fenfible that Herodotus has more than once used it in this Senfe; but it fometimes fignifies what the Latins call Etas, or Evum; or we in English, an Age; and if Herodotus ufed it in this Senfe here, then he meant that Semiramis was πέντε γενεῖσι, quinque ætatibus, [fays the Latin Tranflator] before Nitocris; not five Generations or Defcents, but five Ages before her. The ancient Writers both before and after Herodotus computed a Generation or Age of those who lived in the early Times, to be an hundred Years. Thus they reckoned Neftor [of whom Tully fays, tertiam ætatem bominum vivebat (w); Horace, that he was ter ævo functus (x)] because it was reported that he had lived three Generations or Ages, to have lived about 300 Years; Ovid well expreffing the common Opinion, makes him fay,

vixi

Annos bis centum, nunc tertia vivitur Ætas (y). The two Ages or Generations which he had lived were computed to be 200 Years; and he was thought to be going on for the third Century. And now, if Herodotus in the Place before us ufed the Word yeved in this Senfe, then by Semiramis being five Ages or Generations before Nitocris, he meant nothing like what our learned Author infers from him, but that fhe was about 500 Years before her: I might add, this feems most probably to be his Meaning; because if we take him in this Senfe, he will, as all other Writers have ever done, place Semiramis near the Times where he begins the Affyrian Empire. I have formerly confidered Herodotus's Opinion, about the Rife of this Empire, as to the Truth of it (z), and I may here from the most learned Dean Pri

(w) Lib. de Senectute. (x) Lib. 2. Ode II. morph. lib. 4. (z) Pref. te Vol. I.

() Meta

deaux add to it (a), that, "Herodotus having tra"velled through Egypt, Syria, and feveral other "Countries, in order to the writing of his Hifto

ry, did as Travellers ufe to do, that is, put "down all Relations upon Truft, as he met with "them; and no doubt he was impofed on in many of them, and particularly in the Inftance before us; but Ctefias living in the Court of Perfia, and fearching the publick Registers, was able to give a better Account than Herodotus of the Affyrian Kings. But be Herodotus's Account true or falfe, the whole of it, I am fure, does not favour our learned Author's Hypothefis; nor, as I apprehend, does the Particular cited about Semiramis, if we take the Words of Herodotus according to his own Meaning.

3. Sir Ifaac Newton cites Nehemiah, chap. x. ver. 32 (b). The Words are: Now therefore, our God Let not all the Trouble feem little before thee, that bath come upon us, on our Kings, on our Princes, and on our Priests, and on our Prophets, and on our Fathers, and on all thy People, fince the Time of the Kings of Affyria unto this Day. Our learned Author fays, fince the Time of the Kings of Affyria; "that is, fince the Time of the Kingdom of Af"fyria, or fince the Rife of that Empire; and "therefore the Affyrian Empire arofe, when the "Kings of Affyria began to afflict the Jews." answer to this Objection, I would obferve, that the Expreffion, fince the Time of the Kings of Affyria, or, to render it more ftrictly, according to the Hebrew Words, from the Days of the Kings of Affyria, is very general, and may fignify a commencing from any Part of their Times, and therefore it is reftraining the Expreffion purely to serve an Hypothefis, to fuppofe the Words to

(a) Connect. Vol. I. P. 267.

" In

Time

mean, not from their Times in general, but from the very Rife or Beginning of their Times. The Heathen Writers frequently used a like general Expreffion, the Trojan Times, Tо TV Towïnor, before the Trojan Times, is an Expreffion both of Thucydides and Diodorus Siculus (); but neither of them meant by it, before the Rife of the Trojan People, but before the Trojan War, with which the Trojans and their Times ended. But as to the Expreffion before us, we shall more clearly fee what was defigned by it, if we confider, 1. That the Sacred Writers reprefent the Jews as fuffering in and after thefe Times from the Kings of two Countries, from the Kings of Affyria, and from the Kings of Babylon. Ifrael was a fcattered Sheep, the Lions had drove him away: First, the King of Affyria devoured him ; and laft, the King of Babylon brake his Bones (d). The Kings of Affyria, who began the Troubles that were brought upon the Ifraelites, were the Kings who reigned at Nineveh, from Pul, before Tiglath Pilefer (e), to Nabopolaffar, who deftroyed Nineveh, and made Babylon the fole Metropolis of the Empire (f): Pul first began to afflict them; his Succeffors, at divers times and in different manners, diftrefs'd them; Nebuchadnezzar compleated their Miferies in the Captivity (g). But, 3. The Sacred Writers, in the Titles which they give to thefe Kings, did not defign to hint either the Extent of their Empire, or the Hiftory of their Succeffion, but commonly call them Kings of the Country or City where they refided, whatever other Dominions they were Mafters of, and

2.

(c) Thucyd. 1. 1. p. 3. Diodor. 1. 1. p. 4. and the fame Auther ufes do Tay Trainer in the fame Senfe, ibid. (d) Jerem. 1. (e) Chron. v. ver. 26. 2 Kings xv. 19. Ufher. See Prideaux Connect, Vol. I. B. I.

ver. 17. Chronol.

(g) Id. ibid.

without

without any Regard to the Particulars of their Actions or Families, of the Rife of one Family, or Fall of another: Pul feems to have been the Father of Sardanapalus (b): Tiglath-Pilefer was Arbaces, who, in Confederacy with Belefis, overthrew the Empire of Pul, in the Days of his Son Sardanapalus (i); and Tiglath-Pilefer was not King of fuch large Dominions as Pul and Sardanapalus commanded; but the Sacred Writers take no Notice of thefe Revolutions. Pul had his Refidence at Nineveh in Affyria, and Tiglath-Pilefer made that City his Royal Seat (k); and for this Reason they are both called in Scripture, Kings of Allyria; and upon the fame Account, the Succeffors of Tiglath-Pilefer have the fame Title, until the Empire was removed to Babylon. Salmanezer, the Son of Tiglath-Pilefer, is called King of Affyria (1); and fo is Sargon, or Sennacherib (m): Efarbaddon, tho' he was King of Babylon, as well as of Affyria (n), is called in Scripture King of Affyria, for in that Country was his Seat of Refidence (0); but after Nabopolaffer deftroyed Nineveh, and removed the Empire to Babylon, the Kings of it are called in Scripture Kings of Babylon, and not Kings of Affyria, tho' Affyria was Part of their Dominions, as Babylon and the adjacent Country had been of many of the Affyrian Kings. There were great Turns and Revolutions in the Kingdoms of these Countries, from the Death of Sardanapalus, to the Establishment of Nebuchadnezzar's Empire; but the Sacred History does not purfue a Narration of thefe Matters; but as the Writers of it called the Kings of the ancient Affyrian Empire Kings of Elam when they refided

(b) See Ufher's Chronol. (i) Prideaux Connect. ub. fup. (k) Ibid. Vol. I. B. I. (1) 2 Kings xviii. 3. (m) Ifaiah xx. 1. (n) See Prideaux Connect. Vol. I. B. I. Not. in p. 42. (0) Ezra iv. 2,

C 3

there,

there (p), Kings of Nineveh (9) or of Affyria, when they lived in that City or Country (r); fo they call the feveral Kings, which arofe after the Fall of Sardanapalus's Empire, Kings of the Countries where they held their Refidence; and all that can fairly be deduced from the Words of Nehemiah is, that the Troubles of the Jews began, whilft there were Kings reigning in Affyria, that is, before the Empire of thefe Countries was moved to Babylon.

re

4. Sefac and Memnon (fays our learned Au"thor) were great Conquerors, and reigned over "Chaldea, Affyria and Perfia, but in their Hifto"ries there is not a Word of any Oppofition made

to them by an Affyrian Empire then standing: "On the contrary, Sufiana, Media, Perfia, Bac-" “tria, Armenia, Cappadocia, &c. were conquered "by them, and continued fubject to the Kings "of Egypt till after the long Reign of Ramesses "the Son of Memnon." This Objection in its full ftrength is this: The Egyptians conquered and poffeffed the very Countries, which were in the Heart of the fuppofed Affyrian Empire, in the times when that Empire is imagined to have flourifhed, and therefore certainly there was in those Days no fuch Empire. I anfwer, 1. The Egypti ans made no great Conquefts until the Times of Sefac in the Reign of Rehoboam about A. M. 3033, about 200 years before Sardanapalus. This Sefac was their famous Sefoftris (s). I am fenfible, that there have been many very learned Writers who have thought otherwife. Agathias imagined Sefoftris to be long before Ninus and Semiramis (t), and the Scholiaft (u) upon Apollonius fets him 2900 Years before the firft Olympiad; but the current

(r) 1 Chron. v. 26,

(p) Gen. xiv. 1. (2) Jonah iii. 6. (s) Marfham. Can. Chron. p. 358. (t) L. 2. p. 55. See Prideaux Not. Hiftor, in Chron. Marm. Ep. 9.

(u) Id. ibid.

Opinion