[ 4*3 ] 
Thefe words Aldobrandinus (37) fufpedts to be an 
interpolation. Quid enim , fays he, ad Pherecydetn 
hehotropium ? But if we read the paffage thus, as, 
probably, it fhould be read, riAiolpo'uriov 
ATTOT ev Xuga. rr vricru ; the whole will be confid- 
ent and pertinent to Pherecydes, and likewife be a 
diredt proof of fuch an inftrument being there, as we 
have fuppofed. 
Peter Huet^B), it is true, fufpedts, from the paf- 
fage in the Odyffy above-quoted, that this inftrument 
was repaired only by Pherecydes there, and not firft 
eredted by him, But as this reafoning depends only 
on the fuppofed much greater antiquity of Homer, 
the very point in queftion, we are equally at liberty 
to fuppofe the contrary ; and that Pherecydes was the 
original eredter of it in the ifland. And that this 
conjedture may not pafs unsupported, it may be ob- 
Served, that, according to Laertius (39), Anaxi- 
mander, who lived about the fame time, was the hr ft 
inventer of the gnomon ; or, rather, the introducer 
of it at Lacedaemon. 
Pherecydes, according to Laertius, flournhed about 
Olymp. LXIX. or the year before Chrift 500. and 
Anaximander, he fays, was 64 years old Olymp. 
LVIII. a. or the year before Chrift 543. and was, 
therefore, Something older than the former, if the 
numbers in Laertius here may be depended on, a 
thing not always to be done. 
(37) In Loc. 
(38) And fo Bochart. Geog, Sacr. Part II. I. i. c. 14. Vid. Me* 
nag. Obfervat. in Loc. 
(39) InVit. ejuf. 
The 
