8 7

CHRONOLOGY.

" Plumbum ex Cajffiteride infula primus apportavit Midacritus ;”Gheeks.and Bochart a obferves, that Midacritus is a Greek name corrupt-’ Canaan -

r 1.1, c. 39«

ly written for Melcartus; Britain being unknown to the Greekslong after it was difcovered by the Phoenicians. After the deathof Melcartus, they built b a temple to him in the ifland Gades ; b Pbiiofframs

in vira Apol-

and adorned It with the fculptures of the labours of Hercules, lonii, i. s .and of his Hydra, and the horfes to whom he threw Diomedes, 0 ' s 'king of the Biftones in Thrace, to be devoured. In this templewas the golden Belt of Teucer, and the golden Olive of Pygma-lion bearing Smaragdine fruit: and by thefe confecrated gifts ofTeucer and Pygmalion, you may know that it was built in theirdays. Pomponius derives it from the times of the Trojanwar ('). For Teucer, feven years after that war, according to themarbles, arrived at Cyprus, being banilhed from horne by hisfatlier Telamon, and there built Salamis: and he and his pofte-rity reigned there Q till Evagoras, the laft of them, was con-quered by the Perhans, in the twelfth year of Artaxerxes Mne-mon. Gertainly this Tyri an Hercules could be no older tlian theTrojan war; becaufe the Tyrians did not begin to navigate theMediterranean till after that war. For Homer and Hefiod knewnothing of this navigation; and the Tvrian Hercules went to thecoafts of Spain, and was buried in Gades. So Arnobius c ; " 7y- c Amob. i.

" rius Hercules fepultus in finibus Hifpanicc and Mela, fpeakingof the Temple of Hercules in Gades, faith, " Cur fanchim fit,

" offa ejus ibi fepulta efficiunt ” Carthage ci paid tenths to this 111

Hercules, and fent their payments yearly to Tyre : and thence c. i+.it is probable, that this Hercules went to the coaft of Afric, aswell as to that of Spain, and by his dilcoveries prepared the wayto Dido : Orofius e ond others teli us, that he built Capfa there. * 0r ° r -J,- s ' -

7 r c. 15. Hoius,

Jofephus ( 3 ) telis of an earlier Hercules, to whom Hiram built a^ 3 - c ( -ptemple at Tyre : and perhaps there might be alio an earlier Her-jugunha.cules of Tyre, who fet on foot their trade on the Red Sea in thedays of David or Solomon.

XLV11I. Tatian, in his book againft the Greeks, relates, thatamongft the Phoenicians flouriihed three ancient hiftorians,

§ XLVII.

(*) Diod. Sic. lib. 15. c, 9. p. 462.

O Lib. 3. c. 6.

I

V

( 3 ) Contr. Ap. lib. 1. c 18.

" Tlieodotus,