Ctap. 57.] 
THE INYEI^TOES OF VABIOTJS THIKGS. 
221 
Aristotle, on the other hand, is rather of opinion, that there 
were originally eighteen letters, ABTAEZIKAMNO 
n P 2 T T <I>, and that two, 0 namely and X, were introduced 
by Epicharmus,^^ and not by Palamedes. Aristides says, that 
a certain person of the name of Menos, in Egypt, invented let- 
ters fifteen years before the reign of Phoronens,^^ the most an- 
cient of all the kings of Greece, and this he attempts to prove by 
the monuments there. On the other hand, Epigenes,^^ a writer 
of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians have 
a series of observations on the stars, for a period of seven hun- 
dred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks. 
Berosus and Critodemus, who make the period the shortest, 
give it as four hundred and ninety thousand years.^* Erom 
whom we have any correct historical data, and the connection which the 
Greek alphabet had with those of other nations, are among the most 
curious questions of literary discussion, and are still far from being re- 
solved with any degree of certainty. — B. 
It seems to have been the general opinion, that the Greek language 
had, originally, sixteen or eighteen letters, the source of which was very 
uncertain, and of high antiquity ; and to these, additional letters were, 
from time to time, appended by different individuals. Upon the whole, 
the claim of the Egyptians to the invention of letters, seems to rest upon, 
at least, a very plausible foundation. — B. 
51 Epicharmus was born in the fifth century B.C., in the island of Cos, 
but removed, probably at an early age, to Sicily, Avhere he passed a consi- 
derable portion of his life. His original profession was that of a phy- 
sician, but he appears to have devoted his attention principally to general 
science and literature, and is more especially remarkable as the inventor 
of regular comedy. A few fragments only of his dramas remain, but the 
titles of no less than forty are preserved. From a line in the Prologue to 
the Menaechmi of Plautus, where it is said that the plot of the play, 
*'non Atticissat verum Sicilicissat" "is not Attic, but Sicilian;" it has been 
conjectured, that Plautus took the plot of the piece from Epicharmus. 
Phoroneus was the son of Inachus, and the second king of Argos ; he 
began to reign about 1807 n.c. — B. 
53 Epigenes has already been referred to in the fifty-fourth chapter of 
this Book.— B. 
5* There has been much discussion respecting the interpretation of this 
passage. In the first place, the numbers in the text have extended from 
720 and 490 to as many thousands, by the addition of the letter M., 
against the authority, however, of some MSS. In the next place, in 
order to curtail the enormous periods thus formed, the years have been 
supposed to be only lunar, or even diurnal periods. The opinion of Har- 
douin and Marcus is perhaps the better founded, who reject the proposed 
alteration, and consider these numbers to indicate, according to their 
natural signification, periods of years. The principal consideration that 
