Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden maonachi Cestrensis; together with the English translations of John Trevisa and of an unknown writer of the fifteenth century.

Capitulum quintumdecimum.

ARTAXERSES, otherwise callede Longimanus, the vij^the kynge [folio 140b] of men of Persida, began to reigne after that Archabanus hade reigned vij. monethes, whiche reignede xl^ti yere; vnder whom somme men say those thynges to haue happede whiche be redde of Hester and of Mardocheus, whiche thynge semethe not to be trewe. For Esdras the scribe, whiche was in the begynnenge of this kynge, and rehersethe hym selfe and Neemias to haue returnede from Babilon, wolde not haue leyvede the trawthe of þat story. But more raþer Hester was vnder Artaxerses the xj^the kynge

of Persida, and callede Assuerus. Dunwallo Molimicius, son of the duke of Cornewayle, began to reigne amonge the Briteynes, whiche sleenge the kynges of Loegria, of Cam|bria, and of Albania, obteynede the yle callede Insula Solis, and made to hym a diademe of golde, and lawes whiche be callede lawes Molimityne, whom Gildas did translate in to Latyn: after that kynge Alurede did translate þeim owte of Latyn in to Englische. And when this Molimicius hade reignede xl^ti yere, he diede, and was beryede nye the temple of concorde in the cite of Trinouante, callede nowe London. This is that Molimicius whiche ȝafe im|munite and socoure to man sleenge oþer, to temple of goddes, to plowes, cites, or to hie wayes. Petrus. Esdras the scribe come from Babilon with the kynges letters thro whom he scholde releysche the ministres of the temple from every tribute, and scholde ordeyn ministres of þe kynge, or move theym aweye, and punysche rebelliones

other by dethe, other by exile, other in to prison or elles by þe losenge of theire goodes. Also this scribe Esdras hade with hym the veselles of the temple, þat he commynge to Ierusalem myȝte informe his peple in his lawe newely repayrede; to whom ij^e and xx^ti of the childer of Israel come, whiche were behynde the hilles Caspy, and m^l lxx^ti c. men returnede with hym; where he correcte in his commynge the childer of þe transmigracion, and namely prestes for their wifes of [folio 141a] straunge cuntrees. Also Esdras the scribe repairede the lawe brente and also succendede by men of Calde, and correcte volumes corrupte by men of Barbre, and com|bynede hit in xxij^ti bokes, þat men of Hebrewe scholde haue as mony bookes in nowmbre as thei hade letters. The seide Esdras founde newe letters, whiche were more liȝhte to the writenge and pronunciacion, wherefore he was callede the hasty scribe. Also somme men reherse that þe Iewes did write afore from the lifte parte to the ryȝhte and from

the ryȝhte to the lyfte in the maner of men plowenge. Empedocles, Permenides, and Zeno, noble philosophres, were þis tyme, and the philosophre Empedocles did chose his sepulture in Ethna, a mownte of Sicille. Permenides, after the testimonialle of Boice in his booke of consolacion, syttenge on a hille by the space of x. yere, laborede and founde the arte of logike; þe rewles of whom and causes of þe begynnenge Plato fyndenge encreasede hit moche; but Aristotille redacte hit in an arte. Stritides the writer of storyes was þis tyme, but Erodotus afore wrote the storyes.