•Astronomical and Nautical Collections, 453 



Efffptian year 

 of Nabonassar. 



or the moon's supposed age on the first of January ; and the 

 former remainder, increased by 1, will give the golden num- 

 ber. Thus in 1828, the golden number is 5, and the epact 14. 



But to return to the Pillar of Rosetta ; it is perfectly true, 

 that the agreement of the two dates would be more satisfactory, 

 according to the evidence of 504 and 502 N. if we supposed 

 the time 3 years earlier, as Mr. St. Martin has done. For at 

 those dates the Macedonian year began 158 days before the 

 vernal equinox; and if it had done the same in 552, as we 

 should expect, the date would have been the 8th of Xanthicus : 

 in 551, since an intercalation must have intervened, as in 519, 

 the date of the same Egyptian day would have been 19 days 

 later, or the 27th ; the year before, the 16th ; and in 549, pro- 

 bably about the 5th of Xanthicus, instead of the 4th. But this 

 analogy is by no means sufficient to make it probable, that the 

 real 6th year of Epiphanes should have been called the 9th : 

 and we may oppose to it the direct inference from the later 

 date of the year 519, in which the 5th of Xanthicus was 22 

 days before the vernal equinox, and according to the regular 

 observance of the octaeterid, this must probably have happened 

 again in the year 551 : and to the 5th of Xanthicus in 552 

 there must have been 354 + 29 = 383 days, or 18 days above 

 the solar year : which deducted from 22, leaves 4 days for the 

 date of the 5th of Xanthicus before the vernal equinox, or 5 

 days for that of the 4th : while the Egyptian date of Ptolemy 

 gives us 4^ : and no greater perfection can reasonably be de- 

 scried in such a coincidence : indeed we have only to suppose 

 the intercalary month to have contained 30 days, which is per- 

 fectly admissible, to have the 4th of Xanthicus, instead of the 

 5th, for the synonym of the 18th of Mechir. 



The knowledge, which we have thus acquired of the Mace- 

 donian calendar, will enable us to form a satisfactory estima- 

 tion at least, if not a certain demonstration of the date of the 

 death of Alexander, which was clearly in the Egyptian year 

 424 of Nabonassar, and which, as Plutarch informs us, on the 

 authority of the official journal of his illness, happened on the 

 28th of the month Daesius, which was the eighth month of the 

 year, and the day the 234th. Now, if the Macedonian year 

 began 158 days before the vernal equinox of 504, it probably 

 did the same in 424, and the former year beginning about 

 ^-243y- 158^ the latter must have begun about ^- 323y 

 — 1 58*^, and the day in question must have been about S — 323y 

 + 76^ : that is, in the common language of chronologers, about 

 the 9th of June, 324 B. C. This date agrees sufficiently well 

 with the season of the year assigned by an ancient author, 

 quoted by Mr. St. Martin, to the death of Diogenes, which is 

 supposed to have happened on the same day with th^t of Alex- 



