Part 11

_Pelasgus_ Reigned in _Arcadia_, and was the father of _Lycaon_, according to _Pherecydes Atheniensis_, and _Lycaon_ died just before the flood of _Deucalion_; and therefore his father _Pelasgus_ might come into _Greece_ about two Generations before _Cadmus_, or in the latter end of the days of _Eli_: _Lycaon_ sacrificed children, and therefore his father might come with his people from the Shepherds in _Egypt_, and perhaps from the regions of _Heliopolis_, where they sacrificed men, 'till _Amosis_ abolished that custom. _Misphragmuthosis_ the father of _Amosis_, drove the Shepherds out of a great part of _Egypt_, and shut the remainder up in _Abaris_: and then great numbers might escape to _Greece_; some from the regions of _Heliopolis_ under _Pelasgus_, and others from _Memphis_ and other places, under other Captains: and hence it might come to pass that the _Pelasgians_ were at the first very numerous in _Greece_, and spake a different language from the _Greek_, and were the ringleaders in bringing into _Greece_ the worship of the dead.

_Inachus_ is called the son of _Oceanus_, perhaps because he came to _Greece_ by sea: he might come with his people to _Argos_ from _Egypt_ in the days of _Eli_, and seat himself upon the river _Inachus_, so named from him, and leave his territories to his sons _Phoroneus_, _Ægialeus_, and _Phegeus_, in the days of _Samuel_: for _Car_ the son of _Phoroneus_ built a Temple to _Ceres_ in _Megara_, and therefore was contemporary to _Erechtheus_. _Phoroneus_ Reigned at _Argos_, and _Aegialeus_ at _Sicyon_, and founded those Kingdoms; and yet _Ægialeus_ is made above five hundred years older than _Phoroneus_ by some Chronologers: but [195] _Acusilaus_, [196] _Anticlides_ and [197] _Plato_, accounted _Phoroneus_ the oldest King in _Greece_, and [198] _Apollodorus_ tells us, _Ægialeus_ was the brother of _Phoroneus_. _Ægialeus_ died without issue, and after him Reigned _Europs_, _Telchin_, _Apis_, _Lamedon_, _Sicyon_, _Polybus_, _Adrastus_, and _Agamemnon_, _&c._ and _Sicyon_ gave his name to the Kingdom: _Herodotus_ [199] saith that _Apis_ in the _Greek_ Tongue is _Epaphus_; and _Hyginus_, [200] that _Epaphus_ the _Sicyonian_ got _Antiopa_ with child: but the later _Greeks_ have made two men of the two names _Apis_ and _Epaphus_ or _Epopeus_, and between them inserted twelve feigned Kings of _Sicyon_, who made no wars, nor did any thing memorable, and yet Reigned five hundred and twenty years, which is, one with another, above forty and three years a-piece. If these feigned Kings be rejected, and the two Kings _Apis_ and _Epopeus_ be reunited; _Ægialeus_ will become contemporary to his brother _Phoroneus_, as he ought to be; for _Apis_ or _Epopeus_, and _Nycteus_ the guardian of _Labdacus_, were slain in battle about the tenth year of _Solomon_, as above; and the first four Kings of _Sicyon_, _Ægialeus_, _Europs_, _Telchin_, _Apis_, after the rate of about twenty years to a Reign, take up about eighty years; and these years counted upwards from the tenth year of _Solomon_, place the beginning of the Reign of _Ægialeus_ upon the twelfth year of _Samuel_, or thereabout: and about that time began the Reign of _Phoroneus_ at _Argos_; _Apollodorus_ [201] calls _Adrastus_ King of _Argos_; but _Homer_ [202] tells us, that he Reigned first at _Sicyon_: he was in the first war against _Thebes_. Some place _Janiscus_ and _Phæstus_ between _Polybus_ and _Adrastus_, but without any certainty.

_Lelex_ might come with his people into _Laconia_ in the days of _Eli_, and leave his territories to his sons _Myles_, _Eurotas_, _Cleson_, and _Polycaon_ in the days of _Samuel_. _Myles_ set up a quern, or handmill to grind corn, and is reputed the first among the _Greeks_ who did so: but he flourished before _Triptolemus_, and seems to have had his corn and artificers from _Egypt_. _Eurotas_ the brother, or as some say the son of _Myles_, built _Sparta_, and called it after the name of his daughter _Sparta_, the wife of _Lacedæmon_, and mother of _Eurydice_. _Cleson_ was the father of _Pylas_ the father of _Sciron_, who married the daughter of _Pandion_ the son of _Erechtheus_, and contended with _Nisus_ the son of _Pandion_ and brother of _Ægeus_, for the Kingdom; and _Æacus_ adjudged it to _Nisus_. _Polycaon_ invaded _Messene_, then peopled only by villages, called it _Messene_ after the name of his wife, and built cities therein.

_Cecrops_ came from _Sais_ in _Egypt_ to _Cyprus_, and thence into _Attica_: and he might do this in the days of _Samuel_, and marry _Agraule_ the daughter of _Actæus_, and succeed him in _Attica_ soon after, and leave his Kingdom to _Cranaus_ in the Reign of _Saul_, or in the beginning of the Reign of _David_: for the flood of _Deucalion_ happened in the Reign of _Cranaus_.

Of about the same age with _Pelasgus_, _Inachus_, _Lelex_, and _Actæus_, was _Ogyges_: he Reigned in _Bœotia_, and some of his people were _Leleges_: and either he or his son _Eleusis_ built the city _Eleusis_ in _Attica_, that is, they built a few houses of clay, which in time grew into a city. _Acusilaus_ wrote that _Phoroneus_ was older than _Ogyges_, and that _Ogyges_ flourished 1020 years before the first Olympiad, as above; but _Acusilaus_ was an _Argive_, and feigned these things in honour of his country: to call things _Ogygian_ has been a phrase among the ancient _Greeks_, to signify that they are as old as the first memory of things; and so high we have now carried up the Chronology of the _Greeks_. _Inachus_ might be as old as _Ogyges_, but _Acusilaus_ and his followers made them seven hundred years older than the truth; and Chronologers, to make out this reckoning, have lengthened the races of the Kings of _Argos_ and _Sicyon_, and changed several contemporary Princes of _Argos_ into successive Kings, and inserted many feigned Kings into the race of the Kings of _Sicyon_.

_Inachus_ had several sons, who Reigned in several parts of _Peloponnesus_, and there built Towns; as _Phoroneus_, who built _Phoronicum_, afterwards called _Argos_, from _Argus_ his grandson; _Ægialeus_, who built _Ægialea_, afterwards called _Sicyon_, from _Sicyon_ the grandson of _Erechtheus_; _Phegeus_, who built _Phegea_, afterwards called _Psophis_, from _Psophis_ the daughter of _Lycaon_: and these were the oldest towns in _Peloponnesus_ then _Sisyphus_, the son of _Æolus_ and grandson of _Hellen_, built _Ephyra_, afterwards called _Corinth_; and _Aëthlius_, the son of _Æolus_, built _Elis_: and before them _Cecrops_ built _Cecropia_, the cittadel of _Athens_; and _Lycaon_ built _Lycosura_, reckoned by some the oldest town in _Arcadia_; and his sons, who were at least four and twenty in number, built each of them a town; except the youngest, called _Oenotrus_, who grew up after his father's death, and sailed into _Italy_ with his people, and there set on foot the building of towns, and became the _Janus_ of the _Latines_. _Phoroneus_ had also several children and grand-children, who Reigned in several places, and built new towns, as _Car_, _Apis_, &c. and _Hæmon_, the son of _Pelasgus_, Reigned in _Hæmonia_, afterwards called _Thessaly_, and built towns there. This division and subdivision has made great confusion in the history of the first Kingdoms of _Peloponnesus_, and thereby given occasion to the vain-glorious _Greeks_, to make those kingdoms much older than they really were: but by all the reckonings abovementioned, the first civilizing of the _Greeks_, and teaching them to dwell in houses and towns, and the oldest towns in _Europe_, could scarce be above two or three Generations older than the coming of _Cadmus_ from _Zidon_ into _Greece_; and might most probably be occasioned by the expulsion of the Shepherds out of _Egypt_ in the days of _Eli_ and _Samuel_, and their flying into _Greece_ in considerable numbers: but it's difficult to set right the Genealogies and Chronology of the Fabulous Ages of the _Greeks_, and I leave these things to be further examined.

Before the _Phœnicians_ introduced the Deifying of dead men, the _Greeks_ had a Council of Elders in every town for the government thereof, and a place where the elders and people worshipped their God with Sacrifices: and when many of those towns, for their common safety, united under a common Council, they erected a _Prytaneum_ or Court in one of the towns, where the Council and People met at certain times, to consult their common safety, and worship their common God with sacrifices, and to buy and sell: the towns where these Councils met, the _Greeks_ called δημοι, peoples or communities, or Corporation Towns: and at length, when many of these δημοι for their common safety united by consent under one common Council, they erected a _Prytaneum_ in one of the δημοι for the common Council and People to meet in, and to consult and worship in, and feast, and buy, and sell; and this δημος they walled about for its safety, and called την πολιν the city: and this I take to have been the original of Villages, Market-Towns, Cities, common Councils, Vestal Temples, Feasts and Fairs, in _Europe_: the _Prytaneum_, πυρος ταμειον, was a Court with a place of worship, and a perpetual fire kept therein upon an Altar for sacrificing: from the word ‛Εστια fire, came the name _Vesta_, which at length the people turned into a Goddess, and so became fire-worshippers like the ancient _Persians_: and when these Councils made war upon their neighbours, they had a general commander to lead their armies, and he became their King.

So _Thucydides_ [203] tells us, that _under_ Cecrops _and the ancient Kings, untill _Theseus_; _Attica_ was always inhabited city by city, each having Magistrates and _Prytanea_: neither did they consult the King, when there was no fear of danger, but each apart administred their own common-wealth, and had their own Council, and even sometimes made war, as the _Eleusinians_ with _Eumolpus_ did against _Erechtheus_: but when _Theseus_, a prudent and potent man obtained the Kingdom, he took away the Courts and Magistrates of the other cities, and made them all meet in one Council and _Prytaneum_ at _Athens__. _Polemon_, as he is cited by [204] _Strabo_, tells us, _that in this body of _Attica_, there were 170 _δημοι_, one of which was _Eleusis__: and _Philochorus_ [205] relates, that _when _Attica_ was infested by sea and land by the _Cares_ and _Bœoti_, _Cecrops_ the first of any man reduced the multitude, _that is the 170 towns_, into twelve cities, whose names were _Cecropia_, _Tetrapolis_, _Epacria_, _Decelia_, _Eleusis_, _Aphydna_, _Thoricus_, _Brauron_, _Cytherus_, _Sphettus_, _Cephissia_, and _Phalerus_; and that _Theseus_ contracted those twelve cities into one, which was _Athens__.

The original of the Kingdom of the _Argives_ was much after the same manner: for _Pausanias_ [206] tells us, _that _Phoroneus_ the son of _Inachus_ was the first who gathered into one community the _Argives_, who 'till then were scattered, and lived every where apart, and the place where they were first assembled was called _Phoronicum_, the city of _Phoroneus__: and _Strabo_ [207] observes, _that _Homer_ calls all the places which he reckons up in _Peloponnesus_, a few excepted, not cities but regions, because each of them consisted of a convention of many_ δημοι, _free towns, out of which afterward noble cities were built and frequented: so the _Argives_ composed _Mantinæa_ in _Arcadia_ out of five towns, and _Tegea_ out of nine; and out of so many was _Heræa_ built by _Cleombrotus_, or by _Cleonymus_: so also _Ægium_ was built out of seven or eight towns, _Patræ_: out of seven, and _Dyme_ out of eight; and so _Elis_ was erected by the conflux of many towns into one city._

_Pausanias_ [208] tells us, that the _Arcadians_ accounted _Pelasgus_ the first man, and that he was their first King; and _taught the ignorant people to built houses, for defending themselves from heat, and cold, and rain; and to make them garments of skins; and instead of herbs and roots, which were sometimes noxious, to eat the acorns of the beech tree_; and that his son _Lycaon_ built the oldest city in all _Greece_: he tells us also, that in the days of _Lelex_ the _Spartans_ lived in villages apart. The _Greeks_ therefore began to build houses and villages in the days of _Pelasgus_ the father of _Lycaon_, and in the days of _Lelex_ the father of _Myles_, and by consequence about two or three Generations before the Flood of _Deucalion_, and the coming of _Cadmus_; 'till then [209] they lived in woods and caves of the earth. The first houses were of clay, 'till the brothers _Euryalus_ and _Hyperbius_ taught them to harden the clay into bricks, and to build therewith. In the days of _Ogyges_, _Pelasgus_, _Æzeus_, _Inachus_ and _Lelex_, they began to build houses and villages of clay, _Doxius_ the son of _Cœlus_ teaching them to do it; and in the days of _Lycaon_, _Phoroneus_, _Ægialeus_, _Phegeus_, _Eurotas_, _Myles_, _Polycaon_, and _Cecrops_, and their sons, to assemble the villages into δημοι, and the δημοι into cities.

When _Oenotrus_ the son of _Lycaon_ carried a Colony into _Italy_, _he_ [210] _found that country for the most part uninhabited; and where it was inhabited, peopled but thinly: and seizing a part of it, he built towns in the mountains, little and numerous_, as above: these towns were without walls; but after this Colony grew numerous, and began to want room, _they expelled the _Siculi_, compassed many cities with walls, and became possest of all the territory between the two rivers _Liris_ and _Tibre__: and it is to be understood that those cities had their Councils and _Prytanea_ after the manner of the _Greeks_: for _Dionysius_ [211] tells us, that the new Kingdom of _Rome_, as _Romulus_ left it, consisted of thirty Courts or Councils, in thirty towns, each with the sacred fire kept in the _Prytaneum_ of the Court, for the Senators who met there to perform Sacred Rites, after the manner of the _Greeks_: _but when _Numa_ the successor of _Romulus_ Reigned, he leaving the several fires in their own Courts, instituted one common to them all at _Rome__: whence _Rome_ was not a compleat city before the days of _Numa_.

When navigation was so far improved that the _Phœnicians_ began to leave the sea-shore, and sail through the _Mediterranean_ by the help of the stars, it may be presumed that they began to discover the islands of the _Mediterranean_, and for the sake of trafic to sail as far as _Greece_: and this was not long before they carried away _Io_ the daughter of _Inachus_, from _Argos_. The _Cares_ first infested the _Greek_ seas with piracy, and then _Minos_ the son of _Europa_ got up a potent fleet, and sent out Colonies: for _Diodorus_ [212] tells us, that the _Cyclades_ islands, those near _Crete_, were at first desolate and uninhabited; but _Minos_ having a potent fleet, sent many Colonies out of _Crete_, and peopled many of them; and particularly that the island _Carpathus_ was first seized by the soldiers of _Minos_: _Syme_ lay waste and desolate 'till _Triops_ came thither with a Colony under _Chthonius_: _Strongyle_ or _Naxus_ was first inhabited by the _Thracians_ in the days of _Boreas_, a little before the _Argonautic_ Expedition: _Samsos_ was, at first desert, and inhabited only by a great multitude of terrible wild beasts, 'till _Macareus_ peopled it, as he did also the islands _Chius_ and _Cos_. _Lesbos_ lay waste and desolate 'till _Xanthus_ sailed thither with a Colony: _Tenedos_ lay desolate 'till _Tennes_, a little before the _Trojan_ war, sailed thither from _Troas_. _Aristæus_, who married _Autonoe_ the daughter of _Cadmus_, carried a Colony from _Thebes_ into _Cæa_, an island not inhabited before: the island _Rhodes_ was at first called _Ophiusa_, being full of serpents, before _Phorbas_, a Prince of _Argos_, went thither, and made it habitable by destroying the serpents, which was about the end of _Solomon_'s Reign; in memory of which he is delineated in the heavens in the Constellation of _Ophiuchus_. The discovery of this and some other islands made a report that they rose out of the Sea: _in Asia Delos emersit, & Hiera, & Anaphe, & Rhodus_, saith [213] _Ammianus_: and [214] _Pliny_; _claræ jampridem insulæ, Delos & Rhodos memoriæ produntur enatæ, postea minores, ultra Melon Anaphe, inter Lemnum & Hellespontum Nea, inter Lebedum & Teon Halone_, &c.

_Diodorus_ [215] tells us also, that the seven islands called _Æolides_, between _Italy_ and _Sicily_, were desert and uninhabited 'till _Lipparus_ and _Æolus_, a little before the _Trojan_ war, went thither from _Italy_, and peopled them: and that _Malta_ and _Gaulus_ or _Gaudus_ on the other side of _Sicily_, were first peopled by _Phœnicians_; and so was _Madera_ without the _Straits_: and _Homer_ writes that _Ulysses_ found the Island _Ogygia_ covered with wood, and uninhabited, except by _Calypso_ and her maids, who lived in a cave without houses; and it is not likely that _Great Britain_ and _Ireland_ could be peopled before navigation was propagated beyond the _Straits_.

The _Sicaneans_ were reputed the first inhabitants of _Sicily_, they built little Villages or Towns upon hills, and every Town had its own King; and by this means they spread over the country, before they formed themselves into larger governments with a common King: _Philistus_ [216] saith that _they were transplanted into _Sicily_ from the River _Sicanus_ in _Spain__; and _Dionysius_ [217], that _they were a _Spanish_ people who fled from the _Ligures_ in _Italy__; he means the _Ligures_ [218] who opposed _Hercules_ when he returned from his expedition against _Geryon_ in _Spain_, and endeavoured to pass the _Alps_ out of _Gaul_ into _Italy_. _Hercules_ that year got into _Italy_, and made some conquests there, and founded the city _Croton_; and [219] after winter, upon the arrival of his fleet from _Erythra_ in _Spain_, sailed to _Sicily_, and there left the _Sicani_: for _it was his custom to recruit his army with conquered people, and after they had assisted him in making new conquests to reward them with new seats_: this was the _Egyptian Hercules_, who had a potent fleet, and in the days of _Solomon_ sailed to the _Straits_, and according to his custom set up pillars there, and conquered _Geryon_, and returned back by _Italy_ and _Sicily_ to _Egypt_, and was by the ancient _Gauls_ called _Ogmius_, and by _Egyptians_ [220] _Nilus_: for _Erythra_ and the country of _Geryon_ were without the _Straits_. _Dionysius_ [221] represents this _Hercules_ contemporary to _Evander_.

The first inhabitants of _Crete_, according to _Diodorus_ [222] were called _Eteocretans_; but whence they were, and how they came thither, is not said in history: then sailed thither a Colony of _Pelasgians_ from _Greece_; and soon after _Teutamus_, the grandfather of _Minos_, carried thither a Colony of _Dorians_ from _Laconia_, and from the territory of _Olympia_ in _Peloponnesus_: and these several Colonies spake several languages, and fed on the spontaeous fruits of the earth, and lived quietly in caves and huts, 'till the invention of iron tools, in the days of _Asterius_ the son of _Teutamus_; and at length were reduced into one Kingdom, and one People, by _Minos_, who was their first law-giver, and built many towns and ships, and introduced plowing and sowing, and in whose days the _Curetes_ conquered his father's friends in _Crete_ and _Peloponnesus_. The _Curetes_ [223] sacrificed children to _Saturn_ and according to _Bochart_ [224] were _Philistims_; and _Eusebius_ faith that _Crete_ had its name from _Cres_, one of the _Curetes_ who nursed up _Jupiter_: but whatever was the original of the island, it seems to have been peopled by Colonies which spake different languages, 'till the days of _Asterius_ and _Minos_; and might come thither two or three Generations before, and not above, for want of navigation in those seas.

The island _Cyprus_ was discovered by the _Phœnicians_ not long before; for _Eratosthenes_ [225] tells us, _that _Cyprus_ was at first so overgrown with wood that it could not be tilled, and that they first cut down the wood for the melting of copper and silver, and afterwards when they began to sail safely upon the _Mediterranean__, that is, presently after the _Trojan_ war, _they built ships and even navies of it: and when they could not thus destroy the wood, they gave every man leave to cut down what wood he pleased, and to possess all the ground which he cleared of wood_. So also _Europe_ at first abounded very much with woods, one of which, called the _Hercinian_, took up a great part of _Germany_, being full nine days journey broad, and above forty long, in _Julius Cæsar_'s days: and yet the _Europeans_ had been cutting down their woods, to make room for mankind, ever since the invention of iron tools, in the days of _Asterius_ and _Minos_.

All these footsteps there are of the first peopling of _Europe_, and its Islands, by sea; before those days it seems to have been thinly peopled from the northern coast of the _Euxine-sea_ by _Scythians_ descended from _Japhet_, who wandered without houses, and sheltered themselves from rain and wild beasts in thickets and caves of the earth; such as were the caves in mount _Ida_ in _Crete_, in which _Minos_ was educated and buried; the cave of _Cacus_, and the _Catacombs_ in _Italy_ near _Rome_ and _Naples_, afterwards turned into burying-places; the _Syringes_ and many other caves in the sides of the mountains of _Egypt_; the caves of the _Troglodites_ between _Egypt_ and the _Red Sea_, and those of the _Phaurusii_ in _Afric_, mentioned by [226] _Strabo_; and the caves, and thickets, and rocks, and high places, and pits, in which the _Israelites_ hid themselves from the _Philistims_ in the days of _Saul_, 1 _Sam._ xiii. 6. But of the state of mankind in _Europe_ in those days there is now no history remaining.

The antiquities of _Libya_ were not much older than those of _Europe_; for _Diodorus_ [227] tells us, that _Uranus_ the father of _Hyperion_, and grandfather of _Helius_ and _Selene_, that is _Ammon_ the father of _Sesac_, _was their first common King, and caused the people, who 'till then wandered up and down, to dwell in towns_: and _Herodotus_ [228] tells us, that all _Media_ was peopled by δημοι, towns without walls, 'till they revolted from the _Assyrians_, which was about 267 years after the death of _Solomon_: and that after that revolt they set up a King over them, and built _Ecbatane_ with walls for his seat, the first town which they walled about; and about 72 years after the death of _Solomon_, _Benhadad_ King of _Syria_ [229] had two and thirty Kings in his army against _Ahab_: and when _Joshuah_ conquered the land of _Canaan_, every city of the _Canaanites_ had its own King, like the cities of _Europe_, before they conquered one another; and one of those Kings, _Adonibezek_, the King of _Bezek_ had conquered seventy other Kings a little before, _Judg._ i. 7. and therefore towns began to be built in that land not many ages before the days of _Joshuah_: for the Patriarchs wandred there in tents, and fed their flocks where-ever they pleased, the fields of _Phœnicia_ not being yet fully appropriated, for want of people. The countries first inhabited by mankind, were in those days so thinly peopled, that [230] four Kings from the coasts of _Shinar_ and _Elam_ invaded and spoiled the _Rephaims_, and the inhabitants of the countries of _Moab_, _Ammon_, _Edom_, and the Kingdoms of _Sodom_, _Gomorrah_, _Admah_ and _Zeboim_; and yet were pursued and beaten by _Abraham_ with an armed force of only 318 men, the whole force which _Abraham_ and the princes with him could raise: and _Egypt_ was so thinly peopled before the birth of _Moses_, that _Pharaoh_ said of the _Israelites_; [231] _behold the people of the children of _Israel_ are more and mightier than we_: and to prevent their multiplying and growing too strong, he caused their male children to be drowned.