358 



up out of the ground, and liave reference to Yiterbo, and its dependent 

 towns and their divinities. 



At; page 17, same book, he states a most ancient inscribed stone was 

 found in Yetulonia, with certain words setting forth the foundation of 

 some Etruscan colonies by the Egyptian Hercules. 



He states that, although the Etruscans held the Greeks in great ab- 

 horrence, they used their letters recording their antiquities. Eut dates 

 of discovery and names of discoverers of those inscribed stones are not 

 given ; and all particulars as to the mode by which the long-lost writings 

 of Berosus and Manetho came into his hands are eschewed. 



But the concocter of fabulous histories has found an advocate in our 

 own times. A Erench writer, well versed in ancient Hterature, con- 

 nected with Celtic history and antiquities, jMons. D'Urbain, of the Celtic 

 Academy of Paris, and other societies, in his " Histoire des Premiers 

 Temps de la Gaule," &g.,^' gives the entii'e text of the " Pefloratio 

 Berosi Chaldaica," and also a Erench ti-anslation of it. Mons. D'Pr- 

 bain inti'oduces the ^^Defloratio" with these observations: — "That 

 which we have of the highest antiquity relating to the Celtes is 

 found in the extracts from Berosus, published by Annius of Titerbo, 

 which he had received from an Armenian priest, a native of a coun- 

 try where the work of this author, Berosus, might easily have been 

 preserved. It appears that the extracts (from Berosus, as alleged) 

 were composed by a Christian monk, icJio, perhaps, had corrupted 

 the text. But it is at least certain, that this work is ancient, and 

 I think I have proved this in the volume which I have published, 

 under the title of Berosus and Annius of Yiterbo, which forms the 

 seventh of my collection on the history of the globe. As these ex- 

 tracts from Berosus contain, in some respects, the rudiments of our 

 origin, it deserves a more profound examination than it has received. 

 But before examining the authenticity of this work, now almost gene- 

 rally regarded as spui'ious, it is right it should be made known. It has 

 never been translated in Erench. It is very short, and many chrono- 

 logists have adopted the data which are given in it." 



Isl. P'Prbain is evidently carried away by the erudition of Annius, and 

 his profound acquaintance with the ancient history of the oriental na- 

 tions and theii' European offshoots. But I think it is in the comments 

 of Annius, and his several antiquarian writings bearing on the early 

 history of Etruria, and not in the fan-ago of suppositious records, pur- 

 porting to be Chaldaic, manufactured by Annius, entitled, " Pefloratio 

 Berosi Chaldaica," that the valuable matter which H. D'Prbain speaks 

 of is to be found. 



Throughout the Institutiones" of Annius, whenever he wants to 

 apply names of places or individuals which occur in the fragments 

 ascribed to Berosus, to places or persons connected with Yiterbo or 



* Paris, 1844, 12mo, pp. 72. 



