357 



fragments were inscribed on metallic plates, wliicli lie discovered in the 

 vicinity of Yiterbo ; others say the inscriptions were on marble ; but 

 Touron, the Dominican historian of the notabilities of his order, flatly 

 * contradicts both, and says the documents which contained this historical 

 matter came into the hands of Annius from an Armenian priest. The 

 esprit de corps of members of all societies prevails not unfrequentty in 

 their literature over scrupulosity and the exercise of critical acumen. 



If Tonron had read the commentary of Annius on the so-called frag- 

 ment of Manetho, or supplement of his to Berosus, he must have found 

 in the concluding lines of the fifteenth book, at the termination of the 

 commentary on Berosus, page 145, and in the concluding lines of the 

 sixteenth book, likewise at the termination of the commentary on Mane- 

 tho, page 152, positive evidence that Annius relied on the alleged dis- 

 covery of inscribed stones for the interpretation he has given of certain 

 names which occur in the text of his alleged Chaldaic and Egyptian 

 authors. 



By means of an Etruscan inscription, Lucumonus is proved to be a 

 place whose population, as well as that of Yetulonia, was comprised in 

 the ancient Viterbum or Volturna. The ancestors of Annius are made 

 out of Etruscan origin — in Yeia, Yerissa, Yetulonia, Yolturna, or Yiter- 

 bum — and are given an origin as early as the Theban Hercules. By this 

 illustrious founder a celebrated tower, it is shown, was built at Yiter- 

 bum. 



And at the end of the work of Annius (lib. xvii. Questiones, p. 171), 

 the veracious author says that his veracissimus Berosus" expressly 

 states that Isis came into Libyssum, '^Latii Campum," from Libya, 

 and was present at the nuptials of Cybele and Jasius. And the 

 first bread, says Berosus, that was made in Etruria was at the nuptials 

 of Jasius, in Yetulonia. And then ^'Yetulonia est Yiterbum," says 

 Annius, But what is to be done with Lybissus ? The Lybissus of noto- 

 riety, "ubi primum constitit Ceres," was in the Eoman territory. Annius 

 at once solves the difficulty, as he does in numerous other places, with a 

 discovery of an ancient inscribed stone. What if it should prove Ly- 

 bissa is a Yetulonian region ?" And then another difficulty is similarly 

 surmounted. Yetulonia was a regal city, and Yetulonia is now proved to 

 be Yiterbum. Then Yeiura is found by an inscription to be a town of 

 the Yiterbans, Porro subscriptio ita dicit," &c. Then, again, a place 

 has to be sought for, named by Berosus from the father of Cybele, 

 one Sypo ; this has to be identified with Sypalis, a place in the region 

 of Yetulonia. And all that is desired is effected by another inscrip- 

 tion : — 



" Cybelariura excisum marmor : ubi haec ad sententiam scribuntur."* 



In the 2nd book, page 15, of the Institutiones" of Annius, there 

 is an account of six ancient marble slabs, with inscriptions which 

 treat of the antiquities of Etruria. These, the author states, were dug 



* Lib, xvii., Questio 40. 

 B. I. A. PEOC. — VOL. VIII. 



