now found in Taurus; those of Taurus, in Gemini, &c. In consequence of which, the stars that rose or set at particular seasons of the year, in the times of Job, Hesiod, Eudoxus, Virgil, Pliny, Columella, &c. no longer correspond to those particular seasons, at present. The difference of ancient and modern longitudes, if known, will easily give the difference of times. GENERATIONS. This was the earliest mode of computing considerable periods of time, employed in Sacred and Profane History. The periods from the Creation to the Deluge, and from the Deluge to the birth of Abraham, are expressly so defined in Scripture, Gen. chap. v. and xi. And the reckoning by generations was adopted by the earliest Greek Historians, Pherecydes, Epimenides, and Ephorus. Newton's Chron. p. 2. A generation is the interval of time elapsed between the births of the father and of his son. This interval, therefore, is variable; 1. according to the standard of human life; and 2. according as the generations are counted by eldest, middle, or youngest sons. Dividing human life into three stages, or climacterics, the generative faculty is generally found to subsist in its vigour during the second stage, or between 21 years and 42 years, at the present lowest reduction of the standard: whence, 33 years has been usually adopted in all countries, as the mean length of a generation; or three generations reckoned equivalent to a century. This was the computation of the Egyptians and Greeks, according to Herodotus, b. 2. And the Hindus also allowed a hundred years for three generations; according to Sir William Jones, in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. II. p. 136, octavo. REIGNS. The computation by reigns, was also employed for the same purpose, both in Sacred and Profane History. The chronology of the Judges and Kings of Israel and Judah, until the end of the Babylonish Captivity, was so adjusted; and the Assyrian, Babylonian, Median, Lydian, Persian, Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman Chronology, by their respective Historians. Reigns, however, furnish more variable and uncertain measures of time than generations; because "Kings are succeeded not only by their eldest sons, but sometimes by their brothers: and sometimes they are slain, or deposed, and succeeded by others of an equal or greater age; especially in elective, or turbulent kingdoms." Newton's Chron. p. 54. Whence Newton concludes, that, "by the ordinary course of Nature, kings reign, one with another, about eighteen or twenty years apiece: and if, in some instances, they reign, one with another, five or six years longer, in others, they reign as much shorter:-eighteen or twenty years is a medium;" p. 53. And he states the proportion of mean reigns to mean generations, as 19 to 33, or as 4 to 7: thus reckoning generations nearly double the length of reigns. P. 57, 118. This standard of reigns is collected from eleven cases adduced by Newton, which certainly give the average of 19 years to a reign. But in three of those cases, the reigns are uncommonly short; 113, 15, and 17 years apiece: and deducting these, the eight remaining cases furnish an average of nearly 21 years apiece. And a fairer and fuller induction of particular cases, will furnish a higher average. 1. Syncellus gives a list of Egyptian kings, in which 59 kings, Tethmosis, &c. from the Exode of the Israelites, B. C. 1649, to the final reduction of Egypt by the Persians, B. C. 350, reigned 1299 years; or 22 years apiece. 2. The Parian Chronicle and Eusebius, furnish a list of 30 Athenian kings from Cecrops, B.C. 1558, to Alcmæon, ending B.C. 754, who reigned 804 years; or 26 years apiece. 3. Herodotus mentions 22 kings of Lydia, Argon, &c. B.C. 1223, ending with Candaules, B. C. 718, who reigned 505 years; or nearly 23 years apiece. 4. The 18 kings of Judah, Rehoboam, &c. B. C. 990, ending with Zedekiah, B. C. 586, and the destruction of the Temple, by Nebuchadnezzar, reigned 404 years, or 22 years apiece. 5. In England, 31 kings, from William the Conqueror, A.D. 1066, to the end of George II. B.C. 1760, reigned 694 years, or 223 years apiece. 6. In Scotland, 33 kings, from Malcolm I. A.D. 938, to the end of James I. in England, A.D. 1625, reigned 687 years, or nearly 21 years apiece. 7. In France, 32 kings, from Hugh Capet, A.D. 987, to the murder of Louis XVI. in 1793, reigned 806 years, or 25 years apiece. 8. In Spain, 32 kings, from Ferdinand the Great, A.D. 1027, to Charles III. ending 1788, reigned 761 years, or near 24 years apiece. 9. In Germany, 55 emperors, from Charlemagne, A.D. 800, to Leopold II. ending 1792, reigned 992 years, or 18 years apiece. 10. In Hindustan, the Brahmins reckon 142 modern reigns in a period of 3153 years, or nearly 22 years apiece. Asiat. Research. Vol. II. p. 143. The average of these ten cases, is 223 years to a reign, in a series of 454 kings, in 10,105 years. From this great scale of comparison, therefore, we are abundantly warranted to fix the average standard of reigns at 223 years, which will give the proportion of generations to reigns, as 333 to 223, or 3 to 2, nearly. Newton's defective standard of reigns was occasioned by his overlooking the circumstance of Minorities in hereditary kingdoms, and Interregna, or vacancies in elective; which may sometimes make a moderate series of Reigns equal, if not exceed, Generations. See the cases in point of the seventeen kings of Sparta, and the seven kings of Rome, in the Review of Newton's Chronology. EPOCHS AND ERAS. To ascertain the times of events, certain fixed points, or instants of time, have been assumed by Chronologers, from which they begin to reckon, or to which they refer these events. The term epoch, (ETOXn) signifies "a stop;" because, says Scaliger, illis sistantur et terminentur mensuræ temporum, "in them stop and terminate the measures of times." It now usually denotes a remarkable date; as, the epoch of the destruction of Troy, B. C. 1183, &c. The term Era, (not Era, as incorrectly written) is Spanish, signifying time, as in the phrase, de era en era, "from time to time" It was first used in the Era Hispanica, instituted B. C. 38, in honour of Augustus, when Spain was allotted to him, in the distribution of the provinces among the second Triumvirate, Augustus, Anthony, and Lepidus. The Gothic historians use it as a synonyme to year: thus Isidore's Chronicle : Era 415, Anno 13 Valentis Imp. &c. * See Spelman's Glossary, voce Era, p. 243-245. Era 419, An. imperii Theodosii Hisp. 3, &c. It now usually denotes an indefinite series of years, beginning from some known epoch; and so differs from a period, which is a definite series: as the Era of the foundation of Rome, the Era of the Olympiads, the Era of Nabonassar, &c. Of these, the most generally used, by reference to which all the rest are now regulated, is, THE VULGAR CHRISTIAN ERA. Unfortunately for ancient Chronology, there was no one fixed or universally established Era. Different countries reckoned by different eras, whose number is embarrassing, and their commencements not always easily to be adjusted or reconciled to each other; and it was not until A.D. 532, that the Christian Era was invented by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian by birth, and a Roman Abbot, who flourished in the reign of Justinian. The motive which led him to introduce it, and the time of its introduction, are best explained by himself, in a letter to Petronius, a bishop. "Because St. Cyril began the first year of his cycle [of 95 years] from the 153d of Diocletian, and ended the last in the 247th; we, beginning from the next year, the 248th, of that same tyrant, rather than prince, were unwilling to connect with our Cycles the memory of an impious [prince] and persecutor; but chose rather to antedate the times of the years, from the incarnation of OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST: to the end that the commencement of our hope might be better known to us; and that the cause of man's restoration, namely, our Redeemer's passion, might appear with clearer evidence" The era of Diocletian, which was chiefly used at that time, began with his reign A.D. 284; and therefore the new era of the incarnation, A.D. 284+248=A.D. 532. Strauchius, and other * Quia vero Sanctus Cyrillus primum cyclum ab anno Diocletiani 153 cœpit, et ultimum in 247 terminavit; Nos, a 248 anno ejusdem tyranni potius quam principis, inchoantes, noluimus circulis nostris memoriam impii et persecutoris innectere: sed magis elegimus ab incarnatione DOMINI NOSTRI JESU CHRISTI, annorum tempora prænotare; quatenus exordium Spei nostræ notius nobis existeret, et causa reparationis humanæ, id est, passio REDEMPTORIS NOSTRI evidentiùs eluceret. See the whole Letter, Petav. Tom. II. Append. p. 498. Chronologers, I know not upon what grounds, date it A.D. 527, five years earlier. How justly Dionysius abhorred Diocletian's memory, may appear from Eusebius, who relates, that in the first year of his reign, when Diodorus the Bishop was celebrating the Holy Communion with many other Christians in a cave, they were all immured in the earth, and buried alive! Hence, his era was otherwise called the Era of the Martyrs; and not from the tenth, last, and bloodiest of the Christian persecutions by the Roman Emperors, in the 19th year of his reign. Dionysius began his era with the year of our Lord's incarnation and nativity, in U.C. 753, of the Varronian Computation, or the 45th of the Julian Era. And at an earlier period, Panodorus, an Egyptian monk, who flourished under the Emperor Arcadius, A.D. 395, had dated the incarnation in the same year. But by some mistake, or misconception of his meaning, Bede, who lived in the next century after Dionysius, adopted his year of the Nativity, U.C. 753, yet began the Vulgar Era, which he first introduced, the year after, and made it commence Jan. 1, U.C. 754: which was an alteration for the worse, as making the Christian Era recede a year further from the true year of the Nativity. The Vulgar Era began to prevail in the West about the time of Charles Martel, and Pope Gregory II. A.D. 730; but was not sanctioned by any public Acts or Rescripts, till the first German Synod, in the time of Carolomannus, Duke of the Franks, which, in the preface, was said to be assembled "Anno ab incarnatione Dom. 742, 11 Calendas Maii." But it was not established till the time of Pope Eugenius IV. A.D. 1431, who ordered this era to be used in the public Registers: according to Mariana, and others. Dionysius was led to date the year of the Nativity, U.C.} 753, from the Evangelist Luke's account that John the Baptist began his ministry "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar;" and that JESUS at his baptism, " was beginning to be about 30 years of age." Luke iii. 1-23. For Tiberius succeeded Augustus at his death, Aug. 19, U.C. 767; and therefore his fifteenth year was U.C. 782; from which, subtracting the assumed year of the nativity, U.C. 753, the remainder was 29 years complete, or 30 years current. But this date of the nativity is at variance with Matthew's Nur Mark 25 |