1853.] OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 249 
and Erzerum; and stated that, according to the best information 
that he could obtain, (in which he had been materially assisted 
by W. J. Hamilton, Esq. and M. Pierre Tchihacheff) the following 
were the principal roads through them. On the north coast there 
is one, of which the difficulties were well known from the retreat 
of the ten thousand Greeks. From Erzerum there are two roads 
towards Siwah (Sebaste) and Kaisarieh (the Cappadocian Ceesarea), 
rugged, and passing through barren countries. There is one road 
from Kaisarieh falling on a branch of the Euphrates, which flows 
by Malatieh (Melitene) ; a rugged road parallel to it from Guroun ; 
and finally, the road which is the best of all, descending from the 
southern mountains into the plain of Tarsus and Adana, then skirting 
the sea by Issus to Antioch. The Lecturer stated that on examining 
history he found no instance of an easterly or westerly march through 
the northern mountains: he had found one march of an army (under 
the Byzantine emperor Heraclius) from Trebizond to the south, which 
army however returned by Issus: one march by Melitene, where 
the last great battle of Chosroes Nushirvan with the Byzantine 
armies was fought: but, from the time of the younger Cyrus and 
Alexander, the marches by Issus are very numerous. Some of 
these lines of march are evidently very much curved out of their 
straight direction in order to take advantage of the pass of Issus: 
thus Alexander marched thither from Angora (Ancyra): Valerian 
entered by Issus to attack Sapor: Sapor, when in Armenia, and 
on his way to attack Czsarea, marched by Issus: Julian in return 
invaded Persia by the same road. From these circumstances it 
appeared most probable that the Medes entered by Issus to attack 
the Lydians, and that the battle-field would probably be included 
in the polygon whose angles are Issus, Melitene, Ancyra, Sardes, 
and Iconium. 
The Lecturer then shewed what would be the track of the shadow 
in the eclipse of B. C. 585, May 28, either on the supposition 
that the place of the Moon’s node was that given by the Green- 
wich observations, or on the supposition that the motion of the 
node was so corrected as to make the shadow in the eclipse of 
Agathocles pass centrally over the assumed southern position of 
Agathocles, or over the assumed northern position of Agathocles. 
The uncorrected Greenwich track, and the track over Asia Minor 
corresponding to a central eclipse on the southern position of Aga- 
thocles, though not inadmissible, are too far south to be accepted 
as probable; but the track over Asia Minor, corresponding to 
the elements which give a central or nearly central eclipse for the 
northern position of Agathocles (near the strait of Messina), would 
certainly pass over any probable position of the battle-field. 
The conclusion as to the general fitness of the eclipse of B. C. 
585 for representing the circumstances of the eclipse of Thales, 
by inference from modern elements of calculation, was first published 
by Mr, Hind in the Athenzeum. 
