THEORY OF THE EARTH. 173 



Ctesias, who was nearly cotemporary with Xe- 

 nophon, pretends to have extracted from the roy- 

 al archives of the Medes, a chronology which 

 carries back the origin of the Assyrian monarchy 

 upwards of 800 years, putting at the head of 

 their kings, that same Ninus, the son of Belus, 

 whom Herodotus had made one of the Hera- 

 elides ; and, at the same time, he attributes to 

 Ninus and Semiramis conquests towards the 

 west, of an extent absolutely incompatible with 

 the Jewish and Egyptian history of the times in 

 question *. 



According to Megasthenes, it was Nabucho- 

 donosor who made these incredible conquests. 

 He pushed them by way of Libya, as far as 

 Spain f . We find that, in the time of Alexan- 

 der, Nabuchodonosor had completely usurped 

 the reputation which Semiramis had possessed in 

 the time of Artaxerxes. But we must suppose, 

 without doubt, that Semiramis and Nabuchodo- 

 nosor had conquered Ethiopia and Libya, much 

 in the same way as the Egyptians made India 

 and Bactria to be subdued by Sesostris or Osy- 

 mandias. 



1 Diod. Sic. lib. ii. 



| Josephus (contra App.) lib. i. cap. 6; and Strsbo, lib. 

 xv. p. 687. 



