the consulship of Tiberius and Sejanus, as supported by the respectable testimony of Aurelius Cassiodorus, in the sixth century, noticed before. This reduces the interval from our Lord's baptism, about Autumn, A.D. 27, to the first Passover, A.D. 28, to half a year; while it lengthens the interval from the crucifixion, in Spring, A.D. 31, to the martyrdom of Stephen, about Autumn, in A.D. 34, to three years and half: both surely with greater conformity to the Gospel history, which includes a much greater number of events in the latter interval than in the former.

Eusebius dates the first half of the Passion Week of Years as beginning with our Lord's baptism, and ending with his crucifixion. The same period precisely is recorded by Peter, as including the duration of our Lord's personal ministry: “All the time that the LORD JESUS went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of [or by] John, until the day that he was taken up from us," at his ascension, which was only 43 days after the crucifixion. Acts i. 21, 22. And the remaining half of the Passion Week ended with the martyrdom of Stephen, in the seventh or last year of the week. For it is remarkable, that the year after, A.D. 35, began a new Era in the Church, namely, the Conversion of Saul, or Paul, the Apostle, by the personal appearance of CHRIST to him on the road to Damascus, when he received his mission to the Gentiles, after the Jewish Sanhedrim had formally rejected CHRIST by persecuting his disciples. Acts ix. 1-18. And the remainder of the Acts principally records the circumstances of his mission to the Gentiles, and the Churches he founded among them.

The Bible Chronology, however, is more correct than Usher's, (from which it was taken, with some alterations, by Bishop Lloyd) in dating the beginning of John's baptism, A.D. 26, a year earlier than Usher, who dates it A.D. 27, the same year that he assigns to the baptizing of CHRIST, about six months after; which is certainly too short a space for the work of John's

stance proves that it was not the year of the crucifixion; for the true Paschal full moon was the day before, Thursday, when CHRIST celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Besides, Dodwell and Ferguson give different results in their calculations, the former reckoning Saturday, the latter Tuesday, to be the day of the Paschal full moon, A.D. 33. Little stress, therefore, is to be laid on such calculations, respecting which Petavius remarked: "Desinant itaque chronologi in anno dieque passionis eruendo, mathematicorum calculis ac noviluniorum pleniluniorumque minutis et scrupulosis ratiociniis, sibi ac lectoribus suis negotium facere. Quo in genere, nimia sane πɛρɩɛрyɛia quorundam extitit." Petav. Vol. II. p. 235.

ministry. For John made a great number of "disciples," and “all the people," came to his baptism, far and near, (Luke iii. 21.) which could not have required less than a year at least, if not two; nor is it likely that he would sooner have attracted the notice of the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem. It was not till his fame was generally spread, that they sent a solemn deputation of Priests and Levites to him, to enquire who he was.

After this explanation of the Vulgar Christian Era, and the important articles connected therewith, we shall proceed to consider the principal Eras of Sacred and Profane Chronology that most frequently occur, reduced to the Christian Era in the following Table :

Tcheou, or division of the Chinese empire into twelve

Cecrops reigns at Athens

Sesostris reigns in Egypt

Destruction of Troy

Foundation of Solomon's Temple

Era of Iphitus (July 1.)

Era of the Olympiads (July 19.)

Foundation of Rome (April 21.)

Era of Nabonassar (February 26.)

Era of Seleucidæ, or Alexander's successors (October 1.)

Era Cæsarea, at Antioch (September 1.)

Era Juliana (January 1.)

Era Hispanica (January 1.)

Vict. Actiaca (August 29.)

B.C.

5411

4714

/3155

3102

2614

2554

2412

2277

2153

1863

1648

1558

1308

1183

1027

884

Era of Diocletian, or of Martyrs (September 17.)

284

Ireland (Brown)

1519

1521

1529

1530

England completed (Cranmer, Bucer, Fagius, &c.) 1547
Scotland (Knox)

1560

1566

ARUNDEL MARBLES.

These celebrated marbles, with many other relics of antiquity, were purchased in Asia Minor, in Greece, or in the islands of the Archipelago, by Mr. William Petty, a skilful and indefatigable antiquary*, employed by Thomas, Earl of Arundel, in the

*The competence and qualifications of Mr. Petty, for antiquarian researches, justifying the choice of his munificent employer, are recorded by the editors of the marbles, Selden, Chandler, &c. and also by Sir Thomas Roe, in his Negociations, who was ambassador at Constantinople from the year 1621 to 1628.

Selden, who was not apt to flatter, represents him as "a man of the greatest judg→ ment and discernment, and no less distinguished for his learning;" and Dr. Chandler styles him, "hominem judicio doctrinâque clarum, et summopere prudentem."

Sir Thomas Roe, in his correspondence with the Earl of Arundel, on the subject of ancient manuscripts, coins, statues, and inscriptions, repeatedly mentions him with great respect and approbation.

In a letter from Constantinople, dated January 20-30, 1624, Sir Thomas acknowledges the receipt of three letters from his Lordship, in recommendation of Mr. Petty,

year 1624, for the purpose of making such collections for him in the East. They were brought into England about the beginning

and doubts, "that he will find little worthy of his pains in those rude parts, where barbarism has trodden out all worthy reliques of antiquity." P. 334.

In the next letter, dated October 20-30, 1625, he says, "Mr. Petty hath visited Pergamo, Samos, Ephesus, and some other places, where hee hath made your Lordship greate provisions, though hee lately wrote to mee he had found nothing worth." This indicates both his industry and his discernment.

In a subsequent letter, dated March 28, 1626, O. S. he says, My last letters brought your Lordship the advice of Mr. Pettye's shipwracke and losses, upon the coast of Asya, returning from Samos. Although hee will not boast to mee, yet I am informed he hath gotten many things rare and ancient. There was never man so fitted to an employment; that encounters all accidents with so unwearied patience, eats with Greekes on their worst days, lies with fishermen on plancks at the best, is all things to all men, that he may obteyne his ends, which are your Lordship's service. He is gone to Athens, whither also I have sent." P. 470.

he says,

In a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, dated Constantinople, November 5-15, 1626, "Mr. Petty has raked together 200 pieces, all broken, or few entyre; what they will prove, I cannot judge. He hath this advantage, that hee went himself into all the islands, and took all he saw; and is now gone to Athens, where I have had an agent nine months."

And in a subsequent letter to the same, dated April 15, 1628, he says, 66 I could have laden shippes with such stones as Mr. Petty diggs, but good things undefaced are rare, or rather not to be found. Our search hath made many poore men industrious to rippe up old ruins." P. 808. Here Sir Thomas seems to prize no 66 good things," but such as were "entire." Mr. Petty had more discernment, and amidst a mass of rubbish, selected such fragments as appeared to him "rare and ancient;" though "what they would prove, he could not fully judge," at that time, any more than the ambassador.

Except these extracts, a few trifling anecdotes, scattered through the different writers on the Arundel marbles, and one manuscript letter in the British Museum, which states, that Petty was commissioned by King Charles I. to purchase a collection of pictures; Mr. Hewlet, the latest writer on this subject, could find no memoirs of this extraordinary person, to whom literature is so much indebted.

The foregoing passages of Sir Thomas Roe's letters, tend to invalidate the prevailing opinion, first broached by Gassendi, in his life of the celebrated Peiresc, (that learned and munificent patron of literature, who was counsellor in the Parliament of Provence, and died in 1637,) namely, that "the Parian Chronicle had first been discovered by means of Peiresc, and purchased for him by one Sampson, his agent, at Smyrna, for 50 pieces of gold (aureis,, but that when they were ready to be sent on board, by some artifice of the venders, Sampson was thrown into prison, and the marbles themselves deranged, or thrown into disorder (distracta), and that afterwards they were purchased for Lord Arundel, by Mr. Petty, at a far greater price, (pretio longe majori.)”

This report, unnoticed by Sir Thomas Roe and Petty, seems vague and improbable in itself; for 1. Gassendi evidently confounded the Parian Chronicle, which was engraved on a single tablet, with the whole collection. 2. It appears, that the collection of the Arundel marbles was made by Petty himself, in detached pieces, during his progress through Asia Minor, the Islands, and Greece; and that the Chronicle was not found till near the end, and probably at the island of Paros, according to the opinion of the generality of writers, Du Pin, Du Fresnoy, Rawlinson, &c. grounded on the evidence of the Chronicle itself, which seems to have been engraved at Paros for the author's and his

of the year 1627, and placed in the gardens belonging to Arundel House, in the Strand, London.

On their arrival, they excited a lively curiosity, and were viewed by many inquisitive and learned men; among others, by Sir Robert Cotton *, who went immediately to that profound

countrymen's use; for if elsewhere, why should Astyanax be noticed as Archon, at Paros, in the year that it was made?

It is not probable, indeed, that even Mr. Petty exactly knew the contents of the Marmor Chronicon, for it is not distinguished by any particular appellation in Sir Thomas Roe's correspondence, though included under the general description of "things rare and ancient." We might also reasonably form this conclusion from Selden's account of the great difficulty he found in decyphering it, which he represents as the labour of a great many days. "It is more obscure," says he, than the Smyrnean league, the characters being often entirely obliterated, often nearly so, (elementis sæpius omnino detritis, fugientibus sæpius.) Nevertheless, by the assistance of glasses, and the critical sagacity of my very kind friend, Patrick Young, after a great many repeated trials, I have restored them as well as I could." After all this labour, much was left for the industry and skill of future editors to explore; and even since the labours of a Chandler, the subject is not yet exhausted, nor the lacunæ fully and satisfactorily supplied by conjectural criticism.

These observations seem abundantly sufficient to establish both the authenticity and antiquity of the Parian Chronicle. No doubts of either were entertained at the time of the discovery of this precious fragment, nor long after, by those who were most competent to judge correctly, Selden, Prideaux, Maittaire, &c. until an ingenious classical sceptic, Rev. J. Robinson, ventured to call them in question, in a Dissertation on the Parian Chronicle, 1788, octavo. But his hypothesis refutes itself: he admits, that "this curious, learned, and comprehensive system of chronology, including a detail of the principal epochas and transactions of Greece, and other countries, of Athens, Corinth, Macedon, Lydia, Crete, Cyprus, Sicily, Persia, &c. during a period of 1300 years and upwards, must have been engraved at a considerable expense on a tablet of marble;" and yet he rather inconsistently supposes, "that it might have been a spurious fabrication of some learned Greek, so late as the 16th century, executed from a mercenary motive of gain, in order that it might be sold for a high price at Smyrna, a commodious emporium for such rarities, after he had artfully broken the block, and defaced the inscription in several places, to give it an air of antiquity!!" The weakness and inconsistency of his arguments throughout are ably exposed by the learned Mr. Hewlett, in a Vindication of the Authenticity of the Parian Chronicle, 8vo. which came out in the following year, 1789.

* Selden happily expresses the eager and impatient curiosity with which these precious reliques were viewed by the learned on their arrival in London.

Cum primum inviserat ea vir præstantissimus Robertus Cottonus, condus ille et promus vetustatis longe locupletissimus, ad me advolat, et impensius instat, ut mane proximo, (nam provectior nox erat) ad Græca illa arcana me totum accingerem. Libentissime annuo. Sed ut expeditius res absolveretur, rogo ut in operæ societatem, adsciscerentur amici communes, eruditissimus Patricius Junius, bibliothecarius regius, et multijugæ doctrinæ et studii indefatigabilis vir Ricardus Jamesius. Utrique condicit ille. Illucescente die crastino, convenimus triumviri in hortis Arundelianis, ubi Smyrnæorum decreta, et fœdus ab iis cum Magnesiis, ad Seleuci Callinici Asiæ regis majestatem tutius conservandam percussum, in stelâ variatim disruptâ, primo comperimus. Fragmenta suis locis commissa longitudinem 8 pedum et 2 pollicum; latitudinem pedum 3, poll. 5; crassitiem pollicum 8, continent. Scriptura autem, cujus lineæ utramque oram contin