[ 47 1 3 
But to return : If the Greeks were not acquainted 
with this invention of the Babylonians earlier than 
the year before Chrift 6io — If Pherecydes about that 
time firll: fet up his dial in the iiland Syra, and Homer 
alludes to it in his Odyjj y, as feems highly probable ; 
then mud: he, and confequently Heliod, if contem- 
porary with him, not be older than what we above 
have made him. 
However ftrange this argument, drawn from the 
dial of Pherecydes, may appear to fome, yet that I 
am not lingular in it, is evident, from this note of 
Barnes upon the place : ‘ Qui hsc de heliotropio 
4 fumunt, fays he , parum vident, aut plus fatis ; quod 
4 & illud a Pherecyde inventum, atque proinde Ho- 
‘ mero parem, aut priorem alluci.nantur, Cl. Dod- 
* velli rationes nihil faciunt : cum Lycurgus, qui ip- 
4 fas Olympiades praeceffit, Homeri opera, a Creo- 
4 phyli Samii pofteris excepta, in Grseciam primus 
c intulerit, ut Heraclides & Plutarchus in Lycurgo.’ 
That Lycurgus is commonly placed before the 
Olympiads, is true; but the hiftory and chronology 
of that lawgiver is not fo certain as to leave no room 
to fufpedt the contrary. Mr. Dodwell, whole Ikili 
in chronology was vaftly fuperior to that of Barnes, 
fays, there are very good reafons for fuppoling him 
to be later ( y2 ) : And with him agrees Sir Ifaac New- 
ton (53). 
As to the alfertion or Plutarch, it may be ob- 
ferved, from Strabo (54), that, according to fome, 
(52) De Cyc. Vet. p. 131. 
(53) Cbronol. p. 126. 
(54) Geograph . p.739. 
Lycurgus 
