205

CHRONOLOGY.lach and Chabor be Colchis and Iberia, as forne think, and as Assyiuans,may feem probable from the circumcifion ufed by thole nationstill the days of Herodotus ('), we are alfo to add thefe two pro-vinces, witli the two Armenia’s, Pontus, and Cappadocia, as faras to the river Halys. For a Herodotus telis us, that the people a Herod -'*

. . . c. 7 2. and

of Cappadocia, as far as to that river, were called Syrians by i. 7 . c.the Greeks, both before and after the days of Cyrus; and thatthe Affyrians were alfo called Syrians by the Greeks.

XV. Yet the Medes revolted from the Aflyrians in the latterend of the reign of Sennacherib; I think upon the flaughter ofhis army near Egypt, and his flight to Nineveh. For at thattime the efta‘.e of Sennacherib was troubled, fo that Tobit couldnot go into Media as he had done before, Tobit i. 15; and fornetime after, Tobit advifed his fon to go into Media ('), where hemight expe< 5 t peace; while Nineveh,. according to the prophefyof Jonah, ihould be deffroyed. Ctefias wrote, that Arbaces, aMede, being admitted to fee Sardanapalus in his palace, and ob-ferving his voluptuous life amongft women, revolted with theMedes; and in conjundfion with Belefis, a Babylonian, overcamehim, and caufed him to fet 6re to his palace, and burn him-felf (*). But he is contradi&ed by other anthors of better credit.

For Duris b and many others wrote, that Arbaces, upon being ad- b Apudmitted into the palace of Sardanapalus, and feeing his effeminate 1. p .7

life, flew himfelf ( 3 ); and Gleitarchus, that Sardanapalus diedof old age, after he had loft his dominiori over Syria ( 4 ). Heloft it by the revolt of the weftern nations ; and Herodotus c telis c Herotl -i. r-us, that the Medes revolted firft, and defendet! their liberty by & 0 ?forne of arms againft the Affyrians, without conquering tliem ;and at their firft revolting had no king; but after forne time fetup Dejoces over them, and built Ecbatane for his, refidenee; anci

§: xv. ,

C) Tobit. c. xiv. 4,—8. (*) Diod. Sic. lib. 2 . c, 2 3— 18 . p- 78—81.

( 3 ) TBEtextof Athenaeus, in the place to vvhich Sir Ifaac Newton refers, is exceedinglyeorrupt. Sir Ifaac Newton follows the fenfe given by the Latin tranflator. But Athenonis feemsto fay, that whereas Ctefias relates, that Sardanapalus, after fuftaining a war with Arbaces,- fetfire to his palace, and burnt himfelf with it many other hiftorians, of whom Duris was one,-aflinned, that Arbaces, having procured admifiion to the king’s prefence, and feeing his effermna-cy, m indignation that the Medes ihould be governcd by fo contemptible a prince, ilabbed hnn<

©n the fpot: not himfelf, but Sardanapalus.t C) Athensus, lib. 12. p.

jhat