Past, Present, Future

Abstract

After its heyday in the hands of luminaries like Scaliger and Petavius, in the late seventeenth century ancient chronology saw a decline, fuelled by the growing amount of evidence for the antiquity of Egypt and Assyria. The concept of the four monarchies from Daniel, a staple since the days of the Church Fathers, no longer served as an adequate template for world history, though it retained its status in the interpretation of apocalyptic scriptural prophecy. Against this background, Isaac Newton began studying ancient history in great earnest, resulting in the posthumously published Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728). Yet so far, historians have not provided a convincing explanation of Newton’s interest, nor properly sorted and dated the manuscripts involved.