Note 266 — Chapter IX · THE HEROIC AGE OF GREECE.

Eratosthenes reckons nearly 320 years from the accession (birth) of Eurysthenes to that of Alcamenes in the ninth generation, while the reigns of the father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather of the latter make up 159 years. Sosibius, who reckoned by the Eurypontid dynasty, appears to have had a similar period of 320 years from Procles to Theopompos, although his dates were different from those of Eratosthenes—1091/0 to 771/0 according to Prof. Meyer (op. cit. p. 179 f.). The accession of Theopompos was equated with that of Alcamenes by Eratosthenes. Possibly these periods were originally subdivisions of a longer period of 640 years, reckoned from the fortieth year of Cleomenes (or Leonidas?).