TLDR
All Nations, before they began to keep exact accounts of Time, have been prone to raise their Antiquities; and this humour has been promoted, by the Contentions between Nations about their Originals. Herodotus tells us, that the Priests of Egypt reckoned from the Reign of Menes to that of Sethon, who put Sennacherib to flight, three hundred forty and one Generations of men, and as many Priests of Vulcan, and as many Kings of Egypt: and that three hundred Generations make ten thousand years; for, saith he, three Generations of men make an hundred years: and the remaining forty and one Generations make 1340 years: and so the whole time from the Reign of Menes to that of Sethon was 11340 years. And by this way of reckoning, and allotting longer Reigns to the Gods of Egypt than to the Kings which followed them, Herodotus tells us from the Priests of Egypt, that from Pan to Amosis were 15000 years, and from Hercules to Amosis 17000 years. So also the Chaldæans boasted of their Antiquity; for Callisthenes, the Disciple of Aristotle, sent Astronomical Observations from Babylon to Greece, said to be of 1903 years standing before the times of Alexander the great. And the Chaldæans boasted further, that they had observed the Stars 473000 years; and there were others who made the Kingdoms of Assyria, Media and Damascus, much older than the truth.via the TL;DR App
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Written by isaacnewton | When you hear "On the shoulders of giants," they're talking about me.