The most ancient Year of the Romans was formed by Romulus. Whence, or how he came by the Form of it, is uncertain; it confifted of but ten (a) Months, very irregular ones (b), fome of them being not twenty Days long, and others above thirty-five; but in this Refpect it agreed with the most ancient Years of other Nations, it confifted (c) of 360 Days, and no more, as is evident from the express Testimony of Plutarch.

The Jewish Year, in these early Times, confifted of twelve Months, and each Month of thirty Days; and three hundred and fixty Days were the whole Year. We do not find that God, by any special Appointment, corrected the Year for them; for what may seem to have been done of this fort (d), at the Inftitution of the Paffover, does not appear to affect the Length of their Year at all, for in that Refpect it continued the fame after that Appointment, which it was before.

(a) Thus Ovid. Fast Lib. 1.

Tempora digereret cum Conditor Urbis, in Anno
Conftituit Menfes quinque bis effe fuo.

(b) Plutarch. vitar. p. 71. (c) Id. ibid.

(d) Exodus xii.

And

And we do not any where read that Mofes ever made a Correction of it. The adding the five Days to the Year under Assis, before-mentioned, happened after the Children of Ifrael came out of Egypt; and fo Mofes might be learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians, and yet not inftructed in this Point, which was a Dif covery made after his leaving them. Twelve Months were a Year in the Times of David and Solomon, as appears by the Course of Houshold Officers (a) appointed by the one, and of Captains (b) by the other; and we no where in the Books of the Old Teftament find any mention of an intercalary Month; and Scaliger is pofitive, that there was no fuch Month used in the Times of Mofes, or of the Judges, or of the Kings (c). And that each Month had thirty Days, and no more, is evident from Mofes's Computation of the Duration of the Flood. The Flood began, he tells us (d), on the seventeenth Day of the fecond Month; pre

(a) 1 Kings iv. 5. (b) 1 Chron. xxvii. (c) Lib. de Emend. Temp. in capite de Anno prifcorum Hebræorum Abrahameo. (d) Gen. vii. 11.

vailed without any fenfible Abatement for 150 Days (a), and then lodged the Ark on Mount Ararat, on (b) the seventeenth Day of the feventh Month; so that we fee, from the feventeenth of the second Month, to the feventeenth of the seventh [i. e. for five whole Months] he allows one hundred and fifty Days, which is just thirty Days to each Month, for five times thirty Days are an hundred and fifty. This therefore was the ancient Jewish Year; and I imagine this Year was in use amongst them, without Emendation, at least to a much later Period than that to which I am to bring down this Work. Dean Prideaux (c) treats pretty largely of the ancient Jewish Year, from Selden, and from the Talmud and Maimonides, but the Year he speaks of seems not to have been used until after the Captivity (d).

From what has been faid it must be evident, that the Chronologers do, in the general, mistake, in fuppofing the ancient Year commenfurate with the pre

(a) Ver. 24. (b) Chap. viii. Ver. 3, 4. (c) Preface to the First Volume of his Connection. (d) See Scaliger in loc. fupr.

citat.

fent

fent Julian. The 1656 Years, which preceded the Flood, came fhort of fo many Julian Years, by above twenty-three Years.

And in like manner after the

Flood, all Nations, 'till the Era of Nabonoffar, which begins exactly where my History is to end, computing by a Year of 360 Days, except the Egyptians only (and they altered the old Computation but a Century or two before) and the Difference between this ancient Year, and the Julian, being five Days in each Year, befides the Day in every LeapYear; it is very clear, that the Space of Time between the Flood, and the Death of Sardanapalus, fuppofed to contain about 1600 ancient Years, will fall short of fo many Julian Years by five Days and about a fourth Part of a Day in every Year, which amounts to one or two and twenty Years in the whole Time: But I would only hint this here; the Ufes that may be made of it fhall be obferved in their proper Places. There are many Chronological Difficulties which the Reader will meet with, of another Nature; but as I have endeavoured to adjust them

in the Places they belong to, it would be needless to repeat here what will be found at large in the enfuing Pages.

I fhall, very probably, be thought to have taken great Liberty in the Accounts I have given of the most ancient Prophane History, particularly in that which is Antediluvian, and which I have reduced to an Agreement with the History of Moses. It will be faid, take it all together, as it lies in the Authors from whom we have it, and it has no fuch Harmony with the Sacred Writer; and to make an Harmony by taking Part of what is represented, and fuch Part only as you please, every thing, or any thing, may be made to agree in this manner, but fuch an Agreement will not be much regarded by the unbiass'd. To this I anIwer: The Heathen Accounts which we have of these early Ages, were taken from the Records of either Thyoth the Egyptian, or Sanchoniathon of Berytus ; and whatever the Original Memoirs of these Men were, we are fure their Accounts were, fome time after their Deceale, corrupted with Fable and mystical

Phi