to fave the poet's credit, betrays the ignorance, and injudicious zeal of his friends, the critics. That he needed no fuch jejune defences, has fully been fhewn in a learned differtation on the fubject *.

It must however, be owned, that Virgil was in part mifled by the old artificial chronology, particularly in giving the fanction of infallibility to that oracle, which foretold a reign of 300 years to the kings of Alba, his conducting Æneas to Carthage in the 7th year of his voyages +, that is, 8 years prior to the flight of Dido from Tyre, and full four years after his own death. But these deviations from hiftorical truth do not affect the credibility of the fact, that this hero and heroine were contemporary; which they might be, on the fuppofition that they never had an interview.

See Differtations, and critical Remarks, on the Æneid of Virgil, by John Martyn, F. R. S. Lond. 1770. In the first Differtation Sir 1. Newton's arguments are happily illuftrated and confirmed.

↓ ↑ Te jam feptima portat

Omnibus errantem terris et fluctibus æftas. Æneid, i. 759. Here the 7th fummer from the conflagration of Troy is fpecified. But in a former paffage of the fame Book, v. 169. Jupiter promises to Eneas, in the oracular file, a reign of three years after his arrival in Latium :

Tertia dum Latio regnantem viderat æstas,

Ternaque tranfierint Rutulis hiberna fuba&tis.

If these three years be added to the 7th from the date of this expedition, he must have furvived the fall of Troy 10 years; a period incompatible with that history, or rather tradition, which affigns but feven years to his life after that catastrophe. See Marshall's Chron. Tables, 1184. before the Chriftian

era.

6. " WHEN

6. WHEN the Romans conquered the Carthaginians, the archives of Carthage came into their hands; and thence Appian, in his hiftory of the Punic wars, tells, in round numbers, that Carthage flood 700 years. Solinus adds the odd number 37. It was deftroyed in the confulfhip of Lentulus and Mummius, A. P. Jul. 4568; whence count backwards 737 years, and the Encœnia or Dedication of the city, will fall upon the 16th year of Pygmalion, the brother of Dido, and king of Tyre *." With all deference be it fuggefted, that, if from 4568, be fubtracted 737, the remainder 3831, will denote the number of the Julian Period, coincident with the firft of Carthage; and, by the Table, its foundation was laid in the 10th of Pygmalion, and 18th from the cataftrophe of Troy, In this one character of times, Sir I. Newton's intuitive perfpicacity feems to have failed. This great man refers to no hiftorical voucher, in fupport of his pofition, that the years of Carthage were anciently reckoned from the dedication of the city, and not from the date of the first building. Hiftory juftifies this computation in no other inftance, and does not mention this, as an exception from a general rule.

From the fole authority of this eminent writer has the hypothefis derived tra ditional credit. But probable circumftances remonftrate. Neceffity, not choice, induced Dido to undertake that expedition, of which fafety, not empire, was the primary object. She launched with a few ships, indif

ferently manned, and found it necessary to disembark at Cyprus, where, having acquired a reinforcement, she resumed the voyage, landed on the African coaft, and having ratified commercial treaties with the natives, formed at last the project of erecting a fortrefs. The foundation of Byrfa is, in the table, referred to the third year after her expedition from Tyre, precifely 737 prior to the defolation of the city by Scipio. Sir 1. Newton feems to have fallen into an egregious mistake, when he reckons from the 16th of Pygmalion, A. P. Jul. 3837, for the interval hence to the defolation of Carthage, is but 731, instead of 737.

THIS era, the downfal of Troy, fo very memorable in the mythology of Greece, yet fo inaccurately defined by chronological notations in the annals of the Gentiles, Sir Ifaac Newton has afcertained by the various, but combined operations of aftronomy, chronology, genealogy, and hiftory. The refult of fuch multiplied experiments is, that Troy was reduced to defolation A. M. 3108; 124 years before the restoration of the Olympiads by Iphitus, and 18 prior to the foundation of Carthage by Dido.

THE discovery of a fource for computation in the times antecedent to the epoch of astronomical chronology among the gentiles, fimilar to the Chriftian era, (a term peculiarly and exquifitely fubfervient for connecting the hiftory of the Old Teftament with that of the New, and, in certain periods of time, the

* Justin, lib. xviii. 4—6.

facred

facred with the profane), is a valuable acquifition to the ftock of general knowledge, for which the present and fucceeding generations are, and will be, indebted to the patient industry, and exploring genius, of the incomparable Sir I. NEWTON. The application of this. fixed term, to the times before and after the Fall of Troy, is referved for the fubject of the enfuing chapter.

Mr. Martyn, in that morfel of exquifite criticism, the Differtation above quoted, defends Virgil in points not neceffary to the truth of computation, and which history cannot admit. Æneas reigned four years together with Latinus, and three more after his colleague's decease He therefore died about the end of the seventh year from the fall of Troy, and confequently before Dido's retreat from Tyre. This author's concluding remark is judicious. Every impartial reader will be fatisfied that Virgil is acquitted from the anachronism laid to his charge. Had Sir I. Newton undertaken professedly to vindicate Virgil, we might have fufpected, that he was blinded by partiality to that great poet; but as that is not the cafe, we must look upon him as an impartial judge, and .may obferve with plea fure, that as Virgil is undefignedly justified, fo the authority of that noble poet confirms this amendment of ancient chronology, by our great philofopher."

CHAP.

CHAP. IV.

The Subject continued.

O many ancient cities, once populous, and the

feats of empire, arts, commerce, legislation; fo very fingular has been the fate, that the fpots, where fome flood, and the times when others rose or fell, have long fince become the fubje&t of controverfy among antiquaries. In fable, and in hiftory, Babel, Memphis, Thebes, and Troy, have, for ages past, been obfolete names, befides which no memorial remains. By comparing together a few notations of times and pedigrees, fill extant in the records of paft ages, fubfervient to connect the Tyrian Annals with those of the Hebrews and Greeks, Sir I. Newton acquired the honour of a difcovery, much more valuable, than would have been the restoration of Troy from her ruins, projected by the first two Cefars.

CENSORINUS, and the other ancient writers who ventured to define the interval from the Fall of Troy to the first Olympiad, waver in their opinions, and pronounce with uncertainty. The least specified number is 395, the greatest 436: but the intermediate space, according to Sir I. Newton, did not exceed 125. No