308 



one as the thirty -fifth, and so on; which shows that a name 

 had dropped out, and this name could be no other than that 

 of Stamenemes I., who must have filled the vacant interval, 

 and must consequently have reigned the number of years that 

 has been assigned to him. 



As neither Goar nor any other writer perceived this omis- 

 sion, the successor of Stamenemes II. has always been rec- 

 koned as the thirty-third in the list, and the next following as 

 the thirty-fourth, &c. But as one error begets another, the 

 omission was compensated by the insertion of an anonymous 

 king, who is placed thirty-sixth in the list, with a reign of 

 fourteen years ; the insertion being necessary to complete 

 the number (thirty-eight) which the Catalogue ought to con- 

 tain. And, by a further error, these fourteen years are taken 

 out of the reign of the thirty-seventh sovereign, who ought 

 to have nineteen years instead of the five that have been 

 hitherto assigned to him. This last error was occasioned by 

 an ignorant correction of a mistake which is found in both 

 the MSS., and which therefore probably arose from the care- 

 lessness of Syncellus himself. The thirty-seventh king and 

 his predecessor are stated to have begun to reign in the 

 same year of the world, and to have reigned the same num- 

 ber of years (five). Now from what goes before it is plain 

 that both these numbers belong to the thirty-sixth king; and 

 from the year of the world in which the thirty-eighth and 

 last king began to reign, it is clear that the thirty-seventh 

 reigned nineteen years. The mistake in the MSS. is one 

 which might easily be made by a thoughtless writer; for 

 the Catalogue is given in detached portions — a few reigns at 

 a time — separated by a great quantity of other matter, and 

 the name of the thirty-sixth king ends one of these portions, 

 while that of the thirty-seventh begins another ; so that, not 

 having both before his eyes at the same moment, a person so 

 careless as Syncellus might, without being conscious of it, 

 attach the same reign and date to the two names, by tran- 



