C II R O N O L O G y.
nine, And the 6ve kings of the race of Euryfthenes, between Greeks,the end of the firft Meffenian war, and the beginning of ther.eign of Darius Hyftafpis ( f ) ; Eurycrates, Anaxander, Eury-crates II. Leon, Anaxandrides, reigned 202 years; which isabove 40 years a-piece. ^
VIII. Thus the Greek chronologers, who follow Timaeus andEratofthenes,. have made the kings of their feveral eities, who*lived before the times of the Perfian empire, to reign about 35.or 40 years a-piece, one with another; which is a-length ft>-much beyond the courfe of nature, as is notto be credited. Forby the ordinary courfe of nature,,kings reign, one with another,,about eighteen or.twenty years a-piece r and if in forne inftances-they reign, one with another, fi ve or lix years longer, inotherS'they reign as mnch fhorter : eighteen or tvventy years is a medi-um. Sq the eighteen kings of Judah, who fucceeded Solomon,reigned 390. years, which is, one with another, 2 2 years a-piece.
The fifteen kings of Ifrael,after Solomon, reigned 259 years,which is 17^ years a-piece (’).. The eighteen kings of Baby-lon,
interval was 12 complete olympiads, or 48 years. Add 328 years as before. The fum gives th*interval from the return of the Heraclida; to the death of Ariftodemus, 376 years.
( 6 ) Darius, the-fon of Hyftafpes, became king of Perfia in the 4th year of the 64th olym-piad. (Petavius Doft. Temp. lib. 10. c. 19.) And the firft Meffenian war having ended in theift year offthe i+th, the interval is 50 entire olympiads and 2 years; that is, 202 years,throwing away the year in which Darius’s reign began. But what certain evidence Sir IfaacNewton might have, that the end of Anaxandrides coincided with the beginning of Darius,
I'know not. The beft lightT can give in this matter, is this ; Anaxandrides was reigningat Sparta in the time of Crccfus. (Herodot. Iib. 1. c. 67.) From the end of Crcefus to thebeginning.of Darius, the interval was 22 years complete: for Croefus was conquered by Cy-rus in the ift year of the 5gth olympiad. Therefore we may reafonably look for the end ofAnaxandrides about the beginning of Darius. Thefucceffor of Anaxandrides was themad Cleo-menes; whofe firft exploit was his incurfion of the Argive tertitory ; when .the women of Argosarmed, at the inftigation of the peetefs Telefilla, and faved their country. (Paufan.dib. 3. c. 4.
Phitarch de de Firtut. Mul. tom.JI. p. 245.) Of the year of this memorable event, .which wasprobahly the firft year of Cleomenes, I can find no certain cb.ara&er. But the next remarkabletranfa&ion of his reign feems to havebeen. the expulfion of the Pififtratidse from Athens. (Paufan.-lib. 3. c. 4.) Now HTippias, the fon of Pififtratus, 'after that event, took refuge at the Perfiancourt; and in the.twentieth year after his flight he fought, on the Perfian fide, at Marathon. (Thu-cydid. lib. 6. c. 39. p. 383.) The year of thebattle of Marathon, therefore, was the twentiethof Hippias’s exile: and it was the 3-d of Darius’s reign. (Petav. Dott. Temp. lib. 10. c 23.)
Therefore the expulfion of Hippias muft have happened in the t 2 th or 11 th of Darius. At thistime Cleomenes reigned in Sparta : and perhaps had been reigning two or three years before.
His father Anaxandrides, therefore, might hardly furvive the gth or ioth of Darius ; and I findno evidence that he died fooner. Sir Ifaac Newton therefore, in placing the death of Anaxan-drides fo early as in the beginning of Darius’s reign, puts the vvhole time of the five reigns inqueftion at the fhorteft, and gives the utmoft advantage to the opinion which hecombats.
§ VIII.
(’) I know not for what reafon Sir Ifaac Newton makes the fucceffors of Solomon only 18 in the
kingdom