don, who was one of the seven princes; Parthenopaus being another of the seven, (who was said to have been so fair, that none would hurt him when his face was bare,) was slain by Amphidicus, or, as some say, by Periclymenus the son of Neptune; and the valiant Tydeus by Menalippus: yet ere Tydeus died, the head of Menalipus was brought unto him by Amphiaraus, which he cruelly tore open, and swallowed up the brains. Upon which fact, it is said that Pallas, who had brought from Jupiter such remedy for his wounds as should have made him immortal, refused to bestow it upon him; whereby, perhaps, was meant, that his honour, which might have continued immortal, did perish, through the beastly rage that he shewed at his death.

The host of the Argives being wholly discomfited, Adrastus and Amphiaraus fled; of whom Amphiaraus is said to have been swallowed quick into the earth, near to the river Ismenus, together with his chariot, and so lost out of mens sights; being peradventure overwhelmed with dead carcases, or drowned in the river, and his body never found, nor greatly sought for. Adrastus escaped on his good horse Arion, and came to Athens; where sitting at an altar, called the altar of mercy, he made supplication for their aid to recover their bodies. For Creon having obtained the government of Thebes, after the death of Eteocles, would not suffer the bodies of the Aigives to be bu ried; but caused Antigone, the only daughter then living of Oedipus, to be buried quick, because she had sought out and buried the body of her brother Polynices, contrary to Creon's edict. The Athenians, condescending to the request of Adrastus, did send forth an army under the conduct of Theseus, which took Thebes, and restored the bodies of the Argives to sepulchre; at which time Evadne, the wife of Capaneus, threw herself into the funeral fire, and was burnt willingly with her husband. But it little contented the sons of those captains which were

slain at Thebes, that any less revenge should be taken of their father's death, than the ruin of the city; wherefore, ten years after, having levied forces, gialeus, the son of Adrastus, Diomedes of Tydeus, Promachus of Parthenopæus, Sthenelus of Capaneus, Thersander of Polynices, and Euripylus of Mecisteus, marched thither under the conduct of Alemæon, the son of Amphiaraus; with whom also went his brother Amphiloctus. Apollo promised victory if Alcmæon were their captain, whom afterwards, by another oracle, he commanded to kill his own mother.

When they came to the city, they were encountered by Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, then king of the Thebans, (for Creon was only tutor to Laodamas,) who, though he did valiantly in the battle, and slew Ægialeus, yet was he put to the worst, and driven to fly, or, (according to Apollodorus,) slain by Alemæon. After this disaster, the citizens began to desire composition; but, in the mean time, they conveyed themselves, with their wives and children, away from thence by night, and so began to wander up and down, till at length they built the town called Estima. The Argives, when they perceived that their enemies had quitted the town, entering into it, sacked it, threw down the walls, and laid it waste: how beit it is reported by some, that the town was saved by Thersander, the son of Polynices, who causing the citizens to return, did there reign over them. That he saved the city from utter destruction, it is very likely; for he reigned there, and led the Thebans to the war of Troy, which very shortly after ensued.

SECT. IX.

Of Jephtha, and how the three hundred years which he speaketh of, Judg. xi. 28., are to be reconciled with the places, Acts xiii. 20., 1 Kings vi. 1.; together with some other things touching chronology about these times.

AFTER the death of Jair, (near about whose times these things happened in Greece, and during whose government, and that of Thola, Israel lived in peace and in order,) they revolted again from the law and service of God, and became more wicked and idolatrous than ever. For whereas in the former times they worshipped Baal and Asteroth', they now became followers of all the heathen nations adjoining, and embraced the idols of the Aramites, of the Zidonians, Moabites, and Ammonites, with those of the Philistines. And as it before pleased God to correct them by the Aramites, by the Amalekites, and Midianites; so now he scourged them by the Ammonites, and afterwards by the Philistines.

Now among the Israelites, those of Gilead being most oppressed, because they bordered upon the Ammonites, they were enforced to seek Jephtha, whom they had formerly despised and cast from them, because he was base born; but he, (notwithstanding those former injuries,) participating more of godly compassion, than of devilish hatred and revenge, was content to lead the Gileadites to the war, upon condition that they should establish him their governor, after victory. And when he had disputed with Ammon for the land, disproved Ammon's right, and fortified the title of Israel by many arguments; the same prevailing nothing, he began the war, and being strengthened by God, overthrew them; and did not only beat them out of the plains, but forced them

1 Judg. x. 2 The persecution of the Ammonites lasted eighteen years, and ended in the year of the world 2820, in which year Jephtha began. Judg. xi.

over the mountains of Arabia, even to Minnith3, and Abel of the vineyards, cities expressed heretofore in the description of the Holy Land. After which victory, it is said, that he performed the vain vow which he made, to sacrifice the first living creature he encountered, coming out of his house to meet him; which happened to be his own daughter, and only child, who with all patience submitted herself, and only desired two months time to bewail her virginity on the mountains of Gilead, because in her the issues of her father ended; but the other opinion, that she was not offered, is more probable, which Borræus and others prove sufficiently.

4

After these things, the children of Israel, of the tribe of Ephraim, either envious of Jephtha's victory, otherwise making way to their future calamity, and to the most grievous slavery that ever Israel suffered, quarrelled with Jephtha, that they were not called to the war, as before time they had contested with Gideon. Jephtha hereupon, enforced to defend himself against their fury, in the encounter slew of them forty-two thousands, which so weakened the body of the land, as the Philistines had an easy conquest of them all not long after. Jephtha, after he had judged Israel six years, died; to whom succeeded Ibzan, who ruled seven years; after him, Elon was their judge ten years: in all which time Israel had peace. Eusebius finds not Elon, whom he calleth Adon; for in the Septuagint, approved in his time, this judge was omitted.

Now, before I go on with the rest, it shall be necessary, upon the occasion of Jephtha's account of the times, Judg. xi. 28., (where he says that Israel had then possessed the east side of Jordan three hundred years,) to speak somewhat of the times of the judges, and of the differing opinions among the divines and chronologers; there being found three places of scripture, touching this point, seeming re

3 Judg. xi. 35. 4 Bor. in Judg. 5 Judg. xii.

pugnant, or disagreeing: the first is in this dispute between Jephtha and Ammon, for the right and possession of Gilead: the second is that of St. Paul, Acts xiii.; the third is that which is in the first of Kings. Jephtha here challengeth the possession of Gilead for three hundred years; St. Paul giveth to the judges, as it seems, from the end of Joshua, to the last of Heli, four hundred and fifty years. In the first of Kings, it is taught, that from the departing of Israel out of Egypt, to the foundation of Solomon's temple, there were consumed four hundred and eighty years. To the first, Beroaldus findeth Jephtha's three hundred years to be but two hundred and sixty-six years, to wit, eighteen of Joshua, forty of Othoniel, eighty of Aod and Samgar, forty of Deborah, forty of Gideon, three of Abimelech, twentythree of Thola, and twenty-two of Jair. But Jephtha, (saith Beroaldus ), putteth or proposeth a certain number, for an uncertain: Sic ut dicat annum agi prope trecentesimum, ex quo nullus litem ea de re moverit Israeli:' so he speaketh, (saith he,) as meaning, that then it was about or well nigh the three hundredth years, since Israel possessed those countries, no man making question of their right. Codoman, on the contrary, finds more years than Jephtha named by sixty-five, viz. three hundred and sixty-five, whereof seventy-one were spent in Israel's captivity, at several times; of which, (as Codoman thinketh,) Jephtha forbare to repeat the whole sum, or any great part, lest the Ammonites should have justly objected that seventy-one of those years the Israelites were in captivity, and vassals to their neighbour princes; and therefore knowing, that to name three hundred years, it was enough for prescription, he omitted the rest.

To justify this account of three hundred and sixty-five years, besides the seventy-one years of captivity or affliction, to be added to Beroaldus's two

6 Id facit, numero certo pro incerto proposito.