Note 121 — The History of Nations confirms the Newness of the Continents.

Varro places the deluge of Ogyges, which he calls the first deluge, 400 years before Inachus, and consequently 1600 years before the first Olympiad. This would refer it to a period of 2376 years before Christ; and the deluge of Noah, according to the Hebrew text, is 2349, there being only 27 years of difference. This testimony of Varro is mentioned by Censorinus, De Die Natali, cap. xxi. In reality, Censorinus wrote only 238 years after Christ; and, it appears, from Julius Africanus, ap. Euseb. Præp. cv. that Acusilaus, the first author who placed a deluge in the reign of Ogyges, made this prince cotemporary with Phoronæus, which would have brought him very near the first Olympiad. Julius Africanus makes only an interval of 1020 years between the two epochs; and there is even a passage in Censorinus conformable to this opinion. Some also read erogitium in place of ogygium, in the passage of Varro, which we have quoted above from Censorinus. But what would this be but an Erogitian Cataclysm, of which nobody has ever heard?