A new analysis of chronology

INTRODUCTION.

PRESENT STATE OF CHRONOLOGY.

SECTION I.

ARTICLE I. REVIEW OF EPOCHS, ERAS, AND PERIODS.

History in general may not improperly be compared to a rich and voluminous storehouse, in which are stored, for the example and benefit of future generations, all the various “knowledge of things” and events, of customs and manners, virtues and vices, arts and sciences, which have contributed to the rise and fall of states, and to the happiness and misery of mankind, both individually and collectively. This is what is especially healthy and profitable in the study of history: to see examples of every kind of conduct recorded in a conspicuous monument, so that you may choose for yourself and your country what to imitate, and what to avoid as foul in its beginning and foul in its result. —Livy, in his Preface. original: "Hoc illud est præcipuè in cognitione rerum salutare ac frugiferum: omnis ex exempli documenta, in illustri posita monumento, intueri; id tibi tuæque reipublicæ quod imitere capias; inde, fædum inceptu, fædum exitu, quod vitandum sit." But all these precious materials, unless they are arranged in order and categorized according to their times, are no better than a crude and confused mass. Without Chronology The science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, History would lose its most valuable qualities of truth and consistency, and barely rise above the level of fiction. For, as it was well observed by an ancient chronologer, Tatian:—

“With those to whom the computation of times is unconnected, not even the facts of history can be verified.”
original Greek: ΠΑΣ̓ ὍΣ ἈΣΎΝΔΕΤῼ ἜΣΤΙΝ Ἡ ΤΩ̂Ν ΧΡΌΝΩΝ ἈΝΑΓΡΑΦΉ, ΠΑΡᾺ ΤΟΎΤΟΙΣ ΟΥ̓ΔῈ ΤΑ ΤΗ̂Σ ἹΣΤΟΡΊΑΣ ἈΛΗΘΕΎΕΙΝ ΔΥΝΑΤΑΙ.

But Chronology itself ought to be correct and accurate. Otherwise, it will fail to properly fulfill its important functions as “the eye,” and even “the soul of history”; instead, it will propagate error and render confusion worse confounded.

VOL. I.