32 ORIGIX AND DECLINE OF THE 



knowledge: and according to Hesiod, and the 

 Jainas in India, the Cali-yuga began about 1000 years 

 B. C. and lasted, of course, the same number of 

 years, which were natural one;s in the west, but are 

 considered as divine years in India. 



About 60 years before the birth of Christ, the 

 capital of the Roman E?7ipire was alarmed by pro- 

 digies, and also by ancient prophecies, announc- 

 ing, that an emanation of the deity was to be born 

 about that time, and that a renovation of the world 

 was to take place. In the year of Rome 69O and 

 63 B. C. the Senate, having been convened on the 

 ninth day before the calends of October, or the 

 23d of September, in order to prepare against im- 

 minent dangers threatening the Empire, the whole 

 city was alarmed by new causes of anxiety. P. Nigid. 

 FiGULUs, the intimate friend of Cicero, who was 

 then». consul, having heard C. Octavius apologising 

 to tlie Senate for his coming so late, on account of 

 his wife having been just brought to bed, exclaimed, 

 you have then begot a lord and master unto us. This 

 FiGULUs wasin such estimation at Ro??ie, that he was 

 reckoned among tlie most learned men : and such was 

 his superior knowledge of the mathematics, and other 

 sciences grounded upon them, that he was believed 

 to deal in the occult sciences. That exclamation of 

 his threw so much more terror into the minds of the 

 Conscript Fatliers, as for a few months before, itwa^ 

 constantly reported, that nature was bringing forth a 

 king unto the world, and it Avas said, that the same 

 was asserted in the Sibylline verses. Besides, oracles to 

 that purport were constantly brought in from the most 

 distant parts of the world. On this account, and more 

 particularly on account of a prodigy that had just 

 happened at Rome, the Senate terrified^ issued a 



