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Let us, then, omit the conjectures of men who know not what they
say, when they speak of the nature and origin of the human race. For
some hold the same opinion regarding men that they hold regarding the
world itself, that they have always been. Thus Apuleius says when he
is describing our race, "Individually they are mortal, but
collectively, and as a race, they are immortal." And when they are
asked, how, if the human race has always been, they vindicate the
truth of their history, which narrates who were the inventors, and
what they invented, and who first instituted the liberal studies and
the other arts, and who first inhabited this or that region, and this
or that island? they reply, that most, if not all lands, were so
desolated at intervals by fire and flood, that men were greatly reduced
in numbers, and from these, again, the population was restored to its
former numbers, and that thus there was at intervals a new beginning
made, and though those things which had been interrupted and checked by
the severe devastations were only renewed, yet they seemed to be
originated then; but that man could not exist at all save as produced
by man. But they say what they think, not what they know.
They are deceived, too, by those highly mendacious documents which
profess to give the history of many thousand years, though, reckoning
by the sacred writings, we find that not 6000 years have yet
passed. And, not to spend many words in exposing the baselessness of
these documents, in which so many thousands of years are accounted
for, nor in proving that their authorities are totally inadequate, let
me cite only that letter which Alexander the Great wrote to his mother
Olympias, giving her the narrative he had from an Egyptian priest,
which he had extracted from their sacred archives, and which gave an
account of kingdoms mentioned also by the Greek historians. In this
letter of Alexander's a term of upwards of 5000 years is assigned
to the kingdom of Assyria; while in the Greek history only 1300
years are reckoned from the reign of Bel himself, whom both Greek and
Egyptian agree in counting the first king of Assyria. Then to the
empire of the Persians and Macedonians this Egyptian assigned more
than 8000 years, counting to the time of Alexander, to whom he
was speaking; while among the Greeks, 485 years are assigned to
the Macedonians down to the death of Alexander, and to the Persians
233 years, reckoning to the termination of his conquests. Thus
these give a much smaller number of years than the Egyptians; and
indeed, though multiplied three times, the Greek chronology would
still be shorter. For the Egyptians are said to have formerly
reckoned only four months to their year; so that one year, according
to the fuller and truer computation now in use among them as well as
among ourselves, would comprehend three of their old years. But not
even thus, as I said, does the Greek history correspond with the
Egyptian in its chronology. And therefore the former must receive the
greater credit, because it does not exceed the true account of the
duration of the world as it is given by our documents, which are truly
sacred. Further, if this letter of Alexander, which has become so
famous, differs widely in this matter of chronology from the probable
credible account, how much less can we believe these documents which,
though full of fabu lous and fictitious antiquities, they would fain
oppose to the authority of our well-known and divine books, which
predicted that the whole world would believe them, and which the whole
world accordingly has believed; which proved, too, that it had truly
narrated past events by its prediction of future events, which have so
exactly come to pass!
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