so ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book If, 



rus takes this Rory is ftill extant. This author's name is A- 

 gatharcliides, who is one of the only two hiftorians whom Diodo- 

 nis mentions as writers that might be trufled to in the account 

 they have given of thofe barbarous nations. But Diodorus, not fa- 

 tisfied with the information he got from them, converfed, as he 

 fays, with the Egyptian priefts upon the fubje(ft, and with fome 

 ambaffadors from Ethiopia, whom he fiw when he w^as in Egypt ; 

 and, comparing their accounts with the accounts of the two hifto- 

 rian?, he has related what they all, or moil of them, agreed in *. 



Thus flir the truth of the fad refls upon the authority of Diodorus only. 

 But, as Agatharchides is ftill extant, I have confulted him ; and I find 

 that Diodorus has, for the greater part of his narrative, moft faithfully 

 tranfcribed Agatharchides, often ufing the very fame words, but with 

 the addition of feveral circumftances, w^hich he muftbe fuppofed to 

 have learned from the other hiftorian he mentions, whom he 

 calls Artemidorus, or from the information of the Egyptian priefts 

 and Ethiopian ambafladors. Thefe circumftances agree per- 

 fectly with the narrative of Agatharchides, ferving only to make 

 it more full and diftind '[. The queftion then is, What cre- 

 dit is to be given to this Agatharchides ? Diodorus, as I have 

 faid, commends his fidelity and accuracy. But, did he live at 

 a time when he could be well informed of the fads he relates ? 

 As to which, we are fare that he lived either in the days of the 

 third Ptolemy, King of Egypt, or betwixt his reign and the time 

 when Diodorus wrote, which was in the days of Julius Caefar ;. 

 for, as Diodorus tells us J , Agatharchides got his information 

 from one Symmias, who w^as fent by this Ptolemy to inform him- 

 felf concerning thofe barbarous nations, with all the attendance 

 and what elfe was neceflarv for fucli an expedition, and who, 



fays 

 * Diodorus, lib. Hi. p. io4. Edit, Stephani. 



I Agatharchides, p. 50. publiflied by Harry Stephen in 1557, together with 

 pieces of feveral other authors. 

 X Lib. iii.p. loS. 



