456 Astronomical and Nautical Collections, 



Kgyptian year 

 of Nabonassar. 



regular interval of about 365j days was observed in each of 

 these years by Hipparchus, about 



0-133.Oy toi^-127.0y. 



620, Phamenoth (VII) 1. (p. 60, 63. B. p. 163. H.) The equi- 

 nox was observed about sunset, that is IJd. later than the ob- 

 servation made 7 years before, in the 43d year of the period. 



^— 127.00y. 



620, (p. 167. B. vol. 2. p. 12, 13. H.) In the 50th year of the 

 third Calippic period, the lonir-itude of the Lion's heart, accord- 

 ing to Hipparchus, was 29° 50'. Ptolemy made it 2° 40' 

 more in the 2d year of Antonine. 



620, Epiphi (XI) 16. (p. 111. B.p. 295. H.) Hipparchus found 

 at the interval from the epoch of 619y 314*^ 17"^ 50™. appa- 

 rently, but accurately 45"*, the distance of the sun from the 

 moon 86^ 15'. ^-127y-M34.51''. 



621, Pharmuthi (VIII) 11. (p. 112. B. p. 299. H.) Hipparchus 

 relates, that he observed at Rhodes the true distance of the 

 sun and moon, 313° 42' very nearly, 620y 219^ 18^^ appa- 

 rently, but correctly 18^, after the epoch ^ — 126y+39.28^ 



621, Payni (X) 17. (p. 13 4. B. p. 304. H.) In the same year, 

 197 after the death of Alexander, Hipparchus observed in 

 Rhodes the moon's longitude 20° of ^, both apparently and 

 truly, for she had then no parallax in longitude : the time was 

 620y 286*^ 4^. apparently, but correctly 3|h. after the epoch. 



©-126y-l- 105.66*. 



719. The first year of Augustus, (p. 79. B. p. 204. H.) From 

 the 1 Augustus to the 17 Adrian, the interval is 161 Egyptian 

 years : from the epoch to the 17 Adrian 879 : this year was 

 therefore the 880th of Nabonassar, and the first of Augustus 

 the 719th. 



723. Hence the 5th of Augustus was the 723 of Nabonassar. It 

 was in this year, as we are informed by the fragment of the 

 emperor Heraclius, pubhshed in Dodwell's Dissertationes 

 Cyprianicae, 1684, (p. 111.) that the Greeks of Alexandria 

 adopted the JuHan system of intercalation : and " the number 

 of days added is found by dividing the number of years elapsed 

 from the 5th of Augustus, and neglecting the remainder." This 

 year began with the 28th, or rather the 29th of August, which 

 was the first of Thoth : and in the August of the year pre- 

 ceding each bissextile, the Alexandrians reckoned 6 Epago- 

 menae, instead of 5. In Halma's Ptolemy, vol. 3, p. 9. there 

 is a note of Logothetes, from a manuscript in the king's library 

 at Paris, which tells us that the tetraeterids of the Alexandrian 

 year are reckoned from the beginning of the 6th year of Augus- 



