originall tongue If wee faile in either of these there is no hope to knowne what Daniell meant by his weekes For neither good interpretation alone is enough without exact chronologie nor this without the other serueth much to purpose The sundring of these two things which must needes stand together hath beene the cause of such turning and tossing this excellent peece of Scripture in so many mens heades so many waies therefore in these two thinges especially shall be the imployment of my paines if happily thereby this noble text of Scripture may receaue some light to the clearer perceauing thereof Marcus Varro a learned Roman as Censorinus telleth in his booke De die natali measured all time by three spaces whereof one was from the beginning of men to the first flud for the ignorance of the things which happened therein called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnknown The second from that floud to the first Olympiad for many fables and tales therein reported tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fabulous The third last from the first Olympiad to his age containing more certaine truth of historie therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 historicall This was Varro his iudgement commended by Cicero also in his first booke of Academicall questions where speaking to Varro hee vseth these words Thou haste opened the age of thy countrey and ordering of times Vnto Varro herein agreed Iulius Affricanus in his third booke of Chronicles As Eusebius witnesseth in his tenth book De praeparatione Euangelica vntill the time of the Olimpiads saith Affricanus there is no sure knowledge in the Greeke Historie all thinges beeing confusedly written without agreement betweene themselues But the Olimpicke times haue beene exactly handled of the Grecians by reasō of regestring their acts and records therein of no longer time then euery foure yeares space Censorinus after him speaking of the time from the first Olimpiad In this space saith he was neuer any great dissentiō or controuersie among writers for computation of time except in some sixe or seauen yeares at the most And euen this little that was Varro himselfe by his great skill and diligent paines at the length discussed and founde out the truth and shewed cleare light by which the certaine number not of yeares onely but euen of daies might be perceaued The Grecians saith Chitraeus in his Chronicle haue no certaine computation of times and order of yeares before the Olimpiads This was the iudgement of the best learned in all times in all countries for all kinde of skill concerning the certaine accoūt of time by Olimpiads vsed of the Grecians receaued of the Romanes followed and commended of Christians euen the flower of thē the most ancient Fathers Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Hierome Orosius and other for knowledge of Gods worde most famous and renowned continued kept from age to age not contradicted with reason of anie Except peraduenture some to shew the finenesse of their wit by Sophistrie might cauill against it For the better vnderstanding of that which hath bin and shall hereafter be said of Olympiads it shal not be amisse here to shew what is meant thereby Olympia was a certaine place of Greece where games of running wrestling leaping such like were instituted by Hercules in honor of Iupiter Olympius wherof the place was called Olympia and the games Olympiads Olimpiac games the sports of Olympia which after Hercules for a long time beeing discontinued were at the length renewed againe by Iphitus King of that countrie about seauen hundred seauentie and fiue yeares before the birth of our Sauiour Christ Beeing so reuiued they were from that time forward continued by the space of a thousand yeres and more after euery foure yeares in sommer about the month of Iuly solemnized This foure yeares space was called Olympias By these Olympiads the Grecians numbred their yeares counting from that time wherein they were begun againe by Iphitus As appeareth by Velleius Paterculus Solinus Phlegon Pausanius Censorinus who all referre the beginning thereof to Iphitus neyther for this matter that I know of amongst writers is there any doubt at all Beyond Iphitus I cannot warrant any certaine account of yeeres among the heathen greatly meruailing at the folly of those men who busie themselues in searching for sure knowledge by ordered times many ages before A Christian Prince not long agoe standing much vpon his parentage by this kinde of men was seduced A trifling Courtier perceiuing his humor made him beleeue that his petigree in ancient race of royall blood might be fetched from Noa his Arke wherewith being greatly delighted forthwith he laid all busines aside and gaue himselfe wholly to the searche of this thing so earnestly that hee suffered none to interrupt him whosoeuer no not Embassadors themselues which were sent to him about most waightie affaires Many meruailed heereat but none durst speake their mind till at the length his Cooke whō he vsed sometime in stead of a foole told him that the thing which hee went about was nothing for his honor for now saith he I worship your Maiestie as a God but if we goe once to Noas Arke wee must there your selfe and I both be a kinne This saying of his foolish Cooke cast him in a dumpe and stayed the heat of his earnest studdy and brought him to a better mind from his vaine error in deceiueable times farre beyond the compasse of truth which as before hath bin shewed was limited from the first Olimpiad downeward within these limits of time by the testimonie of Varro Affricanus Censorinus the Iudgements of manie other learned men in all ages being certaine and void of error is the reach of Daniels weekes yea to come nearer home by 200 yeares and more within that part thereof which by the learning wisedome and knowledge of excellent men hath beene made most famous that is to say from the Persian Monarchie in the first yeare of Cyrus to the second of Vespasian Emperour of Roome wherein the Cittie of Ierusalem was destroyed and the Iewes common wealth ouerthrowne within the lists and compasse whereof the fulfilling of this Prophesie is contained euen Beroaldus himselfe though an aduersarie of the receaued Grecians Chronologie in his 2. booke and 2. chapter where hee saith that before the times of Cyrus the Greek Histories haue no certainty seemeth to acknowledge some truth of Historie afterward whereof he giueth this reason because in Cyrus his age were the 7. sages of Greece liuing together one of them beeing Colon the Athenian acquainted with Croesus King of Lydia who fought against Cyrus This whole space from the beginning of Cyrus his raigne to the destruction of the holy Cittie by Titus containeth 629. yeares from the Olimpiad wherein Cyrus began to the same season of that yeare wherein Ierusalem Temple and Citie was set on fire For the Persian kings raigned by the space of 230. yeares From the death of the last King of Persia to the birth of Christ
death for sorow hasted home with his head couered whereby some haue vnderstood nothing else but dust and ashes laied thereon which is a cerimonie indeed of sorow but not meant in those places The custome in those times was not onely to lay dust on the heade in token of griefe but also to enclose and shut vp as it were the head and face with some cloth or vaile from mens eyes As manie examples out of the Heathen Authors may easily shew Vlysses as Homer declareth hauing heard one Demodicus sing of the glorious worthy acts of the Grecians at Troy couered his head and face with a cloath and wept The souldiers of Aiax in Sophocles hearing of the wofull case of their Captaine for griefe of Vlysses prefermēt before him being bestraught of minde couered their heads with vailes Demaratus a King of Sparta by the subtill practising of his enemies was deposed of his kingdome as not of the Royall blood who after bearing Office in the Citie and opprobriously in way of scorne and derision beeing asked what it was to bee first a King and then an Officer tooke it to the heart and with these wordes vttered that that question should bee the cause either of much ioy or much woe to the Lacedaemonians couered his head and got him home This is recorded by Herodotus in Erato Xenophon in his Symposiō telleth of a certaine iester called Phillip who at a seast where Socrates with other graue cōpany was present assaying once or twice by his ridiculous iestes to mooue them to laughter but all in vaine mufled vp himselfe for sorrow and left his supper Demosthenes the famous Orator of Athens as Plutarch writeth in his life in a certaine Oration of his before the people beeing hissed at hied him home in great heauines with his head couered In his 4. booke It is recorded by Q. Curtius of Darius King of Persia that hearing of his wiues death Capite velato diu fleuit He wept a great while hauing his head couered That the couer was a cloath hiding the face as well as the heade appeareth immediatlye after in these wordes Manantibus adhuc lachrimis vesteque ab ore reiecta the teares yet trickling downe the cloth being cast away from his mouth he lift vp his handes to heauen Sisigambis that Kinges mother was a spectacle of rare miserie Shee lost her Father and foure score brethren all in one day most cruelly killed by Artaxerxes Ochus Her owne childe a mightie King the last Monarch of Persia shee saw twice ouercome by Alexander in the end traiterously slaine by his owne seruants the kingdome of Persia a ouerthrowne her selfe Captiue yet all these crosses she bare in some tollerable manner so long as Alexander liued who honoured her exceedingly as his owne mother But after his death bereaued of all comfort shee tare her haire cast her bodie on the grounde refused succour and wrapping vp her heade with a vaile euer after abstained from meat light till welcome death made an end of her woes Thus Dauid and Hamans couered heades by so manie examples of such as for extreame sorrow or shame of themselues not abiding mens sight muffled their faces are cleared of doubt And herby the vnderstanding of another place in the 53. Chapter of Esay not a little helped where our blessed Sauiour is compared to one hiding his face For this as hath beene prooued beeing an argument of an heart oppressed with griefe is effectuall and notable to declare that which immediatly before was spokē of Christ despised and refused of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefe whereunto the next wordes are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to interpret it aright and as it were hiding the face from vs. This here I may not pretermit that this ceremonie of the couered head is vsed sometimes in scripture and other where in another sence As in the 7. Chapter of Ester where wee reade of Hamans head couered by other against his will to signifie that now in the kings wrath hee was appointed to death For this likewise was an ancient custome vsed of diuers Nations to muffell vp the heads of men condemned to die or guiltie of some grieuous crime deseruing death Polixena king Priamus his daughter by the sentence of Agamemnon and other Princes of Greece adiudged to die was ledde to the slaughter of Vlisses with a vaile ouer her head As we read in the tragedie of Euripides called Hecuba Philotas the sonne of Parmenio one of the chiefe Princes of Alexander the great foūd guiltie of high treason against the king was brought before him to his answer Capite velato hauing his head couered saith Q. Curtius in his 6. booke Festus Pompeius in the word Nuptias saith that the Law commanded his head to bee couered who had killed his Parente Lastlye Cicero in his Oration for C. Rabirius bringeth the verie sentence of iudgement it selfe or verses as he termeth them vsed of Tarquinius superbus the last and most cruell king of Roome Caput obnubito arbori infaelici suspendito Couer his head hang him vp on a wofull tree Let me by thy patience gentle Reader proceed to one argument more in this kind and so an end That which is told by the Euangelist of Saint Iohn Baptist eating Locusts seemed incredible to some greatly doubting of that kind of meat and therefore supposing the place to haue been corrupted by the writers fault by some slip setting downe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as though his meat had not bin locusts but choake peares Thus in their owne conceit they were wiser than God by ignorance of trueth witnessed in diuers prophane Authors Galen vpon Hipocrates his Aphorismes the 2. book the 18. Chapter is one declaring there the force which locustes being eaten haue to nourish Plinie in the 28 chap. of his 11. book saith that among the Parthians they were counted a pleasant meate Strabo in his 16. booke of Geographie maketh mention of a certaine people which liued of them Bellonius in the 2. booke of his obseruations the 88. chapter testifieth from the report of some Authors that in Africa they were eaten as dainties not for Phisicke but euen for nourishment Thereby proouing it a thing not vncredible that Iohn Baptist should eat locusts But Diodorus Siculus most fullie of all other declareth this in his 4. booke where hee telleth of certain Aethiopians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is locust eaters who neyther eat fish nor cattel but onely locusts continually which at the spring time of the yeare they get in great abundance and salt them vp to preserue them for meate Thus I haue giuen as it were a taste by this little out of Plinie Pausanias Solinus Horatius Homer Sophocles Herodotus Euripudes Xenophon Plutarch Quintus Curtius Festus Pompeius Cicero Galen Strabo how great seruice Heathen writers doe to the word of God for opening the true meaning thereof A taste
changelinges Pererius reprooueth Annius his childish ignorance follie rashnesse arrogancie and the writinges themselues he termeth false erroneous fained lies deceits with this conclusion in the end Valeat igitur in perpetuū valeat haec Anniana Chronologia quae toties a viris doctis profligata iugulata est iaceat in posterum sempiterna hominum obliuione sepulta nec sit post hac qui eam exhumare ad fidem aliquam atque authoritatem quasi ad vitam reuocare audeat Sat sit adhuc eam cum non erat bene nota imposuisse multis nunc detectis atque in apertum prolatis fucatis eius mendaciis fallaciis si quem circumuenerit ac deceperit nimis profecto stupidū vecordemeum fore necesse est That is Let this Chronologie therfore of Annius farewell yea for euer let it farewell and that which hath often bin cast down and the throte thereof cut let it hereafter lie buried in euerlasting forgetfulnesse neither let any take it out of the graue and call it backe againe into credite authority as it were to life Let this be sufficient that it hath alreadie deceaued many whilest it was not thoroughlie known but now the coloured lyes and deceits thereof being detected and brought to light If hereafter any be deceaued thereby he must needes bee too too blockish and witlesse This is Pererius his censure no otherwise in my iudgement then such forgerie and falsehood hath deserued whereof take this as a manifest argument Iosephus in the tenth booke of his Antiquities the 11. Chapter writeth that Megasthenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the fourth book of his Indian affaires making mention of Nabugodonosor went about to prooue him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to haue passed Hercules in prowesse and greatnes of acts which place Peter Comestor in his Scholastical Historie vpon Daniel vsing to proue Nabugodonoserum fortitudine actuum magnitudine Herculem transcendisse that Nabugodonosor went beyond Hercules in valour and great acts citeth Megasthenes for it in his booke of Iudgements reading Iudiciorum by some corruption in the translation of Iosephus crept in for Indicorum Hereupon Annius transforming first Megasthenes into Metasthenes and then Indica that is Indian affaires into Iudicia which signifieth iudgements made this the title of his forged stuffe Metasthenes his booke of the iudgement of times This I hope is enough if any thing can bee enough to keepe men which haue eyes from taking hurt at this blocke An other much like vnto it hath bin the conceited fancie of Mathew Beroald in the thirde booke of his Chronologie the eight Chapter setting downe the Persian Kinges in this order The first Cyrus the next Assuerus Artaxerxes the third Darius Assirius the fourth Artaxerxes Pius the fift Xerxes And then after him the other sixe in order as they haue beene declared and named by other Of these eleuen Kinges how many yeares particularlie euerie one raigned it is vncertaine saith Beroaldus but generally the whole time of all was 130. yeares beginning with Cyrus in the 3. yeare of the 80. Olympiad the 295 of Rome This is Beroaldus his opinion for the kings and time of that Empire much like that of Annius In maner it is more honest beeing not fathered on other in matter as absurde and ridiculous if not more making more kinges and fewer yeares thrusting in such as neuer were knowne and fayning names which neuer were heard of For where was Assuerus Artaxerxes Darius Assirius and Artaxerxes Pius euer spoken of by any Author of credit diuine or prophane Who euer besides himself once dreamed of an Artaxerxes Pius to be Father to Xerxes Or that Xerxes made warre against Greece before his Fathers death Aeschilus a learned Poet who florished euen in those verie times in his Tragedie called Persa might soone haue taught him a better lesson raysing his father Darius long before dead out of his graue to tell newes Doeth not such stuffe as this deserue the tearmes of monsters dregs dreames lyes toyes as well as that opinion of Annius which euen Beroaldus himselfe reprooueth Is it not worthy of such a farewel as that wherewith Pererius biddeth Annius his Chronologie adew These be the opinions which in the course of Chronologie haue to diuers learned men been occasions of error The vanity whereof shall yet better appeare by that which followeth beeing layde vnto them For as diuers sorts of cloath compared together and held to the light are quickly by the eye discerned the course from the fine So the approoued true historie of ancient time beeing laied to these latter conceits will leaue an easie view for reason and the eye-sight as it were of the minde to iudge which is best First for the kinges of Persia who they were that raigned therein The name of the first to be Cyrus is agreed of all The second was Cambyses heire thereunto as wel by birth as his fathers will The next lawfull king after him was Darius whose father Histaspis as Seuerus Sulpitius in his second booke of the holy Historie writeth was cosen German to Cyrus The fourth king succeeding to the imperiall Crowne of Persia was Xerxes the sonne of the same Darius Then the other sixe in order of whom amongst writers that I know of there is no controuersie at all The first foure kinges here named in that order succeeding one another haue beene so recorded by those names vnto vs of most ancient Poets and noble Historiographers which eyther liued in the dayes of the said kinges or els came very neare vnto them and so haue bin deliuered from hand to hand and from age to age to this day continued by a long successiō of the most skilfull men for learning that euer haue beene whether rightly or no let reason scan First the dominion of the Persians was large and wide and contained manie countries A great part of India all Medea Parthia Babilonia Chaldea Hyrcania Armenia Arabia Mesopotamia Phaenicia all the land of Israell and Iuda all Egypt and much of Lybia all Syria and the lesse Asia wherein also they had their imperiall seate at Sardes a Cittie of Lydia the kinges of Persia oftentimes making their abode therein And continuallie theyr deputies in their absence most of the Kinges blood or alliance Besides Cyprus and manie other Ilands To be short it reached from Persia all a long so neare Greece and Europe that there was no land left to part them but the Sea called Aegeum And that in some place so narrow as a bridge hath beene made ouer it from brinke to brinke not a mile long with continual recourse and traffique betweene them These were the places of this Monarchie of all other for wisedome and prowesse most famous The times therof by the singuler knowledge vertues of excellent mē were no lesse noble The seauen wise men of Greece so renowmed Thales of Miletus Solon the Athenian Chilon the Lacedaemonian Pittacus of Mytilene Bias
a skilfull and learned Astronomer as Ptolomie in the third booke of his Almagest declareth in the 316. yeare of Nabonasar the 21. daye of the Aegyptian moneth Phamenoth answerable by our computation to the 28. day of Iune Apsendes then ruling at Athens obserued the Astronomicall poynte of summers beginning called Solstitium which in this our age is about the eleuenth of that moneth the Sunne then entring into the tropicke of Cancer So great alteration in the space of 2020. yeares is bred betwixt our time and theirs for want of exact appoynting and right ordering of the leape yeare From that time to the end of the 50. yeare of Calippus his first period Hipparchus an excellent Mathematician a man whome nature made partaker of her secrets as Plinie writeth of him gathered a perfect summe of 152. yeares That this period of Calippus began with the third yeare of the 112. Olympiad it is agreed by cleere consent of many writers For about that time Darius was slaine and thereby this period of Calippus began together with Alexanders Monarchie now by the death of Darius established in his hands without clayme of any In memorie whereof this period was ordayned and the account of yeares after taken from that head The 50. yeares then of this period being taken from the former summe there remaynes 102. yeares from the end of Apsendes his gouernement to the death of the last king of Persia which by the recorde of auncient writers is so acknowledged and verified placing Apsendes in the last of the 86. Olympiad which was the 32. yeare of Artaxerxes the long handed and the slaughter of Darius in the third of the 112. These 102. with 127. and some odde moneths from Cyrus to the 32. of that Artaxerxes included containe the receaued time of the Persian kings 229. yeares with some few moneths more to the beginning of Alexanders Monarchie at the last Persian kings death Which euen that most famous eclipse of the very next yeare before wherewith Alexanders souldiers were scared eleuen dayes before his last battaile against Darius putteth out of doubt For from that in the seuenth of Cambyses before spoken of to this Astronomical comming by exact calculation findeth 192. yeares and 66. dayes Which with the time following from the last eclipse to Darius his death and the yeares of Cambyses and Cyrus before the first Eclips make vp that full reckoning Thus the glorious seruant of all the worlde the Sunne which among other seruices to the vse and behoofe of men whereof he tooke his name in the holy tongue to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a minister or seruant according to that in the fourth of Esdras God commanded the Sunne the Moone and Starres that they should serue man hath this for one appointed vnto him to be for times and yeares and dayes Euen this Chronologer I say of all other without exception most true and sure witnesseth for Herodotus Thucidides Xenophon Eratosthenes Polybius Diodorus and other writers of auncient time if they bee not for credit sufficient of themselues that their Chronologie of the Persian yeares is good the mouth of Heauen which cannot lie hath approued it The trueth for this poynt being thus opened it now remayneth to see what may be brought against it and to remoue some doubtes as it were mists from the readers eyes Dionysius Halicarnassaeus in the preface to his first booke of antiquities affirmeth that the Persians continued not aboue 200. yeares in their soueraigntie It is true being accounted from the death of Cyrus who by the space of thirtie yeares was occupied in winning that Empire and being once wonne they kept it neere 200. yeares after Ioseph Scaliger a man of rare giftes a great light of this age one whome the Churche of GOD for his paines is much beholding to in his fift booke de emendatione temporum speaking of Xerxes his passage into Greece is so vncertaine and wauering in this poynt that it is hard to finde in what iudgement he rested For first hee maketh it a thing vndoubted that Xerxes passed into Europe in the ende of the fourth yeare of the 47. Olympiad and in the beginning of the 75. fought at Thermopylae then a little after hee thinketh that passage of Xerxes to haue happened the yeare before that is to saye in the end of the third yeare of the 47. Olympiad being moued thereunto by the authoritie of Herodotus and Thucidides The one euen Herodotus in Polymnia making mention of an eclipse of the Sunne at such time as Xerxes marched forward with his hoast from Sardes toward Europe in the spring time of the yeare which by Scaligers calculation fell to the third yeare of the 74. Olympiad and so Xerxes his battailes in Greece to the fourth yeare of it The other that is Thucidides in his first booke writing that the Persians once againe inuaded Greece in the tenth yeare after the Marothon field which being fought in the second yeare of the 72. Olympiad the tenth after it is the fourth of the 74. Againe contrarie to both these sentences he yet alleageth another from Eratosthenes Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch three worthy men for skil who referred Xerxes his passage into Greece to the first yeare of the 75. Olympiad and this he approueth most of al in the chapter of the first Consuls Thus Ioseph Scaliger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is dissoluing one doubt by another as one saieth leaueth his reader in the briers which I will assaye to helpe him out of either all or some if happely I can First therefore concerning Herodotus it is euident and playne by his testimonie that Xerxes fought his battailes in Greece in the first yeare of the 75. Olympiad because he maketh account of 80. yeares from the first of Cyrus thether and if this bee not enough the same Author in playne wordes declareth that the games of Olympia were celebrated about that very time wherein Leonides resisted his huge hoast and stopped their passage First in Polymnia speaking of this matter he sayeth that the time of the Olympiad fell out together with that busines Againe in Vrania he confirmeth it telling that as Xerxes marched forward from Thermopylae certaine Grecians came vnto him offering their seruice who being asked what the Grecians then were about answered that they kept and beheld the Olympian games the winners whereof receiued an Oliue crowne which one Tigranes a noble Lord of Persia hearing presently burst forth into this speech What worthie men are wee brought to fight against which striue not for money but vertue and prowesse This then by Herodotus his owne mouth being thus made cleere that the yeare of Xerxes fighting in Greece was an Olympicke yeare it could not possibly be in Herodotus iudgement as Scaliger would haue it the fourth yeare of the 74. Olympiad Moreouer Herodotus writeth in Vrania that Callias was then Maior of Athens when Xerxes tooke that Citie and burned it which yeare of Callias his
the foure as where Solinus telleth that the 207. Olympias was in the publike acts recorded to be in the 801. yeare of Rome wherein Pompeius Gallus Q. Veranius were Consuls and Eratosthenes in Clemens Alexandrinus accounteth from the first Olympiad to the passage of Xerxes into Greece 297. yeares Xenophon also in his Historie of the Greeke affaires writeth that the next yeare after Dionysius had got the kingdome of Syracusae happened that Olympias wherein Pythodorus was Maior at Athens In all these places Olympias is taken for one yeare onely and that the first of the foure in which sence Diodorus vsed it where hee saith that Xerxes inuaded Greece in the 75. Olympiad Now because that from one Olympias to another were foure yeares complete the word is also vsuallie taken for that whole space of foure yeares betwixt one and another not much vnlike that which we read in blessed Lukes gospell of the proude Pharisie boasting of his fasting twice in a sabboth taking one day of the weeke for all the weeke from the beginning to the end So it is vsed of Solinus writing that Rome was builded in the first yeare of the seauenth Olympiad and when the seauenth Olympiad began and Iosephus in the last chapter of his fourteenth booke of Antiquities saith that Herode tooke Ierusalem in the 185. Olympiad hee meaneth the whole foure yeares space of that Olympiad for that was done in the last yeare thereof In this sence that saying of Pausanias is true concerning Mardonius his ouerthrow at Plateae in the 75 Olympiad and so no discord proued As for Polybius from whom hee gathereth the warre of Xerxes to haue been in the third yeare of the 74. Olympiad there is no such matter Beroaldus was deceiued in his reckoning I haue brought the place of Polybius before and declared his meaning Oebotas a man of Achaea wonne the race in the sixt Olympiad who for so glorious a victorie receiuing not that honour of his countriemen which he looked for at their hands and in his owne iudgement had deserued conceaued such discontentment thereat that hee euen cursed them praying that neuer any of the Achaeans more might win any Olympicke game againe which so fell out for a long time till at the length by the councell of Apollo his Oracle they had in honour of Oebotas erected a piller for an eternall monument of his vertue with an inscription testifying the same which was performed vnto him in the 80. Olympiad as Pausanias telleth in his Achaica and Eliaca who for that cause meruaileth at the report of some Grecians who saide that Oebotas fought against Mardonius in the 75. Olympiad and thinketh it vncredible as hee might well enough that a man hauing wonne the race in the sixt Olympiad should bee a fighting Souldier neere two hundred and fourescore yeares after What is here now in Pausanias to be seene which in his owne perswasion doth not confirme the trueth of the Olympicke Chronologie rather then make against it any way For the great credite which he put therein nothing doubting of the true reckoning of so many yeares betweene bred that meruailing in him and made him think that Oebotas which fought against Mardonius in the 75. Olympiad to haue been some other of that name rather then the ancient race winner in the sixt Olympiad It was true that by some they were supposed one and the same but by such as Pausanias iudged fooles for their labour Their folly stirred him neuer a whit from the true receiued account of Olympicke yeares Of the certaintie whereof what a setled and grounded perswasion he had may appeare by this that in diuers places he maketh mention of Olympicke recordes and registers which himselfe saw and read wherein he testifieth the memorie of the Olympiads to haue been preserued by the Eleans in whose countrie those games were kept and that with such care and diligence that from the first in Iphitus his time to the Emperor Nero not one of them all was missing this hee witnesseth in his Phocica much auayling to the credite of that account Another obiection in Beroaldus is concerning the time of the Peloponnesian warre of which saith he both beginning and end is vncertaine by the dissention of authors betweene themselues Plinie referreth the time of it to the fourth of the 81. Olympiad and A. Gellius to the first of the 89. and Diodorus Siculus to the third of the 87. So saith Beroaldus If truelie there is great ods between them Plinies words in the thirtie booke and first chapter are these Plenumque miraculi hoc pariter vtrasque artes effloruisse medicinam dico magicenque eadem aetate illam Hipocrate hanc Democrito illustrantibus circa Peloponnesiacum Graeciae bellum quod gestum est a 300. vrbis nostrae anno This also saith Plinie is much to bee meruailed at that both the arts flourished together I meane Phisicke and Magick in the same age Hippocrates teaching the one and Democritus the other about the Peloponnesian warre in Greece which was made since the 300. yeare of the Cittie That warre began about the 32. yeare of Rome and therefore Plinie saying that it was after the 300. saith that which is true not purposing there to set downe by a straight and exact account the verie iust yere wherein it began but to gesse much about the time by an euen readie number keeping within the compasse of truth In A. Gellius the 21. chapter of his seauenteenth booke wee reade Bellum inde in terra Graeciae maximū Peloponnensiacum quod Thucidides memoriae mandauit caeptum est circa annum fere post conditam Romans trecentesimum vigesimum nonum That is Afterwarde the great war of the Peloponnesians in the land of Greece which Thucidides committed to memorie began here about the 329. yeares after the building of Rome What is the cause of this difference betwixt Gellius and other Surely not any fault of the authors iudgement but onely a slippe of the writers pen putting vigesimum nonum in stead of decimum nonum 29. for 19. as may bee prooued by two reasons First because immediatlie after those wordes Gellius together with the beginning of that warre yoketh the yeare wherein A. Posthumius was Dictator of Rome who killed his own son for that with great courage he went somewhat further in fighting against the enemie thā his father had appointed This yeare of A. Posthumius his Dictatorship by Liuie is the 323. of Rome but by A. Gellius some other setting the building of that Cittie in the second yeare of the seauenth Olympiad and the first Consuls in the 242. of Rome it is the 320. running together with the first yeare of the Peloponnesian war for the greatest part of it though not wholly because the war began somewhat before in the 319. Another reason may bee taken from that which followeth a little after in the same chapter concerning the time of the new gouernment of the Athenian common wealth
Quo significatur annos earū hebdomadarū non esse ad longitudinem annorum solarium exigendos sed ad breuitatem lunarium coarctandos Whereby is signified that the yeares of those weekes are not to be driuen out to the length of the Sunne yeares but to bee drawne into the shortnes of the Moone yeares sayth Pererius I would it were the worst that might be said of this reason to call it absurd friuolous foolish It is all that and more euen derogatorie from God and his word which by this meanes is defaced and thrust out of doores and caused to giue place to the follie and error of a sillie man For the ground of it is a decree from the Councell of Trent establishing the authoritie of the olde Latin vulgar translation as the very authenticall word of God not to bee reiected or refused of any vpon any pretence whatsoeuer Hereof the Papists in their expositions alleadge that translation preferring it before the originall text it selfe receiued from heauen And hereof it is that Pererius in his exposition on this place standeth so much vpon the word abbreuiatae shortened vrging it greatly for proof of his short Moone yeares It is a proofe indeede from the bad interpretation of a man not warrantable from the mouth of GOD whose word in this place is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the holie tongue signifieth properly to cut In that sence it is often vsed by the Hebrew writers thereof calling a peece of a thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Camius in the second part of his Miclol and Elias in his Tishbi testifie where he declareth the true signification thereof by the Dutch and Italian tongues Wherein the words to those Hebrew answerable are in Dutch ein schint or ein stuck in Italian Pez or talio signifying any piece of a thing cut off It is so also expounded by the Greeke interpreter who here to expresse the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to cut The meaning is that so many yeares were determined and decreed by a speech borrowed from things cut out because that in determining and decreeing things the reason of mans minde sundring trueth from falshood good from bad doth by iudgement as it were cut out that which is conuenient and fit to bee done Whereunto a like example in the same word is read in the Chaldie paraphrasis of Ester the 4. chapter 5. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in English is thus much And Ester called for Daniel whose name was Hathac by the word of whose mouth the matters pertayning to the kingdome were cut out that is determined and appoynted And in other wordes of the same signification wee haue like examples In the second chapter of Ester the first verse King Assuerus remembred Vashti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that which was cut out vpon her that is decreed and by iudgemēt determined to come vpon her Also in the first booke of the Kings the 20. chapter and 40. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So is thy iudgement thy selfe hath cut it out that is thou hast by thy owne sentence determined it A phrase in Latin Authors vsuall enough as when Cicero in his 4. plea against Verres sayth Res ad eum defertur istiúsque mere deciditur The matter is referred to him and cut off after his manner that is determined Theodoretus in his exposition of this place taketh the Greeke word in the same sence they are cut that is appoynted and decreed Hereby it is cleere that Pererius his reason being taken from mans interpretation and not Gods worde can bee no good ground for the Moone yeares to stand vpon Let the Pope and twise so many Bishops more in their Councell set it vp as sure as they can God his word is more powerfull then they to pull it downe Furthermore though this were graunted vnto him that the Latin edition by the Councels decree hath diuine authoritie and therefore force sufficient to proue the yeres of the moone to be vnderstood in this place by the word abbreuiatae shortened yet for all that such was the mans blindnes euen those his short yeares are yet too short to fill vp the want before spoken of and to reach to the passion of Christ For 490. yeares of the Moone make but 475. of the Sunne which expire two full yeares at the least before Christ dyed I am not ignorant that Pererius would help out this matter by a distinction of inclusiuè and exclusiuè computation Jnclusiuè hee termeth when the first and last are included in the number Exclusiuè when they are left out and thinketh that the whole number in all should bee 490. Moone yeares or 477. of the Sunne with the first and last included and without them two onely 488. of the Moone and 475. of the Sunne betweene to be reckoned This is a ridiculous shift For the Prophet doth not namely speake of 490. yeares or 477. that is gathered by interpreters and not without some controuersie among them but of 70. weekes So that if the extreames first and last were to bee excluded they should bee weekes rather then yeares Indeede if the Prophet had sayd that there were 490. or 477. yeares from the yeare of the commandement to the yeare of Christs death it might peraduenture haue made some cause of wrāgling about this whether the first and last yeares should be excluded or no. But heere is no such matter The extreames here expressed are the commaundement to build Ierusalem for one and the other as it is vnderstood the death of Christ Now then if the Prophet say that from one of these extreames to the other are 490. or 477. yeares exclusiuely two dayes onely must bee excluded rather then two yeares For the commandement was giuen in a daye and the death of Christ happened in a daye It were strange to make each of them of one whole yeares continuance and farre from that exact reckoning which Daniel maketh of his 70. weekes first seuen then sixtie and two and last of all one Therfore Julius Africanus who as the chiefe author of these Moone yeares is alleadged by Pererius neuer once dreamed of any such exclusiue computation I must acknowledge that he taketh indeede this place to bee vnderstood of 490. Moone yeares which kinde of yeares the Hebrewes vsed as he saith But he could not stretch them any further then to the 16. yeare of Tiberius the Emperour of Rome which is short by two whole yeares of the time set by Pererius for the passion of our Lord in the 18. yeare of Tiberius And as they are short of his passion so they goe further then his baptisme For which cause that opinion of Africanus can no waye stande making an ende of Daniels weekes neither in the birth nor the baptisme nor the death of Iesus Christ Neither can that conceit of Africanus touching the Moone yeares hereto be vnderstood by
word is more agreeable to both It is vsed somtimes of our Sauiour Christ and sometimes more generally takē as before is shewed for any annoynted Priest Prophet Prince or chiefe Gouernour of the common wealth and this is the signification which in my iudgement best fitteth this place And of Christian interpreters Eusebius is the man which hath either taught me it or guided me to it or confirmed mee in it who in his eight booke de demonstratione Euangelica hauing brought the expositiō of Africanus vnderstanding here Christ Iesus by the name of Messias or Christ addeth these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is I say that the Gouernour Christ here spoken of in this text of scripture by an other signification or acception is no other but a succession of high Priests which after this prophesie and the Iewes returne from Babilon gouerned the people which the scripture vsuallie calleth Christs or annoynteds In this number hee reckoneth Iudas Machabaeus and his brethren and their posteritie who exercised a kingly gouernment ouer the Iewes and a little after expounding these words in the 26. verse Christ shall be cut off who saith he is this Christ but the gouernour which by succession of the Priests kindred ruled the people This Christ therfore endured all the time wherin these weekes were to bee fulfilled but so soone as they once were ended according to this prophesie the chiefe ruler of the people of that succeeding kindred was cut off saith Eusebius This is a notable saying of Eusebius to declare the true meaning of the worde Messias which may direct vs to vnderstand this most excellent prophesie aright Theodoretus herein agreeth vnto him I take it somewhat more largely then Eusebius and Theodoretus doeth not of the Machabies onely but of other chiefe rulers and kings of the Iewes common wealth within the compasse of these weekes as the Hebrew scholiasts Saadias Aben Ezra Iarchi and some other expounde it Not one Hebrew writer that euer I read vndestood their Messias by this worde but a succession of annoynted eyther Priestes or Gouernours The decree to build Ierusalē I take to be that which was made by Darius for the building of the temple which was the chiefest parte of the citie In the second yeare of that Darius and the 6. month the first day toward the end of our August they were commaunded in the Lordes name by his prophet Aggie to build the holy temple of Ierusalem as wee read in the first chapter and first verse of the prophet After they had begun to build the gouernours of the countries beyond Euphrates came vnto them to know by whose authoritie they tooke that worke vpon them Ezra chap. 5. and 6. who answered that Cyrus had giuen them leaue to doe it long before in the first yeare of his raigne Of this answere they certified king Darius By whose commaundement search was made first in the recordes at Babylon after at Ecbataua the chiefe citie of Medes where a record touching that matter was found Herevpon Darius made a new decree for building thereof and sent it to the gouernours of his countries beyond Euphrates charging them to permitte and helpe forward the building thereof All these thinges were not done in a little time from the prophets sending by God about that matter to the time wherein Darius sent his decree It asked some time to beginne the worke after the prophets warning And then for the gouernours in other prouinces to be certified And after themselues to come and examine the matter At what time it is sayd that they found the worke in good forwardnesse the beames being layde in the walles Ezra the 5 chapter 8. verse and after to certifie Darius and then to search the recordes and that in those farre places of Babylon and Ecbataua And lastly to send forth the new decree So farre as we may gesse this time might be about some 8. or 9. monthes and bring vs to the month of Aprill or Maie in the 3. yeare of Darius And who was this Darius In my iudgement no other but the surnamed Nothus who was sonne to Artaxerxes Longimanus This Artaxerxes as Thucidides then liuing testifieth died in the 7. yeare of the Peloponnesian warre in winter which was the 4. of the 88. Olympiad After him Xerxes and Sogdianus raigned 1. yeare And after them this Darius whose 3. yeare at that season wherein the decree to build the temple went out falleth toward the end of the 3. yeare of the 89. Olymp. For the publishing of that decree to Messias that is the first gouernour of the new builded citie are accompted here by Daniel 7. weekes contayning 49. yeares VVhereof 17. pertained to Darius after the decree for he raigned 19. in all The other 32. were of Artaxerxes Mnemon his successor In whose 20. yeare Nehemias was sent to build the walles of Ierusalem and 12. yeares after the building of the walles being finished and the Messias or gouernour appointed and the common wealth euery way set in order hee returned to Artaxerxes in the 32. yeare of his raigne The proofe hereof is cleere by scripture In the 5. chapter of Nehemias the 14. verse From the time sayth Nehemias that the king commaunded me to be gouernour in the land of Iudea from the 20. to the 32. yeare of king Artaxerxes that is 12. yeares I and my brethren haue not eaten the bread of the gouernour For the gouernours before mee had beene chargeable to the people and so forth Also in the 13. chapter of the same booke the sixt verse All this while saith he was not I at Ierusalem for in the 32. yeare of Artaxerxes king of Babell I returned to the king Ioseph Scaliger in his sixt booke de emendatione temporum giueth his voice with this exposition affirming that Darius Nothus was the king vnder whome the decree was made to build the Citie and that from it to the streetes and walles of Ierusalem finished were nine fortie yeares After which time Nehemias directis platais vrbis vicis exaedificatis atque omnibus rebus compositis reuersus est in Persidem anno Artaxerxis altero tricesimo Nehemias saith Scaliger so soone as the streets of the citie were directed and the lanes builded all thinges set in order returned into Persia in the two and thirtieth yeare of Artaxerxes It is here to be obserued that the Prophet speaketh of the Messias and the building vp of the Citie as beginning both at one time For hauing foretold that there should bee to Messias seauen weekes it followeth immediatly after how long the Citie was to continue The reason whereof is this that there could not be conueniently any Princely gouernment of the common wealth before the building of the Citie wherein the Princes Court and Pallace should be which Pallace for the Prince was builded by Nehemias also as appeareth in the second of Nehemias verse eight Hereof it is that Sanballat in a letter
to go Or if it were so great a matter and a worke of so long time could so Godly and so zealous a priest be so negligent in the Lordes businesse that hauing a yeares warning to gather a little companie together hee should forget the Leuites which of al other were most necessarie in regard of Gods seruice in the temple of Ierusalem For when al were come together no Leuit was found among them the chiefest of all in a whole yeares space were neuer thought vpon till he was in some forwardnesse on his way then on a sudden hee sent to seeke for them Read the 8. chapter of Esdras the 15. verse and see how that which is there told can beare any such coniecture But to let that passe it is not a yeares matter that can serue Ioseph Scaligers turne to helpe out his deuise and to bring this geare about For by the iudgement almost of all the best writers by the space of this twelue hundred yeares our blessed Sauiour suffered toward the end of the last yeare of the 202. Olympiad at which time was obserued euen by prophane Authors the strange eclipse of the Sunne which happened at the passion of Christ Phlegon by the iudgement of Eusebius an excellent accounter of Olympiads in his foureteenth book writeth thus In the fourth yeare of the 202. Olympiad was an exceeding great eclipse of the Sunne aboue all other that euer happened before The day at the 6. houre that is high noone was so turned into darke night that the starres were seene in heauen and an Earthquake ouerthrew many houses in Nice a citie of Bythinia This Eusebius testifieth of Phlegon and it agreeth notably to the testimonie of the Euangelists touching the Sunnes darkening from the 6. houre to the 9. when Christ was crucified Thence therefore numbring backward 434. yeares from the 202. Olympiad almost at an end we come to the second yeare of the 94 Olympiad drawing to an ende at which time euen by Scaligers own opinion the third yeare of Artaxerxes Memor begun By this meanes not one as Scaliger sayth but foure full yeares at the least that is the third fourth fift and sixt yeares of Artaxerxes should haue been betweene the decree and the going of Esdras to Ierusalem I know that Scaliger putteth off the time of Christs passion a yeare further then other But if that were granted him yet should the decree goe ful three yeares before Esdras his comming to Ierusalem A thing vncredible and beyond all sence of reason that leaue should be giuen Esdras to goe to the house of God and a solemne decree by the kings authority published for it and he linger and protract the time of his going three yeares after Besides euen the Prophets owne words are altogether against this interpretation of Scaliger and will no wayes suffer it For first hauing expounded the generall summe of 70. weekes for the state of Ierusalem he deuideth them so into three parts as that the first should bee to the building of the walles and citie finished and then 62. for the continuing thereof so builded and after all them one more Who hauing the reason of a man in him can gather any other thing by Daniels words but that those 62. weekes spoken of should immediatly follow after the first seuen and goe next before the last one Which being so needes must they begin after the 32. of Artaxerxes and end seuen yeares before the vtter ruine of Ierusalem brought vpon it by Titus Moreouer it is to be obserued that after the first seuen set for the restoring and building of the citie he sayth that the citie should be builded 62. weekes streete and wall and that after not some other but euen these very same 62. weekes before spoken of should Messias bee cut off and the citie made desolate For the demonstratiue article in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath this force to referre vs to a knowne thing spoken of which is likewise vsuall in the Greeke tongue What thē can Scaliger make of this that Christ should be killed after those 62. weekes wherein the citie of Ierusalem continued builded street and wall For it is well knowne that Ierusalem continued so builded streete and wall aboue thirtie yeares after the passion of Christ before it begun to bee made desolate and in all that time greatly flourished This interpretation therefore of Scaliger hath no successe for probabilitie Another thing in Scaliger troubled me more then this by reason of the excellencie of the man not making any doubt of his account Hebdomades incipientes ab edicto instaurandi templi desinunt in initio abominationis hoc est circa initia belli Iudaici quo primum caedes in vrbe patrari coeptae ac templum pollui quod tempus incurrit in finem vndecimi initium duodecimi anni Neronis The weekes saith Scaliger beginning from the decree to restore the temple doe end in the beginning of the abomination that is about the beginnings of the Iewes warre when slaughters first begun to be committed in the citie and the Temple to bee polluted which time met with the end of the eleuenth and beginning of the twelfth yeare of Nero. This saying of Scaliger made mee maruell till such time as I made some doubt of his reckoning and called it into question For if the 70. weekes of Daniel were as hee sayth ended in the beginning of Nero his twelfth yeare my account cannot possiblie stand drawing them on further to the vtter destruction of the holie citie by Titus which happened foure yeares after This therefore is to be examined Darius Nothus died a little before the end of the 93. Olympiad This is agreed betweene vs that frō the decree to his death had passed seuenteene yeares it is likewise agreed For Scaliger numbring the first seuen weekes sayth that after the second yeare of Darius seuenteene yeares are left to the beginning of Artaxerxes Memor whereunto 32. being added the summe is 49. yeres being the distance from the decree to the streetes ordered By this meanes the decree being made 17. yeares before the death of Darius and that by his owne iudgement must needes fall toward the end of the third yeare of the 89. Olympiad from which time to the first yeare of the 212. Olympiad almost expired when Titus destroyed the suburbs of the citie and battered the walles with his iron rammes about the 22. day of Aprill as Paulus Eberus writeth in his Iewish storie about a fortnight after which time in the beginning of May one of their wals was broken and part of the citie entred and won were full 490. yeares and not 494. as Scaligers deceitfull account would make it Scaliger therefore rather prepared a way for others to come to the trueth then came himselfe vnto it and gaue some light to other to see the right meaning of Daniels prophesie which himselfe neuer perfectly saw By his helpe Junius sawe somewhat more and came neerer vnto it