DEFINITIONS. CHRONOLOGY is the Doctrin of Times, and Epocha's. An AGE or CENTURY is the Space of a hundred Years, or a hundred Solar Revolutions. LUSTRUM is the Space of five Years. This Word is seldom us'd, unless in Poetry. OLYMPIAD is the Space of four Years, which the Grecians reckon'd from one Celebration of the Olym­ pick Games to another. The first Olympiad begun the Year of the World 3174. 776 Years before the Christian Æra or Birth of Christ. Olympiads were the Epocha's of the Grecians; their Name is derived from the Olympick Games, instituted by Iphitus to the Honour of Hercules. They were celebrated every fifth Year about the Sum­ mer Solstice or the 19th of Iuly, at a Town of Elis in the Peleponesus (now the Morea) called Olympia. Some are of Opinion, That Iphitus was not the Instituter, but only the Restorer of those Games, after they had been neglected and laid aside for some time. However, after he had once fixed them, they were since solemnized, without Interruption, at the begin­ ning of every fifth Year. The ancientest and most esteemed of those Exercises was the Race, to which Wrestling was afterwards added; and because the Athletes did Wrestle naked, neither the Laws nor De­ cency did suffer Women to be there Spectators. The Prize given to the Victor, was a Garland of Laurel. Corebus, a Cook, according to Atheneus, car­ ried the Price of the Race, at the first Olympiad. EPOCHA is a fixed Point, or a certain and re­ markable Time in History, made use of in Chronology to begin to compute Years, and which is generally grounded upon some great and signal Event. ÆRA is the same Thing with Epocha, since it signi­ fies also a fixed and determined Point among Histori­ ans, to begin to reckon Years. The Word Æra comes from the Latin Æs, because they used to mark Years with little Copper Studs. Perhaps it has its Original from the Ignorance of some Amanuenses, who, finding these Letters A.E.R.A. Annus erat Regni Augusti, did make but one Word of them, Æra. Some are of Opi­ nion, That this Word was introduced by the Spaniards, who had drawn it from a Tribute which the Emperor Augustus had made them liable to; so that Æra must come from Ære. We have, at present, two different Christian Æra's. The first is the Vulgar Æra, whose Author is Dionysius, sirnam'd Exiguus, a Learned Monk that flourish'd about the beginning of the Sixth Century, who, out of respect to our Saviour's Birth, thought it fit that Christians should begin to reckon their Years from the coming of the Messiah. His Design was approv'd of and follow'd. And hence it is that we use this Form in publick Busi­ ness and Writings, In the Year of our Lord, or The Year of our Redemption, 1698. But this Dionysius, notwith­ standing that he was a Man of Learning and Integrity, has committed a Mistake of four Years; for 'tis certain, That our Vulgar Æra is so much short of the Birth of JESUS CHRIST. The second Christian Æra is the true one, which be­ gins four Years before the Vulgar; so that this present Year, instead of 1698. we ought to reckon 1702. from the Birth of our Saviour. But although this last be the true Ærara, we shall nevertheless follow that of Dionysius, only to comply with common Usage. But lest we lead any Body into an Error, instead of saying, for Example, this present Year from the Birth of Iesus Christ, 1698. which is false by four Years, we shall say of the Vulgar Ærara, 1698. and then all is right; provided we take this along with us, viz. That the first Year of the Vulgar Ærara begins at the fifth of our Saviour. We shall observe all along the same Exact­ ness upon a like Occasion. There are three sorts of Epocha's. The First is Sa­ cred; the Second Ecclesiastical; and the Third Civil or Politick. I. Sacred Epocha's are those we gather from the Bible, and which particularly concern the History of the Iews. As, 1. The Creation. 2. The Deluge, in the Year of the World, 1656. 3. The Calling of Abraham, 2023. 4. The Iews coming out of Egypt, 2453. 5. The Foundation of the Temple of Solomon, 2933. 6. The Liberty granted to the Iews by Cyrus, 3419. 7. The Birth of the Messiah, the Salvation of the Iews, and the enlightening of the Gentiles, 3948 or 50. 8. The Destruction of the Temple of Ierusalem, and the Dispersion of the Iews, the Year of the World, 3969. of JESUS CHRIST, 74. and of the Vulgar Ærara, 70. II. Ecclesiastical Epocha's are those which we take out of the Authors who have writ the History of the Church since the Birth of our Saviour, viz. 1. The Martyrdom of Peter and Paul at Rome, in the Year of the Vulgar Ærara, 67. 2. The Ærara of Dioclesian, or of the Martyrs, 302. 3. Peace given to the Church by Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor, 312. 4. The Council of Nice, called against the Heresy of Arius, 325. III. Civil or Political Epocha's are those which regard the Empires and Monarchies of the World; such as, 1. The taking of Troy by the Grecians the Year of the World, 2767. before the Vulgar Christian Ærara, 1183 Years, and 407 before the first Olympiad. 2. The Building of Rome, according to Fabius Pi­ ctor, who wrote first about Roman Affairs, is fixed a lit­ tle before the VIIIth Olympiad, on the 13th of the Ka­ lends of May; that is, in the Year of the World, 3198. and 752. Years before the Vulgar Ærara. Nevertheless Varro places it five whole Years higher, viz. in the Year of the World, 3193. 3. The Ærara of the Seleucides, from whence the Ma­ cedonians began to reckon their Years, is also called the Grecian Years, chiefly used by the Iews since they were subjected to the Macedonians. This Ærara begins at the Reign of Seleucus Nicanor, one of the Captain of Alexander the Great, in the Year of the World, 3638 and 312 Years before the Vulgar Ærara. 4. The first Iulian Year. This Year begins at the Reformation of the Roman Kalendar, made by Iulius Cæsar. The Times of the Roman Fasti were so con­ founded, through the Negligence of the High-Priests that Iulius Cæsar, being himself raised to that Dignity thought it his Duty to correct the Abuses which his Predecessors had tolerated. His first Care, assoon as he came to be Head of the Republick, was to regulate all Things belonging to Religion. He made use of the Skill of Sosigenes, an excellent Astronomer, in order to reform the Kalendar; and assigned the Year as many Days as the Sun takes up in passing through the XII Signs of the Zodiack; since that time the common Year consists of 365 Days. This Reformation was made in the Year of the World, 3905. and 45 before the Vul­ gar Ærara. 5. The Hegira or Flight of Mahomet: When that Im­ postor had for some Years been propagating his false Doctrin at Mecca, and had gain'd a large Party to his Side, they became Insolent and gave Offence to the Government, which occasion'd the Magistrates to op­ pose that growing Faction, and thereby oblig'd Maho­ met to quit that Place, and fly to a neighbouring Town where his Party were more powerful. From this Flight of their Prophet, which happen'd on the 16th of Iuly, in the Year of the Vulgar Æra, 622. the Turks date their Writings; which they first took up on occasion of a Quarrel concerning a Payment; for a Debtor had given his Obligation to pay a Sum of Mony on such a Day of such a Month; which Month being past at the time of the Demand, the Debtor alledg'd it was not before the next Year that he was to Pay; which being brought before Omar III. Emperor of the Saracens, he found the Inconvenience of not having a Method of ascer­ taining the Year, and accordingly instituted the Hegira for an Epocha. SOLAR CYCLE, is the Revolution of 28 Years, after which the Letters that mark the Sundays and other Holy-days, return to the same Order they were in at first. The Sun has nothing to do with this Revolution, which is called Solar, only because the Sunday, whose Letter we are principally in quest of, is called by the Astronomers Dies Solis, the Day of the Sun. LVNAR CYCLE, or GOLDEN NVMBER, is a Pe­ riod of 19 Years, invented by Methon an Athenian, who observ'd that at the end of that time, the Moon began the same Lunations over again. "lunar cycle" antedates the OED's first citation (1704). INDICTION is a way of Computing, used formerly among the Romans, which contains a Revolution of 15 Years. It is still in use in Apostolical Bulls and Rescripts. ANACHRONISM, is an Error or Mistake in the Com­ putation of Time. Thus Virgil is guilty of an Anachro­ nism in his Æneis, by making Æneas and Dido Cotem­ poraries, whereas they lived 300 Years distant one from another. For Æneas is placed about the Year of the World 2820. and Dido about the Year, 3112. SYNCRONISME, is a View of all Cotemporary History. THE IVLIAN PERIOD, is a space of Time con­ taining 7980 Years. Iulius Scaliger, the Inventer of it, composed it of the Solar Cycle of 28 Years, of the Lunar Cycle of 19, and of the Indiction of 15. for these three Numbers multiplied together, make up 7980. We suppose, in Chronology, this Period to be 765 Years older than the World. I have had no regard, in all this Work, to the Iulian Period, with which it is not proper to trouble and puzzle those who study Chronology, only in their way to History. Therefore I have fitted all the Epocha's to the Years of the World, and the Years either before or after the Vulgar Æra, the beginning of which I place (according to the most skilful in this sort of Study) in the Year of the World, 4004. One can never be too careful in re­ moving Difficulties from a Subject, which is so intricate of it self. For after all, if you tell young People, and even those that are come to Man's Estate, That the Iu­ lian Period begins 765 Years before the World, you'll amaze them to that degree, that tho' you tell them afterwards, That this is but a Supposition; you will have much ado to bring them back again to themselves. Now this Period was invented to no other purpose, than to square by it all the other Epocha's, and reconcile, if possible, Chronologers one to another; and therefore it does not concern those who have only a Mind to learn History, and whom it were unjust to engage in minute Punctilio's of Chronology, which have been ever look'd upon as Thorns very difficult and troublesome to handle.