In the back of Aries is a Star of the sixth magnitude, marked ν by Bayer: in the end of the year 1689, and beginning of the year 1690, its Longitude was Taurus. 9°. 38'. 45", and North Latitude 6°. 7'. 56": and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum drawn though it, according to Eudoxus, cuts the Ecliptic in Taurus. 6°. 58'. 57". In the head of Cetus are two Stars of the fourth Magnitude, called ν and ξ by Bayer: in the end of the year 1689 their Longitudes were Taurus. 4°. 3'. 9". and Taurus. 3°. 7'. 37", and their South Latitudes 9°. 12'. 26". and 5°. 53'. 7"; and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing in the mid way between them, cuts the Ecliptic in Taurus. 6°. 58'. 51". In the extreme flexure of Eridanus, rightly delineated, is a Star of the fourth Magnitude, of late referred to the breast of Cetus, and called ρ by Bayer; it is the only Star in Eridanus through which this Colure can pass; its Longitude, in the end of the year 1689, was Aries. 25°. 22'. 10". and South Latitude 25°. 15'. 50". and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through it, cuts the Ecliptic in Taurus. 7°. 12'. 40". In the head of Perseus, rightly delineated, is a Star of the fourth Magnitude, called τ by Bayer; the Longitude of this Star, in the end of the year 1689, was Taurus. 23°. 25'. 30", and North Latitude 34°. 20'. 12": and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through it, cuts the Ecliptic in Taurus. 6°. 18'. 57". In the right hand of Perseus, rightly delineated, is a Star of the fourth Magnitude, called η by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of the year 1689, was Taurus. 24°. 25'. 27", and North Latitude 37°. 26'. 50": and the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through it cuts the Ecliptic in Taurus. 4°. 56'. 40": and the fifth part of the summ of the places in which these five Colures cut the Ecliptic, is Taurus. 6°. 29'. 15": and therefore the Great Circle which in the Primitive Sphere according to Eudoxus, and by consequence in the time of the Argonautic Expedition, was the Colurus Æquinoctiorum passing through the Stars above described; did in the end of the year 1689, cut the Ecliptic in Taurus. 6°. 29'. 15": as nearly as we have been able to determin by the Observations of the Ancients, which were but coarse.

In the middle of Cancer is the South Asellus, a Star of the fourth Magnitude, called by Bayer δ; its Longitude in the end of the year 1689, was Leo. 4°. 23'. 40". In the neck of Hydrus, rightly delineated, is a Star of the fourth Magnitude, called δ by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of the year 1689, was Leo. 5°. 59'. 3". Between the poop and mast of the Ship Argo is a Star of the third Magnitude, called ι by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of that year, was Leo. 7°. 5'. 31". In Sagitta is a Star of the sixth Magnitude, called θ by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of the same year 1689, was Aquarius. 6°. 29'. 53". In the middle of Capricorn is a Star of the fifth Magnitude, called η by Bayer; its Longitude in the end of the same year was Aquarius. 8°. 25'. 55": and the fifth part of the summ of the three first Longitudes, and of the complements of the two last to 180 Degrees; is Leo. 6°. 28'. 46". This is the new Longitude of the old Colurus Solstitiorum passing through these Stars. The same Colurus passes also in the middle between the Stars η and κ, of the fourth and fifth Magnitudes, in the neck of the Swan; being distant from each about a Degree: it passeth also by the Star κ, of the fourth Magnitude, in the right wing of the Swan; and by the Star ο, of the fifth Magnitude, in the left hand of Cepheus, rightly delineated; and by the Stars in the tail of the South-Fish; and is at right angles with the Colurus Æquinoctiorum found above: and so it hath all the characters, of the Colurus Solstitiorum rightly drawn.

The two Colures therefore, which in the time of the Argonautic Expedition cut the Ecliptic in the Cardinal Points, did in the end of the year 1689 cut it in Taurus. 6°. 29'; Leo. 6°. 29'; Scorpio. 6°. 29'; and Aquarius. 6°. 29'; that is, at the distance of 1 Sign, 6 Degrees and 29 Minutes from the Cardinal Points of Chiron; as nearly as we have been able to determin from the coarse observations of the Ancients: and therefore the Cardinal Points, in the time between that Expedition and the end of the year 1689, have gone back from those Colures one Sign, 6 Degrees and 29 Minutes; which, after the rate of 72 years to a Degree, answers to 2627 years. Count those years backwards from the end of the year 1689, or beginning of the year 1690, and the reckoning will place the Argonautic Expedition, about 43 years after the death of Solomon.

By the same method the place of any Star in the Primitive Sphere may readily be found, counting backwards one Sign, 6°. 29'. from the Longitude which it had in the end of the year of our Lord 1689. So the Longitude of the first Star of Aries in the end of the year 1689 was Aries. 28°. 51'. as above: count backward 1 Sign, 6°. 29'. and its Longitude, counted from the Equinox in the middle of the Constellation of Aries, in the time of the Argonautic expedition, will be Pisces. 22°. 22': and by the same way of arguing, the Longitude of the Lucida Pleiadum in the time of the Argonautic Expedition will be Aries. 19°. 26'. 8": and the Longitude of Arcturus Virgo. 13°. 24'. 52": and so of any other Stars.

After the Argonautic Expedition we hear no more of Astronomy 'till the days of Thales: He ^[77] revived Astronomy, and wrote a book of the Tropics and Equinoxes, and predicted Eclipses; and Pliny ^[78] tells us, that he determined the Occasus Matutinus of the Pleiades to be upon the 25th day after the Autumnal Equinox: and thence ^[79] Petavius computes the Longitude of the Pleiades in Aries. 23°. 53': and by consequence the Lucida Pleiadum had, since the Argonautic Expedition, moved from the Equinox 4°. 26'. 52": and this motion, after the rate of 72 years to a Degree, answers to 320 years: count these years back from the time in which Thales was a young man fit to apply himself to Astronomical Studies, that is from about the 41st Olympiad, and the reckoning will place the Argonautic Expedition about 44 years after the death of Solomon, as above: and in the days of Thales, the Solstices and Equinoxes, by this reckoning, will have been in the middle of the eleventh Degrees of the Signs. But Thales, in publishing his book about the Tropics and Equinoxes, might lean a little to the opinion of former Astronomers, so as to place them in the twelfth Degrees of the Signs.

Meton and Euctemon, ^[80] in order to publish the Lunar Cycle of nineteen years, observed the Summer Solstice in the year of Nabonassar 316, the year before the Peloponnesian war began; and Columella ^[81] tells us that they placed it in the eighth Degree of Cancer, which is at least seven Degrees backwarder than at first. Now the Equinox, after the rate of a Degree in Seventy and two years, goes backwards seven Degrees in 504 years: count backwards those years from the 316th year of Nabonassar, and the Argonautic Expedition will fall upon the 44th year after the death of Solomon, or thereabout, as above. And thus you see the truth of what we cited above out of Achilles Tatius; viz. that some anciently placed the Solstice in the eighth Degree of Cancer, others about the twelfth Degree, and others about the fifteenth Degree thereof.

Hipparchus the great Astronomer, comparing his own Observations with those of former Astronomers, concluded first of any man, that the Equinoxes had a motion backwards in respect of the fixt Stars: and his opinion was, that they went backwards one Degree in about an hundred years. He made his observations of the Equinoxes between the years of Nabonassar 586 and 618: the middle year is 602, which is 286 years after the aforesaid observation of Meton and Euctemon; and in these years the Equinox must have gone backwards four degrees, and so have been in the fourth Degree of Aries in the days of Hipparchus, and by consequence have then gone back eleven Degrees since the Argonautic Expedition; that is, in 1090 years, according to the Chronology of the ancient Greeks then in use: and this is after the rate of about 99 years, or in the next round number an hundred years to a Degree, as was then stated by Hipparchus. But it really went back a Degree in seventy and two years, and eleven Degrees in 792 years: count these 792 years backward from the year of Nabonassar, 602, the year from which we counted the 286 years, and the reckoning will place the Argonautic Expedition about 43 years after the death of Solomon. The Greeks have therefore made the Argonautic Expedition about three hundred years ancienter than the truth, and thereby given occasion to the opinion of the great Hipparchus, that the Equinox went backward after the rate of only a Degree in an hundred years.

Hesiod tells us that sixty days after the winter Solstice the Star Arcturus rose just at Sunset: and thence it follows that Hesiod flourished about an hundred years after the death of Solomon, or in the Generation or Age next after the Trojan war, as Hesiod himself declares.

From all these circumstances, grounded upon the coarse observations of the ancient Astronomers, we may reckon it certain that the Argonautic Expedition was not earlier than the Reign of Solomon: and if these Astronomical arguments be added to the former arguments taken from the mean length of the Reigns of Kings, according to the course of nature; from them all we may safely conclude that the Argonautic Expedition was after the death of Solomon, and most probably that it was about 43 years after it.

The Trojan War was one Generation later than that Expedition, as was said above, several Captains of the Greeks in that war being sons of the Argonauts: and the ancient Greeks reckoned Memnon or Amenophis, King of Egypt, to have Reigned in the times of that war, feigning him to be the son of Tithonus the elder brother of Priam, and in the end of that war to have come from Susa to the assistance of Priam. Amenophis was therefore of the same age with the elder children of Priam, and was with his army at Susa in the last year of that war: and after he had there finished the Memnonia, he might return into Egypt, and adorn it with Buildings, and Obelisks, and Statues, and die there about 90 or 95 years after the death of Solomon; when he had determined and settled the beginning of the new Egyptian year of 365 days upon the Vernal Equinox, so as to deserve the Monument above-mentioned in memory thereof.

Rehoboam was born in the last year of King David, being 41 years old at the Death of Solomon, 1 Kings xiv. 21. and therefore his father Solomon was probably born in the 18th year of King David's Reign, or before: and two or three years before his Birth, David besieged Rabbah the Metropolis of the Ammonites, and committed adultery with Bathsheba: and the year before this siege began, David vanquished the Ammonites, and their Confederates the Syrians of Zobah, and Rehob, and Ishtob, and Maacah, and Damascus, and extended his Dominion over all these Nations as far as to the entring in of Hamath and the River Euphrates: and before this war began he smote Moab, and Ammon, and Edom, and made the Edomites fly, some of them into Egypt with their King Hadad, then a little child; and others to the Philistims, where they fortified Azoth against Israel; and others, I think, to the Persian Gulph, and other places whither they could escape: and before this he had several Battles with the Philistims: and all this was after the eighth year of his Reign, in which he came from Hebron to Jerusalem. We cannot err therefore above two or three years, if we place this Victory over Edom in the eleventh or twelfth year of his Reign; and that over Ammon and the Syrians in the fourteenth. After the flight of Edom, the King of Edom grew up, and married Tahaphenes or Daphnis, the sister of Pharaoh's Queen, and before the Death of David had by her a son called Genubah, and this son was brought up among the children of Pharaoh: and among these children was the chief or first born of her mother's children, whom Solomon married in the beginning of his Reign; and her little sister who at that time had no breasts, and her brother who then sucked the breasts of his mother, Cant. vi. 9. and viii. 1, 8: and of about the same Age with these children was Sesac or Sesostris; for he became King of Egypt in the Reign of Solomon, 1 Kings xi. 40; and before he began to Reign he warred under his father, and whilst he was very young, conquered Arabia, Troglodytica and Libya, and then invaded Ethiopia; and succeeding his father Reigned 'till the fifth year of Asa: and therefore he was of about the same age with the children of Pharaoh above-mentioned; and might be one of them, and be born near the end of David's Reign, and be about 46 years old when he came out of Egypt with a great Army to invade the East: and by reason of his great Conquests, he was celebrated in several Nations by several Names. The Chaldæans called him Belus, which in their Language signified the Lord: the Arabians called him Bacchus, which in their Language signified the great: the Phrygians and Thracians called him Ma-fors, Mavors, Mars, which signified the valiant: and thence the Amazons, whom he carried from Thrace and left at Thermodon, called themselves the daughters of Mars. The Egyptians before his Reign called him their Hero or Hercules; and after his death, by reason of his great works done to the River Nile, dedicated that River to him, and Deified him by its names Sihor, Nilus and Ægyptus; and the Greeks hearing them lament 0 Sihor, Bou Sihor, called him Osiris and Busiris. Arrian ^[82] tells us that the Arabians worshipped, only two Gods, Cœlus and Dionysus; and that they worshipped Dionysus for the glory of leading his Army into India. The Dionysus of the Arabians was Bacchus, and all agree that Bacchus was the same King of Egypt with Osiris: and the Cœlus, or Uranus, or Jupiter Uranius of the Arabians, I take to be the same King of Egypt with His father Ammon, according to the Poet:

I place the end of the Reign of Sesac upon the fifth year of Asa, because in that year Asa became free from the Dominion of Egypt, so as to be able to fortify Judæa, and raise that great Army with which he met Zerah, and routed him. Osiris was therefore slain in the fifth year of Asa, by his brother Japetus, whom the Egyptians called Typhon, Python, and Neptune: and then the Libyans, under Japetus and his son Atlas, invaded Egypt, and raised that famous war between the Gods and Giants, from whence the Nile had the name of Eridanus: but Orus the son of Osiris, by the assistance of the Ethiopians, prevailed, and Reigned 'till the 15th year of Asa: and then the Ethiopians under Zerah invaded Egypt, drowned Orus in Eridanus, and were routed by Asa, so that Zerah could not recover himself. Zerah was succeeded by Amenophis, a youth of the Royal Family of the Ethiopians, and I think the son of Zerah: but the People of the lower Egypt revolted from him, and set up Osarsiphus over them, and called to their assistance a great body of men from Phœnicia, I think a part of the Army of Asa; and thereupon Amenophis, with the remains of his father's Army of Ethiopians, retired from the lower Egypt to Memphis, and there turned the River Nile into a new channel, under a new bridge which he built between two Mountains; and at the same time he built and fortified that City against Osarsiphus, calling it by his own name, Amenoph or Memphis: and then he retired into Ethiopia, and stayed there thirteen years; and then came back with a great Army, and subdued the lower Egypt, expelling the People which had been called in from Phœnicia: and this I take to be the second expulsion of the Shepherds. Dr. Castel ^[83] tells us, that in Coptic this City is called Manphtha; whence by contraction came its Names Moph, Noph.

While Amenophis staid in Ethiopia, Egypt was in its greatest distraction: and then it was, as I conceive, that the Greeks hearing thereof contrived the Argonautic Expedition, and sent the flower of Greece in the Ship Argo to persuade the Nations upon the Sea Coasts of the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas to revolt from Egypt, and set up for themselves, as the Libyans, Ethiopians and Jews had done before. And this is a further argument for placing that Expedition about 43 years after the Death of Solomon; this Period being in the middle of the distraction of Egypt. Amenophis might return from Ethiopia, and conquer the lower Egypt about eight years after that Expedition, and having settled his Government over it, he might, for putting a stop to the revolting of the eastern Nations, lead his Army into Persia, and leave Proteus at Memphis to govern Egypt in his absence, and stay some time at Susa, and build the Memnonia, fortifying that City, as the Metropolis of his Dominion in those parts.

Androgeus the son of Minos, upon his overcoming in the Athenæa, or quadrennial Games at Athens in his youth, was perfidiously slain out of envy: and Minos thereupon made war upon the Athenians, and compelled them to send every eighth year to Crete seven beardless Youths, and as many young Virgins, to be given as a reward to him that should get the Victory in the like Games instituted in Crete in honour of Androgeus. These Games seem to have been celebrated in the beginning of the Octaeteris, and the Athenæa in the beginning of the Tetraeteris, then brought into Crete and Greece by the Phœnicians and upon the third payment of the tribute of children, that is, about seventeen years after the said war was at an end, and about nineteen or twenty years after the death of Androgeus, Theseus became Victor, and returned from Crete with Ariadne the daughter of Minos; and coming to the Island Naxus or Dia, ^[84] Ariadne was there relinquished by him, and taken up by Glaucus, an Egyptian Commander at Sea, and became the mistress of the great Bacchus, who at that time returned from India in Triumph; and ^[85] by him she had two sons, Phlyas and Eumedon, who were Argonauts. This Bacchus was caught in bed in Phrygia with Venus the mother of Æneas, according ^[86] to Homer; just before he came over the Hellespont, and invaded Thrace; and he married Ariadne the daughter of Minos, according to Hesiod ^[87]: and therefore by the Testimony of both Homer and Hesiod, who wrote before the Greeks and Egyptians corrupted their Antiquities, this Bacchus was one Generation older than the Argonauts; and so being King of Egypt at the same time with Sesostris, they must be one and the same King: for they agree also in their actions; Bacchus invaded India and Greece, and after he was routed by the Army of Perseus, and the war was composed, the Greeks did him great honours, and built a Temple to him at Argos, and called it the Temple of the Cresian Bacchus, because Ariadne was buried in it, as Pausanias ^[88] relates. Ariadne therefore died in the end of the war, just before the return of Sesostris into Egypt, that is, in the 14th year of Rehoboam: She was taken from Naxus upon the return of Bacchus from India, and then became the Mistress of Bacchus, and accompanied him in his Triumphs; and therefore the expedition of Theseus to Crete, and the death of his father Ægeus, was about nine or ten years after the death of Solomon. Theseus was then a beardless young man, suppose about 19 or 20 years old, and Androgeus was slain about twenty years before, being then about 20 or 22 years old; and his father Minos might be about 25 years older, and so be born about the middle of David's Reign, and be about 70 years old when he pursued Dædalus into Sicily: and Europa and her brother Cadmus might come into Europe, two or three years before the birth of Minos.

Justin, in his 18th book, tells us: A rege Ascaloniorum expugnati Sidonii navibus appulsi Tyron urbem ante annum * * Trojanæ cladis condiderunt And Strabo, ^[89] that Aradus was built by the men who fled from Zidon. Hence ^[90] Isaiah calls Tyre the daughter of Zidon, the inhabitants of the Isle whom the Merchants of Zidon have replenished: and ^[91] Solomon in the beginning of his Reign calls the People of Tyre Zidonians. My Servants, saith he, in a Message to Hiram King of Tyre, shall be with thy Servants, and unto thee will I give hire for thy Servants according to all that thou desirest: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like the Zidonians. The new Inhabitants of Tyre had not yet lost the name of Zidonians, nor had the old Inhabitants, if there were any considerable number of them, gained the reputation of the new ones for skill in hewing of timber, as they would have done had navigation been long in use at Tyre. The Artificers who came from Zidon were not dead, and the flight of the Zidonians was in the Reign of David, and by consequence in the beginning of the Reign of Abibalus the father of Hiram, and the first King of Tyre mentioned in History. David in the twelfth year of his Reign conquered Edom, as above, and made some of the Edomites, and chiefly the Merchants and Seamen, fly from the Red Sea to the Philistims upon the Mediterranean, where they fortified Azoth. For ^[92] Stephanus tells us: Ταυτην εκτισεν ‛εις των επανελθοντων απ' Ερυθρας θαλασσης Φευγαδων: One of the Fugitives from the Red Sea built Azoth: that is, a Prince of Edom, who fled from David, fortified Azoth for the Philistims against him. The Philistims were now grown very strong, by the access of the Edomites and Shepherds, and by their assistance invaded and took Zidon, that being a town very convenient for the Merchants who fled from the Red Sea: and then did the Zidonians fly by Sea to Tyre and Aradus, and to other havens in Asia Minor, Greece, and Libya, with which, by means of their trade, they had been acquainted before; the great wars and victories of David their enemy, prompting them to fly by Sea: for ^[93] they went with a great multitude, not to seek Europa as was pretended, but to seek new Seats, and therefore fled from their enemies: and when some of them fled under Cadmus and his brothers to Cilicia, Asia minor, and Greece; others fled under other Commanders to seek new Seats in Libya, and there built many walled towns, as Nonnus ^[94] affirms: and their leader was also there called Cadmus, which word signifies an eastern man, and his wife was called Sithonis a Zidonian. Many from those Cities went afterwards with the great Bacchus in his Armies: and by these things, the taking of Zidon, and the flight of the Zidonians under Abibalus, Cadmus, Cilix, Thasus, Membliarius, Atymnus, and other Captains, to Tyre, Aradus, Cilicia, Rhodes, Caria, Bithynia, Phrygia, Calliste, Thasus, Samothrace, Crete, Greece and Libya, and the building of Tyre and Thebes, and beginning of the Reigns of Abibalus and Cadmus over those Cities, are fixed upon the fifteenth or sixteenth year of David's Reign, or thereabout. By means of these Colonies of Phœnicians, the people of Caria learnt sea-affairs, in such small vessels with oars as were then in use, and began to frequent the Greek Seas, and people some of the Islands therein, before the Reign of Minos: for Cadmus, in coming to Greece, arrived first at Rhodes, an Island upon the borders of Caria, and left there a Colony of Phœnicians, who sacrificed men to Saturn, and the Telchines being repulsed by Phoroneus, retired from Argos to Rhodes with Phorbas, who purged the Island from Serpents; and Triopas, the son of Phorbas, carried a Colony from Rhodes to Caria, and there possessed himself of a promontory, thence called Triopium: and by this and such like Colonies Caria was furnished with Shipping and Seamen, and called ^[95] Phœnice. Strabo and Herodotus ^[96] tell us, that the Cares were called Leleges, and became subject to Minos, and lived first in the Islands of the Greek Seas, and went thence into Caria, a country possest before by some of the Leleges and Pelasgi: whence it's probable that when Lelex and Pelasgus came first into Greece to seek new Seats, they left part of their Colonies in Caria and the neighbouring Islands.

The Zidonians being still possessed of the trade of the Mediterranean, as far westward as Greece and Libya, and the trade of the Red Sea being richer; the Tyrians traded on the Red Sea in conjunction with Solomon and the Kings of Judah, 'till after the Trojan war; and so also did the Merchants of Aradus, Arvad, or Arpad: for in the Persian Gulph ^[97] were two Islands called Tyre and Aradus, which had Temples like the Phœnician; and therefore the Tyrians and Aradians sailed thither, and beyond, to the Coasts of India, while the Zidonians frequented the Mediterranean: and hence it is that Homer celebrates Zidon, and makes no mention of Tyre. But at length, ^[98] in the Reign of Jehoram King of Judah, Edom revolted from the Dominion of Judah, and made themselves a King; and the trade of Judah and Tyre upon the Red Sea being thereby interrupted, the Tyrians built ships for merchandise upon the Mediterranean, and began there to make long Voyages to places not yet frequented by the Zidonians; some of them going to the coasts of Afric beyond the Syrtes, and building Adrymetum, Carthage, Leptis, Utica, and Capsa; and others going to the Coasts of Spain, and building Carteia, Gades and Tartessus; and others going further to the Fortunate Islands, and to Britain and Thule. Jehoram Reigned eight years, and the two last years was sick in his bowels, and before that sickness Edom revolted, because of Jehoram's wicked Reign: if we place that revolt about the middle of the first six years, it will fall upon the fifth year of Pygmalion King of Tyre, and so was about twelve or fifteen years after the taking of Troy: and then, by reason of this revolt, the Tyrians retired from the Red Sea, and began long Voyages upon the Mediterranean; for in the seventh year of Pygmalion, his Sister Dido sailed to the Coast of Afric beyond the Syrtes, and there built Carthage. This retiring of the Tyrians from the Red Sea to make long Voyages on the Mediterranean, together with the flight of the Edomites from David to the Philistims, gave occasion to the tradition both of the ancient Persians, and of the Phœnicians themselves, that the Phœnicians came originally from the Red Sea to the coasts of the Mediterranean, and presently undertook long Voyages, as Herodotus ^[99] relates: for Herodotus, in the beginning of his first book, relates that the Phœnicians coming from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and beginning to make long Voyages with Egyptian and Assyrian wares, among other places came to Argos, and having sold their wares, seized and carried away into Egypt some of the Grecian women who came to buy them; and amongst those women was Io the daughter of Inachus. The Phœnicians therefore came from the Red Sea, in the days of Io and her brother Phoroneus King of Argos, and by consequence at that time when David conquered the Edomites, and made them fly every way from the Red Sea; some into Egypt with their young King, and others to the Philistims their next neighbours and the enemies of David. And this flight gave occasion to the Philistims to call many places Erythra, in memory of their being Erythreans or Edomites, and of their coming from the Erythrean Sea; for Erythra was the name of a City in Ionia, of another in Libya, of another in Locris, of another in Bœotia, of another in Cyprus, of another in Ætolia, of another in Asia near Chius; and Erythia Acra was a promontory in Libya, and Erythræum a promontory in Crete, and Erythros a place near Tybur, and Erythini a City or Country in Paphlagonia: and the name Erythea or Erythræ was given to the Island Gades, peopled by Phœnicians. So Solinus, ^[100] In capite Bæticæ insula a continenti septingentis passibus memoratur quam Tyrii a rubro mari profecti Erytheam, Pœni sua lingua Gadir, id est sepem nominarunt. And Pliny, ^[101] concerning a little Island near it; Erythia dicta est quoniam Tyrii Aborigines eorum, orti ab Erythræo mari ferebantur. Among the Phœnicians who came with Cadmus into Greece, there were ^[102] Arabians, and ^[103] Erythreans or Inhabitants of the Red Sea, that is Edomites; and in Thrace there settled a People who were circumcised and called Odomantes, that is, as some think, Edomites. Edom, Erythra and Phœnicia are names of the same signification, the words denoting a red colour: which makes it probable that the Erythreans who fled from David, settled in great numbers in Phœnicia, that is, in all the Sea-coasts of Syria from Egypt to Zidon; and by calling themselves Phœnicians in the language of Syria, instead of Erythreans, gave the name of Phœnicia to all that Sea-coast, and to that only. So Strabo: ^[104] ‛Οι μεν γαρ και τους Φοινικας, και τους Σιδονιους τους καθ' ‛ημας αποικους ειναι των εν τωι Ωκεανωι φασι, προστιθεντες και δια τι Φοινικες εκαλουντο, ‛οτι και ‛η θαλαττα ερυθρα. Alii referunt Phœnices & Sidonios nostros esse colonos eorum qui sunt in Oceano, addentes illos ideo vocari Phœnices [puniceos] quod mare rubrum sit.

Strabo ^[105] mentioning the first men who left the Sea-coasts, and ventured out into the deep, and undertook long Voyages, names Bacchus, Hercules, Jason, Ulysses and Menelaus; and saith that the Dominion of Minos over the Sea was celebrated, and the Navigation of the Phœnicians who went beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and built Cities there, and in the middle of the Sea-coasts of Afric, presently after the war of Troy. These Phœnicians ^[106] were the Tyrians, who at that time built Carthage in Afric, and Carteia in Spain, and Gades in the Island of that name without the Straights; and gave the name of Hercules to their chief Leader, because of his labours and success, and that of Heraclea to the city Carteia which he built. So Strabo: ^[107] Εκπλεουσιν ουν εκ της ‛ημετερας θαλαττης εις την εξω, δεξιον εστι τουτο· και προς αυτο Καλπη [Καρτηια] ^[108] πολις εν τετταρακοντα σταδιοις αξιολογος και παλαια, ναυσταθμον ποτε γενομενη των Ιβηρων· ενιοι δε και Ηρακλεους κτισμα λεγουσιν αυτην, ‛ων εστι και Τιμοσθενης· ‛ος Φησι και Ηρακλειαν ονομαζεσθαι το παλαιον· δεικνυσθαι τε μεγαν περιβολον, και νεωσοικους. Mons Calpe ad dextram est e nostro mari foras navigantibus, & ad quadraginta inde stadia urbs Carteia vetusta ac memorabilis, olim statio navibus Hispanorum. Hanc ab Hercule quidam conditam aiunt, inter quos est Timosthenes, qui eam antiquitus Heracleam fuisse appellatam refert, ostendique adhuc magnum murorum circuitum & navalia. This Hercules, in memory of his building and Reigning over the City Carteia, they called also Melcartus, the King of Carteia. Bochart ^[109] writes, that Carteia was at first called Melcarteia, from its founder Melcartus, and by an Aphæresis, Carteia; and that Melcartus signifies Melec Kartha, the King of the city, that is, saith he, of the city Tyre: but considering that no ancient Author tells us, that Carteia was ever called Melcarteia, or that Melcartus was King of Tyre; I had rather say that Melcartus, or Melecartus, had his name from being the Founder and Governor or Prince of the city Carteia. Under Melcartus the Tyrians sailed as far as Tartessus or Tarshish, a place in the Western part of Spain, between the two mouths of the river Bœtis, and there they ^[110] met with much silver, which they purchased for trifles: they sailed also as far as Britain before the death of Melcartus; for ^[111] Pliny tells us, Plumbum ex Cassiteride insula primus apportavit Midacritus: And Bochart ^[112] observes that Midacritus is a Greek name corruptly written for Melcartus; Britain being unknown to the Greeks long after it was discovered by the Phœnicians. After the death of Melcartus, they ^[113] built a Temple to him in the Island Gades, and adorned it with the sculptures of the labours of Hercules, and of his Hydra, and the Horses to whom he threw Diomedes, King of the Bistones in Thrace, to be devoured. In this Temple was the golden Belt of Teucer, and the golden Olive of Pygmalion bearing Smaragdine fruit: and by these consecrated gifts of Teucer and Pygmalion, you may know that it was built in their days. Pomponius derives it from the times of the Trojan war; for Teucer, seven years after that war, according to the Marbles, arrived at Cyprus, being banished from home by his father Telamon, and there built Salamis: and he and his Posterity Reigned there 'till Evagoras, the last of them, was conquered by the Persians, in the twelfth year of Artaxerxes Mnemon. Certainly this Tyrian Hercules could be no older than the Trojan war, because the Tyrians did not begin to navigate the Mediterranean 'till after that war: for Homer and Hesiod knew nothing of this navigation, and the Tyrian Hercules went to the coasts of Spain, and was buried in Gades: so Arnobius ^[114]; Tyrius Hercules sepultus in finibus Hispaniæ: and Mela, speaking of the Temple of Hercules in Gades, saith, Cur sanctum sit ossa ejus ibi sepulta efficiunt. Carthage ^[115] paid tenths to this Hercules, and sent their payments yearly to Tyre: and thence it's probable that this Hercules went to the coast of Afric, as well as to that of Spain, and by his discoveries prepared the way to Dido: Orosius ^[116] and others tell us that he built Capsa there. Josephus tells of an earlier Hercules, to whom Hiram built a Temple at Tyre: and perhaps there might be also an earlier Hercules of Tyre, who set on foot their trade on the Red Sea in the days of David or Solomon.

Tatian, in his book against the Greeks, relates, that amongst the Phœnicians flourished three ancient Historians, Theodotus, Hysicrates and Mochus, who all of them delivered in their histories, translated into Greek by Latus, under which of the Kings happened the rapture of Europa; the voyage of Menelaus into Phœnicia; and the league and friendship between Solomon and Hiram, when Hiram gave his daughter to Solomon, and furnished him with timber for building the Temple: and that the same is affirmed by Menander of Pergamus. Josephus ^[117] lets us know that the Annals of the Tyrians, from the days of Abibalus and Hiram, Kings of Tyre, were extant in his days; and that Menander of Pergamus translated them into Greek, and that Hiram's friendship to Solomon, and assistance in building the Temple, was mentioned in them; and that the Temple was founded in the eleventh year of Hiram: and by the testimony of Menander and the ancient Phœnician historians, the rapture of Europa, and by consequence the coming of her brother Cadmus into Greece, happened within the time of the Reigns of the Kings of Tyre delivered in these histories; and therefore not before the Reign of Abibalus, the first of them, nor before the Reign of King David his contemporary. The voyage of Menelaus might be after the destruction of Troy. Solomon therefore Reigned in the times between the raptures of Europa and Helena, and Europa and her brother Cadmus flourished in the days or David. Minos, the son of Europa, flourished in the Reign of Solomon, and part of the Reign of Rehoboam: and the children of Minos, namely Androgeus his eldest son, Deucalion his youngest son and one of the Argonauts, Ariadne the mistress of Theseus and Bacchus, and Phædra the wife of Theseus; flourished in the latter end of Solomon, and in the Reigns of Rehoboam, Abijah and Asa: and Idomeneus, the grandson of Minos, was at the war of Troy: and Hiram succeeded his father Abibalus, in the three and twentieth year of David: and Abibalus might found the Kingdom of Tyre about sixteen or eighteen years before, when Zidon was taken by the Philistims; and the Zidonians fled from thence, under the conduct of Cadmus and other commanders, to seek new seats. Thus by the Annals of Tyre, and the ancient Phœnician Historians who followed them, Abibalus, Alymnus, Cadmus, and Europa fled from Zidon about the sixteenth year of David's Reign: and the Argonautic Expedition being later by about three Generations, will be about three hundred years later than where the Greeks have placed it.

After Navigation in long ships with sails, and one order of oars, had been propagated from Egypt to Phœnicia and Greece, and thereby the Zidonians had extended their trade to Greece, and carried it on about an hundred and fifty years; and then the Tyrians being driven from the Red Sea by the Edomites, had begun a new trade on the Mediterranean with Spain, Afric, Britain, and other remote nations; they carried it on about an hundred and sixty years; and then the Corinthians began to improve Navigation, by building bigger ships with three orders of oars, called Triremes. For ^[118] Thucydides tells us that the Corinthians were the first of the Greeks who built such ships, and that a ship-carpenter of Corinth went thence to Samos, about 300 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war, and built also four ships for the Samians; and that 260 years before the end of that war, that is, about the 29th Olympiad, there was a fight at sea between the Corinthians and the Corcyreans which was the oldest sea-fight mentioned in history. Thucydides tells us further, that the first colony which the Greeks sent into Sicily, came from Chalcis in Eubœa, under the conduct of Thucles, and built Naxus; and the next year Archias came from Corinth with a colony, and built Syracuse; and that Lamis came about the same time into Sicily, with a colony from Megara in Achaia, and lived first at Trotilum, and then at Leontini, and died at Thapsus near Syracuse; and that after his death, this colony was invited by Hyblo to Megara in Sicily, and lived there 245 years, and was then expelled by Gelo King of Sicily. Now Gelo flourished about 78 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war: count backwards the 78 and the 245 years, and about 12 years more for the Reign of Lamis in Sicily, and the reckoning will place the building of Syracuse about 335 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war, or in the tenth Olympiad; and about that time Eusebius and others place it: but it might be twenty or thirty years later, the antiquities of those days having been raised more or less by the Greeks. From the colonies henceforward sent into Italy and Sicily came the name of Græcia magna.

Thucydides ^[119] tells us further, that the Greeks began to come into Sicily almost three hundred years after the Siculi had invaded that Island with an army out of Italy: suppose it 280 years after, and the building of Syracuse 310 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war; and that invasion of Sicily by the Siculi will be 590 years before the end of that war, that is, in the 27th year of Solomon's Reign, or thereabout. Hellanicus ^[120] tells us, that it was in the third Generation before the Trojan war; and in the 26th year of the Priesthood of Alcinoe, Priestess of Juno Argiva: and Philistius of Syracuse, that it was 80 years before the Trojan war: whence it follows that the Trojan war and Argonautic Expedition were later than the days of Solomon and Rehoboam, and could not be much earlier than where we have placed them.

The Kingdom of Macedon ^[121] was founded by Caranus and Perdiccas, who being of the Race of Temenus King of Argos, fled from Argos in the Reign of Phidon the brother of Caranus. Temenus was one of the three brothers who led the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and shared the conquest among themselves: he obtained Argos; and after him, and his son Cisus, the Kingdom of Argos became divided among the posterity of Temenus, until Phidon reunited it, expelling his kindred. Phidon grew potent, appointed weights and measures in Peloponnesus, and coined silver money; and removing the Pisæans and Eleans, presided in the Olympic games; but was soon after subdued by the Eleans and Spartans. Herodotus ^[122] reckons that Perdiccas was the first King of Macedon; later writers, as Livy, Pausanias and Suidas, make Caranus the first King: Justin calls Perdiccas the Sucessor of Caranus; and Solinus saith that Perdiccas succeeded Caranus; and was the first that obtained the name of King. It's probable that Caranus and Perdiccas were contemporaries, and fled about the same time from Phidon, and at first erected small principalities in Macedonia, which, after the death of Caranus, became one under Perdiccas. Herodotus ^[123] tells us, that after Perdiccas Reigned Aræus, or Argæus, Philip, Æropus, Alcetas, Amyntas, and Alexander, successively. Alexander was contemporary to Xerxes King of Persia, and died An. 4. Olymp. 79, and was succeeded by Perdiccas, and he by his son Archelaus: and Thucydides ^[124] tells us that there were eight Kings of Macedon before this Archelaus: now by reckoning above forty years a-piece to these Kings, Chronologers have made Phidon and Caranus older than the Olympiads; whereas if we should reckon their Reigns at about 18 or 20 years a-piece one with another, the first seven Reigns counted backwards from the death of this Alexander, will place the dominion of Phidon, and the beginning of the Kingdom of Macedon under Perdiccas and Caranus, upon the 46th or 47th Olympiad, or thereabout. It could scarce be earlier, because Leocides the son of Phidon, and Megacles the son of Alcmæon, at one and the same time courted Agarista, the daughter of Clisthenes King of Sicyon, as Herodotus ^[125] tells us; and the Amphictyons, by the advice of Solon, made Alcmæon, and Clisthenes, and Eurolycus King of Thessaly, commanders of their army, in their war against Cirrha; and the Cirrheans were conquered An. 2. Olymp. 47. according to the Marbles. Phidon therefore and his brother Caranus were contemporary to Solon, Alcmæon, Clisthenes, and Eurolycus, and flourished about the 48th and 49th Olympiads. They were also contemporary in their later days to Crœsus; for Solon conversed with Crœsus, and Alcmæon entertained and conducted the messengers whom Crœsus sent to consult the Oracle at Delphi, An. 1. Olymp. 56. according to the Marbles, and was sent for by Crœsus, and rewarded with much riches.

But the times set down in the Marbles before the Persian Empire began, being collected by reckoning the Reigns of Kings equipollent to Generations, and three Generations to an hundred years or above; and the Reigns of Kings, one with another, being shorter in the proportion of about four to seven; the Chronology set down in the Marbles, until the Conquest of Media by Cyrus, An. 4, Olymp. 60, will approach the truth much nearer, by shortening the times before that Conquest in the proportion of four to seven. So the Cirrheans were conquered An. 2, Olymp. 47, according to the Marbles, that is 54 years before the Conquest of Media; and these years being shortened in the proportion of four to seven, become 31 years; which subducted from An. 4, Olymp. 60, place the Conquest of Cirrha upon An. 1, Olymp. 53: and, by the like correction of the Marbles, Alcmæon entertained and conducted the messengers whom Crœsus sent to consult the Oracle at Delphi, An. 1, Olymp. 58; that is, four years before the Conquest of Sardes by Cyrus: and the Tyranny of Pisistratus, which by the Marbles began at Athens, An. 4, Olymp. 54, by the like correction began An. 3, Olymp. 57; and by consequence Solon died An. 4, Olymp. 57. This method may be used alone, where other arguments are wanting; but where they are not wanting, the best arguments are to be preferred.

Iphitus ^[126] presided both in the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, and in the Olympic Games, and so did his Successors 'till the 26th Olympiad; and so long the victors were rewarded with a Tripos: but then the Pisæans getting above the Eleans, began to preside, and rewarded the victors with a Crown, and instituted the Carnea to Apollo; and continued to preside 'till Phidon interrupted them, that is, 'till about the time of the 49th Olympiad: for ^[127] in the 48th Olympiad the Eleans entered the country of the Pisæans, suspecting their designs, but were prevailed upon to return home quietly; afterwards the Pisæans confederated with several other Greek nations, and made war upon the Eleans, and in the end were beaten: in this war I conceive it was that Phidon presided, suppose in the 49th Olympiad; for ^[128] in the 50th Olympiad, for putting an end to the contentions between the Kings about presiding, two men were chosen by lot out of the city Elis to preside, and their number in the 65th Olympiad was increased to nine, and afterwards to ten; and these judges were called Hellenodicæ, judges for or in the name of Greece. Pausanias tells us, that the Eleans called in Phidon and together with him celebrated the 8th Olympiad; he should have said the 49th Olympiad; but Herodotus tells us, that Phidon removed the Eleans; and both might be true: the Eleans might call in Phidon against the Pisæans, and upon overcoming be refused presiding in the Olympic games by Phidon, and confederate with the Spartans, and by their assistance overthrow the Kingdom of Phidon, and recover their ancient right of presiding in the games.

Strabo ^[129] tells us that Phidon was the tenth from Temenus; not the tenth King, for between Cisus and Phidon they Reigned not, but the tenth from father to son, including Temenus. If 27 years be reckoned to a Generation by the eldest sons, the nine intervals will amount unto 243 years, which counted back from the 48th Olympiad, in which Phidon flourished, will place the Return of the Heraclides about fifty years before the beginning of the Olympiads, as above. But Chronologers reckon about 515 years from the Return of the Heraclides to the 48th Olympiad, and account Phidon the seventh from Temenus; which is after the rate of 85 years to a Generation, and therefore not to be admitted.

Cyrus took Babylon, according to Ptolomy's Canon, nine years before his death, An. Nabonass. 209, An. 2, Olymp. 60: and he took Sardes a little before, namely An. 1, Olymp. 59, as Scaliger collects from Sosicrates: Crœsus was then King of Sardes, and Reigned fourteen years, and therefore began to Reign An. 3, Olymp. 55. After Solon had made laws for the Athenians, he obliged them upon oath to observe those laws 'till he returned from his travels; and then travelled ten years, going to Egypt and Cyprus, and visiting Thales of Miletus: and upon His Return to Athens, Pisistratus began to affect the Tyranny of that city, which made Solon travel a second time; and now he was invited by Crœsus to Sardes; and Crœsus, before Solon visited him, had subdued all Asia Minor, as far as to the River Halys; and therefore he received that visit towards the latter part of his Reign; and we may place it upon the ninth year thereof, An. 3, Olymp. 57: and the legislature of Solon twelve years earlier, An. 3, Olymp. 54: and that of Draco still ten years earlier, An. 1, Olymp. 52. After Solon had visited Crœsus, he went into Cilicia and some other places, and died ^[130] in his travels: and this was in the second year of the Tyranny of Pisistratus. Comias was Archon when Solon returned from his first travels to Athens; and the next year Hegestratus was Archon, and Solon died before the end of the year, An. 3, Olymp. 57, as above: and by this reckoning the objection of Plutarch above mentioned is removed.

We have now shewed that the Phœnicians of Zidon, under the conduct of Cadmus and other captains, flying from their enemies, came into Greece, with letters and other arts, about the sixteenth year of King David's Reign; that Europa the sister of Cadmus, fled some days before him from Zidon and came to Crete, and there became the mother of Minos, about the 18th or 20th year of David's Reign; that Sesostris and the great Bacchus, and by consequence also Osiris, were one and the same King of Egypt with Sesac, and came out of Egypt in the fifth year of Rehoboam to invade the nations, and died 25 years after Solomon; that the Argonautic expedition was about 43 years after the death of Solomon; that Troy was taken about 76 or 78 years after the death of Solomon; that the Phœnicians of Tyre were driven from the Red Sea by the Edomites, about 87 years after the death of Solomon, and within two or three years began to make long voyages upon the Mediterranean, sailing to Spain, and beyond, under a commander whom for his industry, conduct, and discoveries, they honoured with the names of Melcartus and Hercules; that the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus was about 158 years after the death of Solomon; that Lycurgus the Legislator Reigned at Sparta, and gave the three Discs to the Olympic treasury, An. 1, Olymp. 18, or 273 years after the death of Solomon, the Quinquertium being at that time added to the Olympic Games; that the Greeks began soon after to build Triremes, and to send Colonies into Sicily and Italy, which gave the name of Græcia magna to those countries; that the first Messenian war ended about 350 years after the death of Solomon, An. 1, Olymp. 37; that Phidon was contemporary to Solon, and presided in the Olympic Games in the 49th Olympiad, that is, 397 years after the death of Solomon; that Draco was Archon, and made his laws, An. 1, Olymp. 52; and Solon, An. 3, Olymp. 54; and that Solon visited Crœsus Ann. 3, Olymp. 57, or 433 years after the death of Solomon; and Sardes was taken by Cyrus 438 years, and Babylon by Cyrus 443 years, and Echatane by Cyrus 445 years after the death of Solomon: and these periods being settled, they become a foundation for building the Chronology of the antient times upon them; and nothing more remains for settling such a Chronology, than to make these Periods a little exacter, if it can be, and to shew how the rest of the Antiquities of Greece, Egypt, Assyria, Chaldæa, and Media may suit therewith.

Whilst Bacchus made his expedition into India, Theseus left Ariadne in the Island Naxus or Dia, as above, and succeeded his father Ægeus at Athens; and upon the Return of Bacchus from India, Ariadne became his mistress, and accompanied him in his triumphs; and this was about ten years after the death of Solomon: and from that time reigned eight Kings in Athens, viz. Theseus, Menestheus, Demophoon, Oxyntes, Aphidas, Thymætes, Melanthus, and Codrus; these Kings, at 19 years a-piece one with another, might take up about 152 years, and end about 44 years before the Olympiads: then Reigned twelve Archons for life, which at 14 or 15 years a-piece, the State being unstable, might take up about 174 years, and end An. 2, Olymp. 33: then reigned seven decennial Archons, which are usually reckoned at seventy years; but some of them dying in their Regency, they might not take up above forty years, and so end about An. 2, Olymp. 43, about which time began the Second Messenian war: these decennial Archons were followed by the annual Archons, amongst whom were the Legislators Draco and Solon. Soon after the death of Codrus, his second Son Neleus, not bearing the Reign of his lame brother Medon at Athens, retired into Asia, and was followed by his younger brothers Androcles and Cyaretus, and many others: these had the name of Ionians, from Ion the son of Xuthus, who commanded the army of the Athenians at the death of Erechtheus, and gave the name of Ionia to the country which they invaded: and about 20 or 25 years after the death of Codrus, these new Colonies, being now Lords of Ionia, set up over themselves a common Council called Panionium, and composed of Counsellors sent from twelve of their cities, Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedus, Teos, Clazomenæ, Phocæa, Samos, Chios, and Erythræa: and this was the Ionic Migration.

^[131] When the Greeks and Latines were forming their Technical Chronology, there were great disputes about the Antiquity of Rome: the Greeks made it much older than the Olympiads: some of them said it was built by Æneas; others, by Romus, the son or grandson of Æneas; others, by Romus, the son or grandson of Latinus King of the Aborigines; others, by Romus the son of Ulysses, or of Ascanius, or of Italus: and some of the Latines at first fell in with the opinion of the Greeks, saying that it was built by Romulus, the son or grandson of Æneas. Timæus Siculus represented it built by Romulus, the grandson of Æneas, above an hundred years before the Olympiads; and so did Nævius the Poet, who was twenty years older than Ennius, and served in the first Punic war, and wrote the history of that war. Hitherto nothing certain was agreed upon, but about 140 or 150 years after the death of Alexander the Great, they began to say that Rome was built a second time by Romulus, in the fifteenth Age after the destruction of Troy: by Ages they meant Reigns of the Kings of the Latines at Alba, and reckoned the first fourteen Reigns at about 432 years, and the following Reigns of the seven Kings of Rome at 244 years, both which numbers made up the time of about 676 years from the taking of Troy, according to these Chronologers; but are much too long for the course of nature: and by this reckoning they placed the building of Rome upon the sixth or seventh Olympiad; Varro placed it on the first year of the Seventh Olympiad, and was therein generally followed by the Romans; but this can scarce be reconciled to the course of nature: for I do not meet with any instance in all history, since Chronology was certain, wherein seven Kings, most of whom were slain, Reigned 244 years in continual Succession. The fourteen Reigns of the Kings of the Latines, at twenty years a-piece one with another, amount unto 280 years, and these years counted from the taking of Troy end in the 38th Olympiad: and the Seven Reigns of the Kings of Rome, four or five of them being slain and one deposed, may at a moderate reckoning amount to fifteen or sixteen years a-piece one with another: let them be reckoned at seventeen years a-piece, and they will amount unto 119 years; which being counted backwards from the Regifuge, end also in the 38th Olympiad: and by these two reckonings Rome was built in the 38th Olympiad, or thereabout. The 280 years and the 119 years together make up 399 years; and the same number of years arises by counting the twenty and one Reigns at nineteen years a-piece: and this being the whole time between the taking of Troy and the Regifuge, let these years be counted backward from the Regifuge, An. 1, Olymp. 68, and they will place the taking of Troy about 74 years after the death of Solomon.

When Sesostris returned from Thrace into Egypt, he left Æetes with part of his army in Colchis, to guard that pass; and Phryxus and his sister Helle fled from Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, to Æetes soon after, in a ship whose ensign was a golden ram: Ino was therefore alive in the fourteenth year of Rehoboam, the year in which Sesostris returned into Egypt; and by consequence her father Cadmus flourished in the Reign of David, and not before. Cadmus was the father of Polydorus, the father of Labdacus, the father of Laius, the father of Oedipus, the father of Eteocles and Polynices who slew one another in their youth, in the war of the seven Captains at Thebes, about ten or twelve years after the Argonautic Expedition: and Thersander, the son of Polynices, warred at Troy. These Generations being by the eldest sons who married young, if they be reckoned at about twenty and four years to a Generation, will place the birth of Polydorus upon the 18th year of David's Reign, or thereabout: and thus Cadmus might be a young man, not yet married, when he came first into Greece. At his first coming he sail'd to Rhodes, and thence to Samothrace, an Island near Thrace on the north side of Lemnos, and there married Harmonia, the sister of Jasius and Dardanus, which gave occasion to the Samothracian mysteries: and Polydorus might be their son, born a year or two after their coming; and his sister Europa might be then a young woman, in the flower of her age. These Generations cannot well be shorter; and therefore Cadmus, and his son Polydorus, were not younger than we have reckoned them: nor can they be much longer, without making Polydorus too old to be born in Europe, and to be the son of Harmonia the sister of Jasius. Labdacus was therefore born in the end of David's Reign, Laius in the 24th year of Solomon's, and Oedipus in the seventh of Rehoboam's, or thereabout: unless you had rather say, that Polydorus was born at Zidon, before his father came into Europe; but his name Polydorus is in the language of Greece.

Polydorus married Nycteis, the daughter of Nycteus a native of Greece, and dying young, left his Kingdom and young son Labdacus under the administration of Nycteus. Then Epopeus King of Ægialus, afterwards called Sicyon, stole Antiope the daughter of Nycteus, ^[132] and Nycteus thereupon made war upon him, and in a battle wherein Nycteus overcame, both were wounded and died soon after. Nycteus left the tuition of Labdacus, and administration of the Kingdom, to his brother Lycus; and Epopeus or, as Hyginus ^[133] calls him, Epaphus the Sicyonian, left his Kingdom to Lamedon, who presently ended the war, by sending home Antiope: and she, in returning home, brought forth Amphion and Zethus. Labdacus being grown up received the Kingdom from Lycus, and soon after dying left it again to his administration, for his young son Laius. When Amphion and Zethus were about twenty years old, at the instigation of their mother Antiope, they killed Lycus, and made Laius flee to Pelops, and seized the city Thebes, and compassed it with a wall; and Amphion married Niobe the sister of Pelops, and by her had several children, amongst whom was Chloris, the mother of Periclymenus the Argonaut. Pelops was the father of Plisthenes, Atreus, and Thyestes; and Agamemnon and Menelaus, the adopted sons of Atreus, warred at Troy. Ægisthus, the son of Thyestes, slew Agamemnon the year after the taking of Troy; and Atreus died just before Paris stole Helena, which, according to ^[134] Homer, was twenty years before the taking of Troy. Deucalion the son of Minos, ^[135] was an Argonaut; and Talus another son of Minos, was slain by the Argonauts; and Idomeneus and Meriones the grandsons of Minos were at the Trojan war. All these things confirm the ages of Cadmus and Europa, and their posterity, above assigned, and place the death of Epopeus or Epaphus King of Sicyon, and birth of Amphion and Zethus, upon the tenth year of Solomon; and the taking of Thebes by Amphion and Zethus, and the flight of Laius to Pelops, upon the thirtieth year of that King, or thereabout. Amphion might marry the sister of Pelops, the same year, and Pelops come into Greece three or four years before that flight, or about the 26th year of Solomon.