_ and _Procles_; and they
will place the Return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_, 159 years
after the death of _Solomon_, and 46 years before the first Olympiad, in
which _Coraebus_ was victor. But the followers of _Timaeus_ have placed this
Return two hundred and eighty years earlier. Now this being the computation
upon which the _Greeks_, as you have heard from _Diodorus_ and _Plutarch_,
have founded the Chronology of their Kingdoms, which were ancienter than
the _Persian_ Empire; that Chronology is to be rectified, by shortening the
times which preceded the death of _Cyrus_, in the proportion of almost two
to one; for the times which follow the death of _Cyrus_ are not much amiss.
The Artificial Chronologers, have made _Lycurgus_, the legislator, as old
as _Iphitus_, the restorer of the Olympiads; and _Iphitus_, an hundred and
twelve years, older than the first Olympiad: and, to help out the
Hypothesis, they have feigned twenty eight Olympiads older than the first
Olympiad, wherein _Coraebus_ was victor. But these things were feigned,
after the days of _Thucydides_ and _Plato_: for _Socrates_ died three years
after the end of the _Peloponnesian_ war, and _Plato_ [28] introduceth him
saying, that _the institutions of _Lycurgus_ were but of three hundred
years standing, or not much more_. And [29] _Thucydides_, in the reading
followed by _Stephanus_, saith, that _the _Lacedaemonians_, had from ancient
times used good laws, and been free from tyranny; and that from the time
that they had used one and the same administration of their commonwealth,
to the end of the _Peloponnesian_ war, there were three hundred years and a
few more_. Count three hundred years back from the end of the
_Peloponnesian_ war, and they will place the Legislature of _Lycurgus_ upon
the 19th Olympiad. And, according to _Socrates_, it might be upon the 22d
or 23d. _Athenaeus_ [30] tells us out of ancient authors (_Hellanicus_,
_Sosimus_ and _Hieronymus_) that _Lycurgus_ the Legislator, was
contemporary to _Terpander_ the Musician; and that _Terpander_ was the
first man who got the victory in the _Carnea_, in a solemnity of music
instituted in those festivals in the 26th Olympiad. He overcame four times
in those _Pythic_ games, and therefore lived at least 'till the 29th
Olympiad: and beginning to flourish in the days of _Lycurgus_, it is not
likely that _Lycurgus_ began to flourish, much before the 18th Olympiad.
The name of _Lycurgus_ being
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