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СКАЧАТЬ covered on the upper side with a plate of gold, and divided into 365 equal parts, to represent all the days of the year; every part having the day of the year, and the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars on that day, noted upon it. And this Circle remained there 'till Cambyses spoiled the temples of Egypt: and from this monument I collect that it was Amenophis who established this year, fixing the beginning thereof to one of the four Cardinal Points of the heavens. For had not the beginning thereof been now fixed, the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars could not have been noted upon the days thereof. The Priests of Egypt therefore in the Reign of Amenophis continued to observe the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars upon every day. And when by the Sun's Meridional Altitudes they had found the Solstices and Equinoxes according to the Sun's mean motion, his Equation being not yet known, they fixed the beginning of this year to the Vernal Equinox, and in memory thereof erected this monument. Now this year being carried into Chaldæa, the Chaldæans began their year of Nabonassar on the same Thoth with the Egyptians, and made it of the same length. And the Thoth of the first year of Nabonassar fell upon the 26th day of February: which was 33 days and five hours before the Vernal Equinox, according to the Sun's mean motion. And the Thoth of this year moves backwards 33 days and five hours in 137 years, and therefore fell upon the Vernal Equinox 137 years before the Æra of Nabonassar began; that is, 884 years before Christ. And if it began upon the day next after the Vernal Equinox, it might begin three or four years earlier; and there we may place the death of this King. The Greeks feigned that he was the Son of Tithonus, and therefore he was born after the return of Sesac into Egypt, with Tithonus and other captives, and so might be about 70 or 75 years old at his death.

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

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

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

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

      844. The Æolic Migration. Bœotia, formerly called Cadmeis, is seized by the Bœotians.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

      790. Pul founds the Assyrian Empire.

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

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

      772. Necepsos and Petosiris invent Astrology in Egypt.

      760. Semiramis begins to flourish; Sanchoniatho writes.

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

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

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

      729. Tiglathpilasser is succeeded by Salmanasser.

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

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

      717. Tirhakah Reigns in Ethiopia.

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

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

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

      708. Lycurgus, becomes tutor to Charillus or Charilaus, the young King of Sparta. Aristotle makes Lycurgus as old as Iphitus, because his name was upon the Olympic Disc. But the Disc was one of the five games called the Quinquertium, and СКАЧАТЬ