CHRON 
Dionyfius Exignus, a Scythian,-about the year 507 or 527. 
Dionyfius’began his account from the conception or in¬ 
carnation, ufually called the Annunciation or Lady Day ; 
which method obtained in the dominions of Great Bri¬ 
tain till the year 1752, before which time the Dionyfian 
was the fame as the Engliffi epoch : but in that year the 
Gregorian calendar having been admitted by aft of par¬ 
liament, they began to reckon from the firft of January, 
as in the other parts of Europe, except in the court of 
Rome, where the epoch of the incarnation hill obtains 
for the date of their bulls. 
The Hegira is an account of time, ufed by the Maho¬ 
metans, who begin their computation from the day that 
Mahomet was forced to make his efcape from the city of 
Mecca, which happened on Friday the 16th of July 622. 
The years of the Hegira are lunar ones, confiding only of 
354. days. Hence, to reduce thefe years to the Julian ca¬ 
lendar, that is, to find what Julian year a given year of 
the Hegira anfwers to : reduce the year of the hegira into 
days, by multiplying by 354., divide the produft by 365^, 
and to the quotient add 622, the year the hegira com¬ 
menced. The Per/ian Jefdegird, or yezdegerdic year, is 
deferibed above. 
The Spanijh era , otherwife called the year of Caefar, 
was introduced after the fecond divifion of the Roman 
provinces, between Augudus, Antony, and Lepidus, 
in the 716th year of Rome, the 4676th of the Julian period, 
and the 38th before Chrid. In the 447th year of this 
era, the Alani, the Vandals, Suevi, &c. entered Spain. 
It is frequently mentioned in the Spanifh affairs; their 
councils, and other public afts, being all dated accord¬ 
ing to it. Some fay it was abolilhed under Peter IV, 
king of Arragon, in the year of Chrid 1358, and the 
Chridian era introduced indead of it. But Mariana ob- 
l’erves that it ceafed in the year of Chrid 1383, under 
John I. king of Cadile. The like was afterwards done 
in Portugal. 
The year of Chrid’s birth was never fettled till the 
year 527, by Dionyfius Exiguus above-mentioned, who fix¬ 
ed it to the.end of the 4.713th year of the Julian period, 
which was four years too late ; for our Saviour was born 
before the death of Herod, who fought to kill him as 
foon as he heard of his birth. And according to the tef- 
timony of Jofephus, there was an eclipfe of the moon in the 
time of Herod’s lad illnefs ; which eclipfe appears by our 
adronomical tables to have been in the year of the Julian 
period 4.710, March 13, at 2h. 45 m. pad midnight, at 
Jerufalem. Now, as our Saviour mud have- been born 
1'ome months before Herod’s death, fince in the interval 
he was carried Into Egypt, the lated time in which we 
can fix the true era of his birth is about the end of the 
4709th year of the Julian period. 
It is with great reafon that the eclipfes of the fun and 
moon, and the afpefts of the other plane.ts, have been 
called public regifters of the times ; as their calculations 
afford chronologers infallible proofs of the precife epochs 
in which a great number of the mod figtial events in hif- 
tory have occurred. So that in chronological refearch 
we cannot make any great progrefs, if we are ignorant of 
the ufe ofadronomic tables, anct the calculation of eclipfes. 
The ancients regarded the latter as prognoltics of the fall 
of empires, of the lofs of battles, of the death of monarchs, 
&c. And it is to this fuperdition that we are indebted 
for the vaft labour hiftorians have taken to record fo great 
a number of them. The mod able chronologers have 
collefted them with dill greater labour. Calvifius, for 
example, founds his chronology on 144 eclipfes of the fun, 
and 127 of the moon, that, he fays, he had calculated. 
The grand conjunftion ot the two fuperior planets, Sa¬ 
turn and Jupiter, which, according to Kepler, occurs 
once in 800 years in the fame point of the zodiac, and 
which has happened only eight times fince the creation, 
(the lad time in the month of December, 1603,) may alfo 
furnifit chronology with incontedible proofs. The dime 
rnay be laid Of the tranfit of Venus over tiie fun, which 
2 
o L O G Y. 539 
has been obferved in our own days; and of many other 
rare and ftriking pofitions of the planets. 
As to the records or regiders of men, we mud confefs 
that thefe guides are not always infallible, nor do they 
afford mathematical demondrations. In faft, with regard 
to hidory in general, and ancient hidory in particular, 
fomething muft be always left to conjefture and hidoric 
faith. It would be an offence againd common probity, 
were we to pafs over in filence thofe objections which au¬ 
thors of the greateft reputation have made againd the 
abfolute certainty of chronology. Indeed, the prodigious 
difference between the Septuagint Bible and the Vulgate, 
in point of chronology, occafions an embarraffment, which 
is the more difficult to avoid, as we cannot pofitively lay 
on which fide the error lies. The Greek Bible counts, 
for example, from the creation of the world to the birth 
of Abraham, 1500 years more than the Hebrew and Latin 
Bibles, &c. How difficult is it, likewife, to afeertain the 
years of the Judges of the Jewifh nation, in the Bible? 
What darknefs is fpread over the fucceffion of the kings 
of Judah and Il'rael ? The calculation of time is there lb 
inaccurate, that the feripture never marks if they are 
current or complete years : for we cannot l'uppofe that a 
patriarch, judge, or king, lived exaftly 60, 90, 100, or 
969, years, without any odd months or days. The dif¬ 
ferent names alfo that the Affyrians, Egyptians, Perfians, 
and“Greeks, have given to the fame prince, have contri¬ 
buted not a little to embarrafs ancient chronology. If 
we did not know that Nabucodonofor, Nabucodrofor, 
and Nabucolaffar, were the fame name, or the name of 
the fame man, we ffiould fcarcely believe it. Sargon is 
Sennacherib ; Ozias is Azarias ; Sedecias is Mathanias 5 
Joachas is alfo called Seilum ; Afaraddon, which is pro¬ 
nounced indifferently Efarhaddon and Afarhaddon, is 
called Afenaphar by the Cuthaeans ; and by an oddity, of 
which we do not know the origin, Sardanapa’lus is called 
by the Greeks, Tenos Concoleros. In truth, there re¬ 
main but few monuments of the firft; monarchs of the 
world. Numberlefs books have been loft, and thofe which 
have come down to us are mutilated or altered by tran- 
feribers. The Greeks began to write very late ; and He¬ 
rodotus, their firft hiftorian,was credulous. The Greeks 
were in general vain and partial; and the Romans were 
ftill more infatuated with notions of their own merit and 
grandeur. The eras, the years, the periods, the epochs, 
were not the lame in each nation; and they, moreover, 
began at different feal'ons of the year. All this contri¬ 
buted to throw ftill more obfeurity over chronology. 
Chriftianity itfelf had fubfifted near 1200 years, before it 
was known precifely how many years had paffed fince the 
birth of our Saviour. They faw clearly that the vulgar 
era was defective, but it was a long time before they could 
comprehend that it required four whole years to make up 
the true period. They count 132 contrary opinions of 
different authors concerning the year in which the Mef- 
fiah appeared on the earth. M. Vallemont names fixty- 
four of them, all celebrated writers. As for our own 
part, we profefs to have followed the ingenious Dr. Blair, 
who copies archbifhop Ufher and the Hebrew text, in 
making the birth of our Saviour to fall in the fifth year 
before the vulgar era; in the 749th year of Rome, accord¬ 
ing to Varro, the fourth year of the 193d Olympiad, the 
744th year of Nabonaffar, and the year 4709 of the Julian 
period ; it was likewife in the twenty-feventh year of the 
reign of Auguftus the Roman emperor, counting it from 
his viftory over Antony at Aftium, September 3d, 31; 
and it was alfo in the thirty-third year of HertJd king of 
the Jews, from which year of his reign the birth of Chrift 
is fixed, as happening four years before the common era. 
This computation appears to be well eftablilhed in the 
above-mentioned Chronology of Dr. Blair, publilhed in 
1790 ; from whole correft and valuable Tables the follow¬ 
ing chronological events are precifely copied. But, tho’ 
the year of Chrift’s birth, with rel'peft to pofterior time, 
is almoft abfolutely certain, it is far otherwife with refpeft 
to 
