92 ON THE DATE AND ORIGIN 
in the middle of the third century before the christian epoch. The 
policy, perhaps the fear of the priest, might forbid the use of the 
Chaldean character ; but our Holy Scriptures are said’ * to have been 
written in that alphabet, by the learned Esdras,*° as early as the 
latter end of the fifth or beginning of the sixth century before the 
christian zera ; and no distrust can attach to anauthor who is thought, 
by many of the early and most learned teachers of christianity, to 
have restored the whole’? of the Scriptures by the immediate inspi- 
ration of Jehovah. Of the Chaldean literature, then, the earliest 
record is about 500 years before Christ. 
8rd, Of Etruscan literature we have few memorials, save the Eu- 
gubian Tables, which are referred by father Gori, their sensitive pa- 
tron, to the second century before the Trojan war, the date and even 
existence of which itself must ever remain an open question ; but we 
may not legitimately retire from the field of acknowledged history to 
hide ourselves in the darkness of monumental fiction or literal criti- 
cism, alike subject to error and open to imposture. The Etruscan 
character resembles, and is in all probability posterior to, the ancient 
Greek, the date of which must be referred to the sixth century before 
Christ. 
4th, The establishment of the Roman name in the eighth century 
before the christian age, is not embellished by the early adoption of 
letters ;5° and arms, for many centuries, occupied the attention of that 
savage people, to the exclusion of learning. The first Roman histo- 
rian, Fabius Pictor (his works have perished, and been substituted by 
an acknowledged forgery), is said to have flourished 225 B.c. 
5° By several eminent fathers of the christian church, Irenzeus, 'Tertul- 
lian, Clemens, Alexandrinus, Basil, and others. —Calmet, art. Esdras. 
56 “ He wrote out the whole in the Chaldee character.”—Jbid. 
57 **Some of the ancient fathers” (of the christian church) says Dr. Pri- 
deaux, ‘‘ held that ad/ the Scriptures were lost and destroyed in the Baby- 
lonish captivity, and that Esdras restored them all again by divine revela- 
tion.”—Calmel, art. Esdras. About this time Pythagoras taught his disciples 
at Crotona, in Italy, in the hieroglyphic character of the Egyptians and Chal- 
dzeans : he died 497 p.c.—See Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary. 
58 454 years B.c. it was determined by the senate of Rome, and by the 
body of the people, te establish written laws. Antecedent to this time, the 
edicts of the kings seem to have been received as legal authorities, and writ- 
ten laws were either rare or did not exist, as the royal will was commonly 
proclaimed by a herald. Three ambassadors were sent to Athens, to copy 
the laws of Solon; and hence were compiled the “ Leges duodecim Tabula- 
rum,” or laws of the twelve tables, which ever after remained the foundation 
of Roman jurisprudence. 
