rs; for the great year is completed in that interval. Now
I have for witnesses to what I have said, all those that have written
Antiquities, both among the Greeks and barbarians; for even Manetho,
who wrote the Egyptian History, and Berosus, who collected the Chaldean
Monuments, and Mochus, and Hestieus, and, besides these, Hieronymus the
Egyptian, and those who composed the Phoenician History, agree to what
I here say: Hesiod also, and Hecatseus, Hellanicus, and Acusilaus; and,
besides these, Ephorus and Nicolaus relate that the ancients lived a
thousand years. But as to these matters, let every one look upon them as
he thinks fit.

CHAPTER 4. Concerning The Tower Of Babylon, And The Confusion Of
Tongues.

1. Now the sons of Noah were three,--Shem, Japhet, and Ham, born one
hundred years before the Deluge. These first of all descended from
the mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitation there; and
persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account
of the flood, and so were very loath to come down from the higher
places, to venture to follow their examples. Now the plain in which they
first dwelt was called Shinar. God also commanded them to send colonies
abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth, that they might not
raise seditions among themselves, but might cultivate a great part of
the earth, and enjoy its fruits after a plentiful manner. But they were
so ill instructed that they did not obey God; for which reason they fell
into calamities, and were made sensible, by experience, of what sin they
had been guilty: for when they flourished with a numerous youth, God
admonished them again to send out colonies; but they, imagining the
prosperity they enjoyed was not derived from the favor of God, but
supposing that their own power was the proper cause of the plentiful
condition they were in, did not obey him. Nay, they added to this their
disobedience to the Divine will, the suspicion that they were therefore
ordered to send out separate colonies, that, being divided asunder, they
might the more easily be Oppressed.

2. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt
of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of
great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as
if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it
was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually
changed the