III. Hist. Græc. Plin. Hist. not but imagine that the report of the account of an- CHAP. cient times in the Scriptures was sufficiently divulged before the publishing of this history of Berosus; and, it may be, Berosus might somewhat sooner than others understand all transactions at Alexandria, because the place of his chief residence was where Ptolemæus Philadelphus was born; which was in the isle of Cos. But Vossius goes another way to work to prove the Vossius de time of Berosus, which is this: he quotes it out of 1. i. c. 13. Pliny, that Berosus recorded the history of 480 years; Nat. l. vii. which, saith he, must be reckoned from the era of Na- c. 57. ed. Hard. legit bonassar. Now this began in the second year of the 490. 8th Olympiad; from which time if we reckon 480 years, it falls upon the latter end of Antiochus Soter; and so his history could not come out before the 22d of Ptolemæus Philadelphus, or very little before. Thus we have made it evident, that these two great historians are younger even than the translation of the Bible into Greek; by which it appears probable that they were provoked to publish their fabulous Dynasties to the world. And so much to shew the insufficiency of the Chaldæan history, as to the account of ancient times: which we shall conclude with the censure of Strabo, a grave and judicious author, concerning the antiquities of the Persians, Medes, and Syrians; which, saith he, have not obtained any great Strab. 1. xi. credit in the world, διὰ τὴν τῶν συγγραφέων ἁπλότητα καὶ Casaub. Thy piñoμvlíav, because of the simplicity and fabulousness of their historians. From hence we see, then, that there is no great credibility in those histories, which are impeached of falsehood by the most grave and judicious of heathen writers. P. 349. ed. BOOK 1. 1. CHAP. IV. THE DEFECT OF THE GRECIAN HISTORY. I. That manifested by three evident arguments of it. (1.) The fabulousness of the poetical age of Greece. The antiquity of poetry. II. Of Orpheus, and the ancient poets. Whence the poetical fables borrowed. III. The advancement of poetry and idolatry together in Greece. IV. The different censures of Strabo and Eratosthenes, concerning the poetical age of Greece; and the reasons of them. V. (2.) The oldest historians of Greece are of suspected credit. Of Damastes, Aristeus, and others; VI. Of most of their oldest historians we have nothing left but their names; of others only the subjects they treated of, and some fragments. VII. The highest antiquity of the Greeks not much older than Cyrus or Cambyses. VIII. (3.) Those that are extant either confess their ignorance of eldest times, or plainly discover it. Of the first sort are Thucydides and Plutarch. IX. Several evidences of the Grecians' ignorance of the true original of nations. X. Of Herodotus and his mistakes. XI. The Greeks' ignorance in geography discovered; and thence their insufficiency as to an account of ancient history. DESCEND we now to the history of Greece; to see whether the metropolis of arts and learning can afford us any account of ancient times, that may be able to make us in the least question the account given of them in sacred Scriptures. We have already manifested the defect of Greece as to letters and ancient records; but yet it may be pretended that her historians, by the excellency of their wits, and searching abroad into other nations, might find a more certain account of ancient times, than other nations could obtain. There is nobody, who is any thing acquainted with the Grecian humour, but will say they were beholden to their wits for most of their histories; they being some of the earliest writers of romances in the world, if all fabulous narrations may bear that name. But laying aside at present all their poetic mythology, as it concerns their gods, (which we may have occasion P. 12. IV. to inquire into afterwards,) we now examine only their CHAP. credibility, where they pretend to be most historical. Yet how far they are from meriting belief even in these things, will appear to any that shall consider, first, that their most ancient writers were poetical, and apparently fabulous; secondly, that their eldest historians are of suspected credit even amongst themselves; thirdly, that their best historians either discover or confess abundance of ignorance as to the history of ancient times. First, that their first writers were poetical, and apparently fabulous. Strabo undertakes to prove that prose is only an imitation of poetry; and so poetry must needs be first written. For, saith Strabo, l. i. he, at first poetry only was in request; afterwards, in imitation of that, Cadmus, Pherecydes, and Hecatæus writ their histories, observing all other laws of poetry but only the measures of it; but by degrees writers began to take greater liberty, and so brought it down from that lofty strain it was then in, to the form now in use: as the comic strain is nothing else but a depressing the sublimer style of tragedy. This he proves, because ade did anciently signify the same with φράζειν ; for poems were only λόγοι με μελισμένοι, lessons fit to be sung among them: thence, saith he, is the original of the 'Paywdía, &c. for these were those poems which were sung ènì jáßow, when they held a branch of laurel in their hands, as Plutarch tells us Plutarch. Sympos. they were wont to sing Homer's Ilias; others were sung to the harp, as Hesiod's "Epya; besides, saith Strabo, that prose is called ó Tegos λóyos, argues that it is only a bringing down of the higher strain in use before. But however this were in general; as to the Grecians, it is evident that poetry was first in use among them; for in their elder times, when they first began to creep out of barbarism, all the philosophy I. BOOK and instruction they had was from their poets, and was all couched in verse; which Plutarch not only confirms, but particularly instanceth in Orpheus, Hesiod, Parmenides, Xenophanes, Empedocles, and Thales; and hence Horace de Arte Poetica says of the ancient poets before Homer, Plutarch. de Pyth. Orac. p. 402. ed. Xyl. Heins. -fuit hæc sapientia quondam, Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis; Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque From hence, as Heinsius observes, the poets were anHes. c. 6. ciently called Aidάskaλ; and the ancient speeches of the philosophers, containing matters of morality, were called "Ασματα καὶ ̓Αδόμενα; of which many are mentioned in their lives by Diogenes Laertius. In the same sense were carmina anciently used among the Latins, for precepts of morality; as in that collection of them which goes under the name of Cato, (which some think to be an ancient piece, but with a false inscription; but Boxhornius thinks it to be of some Christian's doing, in the decay of the Roman empire,) Si Deus est animus, nobis ut carmina dicunt. Carmina, saith Heinsius, i. e. dicta philosophorum; causa est, quia dicta illa brevia, quibus sententias suas de Deo deque reliquis includebant, adópeva dicebant, i. e. carmina. When poetry came first into request among the Grecians, is somewhat uncertain; but this is plain and evident, that the intention of it was not merely for instruction, but, as Strabo expresseth it, dnμaywyeiv καὶ στρατηγεῖν τὰ πλήθη, the more gently to draw the people on to idolatry. For, as he saith, it is impossible to persuade women, and the promiscuous multi p. 13. IV. tude, to religion, by mere dry reason or philosophy, CHAP. ἀλλὰ δεῖ καὶ διὰ δεισιδαιμονίας, τοῦτο δ ̓ οὐκ ἄνευ μυθοποιΐας καὶ Tepateías; but for this, saith he, there is need of super- Strabo, l. i. stition, and this cannot be advanced without some fables and wonders. For, saith he, the thunderbolts, shields, tridents, serpents, spears, attributed to the gods, are mere fables, and so is all the ancient theology; but the governors of the commonwealth made use of these things, the better to awe the silly multitude, and to bring them into better order. I cannot tell how far this might be their end, since these things were not brought in so much by the several magistrates, as by the endeavour of particular men, who thought to raise up their own esteem among the vulgar by such things, and were employed by the great deceiver of the world, as his grand instruments to advance idolatry in it. For which we are to consider, that, although there were gross ignorance, and consequently superstition enough in Greece before the poetic age of it, yet their superstitious and idolatrous worship was not so licked and brought into form, as about the time of Orpheus, from whom the poetic age commenceth, who was as great an instrument of setting up idolatry, as Apollonius was afterwards of restoring it; being both persons of the highest esteem and veneration among the heathen. Much about the same time did those live in the world who were the first great promoters of superstition and poetry; as Melampus, Musæus, Arion Methymnæus, Amphion of Thebes, and Eumolpus Thrax; none of whom were very distant from the time of Orpheus, of whom Clemens Alexandrinus thus speaks, Προσχήματι μουσικῆς λυ- Clem. Αl. μηνάμενοι τὸν βίον ἐν τέχνῳ τινὶ γοητείᾳ—τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐπὶ τὰ εἴδωλα χειραγωγοῦσι πρῶτοι. These, under a pretence of music and poetry, corrupting the lives of men, did, Protreptic. P. 4. ed. Oxon. |