SEYFFARTH — ON THE THEORY OF THE MOON S MOTIONS. 503 



ble of believing that the Prophets, who lived at the same time, 

 and the sacred chroniclers were mistaken? The simple con- 

 clusion, therefore, is that Ptolemy's Canon is again erroneous. 

 Cyrus, as we have seen (p. 483), permitted the Jews to rebuild 

 Jerusalem subsequent to the conquest of Nineveh in — 532, seven 

 years prior to his death, and that year is incontrovertibly deter- 

 mined by the solar eclipse in — 532. by the Apis periods, by the 

 turnus of the priests, and by the seventy weeks of Daniel. Con- 

 sequently, Ptolemy ought to have put Cyrus's monarchy in —532, 

 and not in — 537, i.e. he put it at least four years too early. How 

 came it to pass that Ptolem}- committed this error of four years? 

 First, Ptolemy antedated in general, as we have seen, all his kings 

 by two years, and, moreover, he forgot to mention Cyrus's prede- 

 cessor, viz. Darius Medus, whom Josephus expressly inserts with 

 two years between Cyrus and Nabonad (Belshazzar). 



12. Ptolemy (Almagest iii. 6, p. 204 Hal.) says expressly that 

 from the ist year of Nabonassar ( — 746, Feb. 26) down to Alex- 

 ander's death '( — 323, Nov. 12th) 424 vague years elapsed. The 

 account is tiue, for — 746, Feb. 26, — 424, Nov. 12, gives 322 

 Julian years and 8 months. But the question, however, is whether 

 Alexander actually died in — 323, or not. Alexander's death in 

 — 320, on the 6th day of Thargelion (April 6th), is, as w^e have 

 seen, placed beyond any question, because he died one year after 

 the celebration of the Olympian games (Diodor xviii. 8 ; Dinarch, 

 in Dem. 81, p. 100, 28 ; Joseph, c. A. I. 22 ; Ant. viii. 28 ; yElian. 

 V. A. ii. 25 ; Laert. vi. 79), and in the ist year of an Apis period 

 (Diod. i. 84, p. 25 Bip.), and eight vears subsequent to the lunar 

 eclipse preceding the battle at Arbela in — 328, and, as history 

 says, 33 years after his birth, which happened during the Olym- 

 pian games in — 353 (Plut. Alex. 3 ; Cic. de Div. i. 23 ; Euseb. 

 ad 01. 106, 1). The natural inference, therefore, is that Ptolemy 

 likewise antedated the reigning-time of Mardokempad by three 

 years, because he had antedated Alexander by three years. 



13. Finally, so far as Ptolemy's chronolog}' of the Lagides is 

 concerned, at least three errors are apparent. First, Alexander 

 ha.ing died in — 320, and not — 323, Ptolemaeus Lagi must have 

 reigned three years later than formerly was believed. Further, 

 Cicero (Legg. agr. ii. 17) testifies that King Ptolemaeus Alexan- 

 der died during his own consulate, and, since the latter's reign 



