A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4825. A. C. 586. 1 KINGS vili. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON.

the son of Ascanius, about the succession to the kingdom; but as the relations of Lavinia had the more prevalent interest in the country, the matter was so compromised that Iulus was made high priest, and Sylvius king, in whose family the kingdom continued for several generations, and every succeeding prince was named Sylvius.

some good providence had wonderfully preserved; and, being confirmed in his opinion by the information of Faustulus, who had brought them up, he entered into a conspiracy with them, against his brother Amulius, wherein it was agreed, that Romulus with his men should privately enter the city, and being joined with such forces as Remus could muster up in Numitor's family, should, Of this race was Latinus the Second, grandson to all on a sudden, attack the palace, and seize the king. Sylvius, who built several towns on the borders of The plot succeeded. Amulius was taken and killed; Latium; and their inhabitants, standing much upon the and after that Numitor had congratulated his grandsons honour of their original, were afterwards called Prisci upon their success, he ascended the rostrum, and in a Latini. Of this race was Tiberinus, who, as some say, full assembly of people, declared how wicked and inwas drowned in the Tiber, and from that unhappy acci-human his brother Amulius had been; that these were dent gave name to the river. Of this race was Aventinus, his two grandchildren; how they were born, and bred who, by being buried in the place, gave name to one of up, and cane to be discovered; and that by their conthe mountains on which Rome was built; and of this race was Procas, who, after his death, left his two sons, Numitor and Amulius, to reign alternately every year; but Amulius the younger deposed Numitor, slew his son Ægisthus, and to cut off the whole race, compelled his daughter Ilia to enter into a vow of perpetual virginity, by becoming a priestess to the goddess Vesta. Her vow however did not last long; for a certain soldier found means to get her with child, but to cover the disgrace, a report was raised, that all this was done by Mars, the god of war. At length she was delivered of two sons, Romulus and Remus, whom their uncle Amulius commanded to be drowned, and their mother to be buried alive, as being the punishment which the law inflicted, when vestal virgins had violated their chastity.

Whether the mother underwent this punishment, or, as some will have it, upon the entreaty of Antho, the daughter of Amulius, obtained her pardon, it is certain that the two children were thrown into the Tiber, in order to be drowned; but as the stream was low, and much mud was in the place, a certain woman, named Lupa, found them before they were dead, and having suckled | them for some time, from whence the story of their being nursed by a she-wolf took its rise, brought them at length to Faustulus, the king's shepherd, who recommended them to the care of his wife Laurentia, and so they were both preserved.

trivance it was that the tyrant was taken off'; whereupon the people immediately came to a resolution, that Numitor should be their king, and that, next under him, Romulus and Remus should be held in the greatest veneration.

As soon as these matters were settled and adjusted, the two young princes (to perpetuate the memory of their preservation) resolved to build a city upon the spot where they had been nourished and brought up; and several of the neighbouring people, as well as their own men, came in to their assistance. It was not much doubted, but that this new city would, in process of time, outvie all the other towns in Italy; but then, as the two brothers were twins, and it was not well known which was the elder, they agreed to determine, by the flight of birds who should give the name to the city, and upon the grandfather Numitor's decease, which of them should reign first.

To this purpose they went each of them to the top of an hill, Romulus ascended what was afterwards called Palatinus, and Remus Aventinus, from whence he discovered six vultures first; but his brother afterwards saw twelve, so that the dispute was never the nearer an end. Remus laid claim to the sovereignty, because he saw the first vultures, and Romulus because he saw the most; insomuch that from words proceeding to blows, Remus was unhappily slain by his brother, and, in his death, put an end to the controversy.

As soon as they came to a proper age, they lived at first in the capacity of shepherds; but being naturally When the city was built, Romulus called it Roma, of a brave and martial temper, they applied themselves, which, in the Greek tongue, signified strength, and not not only to the business of hunting wild beasts, but of by his own name Romula, because it was a diminutive. clearing the country likewise of such gangs of robbers, As the city, however, when finished, had not a sufficient as came to plunder and infest it; so that, in a short stock of inhabitants, he found out an expedient to time, the fame of their adventures made multitudes of remedy this defect, by making a neighbouring grove an the neighbouring youth, who were of the like complexion, asylum or place of refuge, to all malefactors and disresort unto them. Enraged at their proceedings, a contented persons; so that, in a short time, vast numstrong company of these robbers set upon them at a cer-bers of all nations, that could not live in their own tain time, and though Romulus defended himself against their attack, took Remus prisoner, and pretending that he had plundered the estate of his grandfather Numitor, delivered him to king Amulius, who sent him to his brother Numitor, to be executed for the fact.

When Remus was brought before Numitor, he behaved with such courage and intrepidity, that he could not but suspect something uncommon in him; and thereupon hearing that he had another brother, and that they were twins, and comparing their age with the time when his daughter Ilia's two children were exposed, he began to think, that these, without doubt, must be the boys whom

country with safety fled hither for protection, and peopled the city. These inhabitants however could last but for one age, because they were most of them men, and when they desired to marry with their neighbours, were rejected

'Florus makes the occasion of the death of Remus to he another matter: for having observed that Romulus, by the greater number of the vultures which he saw, had got the better, and built his city, with good hopes that it would be remarkable for warlike aflairs, because those birds were accounted hirds of prey; ere the walls were raised to any great height, his brother Remus made a jest of them; which exasperated the other to that degree, that he ordered him immediately to he slain,

A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4825. A. C. 586. 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON

himself acceptable to the Medes; to persuade them to invade the Assyrian empire, and, in hopes of regaining their liberty, to draw the Persians into the like confederacy. On the other hand, Belesis prevailed with the Babylonians to revolt, and gained the king of Arabia, with whom he had a very great intimacy, to his party; so that, when all their forces were joined together, the army is said to have consisted of 400,000 men.

Sardanapalus, seeing such a strong confederacy and combination of arms against him, thought it high time to shake off his sloth; and having drawn forth the forces of the rest of the provinces, he engaged the enemy thrice, and as many times defeated them. In the first action he pursued them to the mountains, seventy furlongs beyond Nineveh. In the second he so defeated them, that they were all upon the point of returning home, had not Belesis, who was a Babylonish priest, and pretended to great skill in astrology and divination, given them

with scorn; so that they were under a necessity to get themselves wives by some stratagem or other. To this purpose Romulus proclaimed a feast, and public games, in the honour of Neptune, to be celebrated near his new city; and when the virgins from every quarter came thither to see and divert themselves, upon a signal given, they ere all seized by force, carried into the city and compelled to become wives to those that wanted them. Exasperated with this base treatment, the neighbouring people immediately prepared for war, but are repulsed with loss by the Romans; till the Sabines, who were their most formidable enemy, and principally concerned in the late affront, marched against them, and, under the command of their king, Tatius, were just upon giving them a total defeat; when their daughters, who were now become wives to the Romans, ran between the two armies, and with their hair torn, and all other indications of sorrow, acquainted their parents that they had been used civilly, and that, if matters were carried to such extremities, nothing could be expected on their side but ruin and that he was an excellent astronomer, and when he came to a Whatever skill he might pretend to in astrology, it is certain destruction. Hereupon their parents, being overcome Babylon, and was made emperor there, set himself to rectify the by their prayers, and tears, and arguments, laid aside Chaldean year, which seems to have stood unaltered from the all angry resentment, and entered into a treaty with their flood till that time. The ancient year of the Chaldeans consisted sons-in-law, which succeeded so well, that several of them of 360 days, or of twelve months, with thirty days to each month; left their ancient habitations, and came with all their sub-the suu to the same point of the equinox, the Egyptians, in the but as this was five days and a quarter less than the revolution of stance, and lived in Rome. From so small a beginning time of Thoth, their second king, and grandson of Ham, added did this city gradually increase to be the seat of the wes- five days to the year, so that every year consisted exactly of 365 tern empire, and the mistress of the then known world! days. But then, in four years there was one day less than in so One very remarkable event more, which happened the many Julian years, which in a great length of time, namely, in 1460 years, made the beginning of the year run through all the very next year after the building of Rome, namely, in seasons. To prevent this inconsistency, the Chaldeans, about the twelfth year of Jotham king of Judah, and the thir- every six years, added to their year of 360 days an intercalary teenth of Pekah king of Israel, was the dissolution of month, which made their years unequal; and therefore Belesis, the Assyrian monarchy upon the death of Sardanapalus, ing that their year was equal, though not absolutely perfect, rebeing well acquainted with the Egyptian astronomers, and findas several heathen authors have thus related it. This duced the Babylonian year to the same standard, that is, he made emperor exceeded all his predecessors, in sloth and vo- it consist of 365 days, which were divided into twelve months, luptuousness. He clothed himself in women's attire; of thirty days each, and five days, which were added at the end of the year. But then, because, in each of these years there he painted his face, and decked his body more like a would be a redundant quarter of a day, and in four years, strumpet than a king; he affected an effeminate voice; one whole day, instead of the bissextile day, as it is in the Julian spun fine wool and purple among his concubines, and computation, he began every fourth year a day sooner. This alproceeded to such a degree of luxury and shamelessness, teration he ordered to begin in the first year of his reign, and that he wrote verses in commemoration of his dissolute for so Belesis was likewise named, which continued in Egypt to from thence it was called "the famous era of Nabonassar," manner of life, and commanded, after his death, to have the death of Anthony and Cleopatra, and was afterwards in use them inscribed on his tomb. among the mathematicians and astronomers to the time of PtoleThe kings of the east seldom appeared in public: but my, who made his canon by this account, which is justly esteemed the surest and most useful guide of ancient chronology, where the Sardanapalus was never seen by any, but such only as sacred historians are silent.-Bedford's Scrip. Chron, b. vi. c. 2. were either assistants or associates in his lasciviousness; Whiston's Theory, b. ii.; and Chron. of the Old Testament, p. until Arbaces, the general of the Median forces, bribed 12. [It is not probable that the Chaldean astronomers, in whose one of his eunuchs, by giving him a golden cup, to be country must have been preserved much of the learning of the anintroduced into his presence; where, seeing his vile de- of their science from the Egyptians, whose ancestors, at their first tediluvian world, were under the necessity of borrowing any part generate behaviour, he began to think it a disparagement, emigration from Babylonia, must have carried with them from that that so many brave and gallant men should be under the country the rudiments at least of all their own science. Accord dominion of a worthless wretch, that affected to be a ingly the account of the origin of the famous era of Nabonassar, spinster rather than a king. This he communicated to dean history and antiquities, differs considerably from this. which Syncellus has given us, from the earliest writers on Chalhis friends and acquaintances, to the governors of seve- "Nabonassar," says he, as quoted by Dr Hales, having cl ral provinces, but more especially to Belesis, the gover-lected the acts of his predecessors, destroyed them, in order that ror of Babylon, with whom he entered into a close con- the computation of the reigns of the Chaldean kings might be federacy to depose the present emperor, and to divide his dominions between them, whereof Belesis was to have Babylon, Chaldea, and Arabia, and himself all

made from himself." Such was the origin of the era of Nabonas sar, which that monarch made to begin, with his own reign, the 26th day of February, B. C. 747, and the year employed in it, was the movable year of twelve equal months of thirty days each, to which were added five supernumerary days. This year, which had been in common use among the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Armenians, Persians, and other oriental nations, from time immemorial, ran through all the seasons in the course of 1461 years, which was therefore considered as the grand Nabonass rian period or annus magnus of the Chaldean astronomers, t

A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 1825. A. C. 586. 1 KINGS viii TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. assurance, that God would at last reward their labours city, it tore along with it twenty fathoms of the wall with success. In the third engagement Arbaces himself which Sardanapalus concluding to be the accomplishment was wounded, and his army routed, and pursued as far of the oracle, because by this means the river was apparas the mountains of Babylon; so that the chief officers ently become an enemy to the city, he grew quite dispiritwere for dispersing and shifting for themselves, when ed, and gave up all for lost. However, to prevent his Belesis gave them once more assurance, that if they falling into the hands of the enemy, he caused a large pile would but continue together for five days longer, every of wood a to be made in the court of his palace, and there thing in that time would have a different turn. heaping up together all his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and having enclosed his eunuchs and concubines in the midst of it, ordered it to be set on fire, and so burned himself and them together. The only action wherein1 those historians, who make no mention of his victories, represent him as a valiant man! Arbaces, being informed of this, marched his army through the breach of the wall, and took the city. After this he rewarded his followers according to their merit; made Belesis governor of Babylonia, Chaldea, and Arabia, according to their compact, and took the rest of the empire to himself; which put an end to the Assyrian monarchy, after it had governed all Asia 2 above thirteen hundred years, and, according to the vision which Daniel 3 had of it, in its conquests had been as swift as an eagle, but now its wings were plucked. b

With much entreaty was the army prevailed on not to disperse, when suddenly news was brought, that a great enforcement was coming from Bactria to join the king, so that the only game which Arbaces had to play was, to march against them, and by all means imaginable, prevail with them to revolt; wherein he succeeded beyond all men's hopes and expectations, and so gave another turn to the face of affairs.

Sardanapalus, in the mean time, knowing nothing of this, and being elated with his repeated successes, was indulging his sloth and luxury, and preparing beasts for sacrifice, with plenty of wine, and other things necessary to feast and entertain his soldiers; when Arbaces, having intelligence by deserters in what condition his army lay, fearless of any foe, and overcome already with surfeiting and drunkenness, broke into their camp by night, and, having made a terrible slaughter of most of them, forced the rest into the city,

The king, after this defeat, took upon him the defence of the place, and committed the charge of the army to Salamenus, the queen's brother; but Salamenus was worsted in two pitched battles, one in the open field, and the other before the walls of Nineveh, where himself was slain, and most of his men cut to pieces; so that all the resource which Sardanapalus had, was to sustain the siege as long as he could, until the succours, which he had sent for out of all his provinces, should come to his assistance; and this he had some hopes of being able to do, because there was an ancient prophecy, "that Nineveh never could be taken by force, until the river became its enemy."

Arbaces, on the other hand, was much encouraged by his successes, and carried on the siege with the utmost vigour; but the prodigious strength of the walls, which were an hundred feet high, and so very broad, that three chariots might go abreast upon them, and the vast plenty of all manner of stores and provisions, necessary for a long defence, hindered him from making any considerable progress.

Thus two years were spent, without any prospect of relief on the one side, or of taking the town on the other. In the third year, a continued fall of rains made the Tygris overflow to such a degree, that coming into the

much the same reason that 4714 has been considered as the grand Julian period by the astronomers of modern Europe. Hence the astronomical era of Nabonassar, or annus magnus of the Chaldeans, commenced on the 28th day of March, B. C. 867, near 120 years before the Historic era; and the king and his counselJors were induced to fix on that year and day for the commencement of their grand or astronomical period, because there was a synchronism of the new moon and vernal equinox on that day, which was likewise the beginning of the Chaldean year. It is, however, the historical era that was in common use among chronologers; and its freedom from intercalation rendering it peculiarly convenient for astronomical calculations, it was adopted by the early Greek astronomers Timachares and Hipparchus, and by Ptolemy and others of the Alexandrian school in Egypt.]-Hales's Analysis, vol. i. p. 155, second edition.-ED.

a Concerning this pile, Athenæus informs us that it was four hundred feet high, upon which he placed one hundred and fifty golden beds, and as many golden tables; that he had thrown into it some millions of talents of gold and silver, besides the this pile was fifteen days in burning. To which Diodorus adds, richest furniture of purple, and the finest garments; and that that Belesis, by craft, obtained leave of Arbaces to carry off the ashes, under pretence of building an altar with them at Babylon, But all this by which means he gained an immense treasure. ture Chronology, b. vi. c. 2. in the notes. looks more like a romance than a true story.-Bedford's Scrip

b The following is Dr Hales's table of this period, confessedly the most difficult part of sacred chronology, and the account of the principles on which he has harmonized the different reigns,

in his own words:

A. M. 3394. A. C. 610; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4825. A. C. 586, 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. of some of the correspondences in the years of their respective | until the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam II. (2 Kings xv. 1; reigns, with the direct lengths of those reigns; and 2. from not 2 Chron. xxvi. 1;) therefore, from the death of Amaziah to the critically determining the duration of the two interregnums or succession of his son Uzziah, there was an interregnum of 27vacancies, in the succession of the latter kings, so as to make 16-11 years. 2. Jeroboam II. began to reign in the fifteenth them correspond with the former throughout. The whole is year of Amaziah, king of Judah, and reigned forty-one years, here adjusted and harmonized, and it is hoped, satisfactorily, (2 Kings xiv. 23;) he died, therefore, in the sixteenth year of upon the following principles :—1. The standard of the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah; but Zechariah, his son, did not succeed the kings of Judah is considered as correct; for it is verified by him till the thirty-eighth of Uzziah, (2 Kings xv. 8;) consethe concurrence of the books of Kings and Chronicles, the latter quently, the first interregnum in Israel lasted 38-16-22 relating especially to the kings of Judah, and of Josephus, Abul-years. 3. Pekah, king of Israel, began to reign in the fiftyfaragi, and Eutychius. The incorrectness, therefore, complained second of Uzziah, (2 Kings xv. 27; 2 Chron. xxvi. 3;) and of, must be confined to the latter series; and must be remedied, in the twentieth year of his reign was slain by Hoshea, (2 Chron. by reducing it to the former. 2. The two series of reigns agree xv. 30,) in the third year of the reign of Ahaz king of Judali, in three points of time: 1. The reigns of Rehoboam and Jero- (2 Kings xvi. 1;) but Hoshea did not begin to reign till the boam began together, or in the same year, (1 Kings xii. 1-20; twelfth year of Ahaz, (2 Kings xvii. 1.) or the thirteenth cur2 Chron. x. 1-19;) as did also, 2. The reigns of queen Atha- rent, (2 Kings xviii. 10;) consequently, the second interregnum liah and of Jehu, who slew the two kings of Judah and Israel, in Israel lasted 13-3-10 years. 6. A curious and satisfactory Ahaziah and Jehoram, the same day, (2 Kings ix. 24-27;) confirmation of this adjustment of the reigns of the kings of and, 3. Samaria was taken by the Assyrians in the ninth year of Israel, is furnished by Josephus, who reckons their amount, from Hoshea king of Israel, and in the sixth year of Hezekiah king of the revolt of the ten tribes, to the extinction of that kingdom, Judah, (2 Kings xviii. 10.) 3. Hence it necessarily follows, 240 years, (Ant. ix. 14, 1;) and if, from the whole corrected 1. That the first six reigns in Judah must be equal in length to amount, 271 years, we deduct the two interregnums, 32 years, the first eight in Israel; and also, 2. That the next seven in the remainder, 239 years, complete, or 240 current, gives the Judah, to the sixth of Hezekiah, including one interregnum, must lengths of the reigns alone. This furnishes a decisive proof of be equal to the remainder in Israel, including two interregnums. his great skill as a chronologer, in developing the length of this 4. But upon comparing the former together, it appears that the intricate and perplexed period. That he was no stranger to the first six of Judah amount to ninety-five years; whereas, the first chasm of thirty-two years in Israel, we may infer from his taking eight of Israel amount to ninety-eight years, according to the into account the eleven years of interregnum in Judah, necessary table of reigns in Scripture. Consequently, three years must be to complete his amount of the whole period, from the foundation retrenched from the latter, to reduce them to an equality with to the destruction of the temple, 441 years. 7. We are now the former. Accordingly, one year is here subtracted from each competent to detect some errors that have crept into the corres of the reigns of Baasha, Ela, and Zimri, which are thereby re- pondences of reigns; and which have hitherto puzzled and perduced from current, to complete years. And this reduction is plexed chronologers, and prevented them from critically harmonwarranted by the correspondences: for Baasha began to reign in izing the two series; not being able to distinguish the genuine the third year of Asa king of Judah, (1 Kings xv. 33;) and his from the spurious numbers. son Ela, in the twenty-sixth of Asa, (1 Kings xvi. 8,) which gives the reign of Baasha, 26-3=23 years complete. Ela was slain in the twenty-seventh of Asa, (1 Kings xvi. 10;) he reigned, therefore, only 27-26=1 year complete. And Zimri and Omri reigned in succession, from the twenty-seventh to the thirty-eighth of Asa, (1 Kings xvi. 29;) or only 38-27-11 years complete. And as their reigns were all included in the one reign of Asa, and therefore more likely to be correctly referred thereto, this is a reason why these three reigns should be selected for reduction, rather than the succeeding or the preceding. 5. Upon comparing the latter together, it appears that there was one interregnum in the kingdom of Judah, of eleven years, and two in Israel of twenty-two years, and of ten years; which are requisite in both, to equalize the two periods together, of one hundred and seventysix years each; counting them from the joint accession of queen Athaliah and Jehu, to the sixth of Hezekiah, and capture of Samaria, in the same year, That the lengths of these interregnums are rightly assigned, will appear from the correspondences of reigns. 1, Amaziah king of Judah, survived the death of Jehoash king of Israel, fifteen years; he died, therefore, about the sixteenth year of his son Jeroboam II, (2 Kings xiv. 17; 2 Chron. xxv. 25;) but Azariah, or Uzziah, did not begin to reign

* That the reigns in these lists are all computed, in current time, according to the popular mode of computation in the east, and every where, may further be collected from that of Zedekiah, eleven years; which actually was only ten years, four months, and eight days, supposing the first year to have been complete. Compare 2 Kings xxiv. 18, with xxv. 2-4.

1.Jehoshaphat began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab,' (1 Kings xxi. 41.) It should be the second.

2. Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in the seventeenth of Jehoshaphat,' (1 Kings xxii. 51.) It should be the twentieth of Jehoshaphat.

3. Jehoram, the son of Ahaziah, began to reign over Israel in the second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat,' (2 Kings i. 17.) It should be in the twenty-second year of Jehoshaphat; as also, where it is again incorrectly stated, in the eighteenth, (2 Kings iii. 1.)

4. Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, began to reign over Judah, in the fifth year of the reign of Joram, the [grand] son of Ahab,' (2 Kings viii. 16.) It should be the fifth year from the death of Ahab; or the third year of Joram's reign. Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah,' is an anachronism, and an interpolstion in the Masorite text.

5. Jehoash began to reign over Israel in the thirty-seventh year of Joash, king of Judah,' (2 Kings xiii. 10.) It should be the thirty-ninth year; as in the accurate Aldine edition of the Greek Septuagint..

6. The correspondences by which the interregnum in Judah was collected, are incorrect; they should be 25-14-11 years. 7. Hoshea slew Pekah king of Israel, in the twentieth year of Jotham,' (2 Kings xv. 30.) But Jotham reigned only sixteen years, (2 Kings xv. 33) It should be in the third year of Ahaz, as collected from 2 Kings xvi. 1.—ED.

THE

HISTORY OF THE BIBLE.

BOOK VII.

CONTAINING AN ACCOUnt of thinGS FROM THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY TO THE birth of CHRIST, IN ALL 588 YEARS,-According to dR HALES 586.