CHAPTER VII. HISTORICAL NOTICES a. Eclipses recorded in Ancient History.-Eclipse of 584 B.C.-Eclipse of 556 B.C.Eclipse of 479 B.C.-Eclipse of 430 B.C.-Eclipse of 309 B.C.-Allusions in old English Chronicles to Eclipses of the Sun. THE HE earliest eclipse on record is one given in the Chinese history named the Chou-king; it has been supposed that a solar eclipse happened on Oct. 13, 2128 B.C., and that that is the one there alluded to. What happened in connection with it was this, though I cannot vouch for the details. Ho and Hi the Astronomers Royal of the period failed to give timely warning of the eclipse, but got drunk instead. The eclipse happened therefore without the proper religious preparations having been made, and the land was exposed to the anger of the gods. To appease them the officials in question were forthwith executed. If this is fact and not romance, the record is a very interesting one, contemporaneous as it is with the Patriarchs of the Bible. One of the most celebrated eclipses of the Sun recorded in history is that which occurred in the year 585 B.C. It is notable, not only on account of its having been predicted by Thales, who was the first ancient astronomer who gave the true explanation of the phenomena of eclipses, but because it seems to fix the precise date of an important event in ancient history. Herodotus See the Rev. S. J. Johnson's Eclipses past and future. The fullest general account of all the early eclipses of importance is that which will be found in S. Newcomb's Researches on the Motion Y of the Moon, Part I, "Observations on the Moon before 1750," pp. 27-54 (Washington, 1878). b Mem. R. A.S., vol. xi. p. 47. 1840. |