particularly, and shall demonstrate that they are no better than incredible fables.

17. I will now, therefore, pass from these records, and come to those that belong to the Phenicians, and concern our nation, and shall produce attestations to what I have said out of them. There are then records among the Tyrians, that take in the history of many years, and these are public writings, and are kept with great exactness, and include accounts of the facts done among them, and such as concern their transactions with other nations also, those I mean which were worth, remembering. Therein it was recorded, that the temple was built by king Solomon at Jerusalem, one hundred forty-three years and eight months before the Tyrians built Carthage; and in their annals the building of our temple is related; for Hirom, the king of Tyre, was the friend of Solomon our king, and had such friendship transmitted down to him from his forefathers. He thereupon was ambitious to contribute to the splendour of this edifice of Soloman's, and made him a present of one hundred and twenty talents of gold. He also cut down the most excellent timber out of that mountain which is called Libanus, and sent it to him for adorning the roof. Solomon also not only made him many other presents, by way of requital, but gave him a country in Gallilee also, that was called Chabulon.* But there was another passion, a philosophic inclination of theirs, which cemented the friendship that was betwixt them; for they sent mutual problems to one another, with a desire to have them unriddled by each other; wherein Solomon was superior to Hirom, as he was wiser than he in other respects and many of the epistles that passed between them are still preserved among the Tyrians. Now, that this may not depend on my bare word, I will produce for a witness Dius, one that is believed to have written the Phenician history after an accurate manner. This Dius, therefore, writes thus, in his histories of the Phenicians: "Upon the death of Abibalus, his son

Hi

rom took the kingdom. This king raised banks at the "eastern parts of the city, and enlarged it; he also joined "the temple of Jupiter Olympus, which stood before in an "island by itself to the city, by raising a causeway them, and adorned that temple with donations of gold

66

* 1 Kings ix. 13.

between

"He moreover went up to Libanus, and had timber' cut "down for the building of the temples. They say farther, "that Solomon, when he was king of Jerusalem, sent prob"lems to Hirom to be solved, and desired he would send "others back for him to solve, and that he who could not "solve the problems proposed to him, should pay money to "him that solved them. And when Hirom had agreed to "the proposals, but was not able to solve the problems, he "was obliged to pay a great deal of money, as a penalty "for the same. As also they relate that one Abdemon, a "man of Tyre, did solve the problems, and propose others " which Solomon could not solve, upon which he was obliged to repay a great deal of money to Hirom." These things are attested to by Dius, and confirm what we have said upon the same subjects before.

66

18. And, now I shall add Menander, the Ephesian, as an additional witness. This Menander wrote the acts that were done both by the Greeks and barbarians, under every one of the Tyrian kings, and had taken much pains to learn their history out of their own records. Now, when he was writing about those kings that had reigned at Tyre, he came to Hirom, and says thus: "Upon the death of "Abibalus, his son Hirom took the kingdom; he lived fifty-three years, and reigned thirty-four. He raised a "bank on that called the Broad place, and dedicated that "golden pillar which is in Jupiter's temple: he also went "and cut down timber from the mountain called Libanus,

and got timber of cedar for the roofs of the temples. He "also pulled down the old temples, and built new ones: be"sides this, he consecrated the temples of Hercules, and "of Astarte. He first built Hercules's temple in the month "Peritus, and that of Astarte when he made his expedi"tion against the Tityans, who would not pay him their “tribute; and, when he had subdued them to himself, he "returned home. Under this king, there was a younger son of Abdemon, who mastered the problems which Solomon, king of Jerusalem, had recommended to be solved." Now, the time from this king to the building of Carthage, is thus calculated: " Upon the death of Hirom, Beleazarus, his son, took the kingdom; he lived forty-three years, and reigned seven years after him succeeded his son Abdastartus; he lived twenty-nine years, and reign"ed nine years. Now, four sons of his nurse plotted against

66

66

66

¢་

:

"him, and slew him, the eldest of which reigned twelve years after them came Astartus, the son of Deleastartus; he lived fifty-four years, and reigned twelve years; "after him came his brother Aserymus; he lived fifty-four years, and reigned nine years; he was slain by his broth"er Pheles, who took the kingdom, and reigned but eight months, though he lived fifty years; he was slain by "Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte, who reigned thirty-two years, and lived sixty-eight years he was succeeded by his son Badezorus, who lived forty-five years, and reign"ed six years: he was succeeded by Matgenus his son ; "he lived thirty-two years, and reigned nine years; Pyg"malion succeeded him; he lived fifty-six years, and reign"ed forty-seven years. Now, in the seventh year of his reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city "of Carthage in Libya." So the whole time from the reign of Hirom, till the building of Carthage, amounts to the sum of one hundred fifty-five years and eight months. Since then, the temple was built at Jerusalem in the twelfth year of the reign of Hirom, there were from the building of the temple until the building of Carthage, one hundred fortythree years and eight months. Wherefore, what occasion is there for alledging any more testimonies out of the Phenician histories, [on the behalf of our nation.] since what I have said is so thoroughly confirmed already? And to be sure our ancestors came into this country long before the building of the temple; for it was not till we had gotten possession of the whole land by war, that we built our temple. And this is the point that I have clearly proved out of our sacred writings in my Antiquities.

19. I will now relate what hath heen written concerning us in the Chaldean histories, which records have a great agreement with our books in other things also. Berosus shall be witness to what I say; he was by birth a Chaldean well known by the learned, on account of his publication of the Chaldean books of astronomy and philosophy among the Greeks. This Berosus, therefore, following the most ancient records of that nation, gives us an history of the deluge of waters that then happened, and of the destruction of mankind thereby, and agrees with Moses's narration thereof. He also gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin of our race, was preserved, when it was brought to the highest part of the Armenian mountains ;

after which he gives us a catalogue of the posterity of Noah, and adds the years of their chronology, and at length comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of Babylon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of his king, he describes to us, "How he sent his son Nabuchodonosor against Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his being informed that they had revolted from him "and how, by that means, he subdued them all, and set our temple that was at Jerusalem on fire; nay, and re"moved our people entirely out of their own country, and "transferred them to Babylon; when it so happened, that

66

66

66

;

our city was desolate during the interval of seventy years, "until the days of Cyrus king of Persia." He then says, "that this Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, "and Phenicia, and Arabia, and exceeded in his exploits, "all that had reigned before him in Babylon and Chaldea." A little after which, Berosus subjoins what follows in his history of ancient times: I will set down Berosus's own accounts, which are these: "When Nabuchodonosor, father "of Nabolassar, heard that the governor whom he had set over Egypt and over the parts of Celesyria and Phenicia "had revolted from him, he was not able to bear it any longer, but committing certain parts of his army to his son Nabuchodonosor, who was then but young, he sent "him against the rebel: Naduchodonosor joined battle "with him, and conquered him, and reduced the country "under his dominion again. Now it so fell out, that his "father Nabolassar fell into a distemper, at this time, and "died in the city of Babylon, after he had reigned twenty"nine years. But, as he understood in a little time, that "his father Nabuchodonosor was dead, he set the affairs of Egypt and the other countries in order, and committed the captives he had taken from the Jews, the Phenicians, and Syrians, and of the nations belonging to Egypt, to some "of his friends, that they might conduct that part of the "forces that had on heavy armour, with the rest of his baggage, to Babylonia; while he went in haste, having "but a few with him, over the desert to Babylon; whither, "when he was come, he found the public affairs had been managed by the Chaldeans, and that the principal persons among them had preserved the kingdom for him. Accordingly, he now entirely obtained all his father's dominions. He then came, and ordered the captives to be

66

66

66

66

66

66

66

placed as colonies in the most proper places of Babylonia: "but for himself, he adorned the temple of Belus, and the "other temples, after an elegant manner, out of the spoils "he had taken in this war. He also rebuilt the old city, "and added another to it on the outside, and so far restored Babylon, that none who should besiege it afterwards might have it in their power to divert the river, so as to "facilitate an entrance into it; and this he did by building "three walls about the inner city, and three about the "outer. Some of these walls he built of burnt brick and “bitumen, and some of brick only. So when he had thus "fortified the city with walls, after an excellent manner, "and had adorned the gates magnificently, he added a 66 new palace to that which his father had dwelt in, and "this close by it also, and that more eminent in its height, "and in its great splendour; it would perhaps require too long a narration if any one were to describe it; however, "as prodigious large, and as magnificent as it was, it was "finished in fifteen days. Now in this palace he erected "very high walks, supported by stone pillars, and by planting "what was called a pensile paradise, and replenishing it with "all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect of an exact "resemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to please his queen, because she had been brought up in Media, and was fond of a mountainous situation."*

20. This is what Berosus relates concerning the forementioned king as he relates many other things about him also in the third book of his Chaldean history; wherein he complains of the Grecian writers for supposing without any foundation, that Babylon was built by Semiramis * queen of Assyria, and for her false pretence to those wonderful edifices thereto relating, as if they were her own workmanship; as indeed in these affairs the Chaldean history cannot but be the most credible. Moreover, we meet with a confirmation of what Berosus says, in the archives of the Phenicians, concerning this king Nabuchodonosor, that he conquered all Syria and Phenicia; in which case Philostratus agrees with the others, in that history which he composed, where he mentions the siege of Tyre; as does Megas

*The great improvements that Nebuchadnezzar made in the buildings at Babylon, do no way contradict those ancient and authentic testimonies which ascribe its first building to Nimrod, and its first rebuilding to Semiramis, as Berosus seems here to suppose.