he died An. 4 Olymp. 88, in the end of An.  J.P. 4289, suppose a month or two before midwinter; for so long the news would be in coming.  Now Artaxerxes Longimanus reigned 40 years, by the consent of Diodorus, Eusebius, Jerome, Sulpitius; or 41, according to Ptol. in can.  Clem.  Alexand. l. 1. Strom.  Chron.  Alexandr. Abulpharagius, Nicephorus, including therein the reign of his successors Xerxes and Sogdian, as Abulpharagius informs us.  After Artaxerxes reigned his son Xerxes two months, and Sogdian seven months; but their reign is not reckoned apart in summing up the years of the Kings, but is included in the 40 or 41 years reign of Artaxerxes:  omit these nine months, and the precise reign of Artaxerxes will be thirty nine years and three months.  And therefore since his reign ended in the beginning of winter An.  J.P. 4289, it began between midsummer and autumn, An.  J.P. 4250.

The same thing I gather also thus. Cambyses began his reign in spring An.  J.P. 4185, and reigned eight years, including the five months of Smerdes; and then Darius Hystaspis began in spring An.  J.P. 4193, and reigned thirty six years, by the unanimous consent of all Chronologers.  The reigns of these two Kings are determined by three eclipses of the moon observed at Babylon, and recorded by Ptolemy; so that it cannot be disputed.  One was in the seventh year of Cambyses, An.  J.P. 4191, Jul. 16, at 11 at night; another in the 20th year of Darius, An.  J.P. 4212, Nov. 19, at 11h. 45’ at night; a third in the 31st year of Darius, An.  J.P. 4223, Apr. 25, at 11h. 30 at night.  By these eclipses, and the Prophecies of Haggai and Zechary compared together, it is manifest that his years began after the 24th day of the 11th Jewish month, and before the 25th day of April, and by consequence about March. Xerxes therefore began in spring An.  J.P. 4229:  for Darius died in the fifth year after the battle at Marathon, as Herodotus, lib. 7, and Plutarch mention; and that battle was in October An.  J.P. 4224, ten years before the battle at Salamis. Xerxes therefore began within less than a year after October An.  J.P. 4228, suppose in the spring following:  for he spent his first five years, and something more, in preparations for his expedition against the Greeks; and this expedition was in the time of the Olympic games, An. 1 Olymp. 75, Calliade Athenis Archonte, 28 years after the Regifuge, and Consulship of the first Consul Junius Brutus, Anno Urbis conditae 273, Fabio & Furio Coss. The passage of Xerxes’s army over the