[300] At the same time chronology was incidentally made to show in a statistical way what a great priority Hebrew civilization had over its pagan rivals. Cf. pp. [79], [80].
[301] In some respects Isidore’s chronology is peculiar, and differs from any known chronology of world-history of the time. For example, where Hieronymus gives the time from the flood to Abraham as 1072 years, Isidore gives it as 942 years; and where Africanus put the birth of Christ in the year 5500 of the world, Isidore put it in 5197. See Hertzberg, p. 376. Again, only the full years are noticed, the fractions of the older chronologies being either counted as integers or ignored, though this is not done according to any system. For table showing irregularities here, see ibid., p. 325, notes 3 and 4.
[302] E.g. De Civitate Dei, xxii, 30.
[303] 5, 38, 5.
[304] Hora (hour) and ora (coast or border) are confused.
[305] A communionis temperamento.
[306] So in the case of summer, autumn, and winter.
[307] The reference in “complex history” (complicem historiam) is to the parallel sets of chronological tables of the histories of different peoples given by Eusebius.
[308] Sufficient of Isidore’s chronology is translated to give an idea of its method and of the events mentioned in it. His dates for the six ages of the world are as follows:
| First age | 0–2242. |
| Second age | 2242–3184. |
| Third age | 3184–4125. |
| Fourth age | 4125–4610. |
| Fifth age | 4610–5155. |
| Sixth age | 5155–? |