Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
We shall discuss a little later how the doctrines of the philosophers were pilfered from the Hebrews; but first, as follows in order, we must now speak of the times of Moses, by which it will be shown beyond dispute that the philosophy of the Hebrews is the most ancient of all wisdom. Now these matters have been treated accurately by Tatian in his Address to the Greeks, and likewise by Cassian, in the opening book of his work called Exegetica; nevertheless our undertaking requires that we too survey again what has already been stated on this topic. Apion the grammarian, then, surnamed Pleistonices, in book four of his history of Egypt, although disposed with hostility toward the Hebrews (being himself Egyptian by birth, so much so that he even wrote a treatise against the Jews), when he mentions Amosis, king of the Egyptians, and what was done under his rule, cites as his witness Ptolemy of Mendes. And his words run thus: "Amosis razed Avaris, living at the same period as Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemy of Mendes recorded within his Chronicles." Now this Ptolemy was a priest, and having laid out, across three complete volumes, the acts of the Egyptian kings, he states that under Amosis, king of Egypt, with Moses as leader, the Jews made their departure from Egypt; from which one gathers that Moses lived in the era of Inachus.
Of Greek affairs the most ancient are those of Argos, that is, those beginning with Inachus, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches in his Chronicles; and of these, Attic affairs, beginning with the two-natured Cecrops (himself likewise earth-born), are, as Tatian states in his own account, forty generations more recent, while Arcadian affairs, beginning with Pelasgus (who is also said to be earth-born), come nine generations later still. Later than both of these by yet more generations are the Phthiotic affairs, beginning with Deucalion. Counting down to the Trojan war from Inachus, some twenty generations, or one beyond that, are reckoned, amounting roughly to upward of four hundred years. But if Assyrian history is many years senior to Greek history, as Ctesias claims, then Moses' exodus from Egypt, which happened during the era of the Egyptian Amosis and the Argive Inachus, will turn out to fall in year four hundred and two of the Assyrian empire, and year thirty-two of the eighth dynasty, that ruled by Belochus. Now within Greece, during the era of Phoroneus, successor to Inachus, there took place the deluge of Ogyges and the founding of the Sicyonian kingdom—first under Aegialeus, then Europs, then Telchis—together with the reign of Cres over Crete. For Acusilaus records that Phoroneus was mankind's very first man; hence the author of the Phoronis likewise names him father of mortals.
Hence Plato, in the Timaeus, echoing Acusilaus, writes: and wishing on one occasion to draw them into a discourse concerning antiquity, he sets out to recount for them the oldest traditions belonging to this city, starting with Phoroneus, called the first, and with Niobe, and the events following the deluge. During Phorbas' era came Actaeus, whence Attica takes its name Actaea. During Triopas' era came Prometheus, Atlas, Epimetheus, the two-natured Cecrops, and Io. During Crotopus' era came the great burning under Phaethon and the flood under Deucalion. During Sthenelus' era came both Amphictyon's kingship and Danaus's landing in the Peloponnese, plus Dardanus's founding of Dardania—whom, Homer says, cloud-gathering Zeus fathered first—and also Europa's crossing from Phoenicia over to Crete. During Lynceus' era came the maiden's abduction, the founding of the holy precinct at Eleusis, Triptolemus's cultivation of grain, Cadmus's coming to Thebes, and Minos's reign. During Proetus' era came Eumolpus's war upon the Athenians. During Acrisius' era came Pelops's crossing from Phrygia, Ion's coming to Athens, a second man named Cecrops, and the feats of Perseus and Dionysus, together with Orpheus and Musaeus.
In year eighteen of Agamemnon's reign, Troy fell, which was also year one of Demophon son of Theseus ruling at Athens; this happened on Thargelion's twelfth day, according to Dionysius of Argos—though Agias and Dercylus name Panemus's twenty-third, and Hellanicus likewise names Thargelion's twelfth. Certain Attic historians instead give the twenty-third, in Menestheus's final regnal year, at full moon: "It was midnight," writes the poet who composed the Little Iliad,"and the moon shone brightly as it rose"; still others place it on that same date in Scirophorion. Theseus, an imitator of Heracles, predates the Trojan events by one generation. In any case, Homer names Tlepolemus, a son of Heracles, as campaigning against Troy.
Moses, then, is demonstrated to precede Dionysus's deification by six hundred and four years, given that Dionysus was made divine in Perseus's thirty-second regnal year, as Apollodorus states in his Chronicles. Counting from Dionysus down to Heracles and the comrades of Jason who sailed aboard the Argo, sixty-three years are counted; Asclepius and the Dioscuri sailed together with that crew, as Apollonius of Rhodes attests within the Argonautica. From Heracles's reign at Argos down to the deification of both Heracles and Asclepius, thirty-eight years are counted, per the chronicler Apollodorus. From that point to Castor and Polydeuces's deification, fifty-three years. Around this same span falls Troy's capture too. But if we ought also to trust the poet Hesiod, let us hear his words: "And to Zeus, Atlas's daughter Maia bore glorious Hermes, herald among the immortals, having entered his sacred bed; and Cadmus's daughter Semele bore him a splendid son, having joined with him in love—joyous Dionysus."
Cadmus, Semele's father, arrived at Thebes during Lynceus's era and became the one who introduced letters to Greece, while Triopas is contemporary with Isis, seven generations removed from Inachus (they claim Isis is also styled Io, on account of her wandering across the whole world); and Istrus, writing on the Egyptian colony, calls her Prometheus's daughter. Prometheus, in Triopas's era, falls seven generations after Moses, so that even prior to mankind's origin according to Greek reckoning, Moses is already seen to have lived. And Leon, author of a work on Egypt's gods, states that Isis is termed Demeter by the Greeks, who during Lynceus's era falls eleven generations after Moses. And Apis, king of Argos, founded Memphis, as Aristippus relates in the opening volume of his Arcadica. This man, Aristeas of Argos says, bore the surname Sarapis, and is the very one the Egyptians worship; while Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in volume three of his Customs of Asia, states that the bull Apis, upon dying and being embalmed, was set in a coffin within the shrine of the honored deity, hence called Soroapis, and later, through a certain local custom, Sarapis.
Apis ranks third from Inachus. Indeed, Leto too shares her era with Tityus, for "Tityus outraged Leto, Zeus's honored consort"—and Tityus lived alongside Tantalus. Fittingly, then, Pindar the Boeotian writes: "In time Apollo was born"—nothing strange in this, seeing he is even found in service to Admetus for a whole great year, together with Heracles. Zethus and Amphion, who first discovered music, lived around Cadmus's generation. And should anyone claim Phemonoe was first to deliver oracles, to Acrisius, let that person know that twenty-seven years beyond Phemonoe comes the circle of Orpheus, Musaeus, and Linus, who taught Heracles. Homer and Hesiod are considerably later than the Trojan events, and after them, later still by far, come the Greek lawgivers—Lycurgus and Solon—and the Seven Sages, along with the circle of Pherecydes of Syros and great Pythagoras, who lived somewhere around the era of the Olympiads, as already demonstrated. And so, regarding most of the Greek gods, not merely those termed wise men and poets, Moses has been shown by us to be the elder.
Nor is he alone in this, for the Sibyl too predates Orpheus; many accounts circulate concerning both her name and the oracles credited to her renown—that, being Phrygian, she went by Artemis, and that, upon reaching Delphi, she sang: "O Delphians, attendants of far-shooting Apollo, I have come to declare the mind of aegis-bearing Zeus, being angry at my own brother Apollo." There is also a second Sibyl, the Erythraean one, called Herophile; Heraclides of Pontus records both in his treatise on prophetic oracles. I set aside here the Egyptian Sibyl, along with the Italian one who lived at Carmalus in Rome, whose son Evander established in Rome the Pan-shrine known as the Lupercal.
Having reached this point, it is worthwhile for us to examine as well the chronology of the remaining prophets who arose among the Hebrews following Moses.
After Moses' life ended, Joshua takes over leadership of the people, fighting for sixty-five years and then resting a further twenty-five in the good land. As the book of Joshua records it, that same man led in Moses' place for twenty-seven years. Then, having sinned, the Hebrews were delivered into the hands of Chushan-rishathaim, ruler of Mesopotamia, for a span of eight years, according to the book of Judges; but afterward, having implored God, they gained as leader Othniel, Caleb's younger brother from the tribe of Judah, who, after killing the king of Mesopotamia, governed the people for fifty consecutive years. Sinning once more, they were delivered to Eglon, ruler of the Moabites, for eighteen years; and upon turning back again, Ehud governed them for eighty years—a left-handed man from the tribe of Ephraim; this same man killed Eglon.
When Ehud died, they sinned once more and were handed to Jabin, ruler of Canaan, for twenty years; during that period Deborah, spouse of Lapidoth from the tribe of Ephraim, spoke prophecy, while Uzzi son of Bukki served as high priest. Under her guidance, Barak son of Abinoam, from the tribe of Naphtali, mustered his forces against Sisera, Jabin's chief commander, and prevailed; from then Deborah governed the people as judge across forty years. After her death, the people sinned again and were handed to the Midianites for seven years. During this span Gideon, from the tribe of Manasseh, son of Joash, marched to war with three hundred twelve thousand men and, after destroying the enemy, governed for forty years. His son Abimelech then governed after him for three years. Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, from the tribe of Ephraim, followed, governing for twenty-three years. After him the people, sinning yet again, were handed to the Ammonites for eighteen years.
Upon their repentance, Jephthah of Gilead, from the tribe of Manasseh, led them and governed for six years; after him Ibzan of Bethlehem, from the tribe of Judah, governed seven years, then Elon the Zebulunite eight years, then Abdon the Ephraimite eight years. Some combine Elon's eight years with Ibzan's seven. And after him the people, sinning yet again, fell under Philistine domination for forty years. Upon turning back, Samson, from the tribe of Dan, led them, having beaten the foreigners in battle. He governed for twenty years. After him, no ruler having arisen, Eli the priest served the people as judge for forty years. Samuel the prophet succeeded him, and in Samuel's era Saul reigned, holding power twenty-seven years. Samuel is also the one who anointed David.
Samuel died two years prior to Saul, under the high priesthood of Abimelech. It was this Abimelech who anointed Saul king, the first man to rule over Israel once the era of judges had closed; the total count of years down to Samuel comes to four hundred sixty-three years and seven months. Then, per the first book of Kingdoms, Saul reigned twenty years, having been reconfirmed as king. Following Saul's death, David reigns a second time, at Hebron—Jesse's son from the tribe of Judah—for forty years, as the second book of Kingdoms records; Abiathar son of Ahimelech, of Eli's line, served as high priest, and Gad and Nathan prophesied during his time. From Joshua son of Nun until David took the kingdom, then, some count four hundred fifty years, while by the chronology laid out here, five hundred twenty-three years and seven months are reckoned up to David's death.
After these events Solomon, David's son, reigned forty years. During his time Nathan went on prophesying, and it was he who urged Solomon regarding the temple's construction; Ahijah of Shiloh likewise prophesied, and both David and Solomon were themselves prophets in their own right. Zadok the high priest was first to minister within the temple Solomon erected, being eighth in line from Aaron, the very first high priest. From Moses to Solomon's era, then, some count five hundred ninety-five years, others five hundred seventy-six. But should one take the four hundred fifty years running from Joshua to David and add to them Moses' own forty campaign-years, plus the further eighty years he had lived before the Hebrews' departure from Egypt occurred, and add on top of these the forty years of David's reign, the grand total would reach six hundred ten years.
But our chronology proceeds with greater precision if, to the five hundred twenty-three years and seven months running down to David's death, one adds Moses' hundred twenty years along with Solomon's forty years; the total, down to Solomon's death, will then reach a span of six hundred eighty-three years plus seven months. It was Hiram who gave his own daughter in marriage to Solomon, and it was during this period that Menelaus also arrived in Phoenicia following Troy's capture, as Menander of Pergamum and Laetus report in their Phoenician History. After Solomon, his son Rehoboam reigned seventeen years, with Abimelech son of Zadok as high priest. In his reign, once the kingdom had split, Jeroboam—Solomon's former servant, from the tribe of Ephraim—reigned over Samaria; Ahijah the Shilonite continued prophesying, as did Shemaiah son of Elam, and also the man who journeyed out of Judah to confront Jeroboam and prophesied at the altar.
After him his son Abijam reigned for twenty-three years, and likewise his own son Asa for forty-one; this man, in old age, suffered from gout, with Jehu son of Hanani prophesying in his day. After him his son Jehoshaphat reigned for twenty-five years; during that time Elijah the Tishbite prophesied, along with Micaiah son of Imlah and Obadiah son of Hanani. And alongside Micaiah there was also a false prophet, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah. Next comes the reign of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat for eight years, during which Elijah prophesied, and after Elijah, Elisha son of Shaphat. In that period the people of Samaria ate the dung of doves, and even their own children. Jehoshaphat's era spans from the closing part of the third book of Kingdoms into the fourth. Under Jehoram, Elijah was taken up, and Elisha son of Shaphat, then forty years old, began a six-year span of prophesying. Ahaziah then reigned one year; during his time Elisha still prophesied, together with Obadiah.
After him Gotholia, the mother of Ozias, rules for eight years, and puts to death her brother's own children, being herself of the house of Achaab. But the sister of Ozias, Iosabaia, stole away Ozias's son Ioas and later invested him with the kingdom. Under this Gotholia, Elissaeus still prophesies, and after her, as I said before, Ioas reigns, the one saved by Iosabaia, wife of Iodae the high priest, and the total comes to forty years. So there is gathered, from Solomon to the death of Elissaeus the prophet, by some counts one hundred five years, by other counts one hundred two, though our present chronological table gives, reckoning from Solomon's reign, one hundred eighty-one years.
Reckoning from the fall of Troy down to Homer's birth, Philochorus counts one hundred eighty years, later than the Ionian colonization; but Aristarchus, in his commentaries on Archilochus, says he is reported to belong to the time of the Ionian colonization, which occurred one hundred and forty years after the Trojan war. Apollodorus places him one hundred years after the Ionian colonization, in the reign of Agesilaus son of Doryssaeus over the Lacedaemonians, so that Lycurgus the lawgiver, still a young man, fell within his time. Euthymenes, in his Chronicles, says he flourished alongside Hesiod under Acastus in Chios, about the two-hundredth year after the fall of Ilium. Archemachus too, in the third book of his Euboean History, holds this same opinion, so that both he and Hesiod turn out younger than Elissaeus the prophet. And if one prefers the view of Crates the grammarian, holding that Homer's life fell near the return of the Heraclidae, eighty years after the fall of Ilium, he will again be found later than Solomon, in whose time occurred the arrival of Menelaus in Phoenicia, as has been said before. Eratosthenes puts Homer's period after the hundredth year from the fall of Ilium. Theopompus, moreover, in the forty-third book of his Philippica, records that Homer came into being five hundred years following the men who made war against Ilium. Euphorion, in his work On the Aleuadae, places him during Gyges's day, whose reign started at the eighteenth Olympiad, and whom he says was the first to be called tyrant. Sosibius the Laconian, in his Register of Times, places Homer in Charillus son of Polydectes's eighth regnal year. Now Charillus reigns sixty-four years, after whom his son Nicander reigns thirty-nine years; in the thirty-fourth year of this Nicander, he says, the first Olympiad was established. So that Homer would be about ninety years before the establishment of the Olympic games.
After Ioas, his son Amasias succeeds to the kingdom for thirty-nine years; after him likewise his son Ozias for fifty-two years, and he died a leper. In his time Amos prophesies, and Esaias his son, and Osee son of Beeri, and Ionas son of Amathi from Geth-chober, who preached to the Ninevites, the one who came forth from the sea-monster. Then Ionathan son of Ozias reigns sixteen years; in his time Esaias still prophesies, and Osee, and Michaias the Morasthite, and Ioel son of Bathouel.
Him his son Achaz succeeds for sixteen years; in his fifteenth year Israel was carried away to Babylon, and Salmanasar king of the Assyrians resettled those in Samaria among the Medes and in Babylon. Again Achaz is succeeded by Osee for eight years, then Ezekias for twenty-nine years. To this man, for his holiness, when he came near the end of his life, God grants through Esaias fifteen more years of life, by the turning back of the sun. Until this time Esaias and Osee and Michaias continue prophesying. These men are reported to have flourished later than Lycurgus, lawgiver of the Spartans; Dieuchidas, in book four of his Megarian History, dates Lycurgus's prime to roughly the two hundred ninetieth year following Ilium's fall; and Esaias, reckoned from the reign of Solomon, in whose time Menelaus was shown to have gone to Phoenicia, appears still prophesying in the three-hundredth year, together with Michaias and Osee and Ioel son of Bathouel.
After Ezekias his son Manasses reigns fifty-five years, then his son Amos two years, after whom his son Iosias, most devoted to the Law, reigns thirty-one years. This man laid the bones of men upon the bones of the idols, as it is written in Leviticus. In his eighteenth year the Passover was kept, since which, [gap], from Samuel it had not been performed in the intervening time. Then too Chelkias the priest, father of the prophet Jeremias, having come upon the book of the Law laid up in the temple and having read it, died. In this man's time Olda prophesies, and Sophonias, and Jeremias. And in the time of Jeremias, Ananias arises as a false prophet. This Iosias, having disregarded Jeremias the prophet, was put to death by Nechao, Egypt's king, at the Euphrates river, having met him while marching out against the Assyrians.
Iosias is succeeded by Iechonias, also called Ioachas, his son, for three months and ten days. Nechao, Egypt's king, put him in chains and carried him off to Egypt, setting up in his place his brother Ioakeim as king, subject to tribute on the land, for eleven years. After him his namesake Ioakeim reigns three months, then Sedekias eleven years. And until this time Jeremias continues prophesying, and Bouzi and Ourias son of Samaias prophesy also, and Ambakoum together with him, and here the history of the Hebrew kings comes to an end. So there are, from the birth of Moses until this deportation, by some counts nine hundred seventy-two years; by the precise chronography, however, one thousand eighty-five years, six months and ten days; while counting from David's reign down to the captivity brought about by the Chaldaeans, four hundred and fifty-two years, six months, but as the precise reckoning of times among us gathers it, four hundred and eighty-two years, six months, ten days.
In Sedekias's twelfth regnal year, Nabuchodonosor, seventy years before the Persian dominion, campaigned against the Phoenicians and the Jews, as Berossus says in his Chaldean History. And Iobas, writing about the Assyrians, admits that he took his history from Berossus, bearing witness to the man's truthfulness. So then Nabuchodonosor, having blinded Sedekias, leads him away to Babylon and resettles the whole people (and the captivity lasts seventy years) except for a few who fled to Egypt. Jeremias and Ambakoum still prophesy even in the time of Sedekias, and in the fifth year of his reign, in Babylon, Iezekiel prophesies; after him Naoum the prophet, then Daniel; and again after him Aggaeus and Zacharias prophesy under Darius the first, for two years, after whom the Angel, one of the twelve.
After Aggaeus and Zacharias, Neemias, chief cupbearer of Artaxerxes, son of Acheli the Israelite, builds the city Jerusalem and repairs the temple. In this captivity occur Esther and Mardochaeus, whose record has come down to us, together with that of the Maccabees. Within this same captivity, Misael, Ananias, and Azarias, having refused to worship the image, were thrown into a furnace of fire and were saved through the appearance of an angel. Then also Daniel, because of a dragon, was thrown by Ambakoum into a den of lions, and, fed by the providence of God, was brought out safe on the seventh day. Here too took place the sign of Ionas, and Tobias, through Raphael the angel, takes Sarra as his wife, the demon having already killed her first seven bridegrooms; once Tobias was wed, his father Tobit regained his sight.
Here Zorobabel, having prevailed by wisdom over his rivals, obtains from Darius the renewal of Jerusalem by purchase, and together with Esdras returns to the ancestral land; through him comes about the ransoming of the people and the recognition and renewal of the inspired oracles, and the saving Passover is celebrated and the dissolution of foreign intermarriage. Cyrus too had already proclaimed beforehand the restoration of the Hebrews, and when the promise was fulfilled under Darius, the feast of the dedication is celebrated, as also had been done at the tabernacle. And the total years, together with those of the captivity, up to the restoration of the people, amount, reckoned from the birth of Moses, to 1,155 years, plus six months and ten additional days; reckoned instead from David's reign, by some accounts five hundred and fifty-two years, but more precisely five hundred and seventy-two years, with the same six months and ten days added.
There is fulfilled, then, from the captivity that occurred in the time of Jeremias the prophet into Babylon, what was spoken by Daniel the prophet, running thus: seventy weeks have been determined upon your people and upon the holy city, for sin to be finished, and for sins to be sealed up, and for iniquities to be blotted out, and for atonement to be made, and for everlasting righteousness to be brought in, and for vision and prophet to be sealed, and for the anointing of the holy of holies. And you shall know and understand, from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem until an anointed leader, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, and it shall return and a broad place and a wall shall be built, and the times shall be emptied out. And after the sixty-two weeks the anointed one shall be cut off, and there is no judgment for him. Together with the leader who comes, he shall bring ruin upon the city and its sanctuary; they shall perish as in a flood, and the war shall run its course, cut short by desolations, until the very end. For a single week he shall make firm a covenant with many; and at that week's halfway point, my offering and libation shall cease; upon the temple shall stand the abomination that desolates, and until the appointed completion, desolation shall be poured out to the full. In that week's middle he shall put an end to the incense of sacrifice and to the desolating wing, until the completion, hastened, of the desolation decreed.
That the temple was built in seven weeks is clear; for it is also written in Esdras. And thus the anointed one, leader and king of the Jews, came into being when the seven weeks were fulfilled in Jerusalem, and across those sixty-two weeks Judaea remained at peace, untouched by war, and our Lord Christ -- himself the Holy of Holies -- arrived, brought the vision and the prophecy to completion, and in those same sixty-two weeks was anointed in the flesh by his Father's spirit, just as the prophet declared. Then, in the final week, Nero, reigning at the time, occupied its first half and raised the abomination in the holy city Jerusalem; partway through that week he was killed, along with Otho, Galba and Vitellius, until Vespasian gained the upper hand, demolished Jerusalem, and left the sanctuary in ruins. And that these things are so is plain, at least to one capable of understanding, according to what the prophet has said.
When, then, the eleventh year was completed, at the beginning of the following year, in the reign of Ioakeim, the captivity into Babylon takes place, under king Nabuchodonosor, in his seventh year as king of the Assyrians, while Ouaphres was king of the Egyptians in his second year, and Philip held the archonship at Athens during the forty-eighth Olympiad's opening year; and the captivity lasted seventy years, coming to a close in Darius son of Hystaspes's second regnal year, who became king of the Persians and Assyrians and Egyptians, in whose time, as I said before, Aggaeus and Zacharias and the Angel, one of the twelve, prophesy, and Jesus son of Iosedec was high priest. And in that same king's second year -- this Darius, whom Herodotus credits with ending the Magi's rule -- Zorobabel son of Salathiel is sent to raise up and adorn the temple in Jerusalem.
The times of the Persian kings, then, are gathered thus: Cyrus occupies the throne thirty years, followed by Cambyses for nineteen, then a Darius for forty-six years, then Xerxes for twenty-six years, then Artaxerxes for forty-one years, next another Darius for eight years, then a second Artaxerxes for forty-two years, then Ochus for eight years, and finally Arses for three years. The total of the Persian years comes together to two hundred and thirty-five. And having overthrown this Darius, Alexander the Macedonian begins to reign in the years next following. Likewise, then, the times of the Macedonian kings are set down thus. Alexander eighteen years; Ptolemy, son of Lagus, holds power forty years; Ptolemy Philadelphus, twenty-seven years; next Euergetes, twenty-five years; next Philopator, seventeen years; following him Epiphanes, twenty-four years; then Philometor takes over and rules thirty-five years; after him Physcon, twenty-nine years; next Lathurus, thirty-six years; and last the one called Dionysus, twenty-nine years.
After all these Cleopatra reigned twenty-two years, after whom the reign of Cleopatra's children lasted eighteen days. The total, then, of the times of the Macedonian kings comes together to three hundred and twelve years, eighteen days. It is shown, then, that those who prophesied under Darius son of Hystaspes, in the second year of his reign — Aggaeus and Zacharias and the Angel, one of the twelve — prophesying during the forty-eighth Olympiad's first year, predate Pythagoras -- who is placed at the sixty-second Olympiad -- and predate Thales, eldest of the sages among the Greeks, whose life fell around the fiftieth Olympiad. And the sages who are counted together with Thales were his contemporaries, as Andron says in his Tripod. For Heraclitus, being later than Pythagoras, mentions him in his treatise.
Whence, without dispute, the first Olympiad would be later than the age of the aforesaid prophets, together with the so-called seven sages, and it is shown to be later than the Trojan events by four hundred and seven years. It is easy, then, to see that Solomon, whose life fell in Menelaus's day (that is, at the time of the Trojan events), was many years older than the sages among the Greeks. And by how many years Moses in turn precedes Solomon has been shown by us before. Alexander, surnamed Polyhistor, in his treatise On the Jews, has recorded certain letters, of Solomon to Ouaphres king of Egypt and to the Tyrians of Phoenicia, and their letters in turn to Solomon, from which it is shown that Ouaphres dispatched eighty thousand Egyptian workers toward the temple's construction, and the other king an equal number together with a Tyrian architect from a Jewish mother of the tribe of David, as is written there, Hyperon by name.
Furthermore, Onomacritus the Athenian, to whom the poems attributed to Orpheus are said to belong, is found under the rule of the sons of Peisistratus, about the fiftieth Olympiad, while Orpheus, who sailed with Heracles, was the teacher of Musaeus; for Amphion precedes the Trojan events by two generations, and Demodocus and Phemius flourished after the fall of Ilium (the one among the Phaeacians, the other among the suitors) for their skill on the lyre. And they say that the oracles attributed to Musaeus belong to Onomacritus, and that the Crater of Orpheus belongs to Zopyrus of Heraclea, and the Descent into Hades to Prodicus of Samos. Ion of Chios, in his Triagmoi, records that Pythagoras too ascribed certain things to Orpheus. Epigenes, in his treatise Concerning the Poems Ascribed to Orpheus, states that the Descent into Hades and the Sacred Discourse should be credited to Cercops the Pythagorean, and the Robe and the Physika to Brontinus. Some, too, place Terpander in ancient times; Hellanicus, for his part, records that his life fell within Midas's era, while Phanias, placing Lesches of Lesbos earlier than Terpander, holds that Terpander came after Archilochus, and adds that Lesches beat Arctinus in a poetic contest; and Xanthus the Lydian says that about the eighteenth Olympiad (though according to Dionysius, about the fifteenth) Thasos was founded, so that it is clear that Archilochus was already known after the twentieth Olympiad. At any rate he mentions the destruction of the Magnesians, which had happened recently. Simonides, then, is placed in the time of Archilochus, and Callinus somewhat earlier; for of the Magnesians, Archilochus speaks of them as destroyed, while Callinus speaks of them as still flourishing; and Eumelus of Corinth, being earlier, is said to have come upon Archias, the founder of Syracuse.
We have been led to say this because they place the poets of the Cycle among the very ancient ones. It is also reported that among the Greeks there have already been many oracle-mongers, such as the two Bakides (one Boeotian, the other Arcadian), who foretold many things to many people. By the counsel of Amphilytus the Athenian, Peisistratus too established his tyranny, Amphilytus having revealed the right moment for the attack. Let there be silence, then, about Cometes of Crete, Cinyras of Cyprus, Admetus of Thessaly, Aristaeus of Cyrene, Amphiaraus of Athens, Timoxenus of Corcyra, Demaenetus of Phocaea, Epigenes of Thespiae, Nicias of Carystus, Ariston, another Thessalian, Dionysius, a native of Carthage, Cleophon, a native of Corinth, along with Hippo the daughter of Chiron, and Boeo, and Manto, and the whole company of the Sibyls — the Samian one, the Colophonian one, the Cumaean, the Erythraean, Phyto, Taraxandra, the Macetian, and the Thessalian called Thesprotis — and Calchas again, and also Mopsus, who lived during the Trojan affair, Mopsus being the senior of the two, since he had sailed among the Argonauts.
They say that Battus the Cyrenaean composed the so-called Mantic Art of Mopsus, and Dorotheus, in the first book of his Pandect, records that Mopsus understood the language of the halcyon and the crow. To foreknowledge, too, the great Pythagoras always devoted himself, as did Abaris the Hyperborean, Aristeas of Proconnesus, Epimenides the Cretan (who came to Sparta), Zoroaster the Mede, Empedocles the Acragantine, Phormio the Laconian, and indeed Polyaratus the Thasian, Empedotimus the Syracusan, and above all, among these, Socrates the Athenian; for he says, in the Theages, "There is for me, beginning from childhood, a divine sign that comes to me by divine allotment; this is a voice, and whenever it occurs it holds me back from what I am about to do, but it never urges me forward." And Execestus, who ruled the Phocians as tyrant, kept two enchanted rings on his hand, judging his opportune moments by the clash they made striking one another — yet even so he perished, cut down through treachery, though their sound had signaled danger to him beforehand, as Aristotle relates in his account of the Phocian constitution.
But also among the Egyptians there were once men who, by human opinion, became gods — Hermes the Theban and Asclepius the Memphite; and Teiresias again, and Manto, at Thebes, as Euripides says; and already Helenus, and Laocoon, and Oenone, and Cebren, at Ilium. †For Cronus, one of the Heraclids, is reported as a renowned seer, and another, Iamus, in Elis, from whom the Iamidae descend; and Polyidus, at Argos and at Megara, whom tragedy remembers. Why should I list Telemus, who, being a seer among the Cyclopes, prophesied to Polyphemus the events of Odysseus's wandering, or Onomacritus at Athens, or Amphiaraus, who together with the seven who campaigned against Thebes is reported to have lived one generation before the fall of Ilium, or Theoclymenus in Cephallenia, or Telmessus in Caria, or Galeus in Sicily? There would be others besides these — Idmon, who sailed with the Argonauts; Phemonoe of Delphi; Mopsus, offspring of Apollo and Manto, active across Pamphylia and into Cilicia; Amphilochus, whose father was Amphiaraus, likewise in Cilicia; Alcmaeon among the Acarnanians; Anius in Delos; and Aristander of Telmessus, who accompanied Alexander. Already too Philochorus, in the first book of his On Divination, records that Orpheus was a seer.
Theopompus, Ephorus, and Timaeus record a certain Orthagoras as a seer, just as Pythocles of Samos, in the fourth book of his Italian History, records Gaius Julius Nepos. But these men are all "thieves and robbers," as Scripture says, having foretold most things from observation and from probability, like physiognomists and physicians and seers, while others were moved by demons, or thrown into disorder by waters and incense and a peculiar quality of air; whereas among the Hebrews the prophets spoke by the power and inspiration of God — before the Law, Adam, who prophesied concerning the woman and concerning the naming of the animals, and Noah, who proclaimed repentance, and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who openly foretold not a few things that were to come and that were already at hand. And along with the Law, Moses and Aaron, after whom prophesy Joshua the son of Nun, Samuel, Gad, Nathan, Ahijah, Shemaiah, Jehu, Elijah, Micaiah, Obadiah, Elisha, Abdadonai, Amos, Isaiah, Hosea, Jonah, Joel, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Buzi, Ezekiel, Uriah, Habakkuk, Nahum, Daniel, Mishael — the one skilled in reasonings — Haggai, Zechariah, and the Angel among the Twelve.
The prophets all number thirty-five in total. Among women — for these also prophesied — there were Sarah and Rebecca and Miriam, and Deborah and Huldah. Then, in roughly the same era, John prophesies right up to the baptism that brings salvation, and once Christ had been born, Anna together with Simeon did the same; indeed Zechariah, father of John, is likewise said within the Gospels to have prophesied ahead of his own son.
Let us then gather, from the beginning, from Moses onward, the chronography according to the Greeks. Moses was born, and eighty years later the Jews departed Egypt in the exodus; another forty years brought him to the close of his life. That exodus coincides with the age of Inachus, three hundred and forty-five years earlier than the Sothic period, Moses having left Egypt that many years before it. Counting onward from Moses' generalship and from Inachus's own time to Deucalion's flood — the second such deluge, that is — and further to Phaethon's conflagration, which fell in Crotopus's day, forty † generations are tallied, reckoning three generations to every hundred years. Seventy-three years separate the flood from Mount Ida's burning, the discovery of iron, and the appearance of the Idaean Dactyls, according to Thrasyllus. And from the burning of Ida to the rape of Ganymede is sixty-five years.
From there to the expedition of Perseus, when Glaucus also instituted the Isthmian games in honor of Melicertes, is fifteen years. From the expedition of Perseus to the founding of Ilium is thirty-four years. From there to the sailing forth of the Argo is sixty-four years. Thirty-two years later come Theseus and the Minotaur; ten years after that, the Seven against Thebes; then three years on, the games at Olympia which Heracles founded to honor Pelops; nine years further bring both the Amazon campaign against Athens and Theseus's seizing of Helen. Eleven years after that Heracles is deified, and four years later Helen is carried off by Alexander, that is, Paris. Twenty years on, Troy falls. Ten years after Troy's fall come Aeneas's arrival and the founding of Lavinium; eight years more, Ascanius's reign; sixty-one years further, the Heraclids' descent; and three hundred thirty-eight years beyond that, the Olympiad reckoned from Iphitus.
Eratosthenes lays out the chronology as follows: eighty years pass between Troy's fall and the Heraclids' descent; sixty more bring Ionia's founding; another hundred fifty-nine reach Lycurgus's guardianship; a hundred eight lead to the year just before the first Olympiad; two hundred ninety-seven carry that Olympiad forward to Xerxes' crossing; forty-eight further reach the Peloponnesian War's opening; twenty-seven bring its close together with the Athenians' collapse; thirty-four more reach the clash at Leuctra; thirty-five beyond that, Philip's death; and finally twelve years afterward, Alexander's own passing.
Again, some say that from the first Olympiad to the founding of Rome is reckoned as twenty-four years. From there to the abolition of the kings, when consuls came to be, two hundred forty-three years; and from the abolition of the kings to the death of Alexander, one hundred eighty-six years.
Two hundred ninety-four years later Augustus won his victory, the moment Antony took his own life at Alexandria, and this fell in Augustus's fourth consulship. A further hundred fourteen years bring us to the games Domitian founded at Rome, and from that first celebration a hundred eleven years more reach Commodus's death.
Some reckon from Cecrops to Alexander the Macedonian one thousand † eight hundred twenty-eight years, and from Demophon one thousand two hundred fifty years, and from the fall of Troy to the descent of the Heraclids one hundred twenty or one hundred eighty years. Counting onward to Euaenetus's term as archon, under whom Alexander is said to have crossed into Asia, according to Phanias, seven hundred fifteen years; according to Ephorus, seven hundred thirty-five years; according to Timaeus and Cleitarchus, eight hundred twenty years; according to Eratosthenes, seven hundred seventy-four years; and Duris counts the span from Troy's fall to Alexander's Asian crossing as a full thousand years. Eleven years further brings the archonship of † Euaenetus at Athens, under whom Alexander died. Then three hundred sixty-five years onward comes the rule of Germanicus Claudius Caesar, a point from which the reckoning down to Commodus's death likewise becomes clear, insofar as it can be worked out.
After the Greek matters, we must also give an account, in the largest intervals, of the times according to the barbarians. From Adam to the flood is reckoned two thousand one hundred forty-eight years and four days; from Seth to Abraham, one thousand two hundred fifty years; from Isaac to the allotment of the land, six hundred sixteen years. Then, counting onward from the judges' era to Samuel, four hundred sixty-three years and seven months pass. Once the judges' period ends, the kingdoms' years total five hundred seventy-two years, six months, ten days. Following these come the years of Persian rule, two hundred thirty-five; then Macedonian rule down to Antony's death, three hundred twelve years and eighteen days. After that stretch, Roman dominion down to Commodus's death spans two hundred twenty-two years. Once more: counting from the captivity of seventy years and the people's return to their ancestral land up to the captivity under Vespasian gives four hundred ten years; and finally, from Vespasian's time to Commodus's death comes to one hundred twenty-one years, six months, twenty-four days.
Demetrius, in his work On the Kings in Judea, states that Judah's tribe, along with Benjamin's and Levi's, escaped Sennacherib's captivity, yet the gap between that captivity and the final one, which Nebuchadnezzar inflicted on Jerusalem, comes to one hundred twenty-eight years plus six months. Reckoning from when the ten tribes were led captive out of Samaria down to Ptolemy the Fourth gives five hundred seventy-three years and nine months, while counting from Jerusalem instead gives three hundred thirty-eight years and three months.
Philo himself also recorded the kings of the Jews, differing from Demetrius. Eupolemus too, in a similar treatise, states that the whole span running from Adam down through Demetrius's fifth regnal year, a time when Ptolemy the Twelfth held Egypt's throne, comes to 5,149 years. And from the time Moses led the Jews out of Egypt to the aforesaid terminus, one thousand five hundred eighty years are reckoned. And from that time to the consulship at Rome of Gnaeus Domitius and Asinius, one hundred twenty years are gathered.
Ephorus, along with a good number of other historians, claims there exist seventy-five nations and tongues, having taken this from Moses' statement: "All the souls descended from Jacob who went down into Egypt numbered seventy-five." But according to the true account, it appears that the generic dialects number seventy-two, as our own Scriptures hand down; while the many other tongues arise from the mixing of two or three or even more dialects. A dialect is speech that displays the particular character of a place, or speech that displays a character particular or common to a nation. The Greeks say that there are five dialects current among themselves — Attic, Ionic, Doric, Aeolic, and, fifth, the Common — while the tongues of barbarians, being unbounded, are not called dialects but languages.
Plato assigns a certain dialect even to the gods, arguing this chiefly from dreams and oracles, and otherwise also from those possessed by demons, who do not speak in their own voice or dialect but in that of the demons entering into them. He also thinks that irrational animals have dialects, which creatures of the same kind understand. At any rate, when an elephant has fallen into a mire and cried out, another elephant nearby, seeing what has happened, turns back and soon returns leading a whole herd of elephants along with it, rescuing the one that had fallen in. They also say that in Libya, if a scorpion fails to succeed in stinging a man, it goes away and returns with a number of others, each hanging on to the other like a chain, and thus they hasten to accomplish the attempt — the irrational animals surely not using some invisible nod, nor indeed signaling to one another by gesture, but, I think, by their own proper dialect. Others also say that if a fish, being drawn up, breaks the line and escapes, no fish of that same kind will be found in that same spot for that same day. But the first and generic dialects, though barbarian, have names that belong to nature, since people likewise agree that prayers uttered in a foreign, non-Greek tongue carry greater power. And Plato too, in the Cratylus, wishing to explain the word for "fire," says that the name is barbarian; at any rate he attests that the Phrygians call it so, with only a slight variation.
It will not, I think, hurt matters to append here the regnal lengths of Rome's rulers as well, so as to fix the Savior's birth: Augustus held power forty-three years, Tiberius twenty-two, Gaius a mere four, Claudius fourteen, Nero likewise fourteen, Galba just one, Vespasian ten, Titus three, Domitian fifteen, Nerva one, Trajan nineteen, Hadrian twenty-one, Antoninus twenty-three, and finally the pair Antoninus and Commodus together thirty-two. Summed from Augustus down to Commodus's death, this reaches two hundred twenty-two years; counted instead from Adam to that same death, it reaches five thousand seven hundred eighty-four years, two months, twelve days. Certain others, though, tally Rome's rulers differently: Gaius Julius Caesar reigned three years plus four months and six days; his successor Augustus, forty-six years, four months, one further day; Tiberius after him, twenty-six years together with six months and nineteen days; then came Gaius Caesar, holding it three years, ten months, eight days; Claudius followed, ruling thirteen years with eight months and twenty-eight days added; Nero's span came out the same, thirteen years plus eight months, twenty-eight days added on; Galba lasted seven months and six days only; Otho, five months plus a single day; Vitellius, likewise seven months and one day; Vespasian's rule reached eleven full years, adding eleven months and twenty-two days; Titus governed two years and two months; Domitian held fifteen years, with eight months and five days beyond that; Nerva's turn was a year, four months, and ten additional days; Trajan's reign stretched nineteen years, seven months, fifteen days; Hadrian governed for twenty years, adding ten months and twenty-eight days; Antoninus's term ran two decades, plus another two years on top, with three months and seven further days added; after him Marcus Aurelius Antoninus held it for nineteen years plus eleven days; and last, Commodus reigned twelve years, nine months, fourteen days. Reckoning, then, from Julius Caesar down to Commodus's death yields two hundred thirty-six years and six months. And the grand total, running from Rome's founder Romulus all the way to Commodus's death, comes out to nine hundred forty-three years and six months.
Our Lord was born in the twenty-eighth year, when the first order was given for a census to be taken, under Augustus. That this is true is written thus in the Gospel according to Luke: 'It was in Tiberius Caesar's fifteenth year that a divine utterance reached John, son of Zacharias.' And that same Gospel states further: 'Jesus was around thirty years of age when he presented himself for baptism.' And that his preaching lasted only a single year, this too stands written: 'He dispatched me to announce a year of favor granted by the Lord.' Such were the words of both the prophet and the Gospel writer. Fifteen years, then, of Tiberius, and fifteen of Augustus: thus the thirty years are completed, up to the time when he suffered. From the time he suffered until the destruction of Jerusalem there are 42 years and 3 months; and from the destruction of Jerusalem until the death of Commodus there are 122 years, 10 months, 13 days. There are, then, from the time the Lord was born until the death of Commodus, in all 194 years, 1 month, and 13 days. And there are some who, being excessively precise about the birth of our Savior, add not only the year but also the day, which they say falls in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, on the twenty-fifth of Pachon.
The followers of Basilides also celebrate the day of his baptism, spending the preceding night in readings. They say that the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar corresponds to the fifteenth of the month Tybi, though some of them say the eleventh of the same month. As for his Passion, being precise about it, some of them place it in the sixteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, on Phamenoth 25; others on Pharmuthi 25; and others again say the Savior suffered on Pharmuthi 19. Indeed, some of them say he was born on Pharmuthi 24 or 25.
Moreover, to this chronology we must also add the following, I mean the days which Daniel hints at, counted starting when Jerusalem lay desolate: seven years and eleven months belonging to Vespasian. For to these are added the two years of Otho, Galba, and Vitellius, seventeen months and eight days, and thus there come to be three years and six months, which is half of the week, just as Daniel the prophet has said. He said that 2,300 days passed from the time the abomination was set up in the holy city by Nero until its destruction. For thus the passage cited below shows: 'How long shall the vision stand, the sacrifice that was taken away, and the sin of desolation that was given, and the power and the sanctuary be trodden underfoot?' And he said to him, 'Unto evening and morning, 2,300 days, and the sanctuary shall be cleansed.' These 2,300 days, then, come to 6 years and 4 months, half of which Nero held while he reigned, and this made up half of the week; and the other half Vespasian held, together with Otho, Galba, and Vitellius. And for this reason Daniel says: 'Blessed is he who attains to 1,335 days.' For up to these days the war lasted, and after these it ceased.
This number, too, is shown from the chapter set down below, which reads thus: 'And from the time that the continual sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is given, there shall be 1,206 days. Blessed is he who endures and attains to 1,335 days.'
Flavius Josephus the Jew, who compiled the histories of the Jews, brings the chronology down and says that from Moses to David there are 585 years, and from David down to Vespasian's second year, 1,179 years. From that point onward to Antoninus's tenth year, 77 more years, giving a total span from Moses all the way to Antoninus's tenth year of 1,833 years altogether. Others, counting from Inachus and Moses to Commodus's death, put the figure at 1,842 years; still others at 1,021. In Matthew's Gospel, meanwhile, the line of descent beginning with Abraham runs onward to Mary, who bore the Lord; for, as it states, between Abraham and David one counts 14 generations, and from David to the removal to Babylon 14 generations, and from the removal to Babylon to Christ likewise another 14 generations — three mystical intervals, each completed in seven-fold sets.
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