OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 231 



"604, Jan. 21st" (Astronom. can., and Clint.), Nabopolassar succeeded by Nebuchadnezzar, as 

 king at Babylon. He built the celebrated wall around the city (Abyden., and others, see also Dan. 

 iv. 30) ; was the first Babylonian king who " acquired extensive dominion ; " and reigned " forty- 

 three " years (according to Alex. Polyhistor, and the Astronom. can.). 



" The same year," on the " fourteenth day of the Ninth month " (Pauth. p. 11 1), " in the king- 

 dom of Thsou" (now the provinces of Hou-pe and Hou-nan), birth of Lao-tseu, founder of the doc- 

 trine of Tao. — The Tao-te-king, written by him and containing his doctrines, has been translated by 

 Pauthier. 



In this year (== 552 -\- " 52 years reign " of the Mahavamsi i. p. 28), accession of the Hindu king 

 Bimsara. 



603 B. C. = " 8th year of Necho," in tablets at Hammamat — (Birch). 



" May 17th" (Bayer, Hales, and Clint, i. p. 419), eclipse of the sun. Probably the one interrupt- 

 ing a battle on the Halys between the Medes under Cyaxares and Lydians under Alyattes, and ter- 

 minating the war. The eclipse had been predicted by Thales (Herodot. i. 74). 



Thales learned geometry and astronomy in Egypt, at this time considered the school of philos- 

 ophy and source of all learning and science (Plut. is. x., and Leps. eg. and sin. p. 384) ; he first 

 among the Greeks " found out the passage of the sun from Tropick to Tropick," and divided the year 

 into "four" seasons (Eudem., and D. Laert. i. 23). He also thought the gods omnipresent, That 

 all things are filled with them (Aristot. psych, i. 5). 



601 B. C. (= 598 — "3 years " of 2 K. xxiv. 1, see also Ezek. xxi. 21), the Babylonian king 

 Nebuchadnezzar having arrived "at the parting of the way," used divination by means of arrows, he 

 also " consulted with images, he looked in the liver " (haruspicium of the Romans), and was directed 

 to Jerusalem. — Divination with arrows is practised among the Arabians to the present day, and the 

 arrows " acdah " are described by D'Herbelot as " without head or wing, they took three on which 

 they wrote 1st ' command me Lord,' on the 2d ' forbid me lord,' the 3d blank " (J. Roberts introd. Sakaa 

 Thevan in Orient, transl. lond.). 



Erinna about this time composing poetry. She was known to Sappho, but " died at the age of 

 nineteen " — (Sm. b. d.). 



Carthamus lanatus of the Mediterranean countries. A thistle-like plant called in Italy " scardic- 

 cione" or " ceceprete " (Lenz), in Greece "atraxule" (Sibth.), or "tes gunaikas t'atrahti " (Fraas), 

 by the prophets "aph£thros," in Egyptian " hen6 " (Syn. Diosc.) ; and doubtless known to Erinna 

 when she entitled one of her poems H V A K ATH distaff : — the term " atraktos " is used for distaff 

 by Herodotus iv. 162 : the " knekou agrias " according to Theophrastus vi. 4. 5 more upright than 

 the "eme'rS " kind and used by the women of antiquity for a distaff, is identified through Syn. Diosc. 

 with the "atraktulis " of Dioscorides, resembling " knikS " though much smaller, leafy at the summit 

 but the greater part naked and rough, used for an " atraktou " by women : C. lanatus was observed 

 by Sibthorp, Chaubard, and Fraas, frequent from Crete and the Peloponnesus to Cyprus : Westward, 

 the " knikos agria " or " atraktulis " or " amuron " or " aspithion " is further identified in Syn. Diosc. 

 with the "pr£sepi6um" or " phousougrSttis " or " klonouka roustika " of the Romans ; but the 

 account by Pliny xxi. 53 to 107 of the " cnicon silvestris " with rigid stem employed in ancient times 

 for a distaff and therefore by some called " atractylida," seems taken from the Greek : C. lanatus is 

 described by Matthioli p. 593 (Spreng.), and Lobel pi. 13 ; is termed " cnicus atractylis lutea dictus " 

 by Tournefort inst. 451 ; was observed by Lenz frequent in Italy, by Forskal near Marseilles, and 

 is known to occur in waste places in other parts of Southern France (Dec. fl. fr., and Pers.). 



Carlina corymbosa of the Mediterranean countries. Having general resemblance to the preced- 

 ing, and also called in Greece " atraxule," but sometimes " atraklutha " or " sumlaga" (Sibth.) ; and 

 possibly a distaff-thistle, — the " knekou agrias " having according to Theophrastus black " karpon " 

 seeds : C. corymbosa was observed by Sibthorp, Chaubard, and Fraas, abounding from the Pelopon- 

 nesus throughout the Greek islands to mount Athos. Westward, is termed " c. umbellata apula " by 

 Tournefort inst. 500 ; and is known to grow in Carniolia, Italy, Barbary, and as far as France (Pers.). 



" Sept. 20th." On the "first day of the Seventh month in the 6th year of Ting-wang" (Khoung- 

 tseu, Gaubil, and Pauth. 108), eclipse of the sun. 



One hundred and eleventh generation. Jan. 1st, 600, mostly beyond youth : the Chinese philos- 

 opher Lie-tseu (Pauth. p. 96) : the prophet Obadiah : the Greek poets, Damophyle, Stesichorus, 

 Chersias of Orchomenos, and Sacadas. 



" The same year " (= 480 -f- " 120 years " of Scymn. and Clint., see also Herodot., and Strab. iii. 

 4. 2), Massalia or Marseilles founded by colonists from Phocaea in Asia Minor. The Phocaeans 

 according to Herodotus, were the first Greeks who made long sea-voyages, as far as " Spain and Tar- 

 tessus ; " and according to Strabo, Maenaca near Malaga was their most Western settlement. — Their 

 colonial descendants of Massalia soon became powerful enough to defeat the Carthaginians in a naval 

 combat, mentioned by Thucydides i. 13. 



