ment with our books in other things alfo. Berofus fhall be witnefs to what I fay; he was by birth a Chaldean, well known by the learned on account of his publication of the Chaldean books of philofophy and aftronomy among the Greeks. This Berolus, therefore, following the most ancient records of that nation, gives us an hiftory of the deluge of waters that then happened, and of the deftruction of mankind thereby, and agrees with Moles's narration thereof. He alfo gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin of our race, was preferved when it was brought to the highest part of the Armenian mountains: After which he gives us a catalogue of the pofterity of Noah, and adds the years of their chronology, and at length comes down to Nabolaffar who was king of Babylon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of this king, he defcribes to us," How he fent his fon Nabuchodonofor 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 fubdued them all, and fet our temple that was at Jerufalem on fire; nay, and removed our people entirely out of their own country, and transferred them to Ba bylon; when it fo happened that our city was defolate, du. ring the interval of feventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Perfia." He then fays, 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 Berofus fubjoins what follows in his hiftory of ancient times: I will fet down Berofus's own accounts, which are these: "When Nabuchodonofor, father of Nabolaffar, heard that the governor whom he had fet over Egypt and over the parts of Celefyria and Phenicia, had revolted from him, he was not able to bear it any longer, but committing certain parts of his army to his fon Nabuchodonofor, who was then but young, he fent him against the rebel: Nabuchodonofor joined battle with him, and conquered him, and reduced the country under his dominion again. Now it fo fell out, that his father Nabolaffar fell into a diftemper 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 Nabuchodonofor was dead, he fet the affairs of Egypt, and the other countries in order, and committed the captives he had taken from the Jews, and Phenicians, and Syrians, and of the nations belonging to Egypt, to lome of his friends, that they might conduct that part of the forces that had on heavy armour, with the reft of his baggage, to Babylonia; while he went in hafte, having but a few with im, over the defert to Babylon; whither, when he was come, he found the public affairs had been managed by the Chaldeans, and that the principal perfon among them had preferved the kingdom for him. Accordingly he now entirely obtained all his father's dominions. He then

came, and ordered the captives to be placed as colonies in the moft proper places of Babylonia: But for himself, he adorned the temple of Belus, and the other temples, after an elegant inanner out of the fpoils he had taken in this war. He allo rebuilt the old city, and added another to it on the outfide, and fo tar reftored Babylon, that none who fhould besiege it afterwards might have it in their power to divert the river, fo 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 chefe walls he built of burnt brick and bitumen, and fome 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 new palace to that which his father had dwelt in, and this close by it alfo, and that more eminent in its height, and in its great fplendor; it would perhaps require too long a narration, if any one were to defcribe 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, fupported by ftone pillars, and by planting what was called a penfile paradife, and replenishing it with all forts of trees, he rendered the profpect of an exact refemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to please his queen, because the had been brought up in Media, and was fond of a mountainous fituation *"

*

20. This is what Berofus relates concerning the forementioned king, as he relates many other things about him alfo in the third book of his Chaldean hiftory; wherein he com. plains of the Grecian writers for fuppofing, without any foundation, that Babylon was built by Semiramis queen of Affyria, and for her falfe pretence to thole wonderful edifices thereto relating, as if they were her own workmanship; as indeed in thefe affairs the Chaldean hiftory cannot but be the moft credible. Moreover, we meet with a confirmation of what Berofus fays in the archives of the Phenicians, concerning this king Nabuchodonofor, that he conquered all Syria and Phenicia; in which cafe Philoftratus agrees with the others in that hiftory which he compofed, where he mentions the fiege of Tyre; as does Megafthenes alfo, in the fourth book of his Indian hiftory, wherein he pretends to prove that the forementioned king of the Babylonians was fuperior to Hercules in frength, and the greatnefs of his exploits; for he fays that he conquered a great part of Libya, and conquered Iberia also. Now as to what I have said before about the temple at Jerufalem, that it was fought against by the Babylonians, and burnt by them, but was opened again when Cyrus had taken the kingdom of Afia, fhall be now demonftrated

* The great improvements that Nebuchadnezzar made in the buildings at Babylon, do no way contradift those ancient and authentic teftimonies which alcribe its fitt building to Nimrod, and its first rebuilding to Semiramis, as Berolus fcems here to fuppofe.

VOL. IIA

L3

from what Berofus adds farther upon that head; for thus he fays in his third book: "Nabuchodonofor, after he had begun. to build the forementioned wall, fell fick, and departed this life, when he had reigned forty-three years; whereupon his fon Evilmeroduch obtained the kingdom. He governed public affairs after an illegal and impure manner, and had a plot laid against him by Nerigliffoor, his fifter's husband, and was · flain by him when he had reigned but two years, After he was flain, Nerigliffoor, the perfon who plotted against him, fuc. ceeded him in the kingdom, and reigned four years; his fon Laborofoarchod obtained the kingdom, though he were but a child, and kept it nine months; but by reafon of the very ill temper and ill practices he exhibited to the world, a plot war laid against him alfo by his friends, and he was tormented to death. After his death, the conspirators got together, and by common confent put the crown upon the head of Nabonnedus, a man of Babylon, and one who belonged to that infurrection. In his reign it was that the walls of the city of Babylon were curiously built with burnt brick and bitumen; but when he was come to the feventeenth year of his reign, Cyrus came out of Perfia with a great army, and having already conquered all the rest of Afia, he came haitily to Babylonia. When Nabonnedus perceived he was coming to attack him, he met him with his forces, and joining battle with him, was beaten, and fled away with a few of his troops with him, and was fhut up within the city Borfippus. Hereupon Cyrus took Babylon, and gave order that the outer walls of the city fhould be demolifhed, because the city had proved very troublesome to him, and coft him a great deal of pains to take it. He then marched away to Borfippus, to befiege Nabonnedus; but as Nabonnedus did not fuftain the fiege, but delivered himself into his hands, he was at firft kindly ufed by Cyrus, who gave him Carinania, as a place for him to inhabit in, but fent him out of Babylonia. Accordingly Nabonnedus fpent the reft of his time in that country, and there died."

21. These accounts agree with the true hiftories in our books: For in them it is written, that Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth year of his reign, laid our temple defolate, and fo it lay in that flate of obfcurity for fifty years: But that in the fecond year of the reign of Cyrus its foundations were laid, and it was finished again in the fecondt year of Darius. I will now add the records of the Phenicians; for it will not be fu* This number in Jofephus, that Nebuchadnezzar deftroyed the temple in the 18th year of his reign, is a mistake in the nicety of chronology; for it was in the 19th + The true number here for the year of Darius, on which the fecond temple was finished, whether the fecond with our prefent copies, or the fixth with that of Syncellus, or the tenth with that of Eufebius, is very uncertain; fo we had best follow Jofephus's own account elsewhere, Antiq Book XI. chap. iii. fec. 4. 1. which shows us that according to his copy of the Old Teftament, after the ed of Cyrus, that work was interrupted till the fecond of Darius, when in leven years it was finished on the ninth of Darius.

Vol

perfluous to give the reader demonftrations more than enough on this occafion. In them we have this enumeration of the times of their feveral kings: "Nabuchodonofor befieged Tyre for thirteen years, in the days of Ithobal, their king; after him reigned Baal, ten years; after him were judges appointed, who judged the people. Ecnibalus, the fon of Ballacus, two months; Chelbes, the fon of Abdeus, ten months; Abbar the high-prieft three months; Mitgonus and Geraftratus, the fons of Abdelemus, were judges fix years; after whom Balatorus reigned one year; after his death they fent and fetched Merbalus from Babylon, who reigned four years; after his death they fent for his brother Hirom, who reigned twenty years. Under his reign Cyrus became king of Perfia." So that the whole interval is fifty-four years befides three months; for on the feventh year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar he began to befiege Tyre, and Cyrus the Perfian took the kingdom on the fourteenth year of Hiram. So that the records of the Chaldeans and Tyrians agree with our writings about this temple; and the teftimonies here produced are an indifputable and undeniable atteftation to the antiquity of our nation. And I fuppofe that what I have already said may be fufficient to fuch as are not very contentious.

*

22. But now it is proper to fatisfy the enquiry of those that disbelieve the records of barbarians, and think none but Greeks to be worthy of credit, and to produce many of thefe very Greeks who were acquainted with our nation, and to fet before them fuch as upon occasion have made mention of us in their own writings. Pythagoras therefore of Samos lived in very ancient times, and was esteemed a person superior to all philofophers in wisdom, and piety towards God. Now it is plain. that he did not only know our doctrines, but was in very great measure a follower and admirer of them. There is not indeed extant any writing that is owned for his; but many there are who have written his hiftory, of whom Hermippus is the most celebrated, who was a perfon very inquifitive into all fort of hiftory. Now this Hermippus, in his first book concerning Pythagoras, peaks thus: That "Pythagoras, upon the death of one of his affociates whofe name was Calliphon, a Crotoniate by birth, affirmed that this man's foul converfed with him both night and day, and enjoined him not to pass over a place where an afs had fallen down; as alfo not to drink fuch waters as caused thirst again, and not to abstain from all forts of reproaches." After which he adds thus, "This he did and faid in imitation of the doctrines of the Jews and Thracians, which he transferred into his own philofophy." For it is very truly affirmed of this Pythagoras, that he took a great many

*This is a thing well known by the learned, that we are not fecure that we have any genuine writings of Pythagoras; thofe Golden Verses, which are his best remains, being generally fuppofed to have been written not by himself, but by fome .........f his scholars only, in agreement with what Josephus here affirms of him.

of the laws of the Jews into his own philofophy. Nor was our nation unknown of old to feveral of the Grecian cities, and indeed was thought worthy of imitation by fome of them. This is declared by Theophraftus, in his writings concerning laws; for he fays, "That the laws of the Tyrians forbid men to fwear foreign oaths." Among which he enumerates fome others, and particularly that called Corban; which oath can only be found among the Jews, and declares what a man may call A thing devoted to God. Nor indeed was Herodotus of Halicarnaffus unacquainted with our nation, but mentions it after a way of his own, when he faith thus, in the fecond book concerning the Colchians. His words are thefe: "The only people who were circumcifed in their privy members origin. ally, were the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians; but the Phenicians and those Syrians that are in Palestine contefs that they learned it from the Egyptians. And for thofe Syrians who live about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, and their neighbours the Macrones, they fay they have lately learned it from the Colchians; for these are the only people that are circumcised among mankind, and appear to have done the very fame thing with the Egyptains. But as for the Egyptians and Ethiopians themfelves, I am not able to say which of them received it from the other." This therefore is what Herodotus fays, "That the Syrians that are in Palestine are circumciled." But there are no inhabitants of Palefine that are circumcifed excepting the Jews; and therefore, it must be his knowledge of them that enabled him to speak fo much concerning them. Cherilus alfo, a ftill ancienter writer, anda

Whether these verses of Cherilus, the heathen poet, in the days of Xerxes, belong to the Solymi in Pifidia, that were near a small lake, or to the Jews that dwelt on the Solymean or Jerufalem mountains, near the great and broad lake A(phaltitis, that were a strange people, and spake the Phenician tongue, is not agreed on by the learned. It is yet certain that Jofephus here, and Eufebius, Præp. IX 9 P. 412. took them to be Jews; and I confefs I cannot but very much incline to the fame opinion. The other Solymi were not a Atrange people, but heathen idolaters, like the other parts of Xerxes's army; and that thefe (pake the Phenician tongue, is next to impoffible, as the Jews certainly did; nor is there the leaft evidence for it elfewhere Nor was the lake adjoining to the mountains of the Solymi at all large or broad, in comparison of the Jewish lake Afphaltitis; nor indeed were these so confiderable a people as the Jews, nor fo likely to be defired by Xerxes for his army as the Jews, to whom he was always very favourable. As for the rest of Cherilas's defcription, that "their heads were footy; that they had round rasures on their heads; that their heads and faces were like nafty horse heads, which had been hardened in the smoke;" these awkward characters probably fitted the Solymi of Pi. fidia no better than they did the Jews in Judea. And indeed this reproachful language here given these people is to me a strong indication that they were the poor defpicable Jews, and not the Pifidian Solymi celebrated in Homer, whom CheriJus here describes; nor are we to expect that either Cherilus or Hecateus, or any other Fagan writers cited by Jofephus and Eufebius made no mistakes in the Jewish hiftory. If by comparing their teftimonies with the more authentic records of that nation, we find them for the main to confirm the fame, as we almost always do, we ought to be fatisfied and not expect that they ever had an exact knowledge of all The circumftances of the Jewish affairs, which indeed it was almost always impof. Able for them to have. See fec. 23.