1. That each sarus consisted of 3600 years ([a]ἔτη]).
2. That the first ten kings of Babylon reigned 120 sari, equal to 432,000 years; or on an average 43,200 years apiece.
With data of this sort, we must either abandon the chronology altogether, or else change the power of the word year. The first of these alternatives was adopted by Cicero and Pliny, and doubtless other of the ancients—contemnamus etiam Babylonios et eos qui e Caucaso cœli signa observantes numeris et motubus stellarum cursus persequuntur; condemnemus inquam hos aut stultitiæ aut vanitatis aut impudentiæ qui CCCCLXX millia annorum, ut ipsi dicunt, monumentis comprehensa continent.—Cic. de Divinat., from Cory's Ancient Fragments. Again—e diverso Epigenes apud Babylonios DCCXX annorum observationes siderum coctilibus laterculis inscriptas docet, gravis auctor in primis: qui minimum Berosus et Critodemus CCCCLXXX annorum.—Pliny, vii. 56. On the other hand, to alter the value of the word [a]ἔτος] or annus has been the resource of at least one modern philologist.
Now if we treat the question by what may be called the tentative method, the first step in our inquiry will be to find some division of time which shall, at once, be natural in itself, and also short enough to make 10 sari possible parts of an average human life. For this, even a day will be too long. Twelve hours, however, or half a [a]νυχθήμερον], will give us possible results.
Taking this view therefore, and leaving out of the account the 29th of February, the words [a]ἔτος] and annus mean, not a year, but the 730th part of one; 3600 of which make a sarus. In other words, a sarus=1800 day-times and 1800 night-times, or 3600 half [a]νυχθήμερα], or 4 years+340 days.
The texts to which the present hypothesis applies are certain passages in Eusebius and Syncellus. These are founded upon the writings of Alexander Polyhistor, Apollodorus, Berosus, and Abydenus. From hence we learn the length of the ten reigns alluded to above, viz. 120 sari or 591 years and odd days. Reigns of this period are just possible. It is suggested, however, that the reign and life are dealt with as synonymous; or at any rate, that some period beyond that during which each king sat singly on his throne has been recorded.
The method in question led the late Professor Rask to a different power for the word sarus. In his Ældste Hebraiske Tidregnung he writes as follows: "The meaning of the so-called sari has been impossible for me to discover. The ancients explain it differently. Dr. Ludw. Ideler, in his Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, i. 207, considers it to mean some lunar period; without however defining it, and without sufficient closeness to enable us to reduce the 120 sari, attributed to the ten ancient kings, to any probable number of real years. I should almost believe that the sarus was a year of 23 months, so that the 120 sari meant 240 natural years." p. 32. Now Rask's hypothesis has the advantage of leaving the meaning of the word reign as we find it. On the other hand, it blinks the question of [a]ἔτη] or anni as the parts of a sarus. Each doctrine, however, is equally hypothetical; the value of the sarus, in the present state of our inquiry, resting solely upon the circumstance of its giving a plausible result from plausible assumptions. The data through which the present writer asserts for his explanation the proper amount of probability are contained in two passages hitherto unapplied.
1. From Eusebius—is (Berosus) sarum ex annis 3600 conflat. Addit etiam nescio quem nerum ac sosum: nerum ait 600 annis constare, sosum annis 60. Sic ille de veterum more annos computat.—Translation of the Armenian Eusebius, p. 5, from Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum, p. 439: Paris, 1841.
2. Berosus—[a]σάρος δέ ἐστιν ἕξακόσια καὶ τρισχίλια ἔτη, νῖ ρος δὲ ἕξακόσια, σώσσος ἑξήκοντα].—From Cory's Ancient Fragments.