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as a hostage to Thebes to Epaminondas, a military man flourishing in Thebes, at that time he became an emulator of his virtue, 314 and when he became king, he truly pursued these things; from which he also greatly increased the rule of the Macedonians. And when he was killed by Pausanias, Alexander his son became king, the one who conquered the Persians. He ruled the Macedonians as the 24th king for 12 years, the son of Philip and Olympias. And it was the year of the world 5156. Alexander conquered the Illyrians and Thracians, he razed Thebes, he defeated the generals of Darius at the Granicus river of the Lydians, he captured Sardis, he besieged Tyre, he took possession of Judea, and honored the high priest Jaddua, sacrificing to God, as confessing to have received the inhabited world from Him; as governor of which, along with the other regions, he appointed Andromachus; whom the inhabitants of Samaria killed, they paid the penalty when Alexander returned from Egypt. Alexander, having taken the city of Samaria, settled Macedonians in it. The first year of the kingdom of the Greeks they count from the 7th year of Alexander; for Greeks and Macedonians are the same. From the 7th year of Alexander until the 22nd of Cleopatra are 300 years. Alexandria in Egypt was founded in the 7th year of Alexander. In the same year, Alexander, returning from Egypt, punished those in Samaria for the murder of Andromachus, by settling Macedonians in their city. In the same year the battle in Arbela of Media was fought, in which Darius was killed by Bessus and his Bactrians, and Alexander took over the Persian kingdom along with Babylon and Susa, which had lasted from Cyrus until Darius for 230 years. He himself subdued the Hyrcanians and Mardians, Bessus was captured, Alexander conquered Sogdiana. He himself subdued the Aornus rock and crossed the Bernaboas river of the Indians to Dandamis the Brahman. 315 Having made an effort to show that the 5170th year of the world coincides with the end of Alexander the Macedonian, so that the years taken from Philip after Alexander according to the handy astronomical canons of Ptolemy might agree with us in the succeeding years, I found that Cyrus the first king of the Persians, in the years coming down from Nabonassar to Alexander, had reigned over the Persians for only 9 years in all the accurate canons. But not being able to set Cyrus's reign in order this way because it contradicts the divine scriptures (for everywhere he is said to have reigned for 31 years by the ecclesiastical historians), of necessity, from the years of Ochus, which are disputed by some, subtracting the years that seemed to be superfluous, instead of 21, I have set in order only 5 for him, and the canon is in agreement. The account concerning the kingdom of the Macedonians, because of the virtue of Alexander and Philip his father, is by nature necessary to those who love learning and are zealous about these things. Let it therefore be set forth summarily under one synopsis, beginning from Caranus the first king of the Macedonians down to Alexander. Now, the first lineage of the kings of the Macedonians is traced back to Heracles. For 80 years after the capture of Troy, the Heraclidae held the Peloponnese, from whom the kingdoms of the Corinthians and Lacedaemonians were first established. But in later times, around the end of these, the kingdom of the Macedonians began thus. Caranus the Argive, being the brother of Pheidon, one of those who 316 trace their lineage from Heracles and who was king of the Argives, being eager to conquer a country for himself, gathered a force from his brother and from the whole Peloponnese, with which he campaigned in the regions beyond Macedonia, having allied himself at the same time with a certain dynast of the so-called Orestae in the land against the neighboring barbarians, he took half the land and raised a city according to an oracle and established a kingdom in it, which those of his line after him succeeded to. This Caranus was the 11th from Heracles, and from Temenus, who came down into the Peloponnese with the other Heraclidae, the 7th.
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ὁμηρείαν εἰς Θήβας Ἐπαμυνοδότῳ κατὰ τὰς Θήβας ἀκμάζοντι στρατηγικῷ ἀνδρί, τότε ζηλωτὴς γέγονε τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀρετῆς, 314 βασιλεύσας δὲ ὄντως μετιὼν τοῖς πράγμασιν· ὅθεν καὶ τὴν Μακεδόνων ἀρχὴν μεγάλως ηὔξησε. τούτου δὲ ἀναιρεθέντος ὑπὸ Παυσανίου Ἀλέξαν δρος παῖς αὐτοῦ ἐβασίλευσεν ὁ Πέρσας καταπολεμήσας. Μακεδόνων κδʹ ἐβασίλευσεν ἔτη ιβʹ ὁ Φιλίππου καὶ Ὀλυμπιάδος παῖς. τοῦ δὲ κόσμου ἦν ἔτος ερνςʹ. Ἀλέξανδρος Ἰλλυριοὺς καὶ Θρᾷκας εἷλε, Θήβας κατέσκαψε, τοὺς ∆αρείου στρατηγοὺς ἐπὶ τῷ Γρανικῷ ποταμῷ Λυδῶν ἐνίκησε, Σάρδεις εἷλε, Τύρον ἐπολιόρκησεν, Ἰουδαίαν προσελάβετο, καὶ τὸν ἀρχιερέα Ἰαδδοὺς ἐτίμησε θύσας τῷ θεῷ, ὡς παρ' αὐτοῦ τὴν οἰκουμένην ὁμολογῶν προσειληφέναι· ἧς καὶ ἐπιμελητὴν μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν τόπων Ἀνδρόμαχον κατέστησεν· ὃν ἀνελόντες οἱ τὴν Σαμαρέων οἰκοῦντες δίκας ἔτισαν ἐπανελθόντος Ἀλεξάνδρου ἐξ Αἰγύπτου. τὴν Σαμάρειαν πόλιν ἑλὼν Ἀλέξανδρος Μακεδόνας ἐν αὐτῇ κατῴκισεν. Ἑλλήνων βασιλείας ἔτος αʹ ἀπὸ ζʹ ἔτους Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀριθμοῦσιν· Ἕλληνες γὰρ καὶ Μακεδόνες οἱ αὐτοί. Ἀπὸ ζʹ ἔτους Ἀλεξάνδρου ἕως κβʹ Κλεοπάτρας ἔτη τʹ. Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ κατ' Αἴγυπτον ζʹ ἔτει Ἀλεξάνδρου ἐκτίσθη. Τῷ αὐτῷ ἔτει τοὺς ἐν Σαμαρείᾳ διὰ τὸν Ἀνδρομάχου φόνον ἐπανιὼν Ἀλέξανδρος ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἐτιμωρήσατο, Μακεδόνας ἐγκατοικίσας τῇ πόλει αὐτῶν. Τῷ αὐτῷ ἔτει ἡ ἐν Ἀρβήλοις τῆς Μηδικῆς ἤχθη μάχη, καθ' ἣν ∆αρεῖος μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν περὶ Βῆσσον ἀνῃρέθη τῶν Βακτριανῶν, Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ τὴν Περσικὴν βασιλείαν σὺν τῇ Βαβυλῶνι καὶ Σουσᾶν προσηγάγετο, διαρκέσα σαν ἀπὸ Κύρου ἕως ∆αρείου ἔτη σλʹ. ὁ αὐτὸς Ὑρκανοὺς καὶ Μάρδους ἐχειρώσατο, Βῆσσος συνελήφθη, Ἀλέξανδρος Σογδιανὴν κατεστρέψατο. ὁ αὐτὸς τὴν Ἀορνὴν πέτραν ἐχειρώσατο καὶ Βερναβοᾶν ποταμὸν Ἰνδῶν πρὸς ∆άνδαμιν διέβη Βραχμανόν. 315 Σπουδὴν θέμενος τὸ εροʹ ἔτος τοῦ κόσμου κατὰ τὸ τέλος Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος ἀποδεῖξαι συντρέχον, ὡς ἂν καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ Φιλίππου μετὰ Ἀλέξανδρον ἔτη λαμβανόμενα κατὰ τοὺς Πτολεμαίου προχείρους τῆς ἀστρονομίας κανόνας ὁμοφωνεῖν ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς ἡμῖν ἔτεσιν, εὗρον Κῦρον τὸν αʹ βασιλέα Περσῶν ἐν τοῖς ἀπὸ Ναβονασάρου καταγομένοις ἐπὶ Ἀλέξανδρον ἔτεσιν θʹ μόνον ἔτη βασιλεύσαντα Περσῶν ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἀκριβέσι κανονίοις. μὴ δυνάμενος δὲ Κῦρον οὕτω στοιχειῶσαι διὰ τὸ ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς ἀντιπίπτειν (ἁπανταχοῦ γὰρ λαʹ ἔτη κεῖται βασιλεύσας παρὰ τοῖς ἐκκλησιαστικοῖς ἱστορικοῖς) ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐκ τῶν Ὤχου χρόνων ἀμφιβαλλομένων παρ' ἐνίοις ὑφελὼν ἔτη τὰ δοκοῦντα εἶναι περιττὰ ἀντὶ τῶν καʹ εʹ μόνα ἐπ' αὐτοῦ ἐστοιχείωσα, καὶ ἔστιν ὁ κανὼν σύμφωνος. Ὁ περὶ τῆς βασιλείας Μακεδόνων λόγος διὰ τὴν ἀρετὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ Φιλίππου τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ τοῖς φιλομαθέσι καὶ περὶ ταῦτα σπουδά ζουσιν ἀναγκαῖος πέφυκε. προκείσθω γοῦν κεφαλαιωδῶς ὑπὸ μίαν σύνοψιν ἀρχόμενος ἀπὸ Καράνου τοῦ πρώτου βασιλέως Μακεδόνων ἕως Ἀλεξάνδρου. τὸ μὲν οὖν πρῶτον γένος τοῖς βασιλεῦσι τῶν Μακεδόνων εἰς Ἡρακλέα ἀναφέρεται. μετὰ γὰρ τὴν ἅλωσιν Τροίας ἔτεσιν πʹ Ἡρακλεῖδαι κατέσχον τὴν Πελοπόννησον, ἐξ ὧν αἱ τῶν Κορινθίων καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων βασιλεῖαι πρῶται συνέστησαν. χρόνοις δὲ ὕστερον περὶ τὰ τέλη τούτων ἡ τῶν Μακεδόνων ἤρξατο βασιλεία οὕτως. Κάρανος ὁ Ἀργεῖος ἀδελφὸς ὢν Φείδωνος ἑνὸς τῶν ἀφ' Ἡρακλέους 316 καταγόντων τὸ γένος καὶ τῆς Ἀργείας βασιλεύοντος σπουδάζων ἑαυτῷ χώραν κατακτήσασθαι δύναμιν ἤθροισε παρὰ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ καὶ ἐκ τῆς ὅλης Πελοποννήσου, μεθ' οἷς τοῖς ὑπὲρ Μακεδονίαν τόποις ἐπιστρατεύσας, συμμαχήσας ἅμα καί τινι τῶν Ὀρεστῶν λεγομένων δυνάστῃ περὶ τὴν χώ ραν κατὰ τῶν πλησιοχώρων βαρβάρων, τὴν ἡμίσειαν ἔλαβε χώραν καὶ πόλιν ἤγειρε κατὰ χρησμὸν καὶ βασιλείαν ἐν αὐτῇ συνεστήσατο, ἣν οἱ κατὰ γένος ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ μετ' αὐτὸν διεδέχοντο. Οὗτος ὁ Κάρανος ἀπὸ μὲν Ἡρακλέους ιαʹ ἦν, ἀπὸ δὲ Τημένου τοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων Ἡρακλειδῶν κατελθόντος εἰς Πελοπόννησον ζʹ.