The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended Part 1

The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended.

by Isaac Newton.

TO THE

QUEEN.

MADAM,

_As I could never hope to write any thing my self, worthy to be laid before YOUR MAJESTY; I think it a very great happiness, that it should be my lot to usher into the world, under Your Sacred Name, the last work of as great a Genius as any Age ever produced: an Offering of such value in its self, as to be in no danger of suffering from the meanness of the hand that presents it._

_The impartial and universal encouragement which YOUR MAJESTY has always given to Arts and Sciences, ent.i.tles You to the best returns the learned world is able to make: And the many extraordinary Honours YOUR MAJESTY vouchsafed the Author of the following sheets, give You a just right to his Productions. These, above the rest, lay the most particular claim to Your Royal Protection; For the _Chronology_ had never appeared in its present Form without YOUR MAJESTY's Influence; and the _Short Chronicle_, which precedes it, is entirely owing to the Commands with which You were pleased to honour him, out of your singular Care for the education of the Royal Issue, and earnest desire to form their minds betimes, and lead them early into the knowledge of Truth._

_The Author has himself acquainted the Publick, that the following Treatise was the fruit of his vacant hours, and the relief he sometimes had recourse to, when tired with his other studies. What an Idea does it raise of His abilities, to find that a Work of such labour and learning, as would have been a sufficient employment and glory for the whole life of another, was to him diversion only, and amus.e.m.e.nt! The Subject is in its nature incapable of that demonstration upon which his other writings are founded, but his usual accuracy and judiciousness are here no less observable; And at the same time that he supports his suggestions, with all the authorities and proofs that the whole compa.s.s of Science can furnish, he offers them with the greatest caution; And by a Modesty, that was natural to Him and always accompanies such superior talents, sets a becoming example to others, not to be too presumptuous in matters so remote and dark. Tho' the Subject be only _Chronology_, yet, as the mind of the Author abounded with the most extensive variety of Knowledge, he frequently intersperses Observations of a different kind; and occasionally instills principles of Virtue and Humanity, which seem to have been always uppermost in his heart, and, as they were the Constant Rule of his actions, appear Remarkably in all his writings._

_Here YOUR MAJESTY will see _Astronomy_, and a just Observation on the course of Nature, a.s.sisting other parts of Learning to ill.u.s.trate Antiquity; and a Penetration and Sagacity peculiar to the great Author, dispelling that Mist, with which Fable and Error had darkened it; and will with pleasure contemplate the first dawnings of Your favourite Arts and Sciences, the n.o.blest and most beneficial of which He alone carried farther in a few years, than all the most Learned who went before him, had been able to do in many Ages. Here too, MADAM, You will observe, that an Abhorrence of Idolatry and Persecution (the very essence and foundation of that Religion, which makes so bright a part of YOUR MAJESTY's character) was one of the _earliest Laws_ of the Divine Legislator, the _Morality of the first Ages, and the primitive Religion of both Jews and Christians_; and, as the Author adds, _ought to be the standing Religion of all Nations; it being for the honour of G.o.d, and good of Mankind_. Nor will YOUR MAJESTY be displeased to find his sentiments so agreeable to Your own, whilst he condemns _all oppression_; and every kind of _cruelty, even to brute beasts_; and, with so much warmth, inculcates _Mercy_, _Charity_, and the indispensable duty of _doing good_, and promoting the general _welfare of mankind_: Those great ends, for which Government was first inst.i.tuted, and to which alone it is administred in this happy Nation, under a KING, who distinguished himself early in opposition to the Tyranny which threatned _Europe_, and chuses to reign in the hearts of his subjects; Who, by his innate Benevolence, and Paternal Affection to his People, establishes and confirms all their Liberties; and, by his Valour and Magnanimity, guards and defends them._

_That Sincerity and Openness of mind, which is the darling quality of this Nation, is become more conspicuous, by being placed upon the Throne; And we see, with Pride, OUR SOVEREIGN the most eminent for a Virtue, by which our country is so desirous to be distinguished. A Prince, whose views and heart are above all the mean arts of Disguise, is far out of the reach of any temptation to Introduce Blindness and Ignorance. And, as HIS MAJESTY is, by his incessant personal cares, dispensing Happiness at home, and Peace abroad; You, MADAM, lead us on by Your great Example to the most n.o.ble use of that Quiet and Ease, which we enjoy under His Administration, whilst all Your hours of leisure are employed in cultivating in Your Self That Learning, which You so warmly patronize in Others._

_YOUR MAJESTY does not think the instructive Pursuit, an entertainment below Your exalted Station; and are Your Self a proof, that the abstruser parts of it are not beyond the reach of Your s.e.x. Nor does this Study end in barren speculation; It discovers itself in a steady attachment to true Religion; in Liberality, Beneficence, and all those amiable Virtues, which increase and heighten the Felicities of a Throne, at the same time that they bless All around it. Thus, MADAM, to enjoy, together with the highest state of publick Splendor and Dignity all the retired Pleasures and domestick Blessings of private life; is the perfection of human Wisdom, as well as Happiness._

_The good Effects of this Love of knowledge, will not stop with the present Age; It will diffuse its Influence with advantage to late Posterity: And what may we not antic.i.p.ate in our minds for the Generations to come under a Royal Progeny, so descended, so educated, and formed by such Patterns!_

_The glorious Prospect gives us abundant reason to hope, that Liberty and Learning will be perpetuated together; and that the bright Examples of Virtue and Wisdom, set in this Reign by the Royal Patrons of Both, will be transmitted with the Scepter to their Posterity, till this and the other Works of Sir ISAAC NEWTON shall be forgot, and Time it self be no more: Which is the most sincere and ardent wish of_

_MADAM,_

May it please YOUR MAJESTY,

YOUR MAJESTY's most obedient and most dutiful subject and servant,

_John Conduitt_.

The INTRODUCTION.

The _Greek_ Antiquities are full of Poetical Fictions, because the _Greeks_ wrote nothing in Prose, before the Conquest of _Asia_ by _Cyrus_ the _Persian_. Then _Pherecydes Scyrius_ and _Cadmus Milesius_ introduced the writing in Prose. _Pherecydes Atheniensis_, about the end of the Reign of _Darius Hystaspis_, wrote of Antiquities, and digested his work by Genealogies, and was reckoned one of the best Genealogers. _Epimenides_ the Historian proceeded also by Genealogies; and _h.e.l.lanicus_, who was twelve years older than _Herodotus_, digested his History by the Ages or Successions of the Priestesses of _Juno Argiva_. Others digested theirs by the Kings of the _Lacedaemonians_, or Archons of _Athens_. _Hippias_ the _Elean_, about thirty years before the fall of the _Persian_ Empire, published a breviary or list of the Olympic Victors; and about ten years before the fall thereof, _Ephorus_ the disciple of _Isocrates_ formed a Chronological History of _Greece_, beginning with the return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_, and ending with the siege of _Perinthus_, in the twentieth year of _Philip_ the father of _Alexander_ the great: But he digested things by Generations, and the reckoning by Olympiads was not yet in use, nor doth it appear that the Reigns of Kings were yet set down by numbers of years. The _Arundelian_ marbles were composed sixty years after the death of _Alexander_ the great (_An._ 4. _Olymp._ 128.) and yet mention not the Olympiads: But in the next Olympiad, _Timaeus Siculus_ published an history in several books down to his own times, according to the Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the Kings of _Sparta_, the Archons of _Athens_, and the Priestesses of _Argos_, with the Olympic Victors, so as to make the Olympiads, and the Genealogies and Successions of Kings, Archons, and Priestesses, and poetical histories suit with one another, according to the best of his judgment. And where he left off, _Polybius_ began and carried on the history.

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

But how uncertain their Chronology is, and how doubtful it was reputed by the _Greeks_ of those times, may be understood by these pa.s.sages of _Plutarch_. _Some reckon_, saith he, [1] Lycurgus _contemporary to _Iphitus_, and to have been his companion in ordering the Olympic festivals: amongst whom was _Aristotle_ the Philosopher, arguing from the Olympic Disc, which had the name of _Lycurgus_ upon it. Others supputing the times by the succession of the Kings of the _Lacedaemonians_, as _Eratosthenes_ and _Apollodorus_, affirm that he was not a few years older than the first Olympiad._ First _Aristotle_ and some others made him as old as the first Olympiad; then _Eratosthenes_, _Apollodorus_, and some others made him above an hundred years older: and in another place _Plutarch_ [2]

tells us: _The congress of _Solon_ with _Croesus_, some think they can confute by Chronology. But an history so ill.u.s.trious, and verified by so many witnesses, and (which is more) so agreeable to the manners of _Solon_, and so worthy of the greatness of his mind and of his wisdom, I cannot persuade my self to reject because of some Chronological Canons, as they call them: which hundreds of authors correcting, have not yet been able to const.i.tute any thing certain, in which they could agree among themselves, about repugnancies_. It seems the Chronologers had made the Legislature of _Solon_ too ancient to consist with that Congress.

For reconciling such repugnancies, Chronologers have sometimes doubled the persons of men. So when the Poets had changed _Io_ the daughter of _Inachus_ into the _Egyptian Isis_, Chronologers made her husband _Osiris_ or _Bacchus_ and his mistress _Ariadne_ as old as _Io_, and so feigned that there were two _Ariadnes_, one the mistress of _Bacchus_, and the other the mistress of _Theseus_, and two _Minos's_ their fathers, and a younger _Io_ the daughter of _Jasus_, writing _Jasus_ corruptly for _Inachus_. And so they have made two _Pandions_, and two _Erechtheus's_, giving the name of _Erechthonius_ to the first; _Homer_ calls the first, _Erechtheus_: and by such corruptions they have exceedingly perplexed Ancient History.

And as for the Chronology of the _Latines_, that is still more uncertain.

_Plutarch_ represents great uncertainties in the Originals of _Rome_: and so doth _Servius_. The old records of the _Latines_ were burnt by the _Gauls_, sixty and four years before the death of _Alexander_ the great; and _Quintus Fabius Pictor_, the oldest historian of the _Latines_, lived an hundred years later than that King.

In Sacred History, the _a.s.syrian_ Empire began with _Pul_ and _Tiglathpilaser_, and lasted about 170 years. And accordingly _Herodotus_ hath made _Semiramis_ only five generations, or about 166 years older than _Nitocris_, the mother of the last King of _Babylon_. But _Ctesias_ hath made _Semiramis_ 1500 years older than _Nitocris_, and feigned a long series of Kings of _a.s.syria_, whose names are not _a.s.syrian_, nor have any affinity with the _a.s.syrian_ names in Scripture.

The Priests of _Egypt_ told _Herodotus_, that _Menes_ built _Memphis_ and the sumptuous temple of _Vulcan_, in that City: and that _Rhampsinitus_, _Mris_, _Asychis_ and _Psammiticus_ added magnificent porticos to that temple. And it is not likely that _Memphis_ could be famous, before _Homer_'s days who doth not mention it, or that a temple could be above two or three hundred years in building. The Reign of _Psammiticus_ began about 655 years before Christ, and I place the founding of this temple by _Menes_ about 257 years earlier: but the Priests of _Egypt_ had so magnified their Antiquities before the days of _Herodotus_, as to tell him that from _Menes_ to _Mris_ (who reigned 200 years before _Psammiticus_) there were 330 Kings, whose Reigns took up as many Ages, that is eleven thousand years, and had filled up the interval with feigned Kings, who had done nothing. And before the days of _Diodorus Siculus_ they had raised their Antiquities so much higher, as to place six, eight, or ten new Reigns of Kings between those Kings, whom they had represented to _Herodotus_ to succeed one another immediately.

In the Kingdom of _Sicyon_, Chronologers have split _Apis Epaphus_ or _Epopeus_ into two Kings, whom they call _Apis_ and _Epopeus_, and between them have inserted eleven or twelve feigned names of Kings who did nothing, and thereby they have made its Founder _aegialeus_, three hundred years older than his brother _Phoroneus_. Some have made the Kings of _Germany_ as old as the Flood: and yet before the use of letters, the names and actions of men could scarce be remembred above eighty or an hundred years after their deaths: and therefore I admit no Chronology of things done in _Europe_, above eighty years before _Cadmus_ brought letters into _Europe_; none, of things done in _Germany_, before the rise of the _Roman_ Empire.

Now since _Eratosthenes_ and _Apollodorus_ computed the times by the Reigns of the Kings of _Sparta_, and (as appears by their Chronology still followed) have made the seventeen Reigns of these Kings in both Races, between the Return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_ and the Battel of _Thermopylae_, take up _622_ years, which is after the rate of 36 years to a Reign, and yet a Race of seventeen Kings of that length is no where to be met with in all true History, and Kings at a moderate reckoning Reign but 18 or 20 years a-piece one with another: I have stated the time of the return of the _Heraclides_ by the last way of reckoning, placing it about 340 years before the Battel of _Thermopylae_. And making the Taking of _Troy_ eighty years older than that Return, according to _Thucydides_, and the _Argonautic_ Expedition a Generation older than the _Trojan_ War, and the Wars of _Sesostris_ in _Thrace_ and death of _Ino_ the daughter of _Cadmus_ a Generation older than that Expedition: I have drawn up the following Chronological Table, so as to make Chronology suit with the Course of Nature, with Astronomy, with Sacred History, with _Herodotus_ the Father of History, and with it self; without the many repugnancies complained of by _Plutarch_. I do not pretend to be exact to a year: there may be Errors of five or ten years, and sometimes twenty, and not much above.

A SHORT

CHRONICLE

FROM THE _First Memory of things in _Europe_ to the Conquest of _Persia_ by _Alexander_ the great._

_The Times are set down in years before Christ._

The _Canaanites_ who fled from _Joshua_, retired in great numbers into _Egypt_, and there conquered _Timaus_, _Thamus_, or _Thammuz_ King of the lower _Egypt_, and reigned there under their Kings _Salatis_, _Bon_, _Apachnas_, _Apophis_, _Janias_, _a.s.sis_, &c. untill the days of _Eli_ and _Samuel_. They fed on flesh, and sacrificed men after the manner of the _Phnicians_, and were called Shepherds by the _Egyptians_, who lived only on the fruits of the earth, and abominated flesh-eaters. The upper parts of _Egypt_ were in those days under many Kings, Reigning at _Coptos_, _Thebes_, _This_, _Elephantis_, and other Places, which by conquering one another grew by degrees into one Kingdom, over which _Misphragmuthosis_ Reigned in the days of _Eli_.

In the year before Christ 1125 _Mephres_ Reigned over the upper _Egypt_ from _Syene_ to _Heliopolis_, and his Successor _Misphragmuthosis_ made a lasting war upon the Shepherds soon after, and caused many of them to fly into _Palestine_, _Idumaea_, _Syria_, and _Libya_; and under _Lelex_, _aezeus_, _Inachus_, _Pelasgus_, _aeolus_ the first, _Cecrops_, and other Captains, into _Greece_. Before those days _Greece_ and all _Europe_ was peopled by wandring _Cimmerians_, and _Scythians_ from the backside of the _Euxine Sea_, who lived a rambling wild sort of life, like the _Tartars_ in the northern parts of _Asia_. Of their Race was _Ogyges_, in whose days these _Egyptian_ strangers came into _Greece_. The rest of the Shepherds were shut up by _Misphragmuthosis_, in a part of the lower _Egypt_ called _Abaris_ or _Pelusium_.

In the year 1100 the _Philistims_, strengthned by the access of the Shepherds, conquer _Israel_, and take the Ark. _Samuel_ judges _Israel_.

1085. _Haemon_ the son of _Pelasgus_ Reigns in _Thessaly_.

1080. _Lycaon_ the son of _Pelasgus_ builds _Lycosura_; _Phoroneus_ the son of _Inachus_, _Phoronic.u.m_, afterwards called _Argos_; _aegialeus_ the brother of _Phoroneus_ and son of _Inachus_, _aegialeum_, afterwards called _Sicyon_: and these were the oldest towns in _Peloponnesus_. 'Till then they built only single houses scattered up and down in the fields. About the same time _Cecrops_ built _Cecropia_ in _Attica_, afterwards called _Athens_; and _Eleusine_, the son of _Ogyges_, built _Eleusis_. And these towns gave a beginning to the Kingdoms of the _Arcadians_, _Argives_, _Sicyons_, _Athenians_, _Eleusinians_, &c. _Deucalion_ flourishes.

1070. _Amosis_, or _Tethmosis_, the successor of _Misphragmuthosis_, abolishes the _Phnician_ custom in _Heliopolis_ of sacrificing men, and drives the Shepherds out of _Abaris_. By their access the _Philistims_ become so numerous, as to bring into the field against _Saul_ 30000 chariots, 6000 hors.e.m.e.n, and people as the sand on the sea sh.o.r.e for mult.i.tude. _Abas_, the father of _Acrisius_ and _Prtus_, comes from _Egypt_.

1069. _Saul_ is made King of _Israel_, and by the hand of _Jonathan_ gets a great victory over the _Philistims_. _Eurotas_ the son of _Lelex_, and _Lacedaemon_ who married _Sparta_ the daughter of _Eurotas_, Reign in _Laconia_, and build _Sparta_.

1060. _Samuel_ dies.

1059. _David_ made King.

1048. The _Edomites_ are conquered and dispersed by _David_, and some of them fly into _Egypt_ with their young King _Hadad_. Others fly to the _Persian Gulph_ with their Commander _Oannes_; and others from the _Red Sea_ to the coast of the _Mediterranean_, and fortify _Azoth_ against _David_, and take _Zidon_; and the _Zidonians_ who fled from them build _Tyre_ and _Aradus_, and make _Abibalus_ King of _Tyre_. These _Edomites_ carry to all places their Arts and Sciences; amongst which were their Navigation, Astronomy, and Letters; for in _Idumaea_ they had Constellations and Letters before the days of _Job_, who mentions them: and there _Moses_ learnt to write the Law in a book. These _Edomites_ who fled to the _Mediterranean_, translating the word _Erythraea_ into that of _Phnicia_, give the name of _Phnicians_ to themselves, and that of _Phnicia_ to all the sea-coasts of _Palestine_ from _Azoth_ to _Zidon_. And hence came the tradition of the _Persians_, and of the _Phnicians_ themselves, mentioned by _Herodotus_, that the _Phnicians_ came originally from the _Red Sea_, and presently undertook long voyages on the _Mediterranean_.

1047. _Acrisius_ marries _Eurydice_, the daughter of _Lacedaemon_ and _Sparta_. The _Phnician_ mariners who fled from the _Red Sea_, being used to long voyages for the sake of traffic, begin the like voyages on the _Mediterranean_ from _Zidon_; and sailing as far as _Greece_, carry away _Io_ the daughter of _Inachus_, who with other _Grecian_ women came to their s.h.i.+ps to buy their merchandize. The _Greek Seas_ begin to be infested with Pyrates.

1046. The _Syrians_ of _Zobah_ and _Damascus_ are conquered by _David_.

_Nyctimus_, the son of _Lycaon_, reigns in _Arcadia_. _Deucalion_ still alive.

1045. Many of the _Phnicians_ and _Syrians_ fleeing from _Zidon_ and from _David_, come under the conduct of _Cadmus_, _Cilix_, _Phnix_, _Membliarius_, _Nycteus_, _Thasus_, _Atymnus_, and other Captains, into _Asia minor_, _Crete_, _Greece_, and _Libya_; and introduce Letters, Music, Poetry, the _Octaeteris_, Metals and their Fabrication, and other Arts, Sciences and Customs of the _Phnicians_. At this time _Cranaus_ the successor of _Cecrops_ Reigned in _Attica_, and in his Reign and the beginning of the Reign of _Nyctimus_, the _Greeks_ place the flood of _Deucalion_. This flood was succeeded by four Ages or Generations of men, in the first of which _Chiron_ the son of _Saturn_ and _Philyra_ was born, and the last of which according to _Hesiod_ ended with the _Trojan_ War; and so places the Destruction of _Troy_ four Generations or about 140 years later than that flood, and the coming of _Cadmus_, reckoning with the ancients three Generations to an hundred years. With these _Phnicians_ came a sort of men skilled in the Religious Mysteries, Arts, and Sciences of _Phnicia_, and settled in several places under the names of _Curetes_, _Corybantes_, _Telchines_, and _Idaei Dactyli_.

1043. h.e.l.len, the son of _Deucalion_, and father of _aeolus_, _Xuthus_, and _Dorus_, flourishes.

1035. _Erectheus_ Reigns in _Attica_. _aethlius_, the grandson of _Deucalion_ and father of _Endymion_, builds _Elis_. The _Idaei Dactyli_ find out Iron in mount _Ida_ in _Crete_, and work it into armour and iron tools, and thereby give a beginning to the trades of smiths and armourers in _Europe_; and by singing and dancing in their armour, and keeping time by striking upon one another's armour with their swords, they bring in Music and Poetry; and at the same time they nurse up the _Cretan Jupiter_ in a cave of the same mountain, dancing about him in their armour.