SEYFFARTH ON THE THEORY OF THE MOON S MOTIONS. 415 



By means of these Calendars many epochs of the Old and New 

 Testaments, of the Books of the Maccabees, and even of Roman 

 history, are determined. For instance, the Talmud (Tract Thaan. 

 fol. 29, 1) bears witness that Titus "destroyed the temple on the 

 9th day of Ab, on a Saturday"; consequently on July 28th, "just 

 after a new class of the priests had entered the temple," that is, 

 on July 27th at sunset. This day being only a.d. 71 a Saturday, 

 it is evident that Jerusalem was taken in 71, and not in 70 a.d. ; 

 accordingly, that Vespasian reigned one year later than Petavius 

 brought out: for Jerusalem was, notoriously, destroyed in the 2d 

 year of Vespasian. Further, Josephus (B. J. v. 9, 4 ; Ant. xiv. 

 4, 3 & 16, 4) and other authors report that during Cicero's consu- 

 late (01. 179, 1) Pompeius captured the temple of Jerusalem on 

 a "Saturday" and "on the 10th day of Tishri," i.e. Sept. nth, 

 which was only in — 61 a Saturday. Consequently Cicero ruled 

 one year later than Petavius imagined ; • and Ol. 179, 1, com- 

 menced in June — 61, and not two years earlier. Remember that 

 the Hebrew day commenced on the preceding Julian day with 

 sunset. 



4.. Transits of Venus, the so-called self combustions of Phoe- 

 nix. — The ancient traditions concerning that famous myth will be 

 found collected in the "Zeitschrift d. Deut. Morgenl. Ges.," 1S49, 

 p. 63, of which the summary is as follows: — The ancients distin- 

 guished two Phoenixes, depicted in many copies of the sacred rec- 

 ords of the ancient Egyptians, and accompanied with their respec- 

 tive names, Bennoh and Choli. The latter name agrees with the 

 Hebrew name Choi (Job 29: iS),the Coptic "Alloe, Phoenix"; the 

 former (Bennoh*) is obviously the Coptic Bene (Jer. viii. 7), the 

 Latin Venu(s), ancient Beuu(s), probably related with the Coptic 

 Wein — splendere, pulchrum esse. Hence Hermapion translates 

 the image of the Phoenix on the Flaminian Obelisk by qoivi/.toe, 

 i.e. pulcher, venusius. Accordingly Bennoh signified Venus, but 

 Choli was the planet Mercury, called the "wrong Phoenix"; and 

 their combustions mean their transits before or behind the sun's 

 disk. Venus, it is well known, crosses the solar disk in case the 

 distance of her nodes from the sun amounts to less than i° 49' ; 

 otherwise Venus transits south or north from the borders of the 

 sun. The ancients, however, being destitute of telescopes, it was 



