Chapter XXXI.—The Philosophy of the Christians More Ancient Than that of the Greeks.
But now it seems proper for me to demonstrate that our philosophy is older than the
systems of the Greeks. Moses and Homer shall be our limits, each of them being of great
antiquity; the one being the oldest of poets and historians, and the other the founder of all
barbarian wisdom. Let us, then, institute a comparison between them; and we shall find that
our doctrines are older, not only than those of the Greeks, but than the invention of letters.82
And I will not bring forward witnesses from among ourselves, but rather have recourse to
Greeks. To do the former would be foolish, because it would not be allowed by you; but the
other will surprise you, when, by contending against you with your own weapons, I adduce
arguments of which you had no suspicion. Now the poetry of Homer, his parentage, and
the time in which he flourished have been investigated by the most ancient writers,—by
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Theagenes of Rhegium, who lived in the time of Cambyses, Stesimbrotus of Thasos and
Antimachus of Colophon, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius the Olynthian; after
them, by Ephorus of Cumæ, and Philochorus the Athenian, Megaclides and Chamæleon
the Peripatetics; afterwards by the grammarians, Zenodotus, Aristophanes, Callimachus,
Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, and Apollodorus. Of these, Crates says that he flourished
before the return of the Heraclidæ, and within 80 years after the Trojan war; Eratosthenes
says that it was after the 100th year from the taking of Ilium; Aristarchus, that it was about
the time of the Ionian migration, which was 140 years after that event; but, according to
Philochorus, after the Ionian migration, in the archonship of Archippus at Athens, 180 years
after the Trojan war; Apollodorus says it was 100 years after the Ionian migration, which
would be 240 years after the Trojan war. Some say that he lived 90 years before the
Olympiads, which would be 317 years after the taking of Troy. Others carry it down to a
later date, and say that Homer was a contemporary of Archilochus; but Archilochus flour-
ished about the 23d Olympiad, in the time of Gyges the Lydian, 500 years after Troy. Thus,
concerning the age of the aforesaid poet, I mean Homer, and the discrepancies of those who
have spoken of him, we have said enough in a summary manner for those who are able to
investigate with accuracy. For it is possible to show that the opinions held about the facts
themselves also are false. For, where the assigned dates do not agree together, it is impossible
that the history should be true. For what is the cause of error in writing, but the narrating
of things that are not true?
82 Comp. Matt. xiii. 44. [Cogent reasoning with Greeks.]
Chapter XXXI. The Philosophy of the Christians More Ancient Than that of the Greeks.
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Chapter XXXI. The Philosophy of the Christians More Ancient Than that of…