244 HEIDEL, 



nus, set up at Sparta, in the place called the Dial, one that showed 

 the solstices and equinoxes, and contrived a sun-dial to tell the hours. 

 And he first drew an outline of land and sea, and moreover con- 

 structed a (celestial) sphere." Critics have taken exception to cer- 

 tain details of this statement. While Suidas, Diogenes Laertius, and 

 Eusebius^^ agree in attributing the invention of the sun-dial to 

 Anaximander, the Greeks, according to Herodotus," learned the use 

 of the dial and the twelve-fold division of the day from the Baby- 

 lonians. In view of what we said above regarding the ancient reports 

 of inventions we may well concede that Anaximander did not invent, 

 but merely introduced the instrument. Perhaps even the mere intro- 

 duction was not due to him; for it is quite possible that dials had 

 been brought to Ionia either from Babylon or from Egypt before his 

 time. We have, however, no reason to doubt that Anaximander was 

 one of the earliest known Greeks to make a scientific use of the instru- 

 ment.^* The dial which, according to Favorinus, he set up at Sparta, 

 showed the equinoxes and solstices, and, according to Pliny, ^^ Anaxi- 

 mander discovered the obliquity of the zodiac, which, together with 

 the beginnings of the seasons as marked by the rising and setting of 

 certain constellations, could be, and at least in later times were 

 actually, marked on the dial, as connected with seasonal changes in 

 the position of the sun. Such observations are manifestly related to 

 astronomy, with which Anaximander is acknowledged to have greatly 

 concerned himself. The heliacal setting of the Pleiades, long before 

 observed, could with the aid of the dial be definitely dated with refer- 

 ence to the autumnal equinox.^^ But there is evidence that the 

 risings and settings of the sun at the solstices and equinoxes were in 

 early times used for geographical as well as for astronomical purposes. 

 It is significant that there is no certain reference to the height of the 

 sun at midday until the discovery was made in the time of Eratos- 

 thenes that the sun at the summer solstice was vertical over Syene.^^ 



12 F3 i_ 14^ 28. 13 Hdt. 2. 109. 



14 There are grounds for attributing the use of the gnomon to Thales; but 

 they are doubtful, and mav here be disregarded. 



15 V I. 15, 1. 16 73 1. 19^ 17 



17 Hdt. 2.25 is no evidence to the contrary. Eudoxus of Cnidus and (prob- 

 ably) Dicaearchus attempted to reckon latitudes, but the former at least 

 seems to have limited his observations to the star Canopus. The alleged 

 observations of Pytheas were questioned in antiquity and are even now in 

 dispute. Observations of the sun were probably made earlier than Eratos- 

 thenes, but must have been very uncertain, as the calculations of the circum- 

 ference of the earth and the determinations of latitude show. Even later 

 the positions of the sun at rising and setting were observed along with its 

 meridian height, as is proved by Strabo 2.5 (C 109) SvaeLs Kai d/^aroXds Kal 



