370 On the Solar Eclipse predicted ly Thafes. 



not be confounderl with the present Tunis) was two thousand 

 stadia, or two hundred and twenty-nine Cnghsh miles, di- 

 stant from Carthage. Agaihocles, iherLl'ore, probably 

 landed near the Syrtis Minor, or Gulf of Cabes, about three 

 hundred miles in a direct course from Syracuse: whence 

 •we may reasonably conclude that he performed one-sixth 

 of his passage, or aljout fifty miles, in the space of one day; 

 which, I am aware, is not so much as the mean rate that 

 has been attributed to the ships of the ancients (see Hero- 

 dotus, lib. 4, § 86). Syracuse lies in N. lat. 37° 3' and E. 

 long. 15° I'l'; and, consequently, on the day after the 

 sailing of Agathocles from that port (being the day--on 

 •which the eclipse took place), the fleet would be in about 

 N. lat. Sfii": at all events, it could not (from the direction 

 of its course) be much further south than this point ; which 

 is all that is required in the present instance; and a few 

 miles, either way, not being of any material consequence. 

 It follows therefore, that in the meridian of Syracuse, the 

 northern pan of the moon's umbra ought to extend as ii\r 

 north as that parallel of latitude. But, from the calculations 

 above adduced, it will be found that the centre of the. 

 moon's shadow, on that meridian, had only reached the 

 parallel of about N. lat. 32^": and as the semi-diameter of 

 the umbra was not more than forty-seven and a quarter 

 Enoljsh statute miles, or about two-thirds of a degree, the 

 eclipse could not there be total to the northward of N. lat. 

 33-'°. Now, since the place where Agathocles landed in 

 Africa was probably not situated below the parallel of N. 

 lat. 34*^, it is evident that he did not, in any part of his 

 course (and much less at the cojnmencement of it), come 

 within a considerable distance of the moon's umbra. 



1 n)uch doubt whether, according to our present com- 

 putation, this eclipse was total evQn at Tripoli: and, al- 

 ihout'h it was unquestionably of consideraljle magnitude, 

 both there and as far north as Syracuse itself, yet (for the 

 reasons already given in this paper) I do not think that, at 

 any intermediate place between these two citif^s, it could be 

 so 'iveat as to produce that degree of obscurity, which is 

 recorded by Diodorus and confirmed by Justin. In order 

 that the phcenomenon should accord with the fact, as re- 

 laie.d by theic historians, the centre of the moon's shadow 

 ouaht to pass over, or very near to, Malta : that is, the la- 

 titude of the moon ought to be, at least, three degrees greater 

 than our present tables make it. 



Since the latitude of the moo'n depc«ds on her true di- 

 stance from th« node, these observations (if correct) will 



shov/ 



