Augustine says in The City of God that it is not clearly held which descendants of Noah’s sons belonged to the city of God and which to the city of the devil. It is nevertheless more credible that among the sons of the two blessed by Noah, Shem and Japheth, before Babylon began to be founded, there were some despisers of God; and that among the sons of the cursed Ham there were some worshipers of God. It must be believed that each kind of human being has never been lacking from the earth.
For when the Psalm says, “All have turned aside; there is none who does good,” it speaks there of the sons of men who live according to the flesh.
This distinction between the two cities or societies of the good and the wicked appeared more clearly in the time of Eber, the fourth great-grandson after Shem. Until then the whole earth—that is, all human beings—had been of one language and the same speech, namely the Hebrew idiom.
Very many persons descended from the aforesaid fathers, living according to the flesh, gathered together. Their chief was the giant Nimrod, who descended from Ham and is called a mighty hunter—not of wild beasts, but an oppressor and destroyer of human beings. Distinction 6, final section.
They began to build a city with towers reaching to heaven, raising themselves against God from their great pride. When they did not cease, their languages were confounded there through the ministry of angels. To the angels is referred the saying, “Come, and let us go down,” and so forth. For they come to God in their thoughts by consulting immutable truth, and descend here below by working according to God’s will.
And because the authority of a commander is in his tongue, Augustine says there, pride was condemned so that the person commanding a human being was not understood, since the human being had been unwilling to understand so as to obey God when He commanded.
Thus that conspiracy was dissolved. For just as the greatly multiplied families or nations descending from Noah’s three sons were seventy-two, so they were divided into seventy-two different languages and were thence scattered throughout the world. The city, though incomplete, was called Babylon, which is interpreted as confusion. Nimrod reigned there. It was afterward enlarged and magnified by others, but later was subjugated by Ninus, king of the Assyrians, who descended from Shem, Noah’s eldest son.
The Hebrew idiom remained in the family of Eber—not indeed in all those begotten from him, but only in that line which extends to Abraham. Nor did it remain in all those begotten from Abraham, for it was not among the Ishmaelites or the Edomites born from Esau, but only among those descending from him through Jacob, namely the people of Israel.
Hence, according to Augustine, it is more commonly said that the Hebrews as a nation were so named from this Eber, with whom the Hebrew idiom remained, as though Hebers with the letter e removed, although some say they were so called from Abraham as though Abraics.
Eber called the son born to him when this division of languages occurred Peleg, which is interpreted as division, from the event that had then just occurred. In the aforesaid house of Eber, the worship of God remained among those belonging to the city of God and living according to the spirit.
According to Vincent, the sons of Shem obtained Asia, the sons of Ham Africa, and the sons of Japheth Europe. Isidore asserts in Book XIV of the Etymologies that the world was divided into three parts, but not equally. Asia reaches from the south through the east to the north. Europe extends from the north to the west, and thence Africa reaches to the south. Thus Asia occupies one half of the world, and Europe and Africa the other half. These were made two because the great sea enters from the Ocean between them and separates them.
§ I: On the Province of Asia
Asia, according to Vincent, is named from a certain woman who held rule in the East among the ancients. This part contains many provinces and regions.
The earthly paradise is a place in the eastern regions, whose name is translated from Greek into Latin as “garden.” In Hebrew it is called Eden, which in Latin is interpreted as delights; joined together, the name therefore yields “garden of delights.” It is planted with every kind of wood and fruit-bearing tree, and also has the tree of life in the middle. There is neither cold nor heat there, but perpetual temperateness of air. A spring bursting forth from its middle waters the entire grove. It is divided into four rivers, as appears in Genesis 2. After sin, access to this place was barred.
India, which is in Asia, is named from the River Indus, which encloses it on its western side. It stretches directly from the southern sea to the rising of the sun, and from the north to Mount Caucasus. It has many peoples and towns. It also has the island of Taprobane, filled with gems and elephants; Chryse and Argyre, fertile in gold and silver; and Tile, which never lacks the leaves of trees. It has the rivers Ganges, Indus, and Hypanis, which make the Indians illustrious.
The land of India is exceedingly healthful from the breath of the west wind. It harvests crops twice a year. In place of winter it receives the Etesian winds. It produces human beings of a dark color, immense elephants, the beast called the monoceros, that is, the unicorn, the parrot, ebony wood, cinnamon, pepper, and aromatic reed.
It also sends ivory and precious stones: beryls, chrysoprases, adamants, carbuncles, ligures, pearls, and choice pearls, for which the ambition of noble women burns. There are also golden mountains there which it is impossible to approach because of dragons, griffins, and monsters of immense human beings.
Solinus says that India was long believed to be a third part of the earth. Liber Pater entered it, since he was the first of all to triumph after the Indians had been subdued.
There are many other provinces and regions in Asia: Parthia, Assyria, Media, Persia, Mesopotamia, and Babylon. Babylon is the name of the region in which stands the city Babylon, from which so noble a city was named that Chaldea, Assyria, and Mesopotamia sometimes passed under its name.
The province of Arabia is so called, that is, interpreted as sacred, because it possesses incense-bearing fragrances. Myrrh and cinnamon are found there, and the phoenix is born there. It is also called Saba.
Syria contains several provinces: Commagene, Phoenicia, and Palestine, of which Judea is a part, apart from the Saracens and Nabuchaeans. In Phoenicia is Tyre, to which Isaiah speaks.
Judea is named from Judah, namely because it had kings from that tribe who reigned there. It is a region of Palestine which was formerly called Canaan from Ham’s son or from the peoples of the Canaanites. When these had been expelled, the Jews possessed it by the Lord’s grant. In the middle of Judea is the city Jerusalem. The land is rich in various resources, fertile in crops, illustrious for its waters, and abundant in balsams.
Samaria is a region of Palestine in which the principal city is also called Samaria, where the kings of Israel commonly maintained the seat of the kingdom, as the kings of Judah did in Jerusalem. It lies between the province of Judea and the province of Galilee, and is like the land of Judea in goodness.
Galilee is also a province of Palestine and is twofold: upper and lower. Pentapolis is a region on the border of Arabia and Palestine containing five cities, Sodom and the others, which were consumed by heavenly fire. Nabataea, named from a son of Ishmael, lies between Judea and Arabia.
Egypt, which was formerly called Esseia, afterward received its name from Egyptus, the brother of Danaus, when he reigned there. It is a region unaccustomed to rain from heaven and ignorant of showers. The Nile alone, flowing around it, irrigates it and makes it so abundantly fruitful in its inundation that it fills the world with necessary wares.
Scythia, as also Gothia, is said to have been surnamed from Magog, the son of Japheth. Hyrcania is named from the Hyrcanian forest which lies beneath Scythia. Albania is so named from the color of its people, because human beings there are born with white hair. Armenia is called from Armenus, a companion of Jason the Thessalian, who took Armenia. Iberia is a region of Asia near the Armenian Pontus; plants useful for dyeing grow there. Cappadocia named its own city, which is situated at the head of Syria.
Asia Minor is bounded by Cappadocia on the east and surrounded by sea on its other sides. It has these provinces: Bithynia, Phrygia, Galatia, Lydia, Caria, Pamphylia, Isauria, Lycia, and Cilicia.
Bithynia, at the beginning of Pontus, is named from King Bithynius; it and Greater Phrygia form one region. Nicomedia is a city in it, where Hannibal, while fleeing, breathed out his life after drinking poison. Galatia is named from the ancient peoples of the Gauls by whom it was occupied.
Phrygia is named from Phrygia, daughter of Europa. It is also called Dardania from Dardanus, son of Jupiter. In this region is Troy, which Tros, king of the Trojans, named from himself. There are two Phrygias, greater and lesser. Greater Phrygia contains Smyrna; Lesser Phrygia contains Ilium and Lycaonia.
Pamphylia is joined to Cilicia. Isauria is said to have received its name from the position of the place, because it lies open on every side to the blasts of the winds. Its metropolitan city is Seleucia. Cilicia took its name from a certain Cilix and has Tarsus as the mother of its cities.
Lycia is so named because it is joined to Cilicia on the east. There is that marvelous Mount Chimaera, which exhales fire in nocturnal heats, just as Etna does in Sicily, and Czwikaw in Alemannia.
§ II: On the Other Third Part of the World, Which Is Called Europe
Europe received its name from Europa, daughter of Agenor, king of Libya. Jupiter carried her off from Africa and brought her to Crete, and named the third part of the world from her. Europe begins from the River Tanais, descending westward along the northern Ocean as far as the borders of Spain. Its eastern and southern part rises from Pontus, is joined throughout to the sea, and ends in the islands of Gades.
The first region of Europe is Lower Scythia, which, beginning from the Maeotian marshes, extends between the Danube and the northern Ocean as far as Germany. Because of the barbarous peoples by whom it is inhabited, this land is generally called Barbaria. Its first part is Alania; after it comes Dacia, where Gothia is also found; then Germany, where the Suebi inhabited the greater part.
Germany, after Lower Scythia, is enclosed and bounded by the Danube, the River Rhine, and the Ocean. It is a land rich in men and in numerous and immense peoples; hence, from its fertility in generating peoples, it is called Germany. It sends forth the gems crystal and amber. There are two Germanies: the upper near the northern Ocean, and the lower around the Rhine.
The provinces which the Danube encloses from the barbarian region to the Mediterranean Sea are these. First is Moesia, named from the yield of harvests because of its abundance. After Moesia is Pannonia, after which comes Rhaetia, fertile in crops. It receives Belgian Gaul, and then Thrace.
Tiras, a son of Japheth, is said to have given his name to Thrace. Others have said Thrace was named from the savagery of its inhabitants. Constantinople lies opposite it on the east, and Macedonia adjoins it on the west. The peoples of various nations once inhabited this region: Moesi, Getae, Sarmatians, Scythians, and other nations.
Greece is named from King Graecus, who inhabited that entire region. The provinces of Greece, beginning from the west, are Dalmatia, then Epirus, then Hellas, then Thessaly, then Macedonia, then Achaia, and two in the sea, Crete and the Cyclades. Illyricum broadly comprises all Greece, and Dalmatia is said to be named from Delmis, the greatest city of that province.
Epirus is said to be named from Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. A part of it is Chaonia, which was formerly called Molossia from Molossus, the son whom Pyrrhus had by Andromache.
Hellas is named from King Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, from whom the Greeks were first called Hellenes. It is also Attica; it is true Greece, where stood Athens, the mother of letters and nurse of philosophers, than which Greece had nothing more illustrious or noble.
There are two provinces of Hellas. The first is Boeotia, so called from an ox. There Thebes was built, in which civil wars once raged, and where Apollo and that elder Theban Hercules were born. The Peloponnese, the second part of Hellas, was named from Pelops, king of Attica.
Thessaly is named from King Thessalus. There are many rivers and towns in Thessaly, among which Thessalonica is chief. There is also Mount Parnassus, once consecrated to Apollo. In Thessaly, which was also the homeland of Achilles, gold solidi were first made, and the practice of taming horses was first invented.
Macedonia received its name from Macedon, a grandson of Deucalion through his mother, after he acquired rule there. It was formerly called Emathia. It borders Moesia to the north, was the homeland of Alexander the Great, and is a region exceedingly rich in veins of gold and silver. Mount Olympus is there and is so high that neither winds nor clouds are felt at its summit.
Both the city and the province of Achaia are named from King Achaeus. It is almost an island, and its capital is Corinth, the glory of Greece. Arcadia is a gulf of Achaia. It is also Sicyonia, named from King Sicyon, from whom the kingdom of the Sicyonians is named. It possesses the stone asbestos, which, once kindled, is never extinguished.
Pannonia is named from the Apennine Alps, by which it is separated from Italy; it is a strong region, favored in soil. Histria was named by the River Hister, which flows into that land. The Hister is the Danube, and it has Pannonia to its north.
Italy, once occupied by Greek peoples, was called Magna Graecia. Then from the name of King Saturn it was called Saturnia and soon Latium, because Saturn, driven from his seat by Jupiter, lay hidden there. Finally it was named from Italus, king of the Sicilians, who reigned there. It is a land most beautiful and fertile in all things, most pleasing for the abundance of pasture.
It has the lakes Venatus, Alumnus, and Lucernus; the rivers Eridanus and Tiber; and Baiae, warm with springs. It produces the gems Sericum, coral, and ligure, and also the serpent called the boa.
Italy and Spain are called Hesperiae because people sail by the evening star, called hesperus in Greek, both to Italy and to Spain. They are distinguished in this way: if you say Hesperia alone, you signify Italy; if you add “farthest,” you signify Spain, which lies at the boundary of the west.
Tuscia is a part of Italy, and Umbria a part of Tuscia. Umbria, as the histories relate, is so called because it survived the rains at the time of the watery destruction. It is situated in the ridges of the Apennine mountain in the part of Italy toward the south.
Etruria is a part of Italy, so called because its boundaries extended to the banks of the Tiber. The boundaries of all Rome once occupied only one bank of the Tiber, while Tuscia occupied the other. Tuscia is named from the frequency of sacrifice and incense. They also say that haruspicy was invented there.
Apulia is where Brundisium stands, which the Aetolians who followed Diomedes as leader founded. Campania, a province of Italy, has lands that bloom in every winter and summer. The sun there is mild, the temperature pleasant, and the air pure and gentle.
Gaul is named from the whiteness of its people, for gala in Greek is called milk in Latin. The mountains and severity of the sky exclude the heat of the sun from that region, with the result that the whiteness of the people is not colored. The ridges of the Alps guard it on the east; the Ocean encloses it on the west; the steep Pyrenees on the south; and the waters of the Rhine and Germany on the north. Its beginning is Belgica and its end Aquitania.
The region is rich in soil and pasture, suited to the life of animals. It is watered by rivers and springs and drenched by two great rivers, the Rhine and the Rhône. Belgae is a city of Gaul from which the province Belgica is named. Cisalpine means this side of the Alps, and Transalpine beyond the Alps. Reatina is so called because it is near the Rhine. Aquitania is named from the slanting waters of the River Loire.
Spain was first called Iberia from the River Iberus and afterward Hispania from Hispanus. It is also the true Hesperia, named from the western star Hesperus. It lies between Gaul and Africa, bounded by the Pyrenees Mountains to the north and enclosed by sea on every other side. With an equable and healthful climate, it is fertile in every kind of crop and exceedingly rich in gems and metals. The great rivers Baetis, Mineus, Iberus, and Tagus flow through it.
It has six provinces: Tarraconensis, Carthaginensis, Bastitania, Galicia, Baetica, and, across the straits in the region of Africa, Tingitana. There are two Spains, nearer and farther.
§ III: On Africa, the Other Third Part of the World
Some think that Africa is so named as though a frigore, “without cold,” because it is suited to the climate of the sun and lacks the horror of cold. Others say that Africa is named from Afer, one of Abraham’s descendants born from Keturah.
It begins from the borders of Egypt and, proceeding near the south through Ethiopia, reaches Mount Atlas. On its northern side it is enclosed continuously by the Mediterranean Sea. It has the provinces Libya, Cyrenaica, Pentapolis, Tripolis, Byzacium, Carthage, Numidia, Mauretania, Tingitana, and, around the sun’s heat, Ethiopia.
Libya Cyrenaica is the first part of Africa and is named from the metropolitan city Cyrene, which lies within its borders. Pentapolis is so called from the five great cities existing there, among which are Ptolemais and Berenice, so named from their rulers. Getulia is a part of inland Africa.
Mauretania is named from mauros, which is a Greek word sounding “black” in Latin; hence it is named from the dark color of the people who inhabit it. Tingitana is named from Tingis, the metropolitan city of that province. This region produces wild beasts, apes, dragons, ostriches, and formerly elephants; now India alone brings them forth.
The Garamantes are named from the town Garama situated there. There is a spring there which is cold in the heat of day and warm in the cold of night.
Ethiopia is named from the color of the peoples whom proximity to the sun scorches. There is perpetual heat there, for whatever is there lies under the southern cardinal point. It has very many peoples of diverse countenance and monstrous appearance, and is filled with a multitude of horrible wild beasts and serpents. The rhinoceros and camelopard are there, as are the basilisk and immense dragons, from whose brains gems are extracted. Hyacinths and chrysoprases are found there, and cinnamon is gathered.
There are two Ethiopias: one around the rising of the sun, the other around its setting in Mauretania.
Outside the three parts of the world there is a fourth part across the inner Ocean, unknown to us because of the sun’s heat. At its boundaries antipodes are fabulously said to dwell.
§ IV: On Islands
Islands are so called because they are situated in salo, that is, in the sea. The most famous and largest of them should be set forth.
Britain is an island of the Ocean surrounded by the sea spread throughout the whole world. It is surnamed from the name of its people. It lies opposite the region of Gaul and within sight of Spain. Its circuit is forty-eight times seventy-five thousand. There are many great rivers in it, hot springs, and a large and varied abundance of metals. Jet stone and very many pearls are there. It is also called and known as England.
Thanatos is an island of the Ocean in the Gallic strait, separated from Britain by a channel of varying width. Thule is the farthest island of the Ocean.
Tylos is an island of India, according to Solinus. It bears palms, olives, and vines. It surpasses all lands in this one marvel: every tree on it never lacks leaves. Mount Caucasus is there, penetrating the greatest part of the world with continuous ridges, and pepper trees there grow in the likeness of juniper.
The Orkney Islands, situated in the Ocean near Britain, number twenty-three [read: thirty-three], of which twenty are deserted and thirteen inhabited. Scotia, the same as Hibernia, is an island near Britain, narrower in extent of lands but more fruitful in position. It stretches from Africa toward the north. There is no snake there, no bee, and a bird is rare.
Gades is an island situated at the end of the province of Baetica, which separates Europe from Africa and contains the Pillars of Hercules.
The Fortunate Islands signify by this name that they bear every good, as though they were happy and blessed in abundance of fruits. Hence the error of the gentiles and the worldly songs of poets, because of the fertility of the soil, thought them paradise. The first of these is Membriona, the second Minona, the third Capraria, the fourth Teode, and another Vinaria. They lie in the Ocean opposite Mauretania.
The Gorgades are islands of the Ocean. Likewise the Hesperides, Chryse, Argyre, and Taprobane are islands; all these are islands of the Ocean.
There are also other islands situated in the great sea from the Hellespont to the Gorgades. First is Cyprus, an island which received its name from the cyprum found there. It is also Paphos, consecrated to Venus and once famous for wealth, chiefly of bronze. For the first discovery and use of this metal occurred there.
Crete, a part of Greece, is a great island opposite the Peloponnese. Jupiter was hidden and reared there. It was once noble for a hundred cities and hence was called Centopolis. It first became famous for oars and arrows, first established laws in writing, first taught cavalry formations, and the study of music with spondees and dactyls began there.
It abounds in goats but lacks deer, and nowhere produces wolves, foxes, or other harmful wild beasts. There is no serpent and no owl, and if one is found, it immediately dies. It is abundant in vines and trees. The herb dittany grows there. It produces venomous spiders.
Abydos is an island of Europe situated upon the Hellespont. Cos is an island adjoining the province of Attica, where the physician Hippocrates was born. As Varro bears witness, it was the first to become famous for the craft of wool-working for the adornment of women.
Some Greeks think the Cyclades islands are so called because, although cast at rather long distances from Delos in a circle, they are nevertheless situated around Delos; for the Greeks call a circle cyclos. Others think they are called Cyclades not because they are arranged in a circle but because of the reefs surrounding them.
They are situated in the Hellespont between the Aegean and Malean seas and are also surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea. They are fifty-three in all. Their metropolis is Rhodes.
Delos is an island situated in the middle of the Cyclades. It is reported to be called Delos because, after the Flood in the times of Ogyges, when continuous night had overshadowed the world for many months, before all other lands it was illuminated by the rays of the sun. It received its name because it was the first made manifest to sight, for the Greeks call the manifest delon.
It is also Ortygia, where the birds called quails were first seen, which the Greeks call ortygias. On this island Latona gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Both the city and the island are called Delos.
Rhodes is the chief of the Cyclades. Carpathos is another of the Cyclades. Cythera is another, where Venus arose. Icaria is another.
The island Chios is named in the Syrian language because mastic is produced there. Samos is an island in the Aegean Sea, where Juno was born. From it came the Samian Sibyl and Pythagoras of Samos, by whom the name of philosophy was invented. Earthen vessels are said to have been first discovered on this island.
Sicily was called Sicania from King Sicanus, then Sicily from Siculus, the brother of Italus. It was formerly called Trinacria because of its three capes or promontories: Pelorus, Pachynum, and Lilybaeum. It is separated from Italy by a narrow strait and looks toward the African Sea. It is fruitful in lands and full of winds and sulfur; hence there the fires of Mount Etna stand forth.
In its strait are Scylla and Charybdis, by which ships are either swallowed or dashed to pieces. It was once the homeland of the Cyclopes and afterward the nurse of tyrants. Syracuse is the chief of its cities. Comedy was first invented on this island. Its sea produces coral, and the River Achates gives the stone agate. Its whole circuit is enclosed by three thousand stadia.
The Aeolian Islands of Sicily are named from Aeolus, son of Hippotes, whom the poets imagined to have been king of the winds. But, as Varro says, he was ruler of those islands, and because from their clouds and smoke he predicted future blasts of wind, he appeared to the unskilled to have restrained the winds by his own power. The same islands are also called Vulcanian because they burn like Etna itself. There are nine, possessing their own names, of which the first is Lipari, the second Thrasia, and so forth.
Sardus, son of Hercules, set out from Libya with a great multitude, occupied Sardinia, and gave the island its name from his own. It lies in the African Sea, one hundred thousand in length and forty thousand in breadth. Neither serpent nor wolf is born there. Sardinia has hot springs that provide healing for the sick but blindness for thieves if, after an oath has been given, they touch its waters.
The island Corsica was founded by Ligurian inhabitants, who named it from the name of their leader. It is divided from Sardinia by a strait twenty thousand wide and lies within sight of Italy.
Ebusus is an island of Spain. The Balearic Islands are also two islands of Spain. Among them the use of slings by which stones are cast was first invented. There are many other islands, because the inhabited ones are not numbered here.
§ V: Returning to the Genealogy of Shem, Son of Noah, Down to the Third Age of the World, Which Begins with Abraham
Shem begot Arphaxad two years after the Flood, when he himself was one hundred years old. Arphaxad, when he was thirty-five years old, begot Salah. Salah, in the thirtieth year of his age, begot Eber. Eber, in the thirty-fourth year of his life, begot Peleg. Peleg, in his thirtieth year, begot Reu. Reu, after thirty-two years from his birth, begot Serug. Serug, in the thirtieth year of his life, begot Nahor. Nahor, in the twenty-ninth year of his life, begot Terah. Terah, after seventy years, begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
These ten successively named men lived for many years after the generation of the aforesaid persons, from whom the genealogy of Christ is woven because He descended from them. They begot many other sons, from whom descended diverse peoples and nations spread throughout the world.
From Haran, son of Terah and brother of Abraham and Nahor, were born Lot and the women Iscah and Milcah.
Nahor married his niece Milcah, and Abram married his niece Iscah, who was also called Sarah. At that time, indeed, it was lawful to take such blood relations as wives. Haran, their father, died in Ur of the Chaldeans while his own father Terah was still alive. All this is in Genesis 11, where it is also said that Terah took Abram, his brother’s son Lot, and Sarah, and they departed from Chaldea and came to dwell in Haran, which is in Mesopotamia of Syria. There Terah, Abram’s father, died when Terah himself was 205 years old.
The Hebrews say that Haran’s death happened in this way. Since the peoples of Chaldea worshiped fire as a god, while Terah and his sons worshiped the true God and asserted that fire was not God, those people cast them into the fire to test the power of their god—namely, fire—so that they might be burned. But they passed through the fire and escaped unharmed. Haran, however, because he failed in faith when he was cast into the fire with the others, was burned by it. This is found in Cause 35, question 1, Cum igitur, in the following section and in the gloss there.
Under the aforesaid Reu, also called Ragau, the kingdom of the Scythians arose. Although it is most ancient, it is nevertheless not counted among the four principal kingdoms of the world about which Daniel prophesied, because it belonged to barbarians. As Justin says in Book II, the men of the Scythians held the kingdoms of the Parthians and Bactrians, while their women held the kingdoms of the Amazons. For a long time there was a dispute between the Scythians and the Egyptians concerning the antiquity of their race, but the Scythians were judged the more ancient.
The same author relates that certain peoples came in a great multitude into the region of Cappadocia and were killed there by treachery. When their husbands had been killed, the wives who remained gathered together and formed an army. Having intercourse with neighboring peoples, they killed the males who were born but preserved the female children. They accustomed these girls not to wool-working but to arms, horses, and hunting, cauterizing the right breasts of the infants so that the discharge of arrows would not be impeded. They had two queens, Margesita and Lampedo, who defended their borders by turns; after subduing the greater part of Europe, they occupied Asia.
Under Reu, or Ragau, the kingdom of Egypt also arose, and it endured until Octavian, according to the chronicles of Eusebius. From the time of Abraham’s birth the Thebans reigned over the Egyptians for 190 years. Then the shepherds, who are the Pharaohs, reigned for 103 years. Afterward, in the eighteenth Diospolitan dynasty, its first king, who was called Amosis, reigned for twenty-five years, and Joseph’s leadership began in the ninety-second year. Then other dynasts succeeded them; Eusebius gives their names and the lengths of their reigns down to the eighteenth. After them the Egyptians began to employ their own emperors and had five such rulers in succession. Then the Diopolitan dynasts ruled over them for 177 years. There were twenty-seven who reigned successively, whose names and lengths of reign Eusebius likewise gives. When these were completed, Cambyses, who is also called Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Persians, obtained the kingdom. Thus the kingdom of the Egyptians ended until the time of Artaxerxes, who is also Ahasuerus.
§ VI
Under Nahor, son of Serug, two kingdoms arose: that of the Assyrians and that of the Sicyonians. Belus reigned in the former and Aegialeus in the latter, as Bede says in his chronicle.
According to Eusebius, the first king of the Assyrians was Ninus, son of Belus, who reigned for fifty-two years; Abraham was born in the forty-second year of his reign. After him Semiramis, the wife of Ninus, reigned for forty-two years. After her, Zames, son of Ninus and Semiramis, reigned for thirty-eight years. Then others reigned successively, whose names and lengths of reign Eusebius describes, down to the thirty-sixth, who was called Sardanapalus. He was wholly given over to wantonness and was effeminate. Then Arbaces the Mede destroyed the kingdom of the Assyrians and transferred the realm to the Medes, namely in the fourth year of Azariah, king of Judah. All the years of the Assyrian kingdom, from the first year of Ninus to this last king, are reckoned as 1,240.
The kingdom of the Sicyonians, which likewise began under Nahor, endured, according to Helinand, until the twenty-ninth year of Eli the priest. There were twenty-six kings in it, from the first, called Aegialeus, to the last, Zeuxippus. Helinand gives the names of those who reigned successively and the lengths of their reigns. All their years collected together make 942. After them were appointed the priests of Carni, who presided over the offering of flesh for thirty-three years.
§ VII: Returning to Ninus
Belus, the father of Ninus and a Nimrodite king of Babylon, entered Assyria, as the Master says in the Scholastic History, but obtained little of it. After his death his son Ninus obtained all Assyria and enlarged the city in which the capital of the kingdom stood until it was a journey of three days in extent. From his own name he called it Nineveh. Hence some histories say that the kingdom of the Assyrians began with Belus and others with Ninus. The first is true with respect to the kingdom’s beginning, the second with respect to its enlargement.
This Ninus is said to have defeated Ham, the son of Noah, who was still alive and was reigning in Bathera. He was called Zoroaster, the inventor of the art of magic, and he also invented the seven liberal arts. He wrote them on fourteen columns, seven of bronze and seven of brick, against both kinds of flood, namely those of fire and water. But Ninus burned his books.
Many things are said about this Zoroaster. Augustine says in Book XXI of The City of God that it is reported of Zoroaster that he alone laughed when born, although all others weep. That monstrous laughter portended nothing good, for although he was the inventor of the magical arts, he was defeated by Ninus, king of the Assyrians, when Ninus fought against the Bactrians.
Clement says in the Itinerary that Zoroaster wished to appear a god and, directing himself intently toward the stars, produced what seemed to be sparks from them so that he might draw the ignorant into astonishment at the marvel. At length he was consumed by the very demon whom he importunately frequented. They built him a tomb as though he had been a friend of God carried up to heaven in the vehicle of a thunderbolt. Hence after death he also obtained this name, Zoroaster, as though “living star.” Aristotle writes that twenty times one hundred verses [read: twenty times one hundred thousand verses] were composed by Zoroaster. As Helinand relates, Helinand himself wonders how Aristotle saw his books when Ninus had burned them.
It must also be noted that idols and idolatry arose from this Ninus in the following manner. When Belus died, Ninus wished an image of his father to be sculpted as a consolation for his grief. He showed it such great reverence that he pardoned any guilty persons who fled to it, whatever crime they had committed. For this reason the people of that kingdom began to render divine honors to the image, by veneration of which they were delivered from punishment. Following his example, very many dedicated images to their deceased loved ones. Thus, just as the other idols drew their origin from the idol of Belus, so the general name for idols came from his name. Just as that idol was called Belus by the Assyrians, so other nations named their idols according to their own language. Hence some called them Bel, others Balaim, others Baal, others Belphegor, and others Beelzebub. This is found in the Scholastic Histories.
As Isidore writes in Book VIII of the Etymologies, those whom the pagans assert to be gods are shown to have once been human beings. In accordance with the life and deeds of each, they began to be worshiped among their own peoples after death: Isis among the Egyptians, Jupiter among the Cretans, Juba among the Moors, Faunus among the Latins, and Quirinus among the Romans. In the same manner Minerva was worshiped at Athens, Juno at Samos, Venus at Paphos, Vulcan at Leunos, Liber at Naxos, and Apollo at Delos. Poets also contributed to their praises and, in poems they composed, raised them into heaven. Thus Isidore.
Generally, these gods who were worshiped were people either powerful in dominion or industrious in discovering sciences or arts. As is found in the Book of Wisdom, three things provoked people to such worship of images: excessive affection toward the dead; fear and flattery toward kings; and the diligence of craftsmen in sculpting and painting images. But “let him who glories glory truly in this: to understand and know me,” says the Lord through Jeremiah. Solomon also says in the Book of Wisdom, “Vain are all people in whom there is no knowledge of God,” that is, no true knowledge.
After Ninus died, his wife Semiramis, a most arrogant and immodest woman, reigned. As Valerius Maximus relates, while she was occupied with arranging her hair, word was brought to her that Babylon, over which she ruled, had revolted. With one side of her hair still loose, she hurried to conquer it, and did not restore the beauty of her hair to order until she had brought so great a city back under her power. Her statue was erected there in that very posture.
Orosius says of her in Book I: Semiramis, burning with lust and thirsting for blood, killed all those with whom she had delighted in intercourse. At last, after a son conceived in shame had been impiously exposed and the incest became known, she covered private disgrace with public crime. She commanded that, with no reverence for nature observed between parents and children in seeking marriages, whatever pleased anyone should be made lawful. According to Justin, when she sought intercourse with her son, she was killed by him.
This second age began at the Flood and ends with Abraham. Orosius says thus in the preface to his book On the Misery of the World: From Adam to King Ninus, when Abraham was born, there are 3,184 years, which have either been omitted or ignored by all historians. From Ninus to the birth of Christ under Augustus, namely Octavian, there are 2,015 years, in which writers and historians have worn away all their leisure upon affairs among themselves.
There are, however, different opinions about how long this second age endured. According to the text of Genesis that follows Jerome’s translation, 292 years elapsed from the Flood to the birth of Abraham. The Hebrews and Eusebius hold this. But according to the seventy interpreters, 940 years elapsed. Bede follows this opinion, and Orosius also seems to follow it.