This translation is based on a Latin translation of the
Armenian
translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition.
Eusebius - Chronicles
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Eusebius: Chronicle
Eusebius' Chronicle was written in about 325 A. D. It contained Chronological Tables from the earliest times down to the reign of the emperor Constantine. These tables were widely copied, and are best known through the Latin translation of St. Jerome. Eusebius also published the evidence for some of the dates in the tables, mostly in the form of excerpts from earlier writers. The so-called "first book" of the Chronicle, containing the evidence, is translated here.
Most of the original Greek text of the Chronicle has been lost. This translation is based on a Latin translation of the Armenian translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition. However it is not intended to be a literal translation of the Armenian text. For instance, it attempts to make use of the Greek text, where evidence for it exists, especially in the spelling of proper names, which may be hard to recognise in their Armenian form. The Armenian text was translated very accurately into German by Josef Karst; a copy of Karst's translation has been put on the web by Roger Pearse (this English translation owes much to Roger's help and encouragement). For anyone who wants to compare passages in Karst's translation and this English translation, there is a concordance of page numbers.
The references in red are the page numbers from the Schoene-Petermann edition.
Contents:
(p1) Preface
(p7) The kings of the Babylonians (according to Alexander Polyhistor)
(p31) The kings of the Babylonians (according to Abydenus)
(p53) The kings of the Assyrians
(p67) The kings of the Medes, Lydians, and Persians
(p71) The patriarchs of the Jews
(p97) The judges and kings of Israel and Judah
(p123) The high priests and kings of the Jews
(p131) The kings of the Egyptians: 1st - 19th dynasties
(p145) The kings of the Egyptians: 20th - 31st dynasties
(p159) The kings of Egypt and Alexandria
(p173) The ancient kings of the Sicyonians
(p177) The ancient kings of the Argives
(p183) The ancient kings of the Athenians
(p191) The Greek Olympiads, and Olympic victors
(p219) The kings of the Corinthians
(p221) The kings of the Spartans
(p225) The thalassocracies (rulers of the sea)
(p227) The kings of the Macedonians
(p241) The kings of the Thessalians
(p247) The kings of Asia and Syria
(p263) The kings of the Romans
The Story of the Armenian Translation
- a summary of the account in "The Chronicle of Eusebius and Greek Chronographic Tradition" by Alden A. Mosshammer, which is recommended reading for anyone who wants to learn more about the Chronicle.
The Chronicle of Eusebius was translated from Greek into Armenian before 600 A. D. , but the oldest manuscript which has survived was written in the twelfth or thirteenth century A. D. For a long time European scholars were unaware of the translation, and because the original Greek text of Eusebius' Chronicle had perished, they could only guess at what the chronicle had contained. The only part which was well known was the Chronological Tables, which had been translated into Latin by St. Jerome. But in 1787 the Lector Georg Johannesian informed the Mechitarist community in Venice that a manuscript of an Armenian translation had been discovered at Jerusalem and taken to Constantinople. Two copies of the manuscript were made and sent to Venice, where I. B. Aucher prepared a Latin translation in 1795. Because he hoped to correct his translation by consulting the original manuscript, Aucher delayed publication for so long that eventually I. Zohrab lost patience with the delay and stole the first copy of the manuscript. He took it from Venice to Milan, where he and Angelo Mai quickly published a Latin translation in 1818. At this point, Aucher was forced to publish his own translation, but it was too late and he was even accused of plagiarising from his rivals.
Forty years later, Alfred Schoene decided that it was time to publish a new edition of all the evidence for the contents of Eusebius' Chronicle, including the summaries and translations. He asked H. Petermann to prepare a new Latin version of the Armenian translation. In 1864, Petermann travelled to Constantinople to inspect the original manuscript, but to his dismay the Armenian patriarch of Constantinople told him that the manuscript had been returned to Jerusalem. Instead of continuing with what he thought would be a fruitless journey to Jerusalem, Petermann returned to Venice, where he found that as well as the copy which Aucher had used, another manuscript (explicitly dated to 1696) had been acquired by P. Nerses. It was these manuscripts which Petermann used for his translation, which was published in Schoene's edition in 1875.
Petermann was aware that another manuscript of the Armenian translation existed, at the Etschmiadzin library near the Armenian capital, but he was unable to gain access to it. A few years later, Theodor Mommsen managed to obtain a partial transcript of the Etschmiadzin manuscript, and in 1895 he reported that this was the archetype from which all the other surviving manuscripts had been copied, and which had been found at Jerusalem a hundred years earlier.
In 1911, over 120 years after the announcement of the discovery of the manuscript, Josef Karst published an accurate German translation based on a photographic facsimile of the Etschmiadzin manuscript. He rejected suggestions that it should be translated into Greek ("misleading") or Latin ("syntax too restricted to preserve the style and colour of the Armenian language").
Scholars continue to debate how accurately the Armenian translation preserves the exact format of Eusebius' Greek text, especially in the Chronological Tables, where there are clear differences between the Armenian and St. Jerome. For instance, the Olympic dates differ by one year; the Armenian version sets the first Olympiad against year 1240, counting from Abraham, while in St. Jerome's version the first year of the first Olympiad is year 1241 from Abraham. But in general, the Armenian translation appears to be a reliable guide, and in the "first book" it has preserved much unique information about the reigns of the Hellenistic kings. It is certainly one of the most important documents to have survived in an Armenian translation.
back to: List of contents
Valid HTML 4. 01 Transitional Attalus' home page | 16. 05. 08 | Any comments?
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Eusebius: Chronicle
- pages 1-71
Most of the original Greek text of the Chronicle has been lost. This translation is based on a Latin translation of the Armenian translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition. The references in red are the page numbers from that edition.
List of contents
[p1] I have searched through the various books of ancient history; [I have read] what the Chaldaeans and Assyrians have recorded, what the Egyptians have written in detail, and what the Greeks have related as accurately as possible. They include the dates of their kings and the Olympiads, which are athletic contests, and they contain the outstanding exploits of both the Greeks and the barbarians, of both the brave and the decadent. They also mention the remarkable victories of these nations, their generals, scholars, heroes, poets, historians and philosophers.
I think it is fitting, or rather a useful and necessary task, to summarise all this, and to write down the ancient history and chronology of the Hebrews, taken from the Holy Scriptures, alongside the things which I have just mentioned. From that we can tell how long Moses, and the prophets who came after him, lived before the appearance on earth of our saviour, about which they prophesied through the holy spirit; and we can easily recognise in which [reigns] of Greek or barbarian [rulers] the famous men of each race were alive; and at what time, from the beginning, the outstanding prophets existed amongst the Hebrews, together with all their rulers, one after another.
I warn and advise everyone from the start, that no-one should ever pretend that he can be completely certain about matters of chronology. It will help if first we remember the advice of our true master, [p3] who told his companions [ Acts, 1'7 ]: "It is not for you to know the hours and seasons which the Father has set under his own authority. " He, as our Lord and God, uttered this saying not only about the end of the world, but also, in my opinion, about all dates, to dissuade men from such pointless investigations.
Indeed, my own words here will confirm this saying of our master, [by showing] that it is not possible to gain an accurate knowledge of the whole chronology of the world from the Greeks, or from any others, not even from the Hebrews themselves. But it is possible to hope for this only: that what is said by us in this present treatise will help us to recognise two things. Firstly, no-one, like some have done, should believe that he is calculating dates with full accuracy, and be deceived in that way. But he should realise that this has been brought up for discussion, only so that he can know the means and manner of the proposed investigation, and so that he should not remain in doubt.
There is no reason to be surprised that the Greeks do not appear in the most ancient times. They have fallen into various fatal errors, and for a long time before the generation of Cadmus they were completely ignorant of writing. They say that Cadmus was the first to bring them the alphabet, from the land of the Phoenicians. And so the Egyptian in Plato's book [ Timaeus, 22'B ] rightly despises Solon; "O Solon," he says, "you Greeks are always children. An old Greek man is never to be found, and no-one can learn from you about ancient times. " But many improbable stories have been told by the Egyptians and Chaldaeans. For instance, the Chaldaeans calculate that their recorded history has lasted for more than 400,000 years. [p5] The Egyptians make up myths about gods and demi-gods, and also about some shades; and they tell many crazy myths about other mortal kings.
Yet what forces me to examine such matters in detail now, when I value the truth above all else? Even amongst my beloved Hebrews one can find inconsistencies, which I will mention at the appropriate time. But I have said this much in reproach of those chroniclers who are eager for such hollow glory.
In accordance with these objectives, I will scrutinise the books of the ancient writers.
[ p7 ] First I will put in writing the chronology of the Chaldaeans;
[ p53 ] and then the chronology of the Assyrians;
[ p67 ] next the kings of the Medes;
[ p67 ] and then the kings of the Lydians and Persians.
[ p71 ] Then I will go on to a different topic, and set out all the chronology of the Hebrews in sequence.
[ p131 ] After the Hebrews, in the third section [I will set out] the dates of the Egyptian dynasties.
[ p159 ] I will add to them the dynasty of the Ptolemaei, who reigned after Alexander the Macedonian in Egypt and Alexandria.
Then I will start on another [topic], and describe one after another what the Greeks have told about their history:
[ p173 ] first the rulers of Sicyon,
[ p177 ] and then [the rulers] of the land of the Argives,
[ p183 ] and of the city of the Athenians, from the first to the last;
[ p219 ] next, the kings of Lacedaemon and Corinth;
[ p225 ] and lastly, those who in any region held control of the sea.
[ p191 ] To these I will add a list of the Olympiads, which are recorded by the Greeks.
[ p227 ] After I have set out all the Olympiads in sequence, I will write down the first kings of the Macedonians and Thessalians,
[ p247 ] and then the leaders of the Syrians and Asians, who came after Alexander, one by one.
[ p265 ] Next I will set out in their turn all the individual rulers of the Latins, who were later called Romans, starting from Aeneias after the capture of Troy.
[ p291 ] Then [I will set out] in sequence [the kings], starting from Romulus, who founded the city of Rome;
the succession of emperors, starting from Julius Caesar and Augustus;
and the consuls for each year.
After collecting material from all these sources, I will move on to the chronological canons of time. Resuming from the beginning with those who ruled in each nation, I will divide their dates into separate series; [p7] and next to them I will place in sequence the numbers of their [regnal] years, so that it can easily and quickly be seen, at which time each of them lived. I will briefly mention the outstanding events of each reign, as recorded by every nation, in the context of that reign.
But the second book is a task for the future. Now, in the following section, let us investigate the chronology of the Chaldaeans, and what they have recorded about their ancestors.
[ THE CHALDAEANS ]
How the Chaldaeans record their chronology, from [the writings of] Alexander Polyhistor; about the books of the Chaldaeans, and their first kings
That is what Berossus relates in his first book, and in the second book he lists the kings, one after another. He says that Nabonassar was king at that time. He merely lists the names of the kings, and says very little about their achievements; or perhaps he thinks that they are not worth mentioning, when he has already stated the number of kings. He begins to write as follows: "Apollodorus says that the first king was Alorus, who was a Chaldaean from Babylon, and he reigned for 10 sars. " He divides a sar into 3,600 years, and adds two other [measures of time]: a ner and a soss. He says that a ner is 600 years, and a soss is 60 years. He counts the years in this way, following some ancient form of calculation. After saying this, he proceeds to list ten kings of the Assyrians, one after the other in [chronological] order; from Alorus, the first king, until Xisuthrus, in whose reign the first great flood occurred, the flood which Moses mentions.
He says that the total length of the reigns of the [ten] kings was 120 sars, which is the equivalent of 432,000 years. He writes about the individual kings as follows:
[p9] When Alorus died, his son Alaparus became king for 3 sars.
After Alaparus, Amelon, a Chaldaean from the city of Pautibiblon, became king for 13 sars.
After Amelon, Ammenon, a Chaldaean from (? ) Parmibiblon, became king for 12 sars.
- In his reign, the monster Annedotus, whose form was a mixture between a man and a fish, appeared out of the Red Sea.
Megalarus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 18 sars.
The shepherd Daonus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 10 sars.
- In this reign, again four monsters appeared out of the Red Sea, who [like Annedotus] were a mixture between a man and a fish.
Euedorachus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 18 sars.
- In this reign, another monster appeared out of the Red Sea, which also was a mixture between a man and a fish, and its name was Odacon. All these [monsters] explained in detail what Oannes had stated briefly.
Amempsinus, a Chaldaean from Larancha, reigned for 10 sars.
Otiartes, a Chaldaean from Larancha, reigned for 8 sars.
When Otiartes died, his son Xisuthrus became king, for 18 sars.
- In his reign, the great flood occurred.
The reigns of all these kings, added together, make 120 sars. They are calculated in this way:
Alorus, for 10 sars
Alaparus, for 3 sars
Amelon, for 13 sars
Ammenon, for 12 sars
Megalarus, for 18 sars
Daonus, for 10 sars
Euedorachus, for 18 sars
Amempsinus, for 10 sars
Otiartes, for 8 sars
Xisuthrus, for 18 sars
In total, 10 kings and 120 sars. [p11] And they say that 120 sars are the equivalent of 432,000 years, because one sar is the equivalent of 3,600 years.
That is what Alexander Polyhistor says in his book. But if anyone thinks that what is contained in that book is a true history, and that [those kings] really ruled for so many myriads of years, then he should also believe in all the other similar things in that book, which are equally incredible. Now I will tell what Berossus wrote in the first book of his history, and first I will add another quotation from the same book of Polyhistor, as follows.
Another unreliable account of Chaldaean history, from the same book of Alexander Polyhistor about the Chaldaeans
Berossus, in the first book of his Babylonian History, says that he lived at the time of Alexander the son of Philippus, and that he transcribed the writings of many authors, which had been carefully preserved at Babylon, containing the records of (? ) over 150,000 years. These writings contain the history of heaven and the sea, of creation, and of the kings and their deeds.
Firstly, he says that the land of Babylonia lies between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Wild wheat, barley, lentils and sesame grow on the land; and the marshes produce roots, called gonges, which are as nutritious as barley. There are dates, apples, [p13] and other fruits and fish, as well as birds in the woods and marshes. The parts lying towards Arabia are dry and barren, but the parts on the opposite side from Arabia are mountainous and fertile. A large number of foreigners dwell in Chaldaea; they live in Babylon in a disorderly way, like wild animals.
In the first year, a horrible beast appeared out of the Red Sea in the region near Babylonia. Its name was Oannes, according to Apollodorus. It had the complete body of a fish, but underneath its head there grew another head, beneath the fish's head; and in the same way the feet of a man grew of the tail of the fish. It had the voice of a man, and its likeness has been preserved even down to the present day. He says that this beast spent the day with men, taking no food, but instructing them about writing and science and all kinds of crafts. It taught them about founding cities and establishing temples, about introducing laws and about geometry. It showed them how to sow seed and gather fruit; and in general it gave men all the skills they needed for a civilised life. Since that time, nothing additional has been discovered.
But when the sun set, this beast called Oannes went back into the sea, and spent the night in the water, because it was amphibious. Afterwards other similar beasts appeared, which he says he will mention in the list of kings. But he says that Oannes wrote about creation and about the government of states, and he passed on this message on to mankind.
There was once a time, in which everything was darkness and water. [p15] In those times, monstrous beasts were born, with strange appearances. There were men with two wings, and some with four wings and two faces. They had one body, but two heads, of a man and a woman, and two sets of genitals, male and female. Other men had the legs and horns of a goat, or the hooves of a horse, or the rear end of a horse and the front of a man, like centaurs. Other beasts were born, such as bulls with human heads; dogs with four bodies and fish tails protruding from their rear end; horses with dogs' heads; humans and other animals with the head and body of a horse, but the tail of a fish; and other beasts with the form of all kinds of wild animals. As well as these [beasts], there were fish and reptiles and snakes and many other strange creatures, each of which had a different appearance. Representations of them were set up in the temple of Belus. A woman called Omorca ruled over all these [creatures]; she is called Thalatth in the Chaldaean language, which is translated into Greek as thalassa ("the sea").
When everything was joined together in this way, Belus came along and split the woman in half. Half of her he made the heavens, and the other half he made the earth; and he destroyed all the creatures on her. He says that this story is an allegory about nature; for when everything was wet and creatures were born in it, this god cut off his own head. The other gods took the blood that flowed from him and by mixing it with earth they created men. Therefore men are intelligent and have a share of divine reason.
[p17] Belus, which is translated as Zeus in Greek, cut the darkness in half. He separated the earth and the heavens from each other, and he arranged the universe. But because the creatures could not bear the power of the light, they were destroyed. When Belus saw that the land was empty and fertile, he ordered one of the gods to cut off his own head, and by mixing the blood which flowed from him with earth, to create men and wild beasts who could endure the air. Belus created the stars, the sun, the moon and the five planets.
That, according to Alexander Polyhistor, is what Berossus says in his first book. In the second book he lists the kings, one after another, and he says that the time of the ten kings, which we mentioned above, lasted for longer than 400,000 years. Anyone who believes that these writers are telling the truth about such a huge number of years should believe all the other improbable stories that they tell. Such a length of time is clearly supernatural, and is not worthy of belief, even if it is explained in a different way. And even if someone thinks that this number of years is possible, they still should not accept the statement about the dates without some further questions. If the number of rulers was sufficient to explain all these thousands of years, which are produced by their chronology, or if the writers reported the events and actions which would be expected to occur over such a length of time, then one might perhaps agree that there is some likelihood of their account being true. But as they claim that so many myriads of years were taken up by the rule of only ten men, who can doubt that these stories are merely ravings and myths?
Perhaps these so-called sars were originally measured not in years, but in some very small period of time. For instance, the ancient Egyptians talked about lunar years, [p19] that is a month of days or years containing 30 days. Other people consider the seasons to be periods of three months; in other words, they reckon each changing period of three months as a single year, and count the years in that way. Similarly, it is likely that the so-called sar of the Chaldaeans indicated some such [period of time].
So they count only ten generations from Alorus, who was the first to be called king [of the Chaldaeans], up until Xisuthrus, in whose reign the great flood occurred. In the Hebrew scriptures also, Moses declares that there were ten generations before the flood; for the Hebrews mention that number of generations, one by one, from the first man in their account up until the flood. But Hebrew history assigns about 2,000 years to these ten generations. Assyrian [history] lists the same number of generations as the book of Moses, but produces a very different total of years. It says that the ten generations lasted for 120 sars, which is the equivalent of (? ) 430,000 years.
The reader who is keen to know the truth can easily understand, from what we have already said, that Xisuthrus is the same as the man who is called Noah by the Hebrews, in whose time the great flood occurred. The book of Polyhistor also mentions him, and writes about him as follows.
From the same book of Alexander Polyhistor, about the flood
When Otiartes died, his son Xisuthrus became king, for 18 sars. In his reign, the great flood occurred. This is how the story is told.
Cronus (whom they call the father of Zeus, while others call him Chronus ["time"]) approached him in his sleep, and said that on the 15th day of the month of Daesius the human race would be destroyed by a flood. [p21] Cronus ordered him to bury the beginnings, the middles and the ends of all writings in Heliopolis, the city of the Sippareni; to build a boat and embark on it with his close friends; to load the boat with food and drink, and to put on board every kind of bird and four-footed creature; and then, when all the preparations were complete, to sail away. When he asked where he should sail, Cronus replied, "To the gods, to pray that good things may happen to men. " Xisuthrus did as he had been told. He built a boat which was 15 stades long, and 2 stades wide. After completing everything as instructed, he sent his wife, his children and his close friends onto the boat.
When the flood had come, and soon afterwards stopped, Xisuthrus sent out some of the birds. But they could not find any food or anywhere to rest, and so they returned to the boat. A few days later, Xisuthrus sent out the birds again, and this time they returned to the boat with mud on their feet. The third time that he sent out the birds, they no longer returned to the boat. Xisuthrus realised that some land had appeared. He removed part of the sides of the boat, and saw that it had come to rest on a mountain. He disembarked with his wife and daughter and the helmsman, and kissed the ground. After he had set up an altar and had sacrificed to the gods, he disappeared from sight, along with the others who had left the boat with him. When Xisuthrus and his companions did not return, the remainder of those who were on the boat disembarked and searched for him, calling out his name. They could not see Xisuthrus anywhere, but a voice came out of the sky telling them that they should honour the gods, and that Xisuthrus had gone to live with the gods, because of the honour he showed them; his wife, his daughter and the helmsman had received the same reward. The voice told them to return to Babylon; they were destined to dig up the writings which had been hidden in the city of the Sippareni, [p23] and distribute them amongst men.
This translation is based on a Latin translation of the Armenian translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition. However it is not intended to be a literal translation of the Armenian text. For instance, it attempts to make use of the Greek text, where evidence for it exists, especially in the spelling of proper names, which may be hard to recognise in their Armenian form. The Armenian text was translated very accurately into German by Josef Karst; a copy of Karst's translation has been put on the web by Roger Pearse (this English translation owes much to Roger's help and encouragement). For anyone who wants to compare passages in Karst's translation and this English translation, there is a concordance of page numbers.
The references in red are the page numbers from the Schoene-Petermann edition.
Contents:
(p1) Preface
(p7) The kings of the Babylonians (according to Alexander Polyhistor)
(p31) The kings of the Babylonians (according to Abydenus)
(p53) The kings of the Assyrians
(p67) The kings of the Medes, Lydians, and Persians
(p71) The patriarchs of the Jews
(p97) The judges and kings of Israel and Judah
(p123) The high priests and kings of the Jews
(p131) The kings of the Egyptians: 1st - 19th dynasties
(p145) The kings of the Egyptians: 20th - 31st dynasties
(p159) The kings of Egypt and Alexandria
(p173) The ancient kings of the Sicyonians
(p177) The ancient kings of the Argives
(p183) The ancient kings of the Athenians
(p191) The Greek Olympiads, and Olympic victors
(p219) The kings of the Corinthians
(p221) The kings of the Spartans
(p225) The thalassocracies (rulers of the sea)
(p227) The kings of the Macedonians
(p241) The kings of the Thessalians
(p247) The kings of Asia and Syria
(p263) The kings of the Romans
The Story of the Armenian Translation
- a summary of the account in "The Chronicle of Eusebius and Greek Chronographic Tradition" by Alden A. Mosshammer, which is recommended reading for anyone who wants to learn more about the Chronicle.
The Chronicle of Eusebius was translated from Greek into Armenian before 600 A. D. , but the oldest manuscript which has survived was written in the twelfth or thirteenth century A. D. For a long time European scholars were unaware of the translation, and because the original Greek text of Eusebius' Chronicle had perished, they could only guess at what the chronicle had contained. The only part which was well known was the Chronological Tables, which had been translated into Latin by St. Jerome. But in 1787 the Lector Georg Johannesian informed the Mechitarist community in Venice that a manuscript of an Armenian translation had been discovered at Jerusalem and taken to Constantinople. Two copies of the manuscript were made and sent to Venice, where I. B. Aucher prepared a Latin translation in 1795. Because he hoped to correct his translation by consulting the original manuscript, Aucher delayed publication for so long that eventually I. Zohrab lost patience with the delay and stole the first copy of the manuscript. He took it from Venice to Milan, where he and Angelo Mai quickly published a Latin translation in 1818. At this point, Aucher was forced to publish his own translation, but it was too late and he was even accused of plagiarising from his rivals.
Forty years later, Alfred Schoene decided that it was time to publish a new edition of all the evidence for the contents of Eusebius' Chronicle, including the summaries and translations. He asked H. Petermann to prepare a new Latin version of the Armenian translation. In 1864, Petermann travelled to Constantinople to inspect the original manuscript, but to his dismay the Armenian patriarch of Constantinople told him that the manuscript had been returned to Jerusalem. Instead of continuing with what he thought would be a fruitless journey to Jerusalem, Petermann returned to Venice, where he found that as well as the copy which Aucher had used, another manuscript (explicitly dated to 1696) had been acquired by P. Nerses. It was these manuscripts which Petermann used for his translation, which was published in Schoene's edition in 1875.
Petermann was aware that another manuscript of the Armenian translation existed, at the Etschmiadzin library near the Armenian capital, but he was unable to gain access to it. A few years later, Theodor Mommsen managed to obtain a partial transcript of the Etschmiadzin manuscript, and in 1895 he reported that this was the archetype from which all the other surviving manuscripts had been copied, and which had been found at Jerusalem a hundred years earlier.
In 1911, over 120 years after the announcement of the discovery of the manuscript, Josef Karst published an accurate German translation based on a photographic facsimile of the Etschmiadzin manuscript. He rejected suggestions that it should be translated into Greek ("misleading") or Latin ("syntax too restricted to preserve the style and colour of the Armenian language").
Scholars continue to debate how accurately the Armenian translation preserves the exact format of Eusebius' Greek text, especially in the Chronological Tables, where there are clear differences between the Armenian and St. Jerome. For instance, the Olympic dates differ by one year; the Armenian version sets the first Olympiad against year 1240, counting from Abraham, while in St. Jerome's version the first year of the first Olympiad is year 1241 from Abraham. But in general, the Armenian translation appears to be a reliable guide, and in the "first book" it has preserved much unique information about the reigns of the Hellenistic kings. It is certainly one of the most important documents to have survived in an Armenian translation.
back to: List of contents
Valid HTML 4. 01 Transitional Attalus' home page | 16. 05. 08 | Any comments?
back
Eusebius: Chronicle
- pages 1-71
Most of the original Greek text of the Chronicle has been lost. This translation is based on a Latin translation of the Armenian translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition. The references in red are the page numbers from that edition.
List of contents
[p1] I have searched through the various books of ancient history; [I have read] what the Chaldaeans and Assyrians have recorded, what the Egyptians have written in detail, and what the Greeks have related as accurately as possible. They include the dates of their kings and the Olympiads, which are athletic contests, and they contain the outstanding exploits of both the Greeks and the barbarians, of both the brave and the decadent. They also mention the remarkable victories of these nations, their generals, scholars, heroes, poets, historians and philosophers.
I think it is fitting, or rather a useful and necessary task, to summarise all this, and to write down the ancient history and chronology of the Hebrews, taken from the Holy Scriptures, alongside the things which I have just mentioned. From that we can tell how long Moses, and the prophets who came after him, lived before the appearance on earth of our saviour, about which they prophesied through the holy spirit; and we can easily recognise in which [reigns] of Greek or barbarian [rulers] the famous men of each race were alive; and at what time, from the beginning, the outstanding prophets existed amongst the Hebrews, together with all their rulers, one after another.
I warn and advise everyone from the start, that no-one should ever pretend that he can be completely certain about matters of chronology. It will help if first we remember the advice of our true master, [p3] who told his companions [ Acts, 1'7 ]: "It is not for you to know the hours and seasons which the Father has set under his own authority. " He, as our Lord and God, uttered this saying not only about the end of the world, but also, in my opinion, about all dates, to dissuade men from such pointless investigations.
Indeed, my own words here will confirm this saying of our master, [by showing] that it is not possible to gain an accurate knowledge of the whole chronology of the world from the Greeks, or from any others, not even from the Hebrews themselves. But it is possible to hope for this only: that what is said by us in this present treatise will help us to recognise two things. Firstly, no-one, like some have done, should believe that he is calculating dates with full accuracy, and be deceived in that way. But he should realise that this has been brought up for discussion, only so that he can know the means and manner of the proposed investigation, and so that he should not remain in doubt.
There is no reason to be surprised that the Greeks do not appear in the most ancient times. They have fallen into various fatal errors, and for a long time before the generation of Cadmus they were completely ignorant of writing. They say that Cadmus was the first to bring them the alphabet, from the land of the Phoenicians. And so the Egyptian in Plato's book [ Timaeus, 22'B ] rightly despises Solon; "O Solon," he says, "you Greeks are always children. An old Greek man is never to be found, and no-one can learn from you about ancient times. " But many improbable stories have been told by the Egyptians and Chaldaeans. For instance, the Chaldaeans calculate that their recorded history has lasted for more than 400,000 years. [p5] The Egyptians make up myths about gods and demi-gods, and also about some shades; and they tell many crazy myths about other mortal kings.
Yet what forces me to examine such matters in detail now, when I value the truth above all else? Even amongst my beloved Hebrews one can find inconsistencies, which I will mention at the appropriate time. But I have said this much in reproach of those chroniclers who are eager for such hollow glory.
In accordance with these objectives, I will scrutinise the books of the ancient writers.
[ p7 ] First I will put in writing the chronology of the Chaldaeans;
[ p53 ] and then the chronology of the Assyrians;
[ p67 ] next the kings of the Medes;
[ p67 ] and then the kings of the Lydians and Persians.
[ p71 ] Then I will go on to a different topic, and set out all the chronology of the Hebrews in sequence.
[ p131 ] After the Hebrews, in the third section [I will set out] the dates of the Egyptian dynasties.
[ p159 ] I will add to them the dynasty of the Ptolemaei, who reigned after Alexander the Macedonian in Egypt and Alexandria.
Then I will start on another [topic], and describe one after another what the Greeks have told about their history:
[ p173 ] first the rulers of Sicyon,
[ p177 ] and then [the rulers] of the land of the Argives,
[ p183 ] and of the city of the Athenians, from the first to the last;
[ p219 ] next, the kings of Lacedaemon and Corinth;
[ p225 ] and lastly, those who in any region held control of the sea.
[ p191 ] To these I will add a list of the Olympiads, which are recorded by the Greeks.
[ p227 ] After I have set out all the Olympiads in sequence, I will write down the first kings of the Macedonians and Thessalians,
[ p247 ] and then the leaders of the Syrians and Asians, who came after Alexander, one by one.
[ p265 ] Next I will set out in their turn all the individual rulers of the Latins, who were later called Romans, starting from Aeneias after the capture of Troy.
[ p291 ] Then [I will set out] in sequence [the kings], starting from Romulus, who founded the city of Rome;
the succession of emperors, starting from Julius Caesar and Augustus;
and the consuls for each year.
After collecting material from all these sources, I will move on to the chronological canons of time. Resuming from the beginning with those who ruled in each nation, I will divide their dates into separate series; [p7] and next to them I will place in sequence the numbers of their [regnal] years, so that it can easily and quickly be seen, at which time each of them lived. I will briefly mention the outstanding events of each reign, as recorded by every nation, in the context of that reign.
But the second book is a task for the future. Now, in the following section, let us investigate the chronology of the Chaldaeans, and what they have recorded about their ancestors.
[ THE CHALDAEANS ]
How the Chaldaeans record their chronology, from [the writings of] Alexander Polyhistor; about the books of the Chaldaeans, and their first kings
That is what Berossus relates in his first book, and in the second book he lists the kings, one after another. He says that Nabonassar was king at that time. He merely lists the names of the kings, and says very little about their achievements; or perhaps he thinks that they are not worth mentioning, when he has already stated the number of kings. He begins to write as follows: "Apollodorus says that the first king was Alorus, who was a Chaldaean from Babylon, and he reigned for 10 sars. " He divides a sar into 3,600 years, and adds two other [measures of time]: a ner and a soss. He says that a ner is 600 years, and a soss is 60 years. He counts the years in this way, following some ancient form of calculation. After saying this, he proceeds to list ten kings of the Assyrians, one after the other in [chronological] order; from Alorus, the first king, until Xisuthrus, in whose reign the first great flood occurred, the flood which Moses mentions.
He says that the total length of the reigns of the [ten] kings was 120 sars, which is the equivalent of 432,000 years. He writes about the individual kings as follows:
[p9] When Alorus died, his son Alaparus became king for 3 sars.
After Alaparus, Amelon, a Chaldaean from the city of Pautibiblon, became king for 13 sars.
After Amelon, Ammenon, a Chaldaean from (? ) Parmibiblon, became king for 12 sars.
- In his reign, the monster Annedotus, whose form was a mixture between a man and a fish, appeared out of the Red Sea.
Megalarus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 18 sars.
The shepherd Daonus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 10 sars.
- In this reign, again four monsters appeared out of the Red Sea, who [like Annedotus] were a mixture between a man and a fish.
Euedorachus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 18 sars.
- In this reign, another monster appeared out of the Red Sea, which also was a mixture between a man and a fish, and its name was Odacon. All these [monsters] explained in detail what Oannes had stated briefly.
Amempsinus, a Chaldaean from Larancha, reigned for 10 sars.
Otiartes, a Chaldaean from Larancha, reigned for 8 sars.
When Otiartes died, his son Xisuthrus became king, for 18 sars.
- In his reign, the great flood occurred.
The reigns of all these kings, added together, make 120 sars. They are calculated in this way:
Alorus, for 10 sars
Alaparus, for 3 sars
Amelon, for 13 sars
Ammenon, for 12 sars
Megalarus, for 18 sars
Daonus, for 10 sars
Euedorachus, for 18 sars
Amempsinus, for 10 sars
Otiartes, for 8 sars
Xisuthrus, for 18 sars
In total, 10 kings and 120 sars. [p11] And they say that 120 sars are the equivalent of 432,000 years, because one sar is the equivalent of 3,600 years.
That is what Alexander Polyhistor says in his book. But if anyone thinks that what is contained in that book is a true history, and that [those kings] really ruled for so many myriads of years, then he should also believe in all the other similar things in that book, which are equally incredible. Now I will tell what Berossus wrote in the first book of his history, and first I will add another quotation from the same book of Polyhistor, as follows.
Another unreliable account of Chaldaean history, from the same book of Alexander Polyhistor about the Chaldaeans
Berossus, in the first book of his Babylonian History, says that he lived at the time of Alexander the son of Philippus, and that he transcribed the writings of many authors, which had been carefully preserved at Babylon, containing the records of (? ) over 150,000 years. These writings contain the history of heaven and the sea, of creation, and of the kings and their deeds.
Firstly, he says that the land of Babylonia lies between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Wild wheat, barley, lentils and sesame grow on the land; and the marshes produce roots, called gonges, which are as nutritious as barley. There are dates, apples, [p13] and other fruits and fish, as well as birds in the woods and marshes. The parts lying towards Arabia are dry and barren, but the parts on the opposite side from Arabia are mountainous and fertile. A large number of foreigners dwell in Chaldaea; they live in Babylon in a disorderly way, like wild animals.
In the first year, a horrible beast appeared out of the Red Sea in the region near Babylonia. Its name was Oannes, according to Apollodorus. It had the complete body of a fish, but underneath its head there grew another head, beneath the fish's head; and in the same way the feet of a man grew of the tail of the fish. It had the voice of a man, and its likeness has been preserved even down to the present day. He says that this beast spent the day with men, taking no food, but instructing them about writing and science and all kinds of crafts. It taught them about founding cities and establishing temples, about introducing laws and about geometry. It showed them how to sow seed and gather fruit; and in general it gave men all the skills they needed for a civilised life. Since that time, nothing additional has been discovered.
But when the sun set, this beast called Oannes went back into the sea, and spent the night in the water, because it was amphibious. Afterwards other similar beasts appeared, which he says he will mention in the list of kings. But he says that Oannes wrote about creation and about the government of states, and he passed on this message on to mankind.
There was once a time, in which everything was darkness and water. [p15] In those times, monstrous beasts were born, with strange appearances. There were men with two wings, and some with four wings and two faces. They had one body, but two heads, of a man and a woman, and two sets of genitals, male and female. Other men had the legs and horns of a goat, or the hooves of a horse, or the rear end of a horse and the front of a man, like centaurs. Other beasts were born, such as bulls with human heads; dogs with four bodies and fish tails protruding from their rear end; horses with dogs' heads; humans and other animals with the head and body of a horse, but the tail of a fish; and other beasts with the form of all kinds of wild animals. As well as these [beasts], there were fish and reptiles and snakes and many other strange creatures, each of which had a different appearance. Representations of them were set up in the temple of Belus. A woman called Omorca ruled over all these [creatures]; she is called Thalatth in the Chaldaean language, which is translated into Greek as thalassa ("the sea").
When everything was joined together in this way, Belus came along and split the woman in half. Half of her he made the heavens, and the other half he made the earth; and he destroyed all the creatures on her. He says that this story is an allegory about nature; for when everything was wet and creatures were born in it, this god cut off his own head. The other gods took the blood that flowed from him and by mixing it with earth they created men. Therefore men are intelligent and have a share of divine reason.
[p17] Belus, which is translated as Zeus in Greek, cut the darkness in half. He separated the earth and the heavens from each other, and he arranged the universe. But because the creatures could not bear the power of the light, they were destroyed. When Belus saw that the land was empty and fertile, he ordered one of the gods to cut off his own head, and by mixing the blood which flowed from him with earth, to create men and wild beasts who could endure the air. Belus created the stars, the sun, the moon and the five planets.
That, according to Alexander Polyhistor, is what Berossus says in his first book. In the second book he lists the kings, one after another, and he says that the time of the ten kings, which we mentioned above, lasted for longer than 400,000 years. Anyone who believes that these writers are telling the truth about such a huge number of years should believe all the other improbable stories that they tell. Such a length of time is clearly supernatural, and is not worthy of belief, even if it is explained in a different way. And even if someone thinks that this number of years is possible, they still should not accept the statement about the dates without some further questions. If the number of rulers was sufficient to explain all these thousands of years, which are produced by their chronology, or if the writers reported the events and actions which would be expected to occur over such a length of time, then one might perhaps agree that there is some likelihood of their account being true. But as they claim that so many myriads of years were taken up by the rule of only ten men, who can doubt that these stories are merely ravings and myths?
Perhaps these so-called sars were originally measured not in years, but in some very small period of time. For instance, the ancient Egyptians talked about lunar years, [p19] that is a month of days or years containing 30 days. Other people consider the seasons to be periods of three months; in other words, they reckon each changing period of three months as a single year, and count the years in that way. Similarly, it is likely that the so-called sar of the Chaldaeans indicated some such [period of time].
So they count only ten generations from Alorus, who was the first to be called king [of the Chaldaeans], up until Xisuthrus, in whose reign the great flood occurred. In the Hebrew scriptures also, Moses declares that there were ten generations before the flood; for the Hebrews mention that number of generations, one by one, from the first man in their account up until the flood. But Hebrew history assigns about 2,000 years to these ten generations. Assyrian [history] lists the same number of generations as the book of Moses, but produces a very different total of years. It says that the ten generations lasted for 120 sars, which is the equivalent of (? ) 430,000 years.
The reader who is keen to know the truth can easily understand, from what we have already said, that Xisuthrus is the same as the man who is called Noah by the Hebrews, in whose time the great flood occurred. The book of Polyhistor also mentions him, and writes about him as follows.
From the same book of Alexander Polyhistor, about the flood
When Otiartes died, his son Xisuthrus became king, for 18 sars. In his reign, the great flood occurred. This is how the story is told.
Cronus (whom they call the father of Zeus, while others call him Chronus ["time"]) approached him in his sleep, and said that on the 15th day of the month of Daesius the human race would be destroyed by a flood. [p21] Cronus ordered him to bury the beginnings, the middles and the ends of all writings in Heliopolis, the city of the Sippareni; to build a boat and embark on it with his close friends; to load the boat with food and drink, and to put on board every kind of bird and four-footed creature; and then, when all the preparations were complete, to sail away. When he asked where he should sail, Cronus replied, "To the gods, to pray that good things may happen to men. " Xisuthrus did as he had been told. He built a boat which was 15 stades long, and 2 stades wide. After completing everything as instructed, he sent his wife, his children and his close friends onto the boat.
When the flood had come, and soon afterwards stopped, Xisuthrus sent out some of the birds. But they could not find any food or anywhere to rest, and so they returned to the boat. A few days later, Xisuthrus sent out the birds again, and this time they returned to the boat with mud on their feet. The third time that he sent out the birds, they no longer returned to the boat. Xisuthrus realised that some land had appeared. He removed part of the sides of the boat, and saw that it had come to rest on a mountain. He disembarked with his wife and daughter and the helmsman, and kissed the ground. After he had set up an altar and had sacrificed to the gods, he disappeared from sight, along with the others who had left the boat with him. When Xisuthrus and his companions did not return, the remainder of those who were on the boat disembarked and searched for him, calling out his name. They could not see Xisuthrus anywhere, but a voice came out of the sky telling them that they should honour the gods, and that Xisuthrus had gone to live with the gods, because of the honour he showed them; his wife, his daughter and the helmsman had received the same reward. The voice told them to return to Babylon; they were destined to dig up the writings which had been hidden in the city of the Sippareni, [p23] and distribute them amongst men. They were told that they were now in the land of Armenia.
When they heard all of this, they sacrificed to the gods and went by foot to Babylon. A small part of the boat, which came to rest in Armenia, can still be found in the mountains of the Cordyaei in Armenia. Some people scrape off the asphalt, which covers the boat, and use it to ward off diseases, like an amulet. When they arrived back in Babylon, they dug up the writings in the city of the Sippareni. They founded many cities, and re-founded Babylon, constructing many temples.
Afterwards Polyhistor gives an account of the building of the tower, which agrees with the books of Moses, in exactly these words.
[From the writings] of Alexander Polyhistor, about the building of the tower
The Sibyl says: "When men all spoke the same language, they built a very tall tower, so that they could climb up to heaven. However god blew a wind at them and overturned the tower.
Eusebius: Chronicle
Eusebius' Chronicle was written in about 325 A. D. It contained Chronological Tables from the earliest times down to the reign of the emperor Constantine. These tables were widely copied, and are best known through the Latin translation of St. Jerome. Eusebius also published the evidence for some of the dates in the tables, mostly in the form of excerpts from earlier writers. The so-called "first book" of the Chronicle, containing the evidence, is translated here.
Most of the original Greek text of the Chronicle has been lost. This translation is based on a Latin translation of the Armenian translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition. However it is not intended to be a literal translation of the Armenian text. For instance, it attempts to make use of the Greek text, where evidence for it exists, especially in the spelling of proper names, which may be hard to recognise in their Armenian form. The Armenian text was translated very accurately into German by Josef Karst; a copy of Karst's translation has been put on the web by Roger Pearse (this English translation owes much to Roger's help and encouragement). For anyone who wants to compare passages in Karst's translation and this English translation, there is a concordance of page numbers.
The references in red are the page numbers from the Schoene-Petermann edition.
Contents:
(p1) Preface
(p7) The kings of the Babylonians (according to Alexander Polyhistor)
(p31) The kings of the Babylonians (according to Abydenus)
(p53) The kings of the Assyrians
(p67) The kings of the Medes, Lydians, and Persians
(p71) The patriarchs of the Jews
(p97) The judges and kings of Israel and Judah
(p123) The high priests and kings of the Jews
(p131) The kings of the Egyptians: 1st - 19th dynasties
(p145) The kings of the Egyptians: 20th - 31st dynasties
(p159) The kings of Egypt and Alexandria
(p173) The ancient kings of the Sicyonians
(p177) The ancient kings of the Argives
(p183) The ancient kings of the Athenians
(p191) The Greek Olympiads, and Olympic victors
(p219) The kings of the Corinthians
(p221) The kings of the Spartans
(p225) The thalassocracies (rulers of the sea)
(p227) The kings of the Macedonians
(p241) The kings of the Thessalians
(p247) The kings of Asia and Syria
(p263) The kings of the Romans
The Story of the Armenian Translation
- a summary of the account in "The Chronicle of Eusebius and Greek Chronographic Tradition" by Alden A. Mosshammer, which is recommended reading for anyone who wants to learn more about the Chronicle.
The Chronicle of Eusebius was translated from Greek into Armenian before 600 A. D. , but the oldest manuscript which has survived was written in the twelfth or thirteenth century A. D. For a long time European scholars were unaware of the translation, and because the original Greek text of Eusebius' Chronicle had perished, they could only guess at what the chronicle had contained. The only part which was well known was the Chronological Tables, which had been translated into Latin by St. Jerome. But in 1787 the Lector Georg Johannesian informed the Mechitarist community in Venice that a manuscript of an Armenian translation had been discovered at Jerusalem and taken to Constantinople. Two copies of the manuscript were made and sent to Venice, where I. B. Aucher prepared a Latin translation in 1795. Because he hoped to correct his translation by consulting the original manuscript, Aucher delayed publication for so long that eventually I. Zohrab lost patience with the delay and stole the first copy of the manuscript. He took it from Venice to Milan, where he and Angelo Mai quickly published a Latin translation in 1818. At this point, Aucher was forced to publish his own translation, but it was too late and he was even accused of plagiarising from his rivals.
Forty years later, Alfred Schoene decided that it was time to publish a new edition of all the evidence for the contents of Eusebius' Chronicle, including the summaries and translations. He asked H. Petermann to prepare a new Latin version of the Armenian translation. In 1864, Petermann travelled to Constantinople to inspect the original manuscript, but to his dismay the Armenian patriarch of Constantinople told him that the manuscript had been returned to Jerusalem. Instead of continuing with what he thought would be a fruitless journey to Jerusalem, Petermann returned to Venice, where he found that as well as the copy which Aucher had used, another manuscript (explicitly dated to 1696) had been acquired by P. Nerses. It was these manuscripts which Petermann used for his translation, which was published in Schoene's edition in 1875.
Petermann was aware that another manuscript of the Armenian translation existed, at the Etschmiadzin library near the Armenian capital, but he was unable to gain access to it. A few years later, Theodor Mommsen managed to obtain a partial transcript of the Etschmiadzin manuscript, and in 1895 he reported that this was the archetype from which all the other surviving manuscripts had been copied, and which had been found at Jerusalem a hundred years earlier.
In 1911, over 120 years after the announcement of the discovery of the manuscript, Josef Karst published an accurate German translation based on a photographic facsimile of the Etschmiadzin manuscript. He rejected suggestions that it should be translated into Greek ("misleading") or Latin ("syntax too restricted to preserve the style and colour of the Armenian language").
Scholars continue to debate how accurately the Armenian translation preserves the exact format of Eusebius' Greek text, especially in the Chronological Tables, where there are clear differences between the Armenian and St. Jerome. For instance, the Olympic dates differ by one year; the Armenian version sets the first Olympiad against year 1240, counting from Abraham, while in St. Jerome's version the first year of the first Olympiad is year 1241 from Abraham. But in general, the Armenian translation appears to be a reliable guide, and in the "first book" it has preserved much unique information about the reigns of the Hellenistic kings. It is certainly one of the most important documents to have survived in an Armenian translation.
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Eusebius: Chronicle
- pages 1-71
Most of the original Greek text of the Chronicle has been lost. This translation is based on a Latin translation of the Armenian translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition. The references in red are the page numbers from that edition.
List of contents
[p1] I have searched through the various books of ancient history; [I have read] what the Chaldaeans and Assyrians have recorded, what the Egyptians have written in detail, and what the Greeks have related as accurately as possible. They include the dates of their kings and the Olympiads, which are athletic contests, and they contain the outstanding exploits of both the Greeks and the barbarians, of both the brave and the decadent. They also mention the remarkable victories of these nations, their generals, scholars, heroes, poets, historians and philosophers.
I think it is fitting, or rather a useful and necessary task, to summarise all this, and to write down the ancient history and chronology of the Hebrews, taken from the Holy Scriptures, alongside the things which I have just mentioned. From that we can tell how long Moses, and the prophets who came after him, lived before the appearance on earth of our saviour, about which they prophesied through the holy spirit; and we can easily recognise in which [reigns] of Greek or barbarian [rulers] the famous men of each race were alive; and at what time, from the beginning, the outstanding prophets existed amongst the Hebrews, together with all their rulers, one after another.
I warn and advise everyone from the start, that no-one should ever pretend that he can be completely certain about matters of chronology. It will help if first we remember the advice of our true master, [p3] who told his companions [ Acts, 1'7 ]: "It is not for you to know the hours and seasons which the Father has set under his own authority. " He, as our Lord and God, uttered this saying not only about the end of the world, but also, in my opinion, about all dates, to dissuade men from such pointless investigations.
Indeed, my own words here will confirm this saying of our master, [by showing] that it is not possible to gain an accurate knowledge of the whole chronology of the world from the Greeks, or from any others, not even from the Hebrews themselves. But it is possible to hope for this only: that what is said by us in this present treatise will help us to recognise two things. Firstly, no-one, like some have done, should believe that he is calculating dates with full accuracy, and be deceived in that way. But he should realise that this has been brought up for discussion, only so that he can know the means and manner of the proposed investigation, and so that he should not remain in doubt.
There is no reason to be surprised that the Greeks do not appear in the most ancient times. They have fallen into various fatal errors, and for a long time before the generation of Cadmus they were completely ignorant of writing. They say that Cadmus was the first to bring them the alphabet, from the land of the Phoenicians. And so the Egyptian in Plato's book [ Timaeus, 22'B ] rightly despises Solon; "O Solon," he says, "you Greeks are always children. An old Greek man is never to be found, and no-one can learn from you about ancient times. " But many improbable stories have been told by the Egyptians and Chaldaeans. For instance, the Chaldaeans calculate that their recorded history has lasted for more than 400,000 years. [p5] The Egyptians make up myths about gods and demi-gods, and also about some shades; and they tell many crazy myths about other mortal kings.
Yet what forces me to examine such matters in detail now, when I value the truth above all else? Even amongst my beloved Hebrews one can find inconsistencies, which I will mention at the appropriate time. But I have said this much in reproach of those chroniclers who are eager for such hollow glory.
In accordance with these objectives, I will scrutinise the books of the ancient writers.
[ p7 ] First I will put in writing the chronology of the Chaldaeans;
[ p53 ] and then the chronology of the Assyrians;
[ p67 ] next the kings of the Medes;
[ p67 ] and then the kings of the Lydians and Persians.
[ p71 ] Then I will go on to a different topic, and set out all the chronology of the Hebrews in sequence.
[ p131 ] After the Hebrews, in the third section [I will set out] the dates of the Egyptian dynasties.
[ p159 ] I will add to them the dynasty of the Ptolemaei, who reigned after Alexander the Macedonian in Egypt and Alexandria.
Then I will start on another [topic], and describe one after another what the Greeks have told about their history:
[ p173 ] first the rulers of Sicyon,
[ p177 ] and then [the rulers] of the land of the Argives,
[ p183 ] and of the city of the Athenians, from the first to the last;
[ p219 ] next, the kings of Lacedaemon and Corinth;
[ p225 ] and lastly, those who in any region held control of the sea.
[ p191 ] To these I will add a list of the Olympiads, which are recorded by the Greeks.
[ p227 ] After I have set out all the Olympiads in sequence, I will write down the first kings of the Macedonians and Thessalians,
[ p247 ] and then the leaders of the Syrians and Asians, who came after Alexander, one by one.
[ p265 ] Next I will set out in their turn all the individual rulers of the Latins, who were later called Romans, starting from Aeneias after the capture of Troy.
[ p291 ] Then [I will set out] in sequence [the kings], starting from Romulus, who founded the city of Rome;
the succession of emperors, starting from Julius Caesar and Augustus;
and the consuls for each year.
After collecting material from all these sources, I will move on to the chronological canons of time. Resuming from the beginning with those who ruled in each nation, I will divide their dates into separate series; [p7] and next to them I will place in sequence the numbers of their [regnal] years, so that it can easily and quickly be seen, at which time each of them lived. I will briefly mention the outstanding events of each reign, as recorded by every nation, in the context of that reign.
But the second book is a task for the future. Now, in the following section, let us investigate the chronology of the Chaldaeans, and what they have recorded about their ancestors.
[ THE CHALDAEANS ]
How the Chaldaeans record their chronology, from [the writings of] Alexander Polyhistor; about the books of the Chaldaeans, and their first kings
That is what Berossus relates in his first book, and in the second book he lists the kings, one after another. He says that Nabonassar was king at that time. He merely lists the names of the kings, and says very little about their achievements; or perhaps he thinks that they are not worth mentioning, when he has already stated the number of kings. He begins to write as follows: "Apollodorus says that the first king was Alorus, who was a Chaldaean from Babylon, and he reigned for 10 sars. " He divides a sar into 3,600 years, and adds two other [measures of time]: a ner and a soss. He says that a ner is 600 years, and a soss is 60 years. He counts the years in this way, following some ancient form of calculation. After saying this, he proceeds to list ten kings of the Assyrians, one after the other in [chronological] order; from Alorus, the first king, until Xisuthrus, in whose reign the first great flood occurred, the flood which Moses mentions.
He says that the total length of the reigns of the [ten] kings was 120 sars, which is the equivalent of 432,000 years. He writes about the individual kings as follows:
[p9] When Alorus died, his son Alaparus became king for 3 sars.
After Alaparus, Amelon, a Chaldaean from the city of Pautibiblon, became king for 13 sars.
After Amelon, Ammenon, a Chaldaean from (? ) Parmibiblon, became king for 12 sars.
- In his reign, the monster Annedotus, whose form was a mixture between a man and a fish, appeared out of the Red Sea.
Megalarus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 18 sars.
The shepherd Daonus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 10 sars.
- In this reign, again four monsters appeared out of the Red Sea, who [like Annedotus] were a mixture between a man and a fish.
Euedorachus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 18 sars.
- In this reign, another monster appeared out of the Red Sea, which also was a mixture between a man and a fish, and its name was Odacon. All these [monsters] explained in detail what Oannes had stated briefly.
Amempsinus, a Chaldaean from Larancha, reigned for 10 sars.
Otiartes, a Chaldaean from Larancha, reigned for 8 sars.
When Otiartes died, his son Xisuthrus became king, for 18 sars.
- In his reign, the great flood occurred.
The reigns of all these kings, added together, make 120 sars. They are calculated in this way:
Alorus, for 10 sars
Alaparus, for 3 sars
Amelon, for 13 sars
Ammenon, for 12 sars
Megalarus, for 18 sars
Daonus, for 10 sars
Euedorachus, for 18 sars
Amempsinus, for 10 sars
Otiartes, for 8 sars
Xisuthrus, for 18 sars
In total, 10 kings and 120 sars. [p11] And they say that 120 sars are the equivalent of 432,000 years, because one sar is the equivalent of 3,600 years.
That is what Alexander Polyhistor says in his book. But if anyone thinks that what is contained in that book is a true history, and that [those kings] really ruled for so many myriads of years, then he should also believe in all the other similar things in that book, which are equally incredible. Now I will tell what Berossus wrote in the first book of his history, and first I will add another quotation from the same book of Polyhistor, as follows.
Another unreliable account of Chaldaean history, from the same book of Alexander Polyhistor about the Chaldaeans
Berossus, in the first book of his Babylonian History, says that he lived at the time of Alexander the son of Philippus, and that he transcribed the writings of many authors, which had been carefully preserved at Babylon, containing the records of (? ) over 150,000 years. These writings contain the history of heaven and the sea, of creation, and of the kings and their deeds.
Firstly, he says that the land of Babylonia lies between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Wild wheat, barley, lentils and sesame grow on the land; and the marshes produce roots, called gonges, which are as nutritious as barley. There are dates, apples, [p13] and other fruits and fish, as well as birds in the woods and marshes. The parts lying towards Arabia are dry and barren, but the parts on the opposite side from Arabia are mountainous and fertile. A large number of foreigners dwell in Chaldaea; they live in Babylon in a disorderly way, like wild animals.
In the first year, a horrible beast appeared out of the Red Sea in the region near Babylonia. Its name was Oannes, according to Apollodorus. It had the complete body of a fish, but underneath its head there grew another head, beneath the fish's head; and in the same way the feet of a man grew of the tail of the fish. It had the voice of a man, and its likeness has been preserved even down to the present day. He says that this beast spent the day with men, taking no food, but instructing them about writing and science and all kinds of crafts. It taught them about founding cities and establishing temples, about introducing laws and about geometry. It showed them how to sow seed and gather fruit; and in general it gave men all the skills they needed for a civilised life. Since that time, nothing additional has been discovered.
But when the sun set, this beast called Oannes went back into the sea, and spent the night in the water, because it was amphibious. Afterwards other similar beasts appeared, which he says he will mention in the list of kings. But he says that Oannes wrote about creation and about the government of states, and he passed on this message on to mankind.
There was once a time, in which everything was darkness and water. [p15] In those times, monstrous beasts were born, with strange appearances. There were men with two wings, and some with four wings and two faces. They had one body, but two heads, of a man and a woman, and two sets of genitals, male and female. Other men had the legs and horns of a goat, or the hooves of a horse, or the rear end of a horse and the front of a man, like centaurs. Other beasts were born, such as bulls with human heads; dogs with four bodies and fish tails protruding from their rear end; horses with dogs' heads; humans and other animals with the head and body of a horse, but the tail of a fish; and other beasts with the form of all kinds of wild animals. As well as these [beasts], there were fish and reptiles and snakes and many other strange creatures, each of which had a different appearance. Representations of them were set up in the temple of Belus. A woman called Omorca ruled over all these [creatures]; she is called Thalatth in the Chaldaean language, which is translated into Greek as thalassa ("the sea").
When everything was joined together in this way, Belus came along and split the woman in half. Half of her he made the heavens, and the other half he made the earth; and he destroyed all the creatures on her. He says that this story is an allegory about nature; for when everything was wet and creatures were born in it, this god cut off his own head. The other gods took the blood that flowed from him and by mixing it with earth they created men. Therefore men are intelligent and have a share of divine reason.
[p17] Belus, which is translated as Zeus in Greek, cut the darkness in half. He separated the earth and the heavens from each other, and he arranged the universe. But because the creatures could not bear the power of the light, they were destroyed. When Belus saw that the land was empty and fertile, he ordered one of the gods to cut off his own head, and by mixing the blood which flowed from him with earth, to create men and wild beasts who could endure the air. Belus created the stars, the sun, the moon and the five planets.
That, according to Alexander Polyhistor, is what Berossus says in his first book. In the second book he lists the kings, one after another, and he says that the time of the ten kings, which we mentioned above, lasted for longer than 400,000 years. Anyone who believes that these writers are telling the truth about such a huge number of years should believe all the other improbable stories that they tell. Such a length of time is clearly supernatural, and is not worthy of belief, even if it is explained in a different way. And even if someone thinks that this number of years is possible, they still should not accept the statement about the dates without some further questions. If the number of rulers was sufficient to explain all these thousands of years, which are produced by their chronology, or if the writers reported the events and actions which would be expected to occur over such a length of time, then one might perhaps agree that there is some likelihood of their account being true. But as they claim that so many myriads of years were taken up by the rule of only ten men, who can doubt that these stories are merely ravings and myths?
Perhaps these so-called sars were originally measured not in years, but in some very small period of time. For instance, the ancient Egyptians talked about lunar years, [p19] that is a month of days or years containing 30 days. Other people consider the seasons to be periods of three months; in other words, they reckon each changing period of three months as a single year, and count the years in that way. Similarly, it is likely that the so-called sar of the Chaldaeans indicated some such [period of time].
So they count only ten generations from Alorus, who was the first to be called king [of the Chaldaeans], up until Xisuthrus, in whose reign the great flood occurred. In the Hebrew scriptures also, Moses declares that there were ten generations before the flood; for the Hebrews mention that number of generations, one by one, from the first man in their account up until the flood. But Hebrew history assigns about 2,000 years to these ten generations. Assyrian [history] lists the same number of generations as the book of Moses, but produces a very different total of years. It says that the ten generations lasted for 120 sars, which is the equivalent of (? ) 430,000 years.
The reader who is keen to know the truth can easily understand, from what we have already said, that Xisuthrus is the same as the man who is called Noah by the Hebrews, in whose time the great flood occurred. The book of Polyhistor also mentions him, and writes about him as follows.
From the same book of Alexander Polyhistor, about the flood
When Otiartes died, his son Xisuthrus became king, for 18 sars. In his reign, the great flood occurred. This is how the story is told.
Cronus (whom they call the father of Zeus, while others call him Chronus ["time"]) approached him in his sleep, and said that on the 15th day of the month of Daesius the human race would be destroyed by a flood. [p21] Cronus ordered him to bury the beginnings, the middles and the ends of all writings in Heliopolis, the city of the Sippareni; to build a boat and embark on it with his close friends; to load the boat with food and drink, and to put on board every kind of bird and four-footed creature; and then, when all the preparations were complete, to sail away. When he asked where he should sail, Cronus replied, "To the gods, to pray that good things may happen to men. " Xisuthrus did as he had been told. He built a boat which was 15 stades long, and 2 stades wide. After completing everything as instructed, he sent his wife, his children and his close friends onto the boat.
When the flood had come, and soon afterwards stopped, Xisuthrus sent out some of the birds. But they could not find any food or anywhere to rest, and so they returned to the boat. A few days later, Xisuthrus sent out the birds again, and this time they returned to the boat with mud on their feet. The third time that he sent out the birds, they no longer returned to the boat. Xisuthrus realised that some land had appeared. He removed part of the sides of the boat, and saw that it had come to rest on a mountain. He disembarked with his wife and daughter and the helmsman, and kissed the ground. After he had set up an altar and had sacrificed to the gods, he disappeared from sight, along with the others who had left the boat with him. When Xisuthrus and his companions did not return, the remainder of those who were on the boat disembarked and searched for him, calling out his name. They could not see Xisuthrus anywhere, but a voice came out of the sky telling them that they should honour the gods, and that Xisuthrus had gone to live with the gods, because of the honour he showed them; his wife, his daughter and the helmsman had received the same reward. The voice told them to return to Babylon; they were destined to dig up the writings which had been hidden in the city of the Sippareni, [p23] and distribute them amongst men.
This translation is based on a Latin translation of the Armenian translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition. However it is not intended to be a literal translation of the Armenian text. For instance, it attempts to make use of the Greek text, where evidence for it exists, especially in the spelling of proper names, which may be hard to recognise in their Armenian form. The Armenian text was translated very accurately into German by Josef Karst; a copy of Karst's translation has been put on the web by Roger Pearse (this English translation owes much to Roger's help and encouragement). For anyone who wants to compare passages in Karst's translation and this English translation, there is a concordance of page numbers.
The references in red are the page numbers from the Schoene-Petermann edition.
Contents:
(p1) Preface
(p7) The kings of the Babylonians (according to Alexander Polyhistor)
(p31) The kings of the Babylonians (according to Abydenus)
(p53) The kings of the Assyrians
(p67) The kings of the Medes, Lydians, and Persians
(p71) The patriarchs of the Jews
(p97) The judges and kings of Israel and Judah
(p123) The high priests and kings of the Jews
(p131) The kings of the Egyptians: 1st - 19th dynasties
(p145) The kings of the Egyptians: 20th - 31st dynasties
(p159) The kings of Egypt and Alexandria
(p173) The ancient kings of the Sicyonians
(p177) The ancient kings of the Argives
(p183) The ancient kings of the Athenians
(p191) The Greek Olympiads, and Olympic victors
(p219) The kings of the Corinthians
(p221) The kings of the Spartans
(p225) The thalassocracies (rulers of the sea)
(p227) The kings of the Macedonians
(p241) The kings of the Thessalians
(p247) The kings of Asia and Syria
(p263) The kings of the Romans
The Story of the Armenian Translation
- a summary of the account in "The Chronicle of Eusebius and Greek Chronographic Tradition" by Alden A. Mosshammer, which is recommended reading for anyone who wants to learn more about the Chronicle.
The Chronicle of Eusebius was translated from Greek into Armenian before 600 A. D. , but the oldest manuscript which has survived was written in the twelfth or thirteenth century A. D. For a long time European scholars were unaware of the translation, and because the original Greek text of Eusebius' Chronicle had perished, they could only guess at what the chronicle had contained. The only part which was well known was the Chronological Tables, which had been translated into Latin by St. Jerome. But in 1787 the Lector Georg Johannesian informed the Mechitarist community in Venice that a manuscript of an Armenian translation had been discovered at Jerusalem and taken to Constantinople. Two copies of the manuscript were made and sent to Venice, where I. B. Aucher prepared a Latin translation in 1795. Because he hoped to correct his translation by consulting the original manuscript, Aucher delayed publication for so long that eventually I. Zohrab lost patience with the delay and stole the first copy of the manuscript. He took it from Venice to Milan, where he and Angelo Mai quickly published a Latin translation in 1818. At this point, Aucher was forced to publish his own translation, but it was too late and he was even accused of plagiarising from his rivals.
Forty years later, Alfred Schoene decided that it was time to publish a new edition of all the evidence for the contents of Eusebius' Chronicle, including the summaries and translations. He asked H. Petermann to prepare a new Latin version of the Armenian translation. In 1864, Petermann travelled to Constantinople to inspect the original manuscript, but to his dismay the Armenian patriarch of Constantinople told him that the manuscript had been returned to Jerusalem. Instead of continuing with what he thought would be a fruitless journey to Jerusalem, Petermann returned to Venice, where he found that as well as the copy which Aucher had used, another manuscript (explicitly dated to 1696) had been acquired by P. Nerses. It was these manuscripts which Petermann used for his translation, which was published in Schoene's edition in 1875.
Petermann was aware that another manuscript of the Armenian translation existed, at the Etschmiadzin library near the Armenian capital, but he was unable to gain access to it. A few years later, Theodor Mommsen managed to obtain a partial transcript of the Etschmiadzin manuscript, and in 1895 he reported that this was the archetype from which all the other surviving manuscripts had been copied, and which had been found at Jerusalem a hundred years earlier.
In 1911, over 120 years after the announcement of the discovery of the manuscript, Josef Karst published an accurate German translation based on a photographic facsimile of the Etschmiadzin manuscript. He rejected suggestions that it should be translated into Greek ("misleading") or Latin ("syntax too restricted to preserve the style and colour of the Armenian language").
Scholars continue to debate how accurately the Armenian translation preserves the exact format of Eusebius' Greek text, especially in the Chronological Tables, where there are clear differences between the Armenian and St. Jerome. For instance, the Olympic dates differ by one year; the Armenian version sets the first Olympiad against year 1240, counting from Abraham, while in St. Jerome's version the first year of the first Olympiad is year 1241 from Abraham. But in general, the Armenian translation appears to be a reliable guide, and in the "first book" it has preserved much unique information about the reigns of the Hellenistic kings. It is certainly one of the most important documents to have survived in an Armenian translation.
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Eusebius: Chronicle
- pages 1-71
Most of the original Greek text of the Chronicle has been lost. This translation is based on a Latin translation of the Armenian translation of the Greek original, in the Schoene-Petermann edition. The references in red are the page numbers from that edition.
List of contents
[p1] I have searched through the various books of ancient history; [I have read] what the Chaldaeans and Assyrians have recorded, what the Egyptians have written in detail, and what the Greeks have related as accurately as possible. They include the dates of their kings and the Olympiads, which are athletic contests, and they contain the outstanding exploits of both the Greeks and the barbarians, of both the brave and the decadent. They also mention the remarkable victories of these nations, their generals, scholars, heroes, poets, historians and philosophers.
I think it is fitting, or rather a useful and necessary task, to summarise all this, and to write down the ancient history and chronology of the Hebrews, taken from the Holy Scriptures, alongside the things which I have just mentioned. From that we can tell how long Moses, and the prophets who came after him, lived before the appearance on earth of our saviour, about which they prophesied through the holy spirit; and we can easily recognise in which [reigns] of Greek or barbarian [rulers] the famous men of each race were alive; and at what time, from the beginning, the outstanding prophets existed amongst the Hebrews, together with all their rulers, one after another.
I warn and advise everyone from the start, that no-one should ever pretend that he can be completely certain about matters of chronology. It will help if first we remember the advice of our true master, [p3] who told his companions [ Acts, 1'7 ]: "It is not for you to know the hours and seasons which the Father has set under his own authority. " He, as our Lord and God, uttered this saying not only about the end of the world, but also, in my opinion, about all dates, to dissuade men from such pointless investigations.
Indeed, my own words here will confirm this saying of our master, [by showing] that it is not possible to gain an accurate knowledge of the whole chronology of the world from the Greeks, or from any others, not even from the Hebrews themselves. But it is possible to hope for this only: that what is said by us in this present treatise will help us to recognise two things. Firstly, no-one, like some have done, should believe that he is calculating dates with full accuracy, and be deceived in that way. But he should realise that this has been brought up for discussion, only so that he can know the means and manner of the proposed investigation, and so that he should not remain in doubt.
There is no reason to be surprised that the Greeks do not appear in the most ancient times. They have fallen into various fatal errors, and for a long time before the generation of Cadmus they were completely ignorant of writing. They say that Cadmus was the first to bring them the alphabet, from the land of the Phoenicians. And so the Egyptian in Plato's book [ Timaeus, 22'B ] rightly despises Solon; "O Solon," he says, "you Greeks are always children. An old Greek man is never to be found, and no-one can learn from you about ancient times. " But many improbable stories have been told by the Egyptians and Chaldaeans. For instance, the Chaldaeans calculate that their recorded history has lasted for more than 400,000 years. [p5] The Egyptians make up myths about gods and demi-gods, and also about some shades; and they tell many crazy myths about other mortal kings.
Yet what forces me to examine such matters in detail now, when I value the truth above all else? Even amongst my beloved Hebrews one can find inconsistencies, which I will mention at the appropriate time. But I have said this much in reproach of those chroniclers who are eager for such hollow glory.
In accordance with these objectives, I will scrutinise the books of the ancient writers.
[ p7 ] First I will put in writing the chronology of the Chaldaeans;
[ p53 ] and then the chronology of the Assyrians;
[ p67 ] next the kings of the Medes;
[ p67 ] and then the kings of the Lydians and Persians.
[ p71 ] Then I will go on to a different topic, and set out all the chronology of the Hebrews in sequence.
[ p131 ] After the Hebrews, in the third section [I will set out] the dates of the Egyptian dynasties.
[ p159 ] I will add to them the dynasty of the Ptolemaei, who reigned after Alexander the Macedonian in Egypt and Alexandria.
Then I will start on another [topic], and describe one after another what the Greeks have told about their history:
[ p173 ] first the rulers of Sicyon,
[ p177 ] and then [the rulers] of the land of the Argives,
[ p183 ] and of the city of the Athenians, from the first to the last;
[ p219 ] next, the kings of Lacedaemon and Corinth;
[ p225 ] and lastly, those who in any region held control of the sea.
[ p191 ] To these I will add a list of the Olympiads, which are recorded by the Greeks.
[ p227 ] After I have set out all the Olympiads in sequence, I will write down the first kings of the Macedonians and Thessalians,
[ p247 ] and then the leaders of the Syrians and Asians, who came after Alexander, one by one.
[ p265 ] Next I will set out in their turn all the individual rulers of the Latins, who were later called Romans, starting from Aeneias after the capture of Troy.
[ p291 ] Then [I will set out] in sequence [the kings], starting from Romulus, who founded the city of Rome;
the succession of emperors, starting from Julius Caesar and Augustus;
and the consuls for each year.
After collecting material from all these sources, I will move on to the chronological canons of time. Resuming from the beginning with those who ruled in each nation, I will divide their dates into separate series; [p7] and next to them I will place in sequence the numbers of their [regnal] years, so that it can easily and quickly be seen, at which time each of them lived. I will briefly mention the outstanding events of each reign, as recorded by every nation, in the context of that reign.
But the second book is a task for the future. Now, in the following section, let us investigate the chronology of the Chaldaeans, and what they have recorded about their ancestors.
[ THE CHALDAEANS ]
How the Chaldaeans record their chronology, from [the writings of] Alexander Polyhistor; about the books of the Chaldaeans, and their first kings
That is what Berossus relates in his first book, and in the second book he lists the kings, one after another. He says that Nabonassar was king at that time. He merely lists the names of the kings, and says very little about their achievements; or perhaps he thinks that they are not worth mentioning, when he has already stated the number of kings. He begins to write as follows: "Apollodorus says that the first king was Alorus, who was a Chaldaean from Babylon, and he reigned for 10 sars. " He divides a sar into 3,600 years, and adds two other [measures of time]: a ner and a soss. He says that a ner is 600 years, and a soss is 60 years. He counts the years in this way, following some ancient form of calculation. After saying this, he proceeds to list ten kings of the Assyrians, one after the other in [chronological] order; from Alorus, the first king, until Xisuthrus, in whose reign the first great flood occurred, the flood which Moses mentions.
He says that the total length of the reigns of the [ten] kings was 120 sars, which is the equivalent of 432,000 years. He writes about the individual kings as follows:
[p9] When Alorus died, his son Alaparus became king for 3 sars.
After Alaparus, Amelon, a Chaldaean from the city of Pautibiblon, became king for 13 sars.
After Amelon, Ammenon, a Chaldaean from (? ) Parmibiblon, became king for 12 sars.
- In his reign, the monster Annedotus, whose form was a mixture between a man and a fish, appeared out of the Red Sea.
Megalarus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 18 sars.
The shepherd Daonus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 10 sars.
- In this reign, again four monsters appeared out of the Red Sea, who [like Annedotus] were a mixture between a man and a fish.
Euedorachus, from the city of Pautibiblon, reigned for 18 sars.
- In this reign, another monster appeared out of the Red Sea, which also was a mixture between a man and a fish, and its name was Odacon. All these [monsters] explained in detail what Oannes had stated briefly.
Amempsinus, a Chaldaean from Larancha, reigned for 10 sars.
Otiartes, a Chaldaean from Larancha, reigned for 8 sars.
When Otiartes died, his son Xisuthrus became king, for 18 sars.
- In his reign, the great flood occurred.
The reigns of all these kings, added together, make 120 sars. They are calculated in this way:
Alorus, for 10 sars
Alaparus, for 3 sars
Amelon, for 13 sars
Ammenon, for 12 sars
Megalarus, for 18 sars
Daonus, for 10 sars
Euedorachus, for 18 sars
Amempsinus, for 10 sars
Otiartes, for 8 sars
Xisuthrus, for 18 sars
In total, 10 kings and 120 sars. [p11] And they say that 120 sars are the equivalent of 432,000 years, because one sar is the equivalent of 3,600 years.
That is what Alexander Polyhistor says in his book. But if anyone thinks that what is contained in that book is a true history, and that [those kings] really ruled for so many myriads of years, then he should also believe in all the other similar things in that book, which are equally incredible. Now I will tell what Berossus wrote in the first book of his history, and first I will add another quotation from the same book of Polyhistor, as follows.
Another unreliable account of Chaldaean history, from the same book of Alexander Polyhistor about the Chaldaeans
Berossus, in the first book of his Babylonian History, says that he lived at the time of Alexander the son of Philippus, and that he transcribed the writings of many authors, which had been carefully preserved at Babylon, containing the records of (? ) over 150,000 years. These writings contain the history of heaven and the sea, of creation, and of the kings and their deeds.
Firstly, he says that the land of Babylonia lies between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Wild wheat, barley, lentils and sesame grow on the land; and the marshes produce roots, called gonges, which are as nutritious as barley. There are dates, apples, [p13] and other fruits and fish, as well as birds in the woods and marshes. The parts lying towards Arabia are dry and barren, but the parts on the opposite side from Arabia are mountainous and fertile. A large number of foreigners dwell in Chaldaea; they live in Babylon in a disorderly way, like wild animals.
In the first year, a horrible beast appeared out of the Red Sea in the region near Babylonia. Its name was Oannes, according to Apollodorus. It had the complete body of a fish, but underneath its head there grew another head, beneath the fish's head; and in the same way the feet of a man grew of the tail of the fish. It had the voice of a man, and its likeness has been preserved even down to the present day. He says that this beast spent the day with men, taking no food, but instructing them about writing and science and all kinds of crafts. It taught them about founding cities and establishing temples, about introducing laws and about geometry. It showed them how to sow seed and gather fruit; and in general it gave men all the skills they needed for a civilised life. Since that time, nothing additional has been discovered.
But when the sun set, this beast called Oannes went back into the sea, and spent the night in the water, because it was amphibious. Afterwards other similar beasts appeared, which he says he will mention in the list of kings. But he says that Oannes wrote about creation and about the government of states, and he passed on this message on to mankind.
There was once a time, in which everything was darkness and water. [p15] In those times, monstrous beasts were born, with strange appearances. There were men with two wings, and some with four wings and two faces. They had one body, but two heads, of a man and a woman, and two sets of genitals, male and female. Other men had the legs and horns of a goat, or the hooves of a horse, or the rear end of a horse and the front of a man, like centaurs. Other beasts were born, such as bulls with human heads; dogs with four bodies and fish tails protruding from their rear end; horses with dogs' heads; humans and other animals with the head and body of a horse, but the tail of a fish; and other beasts with the form of all kinds of wild animals. As well as these [beasts], there were fish and reptiles and snakes and many other strange creatures, each of which had a different appearance. Representations of them were set up in the temple of Belus. A woman called Omorca ruled over all these [creatures]; she is called Thalatth in the Chaldaean language, which is translated into Greek as thalassa ("the sea").
When everything was joined together in this way, Belus came along and split the woman in half. Half of her he made the heavens, and the other half he made the earth; and he destroyed all the creatures on her. He says that this story is an allegory about nature; for when everything was wet and creatures were born in it, this god cut off his own head. The other gods took the blood that flowed from him and by mixing it with earth they created men. Therefore men are intelligent and have a share of divine reason.
[p17] Belus, which is translated as Zeus in Greek, cut the darkness in half. He separated the earth and the heavens from each other, and he arranged the universe. But because the creatures could not bear the power of the light, they were destroyed. When Belus saw that the land was empty and fertile, he ordered one of the gods to cut off his own head, and by mixing the blood which flowed from him with earth, to create men and wild beasts who could endure the air. Belus created the stars, the sun, the moon and the five planets.
That, according to Alexander Polyhistor, is what Berossus says in his first book. In the second book he lists the kings, one after another, and he says that the time of the ten kings, which we mentioned above, lasted for longer than 400,000 years. Anyone who believes that these writers are telling the truth about such a huge number of years should believe all the other improbable stories that they tell. Such a length of time is clearly supernatural, and is not worthy of belief, even if it is explained in a different way. And even if someone thinks that this number of years is possible, they still should not accept the statement about the dates without some further questions. If the number of rulers was sufficient to explain all these thousands of years, which are produced by their chronology, or if the writers reported the events and actions which would be expected to occur over such a length of time, then one might perhaps agree that there is some likelihood of their account being true. But as they claim that so many myriads of years were taken up by the rule of only ten men, who can doubt that these stories are merely ravings and myths?
Perhaps these so-called sars were originally measured not in years, but in some very small period of time. For instance, the ancient Egyptians talked about lunar years, [p19] that is a month of days or years containing 30 days. Other people consider the seasons to be periods of three months; in other words, they reckon each changing period of three months as a single year, and count the years in that way. Similarly, it is likely that the so-called sar of the Chaldaeans indicated some such [period of time].
So they count only ten generations from Alorus, who was the first to be called king [of the Chaldaeans], up until Xisuthrus, in whose reign the great flood occurred. In the Hebrew scriptures also, Moses declares that there were ten generations before the flood; for the Hebrews mention that number of generations, one by one, from the first man in their account up until the flood. But Hebrew history assigns about 2,000 years to these ten generations. Assyrian [history] lists the same number of generations as the book of Moses, but produces a very different total of years. It says that the ten generations lasted for 120 sars, which is the equivalent of (? ) 430,000 years.
The reader who is keen to know the truth can easily understand, from what we have already said, that Xisuthrus is the same as the man who is called Noah by the Hebrews, in whose time the great flood occurred. The book of Polyhistor also mentions him, and writes about him as follows.
From the same book of Alexander Polyhistor, about the flood
When Otiartes died, his son Xisuthrus became king, for 18 sars. In his reign, the great flood occurred. This is how the story is told.
Cronus (whom they call the father of Zeus, while others call him Chronus ["time"]) approached him in his sleep, and said that on the 15th day of the month of Daesius the human race would be destroyed by a flood. [p21] Cronus ordered him to bury the beginnings, the middles and the ends of all writings in Heliopolis, the city of the Sippareni; to build a boat and embark on it with his close friends; to load the boat with food and drink, and to put on board every kind of bird and four-footed creature; and then, when all the preparations were complete, to sail away. When he asked where he should sail, Cronus replied, "To the gods, to pray that good things may happen to men. " Xisuthrus did as he had been told. He built a boat which was 15 stades long, and 2 stades wide. After completing everything as instructed, he sent his wife, his children and his close friends onto the boat.
When the flood had come, and soon afterwards stopped, Xisuthrus sent out some of the birds. But they could not find any food or anywhere to rest, and so they returned to the boat. A few days later, Xisuthrus sent out the birds again, and this time they returned to the boat with mud on their feet. The third time that he sent out the birds, they no longer returned to the boat. Xisuthrus realised that some land had appeared. He removed part of the sides of the boat, and saw that it had come to rest on a mountain. He disembarked with his wife and daughter and the helmsman, and kissed the ground. After he had set up an altar and had sacrificed to the gods, he disappeared from sight, along with the others who had left the boat with him. When Xisuthrus and his companions did not return, the remainder of those who were on the boat disembarked and searched for him, calling out his name. They could not see Xisuthrus anywhere, but a voice came out of the sky telling them that they should honour the gods, and that Xisuthrus had gone to live with the gods, because of the honour he showed them; his wife, his daughter and the helmsman had received the same reward. The voice told them to return to Babylon; they were destined to dig up the writings which had been hidden in the city of the Sippareni, [p23] and distribute them amongst men. They were told that they were now in the land of Armenia.
When they heard all of this, they sacrificed to the gods and went by foot to Babylon. A small part of the boat, which came to rest in Armenia, can still be found in the mountains of the Cordyaei in Armenia. Some people scrape off the asphalt, which covers the boat, and use it to ward off diseases, like an amulet. When they arrived back in Babylon, they dug up the writings in the city of the Sippareni. They founded many cities, and re-founded Babylon, constructing many temples.
Afterwards Polyhistor gives an account of the building of the tower, which agrees with the books of Moses, in exactly these words.
[From the writings] of Alexander Polyhistor, about the building of the tower
The Sibyl says: "When men all spoke the same language, they built a very tall tower, so that they could climb up to heaven. However god blew a wind at them and overturned the tower.
