Celeus King of Eleusis, who was contemporary to Erechtheus, [148] was the son of Rharus, the son of Cranaus, the successor of Cecrops; and in the Reign of Cranaus, Deucalion fled with his sons Hellen and Amphictyon from the flood which then overflowed Thessaly, and was called Deucalion's flood: they fled into Attica, and there Deucalion died soon after; and Pausanias tells us that his Sepulchre was to be seen near Athens. His eldest son Hellen succeeded him in Thessaly, and his other son Amphictyon married the daughter of Cranaus, and Reigning at Thermopylae, erected there the Amphictyonic Council; and Acrisius soon after erected the like Council at Delphi. This I conceive was done when Amphictyon and Acrisius were aged, and fit to be Counsellors; suppose in the latter half of the Reign of David, and beginning of the Reign of Solomon; and soon after, suppose about the middle of the Reign of Solomon, did Phemonoe become the first Priestess of Apollo at Delphi, and gave Oracles in hexameter verse: and then was Acrisius slain accidentally by his grandson Perseus. The Council of Thermopylae included twelve nations of the Greeks, without Attica, and therefore Amphictyon did not then Reign at Athens: he might endeavour to succeed Cranaus, his wife's father, and be prevented by Erechtheus.

Between the Reigns of Cranaus and Erechtheus, Chronologers place also Erichthonius, and his son Pandion; but I take this Erichthonius and this his son Pandion, to be the same with Erechtheus and his son and successor Pandion, the names being only repeated with a little variation in the list of the Kings of Attica: for Erichthonius, he that was the son of the Earth, nursed up by Minerva, is by Homer called Erechtheus; and Themistius [149] tells us, that it was Erechtheus that first joyned a chariot to horses; and Plato [150] alluding to the story of Erichthonius in a basket, saith, The people of magnanimous Erechtheus is beautiful, but it behoves us to behold him taken out: Erechtheus therefore immediately succeeded Cranaus, while Amphictyon Reigned at Thermopylae. In the Reign of Cranaus the Poets place the flood of Deucalion, and therefore the death of Deucalion, and the Reign of his sons Hellen and Amphictyon, in Thessaly and Thermpolyae, was but a few years, suppose eight or ten, before the Reign of Erechtheus.

The first Kings of Arcadia were successively Pelasgus, Lycaon, Nyctimus, Arcas, Clitor, AEpytus, Aleus, Lycurgus, Echemus, Agapenor, Hippothous, AEpytus II, Cypselus, Olaeas, &c. Under Cypselus the Heraclides returned into Peloponnesus, as above: Agapenor was one of those who courted Helena; he courted her before he reigned, and afterwards he went to the war at Troy, and thence to Cyprus, and there built Paphos. Echemus slew Hyllus the son of Hercules. Lycurgus, Cepheus, and Auge, were [151] the children of Aleus, the son of Aphidas, the son of Arcas, the son of Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon: Auge lay with Hercules, and Ancaeus the son of Lycurgus was an Argonaut, and his uncle Cepheus was his Governour in that Expedition; and Lycurgus stay'd at home, to look after his aged father Aleus, who might be born about 75 years before that Expedition; and his grandfather Arcas might be born about the end of the Reign of Saul, and Lycaon the grandfather of Arcas might be then alive, and dye before the middle of David's Reign; and His youngest son Oenotrus, the Janus of the Latines, might grow up, and lead a colony into Italy before the Reign of Solomon. Arcas received [152] bread-corn from Triptolemus, and taught his people to make bread of it; and so did Eumelus, the first King of a region afterwards called Achaia: and therefore Arcas and Eumelus were contemporary to Triptolemus, and to his old father Celeus, and to Erechtheus King of Athens; and Callisto to Rharus, and her father Lycaon to Cranaus: but Lycaon died before Cranaus, so as to leave room for Deucalion's flood between their deaths. The eleven Kings of Arcadia, between this Flood and the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, that is, between the Reigns of Lycaon and Cypselus, after the rate of about twenty years to a Reign one with another, took up about 220 years; and these years counted back from the Return of the Heraclides, place the Flood of Deucalion upon the fourteenth year of David's Reign, or thereabout.

Herodotus [153] tells us, that the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus brought many doctrines into Greece: for amongst those Phoenicians were a sort of men called Curetes, who were skilled in the Arts and Sciences of Phoenicia, above other men, and [154] settled some in Phrygia, where they were called Corybantes; some in Crete, where they were called Idaei Dactyli; some in Rhodes, where they were called Telchines; some in Samothrace, where they were called Cabiri; some in Euboea, where, before the invention of iron, they wrought in copper, in a city thence called Chalcis some in Lemnos, where they assisted Vulcan; and some in Imbrus, and other places: and a considerable number of them settled in AEtolia, which was thence called the country of the Curetes; until AEtolus the son of Endymion, having slain Apis King of Sicyon, fled thither, and by the assistance of his father invaded it, and from his own name called it AEtolia: and by the assistance of these artificers, Cadmus found out gold in the mountain Pangaeus in Thrace, and copper at Thebes; whence copper ore is still called Cadmia. Where they settled they wrought first in copper, 'till iron was invented, and then in iron; and when they had made themselves armour, they danced in it at the sacrifices with tumult and clamour, and bells, and pipes, and drums, and swords, with which they struck upon one another's armour, in musical times, appearing seized with a divine fury; and this is reckoned the original of music in Greece: so Solinus [155] Studium musicum inde coeptum cum Idaei Dactyli modulos crepitu & tinnitu aeris deprehensos in versificum ordinem transtulissent: and [156] Isidorus, Studium musicum ab Idaeis Dactylis coeptum. Apollo and the Muses were two Generations later. Clemens [157] calls the Idaei Dactyli barbarous, that is strangers; and saith, that they reputed the first wise men, to whom both the letters which they call Ephesian, and the invention of musical rhymes are referred: it seems that when the Phoenician letters, ascribed to Cadmus, were brought into Greece, they were at the same time brought into Phrygia and Crete, by the Curetes; who settled in those countries, and called them Ephesian, from the city Ephesus, where they were first taught. The Curetes, by their manufacturing copper and iron, and making swords, and armour, and edged tools for hewing and carving of wood, brought into Europe a new way of fighting; and gave Minos an opportunity of building a Fleet, and gaining the dominion of the seas; and set on foot the trades of Smiths and Carpenters in Greece, which are the foundation of manual trades: the [158] fleet of Minos was without sails, and Daedalus fled from him by adding sails to his vessel; and therefore ships with sails were not used by the Greeks before the flight of Daedalus, and death of Minos, who was slain in pursuing him to Sicily, in the Reign of Rehoboam. Daedalus and his nephew Talus, in the latter part of the Reign of Solomon, invented the chip-ax, and saw, and wimble, and perpendicular, and compass, and turning-lath, and glew, and the potter's wheel; and his father Eupalamus invented the anchor: and these things gave a beginning to manual Arts and Trades in Europe.

The [159] Curetes, who thus introduced Letters, and Music, and Poetry, and Dancing, and Arts, and attended on the Sacrifices, were no less active about religious institutions, and for their skill and knowledge and mystical practices, were accounted wise men and conjurers by the vulgar. In Phrygia their mysteries were about Rhea, called Magna Mater, and from the places where she was worshipped, Cybele, Berecynthia, Pessinuntia, Dindymene, Mygdonia, and Idaea Phrygia: and in Crete, and the Terra Curetum, they were about Jupiter Olympius, the son of the Cretan Rhea: they represented, [160] that when Jupiter was born in Crete, his mother Rhea caused him to be educated in a cave in mount Ida, under their care and tuition; and [161] that they danced about him in armour, with great noise, that his father Saturn might not hear him cry; and when he was grown up, assisted him in conquering his father, and his father's friends; and in memory of these things instituted their mysteries. Bochart [162] brings them from Palestine, and thinks that they had the name of Curetes from the people among the Philistims called Crethim, or Cerethites: Ezek. xxv. 16. Zeph. ii. 5. 1 Sam. xxx. 14, for the Philistims conquered Zidon, and mixed with the Zidonians.

The two first Kings of Crete, who reigned after the coming of the Curetes, were Asterius and Minos; and Europa was the Queen of Asterius, and mother of Minos; and the Idaean Curetes were her countrymen, and came with her and her brother Alymnus into Crete, and dwelt in the Idaean cave in her Reign, and there educated Jupiter, and found out iron, and made armour: and therefore these three, Asterius, Europa, and Minos, must be the Saturn, Rhea and Jupiter of the Cretans. Minos is usually called the son of Jupiter; but this is in relation to the fable, that Jupiter in the shape of a bull, the Ensign of the Ship, carried away Europa from Zidon: for the Phoenicians, upon their first coming into Greece, gave the name of Jao-pater, Jupiter, to every King: and thus both Minos and his father were Jupiters. Echemenes, an ancient author cited by Athenaeus, [163] said that Minos was that Jupiter who committed the rape upon Ganimede; though others said more truly that it was Tantalus: Minos alone was that Jupiter who was most famous among the Greeks for Dominion and Justice, being the greatest King in all Greece in those days, and the only legislator. Plutarch [164] tells us, that the people of Naxus, contrary to what others write, pretended that there were two Minos's, and two Ariadnes; and that the first Ariadne married Bacchus, and the last was carried away by Theseus: but [165] Homer, Hesiod, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Strabo, knew but of one Minos; and Homer describes him to be the son of Jupiter and Europa, and the brother of Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon, and the father of Deucalion the Argonaut, and grandfather of Idomeneus who warred at Troy, and that he was the legislator of Hell: Herodotus [166] makes Minos and Rhadamanthus the sons of Europa, contemporary to AEgeus: and [167] Apollodorus and Hyginus say, that Minos, the father of Androgeus, Ariadne and Phaedra, was the son of Jupiter and Europa, and brother of Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon.

_Lucian_ [168] lets us know that _Europa_ the mother of _Minos_ was worshipped by the name of _Rhea_, the form of a woman sitting in a chariot drawn by lions, with a drum in her hand, and a _Corona turrita_ on her head, like _Astarte_ and _Isis_; and the _Cretans_ [169] anciently shewed the house where this _Rhea_ lived: and [170] _Apollonius Rhodius_ tells us, that _Saturn_, while he Reigned over the _Titans_ in _Olympus_, a mountain in _Crete_, and _Jupiter_ was educated by the _Curetes_ in the _Cretan_ cave, deceived _Rhea_, and of _Philyra_ begot _Chiron_: and therefore the _Cretan Saturn_ and _Rhea_, were but one Generation older than _Chiron_, and by consequence not older than _Asterius_ and _Europa_, the parents of _Minos_; for _Chiron_ lived 'till after the _Argonautic_ Expedition, and had two grandsons in that Expedition, and _Europa_ came into _Crete_ above an hundred years before that Expedition: _Lucian_ [171] tells us, that the _Cretans_ did not only relate, that _Jupiter_ was born and buried among them, but also shewed his sepulchre: and _Porphyry_ [172] tells us, that _Pythagoras_ went down into the _Idaean_ cave, to see sepulchre: and _Cicero_, [173] in numbering three _Jupiters_, saith, that the third was the _Cretan Jupiter_, _Saturn_'s son, whose sepulchre was shewed in _Crete_: and the Scholiast upon _Callimachus_ [174] lets us know, that this was the sepulchre of _Minos_: his words are, [Greek: En Krete epi toi taphoi tou Minoos epegegrapto, MINOOS TOU DIOS TAPHOS. toi chronoi de tou Minoos apeleiphthe, hoste perileiphthenai, DIOS TAPHOS. ek toutou oun echein legousi Kretes ton taphon tou Dios.] _In _Crete_ upon the Sepulchre of _Minos_ was written _Minois Jovis sepulchrum_: but in time _Minois_ wore out so that there remained only, _Jovis sepulchrum_, and thence the _Cretans_ called it the Sepulchre of _Jupiter_. By _Saturn_, _Cicero_, who was a _Latine_, understood the _Saturn_ so called by the _Latines_: for when _Saturn_ was expelled his Kingdom he fled from _Crete_ by sea, to _Italy_; and this the Poets exprest by saying, that _Jupiter_ cast him down to _Tartarus_, that is, into the Sea: and because he lay hid in _Italy_, the _Latines_ called him _Saturn_; and _Italy_, _Saturnia_, and _Latium_, and themselves _Latines_: so [175] _Cyprian_; _Antrum Jovis in Creta visitur, & sepulchrum ejus ostenditur: & ab eo Saturnum fugatum esse manifestum est: unde Latium de latebra ejus nomen accepit: hic literas imprimere, hic signare nummos in Italia primus instituit, unde aerarium Saturni vocatur; & rusticitatis hic cultor fuit, inde falcem ferens senex pingitur:_ and _Minutius Felix_; _Saturnus Creta profugus, Italiam metu filii saevientis accesserat, & Jani susceptus hospitio, rudes illos homines & agrestes multa docuit, ut Graeculus & politus, literas imprimere, nummos signare, instrumenta conficere: itaque latebram suam, quod tuto latuisset, vocari maluit Latium, & urbem Saturniam de suo nomine. * * Ejus filius Jupiter Cretae excluso parente regnavit, illic obiit, illic filios habuit; adhuc antrum Jovis visitur, & sepulchrum ejus ostenditur, & ipsis sacris suis humanitatis arguitur_: and _Tertullian_; [176] _Quantum rerum argumenta docent, nusquam invenio fideliora quam apud ipsam Italiam, in qua Saturnus post multas expeditiones, postque Attica hospitia consedit, exceptus ab Jano, vel Jane ut Salii volunt. Mons quem incoluerat Saturnius dictus: civitas quam depalaverat Saturnia usque nunc est. Tota denique Italia post Oenotriam Saturnia cognominabatur. Ab ipso primum tabulae, & imagine signatus nummus, & inde aerario praesidet_. By _Saturn_'s carrying letters into _Italy_, and coyning money, and teaching agriculture, and making instruments, and building a town, you may know that he fled from _Crete_, after letters, and the coyning of money, and manual arts were brought into _Europe_ by the _Phoenicians_; and from _Attica_, after agriculture was brought into _Greece_ by _Ceres_; and so could not be older than _Asterius_, and _Europa_, and her brother _Cadmus_: and by _Italy_'s being called _Oenotria_, before it was called _Saturnia_, you may know that he came into _Italy_ after _Oenotrus_, and so was not older than the sons of _Lycaon_. _Oenotrus_ carried the first colony of the _Greeks_ into _Italy_, _Saturn_ the second, and _Evander_ the third; and the _Latines_ know nothing older in _Italy_ than _Janus_ and _Saturn_: and therefore _Oenotrus_ was the _Janus_ of the _Latines_, and _Saturn_ was contemporary to the sons of _Lycaon_, and by consequence also to _Celeus_, _Erechtheus_, _Ceres_, and _Asterius_: for _Ceres_ educated _Triptolemus_ the son of _Celeus_, in the Reign of _Erechtheus_, and then taught him to plow and sow corn: _Arcas_ the son of _Callisto_, and grandson of _Lycaon_, received corn from _Triptolemus_, and taught his people to make bread of it; and _Procris_, the daughter of _Erechtheus_, fled to _Minos_ the son of _Asterius_. In memory of _Saturn_'s coming into _Italy_ by sea, the _Latines_ coined their first money with his head on one side, and a ship on the other. _Macrobius_ [177] tells us, that when _Saturn_ was dead, _Janus_ erected an Altar to him, with sacred rites as to a God, and instituted the _Saturnalia_, and that humane sacrifices were offered to him; 'till _Hercules_ driving the cattle of _Geryon_ through _Italy_, abolished that custom: by the human sacrifices you may know that _Janus_ was of the race of _Lycaon_; which character agrees to _Oenotrus_. _Dionysius Halicarnassensis_ tells us further, that _Oenotrus_ having found in the western parts of _Italy_ a large region fit for pasturage and tillage, but yet for the most part uninhabited, and where it was inhabited, peopled but thinly; in a certain part of it, purged from the _Barbarians_, he built towns little and numerous, in the mountains; which manner of building was familiar to the ancients: and this was the Original of Towns in _Italy_.

_Pausanias_ [178] tells us that _the people of _Elis_, who were best skilled in Antiquities, related this to have been the Original of the Olympic Games: that _Saturn_ Reigned first and had a Temple built to him in _Olympia_ by the men of the Golden Age; and that when _Jupiter_ was newly born, his mother _Rhea_ recommended him to the care of the _Idaei Dactyli_, who were also called _Curetes_: that afterwards five of them, called _Hercules_, _Poeonius_, _Epimedes_, _Jasius_, and _Ida_, came from _Ida_, a mountain in _Crete_, into _Elis_; and _Hercules_, called also _Hercules Idaeus_, being the oldest of them, in memory of the war between _Saturn_ and _Jupiter_, instituted the game of racing, and that the victor should be rewarded with a crown of olive_; and there erected an altar to _Jupiter Olympius_, and called these games Olympic: and that some of the _Eleans_ said, _that _Jupiter_ contended here with _Saturn_ for the Kingdom; others that _Hercules Idaeus_ instituted these games in memory of their victory over the _Titans_: for the people of _Arcadia_ [179] had a tradition, that the Giants fought with the Gods in the valley of _Bathos_, near the river _Alpheus_ and the fountain _Olympias_. [180] Before the Reign of _Asterius_, his father _Teutamus_ came into _Crete_ with a colony from _Olympia_; and upon the flight of _Asterius_, some of his friends might retire with him into their own country, and be pursued and beaten there by the _Idaean Hercules_: the _Eleans_ said also that _Clymenus_ the grandson of the _Idaean Hercules_, about fifty years after _Deucalion_'s flood, coming from _Crete_, celebrated these games again in _Olympia_, and erected there an altar to _Juno Olympia_, that is, to _Europa_, and another to this _Hercules_ and the rest of the _Curetes_; and Reigned in _Elis_ 'till he was expelled by _Endymion_, [181] who thereupon celebrated these games again: and so did _Pelops_, who expelled _AEtolus_ the son of _Endymion_; and so also did _Hercules_ the son of _Alcmena_, and _Atreus_ the son of _Pelops_, and _Oxylus_: they might be celebrated originally in triumph for victories, first by _Hercules Idaeus_, upon the conquest of _Saturn_ and the _Titans_, and then by _Clymenus_, upon his coming to Reign in the _Terra Curetum_; then by _Endymion_, upon his conquering _Clymenus_; and afterwards by _Pelops_, upon his conquering _AEtolus_; and by _Hercules_, upon his killing _Augeas_; and by _Atreus_, upon his repelling the _Heraclides_; and by _Oxylus_, upon the return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_. This _Jupiter_, to whom they were instituted, had a Temple and Altar erected to him in _Olympia_, where the games were celebrated, and from the place was called _Jupiter Olympius_: _Olympia_ was a place upon the confines of _Pisa_, near the river _Alpheus_.

In the [182] Island Thasus, where Cadmus left his brother Thasus, the Phoenicians built a Temple to Hercules Olympius, that Hercules, whom Cicero [183] calls ex Idaeis Dactylis; cui inferias afferunt. When the mysteries of Ceres were instituted in Eleusis, there were other mysteries instituted to her and her daughter and daughter's husband, in the Island Samothrace, by the Phoenician names of Dii Cabiri Axieros, Axiokersa, and Axiokerses, that is, the great Gods Ceres, Proserpina and Pluto: for [184] Jasius a Samothracian, whose sister married Cadmus, was familiar with Ceres; and Cadmus and Jasius were both of them instituted in these mysteries. Jasius was the brother of Dardanus, and married Cybele the daughter of Meones King of Phrygia, and by her had Corybas; and after his death, Dardanus, Cybele and Corybas went into Phrygia, and carried thither the mysteries of the mother of the Gods, and Cybele called the goddess after her own name, and Corybas called her priests Corybantes: thus Diodorus; but Dionysius saith [185] that Dardanus instituted the Samothracian mysteries, and that his wife Chryses learnt them in Arcadia, and that Idaeus the son of Dardanus instituted afterwards the mysteries of the mother of the gods in Phrygia: this Phrygian Goddess was drawn in a chariot by lions, and had a corona turrita on her head, and a drum in her hand, like the Phoenician Goddess Astarte, and the Corybantes danced in armour at her sacrifices in a furious manner, like the Idaei Dactyli; and Lucian [186] tells us that she was the Cretan Rhea, that is, Europa the mother of Minos: and thus the Phoenicians introduced the practice of Deifying dead men and women among the Greeks and Phrygians; for I meet with no instance of Deifying dead men and women in Greece, before the coming of Cadmus and Europa from Zidon.

From these originals it came into fashion among the Greeks, [Greek: kterizein], parentare, to celebrate the funerals of dead parents with festivals and invocations and sacrifices offered to their ghosts, and to erect magnificent sepulchres in the form of temples, with altars and statues, to persons of renown; and there to honour them publickly with sacrifices and invocations: every man might do it to his ancestors; and the cities of Greece did it to all the eminent Greeks: as to Europa the sister, to Alymnus the brother, and to Minos and Rhadamanthus the nephews of Cadmus; to his daughter Ino, and her son Melicertus; to Bacchus the son of his daughter Semele, Aristarchus the husband of his daughter Autonoe, and Jasius the brother of his wife Harmonia; to Hercules a Theban, and his mother Alcmena; to Danae the daughter of Acrisius; to AEsculapius and Polemocrates the son of Machaon, to Pandion and Theseus Kings of Athens, Hippolytus the son of Theseus, Pan the son of Penelope, Proserpina, Triptolemus, Celeus, Trophonius, Castor, Pollux, Helena, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Amphiaraus and his son Amphilochus, Hector and Alexandra the son and daughter of Priam, Phoroneus, Orpheus, Protesilaus, Achilles and his mother Thetis, Ajax, Arcas, Idomeneus, Meriones, AEacus, Melampus, Britomartis, Adrastus, Iolaus, and divers others. 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 Paenates; 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] AEacus the son of AEgina, 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 Chaldaea and Egypt, and spread thence into Phoenicia 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 Daemons 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 Phoenicians 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 Phoenicians 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 Phoenicians 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, Lacedaemon, AEacus, 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 Judaea 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 Judaea, and the final coming of the Phoenicians 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, AEgialeus, 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 AEgialeus 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, AEgialeus was the brother of Phoroneus. AEgialeus 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; AEgialeus 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, AEgialeus, 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 AEgialeus 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 Phaestus 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 Lacedaemon, 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 AEgeus, for the Kingdom; and AEacus 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 Actaeus, 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 Actaeus, was Ogyges: he Reigned in Boeotia, 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; AEgialeus, who built AEgialea, 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 AEolus and grandson of Hellen, built Ephyra, afterwards called Corinth; and Aethlius, the son of AEolus, 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 Haemon, the son of Pelasgus, Reigned in Haemonia, 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 Phoenicians 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 [Greek: demoi], peoples or communities, or Corporation Towns: and at length, when many of these [Greek: demoi] for their common safety united by consent under one common Council, they erected a Prytaneum in one of the [Greek: demoi] for the common Council and People to meet in, and to consult and worship in, and feast, and buy, and sell; and this [Greek: demos] they walled about for its safety, and called [Greek: ten polin] 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, [Greek: pyros tameion], was a Court with a place of worship, and a perpetual fire kept therein upon an Altar for sacrificing: from the word [Greek: Hestia] 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 _[Greek: demoi]_, one of which was _Eleusis_: and _Philochorus_ [205] relates, that _when _Attica_ was infested by sea and land by the _Cares_ and _Boeoti_, _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_ [Greek: demoi], _free towns, out of which afterward noble cities were built and frequented: so the _Argives_ composed _Mantinaea_ in _Arcadia_ out of five towns, and _Tegea_ out of nine; and out of so many was _Heraea_ built by _Cleombrotus_, or by _Cleonymus_: so also _AEgium_ was built out of seven or eight towns, _Patrae_: 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, AEzeus, Inachus and Lelex, they began to build houses and villages of clay, Doxius the son of Coelus teaching them to do it; and in the days of Lycaon, Phoroneus, AEgialeus, Phegeus, Eurotas, Myles, Polycaon, and Cecrops, and their sons, to assemble the villages into [Greek: demoi], and the [Greek: demoi] into cities.

When Oenotrus the son of Lycaon carried a Colony into Italy, he [210] found that country for the most part uninhabited; and where it was inhabited, peopled but thinly: and seizing a part of it, he built towns in the mountains, little and numerous, as above: these towns were without walls; but after this Colony grew numerous, and began to want room, they expelled the Siculi, compassed many cities with walls, and became possest of all the territory between the two rivers Liris and Tibre: and it is to be understood that those cities had their Councils and Prytanea after the manner of the Greeks: for Dionysius [211] tells us, that the new Kingdom of Rome, as Romulus left it, consisted of thirty Courts or Councils, in thirty towns, each with the sacred fire kept in the Prytaneum of the Court, for the Senators who met there to perform Sacred Rites, after the manner of the Greeks: but when Numa the successor of Romulus Reigned, he leaving the several fires in their own Courts, instituted one common to them all at Rome: whence Rome was not a compleat city before the days of Numa.

When navigation was so far improved that the Phoenicians began to leave the sea-shore, and sail through the Mediterranean by the help of the stars, it may be presumed that they began to discover the islands of the Mediterranean, and for the sake of trafic to sail as far as Greece: and this was not long before they carried away Io the daughter of Inachus, from Argos. The Cares first infested the Greek seas with piracy, and then Minos the son of Europa got up a potent fleet, and sent out Colonies: for Diodorus [212] tells us, that the Cyclades islands, those near Crete, were at first desolate and uninhabited; but Minos having a potent fleet, sent many Colonies out of Crete, and peopled many of them; and particularly that the island Carpathus was first seized by the soldiers of Minos: Syme lay waste and desolate 'till Triops came thither with a Colony under Chthonius: Strongyle or Naxus was first inhabited by the Thracians in the days of Boreas, a little before the Argonautic Expedition: Samsos was, at first desert, and inhabited only by a great multitude of terrible wild beasts, 'till Macareus peopled it, as he did also the islands Chius and Cos. Lesbos lay waste and desolate 'till Xanthus sailed thither with a Colony: Tenedos lay desolate 'till Tennes, a little before the Trojan war, sailed thither from Troas. Aristaeus, who married Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus, carried a Colony from Thebes into Caea, an island not inhabited before: the island Rhodes was at first called Ophiusa, being full of serpents, before Phorbas, a Prince of Argos, went thither, and made it habitable by destroying the serpents, which was about the end of Solomon's Reign; in memory of which he is delineated in the heavens in the Constellation of Ophiuchus. The discovery of this and some other islands made a report that they rose out of the Sea: in Asia Delos emersit, & Hiera, & Anaphe, & Rhodus, saith [213] Ammianus: and [214] Pliny; clarae jampridem insulae, Delos & Rhodos memoriae produntur enatae, postea minores, ultra Melon Anaphe, inter Lemnum & Hellespontum Nea, inter Lebedum & Teon Halone, &c.

Diodorus [215] tells us also, that the seven islands called AEolides, between Italy and Sicily, were desert and uninhabited 'till Lipparus and AEolus, a little before the Trojan war, went thither from Italy, and peopled them: and that Malta and Gaulus or Gaudus on the other side of Sicily, were first peopled by Phoenicians; and so was Madera without the Straits: and Homer writes that Ulysses found the Island Ogygia covered with wood, and uninhabited, except by Calypso and her maids, who lived in a cave without houses; and it is not likely that Great Britain and Ireland could be peopled before navigation was propagated beyond the Straits.

The Sicaneans were reputed the first inhabitants of Sicily, they built little Villages or Towns upon hills, and every Town had its own King; and by this means they spread over the country, before they formed themselves into larger governments with a common King: Philistus [216] saith that they were transplanted into Sicily from the River Sicanus in Spain; and Dionysius [217], that they were a Spanish people who fled from the Ligures in Italy; he means the Ligures [218] who opposed Hercules when he returned from his expedition against Geryon in Spain, and endeavoured to pass the Alps out of Gaul into Italy. Hercules that year got into Italy, and made some conquests there, and founded the city Croton; and [219] after winter, upon the arrival of his fleet from Erythra in Spain, sailed to Sicily, and there left the Sicani: for it was his custom to recruit his army with conquered people, and after they had assisted him in making new conquests to reward them with new seats: this was the Egyptian Hercules, who had a potent fleet, and in the days of Solomon sailed to the Straits, and according to his custom set up pillars there, and conquered Geryon, and returned back by Italy and Sicily to Egypt, and was by the ancient Gauls called Ogmius, and by Egyptians [220] Nilus: for Erythra and the country of Geryon were without the Straits. Dionysius [221] represents this Hercules contemporary to Evander.

The first inhabitants of Crete, according to Diodorus [222] were called Eteocretans; but whence they were, and how they came thither, is not said in history: then sailed thither a Colony of Pelasgians from Greece; and soon after Teutamus, the grandfather of Minos, carried thither a Colony of Dorians from Laconia, and from the territory of Olympia in Peloponnesus: and these several Colonies spake several languages, and fed on the spontaeous fruits of the earth, and lived quietly in caves and huts, 'till the invention of iron tools, in the days of Asterius the son of Teutamus; and at length were reduced into one Kingdom, and one People, by Minos, who was their first law-giver, and built many towns and ships, and introduced plowing and sowing, and in whose days the Curetes conquered his father's friends in Crete and Peloponnesus. The Curetes [223] sacrificed children to Saturn and according to Bochart [224] were Philistims; and Eusebius faith that Crete had its name from Cres, one of the Curetes who nursed up Jupiter: but whatever was the original of the island, it seems to have been peopled by Colonies which spake different languages, 'till the days of Asterius and Minos; and might come thither two or three Generations before, and not above, for want of navigation in those seas.

The island _Cyprus_ was discovered by the _Phoenicians_ not long before; for _Eratosthenes_ [225] tells us, _that _Cyprus_ was at first so overgrown with wood that it could not be tilled, and that they first cut down the wood for the melting of copper and silver, and afterwards when they began to sail safely upon the _Mediterranean_, that is, presently after the _Trojan_ war, _they built ships and even navies of it: and when they could not thus destroy the wood, they gave every man leave to cut down what wood he pleased, and to possess all the ground which he cleared of wood_. So also _Europe_ at first abounded very much with woods, one of which, called the _Hercinian_, took up a great part of _Germany_, being full nine days journey broad, and above forty long, in _Julius Caesar_'s days: and yet the _Europeans_ had been cutting down their woods, to make room for mankind, ever since the invention of iron tools, in the days of _Asterius_ and _Minos_.

All these footsteps there are of the first peopling of Europe, and its Islands, by sea; before those days it seems to have been thinly peopled from the northern coast of the Euxine-sea by Scythians descended from Japhet, who wandered without houses, and sheltered themselves from rain and wild beasts in thickets and caves of the earth; such as were the caves in mount Ida in Crete, in which Minos was educated and buried; the cave of Cacus, and the Catacombs in Italy near Rome and Naples, afterwards turned into burying-places; the Syringes and many other caves in the sides of the mountains of Egypt; the caves of the Troglodites between Egypt and the Red Sea, and those of the Phaurusii in Afric, mentioned by [226] Strabo; and the caves, and thickets, and rocks, and high places, and pits, in which the Israelites hid themselves from the Philistims in the days of Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 6. But of the state of mankind in Europe in those days there is now no history remaining.

The antiquities of Libya were not much older than those of Europe; for Diodorus [227] tells us, that Uranus the father of Hyperion, and grandfather of Helius and Selene, that is Ammon the father of Sesac, was their first common King, and caused the people, who 'till then wandered up and down, to dwell in towns: and Herodotus [228] tells us, that all Media was peopled by [Greek: demoi], towns without walls, 'till they revolted from the Assyrians, which was about 267 years after the death of Solomon: and that after that revolt they set up a King over them, and built Ecbatane with walls for his seat, the first town which they walled about; and about 72 years after the death of Solomon, Benhadad King of Syria [229] had two and thirty Kings in his army against Ahab: and when Joshuah conquered the land of Canaan, every city of the Canaanites had its own King, like the cities of Europe, before they conquered one another; and one of those Kings, Adonibezek, the King of Bezek had conquered seventy other Kings a little before, Judg. i. 7. and therefore towns began to be built in that land not many ages before the days of Joshuah: for the Patriarchs wandred there in tents, and fed their flocks where-ever they pleased, the fields of Phoenicia not being yet fully appropriated, for want of people. The countries first inhabited by mankind, were in those days so thinly peopled, that [230] four Kings from the coasts of Shinar and Elam invaded and spoiled the Rephaims, and the inhabitants of the countries of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and the Kingdoms of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim; and yet were pursued and beaten by Abraham with an armed force of only 318 men, the whole force which Abraham and the princes with him could raise: and Egypt was so thinly peopled before the birth of Moses, that Pharaoh said of the Israelites; [231] behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: and to prevent their multiplying and growing too strong, he caused their male children to be drowned.

These footsteps there are of the first peopling of the earth by mankind, not long before the days of _Abraham_; and of the overspreading it with villages, towns and cities, and their growing into Kingdoms, first Smaller and then greater, until the rise of the Monarchies of _Egypt_, _Assyria_, _Babylon_, _Media_, _Persia_, _Greece_, and _Rome_, the first great Empires on this side _India_. _Abraham_ was the fifth from _Peleg_, and all mankind lived together in _Chaldea_ under the Government of _Noah_ and his sons, untill the days of _Peleg_: so long they were of one language, one society, and one religion: and then they divided the earth, being perhaps, disturbed by the rebellion of _Nimrod_, and forced to leave off building the tower of _Babel_: and from thence they spread themselves into the several countries which fell to their shares, carrying along with them the laws, customs and religion, under which they had 'till those days been educated and governed, by _Noah_, and his sons and grandsons: and these laws were handed down to _Abraham_, _Melchizedek_, and _Job_, and their contemporaries, and for some time were observed by the judges of the eastern countries: so _Job_ [232] tells us, that adultery was _an heinous crime, yea an iniquity to be punished by the judges_: and of idolatry he [233] saith, _If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly inticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above_: and there being no dispute between _Job_ and his friends about these matters, it may be presumed that they also with their countrymen were of the same religion. _Melchizedek_ was a Priest of the most high God, and _Abraham_ voluntarily paid tythes to him; which he would scarce have done had they not been of one and the same religion. The first inhabitants of the land of _Canaan_ seem also to have been originally of the same religion, and to have continued in it 'till the death of _Noah_, and the days of _Abraham_; for _Jerusalem_ was anciently [234] called _Jebus_, and its people _Jebusites_, and _Melchizedek_ was their Priest and King: these nations revolted therefore after the days of _Melchizedek_ to the worship of false Gods; as did also the posterity of _Ismael_, _Esau_, _Moab_, _Ammon_, and that of _Abraham_ by _Keturah_: and the _Israelites_ themselves were very apt to revolt: and one reason why _Terah_ went from _Ur_ of the _Chaldees_ to _Haran_ in his way to the land of _Canaan_; and why _Abraham_ afterward left _Haran_, and went into the land of _Canaan_, might be to avoid the worship of false Gods, which in their days began in _Chaldea_, and spread every way from thence; but did not yet reach into the land of _Canaan_. Several of the laws and precepts in which this primitive religion consisted are mentioned in the book of _Job_, chap. i. ver. 5, and chap, xxxi, _viz._ _not to blaspheme God, nor to worship the Sun or Moon, nor to kill, nor steal, nor to commit adultery, nor trust in riches, nor oppress the poor or fatherless, nor curse your enemies, nor rejoyce at their misfortunes: but to be friendly, and hospitable and merciful, and to relieve the poor and needy, and to set up Judges_. This was the morality and religion of the first ages, still called by the _Jews_, _The precepts of the sons of _Noah_: this was the religion of _Moses_ and the Prophets, comprehended in the two great commandments, of _loving the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind, and our neighbour as our selves_: this was the religion enjoyned by _Moses_ to the uncircumcised stranger within the gates of _Israel_, as well as to the _Israelites_: and this is the primitive religion of both _Jews_ and _Christians_, and ought to be the standing religion of all nations, it being for the honour of God, and good of mankind: and _Moses_ adds the precept of _being merciful even to brute beasts, so as not to suck out their blood, nor to cut off their flesh alive with the blood in it, nor to kill them for the sake of their blood, nor to strangle them; but in killing them for food, to let out their blood and spill it upon the ground_, _Gen._ ix. 4, and _Levit_. xvii. 12, 13. This law was ancienter than the days of _Moses_, being given to _Noah_ and his sons long before the days of _Abraham_: and therefore when the Apostles and Elders in the Council at _Jerusalem_ declared that the Gentiles were not obliged to be circumcised and keep the law of _Moses_, they excepted this law of _abstaining from blood, and things strangled_ as being an earlier law of God, imposed not on the sons of _Abraham_ only, but on all nations, while they lived together in _Shinar_ under the dominion of _Noah_: and of the same kind is the law of _abstaining from meats offered to Idols or false Gods, and from fornication_. So then, _the believing that the world was framed by one supreme God, and is governed by him; and the loving and worshipping him, and honouring our parents, and loving our neighbour as our selves, and being merciful even to brute beasts_, is the oldest of all religions: and the Original of letters, agriculture, navigation, music, arts and sciences, metals, smiths and carpenters, towns and houses, was not older in _Europe_ than the days of _Eli_, _Samuel_ and _David_; and before those days the earth was so thinly peopled, and so overgrown with woods, that mankind could not be much older than is represented in Scripture.

* * * * *

CHAP. II

Of the Empire of Egypt.

The Egyptians anciently boasted of a very great and lasting Empire under their Kings Ammon, Osiris, Bacchus, Sesostris, Hercules, Memnon, &c. reaching eastward to the Indies, and westward to the Atlantic Ocean; and out of vanity have made this monarchy some thousands of years older than the world: let us now try to rectify the Chronology of Egypt; by comparing the affairs of Egypt with the synchronizing affairs of the Greeks and Hebrews.

Bacchus the conqueror loved two women, Venus and Ariadne: Venus was the mistress of Anchises and Cinyras, and mother of AEneas, who all lived 'till the destruction of Troy; and the sons of Bacchus and Ariadne were Argonauts; as above: and therefore the great Bacchus flourished but one Generation before the Argonautic expedition. This Bacchus [235] was potent at sea, conquered eastward as far as India returned in triumph, brought his army over the Hellespont; conquered Thrace, left music, dancing and poetry there; killed Lycurgus King of Thrace, and Pentheus the grandson of Cadmus; gave the Kingdom of Lycurgus to Tharops; and one of his minstrells, called by the Greeks Calliope, to Oeagrus the son of Tharops; and of Oeagrus and Calliope was born Orpheus, who sailed with the Argonauts: this Bacchus was therefore contemporary to Sesostris; and both being Kings of Egypt, and potent at sea, and great conquerors, and carrying on their conquests into India and Thrace, they must be one and the same man.

The antient Greeks, who made the fables of the Gods, related that Io the daughter of Inachus was carried into Egypt; and there became the Egyptian Isis; and that Apis the son of Phoroneus after death became the God Serapis; and some said that Epaphus was the son of Io: Serapis and Epaphus are Osiris, and therefore Isis and Osiris, in the opinion of the ancient Greeks who made the fables of the Gods, were not above two or three Generations older than the Argonautic expedition. Dicaearchus, as he is cited by the scholiast upon Apollonius, [236] represents them two Generations older than Sesostris, saying that after Orus the son of Osiris and Isis, Reigned Sesonchosis. He seems to have followed the opinion of the people of Naxus, who made Bacchus two Generations older than Theseus, and for that end feigned two Minos's and two Ariadnes; for by the consent of all antiquity Osiris and Bacchus were one and the same King of Egypt: this is affirmed by the Egyptians, as well as by the Greeks; and some of the antient Mythologists, as Eumolpus and Orpheus, [237] called Osiris by the names of Dionysus and Sirius. Osiris was King of all Egypt, and a great conqueror, and came over the Hellespont in the days of Triptolemus, and subdued Thrace, and there killed Lycurgus; and therefore his expedition falls in with that of the great Bacchus. Osiris, Bacchus and Sesostris lived about the same time, and by the relation of historians were all of them Kings of all Egypt, and Reigned at Thebes, and adorned that city, and were very potent by land and sea: all three were great conquerors, and carried on their conquests by land through Asia as far as India: all three came over the Hellespont and were there in danger of losing their army: all three conquered Thrace, and there put a stop to their victories, and returned back from thence into Egypt: all three left pillars with inscriptions in their conquests: and therefore all three must be one and the same King of Egypt; and this King can be no other than Sesac. All Egypt, including Thebais, Ethiopia and Libya, had no common King before the expulsion of the Shepherds who Reigned in the lower Egypt; no Conqueror of Syria, India, Asia minor and Thrace, before Sesac; and the sacred history admits of no Egyptian conqueror of Palestine before this King.

Thymaetes [238] who was contemporary to Orpheus, and wrote a poesy called Phrygia, of the actions of Bacchus in very old language and character, said that Bacchus had Libyan women in his army, amongst whom was Minerva a woman born in Libya, near the river Triton, and that Bacchus commanded the men and Minerva the women. Diodorus [239] calls her Myrina, and saith that she was Queen of the Amazons in Libya, and there conquered the Atlantides and Gorgons, and then made a league with Orus the son of Isis, sent to her by his father Osiris or Bacchus for that purpose, and passing through Egypt subdued the Arabians, and Syria and Cilicia, and came through Phrygia, viz. in the army of Bacchus to the Mediterranean; but palling over into Europe, was slain with many of her women by the Thracians and Scythians, under the conduct of Sipylus a Scythian, and Mopsus a Thracian whom Lycurgus King of Thrace had banished. This was that Lycurgus who opposed the passage of Bacchus over the Hellespont, and was soon after conquered by him, and slain: but afterwards Bacchus met with a repulse from the Greeks, under the conduct of Perseus, who slew many of his women, as Pausanias [240] relates, and was assisted by the Scythians and Thracians under the conduct of Sipylus and Mopsus; which repulses, together with a revolt of his brother Danaus in Egypt; put a stop to his victories: and in returning home he left part of his men in Colchis and at Mount Caucasus, under AEetes and Prometheus; and his women upon the river Thermodon near Colchis, under their new Queens Marthesia and Lampeto: for Diodorus [241] speaking of the Amazons who were seated at Thermodon, saith, that they dwelt originally in Libya, and there Reigned over the Atlantides, and invading their neighbours conquered as far as Europe: and Ammianus, [242] that the ancient Amazons breaking through many nations, attack'd the Athenians, and there receiving a great slaughter retired to Thermodon: and Justin, [243] that these Amazons had at first, he means at their first coming to Thermodon, two Queens who called themselves daughters of Mars; and that they conquered part of Europe, and some cities of Asia, viz. in the Reign of Minerva, and then sent back part of their army with a great booty, under their said new Queens; and that Marthesia being afterwards slain, was succeeded by her daughter Orithya, and she by Penthesilea; and that Theseus captivated and married Antiope the sister of Orithya. Hercules made war upon the Amazons, and in the Reign of Orithya and Penthesilea they came to the Trojan war: whence the first wars of the Amazons in Europe and Asia, and their settling at Thermodon, were but one Generation before those actions of Hercules and Theseus, and but two before the Trojan war, and so fell in with the expedition of Sesostris: and since they warred in the days of Isis and her son Orus, and were a part of the army of Bacchus or Osiris, we have here a further argument for making Osiris and Bacchus contemporary to Sesostris, and all three one and the same King with Sesac.

The _Greeks_ reckon _Osiris_ and _Bacchus_ to be sons of _Jupiter_, and the _Egyptian_ name of _Jupiter_ is _Ammon_. _Manetho_ in his 11th and 12th _Dynasties_, as he is cited by _Africanus_ and _Eusebius_ names these four Kings of _Egypt_, as reigning in order; _Ammenemes_, _Gesongeses_ or _Sesonchoris_ the son of _Ammenemes_, _Ammenemes_ who was slain by his Eunuchs, and _Sesostris_ who subdued all _Asia_ and part of _Europe_. _Gesongeses_ and _Sesonchoris_ are corruptly written for _Sesonchosis_; and the two first of these four Kings, _Ammenemes_ and _Sesonchosis_, are the same with the two last, _Ammenemes_ and _Sesostris_, that is, with _Ammon_ and _Sesac_; for _Diodorus_ saith [244] that _Osiris_ built in _Thebes_ a magnificent temple to his parents _Jupiter_ and _Juno_, and two other temples to _Jupiter_, a larger to _Jupiter Uranius_, and a less to his father _Jupiter Ammon_ who reigned in that city: and [245] _Thymaetes_ abovementioned, who was contemporary to _Orpheus_, wrote expresly that the father of _Bacchus_ was _Ammon_, a King Reigning over part of _Libya_, that is, a King of _Egypt_ Reigning over all that part of _Libya_, anciently called _Ammonia_. _Stephanus_ [246] saith [Greek: Pasa he Libye houtos ekaleito apo Ammonos;] _All _Libya_ was anciently called _Ammonia_ from _Ammon_: this is that King of _Egypt_ from whom _Thebes_ was called _No-Ammon_, and _Ammon-no_ the city of _Ammon_, and by the _Greeks Diospolis_, the city of _Jupiter Ammon_: _Sesostris_ built it sumptuously, and called it by his father's name, and from the same King the [247] River called _Ammon_, the people called _Ammonii_, and the [248] promontory _Ammonium_ in _Arabia faelix_ had their names.

The lower part of Egypt being yearly overflowed by the Nile, was scarce inhabited before the invention of corn, which made it useful: and the King, who by this invention first peopled it and Reigned over it, perhaps the King of the city Mesir where Memphis was afterwards built, seems to have been worshipped by his subjects after death, in the ox or calf, for this benefaction: for this city stood in the most convenient place to people the lower Egypt, and from its being composed of two parts seated on each side of the river Nile, might give the name of Mizraim to its founder and people; unless you had rather refer the word to the double people, those above the Delta, and those within it: and this I take to be the state of the lower Egypt, 'till the Shepherds or Phoenicians who fled from Joshuah conquered it, and being afterwards conquered by the Ethiopians, fled into Afric and other places: for there was a tradition that some of them fled into Afric; and St. Austin [249] confirms this, by telling us that the common people of Afric being asked who they were, replied Chanani, that is, Canaanites. Interrogati rustici nostri, saith he, quid sint, Punice respondentes Chanani, corrupta scilicet voce sicut in talibus solet, quid aliud respondent quam Chanaanaei? Procopius also [250] tells us of two pillars in the west of Afric, with inscriptions signifying that the people were Canaanites who fled from Joshuah: and Eusebius [251] tells us, that these Canaanites flying from the sons of Israel, built Tripolis in Afric; and the Jerusalem Gemara, [252] that the Gergesites fled from Joshua, going into Afric: and Procopius relates their flight in this manner. [Greek: Epei de hemas ho tes historias logos entauth' egagen. epanankes eipein anothen, hothen te ta Maurousion ethne es Libyen elthe, kai hopos oikesanto. Epeide Hebraioi ex Aigyptou anechoresan, kai anchi ton Palaistines horion egenonto; Moses men sophos aner, hos autos tes hodou hegesato, thneskei. diadechetai de ten hegemonian Iesous ho tou Naue pais; hos es te ten Palaistinen ton leon touton eisegage; kai areten en toi polemoi kreisso he kata anthropou physin epideixamenos, ten choran esche; kai ta ethne hapanta katastrepsamenos, tas poleis eupetos parestesato, aniketos te pantapasin edoxen einai. tote de he epithalassia chora, ek Sidonos mechri ton Aigyptou horion, Phoinike xympasa onomazeto. basileus de eis to palaion ephestekei; hosper hapasin homologetai, hoi Phoinikon ta archaiotata anegrapsanto. entauth' okento ethne polyanthropotata, Gergesaioi te kai Iebousaioi, kai alla atta onomata echonta, hois de auta he ton Hebraion historia kalei. houtos ho laos epei amachon ti chrema ton epelyten strategon eidon; ex ethon ton patrion exanastantes, ep' Aigypton homorou ouses echoresan. entha choron oudena sphisin hikanon enoikesasthai heurontes, epei en Aigypto polyanthropia ek palaiou en; es Libyen mechri stelon ton Herakleous eschon; entautha te kai es eme tei Phoinikon phonei chromenoi oikentai]. Quando ad Mauros nos historia deduxit, congruens nos exponere unde orta gens in Africa sedes fixerit. Quo tempore egressi AEgypto Hebraei jam prope Palestinae fines venerant, mortuus ibi Moses, vir sapiens, dux itineris. Successor imperii factus Jesus Navae filius intra Palaestinam duxit popularium agmen; & virtute usus supra humanum modum, terram occupavit, gentibusque excisis urbes ditionis suae fecit, & invicti famam tulit. Maritima ora quae a Sidone ad AEgypti limitem extenditur, nomen habet Phoenices. Rex unus [Hebraeis] imperabat ut omnes qui res Phoenicias scripsere consentiunt. In eo tractatu numerosae gentes erant, Gergesaei, Jebusaei, quosque aliis nominibus Hebraeorum annales memorant. Hi homines ut impares se venienti imperatori videre, derelicto patriae solo ad finitimam primum venere AEgyptum, sed ibi capacem tantae multitudinis locum non reperientes, erat enim AEgyptus ab antiquo foecunda populis, in Africam profecti, multis conditis urbibus, omnem eam Herculis columnas usque, obtinuerunt: ubi ad meam aetatem sermone Phoenicio utentes habitant. By the language and extreme poverty of the Moors, described also by Procopius and by their being unacquainted with merchandise and sea-affairs, you may know that they were Canaanites originally, and peopled Afric before the Tyrian merchants came thither. These Canaanites coming from the East, pitched their tents in great numbers in the lower Egypt, in the Reign of Timaus, as [253] Manetho writes, and easily seized the country, and fortifying Pelusium, then called Abaris, they erected a Kingdom there, and Reigned long under their own Kings, Salatis, Boeon, Apachnas, Apophis, Janias, Assis, and others successively: and in the mean time the upper part of Egypt called Thebais, and according to [254] Herodotus, AEgyptus, and in Scripture the land of Pathros, was under other Kings, Reigning perhaps at Coptos, and Thebes, and This, and Syene, and [255] Pathros, and Elephantis, and Heracleopolis, and Mesir, and other great cities, 'till they conquered one another, or were conquered by the Ethiopians: for cities grew great in those days, by being the seats of Kingdoms: but at length one of these Kingdoms conquered the rest, and made a lasting war upon the Shepherds, and in the Reign of its King Misphragmuthosis, and his son Amosis, called also Tethmosis, Tuthmosis, and Thomosis, drove them out of Egypt, and made them fly into Afric and Syria, and other places, and united all Egypt into one Monarchy; and under their next Kings, Ammon and Sesac, enlarged it into a great Empire. This conquering people worshipped not the Kings of the Shepherds whom they conquered and expelled, but [256] abolished their religion of sacrificing men, and after the manner of those ages Deified their own Kings, who founded their new Dominion, beginning the history of their Empire with the Reign and great acts of their Gods and Heroes: whence their Gods Ammon and Rhea, or Uranus and Titaea; Osiris and Isis; Orus and Bubaste: and their Secretary Thoth, and Generals Hercules and Pan; and Admiral Japetus, Neptune, or Typhon; were all of them Thebans, and flourished after the expulsion of the Shepherds. Homer places Thebes in Ethiopia, and the Ethiopians reported that [257] the Egyptians were a colony drawn out of them by Osiris, and that thence it came to pass that most of the laws of Egypt were the same with those of Ethiopia, and that the Egyptians learnt from the Ethiopians the custom of Deifying their Kings.

When Joseph entertained his brethren in Egypt, they did eat at a table by themselves, and he did eat at another table by himself; and the Egyptians who did eat with him were at another table, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that was an abomination to the Egyptians, Gen. xliii. 32. These Egyptians who did eat with Joseph were of the Court of Pharaoh; and therefore Pharaoh and his Court were at this time not Shepherds but genuine Egyptians; and these Egyptians abominated eating bread with the Hebrews, at one and the same table: and of these Egyptians and their fellow-subjects, it is said a little after, that every Shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians: Egypt at this time was therefore under the government of the genuine Egyptians, and not under that of the Shepherds.

After the descent of _Jacob_ and his sons into _Egypt_, _Joseph_ lived 70 years, and so long continued in favour with the Kings of _Egypt_: and 64 years after his death _Moses_ was born: and between the death of _Joseph_ and the birth of _Moses_, _there arose up a new King over _Egypt_, which knew not _Joseph_, _Exod._ i. 8. But this King of _Egypt_ was not one of the Shepherds; for he is called _Pharaoh_, _Exod._ i. 11, 22: and _Moses_ told his successor, that if the people of _Israel_ should sacrifice in the land of _Egypt_, _they should sacrifice the abomination of the _Egyptians_ before their eyes, and the _Egyptians_ would stone them_, _Exod._ viii. 26. that is, they should sacrifice sheep or oxen, contrary to the religion of _Egypt_. The Shepherds therefore did not Reign over _Egypt_ while _Israel_ was there, but either were driven out of _Egypt_ before _Israel_ went down thither, or did not enter into _Egypt_ 'till after _Moses_ had brought _Israel_ from thence: and the latter must be true, if they were driven out of _Egypt_ a little before the building of the temple of _Solomon_, as _Manetho_ affirms.

Diodorus [258] saith in his 40th book, that in Egypt there were formerly multitudes of strangers of several nations, who used foreign rites and ceremonies in worshipping the Gods, for which they were expelled Egypt; and under Danaus, Cadmus, and other skilful commanders, after great hardships, came into Greece, and other places; but the greatest part of them came into Judaea, not far from Egypt, a country then uninhabited and desert, being conducted thither by one Moses, a wise and valiant man, who after he had possest himself of the country, among other things built Jerusalem, and the Temple. Diodorus here mistakes the original of the Israelites, as Manetho had done before, confounding their flight into the wilderness under the conduct of Moses, with the flight of the Shepherds from Misphragmuthosis, and his son Amosis, into Phoenicia and Afric; and not knowing that Judaea was inhabited by Canaanites, before the Israelites under Moses came thither: but however, he lets us know that the Shepherds were expelled Egypt by Amosis, a little before the building of Jerusalem and the Temple, and that after several hardships several of them came into Greece, and other places, under the conduct of Cadmus, and other Captains, but the most of them Settled in Phoenicia next Egypt. We may reckon therefore that the expulsion of the Shepherds by the Kings of Thebais, was the occasion that the Philistims were so numerous in the days of Saul; and that so many men came in those times with colonies out of Egypt and Phoenicia into Greece; as Lelex, Inachus, Pelasgus, AEzeus, Cecrops, AEgialeus, Cadmus, Phoenix, Membliarius, Alymnus, Abas, Erechtheus, Peteos, Phorbas, in the days of Eli, Samuel, Saul and David: some of them fled in the days of Eli, from Misphragmuthosis, who conquered part of the lower Egypt; others retired from his Successor Amosis into Phoenicia, and Arabia Petraea, and there mixed with the old inhabitants; who not long after being conquered by David, fled from him and the Philistims by sea, under the conduct of Cadmus and other Captains, into Asia Minor, Greece, and Libya, to seek new seats, and there built towns, erected Kingdoms, and set on foot the worship of the dead: and some of those who remained in Judaea might assist David and Solomon, in building Jerusalem and the Temple. Among the foreign rites used by the strangers in Egypt, in worshipping the Gods, was the sacrificing of men; for Amosis abolished that custom at Heliopolis: and therefore those strangers were Canaanites, such as fled from Joshua; for the Canaanites gave their seed, that is, their children, to Moloch, and burnt their sons and their daughters in the fire to their Gods, Deut. xii. 31. Manetho calls them Phoenician strangers.

After Amosis had expelled the Shepherds, and extended his dominion over all Egypt, his son and Successor Ammenemes or Ammon, by much greater conquests laid the foundation of the Egyptian Empire: for by the assistance of his young son Sesostris, whom he brought up to hunting and other laborious exercises, he conquered Arabia, Troglodytica, and Libya: and from him all Libya was anciently called Ammonia: and after his death, in the temples erected to him at Thebes, and in Ammonia and at Meroe in Ethiopia, they set up Oracles to him, and made the people worship him as the God that acted in them: and these are the oldest Oracles mentioned in history; the Greeks therein imitating the Egyptians: for the [259] Oracle at Dodona was the oldest in Greece, and was set up by an Egyptian woman, after the example of the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon at Thebes.

In the days of _Ammon_ a body of the _Edomites_ fled from _David_ into _Egypt_, with their young King _Hadad_, as above; and carried thither their skill in navigation: and this seems to have given occasion to the _Egyptians_ to build a fleet on the _Red Sea_ near _Coptos_, and might ingratiate _Hadad_ with _Pharaoh_: for the _Midianites_ and _Ishmaelites_, who bordered upon the _Red Sea_, near _Mount Horeb_ on the south-side of _Edom_, were merchants from the days of _Jacob_ the Patriarch, _Gen._ xxxvii. 28, 36. and by their merchandise the _Midianites_ abounded with gold in the days of _Moses_, _Numb._ xxxi. 50, 51, 52. and in the days of the judges of _Israel_, _because they were _Ishmaelites_, _Judg._ viii 24. The _Ishmaelites_ therefore in those days grew rich by merchandise; they carried their merchandise on camels through _Petra_ to _Rhinocolura_, and thence to _Egypt_: and this trafic at length came into the hands of _David_, by his conquering the _Edomites_, and gaining the ports of the _Red Sea_ called _Eloth_ and _Ezion-Geber_, as may be understood by the 3000 talents of gold of _Ophir_, which _David_ gave to the Temple, 1 _Chron._ xxix. 4. The _Egyptians_ having the art of making linen-cloth, they began about this time to build long Ships with sails, in their port on those Seas near _Coptos_, and having learnt the skill of the _Edomites_, they began now to observe the positions of the Stars, and the length of the Solar Year, for enabling them to know the position of the Stars at any time, and to sail by them at all times, without sight of the shoar: and this gave a beginning to Astronomy and Navigation: for hitherto they had gone only by the shoar with oars, in round vessels of burden, first invented on that shallow sea by the posterity of _Abraham_, and in passing from island to island guided themselves by the sight of the islands in the day time, or by the sight of some of the Stars in the night. Their old year was the Lunisolar year, derived from _Noah_ to all his posterity, 'till those days, and consisted of twelve months, each of thirty days, according to their calendar: and to the end of this calendar-year they now added five days, and thereby made up the Solar year of twelve months and five days, or 365 days.

The ancient Egyptians feigned [260] that Rhea lay secretly with Saturn, and Sol prayed that she might bring forth neither in any month, nor in the year; and that Mercury playing at dice with Luna, overcame, and took from the Lunar year the 72d part of every day, and thereof composed five days, and added them to the year of 360 days, that she might bring forth in them; and that the Egyptians celebrated those days as the birth-days of Rhea's five children, Osiris, Orus senior, Typhon, Isis, and Nephthe the wife of Typhon: and therefore, according to the opinion of the ancient Egyptians, the five days were added to the Lunisolar calendar-year, in the Reign of Saturn and Rhea, the parents of Osiris, Isis, and Typhon; that is, in the Reign of Ammon and Titaea, the parents of the Titans; or in the latter half of the Reign of David, when those Titans were born, and by consequence soon after the flight of the Edomites from David into Egypt: but the Solstices not being yet settled, the beginning of this new year might not be fixed to the Vernal Equinox before the Reign of Amenophis the successor of Orus junior, the Son of Osiris and Isis.

When the Edomites fled from David with their young King Hadad into Egypt, it is probable that they carried thither also the use of letters: for letters were then in use among the posterity of Abraham in Arabia Petraea, and upon the borders of the Red Sea, the Law being written there by Moses in a book, and in tables of stone, long before: for Moses marrying the daughter of the prince of Midian, and dwelling with him forty years, learnt them among the Midianites: and Job, who lived [261] among their neighbours the Edomites, mentions the writing down or words, as there in use in his days, Job. xix. 23, 24. and there is no instance of letters for writing down sounds, being in use before the days of David, in any other nation besides the posterity of Abraham. The Egyptians ascribed this invention to Thoth, the secretary of Osiris; and therefore Letters began to be in use in Egypt in the days of Thoth, that is, a little after the flight of the Edomites from David, or about the time that Cadmus brought them into Europe.

Helladius [262] tells us, that a man called Oes, who appeared in the Red Sea with the tail of a fish, so they painted a sea-man, taught Astronomy and Letters: and Hyginus, [263] that Euhadnes, who came out of the Sea in Chaldaea, taught the Chaldaeans Astrology the first of any man; he means Astronomy: and Alexander Polyhistor [264] tells us from Berosus, that Oannes taught the Chaldaeans Letters, Mathematicks, Arts, Agriculture, Cohabitation in Cities, and the Construction of Temples; and that several such men came thither successively. Oes, Euhadnes, and Oannes, seem to be the same name a little varied by corruption; and this name seems to have been given in common to several sea-men, who came thither from time to time, and by consequence were merchants, and frequented those seas with their merchandise, or else fled from their enemies: so that Letters, Astronomy, Architecture and Agriculture, came into Chaldaea by sea, and were carried thither by sea-men, who frequented the Persian Gulph, and came thither from time to time, after all those things were practised in other countries whence they came, and by consequence in the days of Ammon and Sesac, David and Solomon, and their successors, or not long before. The Chaldaeans indeed made Oannes older than the flood of Xisuthrus, but the Egyptians made Osiris as old, and I make them contemporary.

The _Red Sea_ had its name not from its colour, but from _Edom_ and _Erythra_, the names of _Esau_, which signify that colour: and some [265] tell us, that King _Erythra_, meaning _Esau_, invented the vessels, _rates_, in which they navigated that Sea, and was buried in an island thereof near the _Persian Gulph_: whence it follows, that the _Edomites_ navigated that Sea from the days of _Esau_; and there is no need that the oldest _Oannes_ should be older. There were boats upon rivers before, such as were the boats which carried the Patriarchs over _Euphrates_ and _Jordan_, and the first nations over many other rivers, for peopling the earth, seeking new seats, and invading one another's territories: and after the example of such vessels, _Ishhmael_ and _Midian_ the sons of _Abraham_, and _Esau_ his grandson, might build larger vessels to go to the islands upon the _Red Sea_, in searching for new seats, and by degrees learn to navigate that sea, as far as to the _Persian Gulph_: for ships were as old, even upon the _Mediterranean_, as the days of _Jacob_, _Gen._ xlix. 13. _Judg._ v. 17. but it is probable that the merchants of that sea were not forward to discover their Arts and Sciences, upon which their trade depended: it seems therefore that Letters and Astronomy, and the trade of Carpenters, were invented by the merchants of the _Red Sea_, for writing down their merchandise, and keeping their accounts, and guiding their ships in the night by the Stars, and building ships; and that they were propagated from _Arabia Petraea_ into _Egypt_, _Chaldaea_, _Syria_, _Asia minor_, and _Europe_, much about one and the same time; the time in which _David_ conquered and dispersed those merchants: for we hear nothing of Letters before the days of _David_, except among the posterity of _Abraham_; nothing of Astronomy, before the _Egyptians_ under _Ammon_ and _Sesac_ applied themselves to that study, except the Constellations mentioned by _Job_, who lived in _Arabia Petraea_ among the merchants; nothing of the trade of Carpenters, or good Architecture, before _Solomon_ sent to _Hiram_ King of _Tyre_, to supply him with such Artificers, saying that _there were none in _Israel_ who could skill to hew timber like the _Zidonians_.

_Diodorus_ [266] tells us, _that the _Egyptians_ sent many colonies out of _Egypt_ into other countries; and that _Belus_, the son of _Neptune_ and _Libya_, carried colonies thence into _Babylonia_, and seating himself on _Euphrates_, instituted priests free from taxes and publick expences, after the manner of _Egypt_, who were called _Chaldaeans_, and who after the manner of _Egypt_, might observe the Stars_: and _Pausanias_ [267] tells us, _that the _Belus_ of the _Babylonians_ had his name from _Belus_ an _Egyptian_, the son of _Libya_: and _Apollodorus_; [268] _that _Belus_ the son of _Neptune_ and _Libya_, and King of _Egypt_, was the father of _AEgyptus_ and _Danaus_, that is, _Ammon_: he tells us also, _that _Busiris_ the son of _Neptune_ and _Lisianassa_ _[Libyanassa]_ the daughter of _Epaphus_, was King of _Egypt_; and _Eusebius_ calls this King, _Busiris_ the son of _Neptune_, and of _Libya_ the daughter of _Epaphus_. By these things the later _Egyptians_ seem to have made two _Belus's_, the one the father of _Osiris_, _Isis_, and _Neptune_, the other the son of _Neptune_, and father of _AEgyptus_ and _Danaus_: and hence came the opinion of the people of _Naxus_, that there were two _Minos's_ and two _Ariadnes_, the one two Generations older than the other; which we have confuted. The father of _AEgyptus_ and _Danaus_ was the father of _Osiris_, _Isis_, and _Typhon_; and _Typhon_ was not the grandfather of _Neptune_, but _Neptune_ himself.

Sesostris being brought up to hard labour by his father Ammon, warred first under his father, being the Hero or Hercules of the Egyptians during his father's Reign, and afterward their King: under his father, whilst he was very young, he invaded and conquered Troglodytica, and thereby secured the harbour of the Red Sea, near Coptos in Egypt, and then he invaded Ethiopia, and carried on his conquest southward, as far as to the region bearing cinnamon: and his father by the assistance of the Edomites having built a fleet on the Red Sea, he put to sea, and coasted Arabia Faelix, going to the Persian Gulph and beyond, and in those countries set up Columns with inscriptions denoting his conquests; and particularly he Set up a Pillar at Dira, a promontory in the straits of the Red Sea, next Ethiopia, and two Pillars in India, on the mountains near the mouth of the rivers Ganges; so [269] Dionysius: