The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended - Isaac Newton

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Generation earlier, will be about 43 years after it. From the taking of Troy to the Return of the Heraclides, could scarce be more than eighty years, because Orestes the son of Agamemnon was a youth at the taking of Troy, and his sons Penthilus and Tisamenus lived till the Return of the Heraclides.

      Æsculapius and Hercules were Argonauts, and Hippocrates was the eighteenth inclusively by the father's side from Æsculapius, and the nineteenth from Hercules by the mother's side: and because these Generations, being taken notice of by writers, were most probably by the principal of the family, and so for the most part by the eldest sons; we may reckon about 28 or at the most about 30 years to a Generation. And thus the seventeen intervals by the father's side, and eighteen by the mother's, will at a middle reckoning amount unto about 507 years: which counted backwards from the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, at which time Hippocrates began to flourish, will reach up to the 43d year after the death of Solomon, and there place the Argonautic expedition.

      When the Romans conquered the Carthaginians, the Archives of Carthage came into their hands: And thence Appian, in his history of the Punic wars, tells in round numbers that Carthage stood seven hundred years: and [39] Solinus adds the odd number of years in these words: Adrymeto atque Carthagini author est a Tyro populus. Urbem istam, ut Cato in Oratione Senatoria autumat; cum rex Hiarbas rerum in Libya potiretur, Elissa mulier extruxit, domo Phœnix & Carthadam dixit, quod Phœnicum ore exprimit civitatem novam; mox sermone verso Carthago dicta est, quæ post annos septingentos triginta septem exciditur quam fuerat extructa. Elissa was Dido, and Carthage was destroyed in the Consulship of Lentulus and Mummius, in the year of the Julian Period 4568; from whence count backwards 737 years, and the Encænia or Dedication of the City, will fall upon the 16th year of Pygmalion, the brother of Dido, and King of Tyre. She fled in the seventh year of Pygmalion, but the Æra of the City began with its Encænia. Now Virgil, and his Scholiast Servius, who might have some things from the archives of Tyre and Cyprus, as well as from those of Carthage, relate that Teucer came from the war of Troy to Cyprus, in the days of Dido, a little before the Reign of her brother Pygmalion; and, in conjunction with her father, seized Cyprus, and ejected Cinyras: and the Marbles say that Teucer came to Cyprus seven years after the destruction of Troy, and built Salamis; and Apollodorus, that Cinyras married Metharme the daughter of Pygmalion, and built Paphos. Therefore, if the Romans, in the days of Augustus, followed not altogether the artificial Chronology of Eratosthenes, but had these things from the records of Carthage, Cyprus, or Tyre; the arrival of Teucer at Cyprus will be in the Reign of the predecessor of Pygmalion: and by consequence the destruction of Troy, about 76 years later than the death of Solomon.

      Dionysius Halicarnassensis [40] tells us, that in the time of the Trojan war, Latinus was King of the Aborigines in Italy, and that in the sixteenth Age after that war, Romulus built Rome. By Ages he means Reigns of Kings: for after Latinus he names sixteen Kings of the Latines, the last of which was Numitor, in whose days Romulus built Rome: for Romulus was contemporary to Numitor, and after him Dionysius and others reckon six Kings more over Rome, to the beginning of the Consuls. Now these twenty and two Reigns, at about 18 years to a Reign one with another, for many of these Kings were slain, took up 396 years; which counted back from the consulship of Junius Brutus and Valerius Publicola, the two first Consuls, place the Trojan war about 78 years after the death of Solomon.

      The expedition of Sesostris was one Generation earlier than the Argonautic expedition: for in his return back into Egypt he left Æetes in Colchis, and Æetes reigned there 'till the Argonautic expedition; and Prometheus was left by Sesostris with a body of men at Mount Caucasus, to guard that pass, and after thirty years was released by Hercules the Argonaut: and Phlyas and Eumedon, the sons of the great Bacchus, so the Poets call Sesostris, and of Ariadne the daughter of Minos, were Argonauts. At the return of Sesostris into Egypt, his brother Danaus fled from him into Greece with his fifty daughters, in a long ship; after the pattern of which the ship Argo was built: and Argus, the son of Danaus, was the master-builder thereof. Nauplius the Argonaut was born in Greece, of Amymone, one of the daughters of Danaus, and of Neptune, the brother and admiral of Sesostris: And two others of the daughters of Danaus married Archander and Archilites, the sons of Achæus, the son of Creusa, the daughter of Erechtheus King of Athens: and therefore the daughters of Danaus were three Generations younger than Erechtheus; and by consequence contemporary to Theseus the son of Ægeus, the adopted son of Pandion, the son of Erechtheus. Theseus, in the time of the Argonautic expedition, was of about 50 years of age, and so was born about the 33d year of Solomon: for he stole Helena [41] just before that expedition, being then 50 years old, and she but seven, or as some say ten. Pirithous the son of Ixion helped Theseus to steal Helena, and then [42] Theseus went with Pirithous to steal Persephone, the daughter of Aidoneus, or Orcus, King of the Molossians, and was taken in the action: and whilst he lay in prison, Castor and Pollux returning from the Argonautic expedition, released their sister Helena, and captivated Æthra the mother of Theseus. Now the daughters of Danaus being contemporary to Theseus, and some of their sons being Argonauts, Danaus with his daughters fled from his brother Sesostris into Greece about one Generation before the Argonautic expedition; and therefore Sesostris returned into Egypt in the Reign of Rehoboam. He came out of Egypt in the fifth year of Rehoboam, [43] and spent nine years in that expedition, against the Eastern Nations and Greece; and therefore returned back into Egypt, in the fourteenth year of Rehoboam. Sesac and Sesostris were therefore Kings of all Egypt, at one and the same time: and they agree not only in the time, but also in their actions and conquests. God gave Sesac ממלכות הארצות the Kingdoms of the lands, 2 Chron. xii. Where Herodotus describes the expedition of Sesostris, Josephus [44] tells us that he described the expedition of Sesac, and attributed his actions to Sesostris, erring only in the name of the King. Corruptions of names are frequent in history; Sesostris was otherwise called Sesochris, Sesochis, Sesoosis, Sethosis, Sesonchis, Sesonchosis. Take away the Greek termination, and the names become Sesost, Sesoch, Sesoos, Sethos, Sesonch: which names differ very little from Sesach. Sesonchis and Sesach differ no more than Memphis and Moph, two names of the same city. Josephus [45] tells us also, from Manetho, that Sethosis was the brother of Armais, and that these brothers were otherwise called Ægyptus and Danaus; and that upon the return of Sethosis or Ægyptus, from his great conquests into Egypt, Armais or Danaus fled from him into Greece.

      Egypt was at first divided into many small Kingdoms, like other nations; and grew into one monarchy by degrees: and the father of Solomon's Queen, was the first King of Egypt, who came into Phœnicia with an Army: but he only took Gezir, and gave it to his daughter. Sesac, the next King, came out of Egypt with an army of Libyans, Troglodites and Ethiopians, 2 Chron. xii. 3. and therefore was then King of all those countries; and we do not read in Scripture, that any former King of Egypt; who Reigned over all those nations, came out of Egypt with a great army to conquer other countries. The sacred history of the Israelites, from the days of Abraham to the days of Solomon, admits of no such conqueror. Sesostris reigned over all the same nations of the Libyans, Troglodites and Ethiopians,

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