226 



CHRONOLOGY 



time computation which is apparently prehistoric, 

 and their recorded eclipse observations prove a 

 chronology of at least four thousand seven hundred 

 years' duration ; but if they did adopt a year 

 measurement equivalent to our Julian system 

 some 2000 B. c. , it is certain they have exerted no 

 influence on European civilisation compared with 

 that of the Accadians of Babylonia, or ancient 

 Chaldeans as they used to be named. Fairly 

 accurate chronology in ancient Babylon begins 

 with Sargon I., king of Agade, 3800 B.C. The 

 earliest authentic date is that inscribed on the 

 foundation stone of the temple to the sun-god at 

 Sippara by Naram-Sin, son of Sargon. This was 

 dug up by Nabonidus, who began to reign over 

 Babylon about 554 B.C., and who says that Naram- 

 Sin reigned 3200 years before his time, thus giving 

 a total of 3754 years B.C. as the date of his build- 

 ing of the temple. Thus by the year 4000 B.C. 

 the nation had attained to considerable advance 

 in literature, science, and art. Much of the 

 greatness of Babylonia, foremost in culture for 

 centuries, was afterwards reflected in Assyria, who 

 inherited her civilisation and learning, as in a 

 lesser degree also did Israel. Berosus gives a 

 list of dynasties of 120 saroi, or 432,000 years 

 before the Deluge, and of eight dynasties after it, 

 and Ptolemy's canon in the Almagest gives the 

 seventh dynasty in full from Nabonassar (747 B.C.) 

 to Sinladanos ( Assur-bani-pal, 668-626). From 

 about 2330 B.C. they used a regular calendar, with 

 a week of seven days, and a year of twelve 

 months, named after the zodiacal signs. Their 

 year was of three hundred and sixty days, which 

 probably suggested that division of all circles 

 into degrees which we have derived from them. 

 In astronomical chronology they had cycles of 

 sixty years, six hundred years, and the sar 

 ( = 3600 years ) the factor sixty running through 

 all their arithmetic. The great Babylonian work 

 on astronomy and astrology was the ' Observations 

 of Bel,' compiled at Accad for Sargon, and trans- 

 lated into Greek by Berosus. It was mostly a 

 record of eclipses of the sun and moon, conjunc- 

 tions and phases of Venus and Mars, the time of 

 the new year, the names of the zodiacal signs and 

 the divisions of the year. The famous Assyrian 

 eponym canon, discovered by Sir Henry Rawhnson 

 in 1862, fixes definitely for us the chronology of 

 Assyria from 1330 B.C. to about 620 B.C. ; but a 

 fairly accurate list of kings can be made out up 

 to perhaps 1700 B.C. Thus continuing that early 

 pre-Semitic civilisation, the more warlike Assyrians 

 furnish many dates of importance e.g. 720 B.C., 

 Sargon conquered Arabia and Syria, levying con- 

 tributions from Cyprus ; 705 B.C., Sennacherib con- 

 quered Phoenicia and Egypt, carrying away two 

 hundred thousand Jews; 681 B.C., building of the 

 great palace at Nineveh, where afterwards, during 

 the golden age of the Assyrian empire, ruled great 

 Assur-bani-pal (long called Sardanapalus), the 

 brilliant patron of art and letters. The discovery, 

 in our time, of his national library almost com- 

 pensates the literary world for the loss of that of 

 Alexandria. See BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA. 



To the Chaldean astronomy we owe the Saros, a 

 cycle of two hundred and twenty-three lunations, 

 which is still of signal importance in calculating 

 eclipses. To it also is due the era of Nabonassar, 

 one of the most famous in the annals of chronology, 

 the basis of all the computations of Ptolemy, and 

 frequently referred to both by historical and 

 astronomical writers e.g. in connection both with 

 Alexander the Great and Aristotle. From its 

 epoch, 26th February 747 B.C., it maintained its 

 ground till after the commencement of the vulgar 

 era. In the same century, singularly enough, 

 occur the epochs of two other eras which, though 



of less note in astronomical chronology, are much 

 more familiar to historical readers viz. the Greek 

 era of the Olympiads, reckoned from 1st July 776 

 B.C., and the Roman era of the Founding of the City 

 (A.U.C.) from 22d April 753 B.C. The public 

 games at Olympia formed an essential part of 

 the national life to a Greek; and thus we find 

 Xenophon refer an event to the year when 

 Eubotas of Cyrene won the foot-race, just as 

 in some parts of England a man will be heard 

 saying ' Ah ! that was the year Friar Tuck won 

 the Derby ! ' The Olympic Games were of 

 unknown antiquity, but the era or first Olympiad 

 dates from the year when Correbus was victor. 

 Extending over a period of four years, the 

 Olympiad (q.v. ) was really a small cycle ; thus the 

 year 729 B.C. is expressed in Greek chronology as 

 the third year of the twelfth Olympiad. The 

 Latin epoch, the Founding of Rome, is not so accur- 

 ately known as that of the Greeks ; but the date 

 assigned by Varro (753 B.C.) was accepted by 

 Cicero and Pliny, and has been generally adopted 

 by modern historians. Cato's date (751 B.C.) de- 

 serves note, from its use both by Livy and 

 Dionysius of Halicarnassus : 750 was that of 

 Polybius. Nor must we forget that all Latin 

 writers, and many Greeks also, dated an event by 

 naming the Roman consuls of the year. Under 

 the empire, in 312 A.D., Constantine introduced the 

 cycle of fifteen years, called Indiction (q.v.), of 

 which, as an official mode of computation, there 

 still remained some survival in France at the end 

 of the 15th century. The old Roman era, however, 

 as well as the Grecian, maintained some footing 

 till after the birth of Christ ; and the latter has 

 even been traced to 440 A.D. = 304th Olympiad. 



The Greeks had the honour of inventing the 

 Metonic cycle (commencing 15th July 432 B.C. ) of 

 235 lunations = 19 years, and also the Calippic of 

 76, years. Like the Chaldean saros, both or these 

 cycles were used to predict new moons, eclipses, 

 &c. 



Of the Hindu or Egyptian eras there is little that 

 affects the science of chronology. The antiquity of 

 the Indian epics is a question purely literary ; and 

 the only epochs to record here are the descent of 

 the Aryans on the Punjab about 2000 B.C. ; the 

 Council of 543 B.C., which inaugurated the Buddhist 

 era, and that of 309 B.C., when Buddhism (q.v.) 

 became the state religion. The Indian chronology 

 has some affinity to the Chinese ; and a singular 

 refinement in their mode of computing time was 

 their use of the sidereal year i. e. reckoning by the 

 return of a meridian to the same star ( see YEAR ). 

 The Egyptians, on the contrary, though their year 

 began with the rising of the star Sirius, called a. 

 year 365 days exactly, and were, therefore, compelled 

 to use a cycle of 1461 years ( = 4 x 365 + 1 ), a most 

 cumbrous adjustment, though simple. The week 

 of seven days was from earliest time adopted by the 

 Brahmins in India, and the ancient Egyptians, as 

 well as by the Accad settlers of Babylonia already 

 referred to. 



The Jewish chronology is unimportant except 

 from its relation to religious matters, and scarcely 

 affords examples of any era, since sacred chron- 

 ology, as it is called, is only partially based upon 

 the Pentateuch. What knowledge of astronomi- 

 cal chronology the Jews had was derived from 

 the ancient Chaldeans through the Assyrians, and 

 their calendar was mainly Egyptian. Their year, 

 like that of the ancient Greeks and modern Turks, 

 consisted of twelve months of alternately thirty and 

 twenty-nine days ( or twenty-nine and a half on an 

 average i.e. a lunation), with an intercalary month 

 once in three years, and sometimes once in two. 

 One peculiarity of the Jewish calendar was that 

 they divided their year into six seasons seed-time, 



