TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY 27 used. These afford some proof of his antiquity. This proof, however, is not conclusive, but suggests some basis for the classification of the periods which reveal traces of man, designated as the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. These periods indicate also the general order of succession in the formative ages of the world's creation, because the belief is general that man used stone long before he understood the use of metals. Archbishop Usher, in his scheme of Biblical chronology, argues that Adam was created in Eden forty centuries before the birth of Christ. His views on this point cannot be sustained on the assumption that Adam was the first of the human species to inhabit the globe. The chronology of Usher, however, is useful in support of the contention of some modern theologians, that the Adam of Genesis relates to the advent of the historic or intellectual man as distinguished from the primitive man of the Stone Age. For these reasons we may use the date given by Archbishop Usher as a starting-point in the following chronological table commencing with the advent of historic man. It has been compiled from authentic sources, the result of the prodigious labors of scholars and archæologists, covering years of research and especially biblical scholars, and students of the Old Testament. While we cannot expect such a table to be absolutely acurate it is doubtless approximately correct. B. C. 4004. The date assigned by Archbishop Usher to indicate the creation of Adam. It may suggest the advent of historic man into the world as distinguished from a prehistoric people, covered with hair, who used fire and carved rude pictures on the rocks. See supra. Death of Adam. 66 3074. 66 2349. 66 2500. 2200. 66 The Deluge and destruction of the human race, save only Noah and his family. Pyramids constructed in Egypt. 2247. Birth of Abraham, the father of the Israelitish race. B. C. 1921. 1920. 1898. Abraham journeyed westward from Ur, of the Chal- Abraham driven by famine, journeyed into Egypt. Abraham died. 1898. Isaac died. 66 66 1729. 1706. Birth of the patriarch Jacob. Joseph sold as a slave by his brethren into Egypt. Joseph, a favorite in the Court of Pharaoh, at the height of his prosperity. 1689. Jacob died in Egypt. 1688. Approximate date of death of Joseph. 66 66 66 1635. 66 1500. Moses born in Egypt. Job dwelt in the land of Uz. Period of the ten plagues visited upon Pharaoh in Moses, having slain an Egyptian taskmaster, flees Moses leads the children of Israel from the land of bondage, across the Red Sea, into the Wilderness. Moses died on Pisgah, in sight of Canaan. 1324. Rameses II, greatest of the Pharaohs, reigns in 1253.) Egypt. 1451. 1184. End of the Trojan War, and destruction of Troy. 1095. Saul chosen King of Israel. 66 1056. David fights with the giant Goliath and slays him. David made King of Judah. Death of King David. Solomon succeeds to the throne of David, his father. 975. Death of King Solomon. Homer flourishes. Homeric poems composed. 839. Amaziah reigns in Judah. Ahaz } 740. Hezekiah and reign in Israel. Hoshea 740. Samaria taken by Sennacherib and the Jews car ried into captivity. 66 723. Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem. TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY 29 B. C. 710. Sennacherib's army of 185,000 men destroyed by a miracle before Jerusalem. 698. Manasseh 641. 599. 538. 527. 525. 522. 522. 522. and Josiah } reign in Israel. Nebuchadnezzar takes the city of Jerusalem and Cyrus died while on a military expedition near Chi- Smerdis slain. Darius, son of Hystaspes, ascends 512. Darius leads an expedition into Europe, crosses the Danube (the Ister), and invades Scythia. Retreats into Thrace, conquers Macedonia. 500. Sardis, the capital of Lydia, burned by the Ionians and Athenians. Ionian War continues. 492. Darius, in revenge for the burning of Sardis, sends 490. Darius hits out a new expedition under Datis and 66 485. 480. 480. at Marathon. Herodotus born. Darius died. His son Xerxes succeeds to the throne of Persia. Xerxes with the greatest_army_ever assembled, invades Greece. His fleet defeated at Salamis. Euripides born at Salamis the day the battle was fought. 479. Mardonius remains in Greece after the flight of 479. The Persians defeated at Mycalé in Asia Minor. T CHAPTER III HOMER HE first military annals of Hellas were written in poetry and are contained in the Iliad. The Hellenic heroes portrayed by Homer contended on the plains of Troy, and the story of that memorable contest for the destruction of the kingdom of Priam is embalmed in the greatest epic ever written. In that struggle gods mingled with mortals, and enabled them to perform the wonderful feats of arms, which it was the ambition of their descendants to emulate. The Iliad and the Odyssey were the Bible of the Greeks, and from its pages they imbibed their inspiration. It would be impossible to estimate the influence of the poems of Homer in connection with the martial achievements of the Greeks. Their military annals represent a series of the most remarkable campaigns in history. In emulation of the heroes, whose deeds of valor Homer paints in vivid colors, the armies and navies of Greece were inspired to contend with the armies of Persia, and beat back the myriads of Darius and Xerxes at Marathon and Salamis, at Platæa and Mycale, and to prosecute against the most formidable empire in the world, a war of expulsion, which drove the Persians from Europe and the Egean and the Greek cities of Asia Minor. Miltiades and Themistocles, Leonidas and Cimon are names to conjure with. Alexander was stimulated in his ambition to conquer the world by the example of Achilles on the plains of Troy, from whom, through his mother, he claimed direct lin eage. The poems of Homer stand unrivalled in literature, and the example set by the heroes of the Iliad and the Odyssey, enabled Greece to secure her independence, to subdue the empire of Asia, and to establish for all mankind the lasting benefits derived from Greek letters, philosophy and art, as a noble heritage to posterity, the influence of which, on the destinies of the world, is inestimable. The Greek poets of antiquity stand first in the order of intellectual superiority. In view of the grand imagery, the charm, the variety and wealth of color that abounds in the epics of Homer, it may be safely said that human genius has never soared higher on the wings of fancy. What can surpass the divine conception which prompted the early poets of Greece to write with the imperishable stars on the sable robes of night, the achievements of their heroes. What they have written in the sky is enduring as earth, stable as the heavens. As the stars are imperishable, the sublime conception of the Greek poets is likewise immortal. We look into the dome of heaven, and read there the names of the heroes who sailed with Jason to the confines of the world for the golden fleece, and who contended with the aid of the gods in feats of arms, Castor and Pollux and the ship Argo in which they sailed. Behold also as representing the gods, Arcturus and his sons, and Orion the mighty hunter. Nobody knows who Homer was, or when or where he lived. All authentic information as to his identity or personality has perished beyond hope of recovery. Homer, then, as to his individuality, remains a riddle, which the genius of modern scholarship has been unable to solve. Professor Symonds, in his "Study of the Greek Poets," admirably expresses the idea as to the existence of Homer when he says: "Some Homer did exist. Some great single poet intervened beyond the lost chaos of legendary material and the cosmos of |