A TRVE CHRONOLOGIE OF THE TIMES OF THE PERSIAN Monarchie and after to the destruction of Ierusalem by the Romanes WHEREIN BY THE WAY briefly is handled the day of Christ his birth with a declaration of the Angel Gabriels message to Daniel in the end of his 9. chap. against the friuolous conceits of Matthew Beroald Written by EDVVARD LIVELIE Reader of the holie tongue in Cambridge AT LONDON Printed by Felix Kingston for Thomas Man John Porter and Rafe Iacson 1597. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD MY VERY HOnorable good Lord my Lord the Archbishop of Canterburie his Grace THE knowledge of former times most reuerend by prophane authors recorded for the great profit and delight thereof hath not without cause beene alwaies highlie esteemed of the best wisest men in Heathen common wealths guided only by natures law the word of life not knowne amongst them This keepeth the memorie of thinges done of old and in spite of death preserueth still in some sort as it were the life of Noble ancestors who by their prowesse and wisedome for guiding the course of mans life aright haue left most worthie examples and notable patternes of vertue behind them To Christians it hath this more to commend it selfe that it bringeth much light to the vnderstanding of God his worde and greatlie auaileth to the aduancement of that trueth wherby soules are wonne to the Lorde wherefore I cannot but meruaile at the shall I terme it follie or rather madnes of those men which for the continuance of the Persian Monarchie and the raigne of the seueral kings therin are bold to reiect the true histories of ancient writers who liuing in the times thereof haue set forth the same for the ages to come The cause and maine ground whereof is nothing else but their owne error in misunderstanding holie Scripture by wrested interpretation making flat contradiction betweene the spirite of God and prophane truth So not onelie wrong is done to those excellent men who by their paines haue deserued well but also euen the certaintie of Gods worde it selfe by this meanes is weakned made doubtfull and called into question For it is not possible that one truth should be repugnant to another Now because truth as Augustine writeth in his second booke de doctrina Christiana is the Lordes wheresoeuer it is found therefore euerie Christian in dutie bound to stand for the maintaining thereof against all aduersaries so farre forth as his strength will serue I haue according to my pore talent vndertaken the defence of the true Historie Chronologie of the Persian times against the aduersaries thereof and withall an exposition of the Angell Gabriels message to Daniel agreeable thereunto The one that is my account of the times in fast perswasion I hold so sure as that I stedfastlie beleeue scarse 2. yeres vnder or ouer if any at all will be easily disprooued which in so great a number were a small matter in regard of those mens conceipt who are bold at one dash to chop off no lesse then a hundred yeares For the other I meane my exposition by reasō of interpreters disagreement among themselues hauing not like euidence I referre my selfe to learnings skill the iudgement of cunning Linguists and sound Diuines In English rather then in Latine I haue chosen to set foorth this treatise for no other cause in the world but one That as my owne Countriemen in their natiue language by reason of Mathew Beroald the first brocher of the new Chronologicall History of the Persian Empire translated into English and some other bookes doe read the wrong in danger thereby to bee seduced So likewise in the same their mother tongue by this my paines they may see the right so hold themselues therein from going astray This my labour I am bolde to present vnto your Grace sundrie reasons moouing me thereunto For hauing in intent sought herein the vpholding of truth to the good of my Countrie and the benefitte of Christ his Church amongst vs the chiefe care wherof for these matters appertaineth vnto your Grace I feared not the checke of vnseemely boldnes if by the honour of your Graces name I should seeke to commend the same Your great loue of learning and kind good will to Students hartned me on But aboue all my especiall motiue hereunto was the earnest desire of my heart to shew some token of my dutifull remembrance of your great kindnes heretofore so many waies shewed vnto mee That I was first scholler and after fellow of Trinitie Colledge in Cambridge it proceeded of your louing minde and fauorable good wil vnto me besides other benefits many some greater then the forme which were too long to recite In regard whereof if it may please your Grace to accept of this acknowledgement of my dutie I shall account the same my duty doubled Thus with my hartie desire of your Graces happy estate long to cōtinue to the glory of God the good of his Church and the wealth of this land your own sounde comfort I most humbly take my leaue of your Grace this 24. day of Nouember in the 1597. yere of Christ our Lord. Your Graces most bounden EDVVARD LIVELIE A TRVE CHRONOLOGIE OF THE TIMES OF THE PERSIAN MONARCHIE CIcero if euer any other was one which verified that doctrine of the blessed Apostle Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians that the wisedome of God of the wisest of the world was accounted foolishnes The learning of the Grecians all artes pertaining to humanitie beeing held together to vse his owne tearme in a certaine kindred betweene themselues hee had in great price The knowledge thereof he admired the professors he honoured and by quicke conceit and sharp wit together with earnest trauaile and diligent study therein he grew to that ripenes of deepe knowledge and sweet speech wise counsell whereby he became the rare ornament of his countrie the precious iewell of his age and the great glorie of the world far beyond al before him neuer ouertooke of any after him But touching true diuinity the people of God with the word of life amongst them they were no better esteemed of him then Paul and his preaching was of the learned Philosophers of Athens being mocked for his labour and acounted a babling toole Let his owne mouth make proofe hereof in an Oration which he made for Lucius Flaccus beeing at that time accused amongst other matters for detayning great summes of gold sent yearely vpon deuotion by an vsuall custome out of Italie and some other prouinces of Rome to Ierusalem This action of his client withstanding the Iewes herein he greatly commendeth Ierusalem the holie and glorious seate of God his seruice hee calleth a suspitious and backebyting Citie The deuout worship of God and the holy religion of the Iewes he termeth barbarous superstition by great contempt in regard of the glorie and ancient customes of the Roman Empire in the end he concludeth
Mercator his report in his Chronicles The death of Alexander saith he of all writers is noted to haue happened in the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad when Hegesias was chiefe ruler at Athens If this testimonie of Mercator be of lesse importance in regard of the late time wherein he liued Iosephus an ancient Author of credit and skill in his first book against Appian beareth him record very constantly affirming this to be verified by the vniuersall consent of all writers that Alexander died in the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad This is somewhat but not altogether inough except we can learne in what part of that first yeare of the same Olympiad hee died For the knowledge of this we are beholding to Eusebius Whose words are these in his eight booke de demonstratione Euangelij 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is in English thus much Alexander ended his life in the beginning of the hundred fourteenth Olympiad Making then our account froÌ„ the fiue fiftieth Olympiad to the beginning of the hundred fourteenth wherein the light of Macedonia was put out wee finde the space of two hundred thirtie and sixe yeares between approued not by weake coniectures friuolous conceits or trifling toyes but a strong consent of writers which as Iosephus in his 1. book against Appian is a sure token of vndoubted truth when they all agree Six yeares and about three quarters before Alexanders death the Persians had beene by him subdued receiuing as great a blow as euer before other Nations had receiued from them their power now beeing brought to an end How is this proued The yeare is declared by Diodorus the second of the hundred and twelfth Olympiad the month by Arrhiâ—mes October the day by Plutarch is found the first of that month This was the vnhappie yeare of the Persian ouerthrow the wofull month of their fall and the sorrowfull day of king Darius his vndoing who after this victory was contemned of his men forsaken of his souldiers betraied by his seruants made a slaue to his Captaines in most base manner shut vp within a vile waggeÌ„ couered with filthie skins as it were in a prison and so carried about at their pleasure In the end they stabbed him with many woundes and left him for dead slew the waggener thrust the beasts through with darts which wanting a guide strayed from the high way about halfe a mile Where one of Alexanders souldiers going to drinke by chance espied the waggen comming vnto it found the king now drawing on who first craued of him a little water After he had drunke acknowledging this for the last miserie of his wretched estate that hee was not able to requite his kindnes and withall wishing well to Alexander for the great honour which hee had done to his wife and children hee ended his life in the third yeare of the hundred and twelfth Olympiad as appeareth by Diodorus Siculus and Arrhiames who further hath set downe the moneth Hecatombeon beeing the season of the Olympick sports and answering partly to our Iune and partly Iulie This was the tragicall end of that mightie king making proofe of the brickle estate of Princely pompe and the vnstayed stay of worldly glorie wherein he liued neere sixe yeares These limits thus bounded of the Persian Empire that is to say the fiue fiftieth Olympicke exercise for the beginning and the entrie of the third yere of the hundred and twelfth for the end giue sure euidence of the whole continuance to be two hundred and thirtie yeares if we begin from the fiftie and fiue Olympiad if from the end about nine or ten monethes after in the spring of the yeare when Cyrus began to raigne as is probable and likelie by that which before hath beene declared two hundred and nine and twentie yeares with two or three months And thus they are deuided among the Persian kinges Cyrus raigned thirtie yeares recorded by two auncient Historiographers liuing in the Persian times in their Persian Histories Dionisius and Ctesias Cicero also in his first booke De diuinatione Iustin Clemens Alexandrinus 1. Strom. Eusebius in his Chronicle Hierom on the seauenth of Daniel Beda in his book De sex aetatibus confirme the same and Orosius in his second booke against the Heathen bringeth Tomyris the Queene of Scythia after she had slaine Cyrus in battaile throwen his head into a vessell of blood insulting ouer him with this speech Now fill thy selfe with blood which could neuer yet satsifie thee this thirtie yeares This had been foreshewed to Cyrus by a dreame as Cicero from Dionisius reporteth VVherein the sunne appearing at his feete and Cyrus catching at it thrice with his handes euerie time it trowled it selfe away Which the skilfull Magi of Persia interpreted of thrice ten yeares raigne Cambyses succeeded him the time of whose raigne was seauen yeres fiue months which together with the seauen monethes more of Smerdis the vsurper and counterfait brother of Cambyses made vp eight yeares as Herodotus declareth in Thalia Darius Histaspis ruled by the space of full sixe and thirtie yeares as Herodotus writeth Eusebius in his Chronicles and Seuerus in his second booke Xerxes in the second yeare of his raigne subdued the Aegyptians and in the sixt inuaded Greece with an innumerable army yet driuen to flie by a few In the 16 yeare after and one and twentieth of his raigne being the last yere of the seauentie and eighth Olympiad as Diodorus Siculus declareth by his cowardise and corrupt life hee growing into contempt with his Nobles was slaine Many writers giue him one and twentie yeares Seuerus Beda Eusebius Clemens Alexandrinus 1. Stromatum hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twentie six for twentie one an easie slip in writing far from the enditers minde Artaxerxes the long handed was his sonne who held that Monarchie by the space of fortie yeares witnessed by Diodorus Siculus in his eleuenth and twelfth bookes Eusebius Hierom Isidorus Beda with other Xerxes and Sogdianus after him enioyed the Empire one yeare betweene them both The next was Darius Nothus holding the imperiall crowne ninteene yeares as Diodorus Siculus Tertullianus against the Iewes Eusebius Isidorus Seuerus Beda and other declare Artaxerxes Mnemon succeeded him and continued in his gouernment the longest of all other euen three and fortie yeares my Author is Diodorus in two places first in the ende of his thirteenth book and againe in his fifteenth who likewise witnesseth that Artaxerxes Ochus his successor ruled three twentie yeres which is confirmed by the testimonie of Sulpitius in his second booke The last but one was Arses continuing three yeares in his Empire by Sulpitius In whose death the bloud Royall from Cyrus was extinguished all his brethren and children by cruell treason beeing made away A iust reward of his father Ochus his Tigerlike and Woluish crueltie in murthering his Princesse The last of all was Darius Codomanus an vsurper rather than a lawfull heire
which was not the 301. of Rome as Beroaldus saith making dissention betweene Authors where there is none at all but the 304. for adding threescore to the 244. wherein the last king was expelled the summe is 304. But what shall we say then to Dionysius Haelicarnassaeus who is contrarie to himselfe in his second book affirming those ten Cōmissioners to haue beene in the 300. yeare of Rome Euen this that it is an increase of Beroaldus his vntruths for there speaking of the Lawes which Romulus the first king ordained and namely of that whereby it was made lawfull for a father to sell his owne child that this Law saith hee was not made by the Decemuirs who three hundred yeres after were appointed to that businesse it is gathered by this ordinance of Numa Patri post hac nullum ius esto vendendi filium let it not be lawfull hereafter for the father to sell his sonne It is manifest in this place that the 300. yeare is accounted not from the building of the Citie but from the time wherein Romulus established the common wealth with lawes which was after the foundation of the Citie layed Otherwise this historiographer most vndoubtedly perfectly and exactly declareth the yere of their authoritie to be the 303 of the Citie Thus there is no cause at all for Beroaldus so earnestly with such heat to complaine of great ignorance and disagreement in these Authors one from an other beeing in truth at great concord betweene themselues and dissenting only in shew and yet all the dissention which he nameth if it were so indeede consisteth within the space of three or foure yeares betwixt 300. and 303. But that all these are wide from the true time of the Decemuirs in his opinion aboue threescore yeares hee can prooue both by prophane storie and holy scripture If Beroaldus can doe this I will say hee is a cunning iugler let vs see how Hermodorus the Ephesian the interpreter of the Decemuirs lawes was acquainted with Heraclitus and flourished in his dayes and Heraclitus citing the writings of Pythagoras must needes be after Pythagoras Againe Pythagoras reached to the times of the Peloponnesian warre as may be prooued by this that Lysis one of his familiar friendes instructed Epaminondas in Philosophie who died long after that warre Heereof we may conclude that Heraclitus and Hermodorus his friende with him flourished in the time of the Peloponnesian warre and that the Decemuirs lawes are there to bee placed The fingering of this feate is too grosie to deceiue any mans eyesight who is but carefull to marke somewhat nerelie First this is an vnprouing proofe that Heraclitus was later than Pythagoras because hee alleadgeth some sentence out of his workes for it is an vsuall thing for those which are of one standing as wee say and equall in time to read the bookes one of another Cicero liued in the same age with Varro yet notwithstanding he had recourse to his writings and alleadged vppon occasion the contents thereof The other argument touching Pythagoras his reaching to the Peloponnesian warre by Lysis and Epaminondas being the mayne reason of all is as vayne as that which a little before I haue made playne Lastlie though it were graunted that Heraclitus and Hermodorus were in the time of the Peloponnesian warre yet for all that the Decemuirs lawes might be before that time interpreted by the same Hermodorus as well as Master Beza his first interpretation of the new Testament was many yeares before the late taking of Calis by the Spanyards and yet the same light of God his Church at those dayes still shining therein This is such a sorie Sorites as maketh me meruaile what conceite came in Beroaldus his head to bring it As likewise that colde coniecture out of Liuie which followeth concerning the twelue tables of the Decemuirs lawes to be in the 370. yeare of Rome is as farre and further from Liuies minde in playne wordes otherwhere declared as threescore is from three The second weapon wherewith Beroaldus fighteth against the Latine historie is some doubt concerning the time of the French mens taking Rome in the 365. yeare from the building of that citie and the first of the 98. Olympiad For Plutarch in the life of Camillus hauing declared the receaued opinion concerning the time thereof that it happened a few more then 360. yeares after Rome was builded addeth this doubting speech If it seeme credible that an exact account of these times had been so long preserued seeing that euen the confusion of that time hath brought some doubt and controuersie to other later Plutarch least hee should seeme without cause to haue made that doubt bringeth this reason that the fame and rumor of that warre wherein Rome by the French was taken presentlie was spread abroad in Greece and came to the eares of Heraclides Ponticus and Aristotle whereby may bee gathered that it happened in the time of king Phillip of Macedonia in whose dayes those authors liued saith Beroaldus The raigne of this king began about the 105. Olympiad seuen and twentie yeares after the common receaued time of that taking of Rome set by other and endured full foure and twentie yeares For answer to this doubt I am to let the reader vnderstand that the French men discontented and vnquiet in minde for their ill successe at their taking of Rome being driuen out againe and all their pray taken from them by Marcus Furius Camillus came diuers times after into Italie and namely in the 406. yeare of Rome being the fourteenth of Philip the Macedonian King when Aristotle was about foure and thirtie yeares olde In this yeare Lucius Furius Camillus being Consull and he alone Consull after his fellowes death the French inuaded Italie with a mightie power Amongst them one at that time for stature of bodie passing other chalenging any one of the Romane hoste whosoeuer durst fight with him was with the Consuls leaue set vpon by M. Valerius a valiant Captaine In this combate a rauen came suddainely to the Romane champion and sat vpon his Helmet and flew vpon the French man against his face with bill and talents fighting till at the length being greatly amazed thereat he was slaine by Valerius Who thereof tooke name to bee called Coruinus in memorie of the rauens fighting for him which was interpreted to haue come from God The French men after the death of their champion so miraculouslie slaine were discomfited and fled and durst not of a long time after come against the Romans And this was the battaile by all likeliehoode which Aristotle and Heraclides Ponticus spake of For it is confessed by Plutarch himselfe that the conquerer of the French at that time was called Lucius in Aristotle which agreeth to this time wherein Lucius Camillus was Consull alone and conquerer not to the taking of Rome when Marcus Camillus father to this man had giuen them the ouerthrow As for the taking of Rome then mentioned by Heraclides and