This makes a total of 10 kings [ruling for] [g15] a total of 120 sar s. And they say that 120 sar s equal 2043 myriad years, assuming that a sar consists of 3,600 years.
Such are the figures related in Alexander Polyhistor's book. And if a person regards this as accurate history, and accepts as valid [reigns lasting] for such myriads of years, then [that person] would have to believe other incredible material found in the same book. Howbeit, I will relate what that same Berosus relates in the aforementioned historical romance, and will resume their previous [thread] which [Alexander] Polyhistor has put in his own book. One after the other he recounts these types of things [g16].
[4] More apocryphal Chaldean history [taken] from the same book of Alexander Polyhistor about the Chaldeans.
In the first of [his] Babylonian books, Berosus claims that he lived in the time of Philip's [son] Alexander, and that he wrote based on numerous books which were kept carefully in Babylon [describing a period of] 215 [g17] myriad years, [such as] chronologies, historical accounts, the Creator's making of Heaven and Earth and the Seas, and [information] about kings and their deeds. First, he says, the country of the Babylonians was established on the Tigris [River] and the Euphrates passed through it. The country brings forth of its own accord wild wheat and barley, lentils, peas, and sesame; and in the tranquil, swampy rivers a type of edible tuber is found which they call gongk' (Arm. "turnip"), having the [same] virtue as barley bread. Also found there are dates and apples as well as various other fruits. There are fish and birds, wild fowl and marsh fowl. There are sections by the Arab areas devoid of water and fruit, while opposite the Arabs' land are areas which are mountainous and fruit-bearing. In Babylon dwell a multitude of foreign peoples from the Chaldean land [g19], and they live wantonly like beasts and wild animals.
Now it happened that in the first year, in the confines of Babylonia, there emerged from the Red Sea an awesome creature which was named Oannes. As Apollodorus relates in his book, [this being] had the complete body of a fish. Yet by the fish's head was another appropriate [human] head, and by the tail were [a pair of] human feet, and it could speak human language [g20]. A picture/likeness of [Oannes] has been preserved to this day. He further states that this creature kept company with humans during the day, completely abstaining from any kind of food, instructing people in letters and the techniques of different arts [including] city and temple [building], knowledge of laws, the nature of weights and measures, how to collect seeds and fruits; indeed, he taught humankind everything necessary for domestic life on earth. From that time on no one [individual] has discovered more. Now when the sun went down, the Oannes creature once again returned to the sea, remaining until morning in the vast expanse of the waters. Thus it lived the life of an amphibian [g21]. Subsequently other similar creatures came forth, as the book of the kings makes clear. Furthermore it is said that Oannes wrote about deeds and virtues, giving humankind words and wisdom.
[5] There was a time, he says, when all was dark and water. And there were other sorts of creatures [on the earth]. Half of them could reproduce themselves [asexually], while there were others which procreated and bore humans with two wings, others with four wings and two faces, with one body and two heads, male and female, and [others] having both male and female natures [combined]. Other humans had the legs of goats, horns on their heads, others had horses' hooves. Others had the rear half of a horse and the front half of a human. Some had the hybrid [Arm. yushkaparik ] appearance of a horse and a bull. Also born [g22] were bulls with human heads, dogs with quadripartite bodies having the flippers of a fish and a fish's tail sprouting from the hindquarters. [There were] horses with dogs' heads as well as humans and other creatures with horses' heads and/or human forms and the extremities of fish. In addition there were diverse sorts of dragon-shaped creatures, hybrid fish, reptiles, snakes, and many types of astonishing creatures of differing appearance. The pictures of each of them are preserved at the temple of Belus. All of them were ruled over by a woman named Markaye' who was called T'aghatt'ay in Chaldean. The Greek translation of T'aladday is "sea" [g23]. Now while all of these mixed [creatures] were arising, Belus attacked. He cut the woman [i.e. the sea] in two, making half the sky and the other half the earth, and he killed the creatures in it. Thus [information] about the natural world is expressed in the form of an allegorical fable which means that initially there existed only water and moisture and the creatures in it. Then that deity cut off its head and another deity took the blood which dripped from it, mixed it with soil, and created humankind. Thus they became wise and partook of the thoughts of the gods [g24].
As regards Belus, which translates into Greek as Dios and into Armenian as Aramazd, he split the darkness in two, separating heaven and earth from each other, and then smoothed and fashioned the world. [Those] creatures which could not endure the strength of the light perished. Then Belus looked at the world, [both] the desert [parts] and the fruitful [parts], and gave an order to one of the gods to take [some of] the blood which was dripping down from his own severed head and to mix it with soil and to create humans, other animals, and beasts which could withstand this air. Belus also established [g25] the sun, the moon, and the five wandering stars. According to [Alexander] Polyhistor, this is what Berosus relates in his first volume. In the second volume he provides [information] about the reigns of the ten kings individually, which we have already treated. [This portion, from Oannes to Belus,] extends [the account back] more than 40 myriads.
[6] Surely if anyone regards as veracious the Chaldean [account encompassing] such a huge number of years, then that person will also accept [as true] other parts of their fallacious history. [The Chaldean account] simply defies reason and is apocryphal, no matter how it is interpreted. [Even] if someone should accept [the account], then [g26] that [individual] should not accept [the Chaldean] calculation of time without examination. If, according to their chronology, there were [really] so many thousands of years amassed, and if the successors of these [early] peoples [performed] their acts and deeds over a similar extended period, and if only 10 kings could have lived for so many myriads of years, who would believe that there might be any truth in such things and fables? Now it is possible that the sar s we cited [earlier] represented a shorter interval of time than what others have assigned to them. For example, the ancestors of the Egyptians spoke of a lunar cycle, that is, a month contained 30 days [g27], which they referred to as a "year." Others referred to three-month periods as "hours." I am saying that they styled seasons of the year and three-month intervals as "years." Consequently it could be the same sort of thing when the Chaldeans spoke of sar s.
Accordingly, [the Chaldeans] considered that there were just 10 generations [g28] from Alorus whom they considered their first king until Xisuthrus. They relate that the great Flood occurred in the latter's day. Furthermore Moses, in the Hebrew books, says that there were 10 generations before the Flood, and each generation before the Flood is described, one by one. The Hebrew history reckons 2000 years for those 10 generations. Assyrian histories also detail the same number of generations as the writings of Moses do, though not embracing the same amount of time, since they reckon the 10 generations lasting for 120 sar s, equaling 2043 myriad years.
Now for those of you seeking the truth in this matter [g29] it is simple to accept that Xisuthrus is the same [individual] as the man the Hebrews call Noah, during whose lifetime the great [g30] Flood occurred. The book of [Alexander] Polyhistor describes [the Flood] in the following manner.
[7] Alexander Polyhistor on the Flood, from the same book we just mentioned.
He says that upon the death of Otiartes, his son Xisuthrus ruled for 18 sar s, during which time the great Flood occurred. His text relates the details as follows.
He says that Chronos--who is called the father of Aramazd [Jupiter] and, by others, Time--came [to Xisuthrus] in his sleep and revealed to him that on the 15th [g31] of the month of Desios, which is the [Armenian] month of Marer [December/January], humankind would perish in a flood. [Chronos] commanded that the entire book [of Oannes?]--the beginning, middle, and ending--be taken and buried [for safety] at Heliopolis ("the city of the sun"), in Sippar. [He also commanded him] to fashion a ship and to go inside it with his family [g32] and closest friends, and to put inside [the ship] provisions and drink, animals, birds, and quadrupeds, and to be completely ready to set sail. Then [Xisuthrus] inquired where he should sail the ship, and [Chronos] replied that he should [just] pray to the gods [and] that all would be well for humanity. And so [Xisuthrus] saw to building the ship which [measured] 15 stadia in length and two stadia in width [g33].
After doing all that he was bidden, [Xisuthrus] entered the vessel with his wife, children, and closest friends. Then the deluge came. As soon as it had receded, Xisuthrus released some birds. However, when they were unable to find anything to eat or any place to perch, he took them back on board. A few days later he again released some birds, and they too returned to the ship, [but this time] their claws were covered with mud. Finally he released them a third time, and this time they did not return to the ship. By this Xisuthrus realized that the ground had become visible. He opened a side of the ship's deck and observed that the boat had landed on some mountain. He emerged with his wife, a daughter, and the [g34] navigator, and worshipped ("kissed the ground"). He fashioned an altar and made sacrifice to the gods. And thereafter he and those who descended with him from the ship did not appear to anyone. Those [people] who had remained on board and had not emerged with Xisuthrus subsequently descended and sought for him, circulating around shouting out his name. But Xisuthrus never again appeared to them. However [his] voice came to them from the air and commanded [g35] that they should worship the gods, and that he, because of his worship of the gods, had gone to dwell where the gods dwelled. His wife, daughter, and the ship's pilot shared in this honor. He also ordered them to return to Babylon, for so the gods had commanded, and to excavate and remove the manuscripts buried at the city of Sippar and give them [back] to humanity. As for the place where they emerged [from the ship], it was the land of the Armenians.
Now when [the people] heard all this, they offered sacrifices to the gods, and then went to Babylon on foot. As for that ship which landed in Armenia, they say that to the present a small portion of it [g36] remains in the Korduats' Mountains [RB: south of Lake Van] in the land of the Armenians. Some [folk] scrape off the naphtha which had been used as a sealant for the ship and make amulets from it to treat pain. Now [those who disembarked] went and arrived at Babylon, excavated in Sippar city and removed [manuscripts of] the book. Then they constructed numerous cities, erected temples to the gods and renewed Babylon once more. Along with this story, [Alexander] Polyhistor tells the following story of the building of the tower [of Babel], similar to the account [found] in the writings of Moses, [almost] to the syllable [g37].
[8] Alexander Polyhistor on the building of the Tower
Sibyl states that the people were united and commenced building the lofty [g38] Tower, in order to ascend to the heavens. But Almighty God stirred up a wind which destroyed the Tower, and [God] divided each [of the participants] with distinct languages. It is for this reason that the city was called Babylon. It was after the Flood that the Titan Prometheus lived, and stirred up a war with Cronos. This is sufficient about the building of the Tower.
Polyhistor supplements this [topic] by adding that after the Flood [g39], Evexius ruled over the Chaldeans for four ner s. After him his son, Comosbelus, held authority for four ner s and five sos es. Polyhistor counts a total of 86 monarchs from the time of Xisuthrus and the Flood until the Medes captured Babylon, and he provides the name of each one from Berosus' book. The total for all of them comes to three myriad, three thousand and ninety-one [33,091] years. Now after these generations, one after the other, suddenly the Medes massed troops against Babylon and took it, and set up tyrants of their own [nationality] there.
Then he enumerates the names of the Median tyrants, 8 of them, ruling for 224 years. Then 11 kings for ...years; then Chaldeans again, 49 kings for 458 years; then 9 Arab kings for 245 years. After this period he writes that Shamiram [Semiramis] ruled the Assyrians. Then he briefly lists [g40] the names of 45 monarchs, giving them a total of 526 years. He says that after them, the kingship of the Chaldeans was held by a man named Phulus [Tiglath-Pileser III], also recalled in Hebrew history as Phulos. They say that he came against the country of the Jews.
Polyhistor relates that following [Phulus] Sennacherib became king. He is mentioned by the Hebrew books as ruling during the time of King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. Scripture mentions in order that "In the fourteenth year of King Hezikiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them" [2 Kings 18:13]. After this entire narration he continues with [the information that] [Sennacherib's] son Asordan [Esarhaddon] ruled after him. Then he proceeds to relate that in that period Hezikiah became sick. Continuing on, [g41] he states that the king of the Babylonians, Merodach Baldan [Marduk II], sent messengers, letters, and gifts to Hezekiah. This is what the Hebrew books say.
Now the historian of the Chaldeans mentions Sennacherib, his son Asordan, Marodach Baghdan, and with them Nebuchadnezzar as our passage has done. Here is his description.
[9] From the same Alexander [Polyhistor] on the deeds and valor of Sennecherib and Nebuchadnezzar.
After Sennacherib's brother ruled, then Akises reigned over the Babylonians. He barely held power for 30 days, before he was slain by Maradoch Baladanus [g42]. The latter forcibly ruled for six months until a certain Elibus killed him and seized power. Now Sennacherib king of the Assyrians, in the third year of his reign, massed an army, went against the Babylonians, fought them, and triumphed. He arrested [Elibus] and his associates and had them taken to the country of the Assyrians. So [Sennacherib] dominated the Babylonians. He then enthroned his son Asordanios, and he himself returned to the country of the Assyrians.
Now soon thereafter he received word that the Greeks had come to the land of Cilicia to wage war. [Sennacherib] went there and deployed his troops, brigade by brigade. He triumphed over the enemy, despite the fact that many of his own troops were killed. As a memorial to his conquest, he had a statue of himself erected on the spot and ordered that an account of his bravery and power be inscribed in the Chaldean language as a memorial for the future. [Polyhistor] says that [Sennacherib] built the city of Tarsus in the likeness of Babylon, and named it Tarsin. And he relates that after all his other accomplishments he went on to rule for 19 years, until he died as a result of a plot hatched by his own son, Ardamusanus. This is from Polyhistor.
The account chronologically is in harmony with what is [g43] written in Scripture. According to Polyhistor, Sennacherib ruled during the period of Hezekiah for 18 years; his son succeeded him for 8 years; Sammuges followed, for 21 years; followed by his brother, for 21 years. Then Nabupalasar ruled for 20 years, followed by Nebuchadnezzar, for 43 years. From Sennacherib up to Nebuchadnezzar the regnal years total 88.