tories, which records have a great agreement with our books
in oilier things also. Berosus shall be witness to what I say: he was
by birth a Chaldean, well known by the learned, on account of his
publication of the Chaldean books of astronomy and philosophy among the
Greeks. This Berosus, therefore, following the most ancient records
of that nation, gives us a history of the deluge of waters that then
happened, and of the destruction of mankind thereby, and agrees with
Moses's narration thereof. He also gives us an account of that ark
wherein Noah, the origin of our race, was preserved, when it was brought
to the highest part of the Armenian mountains; after which he gives us
a catalogue of the posterity of Noah, and adds the years of their
chronology, and at length comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of
Babylon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of
this king, he describes to us how he sent his son Nabuchodonosor against
Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his being informed
that they had revolted from him; and how, by that means, he subdued them
all, and set our temple that was at Jerusalem on fire; nay, and removed
our people entirely out of their own country, and transferred them
to Babylon; when it so happened that our city was desolate during the
interval of seventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Persia. He
then says, "That this Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and
Phoenicia, and Arabia, and exceeded in his exploits all that had
reigned before him in Babylon and Chaldea." A little after which Berosus
subjoins what follows in his History of Ancient Times. I will set down
Berosus's own accounts, which are these: "When Nabolassar, father of
Nabuchodonosor, heard that the governor whom he had set over Egypt, and
over the parts of Celesyria and Phoenicia, had revolted from him, he was
not able to bear it any longer; but committing certain parts of his army
to his son Nabuchodonosor, who was then but young, he sent him against
the rebel: Nabuchodonosor joined battle with him, and conquered him, and
reduced the country under his dominion again. Now it so fell out that
his father Nabolassar fell into a distemper at this time, and died in
the city of Babylon, after he had reigned twenty-nine years. But as he
understood, in a little time, that his father Nabolassar was dead, he
set the affairs of Egypt and the other countries in order, and committed
the captives he h