the Philistines had held them in servitude in their own territories; and if Ephraim could have brought forty-two thousand armed men into the field, it is not likely that they were then oppressed; and had it been true that they were, who will doubt but that they would rather have fought against the Philis tines, with so powerful an army, for their own deliverance, than against their own brethren the Israelites? But Ammon being overthrown, it seemed, at that time, that they feared no other enemy. And therefore these forty years must either be supplied elsewhere, as in the time of Samson, and afterwards; or else they must be referred to the Inter-regnum, between the death of Habdon, and the deliverance of Israel by Samson, such as it was. CHAP. XIV. OF THE WAR OF TROY! SECT. I. Of the genealogy of the kings of Troy; with a note touching the ancient poets, how they have observed historical truth. TH HE war at Troy, with other stories hereupon, depending, (because the ruin of this city, by most chronologers, is found in the time of Habdon, judge of Israel, whom in the last place I have mentioned,) I rather choose here to entreat of in one entire narration, beginning with the lineal descent of their princes, than to break the story into pieces, by rehearsing apart, in divers years, the diversity of occurrents. The history of the ancient kings of Troy is uncertain; in regard both of their original, and of their continuance. It is commonly held that Teucer and Dardanus were the two founders of that kingdom. This is the opinion of Virgil, which if he, (as Reineccius thinks,) took from Berosus, it is the more probable; if Annius borrowed it of him, then it rests upon the authority of Virgil', who saith thus: 'Creta Jovis magni medio jacet insula ponto, 'In the main sea the isle of Crete doth lie, The towers of Troy; their dwelling place they sought 6 And hence the name of our Idæan grove.' Thus it seems by Virgil, who followed surely good authority, that Teucer first gave name to that country, wherein he reigned ere Troy was built by Dardanus; of which Dardanus, in the same book, he speaks thus: 1 Eneid l. iii. 'Est locus Hesperiam Graii cognomine dicunt: 'Hesperia the Grecians call the place; Atque equidem memini, (fama est obscurior annis,) Auruncos ita fere senes, hic ortus ut agris "Dardanus Idæus Phrygiæ penetravit ad urbes, 'Thraciamque Samum, quæ nunc Samothracia fertur: 'Hinc illum Coryti Tyrrhenâ ab sede profectum 'Aurea nunc solio stellantis regia cœli 'Accipit,' &c. Some old Auruncans, I remember well, "(Though time have made the same obscure,) would tell From hence he into Phrygia did fly; And leaving Tuscan, (where he erst had place,) 'But now enthronized, he sits on high, But contrary to this, and to so many authors, approving and confirming it, Reineccius thinks that these names, Troes, Teucri, and Thraces, are derived from Tiras or Thiras the son of Japhet; and that the Dardanians, Mysians, and Ascanians, mixed with the Trojans, were German nations, descended from Ashkenaz, the son of Gomer; of whom the country, lake, and river of Ascanius, in Asia, took name. That Ashkenaz gave name to those places and people, it is not unlikely; neither is it unlikely that the Ascanii, Dardani, and many others, did in after times pass into Europe: that the name of Teucer came of Tiras, the conjecture is somewhat hard. 2 Æneid 1. vii. Concerning Teucer, whereas Halicarnasseus makes him an Athenian, I find none that follow him in the same opinion. Virgil, (as is before shewed,) reporteth him to be of Crete, whose authority is the more to be regarded, because he had good means to find the truth, which it is probable that he carefully sought, and in this did follow; seeing it no way concerned Augustus, (whom other whiles he did flatter,) whether Teucer were of Crete or no. Reinec cius doth rather embrace the opinion of Diodorus and others, that think him a Phrygian, by which report he was the son of Scamander and Ida, lord of the country, not founder of the city; and his daughter or neice Batia, was the second wife of Dardanus, founder of Troy. Reineccius further thinks, that Atlas reigned in Samothracia, and gave his daughter Electra to Corytus, or Coritus; and that these were parents to Chryse, first wife to Dardanus. Virgil holds otherwise; and the common tradition of poets makes Dardanus the son of Electra by Jupiter, which Electra was the daughter of Atlas, and wife to Coritus king of Hetruria, to whom she bare Jasius. Annius, out of his Berosus, finds the name of Camboblascon, to whom he gives the addition of Coritus, as a title of dignity, making him father of Dardanus and Jasius; and further telling us very particularly of the faction between these brethren, which grew to such heat, that finally Dardanus killed his brother, and thereupon fled into Samothrace. The obscurity of the history gives leave to Annius of saying what he list. I that love not to use such liberty, will forbear to determine any thing herein. But if Dardanus were the son of Jupiter, it must have been of some elder Jupiter than the father of those that lived about the war of Troy. So it is likewise probable, that Atlas, the father of Electra, was rather an Italian than an African, which also is the opinion of Boccace'. For, (as hath often 1 Boccace. de gen. Deor. 1, iv. c. 31. been said,) there were many Jupiters, and many of almost every name of gods; but it was the custom to ascribe to some one the acts of the rest, with all belonging to them. Therefore I will not greatly trouble myself, with making any narrow search into these fabulous antiquities, but set down the pedigree according to the general fame; allowing to Teucer such parents as Diodorus gives, because others give him none; and carrying the line of Dardanus, as in the table. Concerning the beginning and continuance of the Trojan kingdom, with the length of every king's reign, I have chosen good authors to be my guides, that in a history, whereon depends the most ancient computation of times among the Greeks, I might not follow uncertainties, ill cohering with the consent of writers, and general passage of things elsewhere done. And first, for the destruction of Troy, which was of greater note than any accident befalling that city whilst it stood, it is reckoned, by Diodorus, to be seven hundred and eighty years more ancient than the beginning of the ninety-fourth olympiad. Whereas therefore three hundred and seventy-two did pass between the beginning of the olympiads, and the first year of the ninety-fourth, it is manifest, that the remainder of seven hundred and eighty, that is, four hundred and eight years went between the destruction of Troy, and the first institution of those games by Iphitus, if the authority of Diodorus' be good proof, who elsewhere tells us, that the return of the Heraclidæ, which was eighty years after the fall of Troy, was three hundred and twenty-eight years before the first olympiad. Hereunto agrees the authority of Dionysius Halicarnasseus, who placing the foundation of Rome in the first of the seventh olympiad, that is, four and twenty years after the beginning of those games, accounts it four hundred and thirty-two later than the 3 Diod. in præf. Dionys. Halic. Antiq. I. ii. 2 Diod. 1. xiv: |