THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. JOS 



difficult to reconcile the extracts given us from his works by Diodorus, 

 Eusebius and the Syncellus. 



If so great a state of uncertainty existed in the fifth century before 

 Christ, how can we imagine that Berosus could clear them up in the 

 third ? And can we give more credence to 430,000 years which he 

 puts before the deluge — to 35,000 years which he places between the 

 deluge and Semiramis — than in records of 150,000 years which he 

 boasts of having consulted * ? 



Mention has been made of works raised in distant provinces, and 

 which bore the name of Semiramis ; they pretend also to have seen in 

 Asia Minor and in Thrace columns erected by Sesostris f . But, as in 

 Persia at the present day, the ancient monuments, perhaps even some 

 of these, bear the name of Roustan ; and in Egypt or Arabia, they have 

 those of Joseph or Solomon ; a custom appertaining to the Orientalists 

 of all ages, and, most probabl}^ to all ignorant nations. The peasan- 

 try of our country call all ancient Roman entrenchments the camp of 

 Caesar. 



In a word, the more I reflect on the subject, the more I am persuaded 

 that there was no more an ancient history of Babylon or Ecbatana than 

 of Egypt or the Indies ; and instead of explaining mythology histori- 

 cally, as Evhemere or Bannier, it is my opinion that a great portion of 

 history should be considered as mythology. 



It is only from the epoch commonly called that of the second king- 

 dom of Assyria, that the history of the Assyrians and Chaldeans be- 

 gins to be at all clear ; at the same time in which that of the Egyptians 

 also becomes intelligible ; when the kings of Ninevah, Babylon and 

 Egypt, began to meet and fight on the theatre of Syria and Palestine. 

 It appears, however, that the writers of these countries, or those 

 who had consulted its traditions, Berosus, Hieronymus, and Nicholas 

 de Damas, agree in mentioning a deluge. Berosus even describes it 

 with circumstances so similar to that of Genesis, which it is scarcely 

 possible but that he must have derived his information from the same 

 sources, although he makes its epoch many centuries earlier ; that is, 

 if we may judge from the confused extracts which Josephus, Eusebius 

 and SynceUus, have preserved of his writings. But we must remark 

 — and with this observation we shall terminate our mention of the 



* Syncellus, p, 38 and 39. 



f N.B. It is remarkable, that Herodotus says nothing of having seen any monu- 

 ments of Sesostris, but in Palestine, and only mentions those in Ionia from hearsay, 

 adding, that Sesostris is not named in the inscriptions, and that those who have seen 

 these monuments attribute them to Memnon. — Euterpe, chap. cvi. 



