410 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



early spring during the archonship of Apseudes' predecessor, viz. 

 Pythodor I. (Thuc. ii. 2 ; Diod. xii. 36 ; Argum. Medeae ; Schol. 

 Av. 99S) ; accordingly, in January of the year — 429, and not, as 

 Petavius imagined, in — 430. This is confirmed by the nearly 

 total eclipse in — 429, Jan. 26, 2ih. (Thuc. ii. 28), observed dur- 

 ing the embarkation of the Athenians. The Peloponnesian war 

 it is well known, came to an end with the destruction of the 

 Piraeus on March 19th (Munichion 16th), as Plutarch's Lys., 

 Xenophon's Hell. ii. 4, 43, etc., witness, in the course of the 

 archonship of Pythodor II. ; and this year is confirmed by the 

 solar eclipse in — 401, Jan. 18. Accordingly, Pythodor II. must 

 have ruled from July in — 402 to July in — 401 (Xen. Hell. ii. 3, 

 1). Now, from the spring in — 429 (Pythodor I.) to the spring 

 in — 401 (Pythodor II.) really 28 years elapsed, and consequently 

 the Peloponnesian war lasted 28, and not 27 years, as Petavius 

 " post in 'gentem laborem" brought out : to-wit, the latter knew not 

 that the first chapters of Xenophon's Hellenica, containing the 

 history of an entire year, are lost; that Thucydides (v. 26) ex- 

 pressly testifies to the Peloponnesian war commencing with the 

 expedition against Sparta one year after the destruction of Poti- 

 daea by the Spartans, and finishing with the destruction of the 

 Piraeus, lasted "four times seven years" ; that, inclusive Endius 

 (Thuc. viii. 9), Xenophon (ii. 3, 10) specifies, for the same pe- 

 riod, 29 annual Ephori of the Spartans ; that the Parian Marble, 

 as every historian knows, counts, for the same time, 2S, and not 27 

 archons. I do not understand how Petavius arrived at the conclu- 

 sion that "the good Xenophon erred" {bonus Xenophon erravit). 



The same Calendar, moreover, serves to fix many other epochs 

 of Greek history, as follows: Herodotus (vi. 106, 120) reports 

 that the battle at Marathon was fought on the 6th day of Boedro- 

 mion, that is, according to our Calendar, on August 6th, namelv, 

 " three days after the full of the moon." During a period of 19 

 years, it occurs only once that 3 days prior to August 6th a full 

 moon takes place, which was the case in — 488. The astrono- 

 mical full moon happened on July 31st, the civil of the Greeks 

 (p. 408) two days later, because the crescent had become visible 

 first two days after the real conjunction of the moon with the sun. 

 Subsequent to this full moon the Spartans marched out, namely, 

 on August 3rd, and they arrived on the battle-field " after three 



