L 44 2 .1 
fpire, being, I apprehend, to place both of them much 
earlier than they ought to have done. 
Among the ancients, Velleius Paterculus (i), as 
now printed at leaft, fays, that Homer lived 950 
years before his time. This author dedicates his hi- 
ftory to the conful Vinicius, who is placed in the 
fcifti coiifulares A. V. C. 782. which is A D. 30. 
So that, according to this computation, Homer mull: 
have flourifhed about the year before Chiift 920. 
And with this account agrees pretty nearly the Parian 
marble (2). 
Plerodotus, according to our prefent copies of him, 
placeth Hefiod and Homer not more than 400 years 
before his time (3). Herodotus, according to A. Gel- 
lius (4), was 53 years old at the beginning of the Pe- 
loponnefian war, or the year before Chrift 43 1 . And 
(1) Hie longius a temporibus belli, quod compofuit, Troici, 
quam quidam rentur, abfuit. Nam ferme ante annos DCCCCL 
floruit, intra mille natus eft. Hiji. Rom. /. i. c. 5. In the Fajl. 
confular. as publifhed by Cardinal Noris, the confuls Vinicius and 
Longinus are placed the year following, or A. V. C. 7 83. 
( 2 ) A^or OMHPOS o HOIHTHS E$ANH 
ETHJh HAAAAIII BA2IAETONTOX AGHNU 
.... IOTNHTOT. N° 45. where fee the commentators. 
( 3 ) Hoi o-f oj yd f »1 \intnv t«t £yx.ooio/oi zrzot dotico (azu 
orpurCvTi^t yzviO&cti, xj b orKzooi. Pag. 109. Edit. Grono'v. 
(4) Not 7 . Attic. 1 . xv. c. 23. And if Xerxes came into Greece 
in the year before Chrift 480. as is commonly fuppofed, then Ho- 
mer muft have lived, according to Herodotus, at moft, but about 
400 years before that expedition, But in this Herodotus differs 
widely from himfelf, if he is the author of the Life of Homer com- 
monly attributed to him. For there he fays, dtp » 3 O/Aup^- iykvir:, 
tT zd. zsiv h.ooicl itKoo<S'uo fzypt t>h Ztp^zco J'ictC etozuc , Jub fin. 
See Bayer in the Atl. Petropol. vol. 3. p. 338. where he icje&s 
this piece as fpurious. 
if 
