354 Fragments on Egyptian Literature, 



for the 3d December, 137; 17^30' p.m. Greenwich time, or 

 19^ 35' P.M. Saccara time, which must have been about the 

 time of day referred to in the MS. 



The coincidence is so close as to leave no room for doubt, that 

 Antoninus Pius was Emperor in December, 137; and as it is 

 well known that Adrian died on the 10th of July, having adopted 

 Antoninus on the 25th February preceding it, we must refer 

 these events to the year 137 ; not to 138, as is generally done 

 on the authority of Dion, nor yet to 139, with those chrono- 

 logers who follow Spartianus. For the earliest — and, as it 

 now indisputably appears, the correct — date, we have the single 

 authority of Ptolemy's canon ; and on the faith of that canon, 

 thus confirmed in a case where it was generally believed to 

 have been in error, I cannot hesitate to fix the death of Trajan 

 in 116, instead of 117. 



We further learn from this MS. that the 4th of December 

 was the 8th of a month of the fixed Alexandrian year. Some 

 doubt has existed as to the precise day when this year began, 

 but it is agreed that it was about the end of August. Each 

 month being of thirty days, the month which was called 

 ^' Adrian," and which, it appears, was the fourth in the year, 

 must have commenced on the 27th November ; and the year 

 bn the 29th August. The preponderance of evidence has 

 certainly been in favour of this day ; yet there are conflicting 

 authorities, so as to render this confirmation of the received 

 epoch by no means superfluous. 



E H . 



K h, 22d May, 1830. 





