Chap. 57.] THE rSTEyJOBS OF TAEIOrS THINGS. 221 



Aristotle, on the other hand, is rather of opinion, that there 

 were originally eighteen letters,*'' A B r A E Z I K A M N O 

 n P 3 T T ^, and that two, namely and X, were introduced 

 by Epicharmus,^^ and not by Palamedes. Aristides says, that 

 a certain person of the name of }Ienos, in Egypt, invented let- 

 ters fifteen years before the reign of Phoroneus,^- the most an- 

 cient of all the kings of Greece, and this he attempts to prove by 

 the monuments there. On the other hand, Epigenes,^ a writer 

 of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians have 

 a series of observations on the stars, for a period of seven hun- 

 dred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks. 

 Berosus and Critodemus, who make the period the shortest, 

 give it as four hundred and ninety thousand years. ^ from 



■whom we have any correct historical data, and the connection which the 

 Greek alphabet had with those of other nations, are among the most 

 curious questions of literary discussion, and are stiU far from being re- 

 solved with any decree of certainty. — B. 



^' It seems to have been the general opinion, that the Greek language 

 had, originally, sixteen or eighteen letters, the source of which was very 

 uncertain, and of high antiquity ; and to these, additional letters were, 

 from time to time, appended by different individuals. Upon the whole, 

 the claim of the Egyptians to the invention of letters, seems to rest upon, 

 at least, a very plausible foundation. — B. 



^^ Epicharmus was born in the fifth century B.C., in the island of Cos, 

 but removed, probably at an early age, to Sicily, where he passed a consi- 

 derable portion of his life. His original profession was that of a phy- 

 sician, but he appears to have devoted his attention principally to general 

 science and literature, and is more especially remarkable as the inventor 

 of resTilar comedy. A few fragments only of his dramas remain, but the 

 titles of no less than forty are preserved. From a line in the Prologue to 

 the Mena?chmi of Plautus. where it is said that the plot of the^ play, 

 " non Atticissat verum SicUicissat" " is not Attic, but Sicilian :" it has been 

 conjectured, that Plautus took the plot of the piece from Epicharmus. 



52 Phoroneus was the son of Inachus, and the second king of Argos ; he 

 began to reign about 1807 B.C. — B. 



^ Episrenes has already been referred to in the fifty-fourth chapter of 

 this Book.— B. 



^ There has been much discussion respecting the interpretation of this 

 passage. In the first place, the numbers in the text have extended from 

 720 and 490 to as many thousands, by the addition of the letter M., 

 aqainst the authority, however, of some MSS. In the next place, in 

 order to curtail the enormous periods thus formed, the years have been 

 supposed to be only lunar, or even ditimal periods. The opinion of Har- 

 douin and Marcus is perhaps the better founded, who reject the proposed 

 alteration, and consider these numbers to indicate, according to their 

 natural signification, periods of years. The principal consideration th&t 



