they served Chedorlaomer: and in the thirteenth they rebelled: and in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashtaroth Karnaim;” who were no other than the Titans. They were accordingly rendered by the Seventy, “the giant brood of Ashtaroth:” and the valley of the Rephaim, in Samuel, is translated “the valley of the Titans.” From the sacred historians we may then infer that there were two periods of this war. The first, when the king of Elam and his associates laid the Rephaim under contribution: the other, when, upon their rebellion, they reduced them a second time to obedience. The first part is mentioned by several ancient writers, and is said to have lasted ten years. Hesiod takes notice of both, but makes the first rather of longer duration: Ten years and more they sternly strove in arms. In the second engagement the poet informs us that the Titans were quite discomfited and ruined: and according to the mythology of the Greeks, they were condemned to reside in Tartarus, at the extremity of the known world. A large body of Titanians, after their dispersion, settled in Mauritania: which is the region called Tartarus. The mythologists adjudged the Titans to the realms of night merely from not attending to the purport of the term ζοφος. This word described the West, and it signified also darkness. From this secondary acceptation the Titans of the West were consigned to the realms of night: being situated, with respect to Greece towards the regions of the setting sun. BRYANT. [206] _Wielding aloft_ _Precipitous rocks._] This, perhaps, suggested to Milton the arming the angels with mountains: They pluck’d the seated hills with all their load; Rocks, waters, woods; and by the shaggy tops Uplifting, bore them in their hands. PAR. LOST. vi. [207] _The dark chasm of hell_ _Was shaken._] This is expanded by Milton with uncommon sublimity: Hell heard th’ insufferable noise: hell saw Heaven ruining from heaven, and would have fled Affrighted: but strict Fate had cast too deep Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. Book vi. [208] _His whole of might_ _Broke from him._] Milton attains to a higher conception of omnipotence in the passage: Yet half in strength he put not forth, but check’d His thunder in mid-volley: for he meant Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven.