43§ TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



really belong? Secondly, in what localities and in what hours 

 of the day were they observed by ancient eye-witnesses? Further, 

 of what magnitudes were they according to classical reports? 

 Finally, respecting the presumed corrections of the secular accele- 

 rations of the moon, her Nodes and Apsides (p. 429), are they 

 approximately correct? In answering these questions, it is an 

 indispensable duty to cite the respective passages of the classics, 

 as has been done more explicitly in Seebode, Jahn & Klotz's 

 Archiv f. Philol., 184S, p. 586. We follow the chronological suc- 

 cession of the Roman Eclipses. 



1. Plutarch (Rom. c. 12) reports that about six months prior 

 to Romulus' s birth a total eclipse of the sun (6 Vjhoz ici/.:zs nav- 

 ts/>(oz) happened on the 19th day of November (Xotax TpcTjj xo.l 

 eixddi), during the. 3rd hour (zpirrjs wyac), 01. 2, 1. The same 

 total eclipse (rbv fjhov ixAiTis'tv oAov) is mentioned by Dionysius 

 Halicar. (ii. 56). Since Rome was founded in -752 on the Pa- 

 rilia, as we have seen (p. 407), whilst Romulus was " 19 years 

 of age," the eclipse under consideration belongs to Nov. 19th in 

 _ 77 1 * The Olympiads being in later times 'counted from -775, 

 the date Ol. 2, 1, likewise refers to -771. Moreover, about that 

 time only one eclipse was possible on Nov. 19, viz. that in -771, 

 45m. past noon. According to the present theory of the moon, 

 as Pingre's computation states, the conjunction took place in 

 — 771, Nov. 19th, oh. 45m. P. T. The U lay 14 E. of the sun. 

 and the obscuration of the sun was invisible south of the 27 N. 

 Lat. It is to be remembered that Plutarch relies on the report 

 of the famous astronomer Tarutius, and that the astronomers 

 commenced the day with noon ; therefore the said 3rd hour com- 

 menced at 3 o'clock p.m. According to our correction, the lon- 

 gitude of the 13 for _ 771 was shorter by about 7 17', and hence 

 the same eclipse was total, or nearly total, in Latium. The 

 correction of the longitude of the moon for the same epoch was 

 (p. 429-30) about _ 2° 30/, i.e. 4I1. 43m. Consequently, the 

 ancient reports agree sufficiently with the Table on p. 429-30. 

 Petavius referred to the eclipse in -771, June 24th, 10I1. 15m. 

 a.m., U 13 W. ; but June 24th never corresponded with Chceak 

 (November), and the obscuration of the sun reached only the 6o° 

 of northern latitude, and therefore it was invisible near Rome. 



