he
heavens. For had not the beginning thereof been now fixed, the Heliacal
Risings and Settings of the Stars could not have been noted upon the days
thereof. The Priests of _Egypt_ therefore in the Reign of _Amenophis_
continued to observe the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars upon
every day. And when by the Sun's Meridional Altitudes they had found the
Solstices and Equinoxes according to the Sun's mean motion, his Equation
being not yet known, they fixed the beginning of this year to the Vernal
Equinox, and in memory thereof erected this monument. Now this year being
carried into _Chaldaea_, the _Chaldaeans_ began their year of _Nabonassar_ on
the same _Thoth_ with the _Egyptians_, and made it of the same length. And
the _Thoth_ of the first year of _Nabonassar_ fell upon the 26th day of
_February_: which was 33 days and five hours before the Vernal Equinox,
according to the Sun's mean motion. And the _Thoth_ of this year moves
backwards 33 days and five hours in 137 years, and therefore fell upon the
Vernal Equinox 137 years before the _AEra_ of _Nabonassar_ began; that is,
884 years before _Christ_. And if it began upon the day next after the
Vernal Equinox, it might begin three or four years earlier; and there we
may place the death of this King. The _Greeks_ feigned that he was the Son
of _Tithonus_, and therefore he was born after the return of _Sesac_ into
_Egypt_, with _Tithonus_ and other captives, and so might be about 70 or 75
years old at his death.

883. _Dido_ builds _Carthage_, and the _Phoenicians_ begin presently after
to sail as far as to the _Straights Mouth_, and beyond. _AEneas_ was still
alive, according to _Virgil_.

870. _Hesiod_ flourishes. He hath told us himself that he lived in the age
next after the wars of _Thebes_ and _Troy_, and that this age should end
when the men then living grew hoary and dropt into the grave; and therefore
it was but of an ordinary length: and _Herodotus_ has told us that _Hesiod_
and _Homer_ were but 400 years older than himself. Whence it follows that
the destruction of _Troy_ was not older than we have represented it.

860. _Moeris_ Reigns in _Egypt_. He adorned _Memphis_, and translated the
seat of his Empire thither from _Thebes_. There he built the famous
Labyrinth, and the northern portico of the Temple of _Vulcan_, and dug the
great Lake called the Lake of _Moeris_, and upon the bottom of it built two
great Pyramids of brick: and these things being