for a year could be more exactly measured than it now can.

At the Flood, the Heavens underwent some change the motion of the Sun was altered, and a year, or annual revolution of it, became, as it now is, five days and almost six hours longer than it was before. That such a change had been madea, most of the philosophers observed, and, without doubt, as soon as they did observe it, they endeavoured to set right their chronology by it for it is evident, that as soon as the solar year became thus augmented, the an cient measure of a year would not do, but mistakes must creep in, and grow more and more every year they continued to compute by it.

The first correction of the year, which we read of, was made in Egypt"; and Syncellus names the person who made it, viz. Assis, a king of Thebes, who reigned about a thousand years after the Flood. He added five days to the ancient year, and inserted them at the end of the twelfth

• See Plutarch de Placit. Philos. lib. ii, c. 8, lib. iii, c. 12, lib. v, c. 18; and Plato Polit. p. 174, 175, 269, 270, 271; and Laertius in vit. Anaxagor. lib. ix, seg. 33.

b Herodot. lib. ii, sec: 4.

month. And though this did not bring the civil year up to an exact measure with the solar; yet it was a great emendation, and put chronology in a state in which it continued for some ages. The Egyptian year, thus settled by Assis, and days, as follow:

consisted of months

'Exayoueval, or additional five days, begin August 24, and so end August 28, that the first of Tyoth next year may be August 29, as above.

The Babylonians are thought to have corrected their year next to the Egyptians; they computed but three hundred and sixty days to a year, until the death of Sardana

palus, about one thousand six hundred years after the Flood. At his death Belesis began his reign, and Belesis being the same person with Nabonassar, from the beginning of his reign commenced the famous astronomical æra called by his name. The Nabonassarean year agrees exactly with the Egyptian year before-mentioned.

The months differ only in name; they are the. same in number, and of equal lengths; but this year does not begin in autumn, as the Egyptian does, but from the end of our February, which was the time when Nabonassar began his reign.

The ancient year of the Medes is the same with the Nabonassarean: it begins about the same time, has the same number of months and days, and epagomena, or additional days, at its end; and was probably brought into use by Arbaces, who was confederate with Nabonassar against Sardanapalus; and who by agreement with him founded the empire of the Medes, at the same time when the king set up himself king at Babylon. Dr. Hyded agrees to this origin of the Medes' year, and supposes

Rel. vet. Pers. c. 14.

1

that it was instituted about the time of founding the empire of the Medes. He very justly corrects Golius, and accounts for the Median year's beginning in the spring; by supposing it derived from the Assyrian, though in one point I think he mistakes. He imagines that all the ancient years began about this time, and that the Syrians, Chaldeans, and Sabæans, who be gan their year at autumn, had deviated from their first usages; whereas the contrary is true; for all the ancient nations began their year from the autumn. Nabonassar made the first alteration at Babylon; and his year being received at the setting up the Median empire, the Medes began their year agreeably to it. Dr. Hyde supposes the ancient Persian year to be the same with the Median; but Dean Prideaux was of opinion that the Persian year consisted only of three hundred and sixty days, in the reign of Dariuse.

Thales was the first who corrected the Greek year. He flourished something more than fifty years after Nabonassar.

He

Connect. vol. i, Ann. ante Christum 509.

f

* Diogenes Laert. in vit. Thaletis. seg. 27.

learned in Egypt that the year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days, and endeavoured to settle the Grecian chronology to a year of that measure. Strabo supposes

that Plato and Eudoxus were the correctors of the Greek year; but he means, that they were the first of the Grecians who found out the deficiency of almost six hours in the year of Thales; for he does not say, that Plato and Eudoxus were the first that introduced three hundred and sixty-five days for a year, but speaks expressly of their first learning the defect before-mentioned. The year had been settled to consist of three hundred and sixty-five days almost two centuries before the time of Eudoxus or Plato The correction of Thales was not immediately received all over Greece; for Solon, in the time of Croesus, king of Lydia, was ignorant of ith

Strabo, lib. xvii, p. 806.

Herod. lib. i, sec. 32. Solon seems to hint, that a month of thirty days should be intercalated every other year: but this is supposing the year to contain three hundred and seventy-five days. Either Solon was not acquainted with Thales's measure of a year, or Herodotus made a mistake in his relation, or the Greeks were about this time trying to fix the true measure of the year, and Solon determined in one way, and Thales in another.