Note 70 — Chapter XIX · APPLICATION OF CHRONOLOGY TO GRECIAN LEGEND.

Larcher and Raoul Rochette, adopting the chronological date of Herodotus, fix the taking of Troy at 1270 B. C., and the Return of the Herakleids at 1190 B. C. According to the scheme of Eratosthenês, these two events stand at 1184 and 1104 B. C.

O. Müller, in his Chronological Tables (Appendix vi. to History of Dorians, vol ii. p. 441, Engl. transl.), gives no dates or computation of years anterior to the Capture of Troy and the Return of the Herakleids, which he places with Eratosthenês in 1184 and 1104 B. C.

C. Müller thinks (in his Annotatio ad Marmor Parium, appended to the Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum, ed. Didot, pp. 556, 568, 572; compare his Prefatory notice of the Fragments of Hellanikus, p. xxviii. of the same volume) that the ancient chronologists, in their arrangement of the mythical events as antecedent and consequent, were guided by certain numerical attachments, especially by a reverence for the cycle of 63 years, product of the sacred numbers 7 × 9 = 63. I cannot think that he makes out his hypothesis satisfactorily, as to the particular cycle followed, though it is not improbable that some preconceived numerical theories did guide these early calculators. He calls attention to the fact that the Alexandrine computation of dates was only one among a number of others discrepant, and that modern inquirers are too apt to treat it as if it stood alone, or carried some superior authority, (pp. 568-572; compare Clemen. Alex. Stromat. i. p. 145, Sylb.) For example, O. Müller observes, (Appendix to Hist. of Dorians, p. 442,) that “Larcher’s criticism and rejection of the Alexandrine chronologists may perhaps be found as groundless as they are presumptuous,”—an observation, which, to say the least of it, ascribes to Eratosthenês a far higher authority than he is entitled to.