C H R O N O L O G Y. S g

O&aeteris ; and Meton found out the cycle of intercalating feveiiGanEKs.months in nineteen years ( J ).

XXIV. The ancient year of the Latines was aifo luni-folar ;

for Plutarch a telis ns, that the year of Nuraa confifted of twelve* Piutarch.lunar months, with intercalary months to make up what theT 0 m!T*twelve lunar months wanted of the folar year. The ancient year p ' 7I ’ luof the Egyptians was aifo luni-folar, and continued to be fo tillthe days of Hyperion, or Ofiris, a king of Egypt, the father ofHelius and Selene, or Orus and Bubafte: for the Ifraelites broughtthis year out of Egypt; and Diodorus b telis us that Ouranus, b D'>°dor.i. 3 .the father of Hyperion, ufed this year (') ; and c that in the^Ditjou”!temple of Ofiris the priefts appointed thereunto filled 360 milk- c * 22,p 'bowls every day : I think he means one bowl every day, in ali360, to count the number of days in the calendar year, andthereby to find out the difference between this and the true folaryear: for the year of 360 days was the year, to the end ofwhich they added five days.

XXV. That the Ifraelites ufed the luni-folar year is beyondqueftion (’). Their months began with their new moons. Theirfirft month was called Abib, from the earing of cora in thatmonth. Their Paffover was kept upon the fourteenth day ofthe firft month, the moon being then in the full: and if thecora was not then ripe enough for offering the Firft Fruits, thefeftival was put off, by adding an intercalary month to the endof the year; and the harveft was got in before the Pentecoft,and the other fruits gathered before the feaft of the feventhmonth.

" account of the emboliirucan months, give 25200 days. But if every other year is to be length-“ ened by a month, in order that the feafons may come round at the proper time, the emboli-“ maean months in the 70 years will be 35. The days ariiing from thefe months vvill be 1050.

“ Now all thefe days in the 70 years being 26250, &c.”

( 3 ) Cenforinus de Die Natali, c. 18.

§ XXIV.

(*) This Diodorus affirms of the Uranus of the Altantei. And Sir Ifaac Newton fuppofesthe Hyperion of the Altantei, who was the fon of this Uranus, and the Egyptian Gliris to bethe fame.

§ XXV.

(') But whether this was their antient year, or adopted only after the death of Alexanderthe Great, was a queftion warmly agitated between Scaliger and Petavius.

I 2 XXVI.