St. Augustine, Of the citie of God vvith the learned comments of Io. Lod. Viues. Englished by I.H.

L. VIVES.

SEuerally (a) mortall] Apuleius Florid. l. 2. cunctim, generally, or vniuersally, of cunctus, all, (b) And when] Macrobius handleth this argument at large. De somn. scip. and thinkes he puts it off with that that Augustine here reciteth. Plato seemes the author of this shift in his Timaus, where Critias relating the conference of the Egiptian Priest and Solon, saith, that wee know not what men haue done of many yeares before; because they change their countrie, or are expelled it by flouds, fires, or so, and the rest hereby destroyed. Which answer is easily confu∣ted, fore-seeing that all the world can neither bee burned nor drowned (Arist. Meteor.) the re∣mainders of one ancient sort of men might be preserued by another, and so deriued downe to vs, which Aristotle seeing (as one witty, and mindfull of what he saith) affirmeth that we haue the reliques of the most ancient Philosophy left vs. Metaphys. 12. Why then is there no me∣mory of things three thousand yeares before thy memory. (c) Full six thousand] Eusebius whose account Augustine followeth, reckoneth from the creation vnto the sack of Rome by the Gothes 5611. yeares▪ following the Septuagints. For Bede out of the Hebrew reserueth vnto the time * 1.1 of Honorius and Theodosius the yonger (when the Gothes tooke Rome) but 4377. of this dif∣ferent computation here-after. (d) That Epistle] Of this before, booke eight. (e) The Assyri•…•…] Hereof in the 18. booke more fitly. Much liberty do the old chroniclers vse in their accompt of time. Plin. lib. 11, out of Eudoxus, saith that Zoroaster liued 6000. yeares before Plato's death.

So faith Aristotle. Herimippus saith he was 5000. yeares before the Troian warre. Tully writes that the Chaldees had accounts of 470000. yeares in their chronicles. De diuinat 1. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 saith also that they reckned from their first astronomer vntill great Alexander 43000. yeares. (f) The Egiptians] Extreame liers in their yeares. Plato writes that the Citty Sais in Egipt had chronicles of the countries deedes for 8000. yeares space. And Athens was built 1000. yeares before Sais. Laertius writes that Vulcan was the sonne of Nilus, and reckneth 48863. yeares betweene him and Great Alexander:: in which time there fell 373. ecclipses of the Sunne, and 832. of the Moone. Mela lieth alittle lower: saying that the Egiptians rec∣kon 330. Kings before Amasis, and aboue 13000. yeares. But the lie wanted this subsequent, that since they were Egiptians, Heauen hath had foure changes of reuolutions, and the Sunne hath set twise where it riseth now. Diodorus also writteth that from Osyris vnto Alexander that built Alexandria, some recken 10000. and some 13000. yeares: and some fable that the Gods had the Kingdome of Isis: and then that men reigned afterward very neare 15000. yeares, vntill the 180. Olympiad, when Ptolomy beganne to reigne. Incredible was this ab∣•…•… vanity of the Egiptians who to make themselues the first of the creation, lied so many thousand yeares. Which was the cause that many were deceiued, and deceiued o•…•…hers also as conc•…•…ning the worlds originall. Tully followes Plato and maketh Egipt infinitly old, and so doth •…•…ristotle. Polit 7. (g) Yeares but] Pliny lib. 7. saith the Nations diuided their yeares some * 1.2 by the Sommer, some by the Winter, some by the quarters as the Archadians whose yeare was three monethes, some by the age of the Moone, as the Egiptians. So that some of them haue liued a thousand of their yeares. Censorinus saith that the Egiptians most ancient yeares was two moneths. Then King Piso made it foure, at last it came to thirteene moneths and fiue daies. Diodorus saith that it being reported that some of the ancient Kings had reigned 1200. yeares, beeing to much to beleeue, they found for certaine that the course of the Sunne beeing not yet knowne, they counted their yeares by the Moones. So then the wonder of old 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ceaseth, some diuiding our yeare into foure as diuers of the Greekes did. Diodo∣rus saith also that the Chaldees had monethes to their yeares. But to shew what my con∣iecture is of these numbers of yeares amongst the nations, I hold that men beeing so much gi•…•…n to the starres, counted the course of euery starre for a yeare. So that in 30. yeares of the S•…•…e, are one of Saturne, fiue of Iupiter, sixe of Mars, more then 30. of Uenus and Mercury, and almost 400, of the Moone. So they are in all neare 500.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The liberty that the old wri•…•…ers vsed in compu∣tation of time.
• * 1.2

  The month∣ly years.