The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended · Isaac Newton
CHAP. I.
They Deified their dead in divers manners, according to their abilities and circumstances, and the merits of the person; some only in private families, as houshold Gods or _Dii Pænates_; others by erecting gravestones to them in publick, to be used as altars for annual sacrifices; others, by building also to them sepulchres in the form of houses or temples; and some by appointing mysteries, and ceremonies, and set sacrifices, and festivals, and initiations, and a succession of priests for performing those institutions in the temples, and handing them down to posterity. Altars might begin to be erected in _Europe_ a little before the days of _Cadmus_, for sacrificing to the old God or Gods of the Colonies, but Temples began in the days of _Solomon_; for [187] _Æacus_ the son of _Ægina_, who was two Generations older than the _Trojan_ war, is by some reputed one of the first who built a Temple in _Greece_.
Oracles came first from _Egypt_ into _Greece_ about the same time, as also did the custom of forming the images of the Gods with their legs bound up in the shape of the _Egyptian_ mummies: for Idolatry began in _Chaldæa_ and _Egypt_, and spread thence into _Phœnicia_ and the neighbouring countries, long before it came into _Europe_; and the _Pelasgians_ propagated it in _Greece_, by the dictates of the Oracles. The countries upon the _Tigris_ and the _Nile_ being exceeding fertile, were first frequented by mankind, and grew first into Kingdoms, and therefore began first to adore their dead Kings and Queens: hence came the Gods of _Laban_, the Gods and Goddesses called _Baalim_ and _Ashtaroth_ by the _Canaanites_, the Dæmons or Ghosts to whom they sacrificed, and the _Moloch_ to whom they offered their children in the days of _Moses_ and the Judges. Every City set up the worship of its own Founder and Kings, and by alliances and conquests they spread this worship, and at length the _Phœnicians_ and _Egyptians_ brought into _Europe_ the practice of Deifying the dead.
The Kingdom of the lower _Egypt_ began to worship their Kings before the days of _Moses_; and to this worship the second commandment is opposed: when the Shepherds invaded the lower _Egypt_, they checked this worship of the old _Egyptians_, and spread that of their own Kings: and at length the _Egyptians_ of _Coptos_ and _Thebais_, under _Misphragmuthosis_ and _Amosis_, expelling the Shepherds, checked the worship of the Gods of the Shepherds, and Deifying their own Kings and Princes, propagated the worship of twelve of them into their conquests; and made them more universal than the false Gods of any other nation had been before, so as to be called, _Dii magni majorum gentium_. _Sesostris_ conquered _Thrace_, and _Amphictyon_ the son of _Prometheus_ brought the twelve Gods from _Thrace_ into _Greece_: _Herodotus_ [188] tells us that they came from _Egypt_; and by the names of the cities of _Egypt_ dedicated to many of these Gods, you may know that they were of an _Egyptian_ original: and the _Egyptians_, according to _Diodorus_, [189] usually represented, that after their _Saturn_ and _Rhea_, Reigned _Jupiter_ and _Juno_, the parents of _Osiris_ and _Isis_, the parents of _Orus_ and _Bubaste_.
By all this it may be understood, that as the _Egyptians_ who Deified their Kings, began their monarchy with the Reign of their Gods and Heroes, reckoning _Menes_ the first man who reigned after their Gods; so the _Cretans_ had the Ages of their Gods and Heroes, calling the first four Ages of their Deified Kings and Princes, the Golden, Silver, Brazen, and Iron Ages. _Hesiod_ [190] describing these four Ages of the Gods and Demi-Gods of _Greece_, represents them to be four Generations of men, each of which ended when the men then living grew old and dropt into the grave, and tells us that the fourth ended with the wars of _Thebes_ and _Troy_: and so many Generations there were, from the coming of the _Phœnicians_ and _Curetes_ with _Cadmus_ and _Europa_ into _Greece_ unto the destruction of _Troy_. _Apollonius Rhodius_ saith that when the _Argonauts_ came to _Crete_, they slew _Talus_ a brazen man, who remained of those that were of the Brazen Age, and guarded that pass: _Talus_ was reputed [191] the son of _Minos_, and therefore the sons of _Minos_ lived in the Brazen Age, and _Minos_ Reigned in the Silver Age: it was the Silver Age of the _Greeks_ in which they began to plow and sow Corn, and _Ceres_, that taught them to do it, flourished in the Reign of _Celeus_ and _Erechtheus_ and _Minos_.
Mythologists tell us that the last woman with whom _Jupiter_ lay, was _Alcmena_; and thereby they seem to put an end to the Reign of _Jupiter_ among mortals, that is to the Silver Age, when _Alcmena_ was with child of _Hercules_; who therefore was born about the eighth or tenth year of _Rehoboam's_ Reign, and was about 34 years old at the time of the _Argonautic_ expedition. _Chiron_ was begot by _Saturn_ of _Philyra_ in the Golden Age, when _Jupiter_ was a child in the _Cretan_ cave, as above; and this was in the Reign of _Asterius_ King of _Crete_: and therefore _Asterius_ Reigned in _Crete_ in the Golden Age; and the Silver Age began when _Chiron_ was a child: if _Chiron_ was born about the 35th year of _David_'s Reign, he will be born in the Reign of _Asterius_, when _Jupiter_ was a child in the _Cretan_ cave, and be about 88 years old in the time of the _Argonautic_ expedition, when he invented the Asterisms; and this is within the reach of nature. The Golden Age therefore falls in with the Reign of _Asterius_, and the Silver Age with that of _Minos_; and to make these Ages much longer than ordinary generations, is to make _Chiron_ live much longer than according to the course of nature.
This fable of the four Ages seems to have been made by the _Curetes_ in the fourth Age, in memory of the first four Ages of their coming into _Europe_, as into a new world; and in honour of their country-woman _Europa_, and her husband _Asterius_ the _Saturn_ of the _Latines_, and of her son _Minos_ the _Cretan Jupiter_ and grandson _Deucalion_, who Reigned 'till the _Argonautic_ expedition, and is sometimes reckoned among the _Argonauts_, and of their great grandson _Idomeneus_ who warred at _Troy_. _Hesiod_ tells us that he himself lived in the fifth Age, the Age next after the taking of _Troy_, and therefore he flourished within thirty or thirty five years after it: and _Homer_ was of about the same Age; for he [192] lived sometime with _Mentor_ in _Ithaca_, and there learnt of him many things concerning _Ulysses_, with whom _Mentor_ had been personally acquainted: now _Herodotus_, the oldest Historian of the _Greeks_ now extant, [193] tells us that _Hesiod_ and _Homer_ were not above four hundred years older than himself, and therefore they flourished within 110 or 120 years after the death of _Solomon_; and according to my reckoning the taking of _Troy_ was but one Generation earlier. Mythologists tell us, that _Niobe_ the daughter of _Phoroneus_ was the first woman with whom _Jupiter_ lay, and that of her he begat _Argus_, who succeeded _Phoroneus_ in the Kingdom of _Argos_, and gave his name to that city; and therefore _Argus_ was born in the beginning of the Silver Age: unless you had rather say that by _Jupiter_ they might here mean _Asterius_; for the _Phœnicians_ gave the name of _Jupiter_ to every King, from the time of their first coming into _Greece_ with _Cadmus_ and _Europa_, until the invasion of _Greece_ by _Sesostris_, and the birth of _Hercules_, and particularly to the fathers of _Minos_, _Pelops_, _Lacedæmon_, _Æacus_, and _Perseus_.
The four first Ages succeeded the flood of _Deucalion_; and some tell us that _Deucalion_ was the son of _Prometheus_, the son of _Japetus_, and brother of _Atlas_: but this was another _Deucalion_; for _Japetus_ the father of _Prometheus_, _Epimetheus,_ and _Atlas_, was an _Egyptian_, the brother of _Osiris_, and flourished two generations after the flood of _Deucalion_. I have now carried up the Chronology of the _Greeks_ as high as to the first use of letters, the first plowing and sowing of corn, the first manufacturing of copper and iron, the beginning of the trades of Smiths, Carpenters, Joyners, Turners, Brick-makers, Stone-cutters, and Potters, in _Europe_; the first walling of cities about, the first building of Temples, and the original of Oracles in _Greece_; the beginning of navigation by the Stars in long ships with sails; the erecting of the _Amphictyonic_ Council; the first Ages of _Greece_, called the Golden, Silver, Brazen and Iron Ages, and the flood of _Deucalion_ which immediately preceded them. Those Ages could not be earlier than the invention and use of the four metals in _Greece_, from whence they had their names; and the flood of _Ogyges_ could not be much above two or three ages earlier than that of _Deucalion_: for among such wandering people as were then in _Europe_, there could be no memory of things done above three or four ages before the first use of letters: and the expulsion of the Shepherds out of _Egypt_, which gave the first occasion to the coming of people from _Egypt_ into _Greece_, and to the building of houses and villages in _Greece_, was scarce earlier than the days of _Eli_ and _Samuel_; for _Manetho_ tells us, that when they were forced to quit _Abaris_ and retire out of _Egypt_, they went through the wilderness into _Judæa_ and built _Jerusalem_: I do not think, with _Manetho,_ that they were the _Israelites_ under _Moses_, but rather believe that they were _Canaanites_; and upon leaving _Abaris_ mingled with the _Philistims_ their next neighbours: though some of them might assist _David_ and _Solomon_ in building _Jerusalem_ and the Temple.
_Saul_ was made King [194], that he might rescue _Israel_ out of the hand of the _Philistims_, who opressed them; and in the second year of his Reign, the _Philistims_ brought into the field against him _thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore for multitude_: the _Canaanites_ had their horses from _Egypt_; and yet in the days of _Moses_ all the chariots of _Egypt_, with which _Pharaoh_ pursued _Israel_ were but six hundred, _Exod._ xiv. 7. From the great army of the _Philistims_ against _Saul_, and the great number of their horses, I seem to gather that the Shepherds had newly relinquished _Egypt_; and joyned them: the Shepherds might be beaten and driven out of the greatest part of _Egypt_, and shut up in _Abaris_ by _Misphragmuthosis_ in the latter end of the days of _Eli_; and some of them fly to the _Philistims_, and strengthen them against _Israel_, in the last year of _Eli_; and from the _Philistims_ some of the Shepherds might go to _Zidon_, and from _Zidon_, by sea to _Asia minor_ and _Greece_: and afterwards, in the beginning of the Reign of _Saul_, the Shepherds who still remained in _Egypt_ might be forced by _Tethmosis_ or _Amosis_ the son of _Misphragmuthosis_, to leave _Abaris_, and retire in very great numbers to the _Philistims_; and upon these occasions several of them, as _Pelasgus_, _Inachus_, _Lelex_, _Cecrops_, and _Abas_, might come with their people by sea from _Egypt_ to _Zidon_ and _Cyprus_, and thence to _Asia minor_ and _Greece_, in the days of _Eli_, _Samuel_ and _Saul_, and thereby begin to open a commerce by sea between _Zidon_ and _Greece_, before the revolt of _Edom_ from _Judæa_, and the final coming of the _Phœnicians_ from the _Red Sea_.
_Pelasgus_ Reigned in _Arcadia_, and was the father of _Lycaon_, according to _Pherecydes Atheniensis_, and _Lycaon_ died just before the flood of _Deucalion_; and therefore his father _Pelasgus_ might come into _Greece_ about two Generations before _Cadmus_, or in the latter end of the days of _Eli_: _Lycaon_ sacrificed children, and therefore his father might come with his people from the Shepherds in _Egypt_, and perhaps from the regions of _Heliopolis_, where they sacrificed men, 'till _Amosis_ abolished that custom. _Misphragmuthosis_ the father of _Amosis_, drove the Shepherds out of a great part of _Egypt_, and shut the remainder up in _Abaris_: and then great numbers might escape to _Greece_; some from the regions of _Heliopolis_ under _Pelasgus_, and others from _Memphis_ and other places, under other Captains: and hence it might come to pass that the _Pelasgians_ were at the first very numerous in _Greece_, and spake a different language from the _Greek_, and were the ringleaders in bringing into _Greece_ the worship of the dead.
_Inachus_ is called the son of _Oceanus_, perhaps because he came to _Greece_ by sea: he might come with his people to _Argos_ from _Egypt_ in the days of _Eli_, and seat himself upon the river _Inachus_, so named from him, and leave his territories to his sons _Phoroneus_, _Ægialeus_, and _Phegeus_, in the days of _Samuel_: for _Car_ the son of _Phoroneus_ built a Temple to _Ceres_ in _Megara_, and therefore was contemporary to _Erechtheus_. _Phoroneus_ Reigned at _Argos_, and _Aegialeus_ at _Sicyon_, and founded those Kingdoms; and yet _Ægialeus_ is made above five hundred years older than _Phoroneus_ by some Chronologers: but [195] _Acusilaus_, [196] _Anticlides_ and [197] _Plato_, accounted _Phoroneus_ the oldest King in _Greece_, and [198] _Apollodorus_ tells us, _Ægialeus_ was the brother of _Phoroneus_. _Ægialeus_ died without issue, and after him Reigned _Europs_, _Telchin_, _Apis_, _Lamedon_, _Sicyon_, _Polybus_, _Adrastus_, and _Agamemnon_, _&c._ and _Sicyon_ gave his name to the Kingdom: _Herodotus_ [199] saith that _Apis_ in the _Greek_ Tongue is _Epaphus_; and _Hyginus_, [200] that _Epaphus_ the _Sicyonian_ got _Antiopa_ with child: but the later _Greeks_ have made two men of the two names _Apis_ and _Epaphus_ or _Epopeus_, and between them inserted twelve feigned Kings of _Sicyon_, who made no wars, nor did any thing memorable, and yet Reigned five hundred and twenty years, which is, one with another, above forty and three years a-piece.
If these feigned Kings be rejected, and the two Kings _Apis_ and _Epopeus_ be reunited; _Ægialeus_ will become contemporary to his brother _Phoroneus_, as he ought to be; for _Apis_ or _Epopeus_, and _Nycteus_ the guardian of _Labdacus_, were slain in battle about the tenth year of _Solomon_, as above; and the first four Kings of _Sicyon_, _Ægialeus_, _Europs_, _Telchin_, _Apis_, after the rate of about twenty years to a Reign, take up about eighty years; and these years counted upwards from the tenth year of _Solomon_, place the beginning of the Reign of _Ægialeus_ upon the twelfth year of _Samuel_, or thereabout: and about that time began the Reign of _Phoroneus_ at _Argos_; _Apollodorus_ [201] calls _Adrastus_ King of _Argos_; but _Homer_ [202] tells us, that he Reigned first at _Sicyon_: he was in the first war against _Thebes_. Some place _Janiscus_ and _Phæstus_ between _Polybus_ and _Adrastus_, but without any certainty. _Lelex_ might come with his people into _Laconia_ in the days of _Eli_, and leave his territories to his sons _Myles_, _Eurotas_, _Cleson_, and _Polycaon_ in the days of _Samuel_. _Myles_ set up a quern, or handmill to grind corn, and is reputed the first among the _Greeks_ who did so: but he flourished before _Triptolemus_, and seems to have had his corn and artificers from _Egypt_. _Eurotas_ the brother, or as some say the son of _Myles_, built _Sparta_, and called it after the name of his daughter _Sparta_, the wife of _Lacedæmon_, and mother of _Eurydice_. _Cleson_ was the father of _Pylas_ the father of _Sciron_, who married the daughter of _Pandion_ the son of _Erechtheus_, and contended with _Nisus_ the son of _Pandion_ and brother of _Ægeus_, for the Kingdom; and _Æacus_ adjudged it to _Nisus_. _Polycaon_ invaded _Messene_, then peopled only by villages, called it _Messene_ after the name of his wife, and built cities therein.
_Cecrops_ came from _Sais_ in _Egypt_ to _Cyprus_, and thence into _Attica_: and he might do this in the days of _Samuel_, and marry _Agraule_ the daughter of _Actæus_, and succeed him in _Attica_ soon after, and leave his Kingdom to _Cranaus_ in the Reign of _Saul_, or in the beginning of the Reign of _David_: for the flood of _Deucalion_ happened in the Reign of _Cranaus_. Of about the same age with _Pelasgus_, _Inachus_, _Lelex_, and _Actæus_, was _Ogyges_: he Reigned in _Bœotia_, and some of his people were _Leleges_: and either he or his son _Eleusis_ built the city _Eleusis_ in _Attica_, that is, they built a few houses of clay, which in time grew into a city. _Acusilaus_ wrote that _Phoroneus_ was older than _Ogyges_, and that _Ogyges_ flourished 1020 years before the first Olympiad, as above; but _Acusilaus_ was an _Argive_, and feigned these things in honour of his country: to call things _Ogygian_ has been a phrase among the ancient _Greeks_, to signify that they are as old as the first memory of things; and so high we have now carried up the Chronology of the _Greeks_. _Inachus_ might be as old as _Ogyges_, but _Acusilaus_ and his followers made them seven hundred years older than the truth; and Chronologers, to make out this reckoning, have lengthened the races of the Kings of _Argos_ and _Sicyon_, and changed several contemporary Princes of _Argos_ into successive Kings, and inserted many feigned Kings into the race of the Kings of _Sicyon_.
_Inachus_ had several sons, who Reigned in several parts of _Peloponnesus_, and there built Towns; as _Phoroneus_, who built _Phoronicum_, afterwards called _Argos_, from _Argus_ his grandson; _Ægialeus_, who built _Ægialea_, afterwards called _Sicyon_, from _Sicyon_ the grandson of _Erechtheus_; _Phegeus_, who built _Phegea_, afterwards called _Psophis_, from _Psophis_ the daughter of _Lycaon_: and these were the oldest towns in _Peloponnesus_ then _Sisyphus_, the son of _Æolus_ and grandson of _Hellen_, built _Ephyra_, afterwards called _Corinth_; and _Aëthlius_, the son of _Æolus_, built _Elis_: and before them _Cecrops_ built _Cecropia_, the cittadel of _Athens_; and _Lycaon_ built _Lycosura_, reckoned by some the oldest town in _Arcadia_; and his sons, who were at least four and twenty in number, built each of them a town; except the youngest, called _Oenotrus_, who grew up after his father's death, and sailed into _Italy_ with his people, and there set on foot the building of towns, and became the _Janus_ of the _Latines_. _Phoroneus_ had also several children and grand-children, who Reigned in several places, and built new towns, as _Car_, _Apis_, &c. and _Hæmon_, the son of _Pelasgus_, Reigned in _Hæmonia_, afterwards called _Thessaly_, and built towns there. This division and subdivision has made great confusion in the history of the first Kingdoms of _Peloponnesus_, and thereby given occasion to the vain-glorious _Greeks_, to make those kingdoms much older than they really were: but by all the reckonings abovementioned, the first civilizing of the _Greeks_, and teaching them to dwell in houses and towns, and the oldest towns in _Europe_, could scarce be above two or three Generations older than the coming of _Cadmus_ from _Zidon_ into _Greece_; and might most probably be occasioned by the expulsion of the Shepherds out of _Egypt_ in the days of _Eli_ and _Samuel_, and their flying into _Greece_ in considerable numbers: but it's difficult to set right the Genealogies and Chronology of the Fabulous Ages of the _Greeks_, and I leave these things to be further examined.
Before the _Phœnicians_ introduced the Deifying of dead men, the _Greeks_ had a Council of Elders in every town for the government thereof, and a place where the elders and people worshipped their God with Sacrifices: and when many of those towns, for their common safety, united under a common Council, they erected a _Prytaneum_ or Court in one of the towns, where the Council and People met at certain times, to consult their common safety, and worship their common God with sacrifices, and to buy and sell: the towns where these Councils met, the _Greeks_ called δημοι, peoples or communities, or Corporation Towns: and at length, when many of these δημοι for their common safety united by consent under one common Council, they erected a _Prytaneum_ in one of the δημοι for the common Council and People to meet in, and to consult and worship in, and feast, and buy, and sell; and this δημος they walled about for its safety, and called την πολιν the city: and this I take to have been the original of Villages, Market-Towns, Cities, common Councils, Vestal Temples, Feasts and Fairs, in _Europe_: the _Prytaneum_, πυρος ταμειον, was a Court with a place of worship, and a perpetual fire kept therein upon an Altar for sacrificing: from the word ‛Εστια fire, came the name _Vesta_, which at length the people turned into a Goddess, and so became fire-worshippers like the ancient _Persians_: and when these Councils made war upon their neighbours, they had a general commander to lead their armies, and he became their King.
So _Thucydides_ [203] tells us, that _under_ Cecrops _and the ancient Kings, untill _Theseus_; _Attica_ was always inhabited city by city, each having Magistrates and _Prytanea_: neither did they consult the King, when there was no fear of danger, but each apart administred their own common-wealth, and had their own Council, and even sometimes made war, as the _Eleusinians_ with _Eumolpus_ did against _Erechtheus_: but when _Theseus_, a prudent and potent man obtained the Kingdom, he took away the Courts and Magistrates of the other cities, and made them all meet in one Council and _Prytaneum_ at _Athens__. _Polemon_, as he is cited by [204] _Strabo_, tells us, _that in this body of _Attica_, there were 170 _δημοι_, one of which was _Eleusis__: and _Philochorus_ [205] relates, that _when _Attica_ was infested by sea and land by the _Cares_ and _Bœoti_, _Cecrops_ the first of any man reduced the multitude, _that is the 170 towns_, into twelve cities, whose names were _Cecropia_, _Tetrapolis_, _Epacria_, _Decelia_, _Eleusis_, _Aphydna_, _Thoricus_, _Brauron_, _Cytherus_, _Sphettus_, _Cephissia_, and _Phalerus_; and that _Theseus_ contracted those twelve cities into one, which was _Athens__.
The original of the Kingdom of the _Argives_ was much after the same manner: for _Pausanias_ [206] tells us, _that _Phoroneus_ the son of _Inachus_ was the first who gathered into one community the _Argives_, who 'till then were scattered, and lived every where apart, and the place where they were first assembled was called _Phoronicum_, the city of _Phoroneus__: and _Strabo_ [207] observes, _that _Homer_ calls all the places which he reckons up in _Peloponnesus_, a few excepted, not cities but regions, because each of them consisted of a convention of many_ δημοι, _free towns, out of which afterward noble cities were built and frequented: so the _Argives_ composed _Mantinæa_ in _Arcadia_ out of five towns, and _Tegea_ out of nine; and out of so many was _Heræa_ built by _Cleombrotus_, or by _Cleonymus_: so also _Ægium_ was built out of seven or eight towns, _Patræ_: out of seven, and _Dyme_ out of eight; and so _Elis_ was erected by the conflux of many towns into one city._
_Pausanias_ [208] tells us, that the _Arcadians_ accounted _Pelasgus_ the first man, and that he was their first King; and _taught the ignorant people to built houses, for defending themselves from heat, and cold, and rain; and to make them garments of skins; and instead of herbs and roots, which were sometimes noxious, to eat the acorns of the beech tree_; and that his son _Lycaon_ built the oldest city in all _Greece_: he tells us also, that in the days of _Lelex_ the _Spartans_ lived in villages apart. The _Greeks_ therefore began to build houses and villages in the days of _Pelasgus_ the father of _Lycaon_, and in the days of _Lelex_ the father of _Myles_, and by consequence about two or three Generations before the Flood of _Deucalion_, and the coming of _Cadmus_; 'till then [209] they lived in woods and caves of the earth. The first houses were of clay, 'till the brothers _Euryalus_ and _Hyperbius_ taught them to harden the clay into bricks, and to build therewith. In the days of _Ogyges_, _Pelasgus_, _Æzeus_, _Inachus_ and _Lelex_, they began to build houses and villages of clay, _Doxius_ the son of _Cœlus_ teaching them to do it; and in the days of _Lycaon_, _Phoroneus_, _Ægialeus_, _Phegeus_, _Eurotas_, _Myles_, _Polycaon_, and _Cecrops_, and their sons, to assemble the villages into δημοι, and the δημοι into cities.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.