athon agathotatos, phronimon
phronimotatos; esti de kai pater eunomias kai dikaiosynes, autodidaktos,
physikos, kai teleios, kai sophos, kai hierou physikou monos heuretes.]
_Deus est accipitris capite: hic est primus, incorruptibilis, aeternus,
ingenitus, sine partibus, omnibus aliis dissimillimus, moderator omnis
boni, donis non capiendus, bonorum optimus, prudentium prudentissimus,
legum aequitatis ac justitiae parens, ipse sui doctor, physicus & perfectus &
sapiens & sacri physici unicus inventor_: and the same was taught by
_Ostanes_, in his book called _Octateuchus_. This was the Antient God of
the _Persian Magi_, and they worshipped him by keeping a perpetual fire for
Sacrifices upon an Altar in the center of a round area, compassed with a
ditch, without any Temple in the place, and without paying any worship to
the dead, or any images. But in a short time they declined from the worship
of this Eternal, Invisible God, to worship the Sun, and the Fire, and dead
men, and images, as the _Egyptians_, _Phoenicians_, and _Chaldaeans_ had
done before: and from these superstitions, and the pretending to
prognostications, the words _Magi_ and _Magia_, which signify the Priests
and Religion of the _Persians_, came to be taken in an ill sense.

_Darius_, or _Darab_, began his Reign in spring, in the sixteenth year of
the Empire of the _Persians_, _Anno Nabonass._ 227, and Reigned 36 years,
by the unanimous consent of all Chronologers. In the second year of his
Reign the _Jews_ began to build the Temple, by the prophesying of _Haggai_
and _Zechariah_, and finished it in the sixth. He fought the _Greeks_ at
_Marathon_ in _October_, _Anno Nabonass._ 258, ten years before the battel
at _Salamis_, and died in the fifth year following, in the end of winter,
or beginning of spring, _Anno Nabonass._ 263. The years of _Cambyses_ and
_Darius_ are determined by three Eclipses of the Moon recorded by
_Ptolemy_, so that they cannot be disputed: and by those Eclipses, and the
Prophesies of _Haggai_ and _Zechariah_ compared together, it is manifest
that the years of _Darius_ began after the 24th day of the eleventh
_Jewish_ month, and before the 24th day of _April_, and by consequence in
_March_ or _April_.

_Xerxes_, _Achschirosch_, _Achsweros_, or _Oxyares_, succeeded his father
_Darius_, and spent the first five years of his Reign, and something more,
in preparations for his Expedition against the _Greeks_: and this
Expedition was in t