In the sacred commentary of the _Persian_ rites these words are ascribed to _Zoroastres_; [484] ‛Ο Θεος εστι κεφαλην εχων ‛ιερακος. ‛ουτος εστιν ‛ο πρωτος, αφθαρτος, αιδιος, αγενητος, αμερης, ανομοιοτατος, ‛ηνιοχος παντος καλου, αδωροδοκητος, αγαθων αγαθωτατος, φρονιμων φρονιμωτατος· εστι δε και πατηρ ευνομιας και δικαιοσυνης, αυτοδιδακτος, φυσικος, και τελειος, και σοφος, και ‛ιερου φυσικου μονος ‛ευρετης. _Deus est accipitris capite: hic est primus, incorruptibilis, æternus, ingenitus, sine partibus, omnibus aliis dissimillimus, moderator omnis boni, donis non capiendus, bonorum optimus, prudentium prudentissimus, legum æquitatis ac justitiæ 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_, _Phœnicians_, and _Chaldæans_ 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 the time of the Olympic Games, in the beginning of the first year of the 75th Olympiad, _Callias_ being _Archon_ at _Athens_; as all Chronologers agree. The great number of people which he drew out of _Susa_ to invade _Greece_, made _Æschylus_ the Poet say [485]: