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means he had like to have been starved, (his meat and drink being subject to the same transformation,) had not Bacchus delivered him from this miserable faculty, by causing him to wash himself in the river Pactolus, the stream whereof hath ever since, forsooth, abounded in that precious metal. Finally, it is said, he died by drinking bulls blood, being invaded by the Scythians.

In this age flourished that Antimachus, who, (saith Plutarch in the life of Romulus,) observed the moon's eclipse at the foundation of Rome.

The Milesians, or, (as Eusebius hath it,) the Athenians, having obtained some power by sea, founded Macicratis a city on the east of Egypt. Psammeticus herein seems to have assisted them, who used all means of drawing the Greeks into Egypt, accounting them his surest strength. For neither Miletus, nor Athens, were now of power sufficient to plant a colony in Egypt by force.

About this time, Archias, with his companion Miscellus, and other Corinthians, founded Syracuse in Sicily 3; a city in after-times exceeding famous.

The city of Nicomedia, sometime Astacus, was enlarged and beautified in this age, by Zipartes, native of Thrace. Sibylla of Samus, according to Pausanias, lived much about this time.

About these times also was Croton founded upon the bay of Tarentum by Miscellus, the companion of Archias that built Syracuse: Strabo makes it somewhat more ancient, and so doth Pausanias.

About the same time, the Parthenians, being of age, and banished Lacedæmon, were conducted by Phalantus into Italy, where it is said they founded Tarentum; but Justin and Pausanias find it built it before, and by them conquered and amplified. Also about the same time, Manasseh yet liv.

Plut. and Euseb. 4 Whence in Strabo there is sinus Astacenus, a part of Pro pontis where this city standeth. Paus. 1. v. Hal. 1. iii. Strabo l. vi. 6 Justin. I iii. Paus, 1. x.

ing, the city Phaselis was founded in Pamphylia, Gela in Sicily, Interamne in the region of the Umbri, now called Urbin in Italy. About which time also Chalcedon in Asia, over-against Byzantium, (now Constantinople,) was founded by the Megarenses; who therefore were upbraided as blind, because they chose not the other side of Bosphorus. It were a long work to rehearse all that is said to have been done in the five and fifty years of Manasseh; that which hath already been told is enough; the rest, being not greatly worth remembrance, may well be omitted, reserving only Ben Merodach and Nabulassar to the business that will shortly require more mention of them.

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CHAP. XXVIII.

OF THE TIMES FROM THE DEATH OF MANASSEH TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

SECT. I.

Of Ammon and Josiah.

AMMON, the son of Manasseh, a man no less wicked than was his father before his conversion, restored the exercise of all sorts of idolatry; for which God hardened the hearts of his own servants against him', who slew him after he had reigned two years. Philo, Eusebius, and Nicephorus, give him ten years, following the Septuagint.

Josiah succeeded unto Âmmon, being but a child of eight years old. He began to seek after the God of David his father; and in his twelfth year he purged Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and

the groves, and the carved and molten images; ⚫ and they broke down in his sight the altars of Baal'im. He caused all the images, as well those which were graven as molten, to be stamped to powder, and strewed on their graves that had erected them; and this he commanded to be done throughout all his dominions: he also slew those that sacrificed to the sun and moon, and caused the chariots and horses of the sun to be burnt. Of Josiah, it was prophesied, in the time of Jeroboam the first, 2 2 Chron. xxxiii. 2 Kings xxii. 2 Chron. xxxiv.

1 1 K.ngs. xxi.

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when he erected the golden calf at Bethel, that a child should be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and, upon thee, (said the prophet speaking to the altar,) shall he sacrifice the priests ' of the high places, that burn incense upon thee.'prophecy very remarkable.

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In the eighteenth year of his reign, he rebuilt and repaired the temple; at which time Hilkiah the priest found the book of Moses called Deuteronomy, or, of the Law, which he sent to the king; which, when he had caused to be read before him, and considered of the severe commandments therein written, the prosperity promised to those that observe them, and the sorrow and extirpation to the rest, he rent his garments, and commanded Hilkiah, and others, to ask council of the prophetess Huldah, or Olda, concerning the book, who answered the messengers in these words: Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring evil upon this place, and upon ⚫ the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are ' written in the book which they have read before ⚫ the king of Judah, because they have forsaken me, ⚫ and burnt incense to other Gods 4. Only for the king himself, because he was a lover of God and of his laws, it was promised that this evil should not fall on Judah and Jerusalem in his days, but he himself should inherit his grave in peace.

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Josiah assembled the elders, caused the book to be read unto them, made a covenant with the Lord, and caused all that were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to do the like, promising thereby to observe the laws and commandments in the book contained.

The execution done by Josiah upon the altar, idols, monuments, and bones of the false prophets at Bethel, argueth his dominion to have extended unto those countries, that had been part of the

3 I Kings xiii. 2 Chron. xxxiv.

4 2 Chron. xxxiv. 24.

52 Kings xxii. 18,

kingdom of the ten tribes. Yet I do not think, that any victory of Josiah in war got possession of these places; but rather that Hezekiah, after the flight and death of Sennacherib, when Merodach opposed himself against Esarhaddon, did use the advantage which the faction in the north presented unto him, and laid hold upon so much of the kingdom of Israel as he was able to people. Other wise, also, it is not improbable, that the Babylonian finding himself unable to deal with Psammeticus in Syria, (as wanting power to raise the siege of Azotus, though the town held out twenty-nine years,) did give unto Manasseh, together with his liberty, as much in Israel as himself could not easily defend. This was a good way to break the amity that the kings of Ju dah had so long held with those of Egypt, by casting a bone between them, and withal by this benefit of enlarging their territories with addition of more than they could challenge, to redeem the friendship of the Jews, which had been lost by injuries done, in seeking to bereave them of their own. When it is said, that Manasseh did, after his deliverance from imprisonment, put captains of war in all the strong cities of Judah,' it may be that some such business is intimated as the taking possession and fortifying of places delivered into his hands; for though it may be manifest that he took much pains in making Jerusalem itself more defensible, yet I should rather believe, that he, having already compounded with the Babylonians, did fortify himself against the Egyptians, whose side he had forsaken, than that he travelled in making such provisions only for his mind's sake. The earnestness of Josiah in the king of Babylon's quarrel, doth argue, that the composition which Manasseh had made with that king or his ancestor, was upon such friendly terms, as required not only a faithful observation,

€ 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14.

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