describes a war that had been carried on for some years between the Lydians and the Medes; and gives an account of the following circumstances which led to its premature termination:

"As the balance had not inclined in favour of either nation, another engagement took place in the 6th year of the war, in the course of which, just as the battle was growing warm, day was suddenly turned into night (συνήνεικε ὥστε τῆς μάχης συνεστεώσης τὴν ἡμέρην ἐξαπίνης νύκτα γενέσθαι). This event had been foretold to the Ionians by Thales of Miletus, who predicted for it the very year in which it actually took place. When the Lydians and Medes observed the change they ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to conclude peace." Peace was accordingly agreed upon and cemented by a twofold marriage. "For without some strong bond, there is little security to be found in men's covenants."

So adds the historian. The exact date of this interesting event was long disputed, and the solar eclipses of 610, 593, and particularly 585 B.C., were each fixed upon as the one mentioned by Herodotus; and it is only within the last few years that the point has been finally settled in favour of the last-mentioned eclipse, and that chiefly through the researches of Sir G. B. Airy, who gives, as the date of the eclipse in question, May 28, 585 B.C.d This is reconcileable with the statements of Cicero and Pliny.

Another important ancient eclipse is that mentioned by Xenophon, in the Anabasis, as having led to the capture by the Persians of the Median city Larissa. In the retreat of the Greeks on the eastern side of the Tigris, not long after the seizure of their commanders, they crossed the river Zapetes, and also a ravine, and then came to the Tigris. At this place, according to Xenophon, there stood

"A large deserted city called Larissa, formerly inhabited by the Medes; its wall was 25 feet thick, and 100 feet high; its circumference 2 parasangs; it was built of burnt brick on an understructure of stone 20 feet in height. When the Persians obtained the empire from the Medes, the king of the Persians besieged the city, but was unable by any means to take it till a cloud having covered the Sun and caused it to disappear completely, the inhabitants withdrew in alarm, and thus the city was captured.”

e Herod., lib. i. cap. 74.

d Phil. Trans., vol. cxliii. pp. 191-197.1853. Month. Not., vol. xviii. p. 143. Mar. 1858. • Anab., lib. iii. cap. 4. § 7.

The historian then goes on to say that the Greeks in continuing their march, passed by another ruined city named Mespila. The minute description given by Xenophon enabled Layard, Felix Jones, and others, to identify Larissa with the modern Nimrud, and Mespila with Mosul. It has been thought that the phenomenon to which the Greek author refers as having led to the capture of the above-mentioned city, was no other than a total eclipse of the Sun, and Airy arrived at the conclusion that the eclipse referred to is that which occurred on May 19, 557 B.C.

f

In the same year as that in which, according to the common account, the battle of Salamis was fought (480 B.C.), there occurred a phenomenon which is thus adverted to :—

"At the first approach of spring the army quitted Sardis, and marched towards Abydos; at the moment of its departure the Sun suddenly quitted its place in the heavens and disappeared (ὁ ἥλιος ἐκλιπὼν τὴν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἕδρην ἀφανὴς ἦν), though there were no clouds in sight, and the sky was quite clear; day was thus turned into night (ἀντὶ ἡμέρης τε νὺξ ἐγένετο) Β.”

This account, interpreted as a record of a total solar eclipse, has given great trouble to chronologers, and it is still uncertain to what eclipse reference is made. If Hind's theory that the eclipse of Feb. 17, 478 B.C. is the one referred to, is sound, we must consider that the battle of Salamis is an event less remote by 2 years than has usually been supposed. Airy "thinks it extremely probable" that the narrative relates to the total eclipse of the Moon, which happened 478 B.C., March 13d 15h G.M. T.h

A total eclipse of the Sun, supposed to have been that of August 3, 431 B.C., nearly prevented the Athenian expedition against the Lacedæmonians, but a happy thought occurring to Pericles, commander of the forces belonging to the former nation, the difficulty was got over.

"The whole fleet was in readiness, and Pericles on board his own galley, when there happened an eclipse of the Sun. The sudden darkness was looked upon as an

Month. Not., vol. xvii. p. 234. June 1857. Newcomb doubts this being an eclipse at all. And see a letter by Lynn in Observatory, vol. vii. p. 380. Dec. 1884.

Herod., lib. vii. cap. 37. Plutarch,

Pelopidas, 31. Diod. Sic., lib. xv. cap. 80. Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. x. p. 424.

h Phil. Trans., vol. cxliii. p. 197. 1853. See also Blakesley's Herod., in loco, and some criticisms by Lynn in Observatory, vol. vii. p. 138, May 1884.

unfavourable omen, and threw the sailors into the greatest consternation. Pericles observing that the pilot was much astonished and perplexed, took his cloak, and having covered his eyes with it, asked him if he found anything terrible in that, or considered it as a bad presage? Upon his answering in the negative, he said, 'Where is the difference, then, between this and the other, except that something bigger than my cloak causes the eclipse?'”

Thucydides says:

"In the same summer, at the beginning of a new lunar month (at which time alone the phenomenon seems possible), soon after noon the Sun suffered an eclipses; it assumed a crescent form, and certain of the stars appeared: after a while the Sun resumed its ordinary aspect *."

An ancient eclipse, known as that of Agathocles, has also been investigated by Sir G. B. Airy, and previously by Baily. It took place on August 14, 310 B.C. This eclipse is, according to ancient writers, associated with an interesting historical event. Agathocles, having been closely blockaded in the harbour of Syracuse by a Carthaginian fleet, took advantage of a temporary relaxation in the blockade, occasioned by the absence of the enemy in quest of a relieving fleet, and quitting the harbour of Syracuse, he landed on the neighbouring coast of Africa, at a point near the modern Cape Bon, and devastated the Carthaginian territories. It is stated that the voyage to the African coast occupied 6 days, and that an eclipse (which from the description was manifestly total) occurred on the 2nd day. Diodorus Siculus says that the stars were seen1, so that no doubt can exist as to the totality of the eclipse. Baily, however, found that there existed an irreconcileable difference between the calculated path of the shadow and the historical statement, a space of about 180 geographical miles appearing between the most Southerly position that can be assigned to the fleet of Agathocles and the Northerly limit of the phase. "To obviate this discordance, it is only necessary to suppose an error of about 3' in the computed distances of the Sun and Moon at conjunction, a very inconsiderable correction for a date anterior to the epoch of the Tables by more than 21 centuries m."

i Plutarch, Vita Periclis.

Thucyd., lib. ii. cap. 28.

1 Diodor. Sic., lib. xx. cap. 1. Justin.,

lib. xxii. cap. 6.

m Phil. Trans., vol. cxliii. pp. 187–191. 1853.

In the work mentioned in the note below" there will be found an extremely interesting epitome of all the discussions which have taken place respecting the Eclipses of the Sun of 610, 603, 585, 557, and 310 B.C., together with charts of the tracks of the shadow on each occasion. The writer, the late Mr. J. W. Bosanquet, F.R.A.S., also brings out very clearly the way in which these eclipses are available for settling points of chronology.

In the writings of the early English chroniclers are to be found numerous passages relating to total eclipses of the Sun. The eclipse of August 2, 1133, was considered a presage of misfortune to Henry I.: it is thus referred to by William of Malmesbury:

"The elements manifested their sorrow at this great man's last departure. For the Sun on that day at the 6th hour shrouded his glorious face, as the poets say, in hideous darkness, agitating the hearts of men by an eclipse; and on the 6th day of the week, early in the morning, there was so great an earthquake that the ground appeared absolutely to sink down; an horrid noise being first heard beneath the surface "."

The same writer, speaking of the total eclipse of March 20, 1140, says:—

'During this year, in Lent, on the 13th of the calends of April, at the 9th hour of the 4th day of the week, there was an eclipse, throughout England, as I have heard. With us, indeed, and with all our neighbours, the obscuration of the Sun also was so remarkable, that persons sitting at table, as it then happened almost everywhere, for it was Lent, at first feared that Chaos was come again: afterwards learning the cause, they went out and beheld the stars around the Sun. It was thought and said by many, not untruly, that the king [Stephen] would not continue a year in the government P."

n Messiah the Prince, or the Inspiration of the Prophecies of Daniel. 2nd ed., 8vo. Lond. 1869.

• Hist. Nov., lib. i.

P Hist. Nov., lib. ii. See also Sax. Chron., Thorpe's Trans., p. 233. 8vo. London, 1861.

CHAPTER VIII.

ECLIPSES OF THE MOON.

Lunar Eclipses of less interest than Solar ones.—Summary of facts connected with them.—Peculiar circumstances noticed during the Eclipse of March 19, 1848.— Observations of Forster.-Wargentin's remarks on the Eclipse of May 18, 1761.-Kepler's explanation of these peculiarities being due to Meteorological causes.-Admiral Smyth's account of the successive stages of the Eclipse of Oct. 13, 1837.-The Eclipse of Jan. 28, 1888. - The Eclipse of Sept. 2, 1830, as witnessed in Africa by R. and J. Lander. - Chaldæan observations of Eclipses.— Other ancient Eclipses.-Anecdote of Columbus.

A

N eclipse of the Moon, though inferior in importance in all senses to one of the Sun, is nevertheless by no means devoid of interest; it is either partial or totala, according to the extent to which our satellite is immersed in the Earth's shadow. In a total eclipse the Moon may be deprived of the Sun's light for 1h 50m, and reckoning from the first to the last contact of the penumbra, the phenomenon in its various stages may last 5h 30m, but this is the outside limit. The obscuration is found to last longer than calculation assigns to it. This is due to the fact that no account is taken in the calculations of the denser strata of the atmosphere through which the rays have to pass, which cause an obstructive effect analogous to that of the solid matter of the Earth. From numerous observations made during the eclipse of Dec. 26, 1833, Beer and Mädler found that the apparent breadth of the shadow was increased by on account of the terrestrial atmosphere. "Owing to the ecliptic limits of the Sun

a But never annular, because the diameter of the Earth's shadow, at the greatest possible distance of the Moon

from the Earth, is always in excess of the diameter of the lunar disc.