Antiquitas non fingo: Newton, the moderns and the science of ancient history

In his posthumous The Chronology of the Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728) Isaac Newton re-dated a number of significant events in ancient history, most importantly the Argonautic expedition and the Fall of Troy. This article explores the eighteenth-century reception of the Chronology as a text contiguous with Newton's previous works on natural philosophy. In particular, it will be argued that the Chronology was considered as proof that the moderns had made history into a scientific discipline based on principles like those delineated in Newton's Principia.