2. That the first ten kings of Babylon reigned 120 _sari_, equal to
432,000 years; or on an average 43,200 years apiece.
With _data_ of this sort, we must either abandon the chronology
altogether, or else change the power of the word _year_. The first
of these alternatives was adopted by Cicero and Pliny, and doubtless
other of the ancients--_contemnamus etiam Babylonios et eos qui e
Caucaso cœli signa observantes numeris et motubus stellarum cursus
persequuntur; condemnemus inquam hos aut stultitiæ aut vanitatis aut
impudentiæ qui_ CCCCLXX _millia annorum, ut ipsi dicunt, monumentis
comprehensa continent_.--_Cic. de Divinat._, from Cory's _Ancient
Fragments_. Again--_e diverso Epigenes apud Babylonios_ DCCXX _annorum
observationes siderum coctilibus laterculis inscriptas docet, gravis
auctor in primis: qui minimum Berosus et Critodemus_ CCCCLXXX
_annorum_.--Pliny, vii. 56. On the other hand, to alter the value of
the word ἔτος or _annus_ has been the resource of at least one
modern philologist.
Now if we treat the question by what may be called the _tentative_
method, the first step in our inquiry will be to find some division
of time which shall, at once, be _natural_ in itself, and also short
enough to make 10 _sari_ possible parts of an average human life. For
this, even a _day_ will be too long. _Twelve hours_, however, or half a
νυχθήμερον, will give us possible results.
Taking this view therefore, and leaving out of the account the 29th of
February, the words ἔτος and _annus_ mean, not a year, but the 730th
part of one; 3600 of which make a _sarus_. In other words, a _sarus_
= 1800 day-times and 1800 night-times, or 3600 half νυχθήμερα, or 4
years+340 days.
The texts to which the present hypothesis applies are certain passages
in Eusebius and Syncellus. These are founded upon the writings of
Alexander Polyhistor, Apollodorus, Berosus, and Abydenus. From hence we
learn the length of the ten reigns alluded to above, viz. 120 _sari_ or
591 years and odd days. _Reigns_ of this period are just possible. It
is suggested, however, that the _reign_ and _life_ are dealt with as
synonymous; or at any rate, that some period beyond that during which
each king sat singly on his throne has been recorded.
The method in question led the late Professor Rask to a different power
for the word _sarus_. In his _Ældste Hebraiske Tidregnung_ he writes as
follows: "The meaning of the so-called _sari_ has been impossible for
me to discover. The ancients explain it differently. Dr. Ludw. Ideler,
in his _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, i.
207, considers it to mean some lunar period; without however defining
it, and without sufficient closeness to enable us to reduce the 120
_sari_, attributed to the ten ancient kings, to any probable number of
real years. I should almost believe that the _sarus_ was a year of 23
months, so that the 120 _sari_ meant 240 natural years." _p._ 32. Now
Rask's hypothesis has the advantage of leaving the meaning of the word
_reign_ as we find it. On the other hand, it blinks the question of ἔτη
or _anni_ as the parts of a _sarus_. Each doctrine, however, is equally
hypothetical; the value of the _sarus_, in the present state of our
inquiry, resting solely upon the circumstance of its giving a plausible
result from plausible assumptions. The _data_ through which the present
writer asserts for his explanation the proper amount of probability are
contained in two passages hitherto unapplied.
1. From Eusebius--_is_ (Berosus) sarum _ex annis 3600 conflat. Addit
etiam nescio quem_ nerum _ac_ sosum: nerum _ait 600 annis constare,
sosum annis 60. Sic ille de veterum more annos computat._--Translation
of the Armenian Eusebius, p. 5, from _Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum_,
p. 439: Paris, 1841.
2. Berosus--σάρος δέ ἐστιν ἕξακόσια καὶ τρισχίλια ἔτη, νῖ ρος δὲ
ἕξακόσια, σώσσος ἑξήκοντα.--From Cory's _Ancient Fragments_.
Now the assumed value of the word translated _year_ (viz. 12 hours), in
its application to the passages just quoted, gives for the powers of
the three terms three divisions of time as natural as could be expected
under the circumstances.
1. Σώσσος.--The _sosus_ = 30 days and 30 nights, or 12 hours × 60, or a
month of 30 days, μὴν τριακονθήμερος. Aristotle writes--ἡ μὴν Λακωνικὴ
ἕκτον μέρος τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ, τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἡμέραι ἑξήκοντα.--From
Scaliger, _De Emendatione Temporum_, p. 23. Other evidence occurs in
the same page.
2. Νῆρος.--The _nerus_ = 10 _sosi_ or months=the old Roman year of that
duration.
3. Σάρος.--The _sarus_ = 6 _neri_ or 60 months of 30 days each; that
is, five proper years within 25 days. This would be a cycle or _annus
magnus_.
All these divisions are probable. Against that of 12 hours no objection
lies except its inconvenient shortness. The month of 30 days is
pre-eminently natural. The year of 10 months was common in early times.
In favour of the _sarus_ of five years (or nearly so) there are two
facts:--