On the So^ar Eclipse predicted by Thales. 36 1 



foisJ" All which may serve lo explain the remarkable ex- 

 pression of Herodotus, who savs, t/Jv y]i^spr}v J^aTr.vijj vvktoc 

 ysv£7'ia.i, " the day svddenij became night :" a passaire 

 which has been igntjrantiy censured by some of his com- 

 mentators. 



It appears to me, that an inattention to these sinonlar 

 facts lias been the principal cause of the various opinions 

 that have arisen respecting the time when this eclipse hap- 

 pened. For each chronologist, having a system of his own 

 to support, has satish'ed himself merely with ascertaining 

 that a solar eclipse did take place in the year that he had 

 assigned for it; and which eclipse he supposed might be 

 visible in that part of the world bordering on the two hos- 

 tile countries: but wiih(.ut taking into liis account the mncr- 

 iiitndn of the eclipse at the place where the battle is sup- 

 posed to have been fought. Now, siji'ce the territories of 

 the two belligerent powers were probably separated by the 

 river Halys (which was the case in the subsequent reign, 

 although we have no authentic information that it was so at 

 the period now under consideration), and as the battle was 

 probably fought on the confines of these two empires, I 

 think it will be evident from the preceding extracts, that 

 no solar eclipse could be the one mentioned by Herodotus, 

 unless It was central and Uital in some part of Asia Minor; 

 that is, the centre of the moon's shadow, in such total 

 eclipse, must have passed over that part of Asia Minor 

 where the contending armies were engacring. Consequently 

 the fact is capal)le of being veriiied or disproved by the pre- 

 sent state of our knowledjie in astronomy. 



M. Th. S. Bayer is the first who seems tp have fixed the 

 .-utemion of the public to this point, in a pai^er entitled 

 Chronolngica Scijikica. inserted in the Petersburg Memoirs 

 for the year 1723. He consulted his friend Fred. Chris. 

 Mayer on this subject, who has shown, from the astrono- 

 mical tables then in use, that neither the eclipse mentioned 

 by Pliny, Scaliger, Calvisius, Petavius, or Usher, could 

 possibly be the eclipse alluded lo by Herodotus. Ft)r, the 

 {iiSt two (he says) happened between the hours of sun-set 

 and sun-rise in Asia Minor. In the third, the centre of 

 the moon's shadow passed too near the equator, and in the 

 list iwo it passed too I'ar to the north of Asia Minor, for it 

 to cause any remarkable obscurity tlicrc. In order, how- 

 ever, to set the question at rest, he calculated all the solar 

 ('(.hpses that could j)ossibly be seen in Asia Minor from the 

 yrar 608 f!. C. to 55fi B. C; and he found that the one 

 v;hicb took place May lb, 603 B. C. was the only one that 



was 



