the invention of iron tools, in the days of _Asterius_ and
_Minos_.

All these footsteps there are of the first peopling of _Europe_, and its
Islands, by sea; before those days it seems to have been thinly peopled
from the northern coast of the _Euxine-sea_ by _Scythians_ descended from
_Japhet_, who wandered without houses, and sheltered themselves from rain
and wild beasts in thickets and caves of the earth; such as were the caves
in mount _Ida_ in _Crete_, in which _Minos_ was educated and buried; the
cave of _Cacus_, and the _Catacombs_ in _Italy_ near _Rome_ and _Naples_,
afterwards turned into burying-places; the _Syringes_ and many other caves
in the sides of the mountains of _Egypt_; the caves of the _Troglodites_
between _Egypt_ and the _Red Sea_, and those of the _Phaurusii_ in _Afric_,
mentioned by [226] _Strabo_; and the caves, and thickets, and rocks, and
high places, and pits, in which the _Israelites_ hid themselves from the
_Philistims_ in the days of _Saul_, 1 _Sam._ xiii. 6. But of the state of
mankind in _Europe_ in those days there is now no history remaining.

The antiquities of _Libya_ were not much older than those of _Europe_; for
_Diodorus_ [227] tells us, that _Uranus_ the father of _Hyperion_, and
grandfather of _Helius_ and _Selene_, that is _Ammon_ the father of
_Sesac_, _was their first common King, and caused the people, who 'till
then wandered up and down, to dwell in towns_: and _Herodotus_ [228] tells
us, that all _Media_ was peopled by [Greek: demoi], towns without walls,
'till they revolted from the _Assyrians_, which was about 267 years after
the death of _Solomon_: and that after that revolt they set up a King over
them, and built _Ecbatane_ with walls for his seat, the first town which
they walled about; and about 72 years after the death of _Solomon_,
_Benhadad_ King of _Syria_ [229] had two and thirty Kings in his army
against _Ahab_: and when _Joshuah_ conquered the land of _Canaan_, every
city of the _Canaanites_ had its own King, like the cities of _Europe_,
before they conquered one another; and one of those Kings, _Adonibezek_,
the King of _Bezek_ had conquered seventy other Kings a little before,
_Judg._ i. 7. and therefore towns began to be built in that land not many
ages before the days of _Joshuah_: for the Patriarchs wandred there in
tents, and fed their flocks where-ever they pleased, the fields of
_Phoenicia_ not being yet fully appropriated, for want of people. The