Eusebius of Caesarea, Chronicon, Book 1 (2008)
[Translated by Andrew Smith]
[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 Greek 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 whicih 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.
First I will put in writing the chronology of the Chaldaeans; and then the chronology of the Assyrians; next the kings of the Medes; and then the kings of the Lydians and Persians. Then I will go on to a different topic, and set out all the chronology of the Hebrews in sequence. After the Hebrews, in the third section [I will set out] the dates of the Egyptian dynasties. 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: first the rulers of Sicyon, and then [the rulers] of the land of the Argives, and of the city of the Athenians, from the first to the last; next, the kings of Lacedaemon and Corinth; and lastly, those who in any region held control of the sea. To these I will add a list of the Olympiads, which are recorded by the Greeks. After I have set out all the Olympiads in sequence, I will write down the first kings of the Macedonians and Thessalians, and then the leaders of the Syrians and Asians, who came after Alexander, one by one. 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. 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.