say: he was by birth a Chaldean, well known by the learned, on
account of his publication of the Chaldean books of astronomy and
philosophy among the Greeks. This Berosus, therefore, following
the most ancient records of that nation, gives us a history of
the deluge of waters that then happened, and of the destruction
of mankind thereby, and agrees with Moses's narration thereof. He
also gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin of
our race, was preserved, when it was brought to the highest part
of the Armenian mountains; after which he gives us a catalogue of
the posterity of Noah, and adds the years of their chronology,
and at length comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of Babylon,
and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of this
king, he describes to us how he sent his son Nabuchodonosor
against Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his
being informed that they had revolted from him; and how, by that
means, he subdued them all, and set our temple that was at
Jerusalem on fire; nay, and removed our people entirely out of
their own country, and transferred them to Babylon; when it so
happened that our city was desolate during the interval of
seventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Persia. He then
says, "That this Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and
Phoenicia, and Arabia, and exceeded in his exploits all that had
reigned before him in Babylon and Chaldea." A little after which
Berosus subjoins what follows in his History of Ancient Times. I
will set down Berosus's own accounts, which are these: "When
Nabolassar, father of Nabuchodonosor, heard that the governor
whom he had set over Egypt, and over the parts of Celesyria and
Phoenicia, had revolted from him, he was not able to bear it any
longer; but committing certain parts of his army to his son
Nabuchodonosor, who was then but young, he sent him against the