Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/134

 126

NOTES AND QUERIES. or* s. v. FEB. 17, woo.

concomitants are of considerable importance will, I imagine, be conceded. Jewish history is of little or no use further down than the period of the destruction of the Temple ; the Greek and Roman accounts do not assist us in these ages till the expedition of Xerxes after which history is fairly clear. The period from Nabonassar to Alexander the Great allowed of adjustment to the Greek and Roman, and the collateral history of the Babylonians and Assyrians is thus settled The Babylonish king Nabocalassarus is admitted to be the Scriptural Nebuchad- nezzar, and the first year of his reign is one with the fourth of Jehoiakim (who was earlier called Eliakim), which equals 4110 of the Julian period, first year of the forty-fourth Olympiad, and B.C. 601. Jehoiakim reigned eleven years ;* he was killed in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar ;t if, therefore, 7 be deducted from 11, we have the years in which Jehoiakim reigned previous to Nebuchad- nezzar. From this time we are led to Nabonassar and through the Persian empire to its end. Hipparchus, if I mistake not, who lived about 300 years before Ptolemy, appeals to the era of Nabonassar as the true register of astronomical observations. By this it has been agreed that B.C. 747 was the first of Nabonassar. The next basis upon which time is calculated is the Olympiads, which, by consonance of recognized authori- ties, began in 776 B.C., which was the first of the Olympiad periods, covering four years, and upon which data I go so far as the present subject is concerned. It was recently stated (ante, p. 41) that A.D. 1 was the year of Rome 753; on p. 84 A.D. is changed to B.C. 1. A correction is always proper and welcome when needed, but much confusion often follows a correction which in turn requires correcting. I will try to make the matter plain, and prevent, I hope, additional con- fusion, and, if possible, will not leave any opening for doubt. Iphetus revived the Olympiad in 755 B.C.; trie second Olympiad consisted of four years, or, in other words, the first two Olympiads covered a period of five years. Rome was built at the beginning of the seventh Olympiad, so the first Roman year would equal the first year of that Olympiad. It follows that the third year of the 194th Olympiad and its equivalent Roman year works out thus : From 193 there fall to be deducted six Olympiads (the Roman year having begun in the seventh) ; this leaves 187, which equals 747 Roman, but we have to add three years, i. e., the three of

2 Kings xxiii. 36.

f Jeremiah lii. 28.

the 194th Olympiad, and we find 751, and the year of Christ's birth ; ergo, 753 could not be A.D. or B.C. 1. But let us apply another test. The first Roman consuls were Brutus and Collatinus, and all authorities of any standing or importance, who have made the subject their study, agree this was in the year B.C. 508 or the Roman year 245 ; of this there is, I believe, no doubt. This equals the first year of the sixty-eighth Olympiad, less the six years already explained, and we have 62, which equals 248 Roman ; but we have to deduct three years unexpired of the sixty -eighth Olympiad, and have 245. Turning to Nabonassar, we know he was king B.C. 747, which equals the first of the eighth Olympiad, and by this method of calculation we have a further confirmation of our thesis. Should more be required, -we have it at least in part (ante, p. 41), already called in question. There we are told Lentulus and Piso were consuls in 753. So far as my reading goes, Lentulus and Piso were first joint consuls from January to July, 751 ; lulius' and Paulus, January to July, 752; Asiriius and Vinicius, January to July, 753. Irrespective of this, enough has been set down here to shake at least any faith in the year 753 being either A.D. or B.C. 1.

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

"!N GORDANO." There are three parishes, all within the hundred of Portbury, in the county of Somerset, to the west of Bristol, which are particularized by this Latin addi- tion, namely, Easton-iri-Gordano, which gives a title to a prebend in the Cathedral Chapter of Bath and Wells ; Weston-in-Gordano, near "levedon, and Walton-in-Gordano, near the same place. What is the meaning of "in Gordano " ? A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

LISTS OF NORTHERN FIGHTERS AT FLODDEN. Canon Tristram tells me that some years ago. when staying at Wolfelee, near Ha wick, with the late Sir Walter Elliot, he found in lis library a printed copy of the list of the neri of Northumberland called out by the Percies for the battle of Flodden. Search las recently been made at Wolfelee, both by Canon Tristram and others, for this volume,