taken fifteen dayes after that the second for so I understand Iosephus in those particulars But that it were three moneths after this before the Temple and upper City was taken I cannot think for the Porches and outward Temple were taken and burnt even when the second wall was taken and then quickly after the fury of the Souldiers set them on work to take the rest sparing neither sex nor age as Iosephus also sheweth This was saith he in the hundreth and seven and twentieth year of the Assamonaean Family but how we must account these years I doe not well understand unlesse it be that we are to begin our account in the 150 year of the Greekes which was in the year of the Iulian Period 4551. for then did Antiochus Eupator make a Covenant though he quickly broke it with Judas Maccabeus and the rest of the Iews that they should enjoy their Laws and Liberties as formerly they had done 1 Macc. 6.58 And indeed there is reason to reckon from hence seeing the end of these years is fixed in the death of Antigonus when Herod and Sosius took Jerusalem And now also for the time when Titus took and destroyed this City it must be one hundred and seven years after Herod had taken it and these 107 not compleate but current For Jerusalem was destroyed as saith Iosephus by the Romans one hundred and seven years after Herod had taken it yet so Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 8. as the destruction thereof by Titus must fall into the second year of Vespasian as he againe declareth De bello Iudaic lib. 7. cap. 10. and cap. 18. The time therefore when Titus destroyed it will fall into the year of the Iulian Period 4783 which was in the hundreth and seventh year after it was taken by Herod and Sosius For whereas Herod took it towards the latter end of Iune in the year of the Iulian Period 4677 the Temple was burned by Titus his Soldiers in August in the year of the same Period 4783 and the City in September next after the second year of Vespasian being begun on the Kalends of Iuly before For there were saith Xiphilin from the death of Nero who dyed on the ninth of Iune to the beginning of Vespasian one year and two and twentie dayes But of this destruction of Ierusalem by Titus I shall speake more afterwards in the last Chapter I come therefore now to shew the true time of Herods reigne CHAP. XVIII Of the time of Herods reigne and of his Posterity IT was near about such time as the Romans were growing into a full Monarchy that Herod the great the son of Antipater came to his Kingdome He had a reigne of 37 years from that time wherein he was declared King by the Senate and of 34 from the taking of Jerusalem by himself and Sosius witnessed by Iosephus * Antiq. lib. 14. cap. 26. and lib. 17. ca. 10. De bello Iudaic. lib. 1. cap. ult in sundry places of his Writings Then after him his son Archelaus reigned nine years compleat and near the beginning of his tenth year was banished by Augustus And in the twentieth year of Tiberius his other son Philip dyed having then had a reigne of 37 years after his Father as * Antiq. lib. 17. cap. ultim lib. 18 cap. 6. Iosephus again declareth Antipas also another of his sons was Tetrarch of Galile which he held from the time of his Fathers death untill the dayes of Caius Caligula who by the meanes of Agrippa banished him into France This Antipas was he by whom the Baptist was beheaded and under whom out Saviour suffered Agrippa was the son of Aristobulus and Nephew to Antipas for Aristobulus was another of Herods sons who was put to death by his Father And as for Agrippa it was he who put Iames to death and was himselfe eaten up of Wormes Herod King of Chalcis was this Agrippa's brother he dyed in the eighth year of Claudius and had his Kingdom given to Agrippa junior the son of Agrippa senior who reigned over it for the space of four years at the end whereof the Emperour takes it away from him also and in the stead thereof gives to him the Tetrarchships of Philip and Lysanias c. In them he reigned and lived in friendship with the Romans untill the third year of Trajan and was therefore alive thirty years after the destruction of Ierusalem by Titus But this is not that which I aime at for that which I chiefly intend to prove is the true time of Herod the great before whose death our Saviour Christ was certainely borne Math. 2.1 For as the Scripture speaketh he was born in the dayes of Herod the King This Herod as I said before had a reigne of 37 years from that time wherein he was declared King by the Romans and of 34 from the taking of Jerusalem by himselfe and Sosius The first of these reckonings began in the sixth Iulian year when Cn. Domitius Calvinus and C. Asinius Pollio were Consuls the other in the ninth Iulian year when M. Agrippa and L. Canidius Gallus were Consuls And if so then the last of these years must certainly begin in the two and fortieth Iulian year and year of the Iulian Period 4710 Herod therefore dyed in the three and fortieth Iulian year and year of the same Period 4711 before Easter when from his first beginning he had reigned 37 years compleat and from his second 34 years current Petavius strives for the year before this and that chiefly in regard of an Eclipse of the
former Royalty and reigne begun ten yeares before this time of the Actium victory For should he reigne thirty seven yeares from hence and after him Archelaus nine then where shall we finde roome for them that governed in Iudea after Archelaus was removed from his Kingdome For after Archelaus was removed from his Kingdome Antiq. lib. 17. c 15. lib. 18. c. 3. Iosephus nameth Cyrenius and Coponius as Rulers and disposers of Iudea for a season And after Coponius Marcus Ambibuchus was Ruler and after him Aanius Rufus and then dyed Augustus Ioseph antiq lib. 18. c. 3. Now lay all these together and it will necessarily follow that Herod could not begin his thirty seven years so late as the first year of the Actium fight And if not so late as the Actium fight then for those 15 of Herods age at the Pharsalian battel we must read 25. And so Suslyga Kepler and * Tirinâ—usin Sacr. Bib. Tom. 1 Tornicl in Annall others have answered namely that the forementioned age of 15 years is directly against the mind of Iosephus because he writeth * Antiq. lib. 14. c. 23. elsewhere that Herod was familiarly acquainted with the most Noble among the Romans about tenne yeares before this time which could not be properly said of a Child being between five or six yeares old We may therefore acknowledge an ancient fault in some one or other who at the first transcribed the Authors Copy writing 15. in the stead of 25. which being long agoe is still continued both in the old Manuscripts and later printed Bookes For who seeth not how easily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be written for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one signifieth 15 the other 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greeke text of Josephus where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth olim or quondam shewing that Antonius had had familiar acquaintance with Herod and Phasaelus in former times This sure cannot be denied especially seeing all the other numbers and yeares both in Herod and his succeeding Sons agree very well and may be taken up without any the least contradiction Torniellus therefore in his Annals admonisheth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vitiose scriptum est in Josepho qui ex Josepho descripserunt viz. Gorionide Photio Nicephoro Abulensi c. meaning that 15. is corruptly written in Josephus for 25 as also in those who have written out of Josephus viz. in Gorionides Photion Nicephorus and Abulensis Tirinius also in his Comment upon the holy Bible is of the same opinion and therefore he placeth the birth of Herod in the fourth yeare of the 176. Olympiad from whence to the three and fortieth Iulian year we have seventy yeares about which age Herod was when he dyed For the fourth year of the 176 Olympiad was in the year of the Iulian Period 4641. and the three and fortieth Iulian year in the year of the same Period 4711. which was 70 yeares after So also it will be if you account forty five from the yeare of the Iulian Period 4666. when the Pharsalian battell was for in that battell Herod was twenty five to which adde forty five and so shall his age be seventy in the year of the Iulian Period 4711 as hitherto hath been proved But doe I not heare it yet objected that the death of Herod will be far later then I have hitherto mentioned and that because the time of Archelaus his banishment was not till the reigne of Tiberius Iosephus and Strabo are compared to fortifie this objection For first Iosephus is witnesse that Archelaus was married to Glaphyra the daughter of Archelaus King of Cappadocia whose last husband before him had been Iuba King of Mauritania Now Iuba as is in the second place alleaged out of Strabo was alive till towards the middle of the second year of Tiberius and therefore Archelaus marrying his Widdow could not be banished till the end of the said year or beginning of the next To which I answer first that * Master Tho. Lydyat he who makes this objection is not constant to himselfe for in his Book De emendat Temp. page 162. he placeth the the banishment of Archelaus in the last year of Augustus saying that he was not banished in the 37 year of the fight at Actium but in the 37 year after Augustus had received that power and dignity which was called Tribunitia potestas and thereupon he dissenteth every way from Iosephus and gives him but eight years after his father Then in another book written on purpose to confirme the arguments of his first he would not have Archelaus banished till the dayes of Tiberius in regard of Iuba who was alive till then and whose Widdow he married as formerly hath been said But to this I have a second answer to wit that in Strabo we finde more Iuba's then one who were Kings of Mauritania about such time as the Romans were the greatest Monarchs in the World and therefore it were little lesse then great folly to distrub the times by pitching upon none but the last to be him whose Widdow Archelaus should marry We may as well say that among the Popes Gregory the first and Gregory the second were both one Or that among the Kings of England Richard the first and Richard the second were the same See therefore what Strabo saith in the end of his seventeenth and last book in the Description of Mouritania After Syphaces saith he Masinissa obtained the Kingdome and then Micipsa and his successours and in our times Iuba who was father to that Iuba who dyed lately And thus much concerning the times of Herod and his posterity The next thing to be spoken of is the birth of Christ of which in the following Chapter CHAP. XIX Of the true and right year of our Saviours birth and Baptisme HAving in the former Chapter clearly shewed the times of Herod and of his posterity it will in the next place be worth our while to inqure into the the right time of our Saviours birth Concerning which I finde a variety of opinions both among the Ancient and Moderne Writers and were it not for the time of Herods death should scarce know which to follow For first the Ancients they are divided and tell us thus When Calvisius Sabinus and Lucius Rufinus were Consuls then was Christ borne according to Sulpitius Severus in the second book of his sacred History this was in the 42 Iulian year and year of the Iulian Period 4710. But when Lentulus and Messalinus were Consuls then was Christ borne according to Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Cassiodorus Maximus Monachus and Cedrenus this was in the 43 Julian year Epiphanius and Eusebius are for the next year when Cesar the 13th time and Sillanus were Consuls this was in the 44 Julian year Dionysius Exiguus pitcheth upon the next year after when Lentulus and Piso were Consuls By which testimonies we finde how the Ancients were divided and that from
8 F Sabbath day  15 1 9 G Dies Dominicus The Lords day  16 2 10 A  17 3 11 B  18 4 12 C  19 5 13 D  20 6 14 E  21 7 15 F Sabbath day  22 1 16 G Dies Dominicus The Lords day  23 2 17 A  24 3 18 B  25 4 19 C  26 5 20 D  27 6 21 E  28 7 22 F Sabbath day  29 1 23 G Dies Dominicus The Lords day  30 2 24 A  FINIS Laus Deo CALVMVS MENSVRANS The Measuring Reed OR The Standard of Time CONTAINING The chiefe and principall Kingdomes of the WORLD both before and after CHRIST to the Destruction of JERVSALEM by the ROMANS Wherein the names of the KINGS and years of their reignes are noted and set down in their right times with other things well worthy of Observation The second PART By JOHN SWAN Remember the dayes of old consider the years of many generations Deut. 32.7 I have considered the dayes of old the years of ancient times Psa 77.5 LONDON Printed for John Williams at the signe of the Crowne in St. Pauls Churchyard 1653. The Contents of the Second PART CHAP. I. OF Peleg and Jocktan the two Sonnes of Heber and of Nimrod the beginning of whose Kingdome was at the building of Babel from whence he went into the Land of Assyria and founded Niniveh c. Page 1. CHAP. II. Of Ninus and his Successors p. 7. CHAP. III. Of the Kingdome of Egypt and of the Kings that reigned there p. 15 CHAP. IV. Of the Kingdome of Sycionia and of the Kings that reigned there p. 24. CHAP. V. Of the Kingdome and Kings of the Argives and of the Mycenae that succeeded them p. 34. CHAP. VI. Of the Kingdome and Kings of Athens the first whereof was Cecrops p. 45. CHAP. VII Of the Kings that reigned in the Kiagdome of Troy before the Greekes destroyed it p. 54. CHAP. VIII Of the Kingdome of the Aborigines p. 55. CHAP. IX Of the Kings of Italy after Latinus p. 56. CHAP. X. Of the British Kings that reigned in England from Brute to the time of Julius Caesar and after p. 59 CHAP. XI Containyng the Dynasties of severall other Kingdomes p. 64. CHAP. XII Of the Kings and other Governours of Rome from the founddation thereof by Romulus to the Destruction of Hierusalem by Titus p. 75. CALAMVS MENSVRANS OR The Measuring REED The second Part. CHAP. I. Of Peleg and Jocktan the two Sons of Heber and of Nimrod the beginning of whose Kingdome was at the building of Babel from whence he went into the Land of Assyria and founded Niniveh c. OF Heber it is said in Gen. 10.25 And unto Heber were borne two Sonnes the name of the one was Peleg for in his dayes was the Earth divided and his brothers name was Jocktan Now this Jocktan had thirteene sonnes men growne at the confusion of Tongues as the verses following make apparent and therefore that division of the Earth which was made at the birth of Peleg if the text be so to be understood as that there must be a division then could not be the same with that which was at the confusion of Tongues for Heber was but 34. yeares old when Peleg was borne Gen. 11.16 and Jocktan though he were borne before could not be old enough to have any of his Sons either born or if borne of age sufficient at their Vncles birth to be Conductors of Colonies from Babel to other Countries The confusion of Tongues was therefore long after the birth of Peleg and yet at the time of his birth there might be a division made of the Earth by Noah who when he saw his Sonnes and their Children begin to increase might take in hand to divide the Earth among them appointing to the head of each Family his place and portion but they loath to breake company and not willing to separate themselves each from other departed away together from the East where the Arke rested to the Land of Shinar where they found a Plain that pleased them and for a time they dwelled there Gen. 11.1 2. This time of their dwelling there before they began to build the Tower of Babel might end about fourteen yeeres after the birth of Peleg for so long time I find between his birth and the beginning of of the Chaldaean date which at the time when Alexander the great took Babylon as was observed by Calisthenes the Philosopher then present was running on in the yeare thereof 1903. which was also the yeare of the Julian Period 4484. out of which if we take 1902. compleat the beginning of the said date will be in the year of the Julian Period 2482. There therefore upon this ground I justly fix it and doe there also for the reasons aforesaid concerning Jocktan and his Sonnes place the beginning of that Tower whose top they intended should reach unto Heaven Perhaps they might begin the City before but not the Tower This Tower as Michael Glycas saith was forty yeares in building which will therefore make the confusion of Tongues to be 54. yeares after the birth of Peleg by which time the very yongest of Jocktans Sons might be of age sufficient to conduct a Colonie from thence according to the division of his Tongue This I find to be 155. yeares after the Flood was ended in the yeare of the World 1813. and in the year of the Julian Period 2522. And now had Nimrod reigned forty yeares from the beginning of the Chaldaean Date or at least had been a mighty man among them that built this City and Tower of Babel for so long a time The Scripture saith he began to be a mighty one in the Earth Gen. 10.8 thereby declaring that he was the first who had others under him Which if he began to have when the Nations first began to build the City and Tower of Babel as we find in Josephus then had he more under his command at that time then when Languages were confounded And for that cause perhaps it was that afterwards he ranged further like a mighty Hunter to inlarge his Dominions For after he had builded and gotten to himselfe Babel Erech Accad and Chalne in the Land of Shinar he went out of that Land saith Moses into Assiria and builded Niniveh and the City Rehâ—both and Chalah and Resen between Niniveh and Chalah Gen. 10.11.12 Some I know read that text otherwise as thus Out of that Land went Ashur and builded Niniveh Concluding hereupon that Ashur of Sems race being wearied with Nimrods cruelty went out of Shinar into another Country which he called after his owne name and there built Niniveh with the three other Cities aforesaid But of this there is little probability more like it is that Nimrod as I said before having gotten Babel Erech Accad and Chalne in the Land of Shinar was not therewithall content but coveting more and larger territories advanced
farther even into the Land of Assyria and there he built Niniveh with three Cities more For this we are to note that the Scripture names not Ashur who came of Sem to be the mighty Hunter but Nimrod who was the Son of Cush and the Grandchild of Cham. The margent therefore of our last Translation doth not without cause point us to that reading which at the first I mentioned agreeing therin to learned Junius Willet and a great many more of good note whom upon necessity I am bound now to follow unlesse I will acquit Nimrod of that brand which the Scripture layes upon him and by following a wrong translation lay it without other warrant upon another This I may not do and therefore I look upon Nimrod still as the great and mighty Hunter who was the first that hunted out of one Country into another to inlarge his dominions This he began to doe eight yeares after the confusion of Tongues viz. in the yeare of the Julian Period 2530. when the yeare of the World was 1821. And why I place Nimrods going into Assyria his building of Niniveh and laying the foundation of a Kingdome there in this yeare is because it must be about one thousand yeares before the destruction of Troy as Diodorus Siculus hath told us lib. 2. cap. 6. Now Troy as we know was destroyed in the year of the Julian Period 3530. at which time as he also saith Tautanes reigned in Assyria Tautanes and not Semiramis for she was rather in the Patriarch Abrahams time when as Josephus saith the Assyrians had the Empire of Asia Howbeit some have accounted otherwise the ground of which mistake I do beleeve arose first from hence and came to be embraced both because there were more Zoroasters then one and also because there was another Semiramis later then she that reigned next after Ninus the grandchild of Nimrod One of the Zoroasters was but six hundred yeares before Xerxes the Persian went with his huge Army into Greece as Xanthus Lydius mentioned by Diogenes Laertius hath told us another long before and was that King of the Bactrians with whom King Ninus waged warre as Diodorus and Justin out of Trogus testifie And as for Semiramis the first was the daughter of Derceto begotten on her by an unknown man the other was the daughter of the second Belochus King of Assyria many years after Ninus And therefore whereas Porphyrius alledgeth out of Sanchoniato that Semiramis was not long after the dayes of Moses it must be understood of the latter and not of the first Semiramis for the latter indeed began to flourish with her Father not above 15. years after the death of Moses as by warrantable computation appeareth but the former was a long time before But to returne again to Nimrod he as I said began to lay the foundation of the Assyrian Kingdome in the yeare of the Julian Period 2530. from whence it continued without any great alteration till the year of the Julian Period 3893. in which year Sardanapalus came to his end through the conspiracy that Arbaces and Belesis made against him For when they saw how he retired himselfe from his Nobles and betooke him to spin and dally with his Curtizans they then rise up in Arms against him and doe at last drive him to sacrifice himselfe with his Wealth nd Wenches to Vulcan in a great pile of Wood set on fire that in it he might dye with all his Delights about him in which onely thing saith Justin he shewed himselfe a man This time of his death was 1238. yeares after Ninus began as in Eusebius may be seene by gathering into one summe the particular years of the Kings that reigned here And as it was 1238 years after Ninus before whom Belus next after Nimrod reigned sixty five years So was it 1363. yeares from the time that Nimrod came out of Shinar and founded first this Kingdome here Herodotus I know fals far short of these numbers but is followed by none of the Ancients neither Ctesias Trogus Pompeius Diodorus Siculus Velleius Paterculus Josephus Eusebius nor Augustine Ctesias I confesse reckons 1360. from Ninus to the death of Sardanapalus but it had been better and in a manner right if he had reckoned from the time aforesaid when Nimrod went into Assyria built Niniveh and laid the foundation of this Kingdome there for in reckoning so I can find but three years difference between him and my selfe Trogus or Justin out of him reckons no more then 1300. leaving out perhaps the sixty three odde years and speakes onely of the round or even number but begins as Ctesias before him from Ninus instead of beginning from the time when Niniveh was first founded Or rather he accounts 1300. from Ninus to the time aforesaid instead of accounting them from Belus the Father of Ninus for from Belus to the end of Sardanapalus were but three yeares more as will afterwards better appeare Diodore in the end of his second book saith that this Kingdome continued more then 1400. yeares which is also true if we account from the time that Nimrod who also founded this Kingdome began to reigne at Babylon for from thence hither were 1411. yeares Velleius helpeth nothing for the beginning but much for the ending for by him we gather that this Kingdome ended not many more then sixty five years before the building of Rome which upon a precise account was just sixty nine befor Romulus laid the foundation thereof Eusebeus without question had seene all these but sought not thus narrowly into the ground of their difference howbeit he might and did perceive they all aimed at this to make Ninus the Establisher of the Assyrian Kingdome At him therefore he begins his Chronology and finds according to the testimony aforesaid that in the Temple of the Trojan warre and when Troy was taken Tautanes reigned in Assyria This Tâ—utanes saith Diodorus sent aid to Priamus in the time of the Trojan Warre viz. one thousand Ethiopians and as many Susians with two hundred Chariots and made Memnon a Duke of Persia Generall over them This Memnon did good service but was slaine by the treason of the Thessalians Diod. lib. 2. cap. 6. Moreover Eusebius by some Testimony sure that he had seen dates the time of Sardanapalus by the reignes of Ariphron and Tespieus Archons of Athens namely that in one of them he began to reigne and in the other he lost his life when Arbaces and Belesis rose up against him I reckon therefore that Belus who was the next King after Nimrod began his reigne in the year of the Julian Period 2590. and reigned as Eusebius and Augustine say sixty five yeares He was a man of a more contenting disposition then his Father and imployed himselfe most in drayning the Fennes about Babylon and carrying of the water from the low grounds to make the Country the more useful which pleasing government of his was so gratefull to his Subjects as that they
2707. Semiramis 42. 2749. Ninias 38. 2787. Arius 30. 2817. Aralius 40. 2857. Xerxes 30. 2887. Armametres 38. 2925. Belochus 35. 2960. Baleus 52. 3012. Altadas 32. 3044. Manithus 30. 3074. Mancaleus 30. 3104. Iphereus 20. 3124. Mamylus 30. 3154. Sparetus 40. 3194. Ascatides 40. 3234. Amyntes 45. 3279. Belochus 25. 3304. Belepares 30. 3334. Lamprides 32. 3366. Sosares 20. 3386. Lampares 30. 3416. Panias 45. 3461. Sosarmus 19. 3480. Mithreus 27. 3507. Tautanes 32. 3539. Tauteus 40. 3579. Thineus 30. 3609. Dercilus 40. 3649. Eupales 38. 3687. Laosthenes 45. 3732. Piriciades 30. 3762. Ophrateus 20. 3782. Ophratanes 50. 3832. Ocrazapes 41. 3873. Sardanapalus 20. 3893. In this year was the end of Sardanapalus This is the first List in which we have not onely the number of yeares that each King reigned but also the very year of the Julian Period when any of them began his reigne out of which if you take 709. you have the year of the world in the stead thereof as exactly as may be Now followeth the List of the other Kings afore mentioned namely of the Chaldeans and Arabians in two Dynasties That of the Caldeans continued 224. yeares and began as I account in the yeare of the Julian Period 2952. Their first King was Evechous he reigned six yeares Their second Chomuseolos he reigned seven yeres Their third Poros he reigned thirty five yeares Their fourth Nechubes he reigned forty three yeares Their fift Abios he reigned forty eight yeares Their sixt Oniballos he reigned forty yeares Their seventh and last before the Arabians was Zinziros he reigned 45. years All which particulars put into one summe do make 224. as before was mentioned The Catalogue thereof or List of them must runne thus according to the method before in the Kings of Assyria yeares of the Iul. Per. A Dynastie of the Chaldeans which lasted two hundred twenty four yeares 2952. Evechous 6. Yeares of his reigne 2958. Chomuseolos 7. Yeares of his reigne 2965. Poros 35. Yeares of his reigne 3000. Nechubes 43. Yeares of his reigne 3043. Abios 48. Yeares of his reigne 3091. Oniballos 40. Yeares of his reigne 3131. Zinziros 45. Yeares of his reigne 3176. In this year the Arabians began yeares of the Iul. Pe. A Dynastie of the ARABIANS in BABYLON 3176. Mardocentes 45. Yeares of his reign 3221. Sisimardachos 27. Yeares of his reign 3248. Abias 37. Yeares of his reign 3285. Anonimus 41. Yeares of his reign 3326 Nabonnabos 25. Yeares of his reign 3351 Anonimus alter 22. Yeares of his reign 3373. In this year the Assyrians have againe the whole Monarchy under them which they hold 520. yeares even uniill the overthrow of Sardanapalus This Dynastie according to the common account of it is said to continue 216. yeares but indeed when I have rightly fixed it I cannot find above 197. yeares to be given unto it unlesse the end of Sardanapalus be set nineteene years lower then before is mentioned which is altogether improbable and so farre from what Euseb us hath set downe otherwise as I cannot but conclude against it For if we follow Eusebius and in the account have an eye also to Heredotus we shall find that Arbaces who began his reign at the death of Sardanapalus reigned twenty eight After him Sosarmus 30. Medidus 40. Cardiceas 13. Dioces 53. Phraortes 22. Cyaxares 40. Astyages 35. But these are Kings of Medea and therefore more of them must be spoken afterwards CHAP. III. Of the Kingdome of Egypt and of the Kings that reigned there THat Kingdome which by the course of time offers it selfe next to be considered is the Kingdome of Egypt in which to produce a right reckoning of the Kings that reigned there is a thing of much perplexity For Diodorus varies from Herodotus Herodotus from Diodorus and both of them from Africanus and Eusebius which therefore made St. Austin omit the succession of these Kings For though he were a man of incomparable diligence a great searcher into Antiquities and one who had read the bookes of Marcus Varro which now are lost yet he omitted the succession of the Kings of Egypt which surely saith a learned Author he had not done if there had not been lesse certainty in the accounts of their reignes then in the accounts of the Sycionian Argive and Athenian Kings One great occasion of this obscurity in the Egyptian Story was as the same Author also saith the ambition of their fabling Priests who to magnifie their Antiquities filled the Records put into their trust with many falsities and recounted unto strangers the names of many Kings that never reigned Some whereof might be but Viceroyes as Joseph was and reckoned afterward as Kings and others but vain inventions of the ambitious Priests who thought it their glory to boast much of great Antiquity But leaving them and their fabling the accout which Master Lydyat bringeth and another man more learned then he from the Annals of Constantinns Manasses carries with it a great probability of much truth namely that this Kingdome began 1663. yeares before Cambyses King of Persia went and subdued it to the Persian Monarchy The due consideration of which casteth the head of our reckoning into the yeere of the Julian Period 2525. which as I account was but three yeeres after the Confusion of Tongues Now from this yeere of the Julian Period to the time that Saltis began to reigne in Egypt were an hundred and six yeares as by an account taken a posteriori well appeareth The beginning therefore of Saltis was in the yeare of the Julian Period 2631. whose time of reigne was as Josephus saith nineteene yeares Baeon succeeded and reigned after him 44. yeares Apachnas after Baeon 36. yeares and seven Moneths Apochis after Apachnas sixty yeares and one Janias after Apochis 50. yeares and one moneth Assis after Janias 49. yeares and two Moneths and with him I take it for certain that that which is cōmonly called the 17th Dynastie was concluded although how in this time there should be so many Dynasties I cannot see For from the beginning of the Kingdome to the end of the reign of this King Assis were but 366. yeares and how they should be divided into seventeene distinct and severall Dynasties I am yet to learne Howbeit I shall be content to account seventeene of them to reach no further then to the time hitherto mentioned that thereby I may the better goe on with them that follow But first see a Catalogue or List of all the Kings from Saltis to the end of Assis in their right times Yeares of the Iulian Period when they began Kings of Egypt as they are mentioned by Josephus 2631. Saltis began and had nineteene yeares 2650. Baeon forty four yeares 2694. Apachnas thirty six years and seven Moneths 2731. Apochis yeares fixty one 2792. Janias fifty yeares and one Moneth 2842. Assis forty nine yeares and two Moneths 2891. ¶ In this yeare was the end of the reigne of Assis and
Cephrenes The second I thinke to be Cheops or Chembis Memphites who as Diodorus saith reigned 1000. yeares before the 180. Olympiad and built the greatest of the Pyramids which as he also saith was twenty yeares in building Nephercheres might be Cherinus or Mycerinus Opsochon might be Alychis And the last Psusennes might be Chabeas or Vaphres the Father in Law of King Salomon Or rather which is most probable let some of these be lookt upon as Viceroyes reigning under Chembis and Chabreus and then this Dynastie will not have more then three chief Kings though it might and did last 130. years And they were these Semendes or Chephrenes to whom we may give 24. yeares Chembis or as Herodotus cals him Cheops 50. yeares Chabreus or Vaphreus or as he is otherwise called Vaphres 56. yeares All which summes put together do make 130. There is no great scruple sure in all this unlesse it be that Chephrenes is set before Cheops and indeed that scruple would be removed which cannot be unlesse we set him after Cheops Take them therefore thus that as he whom Herodotus cals Cheops Diodorus cals Chembis so he whom Diodorus cals Chabreus Herodotus cals Chephrenes The first of which namely Cheops reigned fifty yeares the second namely Chephrenes 56. And now after all this let us proceed to List them into their right times Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg Kings of Egypt in the XXI Dynastie set downe in their right times 3605. Smendes or Semendes 24. 3629. Cheops otherwise called Chembis 50. 3679. Chephrenes otherwise called Chabreus or Vaphres fifty six 3735. Here was the end of Vaphres his reigne with whom this Dynastie concluded and gave way unto the next in the beginning whereof Sesac began to reigne I therefore leave this and come to that Sesac was as I said the first King here Some Authors call him Sesochosis others Sesonchosis but in the sacred Scripture he is called Shesack or Shishak King of Egypt who in the fifth yeare of Rehoboam came up against Jerusalem 1 King 14.25 The seventy Interpreters saith one call him Susachim and the Hebrew text Sesak he reigned twenty one yeares and was succeeded by his sonne Vsorthon otherwise called Osorthon whose time of reigne was fifteene yeares After Osorthon Scaliger and Helvicus reckon three Anonumoi who had among them twenty five yeares at the end whereof Takellothis began and reigned thirteen yeares After him were again three Anonumoi to whom the forecited Authors give 42. yeares All which parcels being put into one summe doe make 116. yeares And now see them in their times Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg Kings of Egypt in the XXII Dynanastie fitted to their right times 3735. Sesochosis or Sesac 21. 3756. Vsorthon or Osorthon 15. 3771. Anonumoi tres 25. 3796. Takellothis 13. 3809. Anonumoi tres 42. 3851. In this yeare was the end of this Dynastie and the beginning of the next Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg Kings of Egypt in the XXIII Dynastie fitted to their right times 3851. Petubastes was the first King he reigned 40. yeares 3891. Osorchos 8. 3899. Psammus 10. 3909. Ze otherwise called Zerah omitted by Eusebius began in this year and reigned 31 years This is that King whom Asa King of Judah overthrew 2 Ch. 1.4.9.12 3940. Here was the end of this twenty three Dynastie As for the Dynasties following I shall omit the distinguishing of them in such a manner as I have done these before going Howbeit I shall set downe the reignes of the Kings in their right times and begin first with him who is next namely Becchorus 3940. Bocchorus began now and reigned 44. yeares 3984. Sabaccon 8. the Scripture cals him So 2 Kin. 17.4 3992. Sevechus otherwise called Sethon 14. 4006. Tharacus 18. the Scripture cals him Tirhakah 4024. Here began an Anarchy which lasted two yeares Diod. 4026. Twelve Captanes begin and reigne 15. years I de 4041. Psammiticus subdues them and reignes 54 yeares Herod 4095. Pharaoh Necho began and reigned 17 yeares I de 4112. Psammis 6. I de 4118. Arries or as the Scripture cals him Hophra 25. 4143. Ausasis he had rather 45. then 55. or 44. 4188. Cambyses goes into Egypt and conquers it CHAP. IV. Of the Kingdome of Sycionia and of the Kings that reigned there THe next Kingdome which by the course of time offers it selfe is the Kingdome of Sycionia It was at the first called Aegialea from Aegialeus the first King thereof who began to reigne in the yeare of the Julian Period 2616. Afterwards it was called Apia of Apis the fourth King and then Peloponesus of Pelops as being Peninsula Pelopis and after that it came to be called Sycionia of Sycion the 19th King thereof The Sycionians saith Pausanias bordering upon Corinth say that Aegialeus was their first King that he came out of that part of Peloponesus that is called Aegialos after him and dwelt first in the City Aegialea where the Tower stood then where the Temple of Minerva is now In a word Sycionia at the first was but a small Region in Achia but the Kings thereof inlarged their Dominions through all Achaia and made Sycion their Seat as Ludovicus Vives noteth This Kingdome continued from hence to the death of Zeuxippus 992. yeares as I find in Eusebius After which Apollo's Priests reigned thirty two even untill the returne of the Heraclidae at eighty yeares after the destruction of Troy And note that by this account thus fixed the Theban Warre in the dayes of Adrastus will be just thirty seven years before the fall of Troy and so Clemens of Alexandria saith it should be Eusebius likewise gives us the particular reigne of each King thus Aegialeus 52. Europs 45. Selchin or Telchin 20. Apis 25. Thelasion 52. Saint Austin calleth this King by the name Thelxion and saith he had so happy a reigne that when he was dead the Sycionians adored him as a god with Sacrifices and Playes of which it is said they were the first Inventors After Thelasion Aegydius reigned thirty foure yeares Then was Thurimachus 45. At his Tombe the Syoionians used to offer Sacrifice as the said Father also saith After Thurimachus was Leucippus he reigned 53. Mossapius or Messapius 47. Eratus or Peratus 46. Plemneus 48. Or thopolis 63. Marathon 30. Marathus 20. Echyreus 55. Corax 30. Epopeus 35 he built a Temple to Minerva by reason of the good successe he had against Nyctaeus the Brother Lycus Tyrant of Thebes as some suppose Next after him was Lamedon 40. Then was Sycion 45. and of him the Country was called Sycionia Polybus was next after him and reigned 40. Then Janischus whom Eusebius cals Inachus 42. After him Phaestus 8. Adrastus in whose time was the Theban Warre 4. Polyphydes 31. Pelasgus 20. And last of all Zeuxippus 32. In the Dynastie next after these were the Priests of Apollo's Temple who reigned as followeth 1. Archelaus 1 year 2. Automedon 1 year
3. Methodeutos 1 year 4. Euneus 1 year 5. Theonomos 1 year 6. Amphiction 9. year 7. Charidemus 18. years at the end whereof this Kingdome ended even at the descent of the Heraclidae foure score yeares after the fall of Troy but see them now set all downe in their right times Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg Kings of Sycionia to the death of Zeuxippus ex Eusebio 2616. Aegialeus 52. 2668. Europs 55. 2713. Selchin 20. 2733. Apis 25. 2758. Thelasion 52. 2810. Aegidius 34. 2844. Thurimachus 45. 2889. Leucippus 53. 2942. Messapius 47. 2989. Peratus 46. 3035. Plemnaeus 48. 3083. Orthopolis 63. 3146. Marathon 30. 3176. Marathus 20. 3196. Echyreus 55. 3251. Corax 30. 3281. Epopeus 35. 3316. Lamedon 40. 3356. Sycion 45. 3401. Polybus 40. 3441. Janiscus 42. 3483. Phaestus 8. 3491. Adrastus 4. 3495. Polyphides 31. 3526. Pelasgus 20. 3546. Zeuxippus 32. 3578. In this Zeuxippus ended and the Priests of Apoll's Temple began Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg The Priests of Apollo's Temple 3578. Archelaus 1. 3579. Automedon 1. 3580. Methoduetos 1. 3581. Funeus 1. 3582. Theonomos 1. 3583. Amphictyon 9. 3592. Charidemus 18. 3610. In this yeare being eighty yeares after the destruction of Troy this Kingdome of Sycionia ended CHAP. V. Of the Kingdome and Kings of the Argives and of the Mycenae that succeeded them THe Kingdome of Argos is that which is to be considered next the first King thereof was Inachus who reigned fifty yeares and began to reigne in the yeare of the Julian Period 2852. which was 1086. yeares before the first yeare of the first Olympiad This King was the Father of Jo whom Jupiter defloured and perceiving that Juno espied his act turned her into a Cow Which is to be understood after this manner viz. that being defloured by Jupiter and not knowing how to abide the fury of her Father she fled away by Sea into Egypt in a Ship called the Cow which Jupiter provided for her and being there she taught the people Tillage and the use of Letters for which she was called by the Egyptians Isis and Deified by them The next after Inachus was Phoroneus he reigned 60 yeares and was called a Judge because he made Lawes to decide Controversies among his people and was one of them that judged in a Controversie betweene Juno and Neptune And hereupon some also think that Forum the name of a place to plead in came first from hence but how truly saith Vives looke they to that Orosius saith that the Thelcissans and Carsathians warred upon him but he vanquished them and drove them to seeke a new habitation by the Sea Plato calleth him the first man because he first taught the Greekes civility and Husbandry Others say as much of Argus Of Ogyges and his Flood as I shall afterward mention when I come to speake of him Ogyges reigned in Attica in this Kings time 1020. yeares before the first Olympiad which therfore was in the yeare of the Julian Period 2918. Two and thirty yeares from whence for so long Ogyges reigned according to Cedrenus was that great and notable Flood which was called the Ogygian Food both because it hapned in the Country wherein he reigned and also because he was drowned in it For indeed the Flood which beares his name drowned him and his whole Country which for 204 yeares after lay void untill Cecrops his reigne there Africanus in Euseb lib 10. De praeparat Evang. cap. 3. reckons not so many by five yeares for this void space howbeit I find by carefull computation as many as I have mentioned and doe begin Ogyges reigne 1020 yeares before the Olympiads and so also doth Africanus This Flood therefore of which I now speake was in the yeare of the Julian Period 2950. which was the 49th yeare of Phoroneus the second King of Argos Eusebius placeth it much about the same time and whereas Cedrenus accounteth 248. yeares from hence to the Flood of Deucalion I shall afterward shew whether that be so or no. Deucalians Flood was great but this was greater extending it selfe to the bankes of Archi-pelago or the Aegean Sea drowding likewise the Regions of Artica about Athens and that of Achaia in Peloponesus at which time the Cities Helice and Bura which were seated on the North part of Peloponesus were also swallowed up The next King after Phoroneus was Apis he reigned thirty five yeares That which some write of this King viz. that he went into Egypt and dying there was called Serapis the greatest god of Egypt seemes rather to belong to Osyris the Husband of Isis For Apis in their language signifies an Oxe which the Egyptians worshipped either from the institution of Isis and Osyris in regard of the use that they found out of this Beast in Tillage or for the honour of Osyris whose soule they say went into an Oxe and remaineth continually in the Oxe Apis passing from one Apis to another or else it was in regard that Isis gathered together the scattered members of Osyris when Typhon had slaine him and put them into a woodden Oxe covered with an Oxes hide which when the people saw they beleeved that Osyris was become an Oxe and so began to adore that as if it had been himselfe Next after Apis Argus reigned the time of his reigne was seventy yeares Of him the Country was called Argos and the People Argives For till now the Countrey bore the name of Peloponesus or as some thinke was formerly called Thessalia or Pelasgia Homer calleth it Argos Pelasgicum as Master Isaacson mentioneth in his Chronologie It is also written that in Argus his time Greece began to * Namely better then before know Husbandry and Tillage and that after his death he was accounted for a god and honoured with Temples and Sacrifices which honour a private man one Homogyrus had before him because he was the first among them who ever yoaked Oxen to the Plow howbeit he was slaine with Thunder as Saint Austin noteth in the sixth Chapter of his eighteenth booke De civit Dei But if Isis before this carried the knowledge of these things out of Greece into Egypt and that Phoroneus also before mentioned was as Plato saith the first man because he first taught the Greekes civility and Husbandry then must this which is here attributed to Argus be understood of a more full and perfect knowledge then they had at the first for it is easier to add then to invent which therefore makes things come to perfection but by degrees Criasus succeeded Argus and reigned after him fifty foure yeares Saint Austin saith that Prometheus and his brother Arlas were famous in the dayes of Saphrus otherwise called Sphaerus or Iphaereus whilst Criasus reigned still in Argos lib. 18 De civit Dei cap. 8. The first of these viz. Prometheus is reported to have formed men out of Clay which was because he was an excellent teacher of wisedome And as for that fiction also of
his stealing away of Jupiters Fire by it is meant either that he first taught to strike Fire with a Flint or else that his knowledge reached to the very Starres For he was a great Astronomer and did thereupon ascend to the Mount Caucasus where 9with a restlesse desire he used to search out the natures motions and influences of the heavenly bodies His Brother was also a great Astronomer from whence arose that Fable of his supporting Heaven with his Shoulders Phorbas succeeded Criasus and reigned after him thirty five yeares This King Phorbas in the thirteenth yeare of his reigne tooke Rhodes and cleared it from venemous Beasts with which the Country had been infected for which he and his Wife were deified after their deaths as Strabo and Eusebius tell us Triopas succeeded Phorbas and reigned after him forty six yeares Next after Triopas was Crolopus whose time of reigne was twenty one yeares In his dayes as Eusebius mentioneth out of Tatianus was Phaetous burning and Deucalions Flood to which the account of Varro well agreeth who saith that the Flood of Deucalion was in the dayes of Cranaus the second King of Athens who as I shall afterward shew you was contemporary to this King Crotopus Next after Crotopus was Stethnelas he reigned eleven yeares and was the ninth King of Argos Gelanor being about to succeed him is expulsed by Danaus who being driven out of Egypt by his Brother arriveth in Greece and there gets the Kingdome of Argos in which he reigned 50. yeares For when he was driven out of Egypt he came as I said into Greece among the Argives and being come among them he contended with Gelanor about the Kingdome in which contention the People were to umpire And when much was said on both sides Danaus seemed to speake as good reason as the other whereupon they could not determine untill the next day And on the next day a Wolfe comes hurling into the Pasture where he begins a fight with the chiefe Bull of the Kings Heard which when the People saw they attended the issue and finding that the Wolfe had the hap to kill the Bull they gave the judgement on Danaus his side For as the Wolfe is a stranger to Man so was Danaus to them but because the Wolfe overcame Danaus must reigne and Gelanor be expulsed This was 382. yeares after this Kingdome of Argos first began And note that this King was the first that digged Wels in Argos who also because of the Wolfe that seemed to predict his good Fortune built and dedicated a Temple to Apollo Lycius Finally he was slain by his Sonne in Law Lynceus who reigned after him one and forty yeares the Story of which is as followeth This Danaus of whom we speake ruled first in Egypt nine yeares for his brother Sethosis otherwise called Aegyptus in which time it was told him by the Oracle that he should one day be slaine by a man who should be his Sonne in law For feare of which Prediction he refused to marry his daughters and would not thereupon give them to the Sonnes of his Brother although his Brother did earnestly desire it For which denyall together with other things wherein he had by his misrule offended his Brother Aegyptus his said Brother expelled him out of Egypt by force and comming as hath been said into Argos was received there as King in the stead of Gelanor Thither did Aegyptus send his Sonnes after him with command either to marry his daughters or to kill him Which charge they pursued so well that they forced him to condiscend that they should enjoy them yet so that he gave to every Daughter privately a Sword with charge to kill their Husbands All of them executed his will except Hypemnestra who discovered the Plot to Lynceus her Husband and thereupon he saved himselfe by flight Now this disobedience caused Danaus to arraign his Daughter but she was acquit by the Argives howbeit her Father would not release her but kept her still in prison After this Lynceus returned from Egypt with so ces slew Danaus released his Wife Hypemnestra and possessed her Fathers Kingdome which as I said before he held for the space of 41 yeares The lives of the other Sisters were spared for Hypemnestra's sake but imbarked in a Ship without Pilot Mast or Saile and so committed to the mercy of the Sea where for a time floating up and downe they are at the last as I find in some Authors cast upon the Isle of Albion which was then inhabited by Gyants who on them begat Children of their owne proportion And for all this Master Isaackson quotes Justin Pausanias Higinus Virgil. Next after Lynceus was the reigne of Abas he was the Father of Praetus and Acrisius and reigned 23. yeares Of him the Argive Kings were called Abantiadae Proetas succeeded Abas and reigned 17. yeares His three Daughters called the Proetides were so extreamly proud of their owne beauties that they fell mad and were cured by Melampus with Hellebour which ever since hath been called Melampodium He had the one of them given him for his cure and was married to her And of this man Melampus it is further said that he understood the notes of Birds and the voice of Beasts as Pausanias writeth Acrisius the last King of Argos succeeded Proetus and reigned after him 31. yeares He was accidentally slaine by his Grandchild Perseus the Sonne of his Daughter Danae who thereupon forsooke this Country of Argos and founded this Kingdome at Mycenae For we are to know that Acrisius had a daughter called Danae whom he sequestered to a Tower and there kept her private because the Oracle had told him that her sonne should kill him Now Jupiter hearing of the same of her beauty and finding no meanes to come to her descended as is said into her lap through the roofe of the Tower in a shower of Gold and had thereby the opportunity to get her with childe By which is meant that he corrupted her keepers with gold and thereupon had liberty to worke his will At last she was delivered of a sonne even of this sonne Perseus which when Acrisius her Father came to know he forthwith caused her and the childe to be inclosed in a Chest and cast into the Sea The Chest was driven upon the coast of Apulia and taken up by Fishermen who finding her and the childe in it presented them to Pylumnus the King to whom she was married Perseus after this being growne to be a man did many valiant exploits and comming into Argos where he practised the throwing of the quoit did by mischance braine his Grand-father Acrisius with one of them and so ended the Kingdome of Argos For when Perseus saw what he had done he translated the Kingdome from thence to Mycenae Some say that this accident happened whilst he indeavoured to shew his Grandfather the invention of the Discus or Leaden ball for whilst Acrisius was more curious to see what was
the Julian Period 3427. which thereupon directs us to the beginning of his reigne in the year of the same Period 3396. And that it was so long before that expedition is mentioned by Eusebius out of Apollodorus in libro de temporibus But you will say when and in what year was that Expedition I answer it was in the end of the reigne of Laomedon and in the beginning of the reigne of Priamus as Helvicus hath well observed Now Priamus we know reigned but till the destruction of Troy which was destroyed in the year of the Iulian Period 3530. 408. years before the beginning of the Olympiads of Iphitus Diod. lib. 14. and 432 before Rome was built Priamus therefore must needs begin to reigne in the year of the Iulian Period 3490 for he reigned forty years and no more as Bucholcerus out of Archilochus hath recorded And if Priamus began to reign then it will follow that then also was the expedition of the Argonauts how else could it be in the end of the reigne of Laomedon and beginning of Priamus as Helvicus saith it was And thus we have the beginning and ending of the Kingdome of Argos rightly fixed and consequently the beginning of the Kingdome of Mycenae but how long Perseus reigned is still unknowne Probable it is that he and his sonne Stethlenus had together sixty six years Eurystheus 45. Atreus and Thyestes six Agamemnon 18. Aegystus six Orestes 70. Tisamenus Penthilus and Cometes three these ended in the year of the Iulian Period 3610. at that descent of the Heraclidae which was foure score years after the fall of Troy Know also that the Olympiads of Hercules began 442. years before those of Iphitus as is reckoned by Clemens out of an old ancient Chronologer after which he lived not above nine years as is very probable and therefore dyed in the year of the Iulian Period 3505. upon whose death his children are banished by Eurystheus for feare they should deprive him of his Kingdome But by this feare he wrought himselfe a mischiefe for hereupon it came to passe that by two years after they came against him and destroyed him as already hath been said But now see a Catalogue of these in their right times as near as in all probability can be gathered Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg A Catalogue of the Kings of Mycenae probably fixed in their right times 3396 Ferseus and Stethlenus 66. 3426. Euristhous 45. 3507. Atrius and Thyestes 6. 3513. Agamemnon 18. 3531. Aegystus 6. 3537. Orestes 70. 3607. Tisamenus Penthilus and Cometes 3. 3610. In this year was the descent of the Heraclidae foure score years after the fall of Troy Now also ended the Kingdome of Sycionia For as most Authours say upon this returne of the posterity of Hercules the Kingdome of Mycenae was changed to Lacedemon and was under the government of Euristhenes whilst that of Sycion was translated unto Corinth and was under the government of Alethes both these beginning much about one and the same time Of which more shall be spoken afterward CHAP. VI. Of the Kingdome and Kings of Athens the first whereof was Cecrops THis Kingdome of Athens was scituated also in Greece as well as those of Sycion Argos and Mycenae already mentioned The * The first I meane in this knowne Dinastie first King was Cecrops from the beginning of whose reigne to the death of Codrus were 490 years as Gaffarell sheweth from the testimony of those who have read no lesse from the Characters of the Stars Eusebius wanteth three years of this number the reason whereof I take to be because he accounts no time of Interregnum between Pandion and Aegeus of which I shall speake more by and by In the meane time I begin with Cecrops who reigned fifty years and began in the year of the Iulian Period 3154. It is reported that he was of a double shape his upper part like a man and his lower part like a beast but this is a fable For he was indeed called * Id est A duobus natur is constants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it was because he spake two languages saith Eusebius as well the language of the Greecians as the language of the Egyptians among whom he was borne and from whom he came Or else being taller then other men he was as if he had the proportion of two men Or finally he was called Diphyes because he taught the people civility and did also institute a strict observance of the matrimoniall band and society taking order that women should be deprived of that licensious liberty which formerly was a little too common among them this therefore made some say that he was man in his upper parts but his lower were feminine as Ludovicus Vives noteth When he began to repaire the City where he reigned called afterward Athens an Olive tree grew sodenly up in one place and a fountain burst as sodenly out in another Which prodigies drave the King to Delphos to know the Oracles minde whose answer was that the Olive tree signified Minerva and the fountain Neptune and that the City might be called after which of these the people pleased Hereupon Cecrops gathered all the people of both sexes together to make their Election the men being for Neptune Aug. De. tivit Dei li. 18. c. 9. and the women for Minerva now it so fell out that the women had the most voices who thereupon named the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as Saint Austine saith Minerva Neptune being displeased herewith spoyled the Country by * This was through the power of the Divell by whom also their Oracles spake inundation And the people to pacifie him punished the women by enacting three lawes against them First that thenceforth no woman should be admitted to any consultation Secondly that none after that time should be named after the name of their mother And thirdly that none of their families should be named Athenae Ludovicus Vives saith there were three Cities of this name The first this in Achaia The second in the I le of Euboea And the third in Laconia The next King after Ceerops was Cranaus Deucaliens Flood he reigned nineyeares and was Sonne in Law to Cecrops Deucalions Flood was in his time as Varro saith and as the Marmora Arundelliana cast it in the fourth yeare of his reigne which by my account falleth into the yeare of the Julian Period 3207. and after the Flood of Ogyges 257. years This Flood was in Thessalie where Deucalion then was King For we are to note that he reigned in Thessalie neare the mount of Pernasus But it extended farther then so For it wasted Italy Greece and the Island of Atalanta and yet that in Ogyges time is said to be greater Prometheus foretold of this Deluge Deucalion thereupon * He also invented the wearing of Rings on the fourth finger as saith Eusebius provided himselfe a kind of Vessel called
 In this yeare Troy was taken and destroyed 408. yeares before the Olympiads of Iphitus and 432. before the building of Rome began as is witnessed by Diodorus lib. 14. CHAP. VIII Of the Kingdome of the Aborigines THis Kingdome was in Italy and began in the year of the Julian Period 3385. Janus was the first King he reigned 33. yeares In his time Saturn fled out of Crete into this Country as both Poets and Historiograpers witnesse The time when he came was in the 17. yeare of Janus after which he and Janus reigned about 17. yeares accounting the yeare when he came to be the first yeare of his reigne Scal. Euseb These people were called Aborigines at the first because their Originall was unknowne and yet * Dionys Hal. some say they were formerly Arcadians and came with Oenotrius Sonne of Lycan into Italy But Scaliger saith their right name was Aberrigines a multo errore from their much wandring The next King after those two before mentioned was Picus the Sonne of Saturne he reigned 37. yeares Euseb Saint Austin speaking of Picus saith that he was the Son of Saturn and first successor in the Kingdome of the Laurentines For Laurentium was the eldest City of Latium the seat of the Aborigines and the place where their Kingdome after they came into Italy was founded called Laurentum of the Laurell Wood that grew neere it Moreover it is said of Picus that he was turned into a Pye because being a great Sooth-sayer he kept such a Bird alwayes for his Augury Of which see more in Saint Aug. De civit lib. 18. cap. 15. together with the notes of Ludovicus Vives thereupon Faunus the Sonne of Picus succeeded and reigned 44. years Euseb Vives ex Dionys Helvic Dionisius saith that some held Mars to be his great Grandfather and that the Romans worshipped him with Songs and Sacrifices as their Countries Genius Latinus reigned after Faunus 36. yeares in the latter end of his reigne Aeneas came into Italy and when Latinus was dead reigned after him three years But of Aeneas more shall be spoken afterward And now see all these in their right times Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg A List of the ancient Kings of Italy before Aeneas rightly fixed 3385. Janus and Saturne 33. 3418. Picus the Sonne of Saturne 37. 3455. Faunus the Sonne of Picus 44. 3499. Latinus after Faunus 36. 3535. In this yeare Latinus dyed and Aeneas began to reigne CHAP. VI. Of the Kings of Italy after Latinus PEtavius gathers out of Dionisius that Aeneas the Successor of Laâ—inus began to reigne in Italy in the fift yeare after the destruction of Troy The first year therefore of his reigne was in the yeare of the Julian Period 3535. and yeare of the World 2826. This was about three yeares after he came into this Country for he came hither about the second or third year after that City was destroyed Soon after his comming he married Lavinia Daughter to Latinus and built Lavinium Then when Latinus was slaine in the Warre with the Rutili and leaving no issue Male behind him he succeedeth in the Kingdome but is warred against by Turnus formerly betroathed to Lavinia but in this Warre Turnus is slaine by Aeneas and hee also slain afterward in another Warre with Mezentius King of Tuscanie after he had reigned three yeares Ascanius was his Successor with whom also Mezentius waged Warre and besieged him so streightly in Lavinium that he was glad to crave for peace but could not have it unlesse upon hard conditions whereupon he sallied out suddainly and slew Lausus the sonne of Mezentius which put that Army into such a feare that Mezentius not only condiscended to peace upon equall termes but ever after remained a true friend to Ascanius His Father was Aeneas and his Mother not Lavinia but Creusa For though Lavinia were with child by Aeneas yet she was not delivered till after her Husbands death And indeed being left alone without either Father or Husband she much feared his Son Ascanius and thereupon betooke her to the chiefe Herdsman of her deceased Husband by whom she had an house built her in the Woods and was there delivered of a Sonne whom she called Silvius Posthumus Now the People knew nothing of this save onely that she was with Child Ascanius therupon is suspected to have murthered her but he to clear himselfe causeth them to be both brought from thence and provideth carefully for them For in the seven and twentieth yeare of his reigne he leaveth the City Lavinium to his Step mother and built Alba longa where he reigned to the end of 38. years from the death of Aeneas and at his death neglecting his Sonne Julus he constituted * From him all the Albanian Kings were called Silvii Silvius Posthumus for his Successor Howbeit Julus was honorably provided for and from him discended the Family of the Julii This Sonne then of Aeneas by Lavinia succeeded Ascanius and reigned after him twenty nine yeares who because he was born in a Wood and after his Fathers death had this name of Silvius Posthumus The next after him was Aeneas Silvius he reigned one and thirty yeares After him was Latinus Silvius who reigned 51. yeares For if that which was the first year of Numitor was also the first yeare of Romulus as Saint Austin saith it was then must the time of this mans reigne be rather 51. then 50. yeares And note that of him the people were called Latines Alba Silvius succeeded and reigned 39. yeares Then Silvius Athys 24. Capis Silvius 28. Calpetus Silvius 13. Tiberinus Silvius 8. Of him the River came to be called Tiber because it was his hap to be drowned in it Agrippa Silvius succeeded and reigned 40. yeares After him was Aremulus otherwise called Alladius Silvius who having reigned 19. yeares was with Palace wherein he lived swallowed up because he strived to imitate the Thunder Next after him was Aventinus Silvius 37. Then Proca Silvius 23. Amulius Silvius 44. And last of all Numitor one which was also the first yeare of Romulus And now see them in their right times Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg A Catalogue of the Kings after Latinus ex Eusebio all of them fixed in their right times 3535. Aeneas 3. 3538. Ascanius 38. 3576. Silvius Pasthumus 29. 3605. Aeneas Silvius 31. 3636. Latinus Silvius 51. 3687. Alba Silvius 39 3726. Silvius Athys 24. 3750. Capis Silvius 28. 3778. Calpetus Silvins 13. 3791. Tiberinus Silvius 8. 3799. Agrippa Silvius 40. 3839. Aremulus sive Alladius 19. 3858. Aventinus Silvius 37. 3895. Proca Silvius 23. 3918. Amulius Silvius 44. 3962. Nunitor 1. Which was also the first yeare of Romulus and yeare when the foundation of Rome was laid CHAP. X. Of the British Kings that reigned in England from Brute to the time of Julius Caesar and after BRute the first King of the Brittaines arrived here in this Iland according to the common
fortunate in the enlarging of it they said of him that he was a second Ninus the time of whose reigne is gathered out of Castor aforesaid in the Greeke Chronicle of Eusebius to be nine yeares His Successor I take to be the same who in the Scripture is called Phul and came in the dayes of Menahem and invaded the land of Israel 2 Kin. 15.19 and 1 Chr. 5.26 How long he reigned is not expressed any where that I know except it be in the Writings of Annius where we find 48. yeares mentioned for the time of his reigne Tiglath pilezer succeeded him and according to the said Author reigned 25. years Salmanasar 17. Senacharib 7. How I should contradict this Author for the reigns of these four Kings I cannot see except it be in the reigne of Phul who if the rest be right must have but 43. because after Senacharibs army was slain by the Angel and that he thereupon went streight way home with shame to his owne Country he lived not fully fifty five dayes For before 55. dayes were ended he was slain by his own Sons Adramelech and Sharezer as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god Tob. 1.21 and Esa 37.38 If any further helpe could be had from other Authors I would not be beholding to Annius for thus much but because it cannot it wil I hope be no harm to take aime from him so farre as he thwarts no other To the next King namely Esarhaddon or as he is otherwise written Asarhaddon he giveth ten years but there I leave him For it is extreamely probable that he had a longer time then so thirty yeares in Niniveh and after that twelve yeares more in Babilon In all 42. with some odde moneths over above For at the end of the eight years of Interregnum that were in Babilon the King that began to reigne there was Assaradinus as Ptolomy calleth him in his Mathematical Canon of the Kings of Babilon who in all probability was this Assarhaddon the Sonne of Senacharib formerly mentioned And now see the List Yeares of the Julian whē they began to reigne A List or Catalogue of the Kings of Assyria after Sardanapalus 3893. Ninus junior 19. 3912. Phul 43. 3955. Tiglath pileser 25. 3980. Salmanassar 17. 3997. Senacharib 7. 4004. Esarhaddon 30. 4034. Here as is probable this King Esarhaddon beto reign in Babilon after he had been King of Assyria 30. years But the first of them in Babilon whose years of reign stand upon record since the Death of Sardanapalus was Nabonassar and with him Ptolomy begins his Mathematicall Canon before mentioned Howbeit by what we find elswhere it may be gathered that there were Kings of Babilon after Sardanapalus before the Aera of this King Nabonassar took beginning as in Eusebius his Chronicle may be seen in the beginning of the reigne of Arbaces For first having shewed how the Empire of the Assyrians was shattered in pieces by the fall of this Epicurious King he saith that the Medes brought it home to themselves that is they purchased hereby their ancient Liberty which with reference to the opinion of Herodotus before mentioned he sheweth to be so great that it was as if they had no Princes to reigne over them untill the time of Dioces and yet he setteth down four that reigned before him But they by slacking too much the reins of Soveraignty did more hurt to the generall estate of Media then the pleasure of freedome which it enjoyed could recompence For hereupon it came to passe that the Assyrians encroached upon their Dominions and got away some towns from them which they held still in the dayes of Salmanassar when the ten Tribes were carried away captive as the holy Scriptures beare us witnesse in 2 Kin. 18.11 and elsewhere Then secondly the Chaldeans also prevailed and had saith Eusebius successions of Kings And so had other Nations too who were now governed by their own proper Kings as wel as they By which it appeareth that there were Kings of Babylon before Nabonassar for the time from the death of Sardanapalus to the beginning of his reigne was 74 years But who they were that reigned in that space excepting Belesis or Belochus who was contemporary with Arbaces is altogether unknowne Probable it is that a new race of Kings began in Nabonassar or that he was some excellent restorer of Astronomie and thereupon had the honour of an account of times to be instituted and observed in memory of him ever after which began on the six and twentieth day of February in the year of the Julian Period 3967 when the year of the World was 3258. And as for the Kings you have them before in the first Part even in the latter end of the seventh Chapter page 50. The reignes also of the Kings of Persia The Kings of Persia from the beginning of Cyrus to the end of the last Darius be likewise there in the seventh Section of the eighth Chapter I shall not need therefore to set them downe againe here in this place but come next to the Kings of Mecedon These reigned 485 years from the beginning of Cranaus The Kings of Mecedon to the death of Alexander Magnus as Saint Austin rightly reckoneth in his twelfth booke and tenth Chapte Decivitate Dei This Cranaus began in the year of the Julian Period 3905. and reigned twenty eight years of whom and his Successours in the following List Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg A List or Catalogue of the Kings of Macedon fixed in their right times 3905. Cranaus 28. 3933. Coenus 12. 3945. Tyrimas 38. 3983. Perdiccas the first 51. 4034. Archeus 38. Yeares of the Iulian Period whē they beg The continuation of the former List or Catalogue of the Kings of Macedon 4072. Philippus 38. 4110. Aeropus 26. 4136. Alcetas 29. 4165. Amyntas the first 50. 4215. Alexander dives 43. 4258. Perdiccas the second 41. 4299. Archelaus 16. 4315. Orestes 00. 4315. Aeropas tutour to Orestes 6. 4321. Pausanias 1. 4322. Amyntas primo 1. 4323. Argeus 2. 4325. Amyntas again 21. 4346. Alexander 1. 4347. Alorites 3. 4350. Prediccas 4. 4354. Philip the Father of Alexander 24. 4378. Alexander magnus 12. 4390. Here Alexander dyed even in the first year of the hundreth and fourteenth Olympiad And note that Perdiccas the second had a longer reign then is commonly given him for he was alive in the sixtenth yeare of the Peloponnesian Warre and could not therefore have lesse then forty one yeares which number is given him by Nicomedes Acanthius as he is cited by Master Selden in his Marmora Arundelliana When he had reigned about twenty seven yeares viz. about the third or fourth yeare of the Peloponnesian War Sitalces King of Thrace came against him with a purpose to have made Philip the sonne of Amyntas King but by the care of Perdicccas a Peace was made and so Perdiccas kept his Kingdome still Note also that at the death of Alexander
the Moon p. 11 CHAP. IV. Of the antient and Naturall year that it was measured by the course of the Sunne though the Moneths were reckoned by the course of the Moon p. 19 CHAP. V. Of the Periods of time by which the years of the World may be truely reckoned As also of the Jubilees how to account them where also to begin and end them p. 25 CHAP. VI. Of the Julian Period and how to joyne the years of the World thereunto p. 33 CHAP. VII Other Observations concerning the Times in their Periods untill the Destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar p. 35 CHAP. VIII The Periods againe considered and all such doubts and scruples cleared as may arise concerning the just length of any of them together with answers to certaine other questions not impertinent p. 51. In the former Chapter be eight Sections CHAP. VIII Sect. 1. Of the time from the Creation to the end of the Flood p. 51 CHAP. VIII Sect. 2. Of the second Period from the end of the Flood when the face of the ground was dry to the Promise at the time of Abrahams departure from Charran into Canaan that it was a Period of 427. yeares current but not compleat p. 68 CHAP. VIII Sect. 3. Of the third Period from the promise at Abrahams departing out of Haran to the comming of the Israelites out of Egypt that it was a Period of 430 years p. 75 CHAP. VIII Sect. 4. Of the fourth Perod from the comming out of Egypt to the beginning of the building of Solomons Temple that it was a Period of 479 years compleat or of 480 current p. 78 CHAP. VIII Sect. 5. Of the fifth Period from the foundation of the Temple in the fourth year of King Solomon to the Desolation thereof by Nebuchadnezzar In which is also shewed the true and right account of the 390 and 40 years in Ezekiel p. 87 CHAP. VIII Sect. 6. Of the sixth Period from the Destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar to the beginning of the building thereof by Zorobabel in the second year of Darius King of Persia In handling whereof many things of note are discussed and Scaliger refused upon good and warrantable grounds both out of Scripture and other good Authours p. 106 CHAP. VIII Sect. 7. Of the seventh Period from the second year of Darius Hystaspis to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus p. 115 CHAP. VIII Sect. 8. Of Daniels 70 Weekes in the ninth Chapter of his Prophecy at the 24.25 26 and 27. verses An exposition of them together with a Confutation of Master Broughton and others concerning Olympiads and length of the Persian Monarchy p. 124 CHAP. IX Of the LXX years in the Prophecy of the Prophet Jeremy commonly called the 70 years of Judahs Captivity p. 155 CHAP. X. Of the time when Tyrus and Egypt were subdued and taken by Nebuchadnessar according to the Prophecies of Esay Jeremy and Ezekiel p. 159 CHAP. XI Of the number of Kings that reigned in Babylon during the time of the Captivity In the handling whereof the fragments of Berosus and Megasthenes are examined divers errores of Scaliger discovered and the truth laid plainly open p. 164 CHAP. XII Of the first year of Cyrus and of Darius Medus mentioned in holy Scripture p. 174 CHAP. XIII Of Alexander the great signified by the Horne between the eyes of the Goat Dan. 8.5 p. 176 CHAP. XIIII Of the four hornes which came up in stead of the great horne broken off as was prophesied in Dan. 8.8 21 22. As also of the beginning of that Date of the Kingdome of the Greeks so often mentioned in the Books of the Maccabes and in Josephus p. 178 CHAP. XV. Of the little Horne in the eighth Chapter of Daniel at the ninth verse And at the 2300 dayes that were givin it verse 14. p. 180 CHAP. XVI Of the fourth Kingdome in Daniel that it signifieth the Monarchy of the Romans p. 182 CHAP. XVII Of the Times and Distances of the taking of Jerusalem by Pompey Herod and Titus p. 188 CHAP. XVIII Of the time of Herods reigne and of his Posterity p. 192 CHAP. XIX Of a true and right year of our Saviours Birth and Baptisme p. 202 CHAP. XX. Of the day of Christs birth that it was kept and on what Day both among the Ancients and in the succeeding Ages p. 212 CHAP. XXI Of the reigne of Tiberius and of the beginning and end of Pontius Pilat's government As also of the Year and Day of our Saviours Passion p. 228 CHAP. XXII Of Killing the Paschal Lambs and whether at Christ's death the Jews and our Saviour kept the Passeover upon one and the same day p. 237 CHAP. XXIII Wherein is shewed the times of Vespasian and Titus together with the Destruction of Hierusalem To which Chapter is added a Chronologicall Table and a Kalender for that very year wherein Hierusalem was destroyed by the Romans p. 241 CALAMVS MENSVRANS OR The measuring Reed CHAP. I. Gentle Reader I Have undertaken a Subject which in it selfe cannot be enough commended in the handling whereof I have opposed no man out of any Singularity or Spirit of contradiction but onely for the love of truth which I doubt not but I may do and yet arrogate to my self nothing more then is meet History is a Subject commended I know by the most as being the Herald of Antiquity the Light of Truth the Life of Memory and the Eye of the World but Chronology is little esteemed few prize it according to the true value and yet 't is indeed the very Eye of History Alter Historiae oculus as one speaketh And so another saying Nulla historia lucem habet sine temporum serie No history hath Light without a right order of the Times Nor can it be thought the Holy Spirit of God would be so exact in noting the Times even to Moneths Weeks and Dayes in the sacred story if the carefull account of them were not to be regarded Sure I am it can be no small confirmation of a mans faith concerning the threatnings and promises of God and consequently of the whole Scripture when he seeth how the Prophecies at their determined times came to be accomplished and how the linking of one period with another makes up such a chaine as cannot but minde us of the Providence of God in his Government of the World eternally foreknowing and wisely disposing of what should be acted in future times Math. 24.15 Our Saviour Christ mentioning the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet saith Let him that readeth understand Revel 13.18 And in the Revelation He that hath understanding let him count the number of the Beast Deut. 4.32 And in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy even the conferring the Histories of holy Scriptures with the Narrations of other credible bookes is commanded that thereby Gods doings may be compared Besides which the exact handling of these things makes it manifest that the Being of the
then Abraham For at the destruction of Sodome Abraham being then * At which time Abrahams body was said to be dead but was revived by the power of God not onely for the generation of Isaac but for further procreation as appeareth Gen. 25. 99 years old when the daughters of Lot lay with their Father they said of him that he was an old man Set then the birth of Abraham before Harans and how can any of these things be Beside the time from the Flood to Terah's seventieth year was too short to have the world so full of People and Kingdomes as it was in Abrahams time Hist of the World lib. 2. page 190. For in Abrahams time and long before as it is excellently observed by Sir Walter Raleigh all the then known parts of the World were peopled All regions and countries had their Kings Egypt had many magnificent Cities and so also had Palestine and all the bordring Countries yea and all that part of the World beside as farre as India And those not built with sticks but of hewen stones and defended with wals and Rampires Which magnificence needed a Parent of more Antiquity then they have supposed who place the birth of Abraham so near the Flood as Terah's seventieth year For that time even in reason is not sufficient being * It was no more then 292 lesse then 300 years All therefore considered doe make me conclude that Abraham undoubtedly was borne when Terah was 130 years old For though some frivilous objections may be made to the contrary yet it is in vaine to object against such testimonies and proofes as will passe for current any where but among the Singular and inconsiderate who are rather willing to wrangle for the upholding of their opinions then to yeeld or give over from what they first tooke up to be true For as there be some who love to keep to that which best fits their fancy so there be others who think it a discredit to let goe what they at first maintained SECT III. Of the third Period from the Promise at Abrahams departing out of Haran to the comming of the Israelites out of Egypt that it was a Period of four hundred and thirty years THis is proved by texts and testimonies out of Scripture For first Saint Paul saith expresly That the Law began * There were some odd moneths more But the Apostle leaveth out the moneths as an imperfect number 430 years after the Promise Galat. 3.17 Which that it was the same promise of Christ that Abraham had in Gen. 12. is manifest by what the same Apostle said before at the eighth verse viz. That in thee shall all the Nations of the Earth be sed agreeing therein to Moses Gen. 12.3 Now this directeth to the right reckoning but is not altogether so precise as that which we have in Exod. 12.40 For there we may perceive that the precise and exact ending of these years was not on the day that the Law was given but on the day that the Israelites came away out of Egypt The words of which Text be these And the sojourning of the Children of Israel whereby they sojourned in Egypt 30 years and 400 years which speech is altogether Elliptica oratio or a defectve speech and is thus to be supplyed namely And the sojourning of the Children of Israel whereby they sojourned in Egypt was to the end of 430 years Not that they were in Egypt so long but that they were a sojourning Nation so long the beginning whereof was in the dayes of Abraham at the time when he received the Promise as by that of the Apostle before mentioned may be seen The word Sojourning therefore here used by Moses hath relation to that time of the Promise when Abraham left his Fathers house and became a sojourner in a strange Land even the Land which God had promised to shew him and which he afterwards gave to him to be possessed by his posterity in the fourth generation after him Gen. 15.16 And now that these years are precisely and exactly so many and no more appeareth by what followeth in the next verse viz. Exod. 12.41 wherein it is said That when the 430 years were finished even on the same day all the hosts of the Lord went out from the Land of Egypt They therefore that begin this reckoning at Jacobs going thither are deceived For first Koath was one who went when Jacob went Gen. 46.11 His son was Amram Exod. 6.18.20 and Amrams son was Moses Num. 26.59 Wherefore seeing Koath was the enterer and Moses the departer the time from thence could not extend to 430 yeares for Koath lived but 133 years Exod. 6.18 Amram but 137 vers 20. and Moses was but 80 at the departure Exod. 77. All which added together make but 350. and yet some of those years must be deducted because they were not born one at the just end of anothers life but lived some while the father and the son together which deduction being made the years remaining will be yet fewer and want still more of 430. Secondly Jochabed was the mother of Moses and immediate daughter of Levi born to him in Egypt as it is Num. 26.59 Take then for a tryall the age of Moses at the departure which was * Exod. 7.7 80 years and the whole age of Levi was * Exod. 6.16 137. years and add them together so shall you have 217. Unto which number must be added 213 for the age of Jochabed or else there cannot be 430. But that this should thus hang together is impossible for Levi was born 43 years before he came into Egypt and living but 137 in all there can be but 94 taken from him and but 80 from Moses which added together make but 174. Now then supposing that the abode in Egypt from Jacobs going thither was fully 430 years it must needs be that Jochabed lived 256 years although her age be accounted but from the day of her fathers death unto the day of her sons birth But to say there is likelyhood in this were extreme madnesse For who thinks it probable that a woman in those dayes could be 256 years and yet bear a childe or that a Kings daughter would make choyce of one so old to be her Nurse Beside this womans age must be yet longer for it is not like that she was born just at her fathers death neither is it true that she dyed at her sons birth because she was chosen by Pharaoh's daughter to be his Nurse And as for Levi to prove that he was 43 years old as hath been mentioned this is well known viz. that Joseph was but four years younger then he and when Iosephs brethren came into Egypt Ioseph then was but 39 years old Levi therefore must needs be 43 at the same time because four and 39 make 43 and not live his whole time after the descending of Iacob thither Se Gen. 41.46 and compare it with Gen.
israel 2 kings 11.4 7  3838 3129 2  136 2  8  3839 3130 3  137 3  9  3840 3131 4  138 4  10  3841 3132 5  139 5  11  3842 3133 6  140 6  12  3843 3134 7 6 141 7  13  3844 3135 1  142 8  14  3845 3136 2  143 9  15  3846 3137 3  144 10  16 Carthage built Ioseph 3847 3138 4  145 11  17  3848 3139 5  146 12  18  3849 3140 6  147 13  19  3850 3141 7 7 148 14  At the Autumn of this yeer the twelfth Jubilee began 20  3851 3142 1 Jub xii 149 15  21  3852 3143 2 150 16  22  3853 3144 3  151 17  23  3854 3145 4  152 18  24  3855 3146 5  153 19  25  3856 3147 6  154 20  26  3857 3148 7 1 155 21  27  3858 3149 1  156 22  28  3859 3150 2  157 23  1 Jehoahaz 17. he began in the 23 yeer of Ioash K. of Iudah 2 K. 13.1 the Syrians vexed him very much  3860 3151 3  158 24  2  3861 3152 4  159 25  3  3862 3153 5  160 26  4  3863 3154 6  161 27  5  Yeers of the Julian Period Yeers of the World Yeers of Rest and Jubilees Yeers of the Temple A Table of the Kings of JUDAH and ISRAEL during the time that the Temple stood     Kings of Judah Kings of Israel 3864 3155 7 2 162 28  6  3865 3156 1  163 29  7  3866 3157 2  164 30  8  3867 3158 3  165 31  9  3868 3159 4  166 32  10  3869 3160 5  167 33  11  3870 3161 6  168 34  12  3871 3162 7 3 169 35  13  3872 3163 1  170 36  14  3873 3164 2  171 37  15  3874 3165 3  172 38  16 1 Joash 16. he began in the latter part of the 37. yeer of Joash King of Judah 2 Kin. 13.10 3875 3166 4  173 39  17 2 3876 3167 5  174 40 1 Amaziah began in the latter part of the second yeer of Joash King of Israel and reigned 29 yeers 2 King 14.1 at the end whereof he is slain by the People of Lachish 27. yeers currant after Jeroboam's Father recovered the Kingdom of Israel from the Syrians and in that regard Azariah the son of this Amaziah is said to begin his reign in the 27 yeer of Jeroboam 2 K. 15.1 2. that is in the 27 yeer of Jeroboams Kingdom recovered which his father recovered from the Syrians about the sixt yeer of his reign according to the saying of Elisha 2 K. 13.14 Like to this is that  3 3877 3168 6  175 2  4 3878 3169 7 4 176 3  5  3879 3170 1  177 4  6 Here Joash recovers his Kingdom from the Syrians 2 K. 13.25 't is thought that going to this War he took in his son Jeroboam as partner with him in the Empire whereupon it came to passe that Azariah is said to begin his reign in the 27. yeer of Jeroboam 2 Kin. 15.1 Thus some But see the other column 3880 3171 2  178 5  7 3881 3172 3  179 6  8 3882 3173 4  180 7  9 3883 3174 5  181 8  10 3884 3175 6  182 9  11 3885 3176 7 5 183 10  12 3886 3177 1  184 11  13 3887 3178 2  185 12  14 3888 3179 3  186 13  15 3889 3180 4  187 14  16  3890 3181 5  188 15 1  Jeroboam the second 41 he began in the 15 yeer of Amaziah King of Judah 2 King 14.23 from which yeer he reigned 3891 3182 6  189 16 2  3892 3183 7 6 190 17 3  3893 3184 1  191 18 4  3894 3185 2  192 19 5  Yeers of the Julian Period Yeers of the World Yeers of Rest and Jubilees Yeeers of the Temple A Table of the Kings of JUDAH and ISRAEL during the time that the Temple stood Kings of Judah Kings of Israel 3895 3186 3  193 20 of the 36. yeer of Asa mentioned in the second Book of the Chronicles chap. 16 ver 1. where Baasa is alive and diverted from building of Ramah which if it be understood properly cannot be true 6 his 41. yeers ibid. See also Petav. De Doctr. Temp. l. 9. c. 55. 3896 3187 4  194 21 7 3897 3188 5  195 22 8 3898 3189 6  196 23 9  3899 3190 7 7 197 24 10 The XIII Iubilee 3900 3191 1 Jub xiii 198 25 11  3901 3192 2 199 26 12  3902 3193 3  200 27  13  3903 3194 4  201 28  14  3904 3195 5  202 29  15  3905 3196 6  203 1 Azariah began in this yeer he was otherwise called Vzziah and reigned 52. yeers 2 Kin. 15.1 16  3906 3197 7 1 204 2 17  3907 3198 1  205 3 18  3908 3199 2  206 4 19  3909 3200 3  207 5 20  3910 3201 4  208 6  21  3911 3202 5  209 7  22  3912 3203 6  210 8  23  3913 3204 7 2 211 9  24  3914 3205 1  212 10  25  3915 3206 2  213 11  26  3916 3207 3  214 12 If the 27th yeer of Ieroboam for the beginning of Azariah be taken properly for the 27th yeer of his own reign then must Azariah be 11 yeers of his 52 under tutours before he took upon him the administration of the 27  3917 3208 4  215 13 28  3918 3209 5  216 14 29  3919 3210 6  217 15 30  3920 3211 7 3 218 16 31  3921 3212 1  219 17 32  3922 3213 2  220 18 33  3923 3214 3  221 19 34  3924 3215 4  222 20 35  3925 3216 5  223 21 36  Yeers of the Iulian Period Yeers of the World Yeers of Rest and Jubilees Yeeers of the Temple A Table of the Kings of JUDAH and ISRAEL during the time that the Temple stood Kings of Judah Kings of Israel  3926 3217 6  224  22 Kingdom and so Codoman in his Chronology lib. 3. cap. 7. 37  3927 3218 7 4 225  23 38  3928 3219 1  226  24 39  3929 3220 2  227  25  40  3930 3221 3  228  26
but ninteen years the Marmora Arundelliana 28 Orosius 30 Ctesias 31 Julianus Toletanus 34 Herodotus 36 and Clemens of Alexandria 46. In which diversity all the helpe that we have is from Herodotus who though he give him 36 years doth neverthelesse declare that he dyed in the fifth year after the Marathon war which war was not till the second year of the seventy second Olympiad in which was the one and thirtieth year of his reigne And therefore the whole time of his reigne could be but 34 years compleate as Julianus Toletanus reckoneth And of these he reigned but 33 before his son Xerxes was taken in to reigne with him as in Herodotus again appeareth lib. 7. Xerxes therfore began in the year of the Julian Period 4226 and as Diodorus saith reigned something more then twenty years after whom Artabanus by whom Xerxes was slain continued seven moneths and at the end thereof Artabanus also being slain Artaxerxes Longimanus began to reigne alone and dyed not untill the seventh year of the Peloponnesian War in the winter time thereof viz in the year of the Julian Period 4289 almost finished as both Thucidides and Diodorus witnesse Thucid. lib. 4. Diodor. lib. 11. Ctesias therefore was right in giving 42 years to this King after the death of Artabanus But we are to note that this Artaxerxes had a twofold beginning to reigne The one some years before his Father Xerxes dyed The other after his Fathers death when he had slain Artabanus who slew his Father seven moneths before From the first he reigned 49 years and from the second but 42 as hath been shewed The first began in the year of the Julian Period 4240 towards the end thereof even before the beginning of the seventh moneth the other in the year of the same Period 4247. Thucidides hath an eye to the first of these and so have the holy Scriptures in accounting the years of this King but other old Authours generally account from the latter time when he began to reigne alone in which Diodorus a little differeth from Ctesias and hath therefore but 40 years in the stead of 42. But now why this King should begin in his Fathers life time and so soon as I have mentioned is in regard of what we finde storyed concerning the banishment of Themistocles the Athenian who being expelled out of Athens by his unthankfull Country-men and Citizens fled to the King of Persia for succour in the second year of the seventy seventh Olympiad as Diodorus casts the time and then we are sure Xerxes was living because the time of his reigne was something more then twenty years Diodorus hereupon saith that Themistocles came to Xerxes and so doe some others but Thucidides who was near those times as also Plutarch Charon Lampsacenus and Aemilius Probus have witnessed that he came to Artaxerxes of late having begun to reigne And if to Artaxerxes of late having begun to reigne it must needs follow that Artaxerxes had a beginning before the second year of the 77 Olympiad which as appeareth by the account of Daniels 70 Weeks was in the year of the Julian Period 4240 about the sixth moneth which among the Jews was called Elul and living after that till the seventh year of the Peloponnesian War must needs have a longer time of reigne from this beginning then either forty or two and forty years But for a more clear demonstration and so to reconcile these Authours that they may speak true on either side let me add out of Petavius namely That Themistocles being banished came to come to Xerxes King of Persia as Diodorus and diverse other Story-writers declare and finding Xerxes busied in some expedition or not in the City which was the seate of his Kingdome he sent letters to his son Artaxerxes who of late had began to reigne as Thucidides sheweth For in this respect Story-writers may indifferently relate that he fled as well to the one as the other and our conclusion from hence may be that he fled to the Persians Xerxes yet living when Artaxerxes was already taken in to reigne with him in the Empire as being the next that was to reigne alone after him Thus Xerxes also began to reigne before Darius dyed as hath been proved out of Herodotus Petay lib. 12. cap. 25. For according to a Law among the Persians when the King went to war abroad he did for the most part appoint and constitute one of his sons for his successour from which time some Authours account the years of such an ones reigne whilest others account but from the time of his Fathers death And in the Kingdome of Babylon Nebuchadnezzars reigne began after the same manner as by Berosus compared with holy Scripture may be seen This was usuall also among the Kings of Judah and Israel as by the Scripture alone is manifest which not observed hath caused many grosse mistakes concerning the right reckoning of their reignes Eusebius mentions the flight of Themistocles two years sooner then Diodorus doth who therefore casteth it into the fourth year of the seventy sixth Olympiad which was in the year of the Julian Period 4241 and then was the first year of Artaxerxes still running on by my account This of Eusebius I finde approved by a late learned writer Jacobus Armachanus in his Annals of holy Scripture who sayes that it agrees conveniently enough to the tradition of Thucidides which setteth the comming of Themistocles to Artaxerxes between the siege of Naxus and that noble victory gotten by Cimon over the Persians at Eurimedon and doth withall place the beginning of the reigne of Artaxerxes between those bounds For * viz. Thucidides he said Themistocles then sent letters to Artaxerxes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of late having begun to reigne by which he both desired his friendship and also promised his owne aide to him against the Greekes From which is found out the true beginning of the reigne of Artaxerxes and is from hence proved not to be so late by nine years as is commonly accounted Thus he in his Annals I say of holy Scripture which when I saw I was not a little confirmed in my judgment For though I accounted thus long before I ever read any thing of his in this kinde yet for my better confirmation herein I was glad to meete with the concurrence of so eminent a man from whom though I varie much in the ancient account of the Hebrew moneths and year as also in some other particulars yet here as in many things elsewhere I cannot but embrace him with much gladnesse and shall ever esteeme him as sure enough he is a man of excellent parts great industry piety and much learning worthy to be accounted among the number of those whose memories are precious after their deaths But to returne There is moreover a passage mentioned by Petavius out of Justin to shew the occasion of this beginning as may be seen in his Doctrina Temporum lib. 10.
 183 27 20   4267 3558 4  2 28 21   4268 3559 5  3 29 22   4269 3560 6  4 30 23   4270 3561 7 4 184 31 24   4271 3562 1  2 32 25   4272 3563 2  3 33 26   4273 3564 3  4 34 27   4274 3565 4  185 35 28   4275 3566 5  2 36 29 Yeers of the Peloponnesian War  4276 3567 6  3 37 30  4277 3568 7 5 4 38 31  4278 3569 1  186 39 32  4279 3570 2  2 40 33  4280 3571 3  3 41 34  4281 3572 4  4 42 35  4282 3573 5  187 43 36  4283 3574 6  2 44 37 1 This was the first yeer of the Peloponnestan War it began at the Spring witnesse that great Eclipse of the Sun which was on the fourth of August next after This War lasted 27. yeers  4284 3575 7 6 3 45 38 2  4285 3576 1  4 46 39 3  4286 3577 2  188 47 40 4  4287 3578 3  2 48 41 5  4288 3579 4  3 49 42 6  4289 3580 5  4 2m 8m 7 Xerxes the 2 d two moneths after whom Sogdianus 8 m. 4290 3581 6  189 1 ¶ 8 In this yeer Darius Nothus began and reigned 19 yeers SECT VIII Of Daniels seventy Weekes in the ninth Chapter of his Prophecy at the 24.25.26 and 27. Verses I Shall need to say nothing of the seventh Period more then what hath been already in the former Section and Table annexed to it I come therefore to the eighth which takes beginning the 20th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus in the year of the Julian Period 4259 and endeth at the beginning of Christs Ministery in the year of the same Period 4742. This is a Period of 69 Weeks Petavius De Doctr. Temp. lib. 12. c. 35. or of 483 years accounted from the Execution of the Decree for the restoring and building of Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince vers 25. Of which Petavius speaketh excellently in these words saying Sexaginta novem hebdomades desinunt in Christum Ducem non nanscentem quidem sed in lucem apertumque prodeuntem seque ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 atque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accingentem hoc est in Baptismum ipsius qui anno primo septuagesimae hebdomadis incurrit Meaning in effect the same that I doe for though he applyes the end of the 69 Weekes to the Baptisme of Christ yet he saith as well that they end at Messiah the Prince namely not at the time when he was borne but when he came abroad and shewed himselfe openly beginning to dispose of his hid treasures and to preach the Gospel in the Synagogues of Galilee which was not untill the very end of these 69 Weekes made up of seven and sixty two and beginning of the seventieth For as before I noted in the fifth Chapter after John was put in prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospell of the Kingdome of God and saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The time is fulfilled that is the last Week of the seventy is come and the Kingdome of God is at hand Mar. 1.14 In the middle of which last week the Messiah Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour was slain vers 26. And by the end of it the Covenant was confirmed with many of the Jews verse 27. Immediately after which time the Apostles turne to the Gentiles Acts 10.1 and Acts 11.18 They were all of them Weeks not of Days but of years according to the custome of Prophetical Dayes and years of Jubilee there being seven Weeks in 49 years as is seen in Levit. 25.8 Whereupon it followeth that in seventy Weekes are 490 years There can be no doubt of this I may therefore goe on and for the more cleare understanding of what I have already briefly touched set downe the words of the text in each verse at large Ver. 24. Seventy Weekes is cut out upon thy people and upon thy holy Cities to finish transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse and to seale up Vision and Prophet and to annoint the Most Holy Ver. 25. Know therefore and understand that from the Out-going of the word to returne and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven Weekes and threescore and two Weekes it shall be built againe Street and Wall even in the strait of times Ver. 26. And after the threescore and two Weekes shall Messiah be slain but not for himselfe wherefore the Princes people to come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a Flood and unto the end of the War desolations are determined Vers 27 But in one weeke he shall confirme the Covenant with many and in the midst of the weeke he shall cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease and by a Wing of abominations making desolate he shall flow upon the desolate even untill the Consummation determined These be the words of the Prophecie carefully translated which in the next place I thinke fit to open and explain noting upon them as followeth Vers 24. Seventy weekes is cut out By which phrase is meant that the full and just number of 70 weekes is cut out For when a Verb singular is joyned to a Substantive plurall it teacheth in Hebrew that an exact account is then in every part thereof fully intended Thy people that is Thy Country men the Jewes as may be seen in the first Chapter of Ruth at the tenth verse where the Jewes are called Naomies people The like is also in the third Chapter of the Lamentations at the fourteenth verse where Jeremy complaining saith He was a laughing stock to all his people Thy Holy City this meanes Jerusalem Esa 52.1 Matth. 4.5 so called because it was the speciall place consecrate to the holy worship of God This Prerogative of being called The holy City it was to retaine as here appeareth untill the full end of these 70. weekes And therefore when Christ came Salvation was first tendred to the Jewes They in generall made light of it and put Christ to death howbeit the covenant of the Gospell was confirmed with many of them during the time of the last week which being ended their Prerogative ceased and thereupon the Apostles turne to the Gentiles to whom the Gospell began not to be preached untill three yeares and an halfe after Christs Passion at which time every one of the Seventy weekes were fully ended Now this holy City was called Daniels City either because he was born there or because that was the place of his bringing up or in which he dwelt till he was carryed away Captive Thus Capernaum is called Christs City because he dwelled in it Matth. 9.1 and
Horne in the eighth Chapter of Daniel at the ninth verse And of the 2300 dayes that were given unto it verse 14. I May fitly make a difference between this little horn and that mentioned in the seventh Chapter because this arose out of the third Monarchy that out of the fourth this out of a Beast which had but four hornes after the first was broken that out of a Beast which had ten hornes and trampled the other Beasts under it's feet this bore rule but 2300 natural dayes that prevailed for a Time Times and halfe a Time And albeit the third Monarchy be one while expressed by a Leopard another while by a Goate yet must the Leopard mean the whole Kingdome of Alexander and his successours as well as the Goate for the four heads on either of these Beasts proclame as much as will be seene more plainly afterwards But in the meane time this I set downe as certaine That the little horne here mentioned is no other then Antiochus Epiphanes who commited many and sundry outrages both against other Nations and also against the people of God proceeding in prophanesse even against God himselfe He is called a little horne not because his Kingdome was little or meane but because he was of a base flattring nature having no true Princely quality or condition in him and also because he had no title to the Kingdom at the first being the younger brother Seleuchus the elder having an issue male alive at the same time when he began to take the Kingdome This was his beginning yet afterwards he came to be famous and was therefore called Antiochus Epiphanes which is famous or noble or as some say Epimanes Jun. ex Polyb. which is furious or mad Daniel was informed concerning the mischiefe that he should commit and thereupon he telleth us what he heard one of the Saints say unto another certaine Saint who was the numberer of Secrets or the wonderfull Numberer namely That the Sanctuary and the host should be troden under foot unto the evening and the morning two thousand and three hundred Dan. 8.13 14. In which number we are not to understand so many years but naturall dayes for albeit a day is to be taken for a year in many reckonings and propheticall predictions in Scripture yet never when the words Evening and Morning are annexed for then they meane but such dayes as are in the first Chapter of Genesis where it is said that the Evening and the Morning were the first day c. For that which is a Naturall day comprehendeth the day and night or as it is here the Evening and the Morning Howbeit in 2300 dayes there will arise a number of certain years which by accounting 365 dayes to a year and thirty dayes to a moneth will amount to six years three moneths and twenty dayes And albeit there be no precise point mentioned from whence to account these six years three months and twenty dayes yet this is certaine that their end must be fixed at the cleansing of the Sanctuary which as Josephus and the Authours of the first book of the Maccabees have recorded Josph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 11. and Macc. 4.52 was in the hundredth and forty eighth year of the Grecians For whereas the Maccabees doe expresly name the 148 year Josephus saith it was three years after the hundredth and five and fortieth upon the 25 day of the ninth moneth which is called Casleu Now then from this time substract six years three months and twenty dayes and the head of your reckoning will fall into the hundreth two and fortieth year the sixth moneth and fifth or sixth day of the moneth about which time Antiochus * 1 Macc. cap. 1. ver 13.16 and 20. a little before he went into Egypt gave leave to set up the fashions of the Gentiles in Jerusalem returning againe after he had smitten that Country in the 143 year at which time he came in his owne person against Israel with a great multitude and entring proudly into the Sanctuary tooke from thence the Golden Altar and Candlestick of light c. offring many sundry outrages as in the first book of Maccabees at the first Chapter doth well appeare And thus we have seen this little Horne together with those yeares wherein it prevailed after it was grown and waxen great As for that other in the seventh Chapter it cannot be the same with this because it arose in the dayes of the fourth Monarchy of which see more in the following Chapter CHAP. XVI Of the fourth Kingdome in Daniel that it signifieth the Monarchy of the Romans I Was once almost drawne to think that this fourth Monarchy ought to be taken for the divided Kingdome of the Syrians or Seleucians but now upon a more diligent search into the Prophecies concerning the four Monarchies I have reason to conclude against it For first the third Monarchy being the Kingdome of the Grecians prevailed greatly over the face of the Earth Dan. 2.39 Howbeitthe fourth Beast or Monarchy was stronger then the third as appeareth Dan. 2.40 where it is compared to Iron which subdueth all things and in Dan. 7.7 It is said to be exceeding terrible stamping the residue under its feet and verse 23 It shall devour the whole Earth and shall tread it downe and break it in peeces Which if it be understood of the Seleucian or Syrian Kingdoms is very improbable for they put case that we make them no part of the Grecian or third Monarchy were nothing so strong as it neither did they trample the residue under their feet seeing Alexander was not conquered by them neither did they reigne so much over the whole Earth as he had done before them but were a great deale feebler then the Kingdome of Alexander It is therefore said after the breaking off the great Horne that there were foure which stood up for it being four Kingdomes of the same Nation but not in his strength as it is Dan. 8.22 To which some have answered Object that this their stamping and treading under feet is especially meant of the people of God trodden down and persecuted under Antiochus that great tyrant Answ But I may well think this to be nothing else but a meere evasion for it is manifest that there was as much violence offered to Religion before as in the dayes of Antiochus witnesse that which Nebuchadnezzar did when he set up his Golden Image commanding that whosoever would not fall downe and worship it should be cast into the hot fiery furnace nay that it must be made seven times hotter then ordinary for Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Dan. 3.6.19 Befide neither did Antiochus so prevaile against the Jews as if he had stamped them all in pieces for in the end they resisted him restored their Religion and setled the state of their Common-wealth whereas this strength and stamping is rather meant of the Monarchies one eating up and subduing another Secondly the Seleucians or
even deified him and made him the Sire of many petty gods such as Bâ—l Baal Baalberith Baalzephon and the like Howbeit it is a question whether the Assyrians worshipped him for a god before his death when by the meanes of his warlike sonne Ninus he had a Temple built for him in Babylon which in Plinie his time was standing still who also saith of him that he was the Inventor of Astronomy and that the Assyrians dedicated a Jewel to him which they call Belus his eye He might perhaps adde something considerable to Astronomy though the Art it self was found out long before Moreover the Caldeans prefixed Bel or Bal as an Ensigne of honour to their names as Baladan Balthasar The Carthagineans they added it to theirs as may beseen in the names of Asdrubal and Hanibal But how long did Nimrod reign before this Belus began I Answer that he reigned eight and forty yeares in Babylon and sixty yeares in Assyria which together do make 108. from the beginning of the Tower of Babel as already in what I have written by way of computation may be seen Nor is this time of reigne too long it seemes rather too short if we consider how long men lived in those dayes But I have done with these of whom I have spoken more then at the first I intended and therfore now I come to Ninusâ— of whom and his successors in the following Chapter CHAP. II. Of Ninus and his Successors THough the Assyrian Kingdome was not founded by Ninus yet the Monarchy thereof began first in him according to the consent of all Authors To which purpose Sir Walter Raleigh speaketh well in his History of the World saying it will be found best agreeing to Scripture and to reason and best agreeing with the story of that Age written by prophane Authors that Nimrod founded Babel Erech Accad and Chalne the first workes and beginning of his Empire according to Moses and that these being finished within the Valley of Shinar he looked further abroad and set in hand the worke of Ninus lying neer unto the same streame that Babel and Chalne did which worke his Granchild Ninus afterward amplyfied and finished as Semiramis this Ninus his wife did Babylon Hence it came to passe that as Semiramis was counted the Foundresse of the City which she onely finished so also Ninus of Niniveh For so did Nabuchodonosor vaunt himselfe to be the Founder of Babylon also because he built up again some part of the Wall over born by the fury of the River which worke of his stood till Alexanders time whereupon he vaunted thus Is not this great Babel that I have built Dan. 4.27 Thus then these workes of Babylon and Niniveh begun by Nimrod in Chaldea and Assyria Ninus and Semiramis made perfect Ninus finished Niniveh Semiramis Babylon wherein she thought to exceed her Husband by farre Thus that Knight lib. 1. cap. 10. Sect. 3. and lib. 1. cap. 12. Sect. 1. I shall not need therefore to answer further to objections made out of other Authors concerning the building of these Cities as if they were to owne no other Builders but Ninus and Semiramis for it is one thing to begin another thing to adde and bring to perfection Nimrod did the first they the latter the fame whereof in after ages swallowed up the memory of the first Founder and made those Authors which knew not the holy Scripture speak as they did without distinction Leaving this therefore I shall come more neerly to Ninus Ninus who when he inlarged Niniveh imparted to it his own name He began to reign in the yeare of the Julian Period 2655. and as Eusebius saith reigned fity two yeares He caused the Statua of his Father Belus to be set up and worshipped probably in that Temple which was built for him in Babylon which Image of his as some say continued untill Daniels when it was destroyed by Darius Medus or Cyrus upon the discovery of the Imposture of Bels Priests shewen in that Apocriphall fragment of Bell and the Dragon Nimrod being the first he must needs be the third King of Assyria in whose time the dominion of the Assyrians was very large for there was then no Kingdom so famous nor so spatious as the Assyrian which was afterward increased by Semiramis after his death as Saint Austin writeth lib. 18. cap. 2. De Civit. Dei Orosius also saith that this King waging Warre abroad continued that course by the space of fifty yeares Oros lib. 1. cap. 4. In which I think Orosius was not altogether right for his whole time of reign was but fifty two yeares in the beginning whereof he was busied in the building of that Temple which he built in honour of his dead Father Belus and at the first had but a small part of Asia under his command as Dionysius Halcarnassensis saith in the first booke of his Roman Antiquities but afterward joyning in society with Ariaeus King of the Arabians he did in seventeen yeares bring all Asia under his subjection excepting the Indians and the Bactrians and at the last the Bactrians were subdued by him as Diodorus and Justin testifie At which time Zoroaster was King of that Country and slaine by him of whom Saint Austin writeth that he laughed at the time of his birth which prodigious mirth in the opinion of the same Father booded him no good for he was saith he as is reported the first Inventor of Magicke By which if he meaneth Naturall Magicke being the knowledge of things in respect of their causes there was no cause why he should be blamed For as Plinie also writeth he not onely laughed when he was born but had also such a brain as was perceived to beat at the time of his birth which signified some great Excellency to be in him as appeared afterward when he was growne up I meane if this were that Zoroaster whom Ninus slew Eusebius would that Abram should be borne in the three and fortieth year of this King Ninus his reign but note that this is not from any given or recorded Testimony that he thus placeth Abrams birth but from that manner of reckoning which he bringeth back from the fifteenth yeare of Tiberius as may be seen in his tenth booke and third Chapter De Praep. Evang. And in that regard though he be followed by Saint Austin and some other of the Ancients yet a righter computation may be made by such as shall more exactly cast the times according to Scripture and then apply the accounts thereunto following therein the Hebrew verity and not the numbers which the Septuagint produceth Next after Ninus was his Wife Semiramis Semiramis she succeeded her Husband and began to reigne in the yeare of the Julian Period 2707. twelve years compleat before the birth of Abram for his birth falleth into the thirteenth yeare of her reigne She was the daughter of a Nimph whose name was Dercero and was begotten on her by an unknowne man for
which cause she drowned her selfe in the Lake Ascalon as soon as she was delivered and left this her daughter Semiramis among the Rocks where the wilde Beasts fed her with their Milke till Symnas the Kings Sheapheard found her who tooke her away and brought her up And being very beautifull she was afterwards married to one Memnon a Noble man by the meanes whereof she became acquainted with King Ninus when he be sieged the City Bactras teaching him both how to take the City and subdue the Country He thereupon admiring her wit and being caught with her beauty tooke her away from her Husband and married her and she afterward to possesse her selfe of the Throne desired of him to have all the power of royalty put into her hands but for the space of five dayes which he granted in which time she caused him to beslain and then reigned after him forty two yeares Diod. Euseb She inlarged the City of Babylon to admiration which once being like to be surprised upon hearing of it she rescued with her haire halfe hanging about her eares not staying to dresse it wholly and therefore is so pictured Next after her was her Sonne Zameis Ninias otherwise called Ninias who began in the yeare of the Julian Period 2749. and reigned 38. yeares Euseb He was tenderly brought up by his Mother among her Ladies Aug de cipit dea lib. 18. c. 2. and was at the last slaine by him for her incestuous lust towards him as Saint Austin noteth saying He did it because she bare an Incestuous lust towards him it being also usuall with her to murder those whom she had to doe with Howbeit her sonne would not be thus dealt withand thereupon both to prevent her murdering of him and also though the hatred he bore to her unnaturall Act he flew her and reigned afte thirty eight yeares The next after him was Thuras Arius otherwise called Arius or according to Moses in Genests chap. 14. Amraphel For by the course of time this must needs be he who with the rest of the confederate Princes came against Sodome and tooke Lot prisoner but was vanquished by Abraham Haner Eshcol and Mamre Gen. 14.13 Suidas saith of him that he was a man of a fierce disposition who bidding battell to Caucasus of the stocke of Japeth slew him but this may be fabulous The same Author likewise saith that the Assyrians deified him and worshipped his Image for a god He began his reigne in the year of the Julian Period 2787. and reigned as saith Eusebius thirty years As for the rest that follow from hence to Sardanapalus Tonosconcoleros otherwise called Tonosconcoleros there is little or nothing mentioned of them of them save onely their bare names years that they reigned and that the Sonne as Velleius saith alwayes succeeded the Father I can therefore make no large description of them Onely let me note that Belochus the second who began his reigne in the year of the Julian Period 3279. and reigned twenty five yeares was as Eusebius writeth the Father of the second Semiramis who was famous in the time of his reigne Also that Tautanes who began his reigne in the year of the Julian Period 3507. and reigned thirty two years was in the time of the Trojan Warre and as already hath been said sent Aid to Priamus for so Diodorus writeth Bethese I know no other till we come to Sardanapalus that can have much more said of them Howbeit I have something still to say which would be mentioned here in this Chapter wherein I treat of the Assyrian Monarchy and this it is Calvisius out of Julius Affricanus writeth that in the eight and twentieth year of Belus the Father of Ninus aforesaid the Kingdome of Chalea was subdued to the Kingdome of Assyria Which I beleeve to be a meer mistake For this needed not seeing in those time and a long while after Chaldea end Assyria were both under one King More like it is that in the eight and twentieth year of Belochus the first the Caldeans revolted from the Assyrians and reigned apart in a Dynastie by themselves 224. yeares At the end whereof viz. in the year of the Julian Period 3176. the Arahians overcame them and reigned in Chaldea untill 520. yeers before the overthrow of Sardanapalus for when he was overthrowne by Arbaces the Assyrians had had the whole dominion of Asia 520. yeares as saith Herodotus lib. 1. Now this seemes probable because in the * This 18. in Euseb is by my account the 22. For where his 18. standeth there stands my 22. eighteenth yeare of Cecrops which was in the yeare of the Julian Period 3175. the Chaldeans as saith Eusebius strove with the Phenicians By which is first proved that then and at that time the Chaldeans had a distinct Kingdome by themselves and secondly that whilst they were at Warre with the Phenicians the Arabians came in and got it away from them holding it from thence untill the * viz in the year of the Julian Period 3176. which was the 23. year of Sparetus King of Assiâ—ia eighth yeare of Sosares King of Assyria In which year being the yeare of the Julian Period 3373. the Assyrians have againe the whole Monarchy by this account and from thence they hold it 520. yeares For if thus we may reconcile Herodofus to other Authors his Testimony of 520. yeares for the time of the Assyrian Monarchy may be embraced otherwise not * which is not from any given Testimony but from the course of computation And would you now that I set downe the distinct reigne of these Kings I shall doe it but first take a List of the Kings of Assyria as they be found in Eusebius from Ninus to to the end of Sardanapalus that Epicureous Monster who made no matter of it to cry out and say Ede bibe lude post mortem nulla voluptas Eate drinke and play whilst thou art here For after death there 's no good cheere This was whilst he was in his fullest madnesse causing also this Epitaph as it is translated by Tullie for it was first written in Greeke to be engraven upon his Tomb. Haec habeo quae edi quae que ex saturata voluptas Hausit at illa jacent multa preclara relicta What I consum'd and what my Guts engross't I have but all the wealth I left I lost This was his Epitaph made by himselfe before his trouble came but as Aristotle saith it was sitter to be written upon the grave of an Oxe then upon the grave of a King And so I thinke for this is he who was the very shame and Monster of men But leaving him see the List it is according to what I find in Eusebius whom herein I follow Onely I have added the yeare of the Julian Period when each King began his reigne A List or Catalogue of the Kings of ASSYRIA from Ninus to Sardanapalus 2655. Ninus 52.
done then carefull to avoid the danger that might betide him he came under the dint of what was throwne whether Quoit or Ball of Lead and so was slain But I must now set downe the Kings already mentioned in their right times and present them in one List at once befor thee After which I shall proceed to the Kingdome of Mycenae in which I shall meet with difficultie more then ordinary because the Kings of that Kingdome are scarce rightly computed by any Author that I have seen Petavius in his Rat. Temp. comes nearest to truth as will be afterward shewed Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg Kings of Argos to the death of Acrisius ex Eusebio 2852. Inachus 50. Years of his reigne 2902. Phoroneus 60. Years of his reigne 2962. Apis 35. Years of his reigne 2997. Argus 70. Years of his reigne 3067. Criasus 54. Years of his reigne 3121. Phorbas 35. Years of his reigne 3156. Triopas 46. Years of his reigne 3202. Crotopus 21 Years of his reigne 3223. Stethnelas 11. Years of his reigne 3234. Danaus 50. Years of his reigne 3284. Lynceus 41. Years of his reigne 3325. Abas 23. Years of his reigne 3348. Praetus 17. Years of his reigne 3365. Acrisius 31. Years of his reigne 3396. In this yeare the Kingdome of Argos was ended through the untimely death of Acrisius 544. yeares after it began I come therefore now to that of Mycenae in the handling of which that I may account aright I shall crave a little leave to depart away from the common path For as is commonly accounted Perseus and Sthenelus had but eight yeares together whereas Perseus alone had not lesse then one and thirty yeares because mention is made of the two and thirtieth yeare of his reigne as may be seen in Eusebius his tenth Booke and his third Chapter De Praeparatione Evangelica After these two Euristheus reigned 38 say some 43. say others Then Atreus and Thyestes 65. and Agamemnon 15. After him Aegystus 7. Orestes 70. and last of all Tisamenus Penthilus and Cometes 3. among them the end whereof must be at 80. yeares after the destruction of Troy as Velleius sheweth lib. 1. cap 2. The years of these last after Agamemnon I think may passe as they are except with Sir Walter Raleigh I reckon six and not seven to Aegystus or else account some one of their years after Agamemnon to be but current And as for Agamemnon himselfe that he should have but 15 is contrary to what Eusebius writeth in the Chapter and book aforesaid where agreeing with Clemens of Alexandria he telleth us that Agamemnon reigned 18. yeares in the last whereof Troy was taken Then for Atreus and Thyestes that they together should have 65. yeares is nothing probable for as Petavius proveth out of Thucidides and Isocrates it is not to be doubted but that Eurystheus predecessor to them was slaine by the posterity of Hercules after Hercules himselfe was dead To which saith he Diodorus addeth saying the posterity of Hercules fought against Eurystheus having Theseus and Hyllus for their Captaines Have an eye then to the time when Theseus both began and ended his reigne and see whether the time of Eurystheus can possibly be thrust up so high as the 65. yeares of Atreus and Thyestes will croud it More like it is that they two between them had not above six yeares For the Scholiast of Thucidides sets downe the time of the Heraclidae's first eruption into Peloponnesus to be twenty yeares before the destruction of Troy and the latter to be 80. yeares after it was destroyed But saith Petavius their first comming in is to be taken two wayes For in the beginning thereof they with their Captains Jolaus Theseus and Hillus fought against Eurystheus and he being slaine they enjoyed Peloponnesus for about a yeare untill by pestilence they were driven out Then in the third yeare after they come againe even just twenty yeares before the destruction of Troy when Hyllus concluded with Atreus the successor of Eurystheus that if hee viz. Hyllus were overcome in single fight the Heraclidae should depart to the place from whence they came and not returne into Peloponnesus againe untill an hundred yeares after Now it so fell out that Hyllus was slain they thereupon depart as was agreed and returne not againe untill the time appointed which being an hundred yeares after and yet but 80. yeares after the fall of Troy must needs declare that Hyllus was slaine twenty yeares before Troy was destroyed viz. in the year of the Julian Period 3510 three years before which viz. in the yeare of the Julian Period 3507. Eurystheus was slaine In that yeare therefore of his death was the first yeare of Atreus who together with his Partner in reigne Thyestes could have but six yeares if Agamemnon have eighteen And that Agamemnon had eighteen rather then fifteene is witnessed as I said before by Clemens in Eusebius who saith that Troy was taken in the eighteenth yeare of his reigne Nor doth Eusebius himselfe but record so many yeares for the whole reigne of Agamemnon though he wrongfully coupleth his fifteenth with the fall of Troy which is indeed the onely reason why some Authors say that he had but fifteene years of reigne For if Troy was taken in his fifteenth yeare then must that be his last because at his returne from thence he was slain by Aegystus set on to do it by the suggestion of Clytemnestra Agamemnons owne Wife who in the absence of her Husband and whilst he was at the Seige of Troy committed Adultery with Aegystus and now together with him defileth her hands with Blood as before for the satisfying of her wicked lust she had filthily defiled her Husbands bed and so in conclusion adds murther and Adultery both together But it was not the fifteenth but eighteenth year of this gallant King when the Greekes tooke Troy according to the Testimony aforesaid and therefore we must not account lesse then eighteene yeares for Agamemnon And as for Perseus the first King of this Kingdome mention as I said before is made of the two and thirtieth years of his reigne but how much he reigned longer is uncertaine Onely that he began in the yeare of the Julian Period 3396. I am very confident and have reason for it For first Danaus was banished out of Egypt nine yeares after King Pharaoh was drowned in the Red-Sea which therefore makes his banishment to be in the yeare of the Julian Period 3233. and consequently his beginning to reigne in Argos in the year of the same Period 3234. Which time of Danaus being thus fixed serves well to direct us both to the beginning and end of the Kingdome of Argos and consequently for the beginning of the Kingdome of Mycenae whose first King was as already hath been said King Perseus Secondly the two and thirtieth yeare of Perseus before mentioned was 63. years before the expedition of the Argonauts and therefore in the yeare of
as I have already mentioned Mnestheus was the next King of Athens who attained the Kingdome through the faction of Helen's bretheren who expelled Theseus and made him King This Mnestheus reigned twenty foure years and dyed but a little before Aeneas came into Italie as Ludovicus Vives noteth Demophoon reigned next but was none of his Son For Demophoon was the Son of Theseus and Phaedra who upon the death of Mnestheus recovered his Fathers Kingdome and reigned in it thirty three years This was he who for his neglect caused faire Phillis to hang her selfe Oxintes succeeded Demophoon and reigned after him twelve years His successour was Aphidas who reigned one year After Aphidas was Timoetes who reigned eight years Then after him was Melanthus who reigned 37. years The next after him was Codrus who reigned 21. years and was the seventeenth and last King of Athens For the next that governed here after Codrus were the Archontes perpetui after them the Archontes decennales and last of all the Archontes annui The Archontes perpetui were for terme of life and did in their successions reigne 316. years after the death of Codrus The Archontes decennales had ten years a peece and did reigne each after other untill seventy years were ended The Archontes annui were no other then yearly officers whos 's first beginning was in the year of the Iulian Period 4030 which was the first year of the 24. Olympiad and is an account commended much by Master Selden in his Marmora Arundelliana who in that book placeth the first of these annuall officers in the very same year I shall not need to set downe the particular names of these untill I come to shew you them in their right times which shall be now in the following Catalogues Years of the Iulian Period when they beg A perfect List or Catalogue of the Athenian Kings ex Eusebio 3154. Cecrops 50. 3204. Cranaus 9. 3213. Amphyction 10. 3223. Ericthonius 50. 3273. Pandion 40. 3313. Ericthius 50. 3363. Cecrops secundus 40. 3403. Pandion the second 25. 3428. An Interregnum of two years began now 3430. The end of the Interregnum and beginning of Aegeus whose time of reign was 48. years 3478. Theseus 30. 3508. Mnestheus 24. 3532. Demophoon 33. 3565. Oxintes 12. 3577. Aphydas 1. 3578. Timoetes 8. 3586. Metanthus 37. 3623. Codrus 21. 3644.  In this year was the death of Codrus just foure hundred and ninety yeares fince Cecrops the first began to reigne This was the last King of Athens who for the good of his Country put himselfe into a disguise that he might be slame For when the Kings of Peloponnesus who descended from Hercules warred upon Athens it was told them by the Oracle that they should conquer if they killed not the Atheman King hereupon they concealed as much as they could the answer of the Oracle and withall gave a strict charge that none should touch Codrus But the Athenians hearing of this Oracle Codrus being desirous of glory and the good of his Country disguised himselfe went into the Camp of his Enemies and falling to brable with the Souldiers was flaine from whence * Aug de civit dei lib. 18. c. 19 came that saying of Virgill Aut jurgia Godri Now after this the Athenians would have no more Kings which was not out of any inconvenience found in the rule of Soveraignty but in honour of Codrus as saith a learned Knight Sir Walter Raleigh lib. 2 cap. 17. Sect. 10. in his History of the World And indeed it might very well be so for after Codrus had thus delivered his Country the Athenians * Aug. lib. 18. cap. 19. de civit dei sacrificed to him as a God and would as I said have after him no more Kings for feare I think they should not be so good as he For his worth was able to Eclipse theirs if at any time they failed of what was required Howbeit the Government was still in a manner Regall for between Kings and the Archontes perpetui was little or no difference save onely in the name For the Princes that followed after Codrus without regall name governed Athens during the time of their life and so in effect were Kings although they were called Archonts The first of these was Medon from whom all else in the same Dynastie were called Medontidae of which as followeth Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg A perfect List or Catalogue of the Archonts of Athens called Archontes perpetui ex Eusebio 3644. Medon 20. 3664. Agasâ—us 36. 3700. Archippus 19. 3719. Tersippus 41. 3760. Phorbas 31. 3791. Mezades 30. 3821. Diognetus 28. 3849. Pheredus 19. 3868. Ariphron 20. In his time Sardanapalus began to reig 3888. Tespiâ—us or Thesphorus 27. In his time Sardanapalus lost his Kingdome as saith Eusebius 3915. Agamnestor 20. 3935. Aeschilus 23. 3958. Alemenon 2. 3960. Here was the end of this Dynastie  Archontes decennales 3960. Carops 10 3970. Aesimides 10. 3980. Elidicus 10. 3990. Hippomenes 10. 4000. Leocrates 10. 4010. Absander 10. 4020. Erixias 10. 4030.  Here the Archontes decennales ended and the Archontes annui began therein agreeing to that which Master Selden commendeth in his Marmora Arundelliana who placeth the first of these Annuall officers in the very same year as I said before CHAP. VII Of the Kings that reigned in the Kingdome of Troy before the Greeks destroyed it THe first of these Kings with whom I begin was Dardanus the son in Law of Teucer he began to reigne in the year of the Julian Period 3234 and as Eusebius saith reigned 63. years His Kingdome was in Phrygia the lesse and Asia the lesser The chiefe City was Troy which he built and called it after his owne name Dardania Of Tros it came to be called Troy and of Ilus Ilium Ericthonius succeeded Dardanus and reigned after him 46. yeares Euseb Homer and Diodorus say that he was extreamly rich and that he had 30000 Mares and their Colts continually feeding in his Pastures Tros succeeded Ericthonius and reigned after him 61. Euseb He altered the name of Dardania and turned it to Troy from whom the people also were called Trojans Ilus was the next King he would that the City should be called Ilium and so was Howbeit it lost not the name of Troy but it was known by both names The time of his reigne here was 50 yeares Laomedon succeeded Illus and reigned after him thirty six yeares Ral. After Laomedon was King Priamus who reigned not 52. but 40. years according to the best and truest account taken by Bucholcerus out of Archilochus So that all the times of these Kings was 296. yeares And now see their List rightly fixed Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg A List or Catalogue of the Kings of Troy before it was destroyed all of them fixed in their right times 3234. Dardanus 63. 3297. Fricthonius 46. 3343. Tros 61. 3404. Ilus 50. 3454. Laomedon 36. 3490. Priamus 40 3530.
and they were these Giges 38. Ardis 49. Sadiattes 12. Halyattes 57. Croesus 14. Scaliger gathereth out of Sosicrates a Laconian Historiographer that Cyrus tooke Sardes and subdued Croesus 41. years after the death of Periander who thereupon setteth the end of Croesus his Kingdome in the first year of the 59. Olympiad the like doth Helvicus and some others And indeed the account would fit the turne well enough if all things else were correspondent but because they are not I must let it alone to them that like it For though from the fortieth yeare of Periander which was all the time that he reigned according to Laertius there be 41. years to the time that Cyrus subdued Croesus yet not so many from the end of his 44. at which time he dyed even in the fourth yeare of the 48. Olympiad as already hath been shewed I conclude therefore that when Croesus lost his Kingdome it was not the first year of the 59. Olympiad but rather and indeed the first year of the 58. Olympiad fourteenth year of his reign For we are not to account that last of his to be compleat but current when this calamity fell upon him and that it was also towards Winter in the yeare of the Julian Period 4166. Which being considered I would that the reigne of the Lydians be set one year higher then they be in the Table in the first Part next after the one hundred and nineteenth Page For there the conquest that Cyrus made of Croesus his Kingdome standeth against the year of the Julian Period 4167 whereas here I conclude it to be in the yeare of the same Period 4166. when the Soldiers were ready to take up their winter quarters But now see the List Years of the Iulian Period when they beg A List or Catalogue of the Kings of Lydia rightly fixed 3918. Ardysus 36. 3954. Alyattes 14. 3968. Meles 12. 3980. Candaules 17. This is he who lost his Kingdome by shewing his naked Wife to Gyges 3997. Giges 38. 4035. Ardys 49. 4084. Sadiattes 12. 4096. Halyattes 57. 4153. Croesus 14. current Cyrus conquered him and his Kingdome in the first yeare of the 58. Olympiad teste Solino and that was in the yeare of the Julian Period 4166. as before was said He had a Sonne who never spake in all life till now but now seeing a Souldier goe about to kill his Father upon a suddaine passion he brake his Tongue-string cryed out and said Oh man take heed wilt thou kill Croesus And from that day to his death he could speake as well as other men Herodot The next to be mentioned according to their order or course of time be the Kings of the Medes The reigne of the Medes of whom I gave notice in the latter end of the second Chapter They reigned without any strict hand over their subjects untill the dayes of Dioces and that 's the reason why he is accounted by Herodotus as the first King Nor is this my opinion alone Hist World l. 2. c. 27. S. 5. but of Sir Walter Raleigh likewise in his History of the World saying this Dioces was the first that ruled the Medes in a strict forme commanding more absolutely then his Predecessors had done For they following the example of Arbaces had given to the people so much licence as caused every one to desire the wholesome severity of a more Lordly King Herein Dioces answered their desires to the full For he caused them to build for him a stately Palace he tooke unto him a Guard for the defence of his Person he seldome gave presence which also when he did it was with such austerity that no man durst presume to spit or cough in his fight By these and the like Ceremonies he bred in the people an awfull regard and highly upheld the Majestie which his Predecessors had almost letten fall through neglect of due comportments In execution of his royall office he did uprightly and severely administer justice keeping secret spies to informe him of all that was done in the Kingdome He cared not to enlarge the bounds of his Dominion by encroaching upon others but studied how to govern well his owne The difference found between this King and such as were before him seemes to have bred that opinion which Herodotus delivers that Dioces was the first who reigned in Media Thus that Knight Moreover this was he that built the great City of Echatane which now is called Tauris and therefore should in all likelihood be that King Arphaxad mentioned in the booke of Judith which even the course of time approveth But if he be Arphaxad who was it that was that great Nabuchodonosor which fought against him I answer this seemes to be Saosduchinus King of the Assirians about the beginning of whose twelfth year Dioces was slaine For so it is read in the first Chapter of the book of Judith translated into Latin out of the Caldee by St. Hierom as a worthy Author well observeth in his laborious and learned Annals of the old Testament In the Greeke indeeed we are one while directed to the twelfth yeare another while to the seventeenth year of this King but that unconstancie argues a defect in the Copie and so I leave it comming now to shew the course of succession among these Kings of Media who began at the death of Sardanapalus Yeares of the Iulian Period when they beg A Catalogue or List of the Kings of Media partly out of Eusebius and partly out of Herodotus 3893. Arbaces 28. 3921. Sosarmus 30. 3951. Medidus 40. 3991. Cardiceas 13. 4004. Dioces 53. 4057. Phraortes 22. 4079. Cyaxares 40. 4119. Astyages 35. 4154. Here was the end of Astyages and the beginning of the reigne of Cyaxares secundus who according to Xenophon was the son of Astyages and called in the sacred Prophecy of Daniel by the name of Darius Medus He was the Vncle of Cyrus as being Brother to his Mother which Xenophon also sheweth Moreover we are to note that in the booke of Tobit and Daniel Astyages the Father of this Cyaxares is called Ahasuerus or Assuerus as may be seen Dan. 9.1 and Tob. 14.17 Next after these we are to reckon the Kings of Assyria which reigned at Niniveh after the death of Sardanapalus Kings of Assyria after Sardanapalus as those before mentioned reigned in Media The first of them may be granted to be that King whom Castor in his Canon calleth Ninus secundus saying as his words sound in the Latine Initium Chronographiae fecimus a Nino eam deduximus usque ad Ninum qui successionis jure accèpit Regnum a Sardanapalo Thus he Now this name some thinke was given him for the better lucke sake namely as I conceive That as the ancient Ninus did at the first enlarge this Kingdome so as it came to be a great Monarchy in like manner the same was hoped for by them who gave this name to this King Or else because he was
the Passover even as on the next day after the Passeover Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us to free us from the bondage of sinne and Sathan Nor in this yeare would that character which we have in Exodus from the history of the Quailes and Manna be forgotten For as we read in the sixteenth chapter on the fifteenth day of the second moneth the people murmured for lacke of meate whereupon God sent them Quailes at Even and on the morrow morning Manna which they gathered six dayes but on the seventh day they found none Exod. 16.26 By which we see not onely that the 22 day of the moneth must be Sabbath day but also that the first Manna fell on the first day of the weeke now called the Lords Day in memory of our Saviours Resurrection and hath been the Christians Sabbath ever since Which is exactly true in the yeare that I account if but 29 dayes be reckoned for the first moneth awd 30 for the second which as I have shewed before in place convenient is more consentaneous to the motion of the Moon then to have 30 for the first before the odde houres arise to a day for this could not be before the second moneth The first moneth therefore in any yeare hath but 29 dayes the second 30 the third 29 the fourth 30 c. For in one moneth according to the meane motion of the Moon from one conjunction to another we have but 29 dayes 12 houres 44 minutes three seconds and 12 thirds I account therefore that the Israelites came out of Egypt when the 29 day of April was ending and the 30 beginning which was Feria sexta I account likewise that the first Magna fell on the 30 day of May which was the 16 day of the secrnd moneth Feria prima and consequently that the 29 day of of May and fifth of June were Sabbath dayes the one on the 15 day of the second moneth and the other on the 22. And thus is this yeare truly found by the correspondence we see it hath with these characters The like confirmation I find for the yeares in which I account the Temple to be founded and dedicated by King Salomon and aster that burnt by Nebuchadnezzar For first it being true that the Israelites came out of Egypt in the yeare of the Julian Period 3224 it must needes follow that King Salomon laid the foundation of the Temple in the yeare of the same Period 3703 for it must be in the fourth yeare of King Salomon on the second day of the second moneth 480 yeares current after the comming out of Egypt as we are taught in the 1 Kin. 6.1 And that being the yeare when it was dedicated being seven yeares after must needs be in the yeare of the same Period 3710 which was not onely seven yeares after but was also the eleventh yeare of Salomon as we are likewise taught it should be in the 1 Kin. chap. 6. verse 38. and chap. 8.2 Now this I confirme both by the time that the Temple stood and also by the courses of the Priests which served in the said Temple till Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it The first of these is abundantly proved by me to be 423 yeares and some odde moneths which therefore casteth the destruction thereof into the yeare of the Julian Period 4126. Over and above which proofes of mine I have seen that since which I do much admire namely that some of the skilfull Rabbins have said and recorded it that the same number was heretofore read in the Heavens from such letters as the Starres in their position made For as Gaffarell a learned French man hath told us R. Rapoll Chomier and Abjudan have delivered to posterity the deepe secrets of a caelestiall writing and Reading which discovers many strange things to them who are able to understand it and among the rest this is one namely That a little before this Temple we now speake of was destroyed and burnt by Nebuchadnezzar it was observed that eleven of the Starres that were most verticall to it composed for a pretty while together five Hebrew Letters which being joyned together made up this word reading it from the North towards the West Hikschich which signifieth to reject and forsake without any Mercy and the number of three of them added together amounted to 423 the very space of Time that this stately piece of building had stood All this I finde in the unheard-of curiosities of James Gaffarell at the 13 chapter which whil'st I mention I look upon mine own proofes with the more confidence and though I professe no skill in such curiosities yet I will embrace truth wheresoever I finde it This then for the time of the Temple being thus the Character which I have to confirme all else about it is this namely the courses of the Priests which served in the Temple from the first Sabbath of the Dedication till Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it For we may easily believe that in the first Sabbath of the Dedication the first course which was the course of Joarib began which I have elsewhere proved by the Hebrew and Julian Kalender of that yeare which was the yeare of the Iulian Period 3710 to be on the 17 day of October To which time and yeare if we adde 224 Iulian yeares in which space the courses returne to the same day againe we shall come to the yeare of the Julian period 3934. on the 17 day of October After which we have 192 yeares more before we can come to the yeare of the Julian period 4126 in which the Temple was destroyed noting these 192 yeares to end on the 17 of October likewise And in 192 yeares we finde 417 courses with 72 dayes over and above which 72 dayes being taken out of the number of dayes which were from the beginning of that yeare of the Julian period to the said 17 day of October do direct us to the sixth day of August which then was Sabbath day and the course of Joarib even that very course of his in which the Temple was destroyed as before in the seventh Chapter pag. 44.45 c. may be seen But I cannot forget the 423 so strangely found out by Chomier for the time of the Temple Gaffarell out of him hath other periods not impertinent found out also by the foresaid Reading of the Stars as that the Kingdome of the Jewes from the beginning of the 40 yeares given to Samuel and Saul in the Acts of the Apostles to the deplorable condition of Zedechia should be 505 yeares for so indeed it was if we reckon from the beginning of the 40 yeare aforesaid to the time that Nebuchadnezzar laid his last siege against Jerusalem 430 dayes before the City was taken This number of 505 he saith was signified by five stars which composed three mysticall letters out of which was made an Hebrew word whose signification was to breake cast downe and to drive out the Number arising from those letters being 505.
And why I end them at the foresaid deplorable condition of Zedechia in the time of the siege is ecause this position of Stars was seen thus and read a little before the Jewes saw their Scepter cast downe to the ground and their liberty quite carried Captive into Babylon which must needs be in the yeare of the Julian period 4125 when Nebuchadnezzar laid his last siege against Jerusalem Thus after the same manner the length of the Persian Monarchy founded by Cyrus is said to be 208 yeares in which though he may seeme to differ two yeares from my account which precisely alloweth but 206 yet he doth abundantly confute Beroaldus Broughton and such others who would make the world believe that this Monarchy lasted but 130 yeares or thereabouts whereas it must be 206 at the least and begin according to Xenophon seven yeares before the death of King Cyrus or 208 if we account from the time that Cyrus laid the foundation thereof in conquering Asia and the whol continent about Babylon against which he made his last expedition two yeares before he tooke it The notice of which time is not impertinent for even the prophet had an eye thereunto in Jer. 51.46 Howbeit the Head of Gold was not as yet quite cut off for that was not till Babylon was taken and Belshazzar slaine not many houres before which there was an hand-writing upon the wall which told it Then was as well the first yeare of Cyrus as of Darius Medus how else had Daniel been in Babylon unto the first of Cyrus seeing upon the Conquest Darius tooke him with him into Media as Josephus sheweth where he was unto the third yeare of Cyrus though how much longer we know not Dan. 10.1 Whereas therefore it is said in Dan. 1.21 that Daniel was unto the first yeare of Cyrus it is to be understood thus namely That Daniel continued in Babilon till that state was altered and the Kingdome translated to Cyrus who made such a partition thereof between himselfe and Darius as that Darius had the chiefe Title of honour though he in effect had the dominion That which we read in the fifth Chapter hath respect hereunto for there we read not onely that Belshazzars Kingdome was divided and given to the Medes and the Persians but also that Darius Medus took the Kingdome being threescore and two yeares old Dan. 5.28.31 After which it seemeth probable that he lived but a while not onely because his Climactericall yeare was now at hand but also in regard of the time noted in the date of Daniels Visions For in this new State after Daniels first Vision in the first yeare of Darius when he prayed for the returne of the people from their captivity there is no more mentioned of any thing dated in the yeares of his Reign but in the yeares of Cyrus which if Darius had been still alive would not have beene as is easie to go grant if we do but consider that Darius tooke Daniel away with him into Media as soon as Babylon was conquered and made him there the chiefest Officer of his Kingdome Nay more that this first yeare of Darius must be the very yeare likewise when Cyrus released the captivity is plain not onely because now the 70 yeares were accomplished which were both the date of Nebuchadnezzars Kingdome Dau. 5.26 Jer. 2â— finished at the death of Belshazzar and of the peoples servitude which was to be during the Reigne of him his son and his sons son whom Esay calleth his Esa 14.22 in which place by Nephew we are to understand the sonnes sonne The same with that in Jer. 27.7 Nephew but also in regard of Daniels prayer for their Return made at this time which was indeed the fulfilling of the condition required of God in his promise concerning their freedome For as soon as ever God had made a promise to his people that they should come home again when 70 yeares began to be accomplished at Babylon then this followeth and is annexed as the condition of his promise namely that they seeke him for as Junius renders that text when ye shall call upon me that ye may Or goe away returne and pray unto me then will I heare you Ier. 29.10.12 which when Daniel considered he prayes earnestly to God in the behalf of the people even in the first yeare of Darius and is told by the Angel Gabrel not onely that his prayer was heard but also that the Lord had decreed a spirituall deliverance for his Church which at the time appointed and mentioned in the seventy weekes should be accomplished by the death of Christ whom Daniel calls the Messiah as may beseen at large in the ninth Chapter of his prophecy But to return again to Gaffarel and his learned Chomier who tel us that the continuation likewise of the Graecian Kingdome is also found after the same manner and in the Heavens pointed out to be 284 yeares which was foreshewed by foure Stars that made up the Verbe Parad a word which signifieth to divide and in which the number was 284. Now this is true as well as the rest that are before mentioned if we begin to reckon from the yeare of the Iulian period 4384 when Alexander the Great subdued He was the last King of the Persian Monarchy Darius Codoman and end in the yeare of the same period 4668. when Iulius Caesar was created perpetuall Dictator for the Romans in whom the foundation also of their Monarchy began first to be laid though it came to no great perfection till Augustus overcame Marke Anthony from whence all the time after to the destruction of Ierusalem by Titus is ninety and nine yeares And at that I end LAUS SOLI DEO FINIS
Gurginius 3.  4535. Merian 2.  * He was buried at Ikaldown or as we now call it Jekelton in Cambridgesheir For so I find it in a very old Chronicle of England * He built Cambride and Grantham * He built the Towne of Pickering Yeares of the Julian Period when they beg The continuation of the former List or Catalogue of the British Kings   4537. Bladunc 2.  4539. Capb 1.  4540. Ovinus 2.  4542. Cicill 2.  4544. Bledgebred 20.  4564. Archemall 14.  4578. Eldelus 4.  4582. Rodianus 32.  4614. Hertir or Redarius 5.  4619. Samulius 2.  4621. Penisellus 3.  4624. Pyrrhus 6.  4630. Caporus 7.  4637. Dinellus 3.  4640. Helius * 1. * The Isle of Eley was named after his name and the town thereof built by him 4641. Lud 11.  4652. Cassibelan 19.  4659. In this year being the eighth of Cassibelan Cesar came first against Britaine but was repulsed and made no Conquest here till the next yeare   4660. This was that next the ninth of Cassibelan the 699. of Rome and the third yeare of the 181. Olympiad it was also the 4660. yeare of the Julian Period and yeare oâ— the World 3951. And now had the Britaines reigned 1055. yeares current when Cesar made this conquest   4671. Theomantius reigned next 23.  4694. Cymbeline 35. In his time Christ was born 4729. Guiderius 28. He denied to pay the Romans their tribute whereupon the Emperour Claudius raised a great Army and came against him in the yeare of our Lord 43. * He is said by some to rule 60. yeares and that the yeares of the Kings before him ever since the death of Elidure are uncertain in his time Cherry-Trees was first planted in this Iland as Master Isâ—â—cson writeth in his Chronology pag. 171. The next after Guiderius was Arviragus he reigned 28. yeares and began in the yeare of the Julian Period 4757. In the last yeare but one of his reigne Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus the sonne of Vespasian even in the year of the Julian Period 4783. And thus I have prosecuted this History of the British Kings thus farre and listed them in their right times and order as neare as I can and have as you see taken my first Rise from the arrivall of their first King Brutus who comming out of France came into this Land then called Albion and found no other Inhabitants in it but some Gyants which dwelled in Moutaines and Caves these were vanquished by him and his men the chiefest whereof was Corin one of Brutes strongest Champions by whom the Gyant Gogmagog was slaine But if this Island were once a Continent to France as Verstegan proveth in his * chap 4. restitution of decayed Antiquities then I do suppose the most ancient name thereof was Samothea Afterward being made an Island by the Sea eating through that little Isthmus or neck of Land between Dover and Calice it was called Albion from Albion a Son of Neptune as some have said by whom and whose posterity it was inhabited untill Brute made conquest of it which as is commonly accounted was in the year before Christ 1108. And there I have fixed it even in the yeare of the Iulian Period 3606. and yeare of the World by my account 2897. CHAP. XI Containing the Dynasties of severall other Kingdomes THe Kingdomes which next offer themselves to be considered are the Kingdomee of Lacedemon and Corinth which began at the last descent of the Heraclidae fourscore yeares after the destruction of Troy as before in the end of the fifth Chapter was shewed Some begin them both in one yeare whilst others make a yeares difference which I doe beleeve ariseth from this that Automenes is sometimes reckoned for the last King of Corinth and sometimes for the first Annuall Officer after the end of the second Dynastie But I for my part shall reckon Automenes for the * and so Eusebius also reckons last King after whom were Annuall Officers or Princes for 124. yeares as is accounted by Helvicus in his Chronologie At the end of which yeares Cypselus began to reigne and reigned 28. yeares Some say that he was a Tyrant but by Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World lib. 2. cap. 28. Sect. 5. he is mentioned not as a Tyrant but as a quiet Prince who notwithstanding by expelling the race of the Bachidae made himselfe Lord of Corinth After Cypselus was Periander who was indeed a Tyrant and reigned 44. yeares according to Aristotle dying in the fourth year of the 48. Olympiad as saith Laertius The death therefore of this Tyrant and end of the Kingdome of Corinth fell into the yeare of the Julian Period 4129. for then was the fourth yeare of the 48. Olympiad And as for the beginning of it that must be in the yeare of the same Period 3610. foure score yeares after the fall of Troy as already hath been said See now the List Years of the Iulian Period when they beg A List of the Kings of Corinth ex Euseb all fixed in their right times  3610. Athletes or Alethes 35. Dynastie 1. 3645. Ixion 37. Dynastie 1. 3682. Agilaus 37. Dynastie 1. 3719. Pryminas 35. Dynastie 1. Years of the Iulian Period when they beg The Dynastie of the Bachidae in Corinth ex Eusebio  3754. Bachis 35. Dynastie 2 3789. Agelas 30. Dynastie 2 3819. Eudemus 25. Dynastie 2 3844. Aristemedes 35. Dynastie 2 3879. Egemnon 16. Dynastie 2 3895. Alexander 25. Dynastie 2 3920. Phelesteus 12. Dynastie 2 3932. Automenes 1. Dynastie 2 3933. Annuall Officers began and continued one hundred twenty foure yeares  4057. Cypselus 28. 4085. Periander 44. 4129. The death of Periander and fourth year of the forty eight Olympiad  Years of the Iulian Period when they beg A List or Catalogue of the Lacedemonian Kings taken out of Eusebius and fitted to their right times  3610. Euristheus 42. 3652. Agis 1. 3653. Archestratus 35. 3688. Labotes 37. 3725. Doristus 29. 3754. Agesilaus 44. 3798. Archelaus 60. 3858. Telechus 40. 3898. Alcamenes 37. 3935. Here was the end of this List or Catalogue in in which were seven Kings and they among them reigned 325. yeare  The next that I shall mention The reigns of the Lydians were the Kings of Lydia and the time of their Dynasties the first of which I must passe over as not knowing how to reckon it The second began in the yeare of the Julian Period 3492. and lasted as saith Herodotus 505. yeares even till the beginning of Gyges but we want a continued Series of the Kings for the space of 426. yeares even till the first yeare of Ardysus who reigned 36. yeares Alyattes 14. Meles 12. Candaules 17. After Candaules the third Dynastie began and had in it 170 * not compleat but current years divided among five Kings