same Maior of Athens for the time of Xerxes fighting against Greece Eusebius also in his Chronicles hath a plaine confirmation hereof referring to the first yeare of this seuentie and fiue Olympiad that battaile wherin Xerxes his power by sea fought against the Athenians and tooke a most shamefull ouerthrow Diogenes Laertius in the life of Socrates writeth that in the time of Callias his gouernement at Athens in the first yeare of the seuentie fiue Olympiad the Poet Euripides was borne Suidas nameth the very day of his birth euen that wherein Xerxes his nauie was ouercome by the Grecians at Salamis The same Laertius reporteth from ancient Historiographers that Anaxagoras being borne in the seuenty Olympiad was twentie yeares old when Xerxes passed into Greece and Callias ruled at Athens thereby giuing vs to vnderstand that by the receiued opinion of former ages Xerxes inuading Greece and Callias his Maioraltie at Athens fell to the first yeare of the 75. Olympiad In like manner Pindarus borne in the 65. Olympiad and at Xerxes his warre fortie yeare olde by Suidas record approueth the trueth of that account Who so list to make triall shall easilie see an exact agreement betwixt this Olympiad and the yeares of Xerxes before rehearsed Africanus in the fift booke of his Chronicles affirming that the fourth of the 83. Olympiad was the 20. of Artaxerxes Longimanus and the 115. of the Persian kingdome maketh all good The Athenians after the Persians ouerthrow and Xerxes his flight out of Grecia grew mightie hauing by their great nauie obtained the rule of the sea and subdued many people of Greece Whereupon the Lacedemonians who dwelt in that part of Greece which was called Peloponnesus suspecting their power and fled vnto for ayde tooke parte against them which in the ende was the occasion of that long and fierce warre betweene the Athenians and the Lacedemonians called the Peloponnesian war The one people spoyling by sea the other by land so that by this means the Grecians which most gloriouslie had triumphed in many battailes ouer the mightie Monarchs of the world were now brought low and pittifullie wasted in most lamentable manner turning their forces from the common enemy to their ruine against themselues the continuance beginning and ende of this warre is most exactly described by Thucidides an Athenian Gentleman the penner thereof who flourished in that time and saw the warre with his eyes from the beginning to the end yea was a chiefe captaine therein a writer for certaine trueth of historie and perfect reckoning of time most excellent and of such account in the ages following that euen the best followed him and gaue credite vnto him Demosthenes the famous Orator of Athens tooke paines to coppie out his bookes eyght times with his owne hand as Lucian reporteth This exact historiographer in the entrie of his second booke telleth that this warre begunne in the fifteenth yeare of the league which after the taking of Eubaea was made for thirtie yeares to come Aenesias being then Maior of Sparta and Pythodorus of Athens and the yeare of their Maioraltie now within two moneths expired in the beginning of the spring For the better vnderstanding of these wordes concerning the taking of Eubaea and the thirtie yeares league I will briefely touch the historie Eubaea was an Iland neere vnto Greece in the Aegean sea which hauing been subiect and tributarie to the Athenians at the length spying their opportunity by reason of a great ouerthrow of the Athenians in Baeotia and the Lacedemonians holding against them by which their power was greatly weakened fell from them refusing to serue them or pay them tribute any longer For this cause Pericles a noble man of Athens was sent against them with a great hoast who once againe subdued them And a little after their returne from Eubaea now the second time by Pericles so conquered a league was made betweene the Athenians and the Lacedemonians to endure for thirtie yeares following The articles and couenants of this league were grauen in a pillar of brasse set in Olympia as Pausanias recordeth in the first of his Eliacx where hee also declareth the time thereof to be the third yeare of that Olympiad wherein Criso of Himaera won the race Now that that Olympiad wherein Criso of Himaera won the race was the 83. we haue the testimonie of Dionysius Halicarnassaeus in the ende of his tenth of Roman antiquities and the beginning of the eleuenth Hereof it followeth by Thucidides compared with other writers that the Peloponnesian sturres began in the first yere of the 87. Olympiad for that is iust the 15. yeare from the third of the 83. wherein the thirtie yeares league was made Againe for cleerer confirmation hereof Diodorus Siculus in his twelfth booke hath left in recorde that the yeare of Pythodorus his Maioraltie at Athens in the ende whereof Thucidides beginneth that war was the first of the 87. Olympiad This therefore I holde for a certaine trueth that the beginning of the Peloponnesian warre happened in the first yeare of the 87. Olympiad toward the end thereof about the beginning of Aprill so as the Olympicke exercises of that yeare were solemnized the sommer before going and the 4. 8. 12. 16. 20. 24. 28. sommers of that war were Olympicke yeares which of the fourth and the twelfth is plainly testified by Thucidides himselfe in the third and fift bookes of his historie In the seuenth yeare of this war Thucidides telleth that Artaxerxes died in winter which for the certaine knowledge of the Persian times is a most excellent place a sure fort a sound argument a cleere testimonie a strong proofe from him which liued at that time was as olde as the thing it selfe which he telleth saw the effect with his eyes studied from his heart to set forth the trueth If the former account be agreeable to this testimonie of Thucidides as it is most precisely I see no cause why it may not triumph ouer all aduersaries how powerfull and how well learned soeuer Marke then the agreement Xerxes his 21. wherein he dyed was saide to be the fourth of the 78. Olympiad Artaxerxes raigned 40. which being numbred from that yeare of his fathers death bring vs iust to the fourth of the Olympian and the seuenth of the Peloponnesian war the set time of Artaxerxes his death by Thucidides who best of all other writers now extant in the world knew the certaine trueth of it and for credite in this matter hee hath none comparable vnto him The same Thucidides making the 20. of the Peloponnesian war to be the thirteenth of Darius Nothus confirmeth it once againe For adding thirteene of that war vnder Darius to seuen vnder Artaxerxes that number is made vp The continuance and ende of this war by the same Thucidides is shewed in his fift booke where hee declareth the whole time of that war to haue been 27. yeares to the ouerthrow of the Athenian Empire and the taking of
I call it in regard of all that which for declaration of other matters might bee sayd herein which were the worke of a huge volume and great toyle These writers then for many partes of Scripture are diligently to be sought into and not as some rash braines imagine to bee cast away as vnprofitable in the Lordes schoole house but especially for Daniell aboue all In other places they may seeme profitable but heere they are necessary euen by Hieroms iudgement who in a preface to his commentaries on this booke affirmeth the manifold Histories of Greeke and Latine Authors to bee necessary for the vnderstanding of Daniels Prophesies These helpes therefore I minde to vse for vnfolding the 4. last verses of the 9. Chapter of Daniell containing an entire prophesie of the estate of the holy City after the Iewes returne from the building thereof vnto the vtter destruction of the same by Vespasian the Emperor of Rome and therein of the comming of Iesus Christ the Lord of life aboue 500. yeres before Which is a most certaine argument of Diuine wisedome in Daniell from heauen and a proofe of that which Balthasar had heard that the spirit of the holy Gods was in him whereby also he foreshewed many yeares before the destruction of the Babylonian Empire by the Medes and Persians the Persians ouerthrow by Alexander and the great troubles which long after that time the Iewes suffered vnder Antiochus Epiphanes All this skill came from God for the knowledge and foretelling of thinges to come is that which God onely hath left in his owne power and challengeth to himselfe in the Prophet Esay I make knowne those things saith God which haue not yet hapned The Heathen Poet Sophocles could see this thus writing in the Tragedie of Aiax the whip bearer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many things saith hee may bee knowne of men when they see them come to passe but of thinges to come yet vnseene there is no prophet I am not ignorant that Porphyrius a Tyrian Philosopher a wicked and vngodly Iew of the kindred and sect of the Sadduces an Infidell an enemie of Christ a hater of God and his word who wrote fifteene bookes against the Christians to weaken and extenuate the trueth and authoritie of Daniels Prophesie deuised this shift to say that the Iewes long afore Daniels time seeing these thinges done committed them to writing vnder Daniels name thereby to win credit to their bookes This fine deuise of Porphyrie is nothing else but a vaine cauill For it is well knowne that the comming of Christ is spoken of by Daniell in diuers places which can not bee saide to haue beene written by the Iewes who first had seene the comming of Christ seeing that they neyther at that time when hee came acknowledged him and euer since haue beene so farre from beleeuing in him that vsually to this day they euen curse his memorie Porphyrius herein hath beene answered at large by the learned Fathers Methodius Eusebius Caesariensis and Apolinarius withstanding his blasphemie And Hierome for learning as noble as any in one short sentence most wittily and pithilie turneth all his reasoning against Daniell for Daniell against himselfe Porphirii impugnatio testimonium veritatis est Tanta enim in hoc Propheta dictorum fides inuenta est vt propterea incredulis hominibus videatur non futura dixisse sed praeterita narrasse Porphyrie his impugning of Daniell saith Hierome is a testimonie of his trueth because the sayings of this Prophet haue beene found so certaine and of so great credit that therefore vnbeleeuers haue iudged him rather to tell things past thē to speak of things to come But if there were nothing else at all to be saide yet euen this one prophesie of Daniell which I haue in hande touching the desolation of Ierusalem the trueth and certaintie whereof was at the length verified by the euent it selfe at such time as Titus destroyed the Temple and Citty were enough to stoppe the aduersaries mouthes Yea though all the Infidell Porphyries in the world with all their cunning shifting stand together they shall neuer be able to auoid the force of this prophesie but that it must needes argue a diuine spirit in Daniell For they cannot here say that the Iewes after they had seene the Temple destroyed by the Romanes forged a prophesie thereof in Daniell his name Because euen Christ himselfe in the 24. of Matthew alleadgeth this prophesie of Daniel concerning the desolation of the holy Citie in the flourishing time thereof about 37. yeares before it was fulfilled Whereby it is euident that this prophesie was commonly knowne read in the Church of God among the Iewes as written by Daniell long before the euent had shewed the trueth thereof So Daniell yet standeth a diuine prophet of the Lord inspired with heauenly knowledge of thinges to come from aboue and seeing that in one thing truely foretold this is prooued of him there is no cause at all to doubt of the rest This is a sure foundatiō of diuinitie a sound stay of religion a strong prop of faith to be reposed in the vndoubted trueth of GOD his word a mightie vpholder of the prouidence of God against all the Atheistes and Epicures of the world Which Josephus verie well perceiuing and in the end of his 10. booke of antiquities disputing against this kind of men fetcheth his reason from the sure truth of Daniels Prophesies The errour saith hee of the Epicureans hereby is reprooued which take Gods prouidēce in gouerning things out of this life beleeuing the world to be carried by his owne force without a guide or ouerseer Wherefore considering Daniels prophesies I cannot but condemne the foolishnes of those men which deny that God hath any care of mens affaires For how could it come to passe that the euent should answere his prophecies if all thinges in the world were done by chance Caluin also in the first book of his institutions Doth not Daniell saith he so prophesie of thinges to come by the space of 600. yeares as though he wrote an Historie of things alreadie done and commonly knowne Good men by the diligent meditation hereof shall bee abundantly furnished to quiet the barking of the vngodly for this euidence is clearer then that it can be subiect to any cauils This was the iudgement of Iosephus Caluin against Atheists and prophane Epicures to their shame and ouerthrow taken from the certaintie of Daniels foreshewing things to come Euen this one prophecie of Daniels weekes is a verie hammer to beate them downe to the ground and a wier scourge as it were to teare them all in peeces And therefore of all true Christians to be had in great reuerence and the vnderstanding therof to bee desired as pearles and diligently sought for as hid treasure To the finding out hereof two thinges are most requisite the one is a iust account of the times the other a true interpretation of the wordes in the
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
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
their hauen Pyreus by the Lacedemonians and their associates Of this had gone a Prophesie long before in many mens mouthes which himself with his owne eares many times had heard that it should endure thrise nine yeares which is confirmed by Diodorus Siculus very plainely affirming that war to haue lasted 27. yeares in two places first in his twelfth booke treating of the beginning of that war and after in his thirteenth booke speaking of the last yeare thereof which hee saith was the last of the 93. Olympiad as in deede it was for 27. yeares added to the first of the 87. Olympiad wherein it began make an end of it in the fourth of the 93. After Thucidides followed Xenophon who from the one and twentie yeare of that warre where Thucidides left continued in writing the course of that Historie to the ende a man liuing in those dayes carefull of the truth and skilfull in Historie commended euen by Beroaldus himselfe though otherwise an aduersarie of the true ancient Chronologie and Historie of those times In the fifth Chapter of his fourth book Xenophon saith Beroaldus writeth that the gouernment of Athens was committed to a few in that Olympick yeare wherein Crocinus the Thessalian won the race but which Olympiad it was in number hee declareth not Which if he who then liued and prepared himselfe for seruice had done hee had rid vs of much trouble Let vs see therefore what help is giuen by this excellent writer to ease vs herein In his first booke of Greeke affaires this first hee setteth downe verie flatlie that the yeare wherein Enarchippus at Sparta and Enctemo at Athens were Maiors was the first of the 43. Olympiad wherein Eubotas the Cyrenian won the race and a new game of yoaked horses called Synoris was first ordayned at that time won by Enagoras of Elis where lest anie might think Xenophon to haue bin deceiued we haue for further warrant the testimonie of Pausanias in the first booke of Eliacx The running saith hee of two horses of ripe age called Synoris was instituted in the 93. Olympiad wherin Euagoras the Elian got the victorie Nowe this being made plaine by Xenophon that Enarchippus was gouernour of Sparta in the first yeare of the 93. Olympiad if it can bee further shewed by him in what yere of the Peloponnesian warre the same Enarchippus ruled at Sparta we shall easilie perceiue by euident direction from this worthie Author to what yeare of euery Olympiad the beginning midst ending and euery particular yeare of that war appertaineth To shew this we haue a Catalogue of all the chiefe Spartan Magistrates which bare Office in euery yeare of that warre called Ephori set downe by Xenophon in order by their names in the second booke of his Greeke Historie in these words The first saith Xenophon was Aenesias vnder whome the warre began in the 15. yeare of the 30. yeares league made after the taking of Eubaea After him succeeded these Borasidas Isanor Sostratidas Exarchus Agesistratus Agenidas Onomacles Zeuxippus Pityas Pleistolas Cleiomachus Ilarchus Leon Chaeridas Patesiades Cleosthenes Lycarius Exeratus Onomantius Alexippidas Misgolaidas Isias Aracus Enarchippus Pantacles Piteas Archytas Endius In whose time Lysander hauing done the exploits before rehearsed sayled home By this Catalogue of the Lacedemonian Maiors it is manifest that Xenophon for account of time in this warre agreeth most exactly with Thucidides The war began in the nine months end of Aenesias the first Ephorus and ended at the pulling downe the walles of Pyreus 27. yeares after which reach to the nine months end of the 28. Ephorus so that from the beginning of the second Ephorus neere three months after the beginning of the warre to the end of the 28. Ephorus nere three months after the end of that war are likewise iust 27. yeares perfectly and fully compleat And is it not euen so by Xenophon doth not hee declare the throwing downe the walles in the hauen Pyraeus to haue happened toward the end of Archytas his gouernment at Sparta And are there not full and euen 27. yeares from the beginning of Brasidas the second Ephorus to the end of Architas who by Xenophons number in that Catalogue was the 28 Is there any beetle so blind which cannot perceiue this exact agreement betwixt Xenophon and Thucidides for the account of those yeares The Peloponnesian warre as may be gathethered by Thucidides begun with the spring about the first of Aprill toward the end of Aenesias his yere Brasidas succeeding him begun his yeare about the beginning of the next sommer beeing the first of that warre The second sommer fell to the third Ephorus and so in order with the rest The eleuenth Ephorus by Xenophons beadroule was Pleistolas for the tenth sommer which is verified also by Thucidides in his fift booke speaking of a league made betwixt the Athenians and the Lacedemonians in the end of Pleistolas his Maioraltie at Sparta before the sommer of the eleuenth yeare The 21. Ephorus recited by Xenophon for the 20. sommer is Alexippidas The trueth whereof is witnessed and confirmed by Thucidides likewise in his eight booke wherein hee telleth that in the twentieth yere of the Peloponnesian warre a peace was concluded betweene Tissaphernes Lieutenant of Asia and the Lacedemonians in the plaine of Meander Alexippidas then being Ephorus of Sparta The next after Alexippidas for the 21. yeare there named is Misgolaidas for the 22. Isias for the 23. Aracus Then after them followeth Enarchippus the fiue and twentieth Ephorus for the 24. yeres sommer This Enarchippus being first placed in the beginning of the 93. Olympiad and after by his Catalogue found in the 24. yeare of the Peloponnesian war leaueth this cleere by Xenophons meaning that the 24. yeare of that war beginning with sommer was the first of the 93. Olympiad The three Ephori after Enarchippus succeeding in the other three yeares of that Olympiad set downe by Xenophon in order not onely in his table but euen in the context of his Historie for three seuerall yeares are these Pantacles Pyteas Archytas in whose time the Athenians beeing conquered by Lysander were driuen to yeeld The next yeare after was the first of a new Olimpiad so acknowledged most truely and verie orderly by Xenophon himselfe in his second booke where hauing declared the thinges done vnder Archytas In the yeare following saith hee was that Olympiad wherin Crocinus the Thessalian won the race Endius then bearing office at Sparta and Pythodorus ruling at Athens Now if anye aske which Olympiad this was in number that most manifestlie appeareth by the former namely expressed to haue beene the 93 so that it needed not againe for the next expresly to say that it was the 94. which had bin nothing els but recocta crambe according to the prouerb Colworts sodden againe Furthermore Xenophon not far frō the begining of the 2. book writeth that the nauie of the Lacedemoniās was deliuered to Lysander Whē 25. yeres of the war
were past and gone which must needes be in the 29. yeare Immediatlie after hee addeth that in that yere Cyrus killed two of his kinsemen for not holding their handes within a muffe when they met him as was vsed to be done to kings in token of honour and loyall dutie for their greater securitie that they might bee void of all suspition feare of harme And then followeth that the next yeare after which must needes bee the 27. and last Archytas was Ephorus of Sparta Thus from Xenophon wee learne that which Beroaldus wished the 24. and 27. yeres of the Peloponnesian warre yoaked the one with the first the other with the last of the 93. Olympiad which for sound knowledge of the Persian times to discerne them a right is very material and a sure bulwarke for defence of my former Chronologie Whereby was proued that Cyrus begun in the first of the 55. Olympiad towarde the end from which time to the fourth of the 93 nere ended are 155. yeares That is to say 30 of Cyrus 8 of Cambyses 36 of his successor of Xerxes 21. of Artaxerxes 40. with that of Xerxes and Sogdianus included 20. of Darius Nothus whose raigne ended almost together with the Peloponnesian warre as before hath beene declared by the testimonie of Diodorus Siculus and appeareth by Thucidides making his thirteenth the twentieth of the warre Erastosthenes an auncient writer in the time of Ptolomeus Euergetes a man to vse Plinie his terme cunning in the subtiltie of all learning and approued of all so Plinie testifieth of him in his second booke set forth certaine rules of Chronologie which Dionisius Halicarnasseus for the truth thereof exact reckoning greatly commendeth in his first book of Roman antiquities These rules haue beene preserued vnto this age by the carefull diligence of the ancient learned father Clemens Alexandrinus 1. Strom. From the first Olympiad to Xerxes passing into Greece he accounted 297. yeares thence to the beginning of the Peloponnesian warre 48. and after to the end and dissolution of the Athenians common wealth 27. all these gathered together are 372. from the first Olympiad so saieth Eratosthenes agreeing with Xenophons reckoning to Archytas his Maioraltie at Sparta ended with that warre and the fourth of the 93. Olympiad For 93. Olympiads are fourescore thirteene times foure yeres that is the number of Eratosthenes 372. From which summe 54. Olympiads contayning 216. before that wherein Cyrus begun being taken awaie with almost one yeare more from the beginning of it to Cyrus there remaineth for the Persian Monarchie to the end of the Peloponnesian warre 155. yeares before spoken of Diodorus Siculus was a man of wonderfull paines and exceedingly precise in exact computation He spent thirtie yeares in making his Historie from Sicilie his natiue countrie hee trauailed into Egypt and the greatest part of Asia and Europe to search the trueth of those thinges which hee wrote A diligent reader of all the auncient writers before him from Herodotus and other before and after succeding in order whom hee hath followed in the matters which he telleth And therefore not vnfitly the title of his worke is called not a Historie but a Librarie Iustinus Martyr called him the most famous Historiographer of the Grecians Eusebius commendeth him by the name of a notable man in great request among the learned But Henry Stephen aboue all other praiseth him exceedingly giuing him that place degree amongst the learned Historiographers which the sunne hath amongst the starres in regard of exact defining those thinges which he writeth of by ordered times This writer therefore confirming all those thinges before spoken of touching the kings of Persia and the time of their raigne may be in steed of many so as in him alone we may see the iudgement not onely of Herodotus Thucidides Xenophon but also of Callisthenes Duris Timaeus Philiscus Theopompus Ephorus and other by him diligentlie read perused and cyted which at this day are not any where found It were infinite to bring all that might bee said out of Authors for the verefying of this Chronologie tedious to be read toylesome to be written Therefore passing ouer many testimonies of diuers writers I will now come to the Roman Storie to see if it likewise by agreement of time may auaile any thing to fortifie those limits and bounds which haue beene set for the Persian kings The Romanes in continuance of time became Lordes of Greece where the Olympicke sports were celebrated And therefore it could not otherwise bee but that they knew well enough how the yeares of their Citie were answerable to the Olympick reckoning of the Grecians Polybius of Megalopolis a Cittie in Arcadia neere as auncient as Eratosthenes by Cicero accounted amongst the best authors for worthinesse credit commended by Iosephus by Velleius Paterculus honoured with this testimonie that he was a man excelling in wit had in great estimation and followed by Liuie and other in the third booke of his historie affirmeth that the first Consuls of Rome were 28. yeares before the passage of Xerxes into Greece which was in the end of the last yeare of the 74. Olympiad as appeareth by that which before hath bin declared Hereof it followeth that the first of the 68. Olympiad beeing the 14. of Darius Histaspis was that wherin the new gouernment of that Cittie by Consuls was established Whereas before it had bin gouerned by kings for the space of 244. yeares from the first building thereof vnto this time adding 28. yeares or seauen Olympiads more We come toward the end of the last yeare of the 74. Olympiad being the 272. of Rome wherin Xerxes passed into Greece as Polybius testifieth the next yeare after was the first of the 75. wherein Xerxes with his great armie was ouercome as before hath bin prooued The truth hereof is verified by A. Gellius in the last chapter of his seuenteenth book where he writeth that Xerxes was ouercome by Themistocles at Salamis foure yeres before the consulship of Menenius Agrippa and Horatius Puluillus wherein a great kinred of noble Romans called Fabij to the number of 306. hauing taken vpon them at their owne charge to fight against a certaine people were slaine by the subtiltie of their enemies circumuented at the riuer Cremera for this is declared by the Romane histories to haue fallen out in the 277 yeare of Rome and the 33. from the banishment of the kings Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his fift booke of Romane antiquities reckoneth sixteene yeares betwixt Brutus one of the first Consuls death in the end of his yeare and the Marathon fight referring the battaile at Marathon to the seuenteenth yeare after Brutus his buriall and the eighteenth after the kings driuen out of the Citie wherein Gegainus Macerinus and Minutius Augurinus were Consuls In his 7. Booke Which by constant agreement of almost all authors hee sayeth was in the second yeare of the 72. Olympiad So he maketh the 31.
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
Maioraltie at Athens being the first of the 75. Olympiad as hath been sufficiently alreadie declared by the testimonies of Diodorus Siculus Dionysius Halicarnassaeus Diogenes Laertius and Suidas what doth it else but make further proofe of the same Herodotus his meaning against Scaliger But what shall we then say to the eclipse of the Sunne mentioned by Herodotus which as Scaliger writeth prooueth that warre to haue been sooner by one yeare H. Bunting dissolueth this doubt by acknowledging that eclips to haue happened in the spring time of that yeare wherein Xerxes went to Sardes which Herodotus by some error as he thinketh transposed to the yeare following when Xerxes went from Sardes into Greece an easie slip in Historie Now to come to Thucidides whereas hee writeth that the tenth yeare after the Persians ouerthrow at Marathon they came againe with a huge armie to subdue Greece he meaneth that yeare to be the tenth wherein Xerxes hauing gathered his armie together marched to Sardes which was the very beginning of that warre for that was the first leading of his armie against the Grecians and in that yeare he made a bridge from Asia to Europe for the passage of his armie ouer and digged downe the hill Atho to make the seas meete for his Ships to passe through and sent his Ambassadors into Greece to demaunde land and water which was a kinde of proclayming warre against such as refused to be subiect vnto him These things all were done in the tenth yeare after the Marathon fight and in the next which was the first of the 75. Olympiad were Xerxes his battailes fought at Thermopylae and other places of Greece being the eleuenth from that Marathon warre euen so acknowledged by Scaliger himselfe in that booke in the chapter of the Persians ouerthrowe at Marathon howsoeuer after he seemeth to be of another opinion and to make it the tenth not vnderstanding Thucidides aright Yea but Eratosthenes Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch three excellent writers referred the passage of Xerxes into Greece to the first yeare of the 75. Olympiad and so his battaile at Thermopylae to the second yeare thereof Eratosthenes indeede I graunt reckoning from the first Olympiad to Xerxes passing into Greece 297. yeares reacheth to the beginning of the second yeare of the 75. Olympiad and goeth a yeare further then other Yet so as if any thing be here amisse it is mended in his next account from Xerxes to the Peloponnesian warre the distance whereof he maketh 48. yeares which with the former 297. are in all 345. from the first Olympiad to the first summer of the Peloponnesian warre which is a most perfect reckoning receiued and agreed on so there is no great matter of difference Now touching Diodorus Siculus his words are so manifest against that assertion of Scaliger as maketh me meruaile that he should be so deceiued in mistaking them First the worde which he vseth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he warred or led his armie being much more large then he passed ouer Againe hauing described the yeare by the number of the Olympiad 75. the first yeare thereof and the chiefe officer of Athens Callias and the Romane Consuls he setteth downe for that yeare so described the battailes of Xerxes at Thermopylae at Artemysium at Salamis and his flying out of Greece and the leauing of Mardonius there with a great hoast And in the second yeare of that Olympiad being the yeare of Xantippus his Maioraltie at Athens he placeth the victory of Pausanias against Mardonius at Plateae and the departure of Xerxes from Sardes to Susa after the ouerthrow of his forces by sea and by land so that there is no doubt at all by Diodorus Siculus but that Xerxes his fighting at Thermopylae happened in the first yere of the 75. Olympiad according to the testimonies and consent of auncient Historiographers before declared As for Plutarch howsoeuer that is gathered of his wordes in one place there cited by Scaliger yet otherwhere he sheweth himselfe of another minde For in the life of Aristides the battell at Plateae which happened the very next yeare after Xerxes his discomfiture hee referreth to the second of that Olymp. that by the iudgement of Scaliger himselfe so expounding the place in his first booke treating of the Theban period If then the next yeare after Xerxes inuading Greece be the second of the 75. Olympiad by Plutarch needes must the yeare of Xerxes fighting in Greece by him bee the first which is agreeable to others Chronologie and the verie trueth The same Plutarch in the life of Numa maketh some doubt of the Olympick reckoning beeing committed to writing in regard of the beginning thereof verie late by Hyppias of Elis without any sure ground whereunto of necessitie we must yeeld credit This obiection is answered by Temporarius in his Chronologie that though it were graunted that Hyppias erred in setting downe the true and exact time of the first Olympiad yet that hindereth the true Chronologie and order of times following nothing at all which is very true for set the case that that Olympiad which Hyppias made the 40. in number was not so much but onely the 30. and so the first 40. yeares short at the least of his account It is not a pin matter The order and account of the times comming after for all that may be most perfect and sure without missing one minute which I wil declare by a familiar example The yeare wherein our gracious Queene began her happie raigne according to the computation of the Church of England was the 1558. of our Lorde but in truth the 1558. this yere by our account 1597. is in very indeed by exact reckoning 1598. The cause wherof was the errour of Dionysius called Paruus Abbas who was the first inuenter of this account supposing Christs birth to haue beene later by one yeare then indeede it was and so making that the first of our Lorde which was the second as is confessed and acknowledged of the best learned and most skilfull Chronologers of our age This error in the first yeare of Christ is no let at all to the exact reckoning of all the yeres following For there is the same distance of yeares from the 1558. to the 1597. by the vsuall account which is from the 1559 to the 1598. by the true account Yet to speake my minde howsoeuer Dionysius missed in the reckoning of the yeares of Christ I hold it out of controuersie that Hippias erred not vnto whose time the memory of the Olympiads had beene preserued from foure yeares to foure yeares from the beginning thereof in times of knowledge places of fame where was great concourse of people keeping the account therof not in their mindes onely but also in writinges as is most like And whether hee erred or no for the Persian times and after it is no matter as I haue declared before seeing the error in the first is constant in all the rest if any error
of Pisistratus himselfe and 18. after of his children And so is Herodotus to be vnderstoode giuing them 36. in all onely differing from Aristotle in a yeare Whereby it may be thought that Pisistratus raigned some few moneths more aboue 17. yeares so his reckoning comes short by almost twentie yeares Againe there was another Pisistratus the sonne of Hippias and Grand childe to the elder Pisistratus before spoken of who in the yeare of his Maioraltie dedicated in the market place at Athens the Altar of the twelue Gods as Thucidides writeth of him in his sixt booke And this in my iudgement is the man to whome that Historie in Aelianus may be fitly applied and stand very well with that which Iustin hath concerning Themistocles fighting at Marathon Yea but Plinie in his 34. booke writeth that the Athenians the same yeare wherein the kings of Rome were driuen out being the fourth of the 67. Olympiad set vp the images of Harmodius and Aristogiton who had killed Hipparchus the tyrant farre wide from that which Dionysius telleth in his sixt booke that Hipparchus was ruler at Athens in the 71. Olympiad What say you to that Nothing but that Beroaldus being belike ashamed of his follie in bringing such an argument calleth it in againe as it were by answering that it was another Hipparchus which Dionysius speaketh of Another argument he taketh from Dionysius Halicarnassaeus in his fift booke making the warre at Marathon later by sixteene yeares then the death of Brutus thereby referring the yeare to the fourth of the 71. Olympiad which by Cicero seemeth cast to the 73. wherein Coriolanus a Senator of Rome made warre against it Here we haue nothing but vntrueth vpon vntrueth fit groundes for such a rotten building for sixteene yeares after that of the first Consuls which was by Dionysius the first of the 68. Olympiad in the end whereof Brutus was slaine reach not to the fourth of the 71. but to the second of the 72. Olympiad wherein the same Dionysius in plaine words placeth that warre As for that of Coriolanus against Rome it happened in deed in the first of the 73. Olympiad onely three yeares after the other And therefore Cicero in his Brutus affirming not that this of Coriolanus was at the same time with that other of the Persians but almost at that time speaketh a trueth dissenting nothing at all from Dionysius It followeth in Beroaldus the same Dionysius in his ninth booke Diodorus Siculus agreeing vnto him saith that Xerxes went to warre against Greece in the 75. Olympiad when Callias gouerned Athens that is twelue yeares after the Marathon fight being past to that of Xerxes at Salamis Glossa corrumpit textum the glosse here marreth the text with a manifest vntrueth for neither Dionysius nor Diodorus maketh aboue eleauen yeares distance betwixt those battailes the one placed in the second of the 72. Olympiad the other in the first of the 75 almost in the beginning thereof Now let any man count the distance betweene on his fingers ends and see if he can finde twelue yeares But to omit this and come to the purpose Gelo was at the time of Xerxes his warre by Pausanias and Herodotus tyrant of Syracusae And Gelo tyrant of Syracusae by Plutarch in the life of Lysias the Orator in the second of the 82. Olympiad So the war of Xerxes must by this reckoning come backe neere 30. yeares after the 75. Olympick sport Plutarchs words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is in English thus much Lysias an exceeding rich man was the sonne of Cephales grand childe of Lysanias the sonne of Cephales his father Cephales was a Syracusian borne and flitted to Athens for loue partly of the citie and partly of Pericles the sonne of Xanthippus who perswaded him thereto being his friend and host or as some say for that hee was driuen from Syracusae at such time as it was subiect to the tyrannie of Gelo. He meaneth that Lysias was borne Being borne at Athens vnder Philocles the next ruler after Phrasicles hee was first brought vp with the noblest children of the Athenians about the second yeare of the 83. Olympiad Afterward being fifteene yeares olde he went to Thuriae a citie of Italie Praxiteles then being Maior of Athens as followeth there in Plutarch Philocles was Maior at Athens in the second yeare of the 80. Olympiad as Diodorus declareth Then was Lysias borne and being about eyght yeres olde in the second yeare of the 82. Olympiad he was brought vp with other noble mens children in Athens and therein continued till the yere of Praxiteles his gouernement which was the first of the 84. Olympiad as we reade in the same Diodorus and the fifteenth of Lysias his birth Where can Beroaldus now finde in this place of Plutarch that Gelo was tyrant of Syracusae in the second yeare of the 82. Olympiad What meant he so cōfidently to burst forth into this cōplaint Tam incerta sunt apud aut hores rerum istarum tempora So vncertaine are the times of these matters what reason had hee for it For hee that vnderstandeth Greeke and compareth Plutarchs owne words with that which Beroaldus gathereth by them will bee ashamed I beleeue of such an interpreter being so blinded with conceited affection that hee seeth not what is written and careth not what he saith Plutarch doth notablie in this place confirme the receiued ancient Chronologie of the Greekes so farre he is by any disagreement from weakening their credite Let vs now examine one or two other places of Beroaldus concerning the time of Xerxes fighting in Greece In the eyght chapter of his third booke Pausanias sayth Beroaldus telleth in his Arcadikes that Xerxes then passed into Greece when Gelo gouerned at Syracuse which is likewise witnessed by Herodotus in his seuenth booke But that same Pausanias in his Eliaca affirmeth that Gelo held the gouernment of that citie in the second yeare of the 72. Olympiad Except it be a strange thing that one king should continew his raigne by the space of twelue yeares This argument of Beroaldus is not worth a rush to proue disagreement betweene ancient writers referring Gelo his tiranie some to the second of the 72. Olympiad other to the first of the 75. when Xerxes passed into Europe for the beginning of his dominion was about the second of the 72. Olympiad as Dionisius Halicarnassaeus declareth in the seauenth booke of his Roman Antiquities And the end thereof in the 75. Olympiad the thirde yeare thereof as Diodorus witnesseth in the eleauenth booke of his Historicall librarie So both might stand together well enough Beroaldus hath yet more matter from Pausanias in his Eliaca who referreth the ouerthrow of Mardonius at Plateae the next yeare after Xerxes inuaded Greece to the 75. Olympiad whereas Diodorus Siculus saith that Xerxes in that Olympiad inuaded Greece both can not bee true The worde Olympias pertaineth sometime to the game itselfe celebrated euerie first yeare of
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
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
is testified by olde marble monuments digged out of the ground and as Solinus writeth was confirmed euen by the publike acts registers of Rome wherein the 207. Olympiad was recorded to be in the 801. yeare of Rome when Pompeius Gallus and Q. Veranius were Cousuls this Beroaldus himselfe acknowledgeth and bringeth reason for it By this account then the third of the 194. Olympiad wherein the birth of Christ is put should be the 751. of Rome let vs now examaine whether this be so or no. The yeare after Caesars death wherein Hersius and Pansa were Consuls Augustus began his raigne as Eusebius in his Chronicles Ioseph Scaliger in his fift book De emendatione temporum declare was the 710. of Rome so witnessed not onely by Solinus in his Polyhistor but euen the very ancient Marble monuments also wherein was engrauen his record at the 710 yeare of the Citie In Pansae occisi locum factus est C. Iulius C.F.C.N. Caesar Qui posteà imperator Caesar Augustus appellatus est That is in the place of Pansa being slaine Caius Iulius Caesar the sonne of Caius the grandchild of Caius was made Consull who after was called the Emperour Caesar Augustus In the 42. yeare of Augustus his raigne the first thereof beeing that 710. of Rome was our Sauiour borne This wee are taught by Eusebius not onely in his Chronicles but also very plainly in the second chapter of the first booke of his Ecclesiasticall historie It is verified also by Epiphanius and Onuphrius 51. Haeresi setting the time of Christ his birth in the thirteenth Consulship of Augustus with M. Plantius Silanus which was iust the 42. yeare from the beginning of that wherein Hersius and Pansa were Consuls and Augustus began his raigne as the Roman histories with great agreement declare adding then these 42. of Augustus to 709. more past before to the building of Rome wee haue that which by examination we sought that is the birth of Christ in the 751. yeare of Rome agreeably to the Olympicke reckoning from which 423. before Darius his death being deducted there remaines 328. yeres from the Persian Monarchie to Iesus Christ with some fiue or sixe months more betwixt the sommer season wherein Darius died and the time of winter wherein Christ was borne An other proofe we haue from learned writers in Clemens Alexandrinus 1. Strom. accounting 294. yeares from the death of Alexander to the victorie of Augustus Caesar against Antonius when he slew himselfe and Augustus nowe the fourth time was Consull which wordes by them are there added for distinctions sake to make it knowne what victorie they spake of For when as now a long time Augustus and Antonius had together gouerned the Roman Empire at the length falling at variance they made open warre one against another and fought betweene them by sea that famous battail at Actium a promontorie of Epirus nere Greece the second day of September from fiue of the clocke in the morning to seauen at night wherein Antonius with his glorious wife Cleopatra Queene of Aegypt was discomfited and fled This was done in the 722 yeare of Rome and the second of the 187. Olympiad and the time of Augustus Caesars third Consulship with Valerius Messala Coruinus The next yeare after Caesar nowe the fourth time beeing Consull with M. Licinius Crassus went against Antonius and Cleopatra into Aegypt where with happy successe he won from him a Citie of Egypt nere Lybia called Paraetonium and againe a little after ouercame him at Pharus and once againe euen in that fight wherein hee put great confidence of his goodly horses he was put to a shamefull foyle His onely refuge now left whereby hee hoped to stand was his nauie which when Antonius the first day of August betimes in the morning was now preparing to battell all fel away from him to Caesar whereat Antonius conceauing deadly griefe hasted to his Pallace and a little after seeing Caesar comming flat against him the citie troubled slew himselfe Cleopatra also not obtaining so much fauour of Augustus as she eyther looked for or desired opened her left arme to the byting of a poysonfull Serpent and so ended her life Augustus his enemies now being slain got Alexandria and the rest of Egypt with no great adoe and thenceforth had the whole gouernment of all the Roman Soueraigntie before the end of the same month which thereof was named Augustus beeing before that time called Sextilis of the number beeing the sixt from March Augustus Caesar saith Xiphilinus called the moneth Sextilis by the newe name of Augustus because hee was first made Consull got many victories therein But in Macrobius more plainely and especially amongst other causes of that moneth so to be termed in the honor of Augustus this is one set downe that therein Egypt was first subdued to the Romans These be the victories then which those ancient Chronologists in Clemens Alexandrinus make the end of 294. yeres from the death of Alexander respecting their beginning with the moneth of August and somewhat before For Alexander died towardes the end of Iulie in the verie entrie of the 114. Olympiad So that to and fro the same season of the yeare the distance being reckoned was iust so much that is to say 294. yeares which is likewise verified by an eye witnesse of those times whereof hee writeth and flourishing in them that is Dionysius Halicarnassaeus who in the Preface to his Roman antiquities telleth not by hearesay but of knowledge that he came into Italy when Augustus Caesar had made an ende of ciuill warres about the middest of the 187. Olympiad The time which he meaneth was that before declared of Augustus Caesars conquest ouer Antonius in Egypt in the moneth of August not farre from the beginning of the third yere of that Olimpiad which he nameth being indeed as hee saith neere the middest of that foure yeares Olympick space vnto which accounting from the first yere of the 114. wherein Alexander died we finde that number of the former Authors in Clemens euen 294. yeres The truth hereof is yet further confirmed by Ptolomie for exact accoūt of times exceeding skilfull who in the third book of his Almagest maketh the distance betweene the death of Alexander and the Monarchie of Augustus 294. Egyptian yeares The account whereof began with the beginning of their first moneth called Toth as Censorinus declareth in his booke de die natali and Ioseph Scaliger in diuers places which at that time fell about the twelfth day of our Nouember So long after the sommer season wherein Alexander died the Egyptians began their account of yeares after his death These 294. Egyptian yeres from the twelfth of Nouember expire not in the twelfth of Nouember againe but in the 29. day of August before and reach iust as farre as the same number of Roman yeares doth being begun from the 29. day of August before going The cause whereof is this that the Egyptian
Aristotle which was by a rumor and vncertaine reporte noysed abroad the cause thereof might bee that they were the same people then vanquished who before had taken it So it is true in regarde of the men One argument more is yet behinde reserued as may seeme to the last place as of all the rest most forcible to disturbe the set boundes of the Peloponnesian warre and thereby those of the Persian Empire The force of this argument in the conceite of Beroaldus is so strong and pythie as that it cannot possibly suffer the ancient accounte of those times to stand Let vs saith Beroaldus first set downe that which is reported by Polybius a graue author in his first booke that the Lacedemonians hauing gotten the soueraigne Empire of Greece by their victorie against the Athenians in the ende of the Peloponnesian warre scarse held it by the space of twelue yeares after In the next place this wee are to knowe that the same Lacedemonians were spoyled of that their Empire by the Thebans in the famous battaile fought betweene them at Leanctra in the second yeare of the 102. Olympiad whereof this for a certaintie followeth that the Peloponnesian warre ended about the time of the 100. Olympiad For it is manifest by Xenophon that the ende of it was in an Olympicke yeare This is the reason of all other so sure vndoubted and strong in the opinion of Beroaldus but in very deede as friuolous ridiculous and childish as euer any was framed To make good my saying let the author himselfe speake with his owne words which be these not farre from the beginning of his first booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lacedemonians sayth Polybius striuing many yeares for the soueraignetie of Greece after they had once gotten it kept it scarselie twelue yeares entire without trouble and losse Indeede if Polybius had sayde that the Lacedemonians had quite and cleane lost their whole dominion within twelue yeares after they had obtained it as Beroaldus maketh him say the reason which hee vseth had been good to bring the ende of the Peloponnesian warre within three yeares of his reckoning so much hee is wide after his wonted manner for they were wholie spoyled of that cheeftie by Epaminondas generall of the Theban armie in the second of the 102. Olympiad From which the twelfth yeare backward is the third before the 100. Olympiad and the second of the 99. But there is as much difference betwixt the authors word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the interpretation of Beroaldus as betweene breaking a mans head and killing him out right It is true and that which Polybius ment that the Lacedemonians about twelue yeares after Lysanders victorie against the Athenians at Aegos Potamoi whereby they became Lordes of Greece lost much of their dominion by the valour of Conon an Athenian Captaine who ouercame the Lacedemonians in a battel by sea toke fiftie of their shippes and 500 of their men whereby diuers Cities fell from the Lacedemonians vnto him as Diodorus Siculus declareth in his fourteenth booke yet for all this they stood still recouered much again afterward til at the length they were vtterly dispossessed of all by the Thebans who gaue them a deadly blow Heereby it appeareth that it was no part of Polybius his meaning to make only twelue yeares from the end of the Peloponnesian war to the Lacedemonians vtter ouerthrow but to that conquest of Conon ouer them by sea fight before spoken of And if this bee not enough to make that appeare sufficiently Polybius himselfe yet once againe shall make it manifest and all gainesayers as dumbe as a fish which would gather by his testimonie that the fielde at Leuctra was fought within 12. yeares after the Peloponnesian warre for within one leafe after the former sentence he declareth that the battaile at Leuctra was nor twelue but 34. yeares after that other at Aegos Potamoi whereby they won the soueraigntie of Greece that is to say 18. to the Frenchmens taking of Rome and sixteene more afterwarde to the fight at Leuctra and that not obscurely or in a riddle but very flatly in plaine words though not vnderstood by the Bishop of Sipontū who for these words of Polybius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is after the battaile by sea at Aegos Potamoi translated Post Xerxem a Cymone superatum After Xerxes was ouercome by Cymon which was long before the time spoken of by Polybius and no part of his meaning at all By this one place may bee seene what intolerable shifting hath beene vsed of Beroaldus to make his matter good affirming Authors to say that which they neuer meaned yea which they are as flat and plaine in manifest words against as may be But euery vaine color deceiueable shew is good enough for such as are disposed to wrangle out new deuises by cauelling Sophistrie As for that which followeth out of Xenophon to prooue that assertion of Beroaldus it hath neyther head nor foote and is vnworthie of an answere and therefore I purpose not to trouble the reader with my confuting such paltrie stuffe except peraduenture some will professe to frame it into an argument of some shew or color at the least then will I also professe my skill to answere it and to turne all against him for the truth as knowing Xenophon to haue nothing for his conceited opinion but much against it Hitherto I haue particularly answered all the Sophisticall elcnchs and reasonlesse reasons vnproouing proofes of Beroaldus out of prophane Histories one by one wherewith to the trouble of God his Church and the darkening of his worde hee hath stuffed so many papers without leauing any one to my knowledge vnanswered except the last out of Xenophon for the cause before declared Touching his scripture proofe so often vrged against the auncient Chronologers of the Persian times it shall by God his assistance appeare hereafter how vain it is And thus much touching the first part concerning the chronologie of the Persian Monarchie Now followeth the second contayning 328. yeares and a halfe not much vnder or ouer from the death of the last king of Persia to our Sauiour Iesus Christ the proofe hereof is good for that Christ our blessed Redeemer was borne in the third yeare of the 194. Olympiad Eusebius to omit the testimonies of other Fathers declareth in his Chronicles at this yeare and Olympiad writing thus Iesus Christ the sonne of God was borne in Bethleem of Iuda in which yeare the saluation of Christians began which therefore is also counted the first yeare of the Christians saluation Darius the last king of the Persians was slaine neere the beginning of the third yeare of the 112. Olympiad The distance is the number before declared The same is prooued by the Chronologicall Historie of the yeares of Rome the building whereof by Solinus Dionysius Eratost henes and other learned Authors is set in the first yeare of the seauenth Olympiad the trueth whereof