was passed and should not return, and that what should hereafter come was a conflagration. He got drunk with wine, of which he was the first inventor, and was mocked by Ham ; on which account he cursed him, but blessed his other sons. And so he died. CH. II.—The Generation* of Noah. THESE are seventy-two* generations catalogued of the three eons of Noah. To wit, fifteen of Japhet, thirty of Ham, and seventeen of Shem. And these men were scattered over the world. Shem obtained Asia, Ham Africa, and Japhet Europe ; and the ancients distinguish their genealogies in this manner. Shem, the eldest of the family, came into Asia, and arranged the provinces in this manner. CH. III.—The Divisione of the Nations—the Reigns of Belus, Semiramis, Ninus, in Assyria; Astyages, Cyrus, and Darius in Persia. As the people increased after the flood, there arose four principal kingdoms ; that of the Assyrians in the East, where the first king was Belus ; that of the Sicinii in the West, where the first king was Egialeus; that of the Scythians in the North, where the first king was Tanus ; that of the Egyptians in the South, where the first king was Myneus. Belus was succeeded by his wife Semiramis, who made the district of Babylon the metropolitan district of her kingdom. She was succeeded by Ninus, who was the inventor of idols, making an image in honour of his father Belus. At length came Sardanapalus, from whom Arbaces wrested the kingdom and transferred it to the Medes. And after a time, Astyages be* coming king of the Medes, gave his daughter to a prince4 of the Persians, who became the father of Cyrus, by whom 8 There is again some error here. Fifteen, thirty, and seventeen make sixty-two, not seventy-two ; nor do the numbers exactly coincide with the list of names given in the Bible, where (Gen. x.—1 Chron. ΪΛ we find the names of fourteen descendants of Japhet, thirty of Ham, and twenty* seven of Shem. 4 Our author is mistaken here. Camhyses, the father of Cyrus, was not a prince, though of a good family (οΐκίης αγαθής. Hdt. i. 107)· And Darius did not reign as the colleague of Cyrus, but succeeded to the kingdom on the death of Smerdis the Magus, seven or eight years after the death of Cyrus (a c. 36), and he was the son of Hystaspes, not of Astyages (Hdt. iii. 75).