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to learn of the soul's transmigration from the Egyptians. And they suppose that Democritus spent five years among them and was taught many things concerning astrology, and that Oinopides, likewise, having spent time with the priests and astrologers, learned other things and especially about the solar cycle, that its course is oblique, and that it makes its motion contrary to the other stars. 10.8.15 And similarly that Eudoxus, having studied astrology among them and having published many useful things for the Greeks, attained a noteworthy reputation. 10.8.16 And of all the ancient sculptors, the most renowned spent time among them, Telecles and Theodorus, the sons of Rhoecus, who made the wooden statue of Pythian Apollo for the Samians.” 10.8.17 So much also from Diodorus. But let this argument, having been thus demonstrated, here find its end for me. It is not right, then, to accuse us of irrationality, if indeed we ourselves have gone over, with a longing for true piety, to the teachers of the wise men of the Greeks and of their very own philosophers—the barbarians, I mean—if indeed the Hebrews are barbarians. 10.8.18 It would be well to go through the times in which Moses and the prophets after Moses flourished, since this too would be one of the most essential things for the present treatise, that those who are about to engage with the oracles of the men should first grasp their antiquity, so that, if those among the Greeks who hold the same opinions should appear to be in agreement with the prophets and theologians of the Hebrews, you may no longer doubt who it was likely learned from whom, whether the elder learned from the younger—the Hebrews from the Greeks and the barbarians from the philosophers, whose very language it was not likely they understood—or, as is more likely, the younger from the elder, and that the Greeks, who have meddled with the affairs of most nations, were not ignorant of the Hebrews' writings either, having been translated from the beginning into the Greek language.

10.9.1 9. CONCERNING THE ANTIQUITY OF MOSES AND THE PROPHETS AMONG THE HEBREWS

Concerning the antiquity of Moses and the prophets after him, very many others have diligently set forth the proof in their own writings, 10.9.2 from which I shall presently quote a few small excerpts. But I, proceeding on a newer path than those mentioned, will use this method. Since the times of Augustus, emperor of the Romans, and the birth of our Savior admittedly coincide, and Christ made the beginning of his evangelical teaching in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, if anyone should wish to reckon from this the number of years, proceeding to the earlier times up to Darius the king of the Persians and the renewal under him of the temple in Jerusalem, which took place after the return of the Jewish nation from Babylon, he would find from Tiberius 10.9.3 to the second year of Darius 548 years. For the second year of Darius corresponds to the first year of the 65th Olympiad, and the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius 10.9.4 coincides with the 4th year of the 201st Olympiad. Thus, there are 137 Olympiads between Darius the Persian and Tiberius the Roman emperor, which amount to a period of 548 years, the Olympiad being reckoned as a four-year period. 10.9.5 And since, in the second year of Darius, it was the 70th year of the desolation of the temple in Jerusalem, as the history of the Hebrews represents, and from there again, reckoning back from the second year of Darius to the 1st Olympiad, 256 years would be totaled, being 64 Olympiads, so many you would find from the

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ψυχῆς μεταβολὴν μαθεῖν παρ' Αἰγυπτίων. ὑπολαμβάνουσι δὲ καὶ ∆ημόκριτον παρ' αὐτοῖς ἔτη διατρῖψαι πέντε καὶ πολλὰ διδαχθῆναι τῶν κατὰ ἀστρολογίαν τόν τε Οἰνοπίδην ὁμοίως συνδιατρίψαντα τοῖς ἱερεῦσι καὶ ἀστρολόγοις μαθεῖν ἄλλα τε καὶ μάλιστα τὸν ἡλιακὸν κύκλον, ὡς λοξὴν μὲν ἔχει τὴν πορείαν, ἐναντίαν δὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἄστροις τὴν φορὰν 10.8.15 ποιεῖται. παραπλησίως δὲ καὶ τὸν Εὔδοξον ἀστρολογήσαντα παρ' αὐτοῖς καὶ πολλὰ τῶν χρησίμων εἰς τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἐκδόντα τυχεῖν ἀξιολόγου δόξης. 10.8.16 πάντων δὲ τῶν παλαιῶν ἀγαλματοποιῶν τοὺς μάλιστα διωνομασμένους διατετριφέναι παρ' αὐτοῖς, Τηλεκλέα καὶ Θεόδωρον, τοὺς Ῥοίκου μὲν υἱούς, κατασκευάσαντας δὲ τοῖς Σαμίοις τὸ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος τοῦ Πυθίου ξόανον.» 10.8.17 Τοσαῦτα δὲ καὶ ∆ιόδωρος. ἀλλ' οὗτος μὲν ὁ λόγος ὧδέ πως ἀποδεδειγμένος ἐνταῦθά μοι εἰληφέτω τέλος. οὐ δεῖ δὴ λοιπὸν ἀλογίας ἡμῶν κατηγορεῖν, εἰ δὴ τοὺς τῶν σοφῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ αὐτῶν γε τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς φιλοσόφων διδασκάλους, τοὺς βαρβάρους λέγω, πόθῳ τῆς ἀληθοῦς εὐσεβείας 10.8.18 καὶ αὐτοὶ μετήλθομεν, εἴ γε βάρβαροι Ἑβραῖοι. ὧν τοὺς χρόνους, καθ' οὓς ἤκμασαν Μωσῆς τε καὶ οἱ μετὰ Μωσέα προφῆται, εὖ ἂν ἔχοι διελθεῖν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτ' ἂν εἴη ἕν τι τῶν μάλιστα συνεκτικωτάτων τῇ προκειμένῃ πραγματείᾳ, τὸ μέλλοντας τῶν παρὰ τοῖς ἀνδράσι λογίων ἐφάπτεσθαι προδιαλαβεῖν περὶ τῆς ἀρχαιότητος αὐτῶν, ἵν', εἰ φανεῖεν τοῖς Ἑβραίων προφήταις τε καὶ θεολόγοις οἱ παρ' Ἕλλησιν ὁμοδοξοῦντες, μηκέτ' ἀμφιβάλλοις τίνας ἦν εἰκὸς τὰ παρὰ τίνων ἀναλέξασθαι, πότερα τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους τὰ τῶν νέων, Ἑβραίους τε τὰ Ἑλλήνων καὶ βαρβάρους τὰ φιλοσόφων, ὧν οὐδὲ τῆς γλώσσης εἰκὸς ἦν ἐπαΐειν, ἢ ὅπερ καὶ μᾶλλον εἰκός τοὺς νέους τὰ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ τοὺς τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἐθνῶν περιειργασμένους Ἕλληνας καὶ τὰ Ἑβραίων μὴ ἀγνοῆσαι, ἀρχῆθεν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα φωνὴνμεταβεβλημένα.

10.9.1 θʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΤΗΤΟΣ ΜΩΣΕΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΠΑΡ' ΕΒΡΑΙΟΙΣ ΠΡΟΦΗΤΩΝ

Μωσέως πέρι καὶ τῆς τῶν μετ' αὐτὸν προφητῶν ἀρχαιότητος πλεῖστοι μὲν ἄλλοι διὰ σπουδῆς τὴν ἀπόδειξιν ἐν οἰκείοις καταβέβληνται συγγράμ10.9.2 μασιν, ἀφ' ὧν αὐτίκα μάλα σμικρὰ ἄττα παραθήσομαι. κἀγὼ δὲ καινοτέραν παρὰ τοὺς εἰρημένους ὁδεύσας ταύτῃ χρήσομαι τῇ μεθόδῳ. συντρεχόντων ὁμολογουμένως τῶν χρόνων Αὐγούστου Ῥωμαίων αὐτοκράτορος καὶ τῆς τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν γενέσεως ἀρχήν τε τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς διδασκαλίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ ποιησαμένου κατὰ τὸ πεντεκαιδέκατον ἔτος Τιβερίου Καίσαρος, εἴ τις ἀπὸ τούτου συναγαγεῖν ἐθέλοι τὸν τῶν ἐτῶν ἀριθμόν, προϊὼν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀνωτέρω χρόνους τοὺς μέχρι ∆αρείου τοῦ Περσῶν βασιλέως καὶ τῆς κατ' αὐτὸν ἀνανεώσεως τοῦ ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις νεώ, ἣ γέγονε μετὰ τὴν ἀπὸ Βαβυλῶνος ἐπάνοδον τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους, εὕροι ἂν ἀπὸ Τιβερίου 10.9.3 ἐπὶ τὸ δεύτερον ἔτος ∆αρείου ἔτη φμηʹ· ∆αρείου μὲν γὰρ τὸ δεύτερον κατὰ τὸ πρῶτον ἔτος τῆς ξεʹ Ὀλυμπιάδος καταντᾷ, Τιβερίου δὲ τὸ πεντεκαιδέκατον 10.9.4 τῆς Ῥωμαίων βασιλείας κατὰ τὸ δʹ τῆς σαʹ Ὀλυμπιάδος συμπίπτει. γίνονται τοίνυν αἱ μεταξὺ ∆αρείου τοῦ Πέρσου καὶ Τιβερίου τοῦ Ῥωμαίων βασιλέως Ὀλυμπιάδες ρλζʹ, αἳ συνάγουσι χρόνον ἐτῶν φμηʹ, τετραετίας τῇ Ὀλυμ10.9.5 πιάδι λογιζομένης. ἐπεὶ δὲ κατὰ τὸ δεύτερον ἔτος ∆αρείου τὸ οʹ ὑπῆρχε τῆς ἐρημίας τοῦ ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις νεώ, καθὼς τὰ τῆς Ἑβραίων ἱστορίας παρίστησι, κἀντεῦθεν πάλιν ἀνατρεχόντων ἀπὸ μὲν τοῦ δευτέρου ἔτους ∆αρείου ἐπὶ τὴν αʹ Ὀλυμπιάδα ἔτη συνάγοιτ' ἂν σνʹ, Ὀλυμπιάδες ξδʹ, τοσαῦτα δ' ἂν εὕροις τὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ