Then [14] _Ephorus_, the disciple of _Isocrates_, formed a Chronological History of _Greece_, beginning with the Return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_, and ending with the Siege of _Perinthus_, in the twentieth year of _Philip_ the father of _Alexander_ the great, that is, eleven years before the fall of the _Persian_ Empire: but [15] he digested things by Generations, and the reckoning by the Olympiads, or by any other _Æra_, was not yet in use among the _Greeks_. The _Arundelian_ Marbles were composed sixty years after the death of _Alexander_ the great (_An._ 4. _Olymp._ 128.) and yet mention not the Olympiads, nor any other standing _Æra_, but reckon backwards from the time then present. But Chronology was now reduced to a reckoning by Years; and in the next Olympiad _Timæus Siculus_ improved it: for he wrote a History in Several books, down to his own times, according to the Olympiads; comparing the _Ephori_, the Kings of _Sparta_, the Archons of _Athens_, and the Priestesses of _Argos_ with the Olympic Victors, so as to make the Olympiads, and the Genealogies and Successions of Kings and Priestesses, and the Poetical Histories suit with one another, according to the best of his judgment: and where he left off, _Polybius_ began, and carried on the History. _Eratosthenes_ wrote above an hundred years after the death of _Alexander_ the great: He was followed by _Apollodorus_; and these two have been followed ever since by Chronologers. But how uncertain their Chronology is, and how doubtful it was reputed by the _Greeks_ of those times, may be understood by these passages of _Plutarch_. _Some reckon _Lycurgus__, saith he, [16] _contemporary to _Iphitus_, and to have been his companion in ordering the Olympic festivals, amongst whom was _Aristotle_ the Philosopher; arguing from the Olympic Disc, which had the name of _Lycurgus_ upon it. Others supputing the times by the Kings of _Lacedæmon_, as _Eratosthenes_ and _Apollodorus_, affirm that he was not a few years older than the first Olympiad._ He began to flourish in the 17th or 18th Olympiad, and at length _Aristotle_ made him as old as the first Olympiad; and so did _Epaminondas_, as he is cited by _Ælian_ and _Plutarch_: and then _Eratosthenes_, _Apollodorus_, and their followers, made him above an hundred years older. And in another place _Plutarch_ [17] tells us: _The Congress of _Solon_ with _Crœsus_, some think they can confute by Chronology. But a History so illustrious, and verified by so many witnesses, and which is more, so agreeable to the manners of _Solon_, and worthy of the greatness of his mind, and of his wisdom, I cannot persuade my self to reject because of some Chronological Canons, as they call them, which hundreds of authors correcting, have not yet been able to constitute any thing certain, in which they could agree amongst themselves, about repugnancies._