358 On the Solar Eclipse predicted ly Thales. 



sTfau(Txvfo, xa) [i.a,X\ov n scrrsva-xv xcu aa^oVs'.oi sIstjvyiV kujvro7(rj 

 ysvs(Toxi. — Herodotus, lib. i. ^ 74. 



The fact is here very clearly (and probably very justly) 

 related : but, unfortunately, there is nothing, either in the 

 statement itself or in the conticuous passajjes of the work, 

 that will enabls us to determine, with any degree of accu- 

 racy, the exact tiine wherein this singular phienomenon 

 took place. And this is the more to be regretted, because 

 the dates of several other events, recorded by the same his- 

 torian, might be more easily ascertained, if the £era of this 

 eclipse were correctly known; but which are now involved 

 in much obscurity. 



Deprived of all information from the body of the work 

 itself, chronologists have called in the aid of astronomy to 

 assist them in fixing the date of this remarkable appearance. 

 For it must be evident, that if we could ascertain, by this 

 iTiean, that in any solar ecltpse, which happened about that 

 period, the centre of the moon's shrulow passed over the 

 country bordering on the two contesting empires where the 

 battle was probably fought (for Herodotus has likewise 

 omitted to mention the place, where the action occurred), 

 we may reasonably and very fairly conclude, that that eclipse 

 only was the one alluded to by the historian. — In this at- 

 tempt, however, a great diversity of opinion has arisen; 

 the origin of which it may be useful and entertaining here 

 to trace. But, in order to render my subsequent rernarks 

 the more intelligible, I shall previously state the various 

 dates that have been assigned to this event by the several 

 authors above alluded to. 



Pliny places this eclipse in the fourth year of the forty- 

 eighth olympiad ; which answers to the year 585 B. C. 

 (Hist. N'al. lib. ii. cap. 12.) A siinilar opinion has been 

 advanced, among the ancients, by Cicero (De Divinat. lib. i. 

 §49), and prsbably bv Eudemus [Clement. Alex. Strom. 

 lib. i. p. 354). And, among the moderns, by Newton 

 {Clir'on.of Anc.King. amended) , K\cc\o\\{Chro?i. Refor.vol. i. 

 p. 22S), Desvignoles [Clironol. liv. iv. chap. 5, § 7, Sec), 

 and Crosses [Mem. de I' Acad, des Belles Lcttres, torn. xxi. 

 Mem. p. 33.) 



Scaliger, in two of his writings [Ahimad. ad Eiiseb. p. 89, 

 and in 'OAd/x. dvccypx^^ri), has adopted the opinion of Pliny; 

 but in another v^ ork [De Emen. Temp, in Can. hag. p. 321 ), 

 he fixes the date of this eclipse on the 1st of October, 583 

 B. C. 



Calvisius, who was contemporary with Sca'iger, thinks 

 that it took place in the year 607 B. C. [Opus Ckrnn.) 



Petavius 



