Berosus

, priest of the temple of Belus at Babylon, in the time of Ptolemy Pliiladelphus. He wrote the history of Chaldea, which is frequently quoted by the ancients, and of which some curious fragments are preserved to us by Josephus but he attributed an ideal antiquity to his country, and mingled his accounts with astrology. His predictions, according to Pliny, induced the Athenians to place a statue of him in their gymnasium with a gilded tongue. Five books of antiquities were printed under the name of Berosus, Antwerp, 1545, 8vo, by Annius Viterbo, but they were soon discovered to be forgeries. ²