The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended - To which is Prefix'd, A Short Chronicle from the First - Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest of Persia by - Alexander the Great by Isaac Newton
page 44 of 295 (14%)
page 44 of 295 (14%)
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As for the Chronology of the _Latines_, that is still more uncertain. _Plutarch_ [18] represents great uncertainties in the Originals of _Rome_, and so doth _Servius_ [19]. The old Records of the _Latines_ were burnt [20] by the _Gauls_, an hundred and twenty years after the Regifuge, and sixty-four years before the death of _Alexander_ the great: and _Quintus Fabius Pictor_, [21] the oldest Historian of the _Latines_, lived an hundred years later than that King, and took almost all things from _Diocles Peparethius_, a _Greek_. The Chronologers of _Gallia_, _Spain_, _Germany_, _Scythia_, _Swedeland_, _Britain_ and _Ireland_ are of a date still later; for _Scythia_ beyond the _Danube_ had no letters, 'till _Ulphilas_ their Bishop formed them; which was about six hundred years after the death of _Alexander_ the great: and _Germany_ had none 'till it received them, from the western Empire of the _Latines_, above seven hundred years after the death of that King. The _Hunns_, had none in the days of _Procopius_, who flourished 850 years after the death of that King: and _Sweden_ and _Norway_ received them still later. And things said to be done above one or two hundred years before the use of letters, are of little credit. _Diodorus_, [22] in the beginning of his History tells us, that he did not define by any certain space the times preceding the _Trojan_ War, because he had no certain foundation to rely upon: but from the _Trojan_ war, according to the reckoning of _Apollodorus_, whom he followed, there were eighty years to the Return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_; and that from that Period to the first Olympiad, there were three hundred and twenty eight years, computing the times from the Kings of the _Lacedæmonians_. _Apollodorus_ followed _Eratosthenes_, and both of them followed _Thucydides_, in reckoning eighty years from the _Trojan_ war to the Return of the _Heraclides_: but in reckoning 328 years from that Return |
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