  Southwick, near Oundle, Sir,—Your excellent little work, "Current Notes," is worthy of all praise and support; as affording to the Numismatist, the Paleologist, and the Archeologist, &c. the means not only of giving a written account of their various studies, but also of exhibiting facsimiles of the objects of their research. At the same time that I thank you for the insertion of my last (p. 3, Jan. 1852), allow me to present you with one of, I think, much greater interest to the Chronologist and Historian, taken from "Gesenii Monumenta Phoenicia, Pars 3, Tab. 11, fig. XL. bis," The letters at the top of the signet are Ch sr b l; and the reading is, "The great king." At the bottom of the signet they are, A ch m n; and the reading is, "Achemen," and with the Greek termination AchÆmenes. On the right side they are a n b, Hebrew ? ? ?, taken as numerical characters, i.e. 1000, 700, 2; making the date 1702. On the left, the figure like the Greek d, is the sign of Taurus, to denote the month when the sun entered into Taurus. The dove and leaf seem to refer to "the dove and olive leaf," Gen. viii. 11. Let me now refer your readers to Drummond's Origines, v. 1, p. 310: "The Greeks fancied AchÆmenes to have been the name of the progenitor of Cyrus; but AchÆmenes is nothing else than a corruption of one of those pompous and impious titles, which were assumed by the kings of Iran, and of which the inscriptions explained by M. de Sacy afford many examples. AchÆmenes, as I have shown elsewhere, signifies Rex coeli in ancient Persian." So much for guess-work, which cannot be too much reprobated. I do not pretend to any skill in chronology, but the calculation appears to be so simple, that I will attempt it, taking the dates of our authorized version of the Bible.
Therefore, from the beginning of the reign of AchÆmenes to the same of Cyrus is 110 years. From this remarkable signet we obtain the historical truth, that AchÆmenes began his reign in the month Taurus, 1702, after THE Deluge. I have found the Deluge taken as an epoch in various Cuneiform and Egyptian, &c. documents, that have not been explained to the public. Yours truly, T. R. Brown. T. R. B.'s translation received, but must stand over for the present. |
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