The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
After the flood Euexius reigned over the land of the Chaldæans for 2,400
years. He was followed by his son Chomasbelus, who reigned 2,700 years;
and after him came eighty-four kings, who, if we reckon in the reigns of
Euexius and Chomasbelus, ruled for 34,080 years.[320] Then the Medes
gathered together an army against Babylon, and took the land, and set up
tyrants from among their own people. These, eight in number, reigned
over Babylon for 234 years. After that eleven kings reigned for 248
years; then followed the Chaldæans, with forty-nine kings, who ruled
over Babylon for 458 years. These were followed by nine Arabian kings
for 245 years, and then came forty-five Assyrian kings for 526 years.
These were followed by Sennacherib, Asordan, Samuges, and his brother,
and afterwards by Nabopolassar. After Nabopolassar, Nabukudurussar
(Nebuchadnezzar) and his successor reigned for sixty-seven years.[321]
Such is the essential information contained in the fragments of Berosus
which have come down to us. They give us a tolerably clear view of the
system of cosmogony set up by the priests of Babylon, of the way in
which order and civilisation arose among men by successive revelations
from divine creatures coming out of the sea, and a sketch, though a very
meagre one, of the dynasties which reigned over Babylon down to the time
of Cyrus. The enormous number of 432,000 years, which the fragments
allot to the ten rulers of the first dynasty, and the 34,080 years of
the second dynasty, which came immediately after the flood, show that
the statements of Diodorus, Cicero, and Pliny are not mere imagination,
though these totals are perhaps scarcely intended to give the period
during which observations were made by the Chaldæans, but the antiquity
ascribed by the Babylonian priests to the existence of the world before
and after the flood.
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