I r8 Before Chrill 54. 



Contemporary with Caefar was Diodorus, a Sicilian Greek, who 

 wrote a general hiftory. In a fliort defcription which he gives of Bri- 

 tain, [L. V, § 21] it is remarkable that he mentions the name of Orkas, 

 the headland, which, he fays, forms the northern extremity of the illand. 

 Thus the moil remote corner of the country, now called Scotland, is 

 the very firft part of it mentioned by any antient author now extant. 

 As there is no reafon to believe, that ever any Greek navigator went fo 

 far north, except Pytheas, it is almofl certain, that the information con- 

 cerning Orkas, tranfmitted to us by Diodorus, is extraded from the 

 works of that great Maflilian difcoverer, and is of courfe fome centuries 

 older than Diodorus. 



.At this time Lutecia, the capital of a Gallic nation called the Pari- 

 fii, was entirely contained in the little ifland of the River Sequana, 

 (Seine) which is now fo fmall a part of the great city of Paris *. [C\e/ar. 

 Bell. Gall. L. vi, c. 3 ; L. vii, c. 57.] 



CrafTus, a Roman general, plundered the temple of Jerufalem of 

 gold to the value, as we are told, of ten thoufand talents. Jofephus, 

 \Antiq. L. xiv, c. I 2] aware of being doubted on account of the great- 

 nefs of the fum, produces the authority of Strabo, in an hiftorical work 

 of his, now loft f . 



Qelar \s chiefly indebted for his fime to his extraordinary military 

 talents, his numerous vidtories, wherein the cut-throats under his com- 

 mand butchered above a million of their fellow creatures, and his be- 

 ing the firft of the Roman emperors. But Caefar was alfo a man of 

 faience ; and that left renowned, but more meritorious, part of his cha- 

 rafter is what alone concerns this work. He obfcrved, that the year 

 had run totally into confufion, (the firil day of the month called Jan- 

 uary, being in reality that which ought to have been the thirteenth of 

 October) and, with the help of Sofigenes, a celebrated Grecian aftrono- 

 mer of Alexandria, he correded the calendar. Letting the current year 

 run on, till it had 445 days, he inflituted a year of 365 days, to com- 

 mence on the firft day of the enfuing January ; and he ordered, that 

 every fourth year ftiould confift of 366 days, which came very near to 

 the truth +. But the ftupidity of thole, whofe bufniefs it was to regu- 



* I liave infcrtcd this earliefl. notice of Paris, wliofc time, however, agreeable to the ciiilom of 

 fliough Its inland litiialion on a river, not capable that age, the national name of Parihi, had alniolt 

 of carrying large velfcls up to it, prevents it frnni fiipLrlcdcd the old name, which is afterwards only- 

 being a city ot great foreign trade, partly bccaufe ukd, 1 believe, by writers who affeft clalTic names. 

 it ii.is become the capital of a great nation ; but, \ Snrcly Jofephus ought to have known more 

 (Chiefly, that I might not feem to detraft from its of the niatler liimfclf tliaii Strabo. So, in modern 

 antiquity, as fome writers have done, who, by a times, De Witt, a Dutcti auliior, cjnotes Raleigh, 

 itrange inadvertency, have fuppofcd the iirll no- an Knglilhman, for a fplendid account of the 

 ficc of it t<) be, when Julian hxed iiis refidence in Dntcii liihtry. 



it above four hniuhcd years afterwards. Its ori- % Tiieir calculation exceeded the truth by 1 1 



ginal name is varioully written ; Lukotokia by minutes and 14-^ feconds in a year, which make a 



iSltabo ; Lutecia, and I.uticia, in Antoninc's Iti- day in 333 years. The accunuilation of tiiis etior 



nerary ; and Lcuketia by the emperor Julian, in gave occalloii to Pope Gregory, in the year 1582, 



