hich has been observed by [948]many: but
this ingenious writer unfortunately opposes all who have written upon the
subject, however determinately they may have expressed themselves. [949]At
quicquid dixerint, ille (Zoroaster) fuit tantum unus, isque tempore Darii
Hystaspis: nec ejus nomine plures unquam extitere. It is to be observed,
that the person, whom he styles Zoroaster, was one Zerdusht. He lived, it
seems, in the reign of Darius, the father of Xerxes; which was about the
time of the battle of Marathon: consequently not a century before the birth
of Eudoxus, Xenophon, and Plato. We have therefore no authority to suppose
[950]this Zerdusht to have been the famous Zoroaster. He was apparently the
renewer of the Sabian rites: and we may be assured, that he could not be
the person so celebrated by the antients, who was referred to the first
ages. Hyde asserts, that all writers agree about the time, when Zoroaster
made his appearance: and he places him, as we have seen above, in the reign
of Darius. But Xanthus Lydius made him above [951]six hundred years prior.
And [952]Suidas from some anonymous author places him five hundred years
before the war of Troy. Hermodorus Platonicus went much farther, and made
him five thousand years before that [953]aera. Hermippus, who professedly
wrote of his doctrines, supposed him to have been of the same
[954]antiquity. Plutarch also [955]concurs, and allows him five thousand
years before that war. Eudoxus, who was a consummate philosopher, and a
great traveller, supposed him to have flourished six thousand years before
the death of [956]Plato. Moses [957]Chorenensis, and [958]Cephalion, make
him only contemporary with Ninus, and Semiramis: but even this removes him
very far from the reign of Darius. Pliny goes beyond them all; and places
him many thousand years before Moses. [959]Est et alia Magices factio, a
Mose, et Jamne, et Lotapea Judaeis pendens: sed multis millibus annorum post
Zoroastrem. The numbers in all these authors, are extravagant: but so much
we may learn from them, that they relate to a person of the highest
antiquity. And the purport of the original writers, from whence the
Grecians borrowed their evidence, was undoubtedly to shew, that the person
spoken of lived at the extent of time; at the commencement of all
historical data. No fact, no memorial upon record, is placed so high as
they have carried this personage. Had Zoroaster been no earlier than
Darius, Eudoxus