Historical Dissertation on Abaris

uncertain and obscure, it should not seem surprising to us that there is such great disagreement among learned men concerning the time of our philosopher. I consider it worthy of the greatest admiration, however, that not just one or another Olympiad provides grounds for debate among scholars, but that they differ from one another by a span of more than twenty Olympiads. For if we are to believe Harpocration original: "Harpocrationi" (ρ), Hippostratus believed that Abaris came to Greece in the 3rd Olympiad. Suidas (σ) also agrees with him, who, as is very often his habit, copied all these things from Harpocration without changing even a word. Although the most learned Ludolphus Kusterus original: "Ludolphus Kuſterus" noted on this passage of Suidas in the most splendid and accurate recent edition of this lexicographer that he had found it written in one Parisian manuscript that this happened katà tēn ng' Olympiadēn in the 53rd Olympiad, which is to say, in the 53rd Olympiad. Those who argue with great effort that Abaris lived during the 11th Olympiad move very far away from the opinion of Hippostratus, and those who report that he lived in the 82nd Olympiad are even further removed. Among these, Eusebius (τ) seems to rightfully claim the first place, when he says that Abaris was recognized as a prophet in the 82nd Olympiad. However, learned men have long observed elsewhere that Eusebius is not always of great authority and often errs in a remarkable way. Indeed, I find him contradicting himself on this very point. For in this place he affirms that Abaris lived in the 82nd Olympiad, although shortly before he had asserted that he came from Scythia to Greece in the second year of the 54th Olympiad. I can hardly persuade myself to believe that Abaris lived in both the 54th and the 82nd Olympiads and thus passed his life beyond one hundred years. Joannes Funccius (υ), not departing too far from Eusebius, refers his life to the third year of the 52nd Olympiad. Those who refer Abaris to the times of Phalaris and Pythagoras think they are walking the safest path, among whose number are also Porphyry (φ), Jamblichus (χ), and Heinricus Dodwellus (ψ). But there is a new and no less significant controversy among learned men as to when Phalaris and when Pythagoras lived. The most Reverend Bishop of Worcester,