953 



Onlj' the fact, therefore, that after 5 series the same aspect in 

 each eclipse and the same character in the eclipse series returned 

 makes it comprehensible, how the periodicity could at last be dis- 

 covered. The omission of a number of eclipses, which were invisible 

 owing to daylight and cloudiness still made it difficult ; it wasonly 

 possible in the very favourable climate of Babylon. But when once the 

 regularity of the series was discovered, in the course of centuries, 

 when the successive eclipses were collected in lists, their periodical 

 recurrence after five series must be noticed at last. 



IV. 



That the saros really came into existence in this way, can be seen from 

 the construction of the above mentioned text. In the clearly legible 

 portion (on the right and left columns are broken off) in 6 columns 

 every time a number is found (which rises by one each 2 lines 

 downwards and evidently represents the year) side by side with the 

 name of a month fin our table on the next page indicated by Roman 

 figures I — XII). The months follow each other with intervals of 6, 

 except at the horizontal lines, where they follow each other with an 

 interval of 5 ; after the name under the horizontal line there is always 

 added "5 months". Sometimes the interval in other places seems to be 

 only 5, but then a second 12^'^ month has been inserted, and under 

 the year-number then stands "dir" (sometimes VI dir, when a 

 2'^*^ Ululu is introduced). 



The year numbers begin again every time with 1, accompanied 

 by the first syllable of a King's name ; from these names it appears 

 that the beginning of the table is year 31 of Artaxerxes II ( — 373), 

 which are followed by those of Ochus (Umasu), Arses, Darius, 

 Alexander, Philip, Antigonus, and Seleucus : the last years are 

 continued as Seleucidean era. Epping and Strassmaier, by com- 

 parison with Oppolzer's Canon, have established the fact that the 

 total eclipses always fall in the middle of the divisions separated 

 by horizontal lines. 



We here have, therefore, the same kind of list of eclipse moons 

 as we supposed above ; each column contains 5 series, some of 8, 

 some of 7 names of months, which together form a saros ; the 

 columns placed next to each other are 6 successive saros periods. 

 This text, therefore, is in the first place a proof that the Babylonians 



different from those in the examples we have taken. This is the reason why, as 



ScHiAPAEELLi noticed from Oppolzer's Canon, sometimes for several centuries 



in succession some series consist of only 4 eclipses, while after that for several 



centuries each series consists of 5 or 6 eclipses. 



