Berosus the Chaldean
allegedly c. 300 BCE
(Hoax Text)
written by Annius of Viterbo
1498
translated by L. H. Mordaque and Jason Colavito
1864/2025
|
NOTE |
In 1498, the Italian monk Giovanni Nanni, better known as Annius of Viterbo (1437-1502), the personal theologian to the Pope and supreme censor of books, published a collection of texts he claimed were newly discovered works long thought lost by a variety of ancient authors. He supplemented these fragments, published in Latin, with a voluminous commentary. The most famous of these texts was the Defloratio Berosi Chaldaica, or Berosus’ Extracts from Chaldean History, which Annius alleged to be an abridgment made from the lost work of Berossus, the Babylonian historian whose account of the history of Mesopotamia was contained in his Babyloniaca, or Chaldaica, in Latin translation—a translation allegedly made in Armenia from a lost original. (The title of the Defloratio is derived from a description of Berossus in the sixth-century Latin translation of the works of Flavius Josephus.) However, Annius was a fraud who fabricated many of his texts as well as archaeological discoveries to support his revision of world history to glorify his hometown.
The pseudo-Berosus (Annius spelled it with a single “s” in the middle, while the genuine author had a double “s” in his Greek name) had an enormous impact on the Renaissance despite doubts about the authenticity of the fragments. Janus, for instance, plays a prominent role in a supposedly Babylonian text, despite Janus having no equivalent among the Greek or Mesopotamian gods. With Jacob Scalinger’s publication of the Greek fragments of Berossus from George Syncellus a century later, the fabrication became obvious to all but the most strident believers. (His sources, too, were obvious—Latin translations of Flavius Josephus and Diodorus Siculus, the works of St. Augustine, local chronicles by Godfrey of Viterbo and Jacobus of Viterbo, etc.) Nonetheless, Annius had his defenders into the nineteenth century. Since the authenticity of the fragments is self-evidently untrue, some defenders of Annius argued that he published a Late Antique or early medieval forgery by another hand. (The historian Michel Le Quien [1661-1733] claimed to find in the library of Jean-Baptiste Colbert a thirteenth-century manuscript containing the Berosus fragments, just like those the inquisitor-general Leander Alberti [1479-1552] once alleged he saw Annius reading. Neither was ever seen again.) The poor Latin of the Defloratio Berosi and its superficial similarity to Late Antique Greek Christian chronographic texts, including the poor Latin translation known as the Excerpta Latina Barbari and the Chronicle of John Malalas, both apparently drawing on the lost history of Bruttius, give some credence to the claim. However, the unusual material in Annius’ Berosus, closely paralleling the medieval history of Jacobus of Voraigne’s chronicle of Viterbo (especially its claims about Janus) and Godfrey of Viterbo’s false claims of reading Berossus to prove his Noachian claims about Italian history strongly suggest the forger was closely connected to Viterbo, as Annius was, and the connections to the recent Latin translation of Diodorus tie it to the late fifteenth century, when Annius wrote. Two other forgeries have sometimes been used to corroborate the first: The spurious Chronicon attributed to Liutprand of Cremona or Eutrand of Toledo claims in its entry for 698 CE (Spanish Era 736) that in that year “flourished Julian Lucas of Toledo, who collected many things about Berossus, and arranged [or, continued] them.” The equally fake Dextri Chronicon Omnimodae Historiae, supposedly by Flavius Lucius Dexter, says in its entry for 300 CE that “Lucius Valerius, the Spaniard, divided the fragments of Berossus into five parts, which in my time were sold at a great price.” Both texts postdate Annius, and these passages were inspired by him. Jeronimo Román de la Higuera (1538-1611), a notorious Jesuit fabricator, forged both chronicles and published them in 1594. Annius’s chronicle is interesting on its own as a late example of a medieval world history, which harmonizes pagan and Christian accounts, a project begun by Sextus Julius Africanus in the third century and most popular in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Annius, like many of the Greek chronographers, makes the gods into mortals wrongly worshiped as divine—undoubtedly inspired by Augustine’s accounts of Euhemerus’ and Ennius’ claims. The translation below was made in 1864 by the Rev. L. H. Mordaque from the 1824 French translation of the poet and politician Eusèbe de Salverté, a believer in the fragments’ authenticity. Salverté larded his translation with generous but wrongheaded interlinear bracketed notes attempting to “prove” a forger could not have written the text. I have cut these notes except for a few explanatory interjections (placed in brackets) necessary to clarify the translation. Salverté stopped translating halfway through Book Five before skipping to the end, so I have supplied the remainder of the text in my own translation, down to the final paragraph, which rejoins Mordaque’s adaptation of Salverté. |
TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST PART OF THE
BABYLONIAN ANTIQUITIES ATTRIBUTED TO BEROSUS.
BOOK FIRST.
BEFORE the well-known disaster by which the whole world perished beneath the waters, many centuries had elapsed, the records of which have been faithfully preserved by our Chaldeans. According to their writings, there lived in those days a race of giants, in a city of great size, called Enos, near Mount Lebanon, which was the seat of empire over the whole world, from the rising of the sun to its setting. Trusting in their strength and colossal size, these giants made themselves weapons, and oppressed their neighbours all around. Wholly given up to a life of indulgence, they invented tents, instruments of music, and everything which contributes to pleasure.
They were cannibals. And they procured abortions, and prepared them for eating; and they had intercourse with their mothers, daughters, sisters, other males, and beasts. There was no crime which they did not habitually commit, in their reckless contempt both of gods and men.
In those days a great number of prophets announced the impending destruction of the world, and engraved their prophecies on stones; but the giants, hardened as they were in their sinful habits, laughed at the prophets’ threats, at the very time when the wrath and vengeance of Heaven were on the point of punishing their impious atrocities.
In Syria there was a giant whose name was Noa.. [Here it is easy to recognize Noah, but the author of the Abridgment always writes the name Noa.] . . . . the most righteous and the wisest man in Syria of those who had not abandoned the paths of virtue. He had three sons, Shem, Japhet, and Ham. Their wives were Tytea the Great, Pandora, Noela and Noegla.
Warned by the stars of the catastrophe which threatened the world, seventy-eight years before the time predicted for the inundation, Noah began to make a covered ship, in the form of a coffer or ark. Seventy-eight years after he began to build it, the sea rose suddenly above its ordinary, level; all the inland seas, the rivers and springs, bursting through their usual barriers, raised the waters till they covered the mountains; unusual rains added to the calamity, rains which for a number of days fell in impetuous torrents and supernaturally flooding abundance.
Thus, the whole of the human race perished, drowned by the waters, with the exception of Noa and his family; these were saved in the ark he had built. Carried by the waves to the summit of Mount Gordieus, the ark rested there. Some of its remains, it is said, may still be traced, and men go to the spot for the sake of the pitch which they use principally in their expiatory rites.
[The Gordieus of the abridger is the Mountain of the Kordyaei of Berosus in the extract taken from his account, as it is given by Eusebius on the authority of Alexander Polyhistor.]
Commencing their narrative at this period, in the year when the human race was saved from the waters, our ancestors wrote innumerable volumes. It is our intention to condense their lengthy records, and merely to mention the origin and the names of the kings of such empires as are to this day considered to be amongst the greatest. The first and most glorious of all empires is our empire of Babylon in Asia. In Africa, the Egyptian empire and that of Libya were at first united in one, and were obedient to one sovereign. Our ancestors counted four empires in Europe, the empire of the Celtiberi, that of the Celts, that of Kytim (a country which by its natives is called Italy), , and that of the Thuyscones which extends from the Rhine through the country of the Sarmatians to the sea. Some authors add a fifth, which they call the Ionic Empire.
They were cannibals. And they procured abortions, and prepared them for eating; and they had intercourse with their mothers, daughters, sisters, other males, and beasts. There was no crime which they did not habitually commit, in their reckless contempt both of gods and men.
In those days a great number of prophets announced the impending destruction of the world, and engraved their prophecies on stones; but the giants, hardened as they were in their sinful habits, laughed at the prophets’ threats, at the very time when the wrath and vengeance of Heaven were on the point of punishing their impious atrocities.
In Syria there was a giant whose name was Noa.. [Here it is easy to recognize Noah, but the author of the Abridgment always writes the name Noa.] . . . . the most righteous and the wisest man in Syria of those who had not abandoned the paths of virtue. He had three sons, Shem, Japhet, and Ham. Their wives were Tytea the Great, Pandora, Noela and Noegla.
Warned by the stars of the catastrophe which threatened the world, seventy-eight years before the time predicted for the inundation, Noah began to make a covered ship, in the form of a coffer or ark. Seventy-eight years after he began to build it, the sea rose suddenly above its ordinary, level; all the inland seas, the rivers and springs, bursting through their usual barriers, raised the waters till they covered the mountains; unusual rains added to the calamity, rains which for a number of days fell in impetuous torrents and supernaturally flooding abundance.
Thus, the whole of the human race perished, drowned by the waters, with the exception of Noa and his family; these were saved in the ark he had built. Carried by the waves to the summit of Mount Gordieus, the ark rested there. Some of its remains, it is said, may still be traced, and men go to the spot for the sake of the pitch which they use principally in their expiatory rites.
[The Gordieus of the abridger is the Mountain of the Kordyaei of Berosus in the extract taken from his account, as it is given by Eusebius on the authority of Alexander Polyhistor.]
Commencing their narrative at this period, in the year when the human race was saved from the waters, our ancestors wrote innumerable volumes. It is our intention to condense their lengthy records, and merely to mention the origin and the names of the kings of such empires as are to this day considered to be amongst the greatest. The first and most glorious of all empires is our empire of Babylon in Asia. In Africa, the Egyptian empire and that of Libya were at first united in one, and were obedient to one sovereign. Our ancestors counted four empires in Europe, the empire of the Celtiberi, that of the Celts, that of Kytim (a country which by its natives is called Italy), , and that of the Thuyscones which extends from the Rhine through the country of the Sarmatians to the sea. Some authors add a fifth, which they call the Ionic Empire.
BOOK THE SECOND.
IT must be admitted, from the foregoing account and the writings of the Chaldeans and Scythians, that when the waters had disappeared from the face of the earth, there only remained the eight persons of whom we have spoken. They were in Armenia-Saga. From them the whole of the human race is descended. Hence the Scythians are right in calling Noa the father of all the great and lesser gods, the father of the human race, the chaos and the seed of the world. Tytea is, by them, called Aretea, i. e., earth, [Arta, in Pahlavi, means earth,] because in her, chaos deposited his seed, and from her, as from the earth, all creatures came into being. Besides his first three sons, Noa, after the Deluge, begat giants and many other sons. For the sake of brevity we shall only mention the generations of all these various individuals; we will begin with Noa, and then proceed with each of the others.
In the first place, to Noa-dysir they gave the name of Ogygisan-Saga, i. e., the illustrious pontiff in sacred matters.
In the first place, to Noa-dysir they gave the name of Ogygisan-Saga, i. e., the illustrious pontiff in sacred matters.
BOOK THE THIRD.
WE shall only make a brief extract now of what is related in our books respecting Chaldean and Scythian history, with respect to the respective genealogies and descents of sovereigns and heroes. The same books mention several other characters whom we shall pass over in silence, as their history would contribute little or nothing to the brief summary we intend to make; we reserve, however, to ourselves the right to mention them should it be deemed necessary.
We have now to explain how the depopulated globe was again covered with inhabitants and colonies. The waters disappeared from the face of the earth, and the land was dried up by the sun. Noa and his family came down from Mount Gordieus into the plain which it overshadowed. The plain was thickly strewn with corpses, from which fact the place has to this day retained the name of Myri-Adam, which means, disemboweled men.
Noa wrote the record of these events upon a monumental stone. The inhabitants of that place still call it, the place of the coming out of Noa.
Now they (Noa and his sons) knew their wives, who, on the very day expected, regularly brought forth twins of different sexes; afterwards, when these twins had grown to years of puberty, and married, they also had twins at each birth: for never did either God or Nature, whose desire it is to spread life throughout the world, fail the wants of creation.
After a short time, when the human race had multiplied with great rapidity, and filled the country of Armenia, it became necessary that its inhabitants should go abroad and seek new settlements. Noa, the father of all, then at a very advanced age, had already taught them the doctrines of their religion and religious rites; he then began to instruct them in the human sciences.
Consequently, he drew up a number of secret topics of instruction in natural philosophy, and consigned them to the books which by the Scytho-Armenians are only entrusted to their priests. No one is allowed to consult those books, or to read them, or to teach their contents to others, except the priests, and even then only when they are amongst men of their own order. The same remark applies to the Ritual books composed by Noa, on account of which he received the name of Saga, which means priest, sacrificer, or pontiff.
Noa also taught men to understand the motions of the planets; he divided time into years, according to the sun's course, and the year into twelve months, according to the revolutions of the moon. Everything that was destined to happen in the course of the year, and its cardinal divisions, was revealed to men by this science, from the first day of the year.
Grateful for such benefits, men looked upon Noa as an emanation from the Divine Essence, and called him Olybama and Arsa, that is to say, Heaven and Sun, and under that name they consecrated several cities to his memory; for up to that period the Scytho-Armenians were in pos session of the cities of Olybama and Arsa-Ratha, and others named in the same way.
[I have been obliged here to make some addition to the text, in consequence of its extreme conciseness, through which the meaning of the passage is obscured. It will be well to remark, that Ptolemy (Geograph., lib. v., cap. xiii.) places a town called Arsa Ratha near the mouth of the Araxes in the Caspian Sea.]
Noa went to rule over Kitim, which is now called Italy. The Armenians regretted his departure so deeply, that after his death they awarded him divine honours, and looked upon him as the life of the world. In the two countries of Armenia and Italy, the one where he began and the other where he ended his teaching, his reign and his life, the men to whom he left his most complete books, those which contained all that he had taught them concerning things both human and divine, worshipped him, and called him Heaven, Sun, Chaos, Seed of the Universe, Father of Gods, both great and small; Life of the World, the Giver of Power and Motion to the Heavens and to mixed substances—[Mixta: the word seems here to mean minerals and their combinations]--to vegetation, to animals, and to mankind; the God of peace, justice, and holiness; the Warder off of misfortune, and the Guardian of wealth. With a view of expressing this, both nations represent his attributes emblematically by the course of the sun, and the revolutions of the moon, and the sceptre of the kingdom, with which he drives all wicked people and evil spirits far from the society of men; they also represented chastity of body and purity of soul, the two keys which admit to the regions of happiness and religion.
With the same reverential feeling, they used to call Thytea, who was the mother of all living, Aretia, i. e., the earth; after her death they called her Esta, i. e., fire, because she presided as a queen at all religious ceremonies, and taught the young virgins how to keep the fire, which was used for sacrifices, constantly burning.
Before he left Armenia, Noa remained content with having taught men agriculture, thinking that religion and good morals were better than the riches and the pleasures which lead to debauchery and crime, and which had already called down the wrath of Heaven upon the earth. He was, nevertheless, the first to plant the vine, and teach men how to make wine. Not being aware of the potency of such a beverage, and of the vapours it exhales, he became sense less, and fell to the ground in an indecent posture.
Chem, as has already been stated, was the youngest of the first of Noa’s three sons. Ever engaged in the study of magic and sorcery, he was in consequence of this called Zoroaster. Finding that he was neglected by Noa, who displayed a marked preference for his younger children, he began to hate him; but Chem's vices were at the root of his hatred for his father. Having found him sleeping heavily, in consequence of having taken too much wine, he seized the opportunity and struck his father with barrenness, mumbling over him some magic incantation, so that from that time Noa could not make a woman conceive.
Grateful for the present which he had made them of the vine and wine, the Armenians honour Noa with the surname of Janus. With them the title means, the giver of the vine, or of wine.
Now, Chem was openly corrupting the human race, assuring the people that it was their duty to commit all kinds of excesses, just as they did before the days of the Deluge, and to pay no regard to the kinship or names of mother, daughter, or sister. He himself set them the example.
For this reason he was driven away by Janus, who was a model of piety, chastity, and modesty. Chem was surnamed Chemesenuus, i. e., Chem the infamous, the unchaste, the evil spirit of propagation incarnate. Esen, among the Aramæan-Scythians means, infamous and unchaste. Enua means sometimes a propagator, and some times unchaste.
The Egyptians were the only people who adopted the doctrines of Chemesenuus; they turned him into Saturn, the youngest of the gods, and dedicated to his honour a city called Chem-Myn, the inhabitants of which are called Chemmenites to this day. In course of time, however, their descendants abandoned such wicked dogmas, and only retained one objectionable point, viz., the legality of marriages between brothers and sisters.
We have now to explain how the depopulated globe was again covered with inhabitants and colonies. The waters disappeared from the face of the earth, and the land was dried up by the sun. Noa and his family came down from Mount Gordieus into the plain which it overshadowed. The plain was thickly strewn with corpses, from which fact the place has to this day retained the name of Myri-Adam, which means, disemboweled men.
Noa wrote the record of these events upon a monumental stone. The inhabitants of that place still call it, the place of the coming out of Noa.
Now they (Noa and his sons) knew their wives, who, on the very day expected, regularly brought forth twins of different sexes; afterwards, when these twins had grown to years of puberty, and married, they also had twins at each birth: for never did either God or Nature, whose desire it is to spread life throughout the world, fail the wants of creation.
After a short time, when the human race had multiplied with great rapidity, and filled the country of Armenia, it became necessary that its inhabitants should go abroad and seek new settlements. Noa, the father of all, then at a very advanced age, had already taught them the doctrines of their religion and religious rites; he then began to instruct them in the human sciences.
Consequently, he drew up a number of secret topics of instruction in natural philosophy, and consigned them to the books which by the Scytho-Armenians are only entrusted to their priests. No one is allowed to consult those books, or to read them, or to teach their contents to others, except the priests, and even then only when they are amongst men of their own order. The same remark applies to the Ritual books composed by Noa, on account of which he received the name of Saga, which means priest, sacrificer, or pontiff.
Noa also taught men to understand the motions of the planets; he divided time into years, according to the sun's course, and the year into twelve months, according to the revolutions of the moon. Everything that was destined to happen in the course of the year, and its cardinal divisions, was revealed to men by this science, from the first day of the year.
Grateful for such benefits, men looked upon Noa as an emanation from the Divine Essence, and called him Olybama and Arsa, that is to say, Heaven and Sun, and under that name they consecrated several cities to his memory; for up to that period the Scytho-Armenians were in pos session of the cities of Olybama and Arsa-Ratha, and others named in the same way.
[I have been obliged here to make some addition to the text, in consequence of its extreme conciseness, through which the meaning of the passage is obscured. It will be well to remark, that Ptolemy (Geograph., lib. v., cap. xiii.) places a town called Arsa Ratha near the mouth of the Araxes in the Caspian Sea.]
Noa went to rule over Kitim, which is now called Italy. The Armenians regretted his departure so deeply, that after his death they awarded him divine honours, and looked upon him as the life of the world. In the two countries of Armenia and Italy, the one where he began and the other where he ended his teaching, his reign and his life, the men to whom he left his most complete books, those which contained all that he had taught them concerning things both human and divine, worshipped him, and called him Heaven, Sun, Chaos, Seed of the Universe, Father of Gods, both great and small; Life of the World, the Giver of Power and Motion to the Heavens and to mixed substances—[Mixta: the word seems here to mean minerals and their combinations]--to vegetation, to animals, and to mankind; the God of peace, justice, and holiness; the Warder off of misfortune, and the Guardian of wealth. With a view of expressing this, both nations represent his attributes emblematically by the course of the sun, and the revolutions of the moon, and the sceptre of the kingdom, with which he drives all wicked people and evil spirits far from the society of men; they also represented chastity of body and purity of soul, the two keys which admit to the regions of happiness and religion.
With the same reverential feeling, they used to call Thytea, who was the mother of all living, Aretia, i. e., the earth; after her death they called her Esta, i. e., fire, because she presided as a queen at all religious ceremonies, and taught the young virgins how to keep the fire, which was used for sacrifices, constantly burning.
Before he left Armenia, Noa remained content with having taught men agriculture, thinking that religion and good morals were better than the riches and the pleasures which lead to debauchery and crime, and which had already called down the wrath of Heaven upon the earth. He was, nevertheless, the first to plant the vine, and teach men how to make wine. Not being aware of the potency of such a beverage, and of the vapours it exhales, he became sense less, and fell to the ground in an indecent posture.
Chem, as has already been stated, was the youngest of the first of Noa’s three sons. Ever engaged in the study of magic and sorcery, he was in consequence of this called Zoroaster. Finding that he was neglected by Noa, who displayed a marked preference for his younger children, he began to hate him; but Chem's vices were at the root of his hatred for his father. Having found him sleeping heavily, in consequence of having taken too much wine, he seized the opportunity and struck his father with barrenness, mumbling over him some magic incantation, so that from that time Noa could not make a woman conceive.
Grateful for the present which he had made them of the vine and wine, the Armenians honour Noa with the surname of Janus. With them the title means, the giver of the vine, or of wine.
Now, Chem was openly corrupting the human race, assuring the people that it was their duty to commit all kinds of excesses, just as they did before the days of the Deluge, and to pay no regard to the kinship or names of mother, daughter, or sister. He himself set them the example.
For this reason he was driven away by Janus, who was a model of piety, chastity, and modesty. Chem was surnamed Chemesenuus, i. e., Chem the infamous, the unchaste, the evil spirit of propagation incarnate. Esen, among the Aramæan-Scythians means, infamous and unchaste. Enua means sometimes a propagator, and some times unchaste.
The Egyptians were the only people who adopted the doctrines of Chemesenuus; they turned him into Saturn, the youngest of the gods, and dedicated to his honour a city called Chem-Myn, the inhabitants of which are called Chemmenites to this day. In course of time, however, their descendants abandoned such wicked dogmas, and only retained one objectionable point, viz., the legality of marriages between brothers and sisters.
BOOK THE FOURTH.
THE human race had multiplied prodigiously; it became necessary that men should seek for new settlements. Janus the father of men [Janus Pater. From this point, Noah is called by no other name, and henceforth we shall omit the title of Father, which is appended to the name wherever it occurs.] accordingly advised the heads of families to seek new homes, to live in societies amongst men, and to build cities.
He taught them that the world was divided into three parts—Asia, Africa, and Europe, just as he had known it before the Deluge. He assigned to each head of a family the country to which he was to proceed, and promised that he would himself take colonies into the whole world.
Accordingly he created Nymbrotus the first Saturn of Babylonia, in order that he first might go and build a city in that region. Nymbrotus took with him his son Jupiter Belus, and with the help of the colonists who were to follow him, he stole the Ritual books of Jupiter Saga.
Nymbrotus came with all his people into the plains of Sennaar; there he marked out a site for a city, and laid the foundations for a tower of great height in the hundred and thirty-first year after the human race had escaped from the plague of waters.
He reigned fifty-six years. It was his wish that the tower which he was about to build should equal the mountains in size and height, in order that it might be a sign and a monument of the superiority of the Babylonian people over every other people, and of the right which it possessed to be called the kingdom of all kingdoms. I shall therefore begin my history with an account of that empire, and mention, as I proceed, the years in which its several princes successively reigned; thus we shall be able to establish a parallel between the history of this and the history of the other empires, their annals and the names of their rulers.
In the 131st year after the disappearance of the waters, our nation and our Babylonian city, the first of nations and the first of cities, were thoroughly constituted and founded by our Babylonian Saturn. The posterity of our ancestors multiplied enormously. Our Saturn did not seek to secure opulence so much as religion and peace. He built the tower, but did not finish it; and he did not build the city of which he had marked out the site, because, after he had reigned fifty-six years, he was never seen again upon the earth; he had been removed from it by the gods. During the early part of the reign of Nymbrotus, Janus sent colonies into Egypt, under the command of Chemesenuus; into Libya and Cyrene, under the command of Triton; and into the rest of Africa, under the command of Japetus, the old Atalaa.
[The name, Atalaa, is probably the same as Atlas; such is the opinion of Annius in his notes on a passage in which we read that Rytes, a contemporary of the fourteenth king of Assyria, was, in consequence of the excellence of his genius, called the Italian Atalaa, in the language of the descendants of Janus.]
Into Eastern Asia he sent Ganges with some of the descendants of Comerus-Gallus, and into Arabia Felix he sent Saba, surnamed Thurifer, or incense-bearer. He gave the sovereignty over Arabia Deserta to Arabus, and over Arabia Petræa to Petreius. Cana was governor of the country from Damascus to the extremity of Palestine.
In Europe, Thuyscon reigned from the Tanais to the Rhine by command of Janus, who joined to him the sons of Ister and Moesa with all his brothers. Their rule extended from Mount Adula to the southern region which borders on the sea. Under them were Tyras, Arcadius, and Aemathius.
Comerus Gallus settled in Italy; Samotes governed the Celts, and Jubal the Celtiberians.
Such are the people who, after Nymbrotus, came out of Armenia with their families, and the colonies which were destined to follow them. Each of the chiefs gave his name to the country in which he settled, in memory of the expedition with which Janus had entrusted them, and as a monument which in after ages would remind each nation of its original founder.
By order of Janus, all these chiefs raised a tower or fortress, to serve as a metropolis for their colony. As to the people themselves, they lived in caverns or in chariots.
Our Saturn was the only one who exceeded the commands of Janus, because his great wish was that Babylon should be the city of cities, and the kingdom of kingdoms.
In those days, after the departure of the heads of families whom he had sent out to found colonies, Janus divided the men who remained into two portions; for he had kept at home with himself several sons who were born after the human race had been saved from the waters of the Deluge, and besides these, a great number of families whom he in tended to lead himself into various distant colonies.
Scytha, with his mother Araxa, and some colonists especially selected to settle in Armenia, were left in that country, and Scytha was the first to bear the title of king.
Sabatius Saga was appointed Sovereign Pontiff in the region which extends from Armenia to Bactria, and which is still called Scythia Saga.
Last of all, Janus left Armenia to plant colonies all over the world.
Such are the facts which our ancestors have handed down to us in a great number of books. We will now proceed to the recital of their annals and those of their descendants, following the accounts which are carefully and correctly reported in our Chaldean and in our early Scythian histories.
He taught them that the world was divided into three parts—Asia, Africa, and Europe, just as he had known it before the Deluge. He assigned to each head of a family the country to which he was to proceed, and promised that he would himself take colonies into the whole world.
Accordingly he created Nymbrotus the first Saturn of Babylonia, in order that he first might go and build a city in that region. Nymbrotus took with him his son Jupiter Belus, and with the help of the colonists who were to follow him, he stole the Ritual books of Jupiter Saga.
Nymbrotus came with all his people into the plains of Sennaar; there he marked out a site for a city, and laid the foundations for a tower of great height in the hundred and thirty-first year after the human race had escaped from the plague of waters.
He reigned fifty-six years. It was his wish that the tower which he was about to build should equal the mountains in size and height, in order that it might be a sign and a monument of the superiority of the Babylonian people over every other people, and of the right which it possessed to be called the kingdom of all kingdoms. I shall therefore begin my history with an account of that empire, and mention, as I proceed, the years in which its several princes successively reigned; thus we shall be able to establish a parallel between the history of this and the history of the other empires, their annals and the names of their rulers.
In the 131st year after the disappearance of the waters, our nation and our Babylonian city, the first of nations and the first of cities, were thoroughly constituted and founded by our Babylonian Saturn. The posterity of our ancestors multiplied enormously. Our Saturn did not seek to secure opulence so much as religion and peace. He built the tower, but did not finish it; and he did not build the city of which he had marked out the site, because, after he had reigned fifty-six years, he was never seen again upon the earth; he had been removed from it by the gods. During the early part of the reign of Nymbrotus, Janus sent colonies into Egypt, under the command of Chemesenuus; into Libya and Cyrene, under the command of Triton; and into the rest of Africa, under the command of Japetus, the old Atalaa.
[The name, Atalaa, is probably the same as Atlas; such is the opinion of Annius in his notes on a passage in which we read that Rytes, a contemporary of the fourteenth king of Assyria, was, in consequence of the excellence of his genius, called the Italian Atalaa, in the language of the descendants of Janus.]
Into Eastern Asia he sent Ganges with some of the descendants of Comerus-Gallus, and into Arabia Felix he sent Saba, surnamed Thurifer, or incense-bearer. He gave the sovereignty over Arabia Deserta to Arabus, and over Arabia Petræa to Petreius. Cana was governor of the country from Damascus to the extremity of Palestine.
In Europe, Thuyscon reigned from the Tanais to the Rhine by command of Janus, who joined to him the sons of Ister and Moesa with all his brothers. Their rule extended from Mount Adula to the southern region which borders on the sea. Under them were Tyras, Arcadius, and Aemathius.
Comerus Gallus settled in Italy; Samotes governed the Celts, and Jubal the Celtiberians.
Such are the people who, after Nymbrotus, came out of Armenia with their families, and the colonies which were destined to follow them. Each of the chiefs gave his name to the country in which he settled, in memory of the expedition with which Janus had entrusted them, and as a monument which in after ages would remind each nation of its original founder.
By order of Janus, all these chiefs raised a tower or fortress, to serve as a metropolis for their colony. As to the people themselves, they lived in caverns or in chariots.
Our Saturn was the only one who exceeded the commands of Janus, because his great wish was that Babylon should be the city of cities, and the kingdom of kingdoms.
In those days, after the departure of the heads of families whom he had sent out to found colonies, Janus divided the men who remained into two portions; for he had kept at home with himself several sons who were born after the human race had been saved from the waters of the Deluge, and besides these, a great number of families whom he in tended to lead himself into various distant colonies.
Scytha, with his mother Araxa, and some colonists especially selected to settle in Armenia, were left in that country, and Scytha was the first to bear the title of king.
Sabatius Saga was appointed Sovereign Pontiff in the region which extends from Armenia to Bactria, and which is still called Scythia Saga.
Last of all, Janus left Armenia to plant colonies all over the world.
Such are the facts which our ancestors have handed down to us in a great number of books. We will now proceed to the recital of their annals and those of their descendants, following the accounts which are carefully and correctly reported in our Chaldean and in our early Scythian histories.
BOOK THE FIFTH.
As we said before, in the 131st year after the human race had been saved from the plague of waters, the Babylonian Empire commenced during the life of our Saturn (Nymbrotus), who reigned for 56 years, and was the father of Jupiter Belus.
In the tenth year of the reign of Nymbrotus, Comerus Gallus established various colonies in the country which has since been called Italy. He gave the country its name, and taught its inhabitants to observe the laws and be just.
[Et docuit ILLOS, and he taught them. Who are meant here? Not the colonists who followed him, those had received all the instruction they needed in Armenia. It must consequently have been the natives of the country where the Armenian colonies settled, who benefited by these instructions in science and in the knowledge of the laws and of religion.]
In the twelfth year, Jubal founded the empire of the Celtiberians. Soon after, Samothes established the colonies of the Dis-Celts; no one at that period could vie with him in wisdom, hence his name, Samothes.
[Can the Dis-Celts be the Celtic worshippers of Dis, i. e., the Gauls?]
In the fifteenth year of Nymbrotus, Oceanus came to the banks of the Nile, and had several children by his wife Thetys.
Chemesenuus, the corrupter of the human race, came from Egypt to instruct the Telchines in the art of magic, and so ably did he succeed, that he was universally held in the highest reverence.
[I have adopted the meaning given to the passage by Annius in his Commentary, according to which Chemesenuus visited Crete, or Cyprus, or Rhodes, as the Telchines who were natives of Crete, had settled successively in the other two islands.]
In the eighteenth year of the same reign, Gogus, whilst still a child, succeeded to his father in the government of Arabia Felix and Sabæa. Triton reigned in Libya, Japetus (the old Atalaa) in Africa, Cur in Ethiopia, and Getulus in Getulia.
In the twenty-fifth year, Thuyscon succeeded in establishing the settlements of that great people the Sarmatians; and Mosa, with the sons of Ister, established the Mosians in the country which extends from Mount Adula to the southern region near the sea.
In the thirty-eighth year, the Armenian Sagas, whose population had increased rapidly, took possession of all the Caspian regions, Armenia, and Bactria. Janus then led the Janean colonists into Hyrcania, and the Janili into Mesopotamia, towards the sea below Babylon.
In the fortieth year some colonists, the children of Comerus, sought to settle in Bactria. Ganges settled in India, in the part of the country which bears his name.
In the forty-fifth year, a certain union was effected between the descendants of Mosa and Getulus, from which the nation of the Massagetæ arose. At the same period, our Saturn the King of Babylonia sent Assyrius, Medus, Moscus and Magog as heads of colonies, by whom the empires of the Assyrians, Medes and Magogs were established in Asia, and that of the Mosci both in Asia and Europe.
Anamæon founded the empire of the Mæonians, who were so called after him. He reigned over them 101 years.
The second king of the Babylonians, Jupiter Belus, the son of Saturnus Nymbrotus, reigned sixty-two years, and on the site which he had marked out for the building of Babylon, he erected a fortress rather than a town.
His reign was one of peace, from its commencement to its close. In the third year of the reign of Belus, Comerus, faithful to the customs of Scythia, of which he was a native, taught the Italians to found cities (urbes) with chariots or carts, hence the people were called Veii, from the Saga word Veia, which means a chariot. If a town thus constituted be a small one, it is called Veitula; if a large one, it is called Ulurdum; and if a metropolis, it is called Cyochola.
Even in our own days, two and four-wheeled chariots are used by the Scythians instead of houses; they sleep under cover of the bottom of the chariot; on the top of it they carry their furniture and everything required to build their hut or pitch their tent.
[Text: Et sub solario quidem stabulum, supra vero habent officinas domus. The sentence is somewhat obscure, and in my paraphrase of it I may not have hit the true meaning. Near the banks of the Akhtouba, Pallas met a horde of nomad Tartars; his account is, that they place what property they may have on a large two-wheeled cart, together with their tent or hut, which they unload and set up wherever they intend to make a stay of any length. But when they only make a short halt they do not trouble themselves to unload the hut from the cart; they content themselves with sitting beneath it for the sake of shelter, and there they carry on their business. If the words, beneath it, refer to the cart, the custom of the modern Tartars explains what Berosus says here of the ancient Scythians.]
Comerus taught men to enclose the inhabited places which were called after him.
[Concludit, he enclosed; this could not refer to any enclosure by walls, since he is only speaking of a collection of chariots; in my opinion, the author is alluding to the well-known practice of making a kind of entrenchment or fortification in the form of an enclosure, and doing this with chariots.]
Tyras, after founding Tyre, occupied the coast with the heads of the colonies over which he ruled, and peopled Thrace.
Arcadius settled in Arcadia, and Aemathius in Aemathia. In the fourth year of Belus, Janus led some colonies out into Arabia Felix; after his own name and surname, he called the one Noa and the others Janineæ.
The descendants of Comerus Gallus were called, after his surname, Galli or Gauls.
In the fifty-sixth year of Belus, Chemesenuus came into Italy in the direction of the Comeri. Comerus had ceased to be seen on the earth; Chemesenuus seized upon the reins of government over the colonies, and began to corrupt the people's morals by his many crimes and iniquities.
Janus having settled a number of colonies on the banks of the river which flows through Arabia Felix, and called them after himself, Janineæ, passed over into Africa, to the kingdom of Triton.
At this period Jupiter Belus began to be affected by a desire for conquest. A short time before this, Araxa and his son Scytha had occupied the whole of the region which lies to the west of Armenia, and extends to Sarmatia in Europe. When they quitted Armenia, they left there Sabatius-Saga with the title of king.
Jupiter Belus found out that he could not conquer the rest of the nations without first conquering Sabatius, the king of the Sagas, or putting him to death; accordingly, he determined to compass his death secretly. The Saturn of Armenia, fearing that he could not escape the innumerable snares laid for him by Jupiter Belus, fled for safety and concealed himself amongst the Caspian Sagas.
When about to pay the last debt of nature, Jupiter Belus commanded his son Ninus to destroy the power of Sabatius-Saga utterly, and to bring all the tribes into subjection to the Babylonian empire, because that empire was the first that had been established in the world.
Having heard of the command of Belus, Sabatius concealed himself amongst the Sagas of Bactria, until a favourable opportunity should arise either of taking flight or returning to the throne. The forces which Jupiter Belus had prepared against him drove him away from his kingdom about the time of Semiramis.
At no distant period, Triton left the kingdom of Libya to his son Hammon, who married Rhea, the sister of Chemesenuus, the Saturn of the Egyptians. But, unknown to Rhea, a young girl named Amalthea became by him the mother of Dionysius, who by his orders was brought up at Nysa, a town in Arabia.
Our historians are of opinion that Ninus, the son of Jupiter Belus, was the third king of Babylonia; he reigned fifty-two years.
Ninus collected all his forces, and, taking advantage of the military preparations of his father Jupiter Belus, he declared war against all the nations. He spared none, and was especially anxious to put Sabatius-Saga to death, as he was the object of universal regret. Hence Sabatius remained in exile and concealment amongst his own people during the whole of that reign.
Ninus was the first of our Babylonian kings who extended the limits of his empire; he was the first also to raise statues in the centre of the fortified enclosure of Babylon, to Jupiter Belus his father, to his mother Juno, and to his grandmother Rhea.
In the fourth year of the reign of Ninus, the giant Thuyscon gave laws to the Sarmatians who were settled on the banks of the Rhine. Jubal did the same for the Celtiberians, and Samotes for the Celts.
On the other hand, Chemesenuus the Saturn of the Egyptians, was trying to demoralize the Comeri in Italy; he was assisted in this by native nomads and the strangers he had collected together with the view of forming colonies in that country, and who, as a body, were called native mountaineers by the Italians.
In Libya, a dispute arose between Rhea and Hammon, in consequence of the relations which had existed between the latter and Amalthea. Rhea wished to know where Dionysius was, so that she might put him to death. The quarrel was one which lasted long.
In the tenth year of Ninus, Janus came from Africa to the Celtiberians of Spain; there he established two colonies, which he named Noela and Noegla, the same surnames which he had already given to the wives of Japetus and Chemesenuus.
In the twenty-ninth year Janus crossed into Italy, and, contrary to his expectations, found that there also, Chemesenuus was endeavouring to corrupt the young.
He bore his conduct patiently for three years; after which he ordered him to leave Italy with a few of the colonists, whom he placed under his command. Next, he divided the colonies which were then established in Italy. The Comeri who had become demoralized, the advenæ [“strangers who come into a country”] and the convena [“people of different tribes belonging to the same country”], received orders to settle in the mountain regions beyond the river Janiculum. To reign over them, he gave them his daughter Crana, with the title of Helerna, i. e., a queen elected and raised to the throne by universal suffrage. Now Janus had sent his two last children Cranus and Crana and all their descendants into Italy, when he sent Comerus thither. This family became a numerous people in consequence of their rapid increase, and are still known in our own days by the name of Janigenes, or descendants of Janus; Janus, however, gave them the surname of Razenua, the sacred spirit of procreation, in opposition to the wickedness of Chemesenuus. In this way Janus showed his desire to separate his own descendants from the aborigines, and settled them beyond the Janiculum, on the sea-coast. He surnamed his daughter Razenua, and his son Cranus he surnamed Razenuus.
Chemesenuus had left Italy. His sister Rhea came to meet him and married him; both of them were joined by the Titans, then marched against Hammon, fought with him, and drove him from his kingdom; and further, forced him to retire into Crete. Chemesenuus reigned in Libya, and had, by his sister Rhea, a son called Osiris, to whom he gave the surname of Jupiter.
In the twenty-second year of Ninus, Janus, who had founded Janiculum in Thusia (Tuscany), during the sojourning of Chemesenuus in Italy, determined to make it his fixed abode, and extended his possessions to the Arno. Having placed colonies there, he called them Aryn-Janae, i. e., solemnly named or dedicated by Janus. Janus enacted laws and taught them to the people in Vetulonia, where also, he was chief ruler.
In the forty-third year of Ninus, Sabatius became convinced that it was impossible to retain any hold upon his kingdom, and accordingly he left his son Barzanes as king over the Armenian Sagas, whilst he himself fled to the seacoast, to the region inhabited by the Sarmatians. About the same time, Dionysius, the son of Hammon, took up arms and drove Rhea and Chemesenuus out of his father’s kingdom. Osiris he kept, and adopted as a son. After the names of his father and his master Olympus, he called him Jupiter Ammon and Olympicus. He gave him the kingdom of Egypt. During the same year, the Virgin Pallas, who was still very young, was abandoned on the shore of the lake Tritonis. The same Dionysius who was surnamed the Libyan Jupiter, adopted her as his daughter. She it was who taught the Libyans all the details of the military art.
About the same period Janus taught the Janigenes Razenui natural philosophy, astronomy, the art of divination, and religious rites. He committed all his teaching to writing, and composed what were called the Ritual Books. The Razenui adopted all the forms of worship (veneratio) and the names which were given to sacred things, which were already in common use amongst the Armenians.
In the forty-ninth year of Ninus, Giberius, the son of Jubal, reigned over the Celtiberians, who were named Iberians after him. In the fifty-first year, Magus, the son of Samotes, reigned over the Celts, and built several towns. amongst them.
In the last year of his reign, Ninus gained the victory. over Barzanes, the king of Armenia.
The fourth sovereign in Babylon was Semiramis, who was born at Ascalon. She reigned forty-two years. She surpassed all her predecessors and contemporaries in the brilliancy of her exploits, victories, triumphs, riches, and in the extent of her dominions. Of the fortified enclosure of Babylon she made an immense city, so that it may be truly said of her that she did not enlarge the city, but that she founded it. There is not a man who can be compared with this woman, so many are the wonderful things which have been written and related concerning her; some to her disadvantage, but most to the contrary.
In the first year of the reign of Semiramis, the Egyptian Juno was born, the offspring of Rhea and Chemesenuus; she was afterwards called Isis the Great—she who bestows fruits and enacts laws, (frugifera, legifera,) the wife of Osiris.
In the same year, Sabatius came by sea into Italy, to Janus the father of men. The latter treated him with great hospitality, and after a lapse of some years made him Coritus, and appointed him ruler over the Aborigines.
[Here the text is so ambiguous, that it might convey the idea that Sabatius had given Janus the title of Coritus, and the sovereignty over the Aborigines. The title, Coritus, seems to be equivalent to the post of viceroy or sovereign elect; the writer of the Abridgment gives it to all the princes in succession who are destined to ascend the throne.]
In the sixth year of Semiramis, Mannus, the son of Thuyscon, reigned over the Sarmatians of the Rhine. Amongst the Janigenes Razenui, Vesta, the wife of Janus, entrusted the care of the ever-burning fire to the young virgins whom she had initiated in the ceremonies of religious worship.
In the twelfth year, Sabatius-Saga shared with Janus the duties of the throne.
In the seventeenth year, Sabatius-Saga taught the people agricultural pursuits, and the elements of religion.
In the twenty-second year Sabatius made Sabus governor over the Sabines and the Aborigines. He himself continued to live near the region of Janiculum with the rest of the Curetes, and there he died.
In the thirty-fourth year, Jubaldo reigned over the Celtiberians, and the son of Hiberus was king on the mountain which bears his name.
Zameis-Ninias, the fifth king of Babylon, reigned thirty-eight years. He did little for the glory of the empire; yet he ornamented the temples of the gods and increased the greatness of the Chaldeans.
[The Chaldeans who are mentioned here immediately after the temples, do not denote the nation of the same name.]
In the second year of the reign of Ninias, when Sabatius was dead, Janus, who had then reached an extreme old age, appointed his son Cranus to be Coritus; and eight years after, he died at the age of 350 years. The Janigenes called him Vertumnus, and awarded to him, as it was right they should, a temple and divine honours.
[The first year of Nymbrotus corresponds with the 131st year after the Deluge; Nymbrotus reigned fifty-six years, Belus sixty-two years, Ninus fifty-two years, Semiramis forty-two years; if the 130 years be added to the sum total of all the reigns, and to the eight years which had elapsed of the reign of Ninias, we shall find a total of 350 years. Hence the age of Janus is only reckoned from the time of the Deluge. The Book Genesis also mentions the age of Noah as 350 years from the time of the Deluge; the Hebrew and Samaritan texts, and the Septuagint version, all agree upon this point. See also Eusebius, Chronic. Canon., lib. i., c. xvi.]
During this year Osiris and his sister, who was still very young, discovered wheat, and the art of cultivating grain. Osiris began to introduce both into Palestine. On his return into Egypt, he invented the plough, and all other instruments which are used in agriculture. He then travelled here and there in the world to teach men all his inventions, and became ruler over the whole of the world, except in the countries which were already subject to Babylonian rule.
In the same year, Sarron was king over the Celts. With the view of softening the manners of men who had only recently collected together into societies (hominum tum recentium), he established a system of teaching letters publicly. Inghaevon reigned over the Thuyscons.
Arius, the sixth king of Babylon, subjected the whole of Bactria and its inhabitants to his rule. A short time before the death of Ninias, Chemesenuus, who had been driven away from nearly every part of the world, had reached the country of the Bactrians, and owing to his great influence, he had won upon them to such a degree, that he succeeded in ruling over them with the most also lute authority. Chemesenuus, having collected a large army in Bactria, invaded Assyria.
[Ninus is the name in the text; this is evidently the mistake of a copyist, or an abridger.]
Ninias fought against him, and having gained the victory cut off his head. It was not long before he died. After his death, Arius assembled his troops and conquered the Bactrians and all the Caspian tribes.
Cranus-Janigen having lost his sister, celebrated her funeral obsequies with great pomp, in company with the Razenui and all the Aborigines. In a grove near the Janiculum, he appointed a regular system of worship in her memory, and an annual festival. When he had grown old he appointed his son Aurunus to be Coritus.
In the twentieth year of the reign of Arius, Brygus was king of the Celtiberians. He founded a great number of cities in those regions, and gave his name to them, adding to each the name of the chief to whom the care of the city was in the first instance intrusted.
[In the Basque language, or language of Biscay, bria and bija (pronounced with the Spanish iota) means a town; hence we find the word in Spain in many of the names of places. We read in the text, Adjectis nominibus capitum originum quibus illa consignabat. Annius interprets capitum to mean elevated places, and is of opinion that to his own proper name, or rather to the word Brija, town, Brygus, according to Berosus, used to join the name of the elevated ground on which the city was built, in order to form its distinguishing appellation; but it is more than doubtful whether the towns in the names of which the syllable brij is found were all built on high ground. The meaning which I feel tempted to adopt is equally open to strong objection.]
The ancient Hyarbas reigned in Libya; he was a warrior, formidable in arms, and dreaded on account of his Paladuan troops.
[Text: Armis et militiâ paladuæ. During the reign of Aralius the successor of Arius, Hyarbas king of Libya, fought against some Paladuan women, and was conquered by them. Annius is of opinion that the word means female warriors, women initiated in the military institution of the Tritonian Minerva. We have already found Minerva, or rather Pallas, teaching the Libyans all the various branches of the military art. In another place Annius says that Palatua is a surname of Minerva. Thuscus, in the reign of Altadas, the twelfth king of Assyria, instructs the Razenui Janigenes in the Paladuan warfare, and in the initiations. It is most probable that all these passages allude, in some way or other, to the Amazons of Africa, who are mentioned by Diodorus of Sicily.]
In the twenty-fourth year of Arius, Aurunus, the son of Cranus, reigned over the Janigenes; and in the thirtieth year Dryas, a learned and prudent man, reigned over the Celts.
[Here ends Mordaque’s translation of Salverté; my translation follows, until the final paragraph, which belongs to Mordaque’s adaptation of Salverté; the note and section from pseudo-Manetho are also those of Mordaque, adapting Salverté.—J.C.]
The seventh ruler was Aralius, who ruled the Assyrians for 40 years. This man was famous for his military genius and zeal, and was the first to increase pomp and jewels and women’s delights. In Libya, Hyarbas, fighting with the Paladin women, was no match for them. Wherefore, resorting to bribes, he yielded himself and his kingdom to their power.
Among the Tuyscones, Herminon, a man fierce in arms, reigned, and among the Celts, Bardus, famous among them for his invention of songs and music.
In the 10th year of Aralius the Armenian, Janigenes Griphonii came with their colonies to Aurunus Ianigenus, who welcomed them with hospitality, and also assigned a place of residence with the Ianigeni Razenui. The fleet of Auson was also welcomed by Aurunus at the same time in the eighth year following, and a territory in eastern Italy was assigned to them by the same.
The same Aurunus in Vetulonia consecrated a grove to Cranus, and numbered him among the Isi, that is, the gods. He also dedicated a temple and a statue to Janus Vortumnus not far from the city, and built a shrine to the god Razenus in Vetulonia.
In his last years, Aurunus begat his son Malot Tagetes Coritus, and in the 35th year of Aralius, Malot Tagetes died and succeeded him.
In the penultimate year of Aralius, Phaeton, a Janigenian, came to Malot Tagetes with his sons in a fleet. He found all the lands occupied by the Ausonians in the East, and the mountainous lands possessed by the Gauls and Aborigines, but the plain inhabited by the Razenui Janigeni. He was given the western part, and with his posterity he possessed the mountains and all of Eridanos as far as the nearest region, leaving names for these places.
At that time Italy burned for many days in three places around the Istras, Cymes, and Vesuvius, and those places were called by the Janigenes Palensana, that is, the region that was burned.
The eighth king of Babylon was Baleus, surnamed Xerses, and he reigned for thirty years. They called him Xerses, that is, the Victor and Triumphant, because he ruled over twice as many nations as Aralius. For he was a fierce and successful soldier, and he extended his kingdom even to the Indians.
In the time of this Baleus Xerses, Tagus, surnamed Orma, reigned among the Celtiberians, from whom his homeland was called Taga. Marsus reigned among the Tuyscones, and Phaeton among the Lygurians, where he left his son Lygurus and returned to Ethiopia, while Maloth Targes increased the sacred rites handed down by Janus and the examination of entrails.
The ninth king of Babylon, Armatrites, reigned for 38 years. He was more inclined towards pleasures and delights, and when he came, he greatly expanded the inventions that pertained to lust. In his time, Longus reigned among the Celts, and Betus among the Celtiberians, from whom the kingdom took its name: and among the Janigenes, Sicanus, son of Maloth Tages, from whom the region of Vetulonia was named.
In the twentieth year of Armatrites, Lygur sent forth Cydnus and Eridanus with colonies, along with their brethren and descendants (literally: brothers and nephews): and they occupied as far as the Ister in Italy.
Sicanus deified Aretia, and in the Janigen tongue called her Horchia.
Osiris killed the giant Lycurgus in Thrace.
In the thirty-second year of Armatritis, Deabus assumed tyranny among the Celtiberians. He earned this title from the gold mines and riches, which he was the first to capture there and find by pressing the colonies into service. And after two years, Bardus the younger reigned among the Celts.
The tenth king of the Assyrians, Belochus, ruled for thirty-five years. He therefore took his nickname from Belus, because he wanted to exercise power as the highest pontiff of Belus Jupiter, and his mind was mainly occupied with auspicious signs and divinations. Among the Tuyscones, Gambrivius, a man of fierce spirit, reigned.
Among the Emathians, Macedon, the son of Osiris, began to reign, from whom the province now retains its name, and around this kingdom Osiris subdued the giants, who had already begun to exert their tyranny.
In the twenty-first year of this Belochus, the Lomnimi flourished among the Celtiberians, and built a great city named after themselves, Lomnimi. But in the following year the Italians, oppressed by tyrannical giants in the three Palensana, called upon Osiris, who had arrived with colonies at the springs near the Ister. Osiris, having gained possession of all Italy, held it for ten years, and named it for himself in triumph: and having placed the giants under his control, he left the giant Lestrigones as king of the Ianigenus, being his grandson by his son Neptune.
In the thirty-third year of Belochus, King Lucus began to reign among the Celts. In the last years of Belochus, the Attic Sea overpowered, and overspreading its bounds flooded Attica.
The eleventh king of Babylon was Baleus, for fifty-two years. After Semiramis, he shone with fame above the rest, and his empire stood as most glorious this side of India. Many books have been written by our writers about his deeds. In his tenth year, Porcus filled the island of Cadus Sene (= Sardinia) with Vetulonian colonies, leaving a part for posterity to the Lygures.
In the time of this Baleus the Indians gained control of their lands from the Babylonians. Osiris, returning to Egypt, inscribed a column which remains as a monument to his expedition throughout the whole world.
Suaeus reigns among the Tuyscones, and Celtes among the Celts, from whom their greatest mountains (= the Pyrenees), which divide the Celts and Celtiberians, took their name from the conflagration of the forests.
Typhon the Egyptian, allied with all the giants of the world, destroyed his brother Osiris, the just Egyptian Jupiter, and himself assumed tyranny in Egypt, Busiris in Phoenicia, another Typhon in Phrygia, Antaeus in Libya, Lomnini in Celtiberia, Lestrigones in Italy, and Milinus the Cretan throughout the sea.
Hercules, the son of Osiris, whose name is Libyus, defeated Typhon in Egypt with Isis, Busiris in Phoenicia, another Typhon in Phrygia, Milinus in Crete, Antaeus in Libya, and Lomninos in Celtiberia. In Celtiberia, he appointed a new king, Hisphalus, and then turned against the tyrants of Italy. While crossing into Italy through the Celtic lands, Galathea (with the permission of his parents) bore him a son, Galathea the king.
In Italy, he waged war for ten years, expelled the Lestrigones, and after reigning peacefully for twenty years, he founded many towns named after himself and his epithet, Musarna, just as in Gedrosia and Carmania. He made watery places habitable for people. In the 41st year of Baleus, he began the war against the giants in Italy, and two years before his death, he defeated them. Thus Hercules came from Hispalis to Italy, overthrew the Laestrygonians and all tyrants, founded Arnos, Lybarnos, and Musarnos, named after himself, ruled for thirty years, and left Thuscus, whom he summoned, as king to the people.
Altades, the twelfth king of the Babylonians, reigned for thirty-two years. He devoted his time to pleasures, considering toil to be vain and life in constant misery not worthwhile—especially not for the utility and benefit of mankind, but rather leading to their ruin and enslavement. Therefore, his aim was to enjoy wealth and glory, inherited from his ancestors, based on the foolishness and suffering of others, for as long as he lived.
In the time of Altades, Hercules summoned his son Thuscus, born of Araxa, from the region of Tanais. Galathes, from whom the Samothean Gauls were named, ruled over the Celts during that period, and Vandalus ruled the Tuyscones.
Hercules made his son Thuscus king of the Ianigenes, naming him Coritus, according to custom. Having left him as king, Hercules, now very old, returned to the Celtiberians, in the 39th year of Altades, where he reigned and died. The Celtiberians dedicated a temple to him near Gades, along with a tomb and divine honors, and named many cities after his triumphs and his name: Libysosona, Libysoca, Libunca, Libora.
Thuscus sent the boy Galatheus to Hercules in Sicily along with colonists. This same Thuscus was the first to teach the Palatuan military tradition and the initiatory rites of the Razenian Ianigenes.
The thirteenth king of Babylon, Mamitus, reigned for thirty years. He again trained soldiers and accustomed them to labor, despite indulgences in perfumes and luxury items, and he engaged in military action and warfare. He began to instill fear among the Syrians and Egyptians. In the 22nd year of his reign, Alteus, son of Thuscus, began to reign among the Ianigenes, and two years earlier, Hesperus, brother of Kitym, ruled over the Celtiberians, then the Celts in Narbon, and the Tuyscones under Teutanes.
The fourteenth king of the Babylonians, Mancaleus, ruled for thirty years. In the first year of his reign, Kitym, having driven out his brother Hesperus, ruled in Italy among the Celtiberians.
In the twelfth year of Mancaleus, Kitym ruled among the Ianigenes, leaving his son Sicorus as king among the Celtiberians. During Mancaleus’s time, Hercules Alemannus ruled among the Tuyscones, and Lugdus among the Celts, from whom both the province and the people took their names.
Because of his greatness of mind, the Ianigenes called Kitym by the name Italus Atala in their language. He gave his daughter Electra in marriage to the chief of the Ianigenes, Cambo Blascon. As a marriage gift, Cambo sent colonies to regions near the Alps in Italy, and Italus made his daughter Rome the first sub-queen among the Aborigines. He also made his son Morgetes (by Kitym) the Coritus, or ruler.
Sferus, the fifteenth king of the Assyrians, ruled for 20 years—a man whose deeds and wisdom were celebrated by the common people. In his time, Morges, son of Italus, appointed his relative Camboblascon as Coritus (ruler), and shortly after, that same Coritus became known as Itus. In Celtiberia, Sicanus, son of Sicorus, ruled, following the death of Sferus and under the reign of Mamelus.
Mamelus, the sixteenth king of Babylon, reigned for 30 years. In the eighth year of his reign, sa son of Roma of the Romanessos, became the first sub-king of the Aboriginal mountaineers, and Sicanus continued to rule the Celtiberians.
Among the Celts, Beligius reigned, from whom they are called Beligici. Among the Ianigenes, Iasius was finally made Coritus by his father.
Iasius was made Coritus, and in the following year two kings began their reigns simultaneously: Cecrops the Elder, the first king of the Athenians, and Iasius, the Ianigene, among the Celts.
At the wedding of Iasius, Io the Egyptian woman was present. She was the only woman known to have lived more than one hundred years beyond Dodona, and she traveled nearly the whole world after the death of her husband.
The seventeenth king of the Babylonians was Sparetus, who ruled for 40 years. Under him, wondrous events began in the world. A great earthquake frightened the Babylonians. The Athenians began their monarchy in his fourth year. In the same year, Iasius Ianigena ruled over the Italians, and shortly thereafter, Siceleus ruled the Celtiberians.
During the reign of Sparetus, the great kings of Egypt—Orus, Acencheres, Acoris—ended their reigns, and Chencres began to rule. Chencres fought the Hebrews with magic and was drowned by them.
In the 34th and 35th years of Sparetus, there was a flood in Thessaly, not only from rains, but because mountains were blocked by landslides, causing rivers to overflow the plains. After an earthquake opened the mountain outlets, the waters returned to their channels. In another region, after the earthquake, a fire followed, under a certain king named Phaethon. Meanwhile, our king conquered the Phoenicians and Syrians. Earlier, in the 20th year of Sparetus’s reign, Io returned from Italy to Egypt. Also during this time, the first civil war over kingship arose between Dardanus and Iasius. The Aborigines supported Dardanus, while the Ianigenes and Siculi, with Siceleus, supported Iasius.
The eighteenth king of Babylon was Ascatades, who ruled for 41 years. He brought all of Syria entirely under his control. In his thirteenth year, the vine is said to have been discovered among the Greeks. That same year, Dardanus killed Iasius by treachery and fled to Samothrace, where he hid for a long time.
Iasius was succeeded by his son Coribantus.
In the eighth year of Ascatades, Cancres, defeated by the Hebrews through magic, perished at sea. In Egypt, he was succeeded by Acherres; in Celtiberia, Lusus; among the Celts, Allobrox; and among the Aborigines, a Romanessian, a son of Roma, was consecrated as the first Saturnus, but soon died. He was succeeded by his son, Picus the Elder.
In the final year of Ascatades, Ato granted Dardanus a portion of the land of Maeonia, and thus the kingdom of Troy began. Whatever rights Dardanus held in the kingdom of Italy, he transferred to Turrenus, the son of Ato.
Turrhenus, sailing to Italy, was welcomed by the Ianigenes as if from the line of Hercules, and was graciously received by Cybele and Coribantus. He was also honored with Razenean citizenship.
Turrhenus, bringing with him many Maeonian treasures, gave them as gifts. Coribantus and Cybele, adorned in royal dignity, appointed a dynasty of twelve leaders of twelve peoples, all descended from the Ianigenes, and they departed to Phrygia.
Also during the reign of Ascatades, the Egyptians had kings: Cherres, Armeus (also called Danaus), and Ramesses, surnamed Egyptus.
In these brief notices, we have now recorded what our historians tell us respecting the sovereigns and the historic periods of the chief empires of the world, from the time of the first Deluge, which occurred during the life of Janus, down to the time of the foundation of the kingdom of Dardania (Troy).
[The following is the commencement of the Fragment of Manetho, which seems to form a supplement to the Abridgment of Berosus:]
Berosus, one of the most esteemed of Chaldean historians, has (in a series of condensed notices) given us a summary of the statements made by the Chaldean historians respecting the chief empires of the world, from the time of the great Deluge, which their ancestors say occurred before the time of Ninus, down to the period when the city of Troy was founded. We will begin where he ended, and following the reigns of the Egyptian kings, as he did those of the Assyrians, &c., &c.
In the tenth year of the reign of Nymbrotus, Comerus Gallus established various colonies in the country which has since been called Italy. He gave the country its name, and taught its inhabitants to observe the laws and be just.
[Et docuit ILLOS, and he taught them. Who are meant here? Not the colonists who followed him, those had received all the instruction they needed in Armenia. It must consequently have been the natives of the country where the Armenian colonies settled, who benefited by these instructions in science and in the knowledge of the laws and of religion.]
In the twelfth year, Jubal founded the empire of the Celtiberians. Soon after, Samothes established the colonies of the Dis-Celts; no one at that period could vie with him in wisdom, hence his name, Samothes.
[Can the Dis-Celts be the Celtic worshippers of Dis, i. e., the Gauls?]
In the fifteenth year of Nymbrotus, Oceanus came to the banks of the Nile, and had several children by his wife Thetys.
Chemesenuus, the corrupter of the human race, came from Egypt to instruct the Telchines in the art of magic, and so ably did he succeed, that he was universally held in the highest reverence.
[I have adopted the meaning given to the passage by Annius in his Commentary, according to which Chemesenuus visited Crete, or Cyprus, or Rhodes, as the Telchines who were natives of Crete, had settled successively in the other two islands.]
In the eighteenth year of the same reign, Gogus, whilst still a child, succeeded to his father in the government of Arabia Felix and Sabæa. Triton reigned in Libya, Japetus (the old Atalaa) in Africa, Cur in Ethiopia, and Getulus in Getulia.
In the twenty-fifth year, Thuyscon succeeded in establishing the settlements of that great people the Sarmatians; and Mosa, with the sons of Ister, established the Mosians in the country which extends from Mount Adula to the southern region near the sea.
In the thirty-eighth year, the Armenian Sagas, whose population had increased rapidly, took possession of all the Caspian regions, Armenia, and Bactria. Janus then led the Janean colonists into Hyrcania, and the Janili into Mesopotamia, towards the sea below Babylon.
In the fortieth year some colonists, the children of Comerus, sought to settle in Bactria. Ganges settled in India, in the part of the country which bears his name.
In the forty-fifth year, a certain union was effected between the descendants of Mosa and Getulus, from which the nation of the Massagetæ arose. At the same period, our Saturn the King of Babylonia sent Assyrius, Medus, Moscus and Magog as heads of colonies, by whom the empires of the Assyrians, Medes and Magogs were established in Asia, and that of the Mosci both in Asia and Europe.
Anamæon founded the empire of the Mæonians, who were so called after him. He reigned over them 101 years.
The second king of the Babylonians, Jupiter Belus, the son of Saturnus Nymbrotus, reigned sixty-two years, and on the site which he had marked out for the building of Babylon, he erected a fortress rather than a town.
His reign was one of peace, from its commencement to its close. In the third year of the reign of Belus, Comerus, faithful to the customs of Scythia, of which he was a native, taught the Italians to found cities (urbes) with chariots or carts, hence the people were called Veii, from the Saga word Veia, which means a chariot. If a town thus constituted be a small one, it is called Veitula; if a large one, it is called Ulurdum; and if a metropolis, it is called Cyochola.
Even in our own days, two and four-wheeled chariots are used by the Scythians instead of houses; they sleep under cover of the bottom of the chariot; on the top of it they carry their furniture and everything required to build their hut or pitch their tent.
[Text: Et sub solario quidem stabulum, supra vero habent officinas domus. The sentence is somewhat obscure, and in my paraphrase of it I may not have hit the true meaning. Near the banks of the Akhtouba, Pallas met a horde of nomad Tartars; his account is, that they place what property they may have on a large two-wheeled cart, together with their tent or hut, which they unload and set up wherever they intend to make a stay of any length. But when they only make a short halt they do not trouble themselves to unload the hut from the cart; they content themselves with sitting beneath it for the sake of shelter, and there they carry on their business. If the words, beneath it, refer to the cart, the custom of the modern Tartars explains what Berosus says here of the ancient Scythians.]
Comerus taught men to enclose the inhabited places which were called after him.
[Concludit, he enclosed; this could not refer to any enclosure by walls, since he is only speaking of a collection of chariots; in my opinion, the author is alluding to the well-known practice of making a kind of entrenchment or fortification in the form of an enclosure, and doing this with chariots.]
Tyras, after founding Tyre, occupied the coast with the heads of the colonies over which he ruled, and peopled Thrace.
Arcadius settled in Arcadia, and Aemathius in Aemathia. In the fourth year of Belus, Janus led some colonies out into Arabia Felix; after his own name and surname, he called the one Noa and the others Janineæ.
The descendants of Comerus Gallus were called, after his surname, Galli or Gauls.
In the fifty-sixth year of Belus, Chemesenuus came into Italy in the direction of the Comeri. Comerus had ceased to be seen on the earth; Chemesenuus seized upon the reins of government over the colonies, and began to corrupt the people's morals by his many crimes and iniquities.
Janus having settled a number of colonies on the banks of the river which flows through Arabia Felix, and called them after himself, Janineæ, passed over into Africa, to the kingdom of Triton.
At this period Jupiter Belus began to be affected by a desire for conquest. A short time before this, Araxa and his son Scytha had occupied the whole of the region which lies to the west of Armenia, and extends to Sarmatia in Europe. When they quitted Armenia, they left there Sabatius-Saga with the title of king.
Jupiter Belus found out that he could not conquer the rest of the nations without first conquering Sabatius, the king of the Sagas, or putting him to death; accordingly, he determined to compass his death secretly. The Saturn of Armenia, fearing that he could not escape the innumerable snares laid for him by Jupiter Belus, fled for safety and concealed himself amongst the Caspian Sagas.
When about to pay the last debt of nature, Jupiter Belus commanded his son Ninus to destroy the power of Sabatius-Saga utterly, and to bring all the tribes into subjection to the Babylonian empire, because that empire was the first that had been established in the world.
Having heard of the command of Belus, Sabatius concealed himself amongst the Sagas of Bactria, until a favourable opportunity should arise either of taking flight or returning to the throne. The forces which Jupiter Belus had prepared against him drove him away from his kingdom about the time of Semiramis.
At no distant period, Triton left the kingdom of Libya to his son Hammon, who married Rhea, the sister of Chemesenuus, the Saturn of the Egyptians. But, unknown to Rhea, a young girl named Amalthea became by him the mother of Dionysius, who by his orders was brought up at Nysa, a town in Arabia.
Our historians are of opinion that Ninus, the son of Jupiter Belus, was the third king of Babylonia; he reigned fifty-two years.
Ninus collected all his forces, and, taking advantage of the military preparations of his father Jupiter Belus, he declared war against all the nations. He spared none, and was especially anxious to put Sabatius-Saga to death, as he was the object of universal regret. Hence Sabatius remained in exile and concealment amongst his own people during the whole of that reign.
Ninus was the first of our Babylonian kings who extended the limits of his empire; he was the first also to raise statues in the centre of the fortified enclosure of Babylon, to Jupiter Belus his father, to his mother Juno, and to his grandmother Rhea.
In the fourth year of the reign of Ninus, the giant Thuyscon gave laws to the Sarmatians who were settled on the banks of the Rhine. Jubal did the same for the Celtiberians, and Samotes for the Celts.
On the other hand, Chemesenuus the Saturn of the Egyptians, was trying to demoralize the Comeri in Italy; he was assisted in this by native nomads and the strangers he had collected together with the view of forming colonies in that country, and who, as a body, were called native mountaineers by the Italians.
In Libya, a dispute arose between Rhea and Hammon, in consequence of the relations which had existed between the latter and Amalthea. Rhea wished to know where Dionysius was, so that she might put him to death. The quarrel was one which lasted long.
In the tenth year of Ninus, Janus came from Africa to the Celtiberians of Spain; there he established two colonies, which he named Noela and Noegla, the same surnames which he had already given to the wives of Japetus and Chemesenuus.
In the twenty-ninth year Janus crossed into Italy, and, contrary to his expectations, found that there also, Chemesenuus was endeavouring to corrupt the young.
He bore his conduct patiently for three years; after which he ordered him to leave Italy with a few of the colonists, whom he placed under his command. Next, he divided the colonies which were then established in Italy. The Comeri who had become demoralized, the advenæ [“strangers who come into a country”] and the convena [“people of different tribes belonging to the same country”], received orders to settle in the mountain regions beyond the river Janiculum. To reign over them, he gave them his daughter Crana, with the title of Helerna, i. e., a queen elected and raised to the throne by universal suffrage. Now Janus had sent his two last children Cranus and Crana and all their descendants into Italy, when he sent Comerus thither. This family became a numerous people in consequence of their rapid increase, and are still known in our own days by the name of Janigenes, or descendants of Janus; Janus, however, gave them the surname of Razenua, the sacred spirit of procreation, in opposition to the wickedness of Chemesenuus. In this way Janus showed his desire to separate his own descendants from the aborigines, and settled them beyond the Janiculum, on the sea-coast. He surnamed his daughter Razenua, and his son Cranus he surnamed Razenuus.
Chemesenuus had left Italy. His sister Rhea came to meet him and married him; both of them were joined by the Titans, then marched against Hammon, fought with him, and drove him from his kingdom; and further, forced him to retire into Crete. Chemesenuus reigned in Libya, and had, by his sister Rhea, a son called Osiris, to whom he gave the surname of Jupiter.
In the twenty-second year of Ninus, Janus, who had founded Janiculum in Thusia (Tuscany), during the sojourning of Chemesenuus in Italy, determined to make it his fixed abode, and extended his possessions to the Arno. Having placed colonies there, he called them Aryn-Janae, i. e., solemnly named or dedicated by Janus. Janus enacted laws and taught them to the people in Vetulonia, where also, he was chief ruler.
In the forty-third year of Ninus, Sabatius became convinced that it was impossible to retain any hold upon his kingdom, and accordingly he left his son Barzanes as king over the Armenian Sagas, whilst he himself fled to the seacoast, to the region inhabited by the Sarmatians. About the same time, Dionysius, the son of Hammon, took up arms and drove Rhea and Chemesenuus out of his father’s kingdom. Osiris he kept, and adopted as a son. After the names of his father and his master Olympus, he called him Jupiter Ammon and Olympicus. He gave him the kingdom of Egypt. During the same year, the Virgin Pallas, who was still very young, was abandoned on the shore of the lake Tritonis. The same Dionysius who was surnamed the Libyan Jupiter, adopted her as his daughter. She it was who taught the Libyans all the details of the military art.
About the same period Janus taught the Janigenes Razenui natural philosophy, astronomy, the art of divination, and religious rites. He committed all his teaching to writing, and composed what were called the Ritual Books. The Razenui adopted all the forms of worship (veneratio) and the names which were given to sacred things, which were already in common use amongst the Armenians.
In the forty-ninth year of Ninus, Giberius, the son of Jubal, reigned over the Celtiberians, who were named Iberians after him. In the fifty-first year, Magus, the son of Samotes, reigned over the Celts, and built several towns. amongst them.
In the last year of his reign, Ninus gained the victory. over Barzanes, the king of Armenia.
The fourth sovereign in Babylon was Semiramis, who was born at Ascalon. She reigned forty-two years. She surpassed all her predecessors and contemporaries in the brilliancy of her exploits, victories, triumphs, riches, and in the extent of her dominions. Of the fortified enclosure of Babylon she made an immense city, so that it may be truly said of her that she did not enlarge the city, but that she founded it. There is not a man who can be compared with this woman, so many are the wonderful things which have been written and related concerning her; some to her disadvantage, but most to the contrary.
In the first year of the reign of Semiramis, the Egyptian Juno was born, the offspring of Rhea and Chemesenuus; she was afterwards called Isis the Great—she who bestows fruits and enacts laws, (frugifera, legifera,) the wife of Osiris.
In the same year, Sabatius came by sea into Italy, to Janus the father of men. The latter treated him with great hospitality, and after a lapse of some years made him Coritus, and appointed him ruler over the Aborigines.
[Here the text is so ambiguous, that it might convey the idea that Sabatius had given Janus the title of Coritus, and the sovereignty over the Aborigines. The title, Coritus, seems to be equivalent to the post of viceroy or sovereign elect; the writer of the Abridgment gives it to all the princes in succession who are destined to ascend the throne.]
In the sixth year of Semiramis, Mannus, the son of Thuyscon, reigned over the Sarmatians of the Rhine. Amongst the Janigenes Razenui, Vesta, the wife of Janus, entrusted the care of the ever-burning fire to the young virgins whom she had initiated in the ceremonies of religious worship.
In the twelfth year, Sabatius-Saga shared with Janus the duties of the throne.
In the seventeenth year, Sabatius-Saga taught the people agricultural pursuits, and the elements of religion.
In the twenty-second year Sabatius made Sabus governor over the Sabines and the Aborigines. He himself continued to live near the region of Janiculum with the rest of the Curetes, and there he died.
In the thirty-fourth year, Jubaldo reigned over the Celtiberians, and the son of Hiberus was king on the mountain which bears his name.
Zameis-Ninias, the fifth king of Babylon, reigned thirty-eight years. He did little for the glory of the empire; yet he ornamented the temples of the gods and increased the greatness of the Chaldeans.
[The Chaldeans who are mentioned here immediately after the temples, do not denote the nation of the same name.]
In the second year of the reign of Ninias, when Sabatius was dead, Janus, who had then reached an extreme old age, appointed his son Cranus to be Coritus; and eight years after, he died at the age of 350 years. The Janigenes called him Vertumnus, and awarded to him, as it was right they should, a temple and divine honours.
[The first year of Nymbrotus corresponds with the 131st year after the Deluge; Nymbrotus reigned fifty-six years, Belus sixty-two years, Ninus fifty-two years, Semiramis forty-two years; if the 130 years be added to the sum total of all the reigns, and to the eight years which had elapsed of the reign of Ninias, we shall find a total of 350 years. Hence the age of Janus is only reckoned from the time of the Deluge. The Book Genesis also mentions the age of Noah as 350 years from the time of the Deluge; the Hebrew and Samaritan texts, and the Septuagint version, all agree upon this point. See also Eusebius, Chronic. Canon., lib. i., c. xvi.]
During this year Osiris and his sister, who was still very young, discovered wheat, and the art of cultivating grain. Osiris began to introduce both into Palestine. On his return into Egypt, he invented the plough, and all other instruments which are used in agriculture. He then travelled here and there in the world to teach men all his inventions, and became ruler over the whole of the world, except in the countries which were already subject to Babylonian rule.
In the same year, Sarron was king over the Celts. With the view of softening the manners of men who had only recently collected together into societies (hominum tum recentium), he established a system of teaching letters publicly. Inghaevon reigned over the Thuyscons.
Arius, the sixth king of Babylon, subjected the whole of Bactria and its inhabitants to his rule. A short time before the death of Ninias, Chemesenuus, who had been driven away from nearly every part of the world, had reached the country of the Bactrians, and owing to his great influence, he had won upon them to such a degree, that he succeeded in ruling over them with the most also lute authority. Chemesenuus, having collected a large army in Bactria, invaded Assyria.
[Ninus is the name in the text; this is evidently the mistake of a copyist, or an abridger.]
Ninias fought against him, and having gained the victory cut off his head. It was not long before he died. After his death, Arius assembled his troops and conquered the Bactrians and all the Caspian tribes.
Cranus-Janigen having lost his sister, celebrated her funeral obsequies with great pomp, in company with the Razenui and all the Aborigines. In a grove near the Janiculum, he appointed a regular system of worship in her memory, and an annual festival. When he had grown old he appointed his son Aurunus to be Coritus.
In the twentieth year of the reign of Arius, Brygus was king of the Celtiberians. He founded a great number of cities in those regions, and gave his name to them, adding to each the name of the chief to whom the care of the city was in the first instance intrusted.
[In the Basque language, or language of Biscay, bria and bija (pronounced with the Spanish iota) means a town; hence we find the word in Spain in many of the names of places. We read in the text, Adjectis nominibus capitum originum quibus illa consignabat. Annius interprets capitum to mean elevated places, and is of opinion that to his own proper name, or rather to the word Brija, town, Brygus, according to Berosus, used to join the name of the elevated ground on which the city was built, in order to form its distinguishing appellation; but it is more than doubtful whether the towns in the names of which the syllable brij is found were all built on high ground. The meaning which I feel tempted to adopt is equally open to strong objection.]
The ancient Hyarbas reigned in Libya; he was a warrior, formidable in arms, and dreaded on account of his Paladuan troops.
[Text: Armis et militiâ paladuæ. During the reign of Aralius the successor of Arius, Hyarbas king of Libya, fought against some Paladuan women, and was conquered by them. Annius is of opinion that the word means female warriors, women initiated in the military institution of the Tritonian Minerva. We have already found Minerva, or rather Pallas, teaching the Libyans all the various branches of the military art. In another place Annius says that Palatua is a surname of Minerva. Thuscus, in the reign of Altadas, the twelfth king of Assyria, instructs the Razenui Janigenes in the Paladuan warfare, and in the initiations. It is most probable that all these passages allude, in some way or other, to the Amazons of Africa, who are mentioned by Diodorus of Sicily.]
In the twenty-fourth year of Arius, Aurunus, the son of Cranus, reigned over the Janigenes; and in the thirtieth year Dryas, a learned and prudent man, reigned over the Celts.
[Here ends Mordaque’s translation of Salverté; my translation follows, until the final paragraph, which belongs to Mordaque’s adaptation of Salverté; the note and section from pseudo-Manetho are also those of Mordaque, adapting Salverté.—J.C.]
The seventh ruler was Aralius, who ruled the Assyrians for 40 years. This man was famous for his military genius and zeal, and was the first to increase pomp and jewels and women’s delights. In Libya, Hyarbas, fighting with the Paladin women, was no match for them. Wherefore, resorting to bribes, he yielded himself and his kingdom to their power.
Among the Tuyscones, Herminon, a man fierce in arms, reigned, and among the Celts, Bardus, famous among them for his invention of songs and music.
In the 10th year of Aralius the Armenian, Janigenes Griphonii came with their colonies to Aurunus Ianigenus, who welcomed them with hospitality, and also assigned a place of residence with the Ianigeni Razenui. The fleet of Auson was also welcomed by Aurunus at the same time in the eighth year following, and a territory in eastern Italy was assigned to them by the same.
The same Aurunus in Vetulonia consecrated a grove to Cranus, and numbered him among the Isi, that is, the gods. He also dedicated a temple and a statue to Janus Vortumnus not far from the city, and built a shrine to the god Razenus in Vetulonia.
In his last years, Aurunus begat his son Malot Tagetes Coritus, and in the 35th year of Aralius, Malot Tagetes died and succeeded him.
In the penultimate year of Aralius, Phaeton, a Janigenian, came to Malot Tagetes with his sons in a fleet. He found all the lands occupied by the Ausonians in the East, and the mountainous lands possessed by the Gauls and Aborigines, but the plain inhabited by the Razenui Janigeni. He was given the western part, and with his posterity he possessed the mountains and all of Eridanos as far as the nearest region, leaving names for these places.
At that time Italy burned for many days in three places around the Istras, Cymes, and Vesuvius, and those places were called by the Janigenes Palensana, that is, the region that was burned.
The eighth king of Babylon was Baleus, surnamed Xerses, and he reigned for thirty years. They called him Xerses, that is, the Victor and Triumphant, because he ruled over twice as many nations as Aralius. For he was a fierce and successful soldier, and he extended his kingdom even to the Indians.
In the time of this Baleus Xerses, Tagus, surnamed Orma, reigned among the Celtiberians, from whom his homeland was called Taga. Marsus reigned among the Tuyscones, and Phaeton among the Lygurians, where he left his son Lygurus and returned to Ethiopia, while Maloth Targes increased the sacred rites handed down by Janus and the examination of entrails.
The ninth king of Babylon, Armatrites, reigned for 38 years. He was more inclined towards pleasures and delights, and when he came, he greatly expanded the inventions that pertained to lust. In his time, Longus reigned among the Celts, and Betus among the Celtiberians, from whom the kingdom took its name: and among the Janigenes, Sicanus, son of Maloth Tages, from whom the region of Vetulonia was named.
In the twentieth year of Armatrites, Lygur sent forth Cydnus and Eridanus with colonies, along with their brethren and descendants (literally: brothers and nephews): and they occupied as far as the Ister in Italy.
Sicanus deified Aretia, and in the Janigen tongue called her Horchia.
Osiris killed the giant Lycurgus in Thrace.
In the thirty-second year of Armatritis, Deabus assumed tyranny among the Celtiberians. He earned this title from the gold mines and riches, which he was the first to capture there and find by pressing the colonies into service. And after two years, Bardus the younger reigned among the Celts.
The tenth king of the Assyrians, Belochus, ruled for thirty-five years. He therefore took his nickname from Belus, because he wanted to exercise power as the highest pontiff of Belus Jupiter, and his mind was mainly occupied with auspicious signs and divinations. Among the Tuyscones, Gambrivius, a man of fierce spirit, reigned.
Among the Emathians, Macedon, the son of Osiris, began to reign, from whom the province now retains its name, and around this kingdom Osiris subdued the giants, who had already begun to exert their tyranny.
In the twenty-first year of this Belochus, the Lomnimi flourished among the Celtiberians, and built a great city named after themselves, Lomnimi. But in the following year the Italians, oppressed by tyrannical giants in the three Palensana, called upon Osiris, who had arrived with colonies at the springs near the Ister. Osiris, having gained possession of all Italy, held it for ten years, and named it for himself in triumph: and having placed the giants under his control, he left the giant Lestrigones as king of the Ianigenus, being his grandson by his son Neptune.
In the thirty-third year of Belochus, King Lucus began to reign among the Celts. In the last years of Belochus, the Attic Sea overpowered, and overspreading its bounds flooded Attica.
The eleventh king of Babylon was Baleus, for fifty-two years. After Semiramis, he shone with fame above the rest, and his empire stood as most glorious this side of India. Many books have been written by our writers about his deeds. In his tenth year, Porcus filled the island of Cadus Sene (= Sardinia) with Vetulonian colonies, leaving a part for posterity to the Lygures.
In the time of this Baleus the Indians gained control of their lands from the Babylonians. Osiris, returning to Egypt, inscribed a column which remains as a monument to his expedition throughout the whole world.
Suaeus reigns among the Tuyscones, and Celtes among the Celts, from whom their greatest mountains (= the Pyrenees), which divide the Celts and Celtiberians, took their name from the conflagration of the forests.
Typhon the Egyptian, allied with all the giants of the world, destroyed his brother Osiris, the just Egyptian Jupiter, and himself assumed tyranny in Egypt, Busiris in Phoenicia, another Typhon in Phrygia, Antaeus in Libya, Lomnini in Celtiberia, Lestrigones in Italy, and Milinus the Cretan throughout the sea.
Hercules, the son of Osiris, whose name is Libyus, defeated Typhon in Egypt with Isis, Busiris in Phoenicia, another Typhon in Phrygia, Milinus in Crete, Antaeus in Libya, and Lomninos in Celtiberia. In Celtiberia, he appointed a new king, Hisphalus, and then turned against the tyrants of Italy. While crossing into Italy through the Celtic lands, Galathea (with the permission of his parents) bore him a son, Galathea the king.
In Italy, he waged war for ten years, expelled the Lestrigones, and after reigning peacefully for twenty years, he founded many towns named after himself and his epithet, Musarna, just as in Gedrosia and Carmania. He made watery places habitable for people. In the 41st year of Baleus, he began the war against the giants in Italy, and two years before his death, he defeated them. Thus Hercules came from Hispalis to Italy, overthrew the Laestrygonians and all tyrants, founded Arnos, Lybarnos, and Musarnos, named after himself, ruled for thirty years, and left Thuscus, whom he summoned, as king to the people.
Altades, the twelfth king of the Babylonians, reigned for thirty-two years. He devoted his time to pleasures, considering toil to be vain and life in constant misery not worthwhile—especially not for the utility and benefit of mankind, but rather leading to their ruin and enslavement. Therefore, his aim was to enjoy wealth and glory, inherited from his ancestors, based on the foolishness and suffering of others, for as long as he lived.
In the time of Altades, Hercules summoned his son Thuscus, born of Araxa, from the region of Tanais. Galathes, from whom the Samothean Gauls were named, ruled over the Celts during that period, and Vandalus ruled the Tuyscones.
Hercules made his son Thuscus king of the Ianigenes, naming him Coritus, according to custom. Having left him as king, Hercules, now very old, returned to the Celtiberians, in the 39th year of Altades, where he reigned and died. The Celtiberians dedicated a temple to him near Gades, along with a tomb and divine honors, and named many cities after his triumphs and his name: Libysosona, Libysoca, Libunca, Libora.
Thuscus sent the boy Galatheus to Hercules in Sicily along with colonists. This same Thuscus was the first to teach the Palatuan military tradition and the initiatory rites of the Razenian Ianigenes.
The thirteenth king of Babylon, Mamitus, reigned for thirty years. He again trained soldiers and accustomed them to labor, despite indulgences in perfumes and luxury items, and he engaged in military action and warfare. He began to instill fear among the Syrians and Egyptians. In the 22nd year of his reign, Alteus, son of Thuscus, began to reign among the Ianigenes, and two years earlier, Hesperus, brother of Kitym, ruled over the Celtiberians, then the Celts in Narbon, and the Tuyscones under Teutanes.
The fourteenth king of the Babylonians, Mancaleus, ruled for thirty years. In the first year of his reign, Kitym, having driven out his brother Hesperus, ruled in Italy among the Celtiberians.
In the twelfth year of Mancaleus, Kitym ruled among the Ianigenes, leaving his son Sicorus as king among the Celtiberians. During Mancaleus’s time, Hercules Alemannus ruled among the Tuyscones, and Lugdus among the Celts, from whom both the province and the people took their names.
Because of his greatness of mind, the Ianigenes called Kitym by the name Italus Atala in their language. He gave his daughter Electra in marriage to the chief of the Ianigenes, Cambo Blascon. As a marriage gift, Cambo sent colonies to regions near the Alps in Italy, and Italus made his daughter Rome the first sub-queen among the Aborigines. He also made his son Morgetes (by Kitym) the Coritus, or ruler.
Sferus, the fifteenth king of the Assyrians, ruled for 20 years—a man whose deeds and wisdom were celebrated by the common people. In his time, Morges, son of Italus, appointed his relative Camboblascon as Coritus (ruler), and shortly after, that same Coritus became known as Itus. In Celtiberia, Sicanus, son of Sicorus, ruled, following the death of Sferus and under the reign of Mamelus.
Mamelus, the sixteenth king of Babylon, reigned for 30 years. In the eighth year of his reign, sa son of Roma of the Romanessos, became the first sub-king of the Aboriginal mountaineers, and Sicanus continued to rule the Celtiberians.
Among the Celts, Beligius reigned, from whom they are called Beligici. Among the Ianigenes, Iasius was finally made Coritus by his father.
Iasius was made Coritus, and in the following year two kings began their reigns simultaneously: Cecrops the Elder, the first king of the Athenians, and Iasius, the Ianigene, among the Celts.
At the wedding of Iasius, Io the Egyptian woman was present. She was the only woman known to have lived more than one hundred years beyond Dodona, and she traveled nearly the whole world after the death of her husband.
The seventeenth king of the Babylonians was Sparetus, who ruled for 40 years. Under him, wondrous events began in the world. A great earthquake frightened the Babylonians. The Athenians began their monarchy in his fourth year. In the same year, Iasius Ianigena ruled over the Italians, and shortly thereafter, Siceleus ruled the Celtiberians.
During the reign of Sparetus, the great kings of Egypt—Orus, Acencheres, Acoris—ended their reigns, and Chencres began to rule. Chencres fought the Hebrews with magic and was drowned by them.
In the 34th and 35th years of Sparetus, there was a flood in Thessaly, not only from rains, but because mountains were blocked by landslides, causing rivers to overflow the plains. After an earthquake opened the mountain outlets, the waters returned to their channels. In another region, after the earthquake, a fire followed, under a certain king named Phaethon. Meanwhile, our king conquered the Phoenicians and Syrians. Earlier, in the 20th year of Sparetus’s reign, Io returned from Italy to Egypt. Also during this time, the first civil war over kingship arose between Dardanus and Iasius. The Aborigines supported Dardanus, while the Ianigenes and Siculi, with Siceleus, supported Iasius.
The eighteenth king of Babylon was Ascatades, who ruled for 41 years. He brought all of Syria entirely under his control. In his thirteenth year, the vine is said to have been discovered among the Greeks. That same year, Dardanus killed Iasius by treachery and fled to Samothrace, where he hid for a long time.
Iasius was succeeded by his son Coribantus.
In the eighth year of Ascatades, Cancres, defeated by the Hebrews through magic, perished at sea. In Egypt, he was succeeded by Acherres; in Celtiberia, Lusus; among the Celts, Allobrox; and among the Aborigines, a Romanessian, a son of Roma, was consecrated as the first Saturnus, but soon died. He was succeeded by his son, Picus the Elder.
In the final year of Ascatades, Ato granted Dardanus a portion of the land of Maeonia, and thus the kingdom of Troy began. Whatever rights Dardanus held in the kingdom of Italy, he transferred to Turrenus, the son of Ato.
Turrhenus, sailing to Italy, was welcomed by the Ianigenes as if from the line of Hercules, and was graciously received by Cybele and Coribantus. He was also honored with Razenean citizenship.
Turrhenus, bringing with him many Maeonian treasures, gave them as gifts. Coribantus and Cybele, adorned in royal dignity, appointed a dynasty of twelve leaders of twelve peoples, all descended from the Ianigenes, and they departed to Phrygia.
Also during the reign of Ascatades, the Egyptians had kings: Cherres, Armeus (also called Danaus), and Ramesses, surnamed Egyptus.
In these brief notices, we have now recorded what our historians tell us respecting the sovereigns and the historic periods of the chief empires of the world, from the time of the first Deluge, which occurred during the life of Janus, down to the time of the foundation of the kingdom of Dardania (Troy).
[The following is the commencement of the Fragment of Manetho, which seems to form a supplement to the Abridgment of Berosus:]
Berosus, one of the most esteemed of Chaldean historians, has (in a series of condensed notices) given us a summary of the statements made by the Chaldean historians respecting the chief empires of the world, from the time of the great Deluge, which their ancestors say occurred before the time of Ninus, down to the period when the city of Troy was founded. We will begin where he ended, and following the reigns of the Egyptian kings, as he did those of the Assyrians, &c., &c.
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Source: Eusebius Salverté, History of the Names of Men, Nations and Places, in Their Connection with the Progress of Civilization, Vol. II., trans. Rev. L. H. Mordaque. (London: John Russell Smith, 1864), 301-339.
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