Gensque virum truncis et duró robore nata; Queis neque mos, neque cultus erat; nec jungere tauros, Aut componere opes norânt, aut parcere parto: Sed rami, atque asper victu venatus alebat. He then proceeds to shew, how this people were disciplined and improved: all which, according to the usual mistake, he supposes to have been effected by one person, Saturn, instead of Saturnians. "Priimus ab æthereo venit Saturnus Olympo, cari Maluit, his quoniam latuisset tutus in oris. Lo mighty prince, these venerable woods Their birth primæval from the stubborn oak. Their food the savage fruits the forests yield; bove. મું He, by just laws, embodied all the train, Who roam'd the hills; and drew them to the plain; There fix'd and Latium call'd the new abode, Whose friendly shores conceal'd the latent God. These realins in peace the monarch long controll'd, And bless'd the nations with an age of Gold. Translated by Pitt. This account is confused, yet we may discern in it a true history of the first ages; as may be observed likewise in Hesiod. Both the poets, however the scene may be varied, allude to the happy times immediately after the deluge; when the great Patriarch had full power over his descendants; when equity prevailed without written law. These traditions, as I have repeatedly taken no tice, being adopted and prefixed to the histories of the countries where the Amonians settled, have introduced a Saturn in Ausonia; and an Inachus and Phoroneus at Argos: and in consequence of it, the deluge, to which the two latter were witnesses, has been limited to the same place, and rendered a partial 20 inundation. But, in reality, these accounts relate to another climate, and to a far earlier age: to those times, when, according to "Hyginus, the first kingdom upon earth was constituted; and when one language only prevailed among the sons of men. 20 Ην δε κατα την Ελλαδα, κατα μεν Φορωνέα τον μετ' Ιναχον, On: Nyvyų naranλvoμos. Clem. Alexandr. Strom. 1. 1. 21 Fab. 143. p. 379. OF CUSHAN OR ETHIOPIA; AND OF THE VARIOUS COLONIES, AND DENOMINATIONS OF THE CUTHITES. WE may, I think, be assured, that by the term Scuthai, Exula, are to be understood Cuthai or Cutheans. It may therefore be proper to go to the fountain head, and to givè an account of the original people, from whom so many of different denominations were derived. They were the sons of Chus, who seized upon the region of Babylonia and Chaldea, and constituted the first kingdom upon earth. They were called by other nations Cushan; also Χεσαιοι, Άραβες, Ωρείται, Egulgason, Aidiomes, Cuseans, Arabians, Oreita, Eru thraans, and Ethiopians: but among themselves their general patronymic was Cuth, and their country Cutha. I shall take notice of them in their several migrations under each of these appellations. They were an ingenious and knowing people, as I have before observed, and at the same time very prolific. They combined with others of the line of Ham, and were enabled very early to carry on an extensive commerce, and to found many colonies; so that they are to be traced in the most remote parts of the earth. These settlements have been enumerated by Eusebius, Syncellus, and other writers, as far as they could be discovered. Nor must we wonder if they appear so numerous, and so widely extended, as it is perfectly consonant to their original history. For we are informed by 2 Moses, when he enumerates the principal persons by whom the earth was peopled, that Ham had I 2 Syncellus. p. 46. 47. 48. Johan. Malala. p. 15. Euseb. Chron. p. 11. 12. See also Vol. ii. of this work, p. 489. 490. 494. See particularly the Chronicon Paschale. p. 29. 30. 2 Genesis. c. 10. On account of the comparative smallness to be observed in the line of Japhet, that encouraging prophecy was given, that Japhet should one day be enlarged. God shall enlarge Japhet. This, within these few centuries, has been wonderfully completed. |