December j6, 1897] 



NA TURE 



153 



found that a first magnitude star can be seen at an 

 altitude of 3^ when the sun is 10" below the true horizon. 

 A second magnitude should require an altitude of 3° 30', 

 with the sun depressed 11°; whilst a third magnitude 

 star, of the use of which there are very few examples, 

 would require a depression of 13°. A general confirmation 

 of these elements may be drawn from Biot's " Recherches 

 sur I'Ann^e Vague des Egyptiens," in which he derives 

 from Ptolemy that in Egypt a solar depression of 11^ 

 was considered proper for the observation of heliacal 

 stars. This seems a very reasonable mean for the rules 

 of solar depression applying to stars of different mag- 

 nitudes as given above. 



Following these rules, I obtained orientation dates for 

 the temples I examined last year as below. 



agree in style with the dates assigned to them by the 

 theory. Mention is made by Diodorus of the temple of 

 Jupiter strongly confirmatory of the orientation date 

 430 B.C. At Segesta the date arrived at is too early by 

 about 100 years to agree with the character of the archi- 

 tecture. It may have been that the Segestans, who seem 

 always to have been a struggling community, may have 

 taken a very long time to have brought their temple to 

 the state of finish at which at last it arrived, for it appears 

 never to have been quite completed. 



3elinus offers the example of one temple — a temple 

 remarkable for the archaic character both of its masonry 

 and its sculpture — of which the orientation date antici- 

 pates the arrival of the Hellenic colony which occupied 

 the place in 628 B.C., but in the other examples in that 



Greece 



Calabria 



Sicily 



Athens ... 



Delphi ... 



Argos 

 Taranto ... 

 Metapontum 



Near Cotrone 

 Near Gerace 



Girgenti ... 



Segeste 

 Selinus 



South Italy.. 



Syracuse 



>> 



>> 

 Poestum 

 Pompeii 



A small temple near Jupiter Oljnuplus 



The ancient Asclepieium 



First foundation of Temple of Apollo 



Rebuilt so as to follow the star 



The ancient Herseum.. 



A Doric Temple 



Foundations of a temple near San Sansoni... 



Doric Temple ... ... , ... 



Temple of Juno Lacinia on Cape Colonna . . . 



Ionic Temple of the Locrians 



Ditto rebuilt on same site 



Temple of (attributed to) Juno Lacinia 



,, „ Hercules ... 



,, ,, Concord 



,, ,, Jupiter 



,, ,, Castor 

 Temple (perhaps) of Jupiter ,.. 

 The Archaic Temple called Temple C 

 Temple D (adjoining and following the star) 

 Temple A 

 Temple forming part of Duomo 



,, of Jupiter ... 



,, ,, Diana 



,, ,, Neptune 

 Doric Temple in triangular Forum ... 

 Temple of Isis 



September 23 

 Aprils 



March i 



October 24 . . . 

 November lO 

 December 21 

 March 6 

 March 28 ... 

 December 21 

 November 23 

 April I 

 March 20 ... 



April 14 

 September 13 

 Aprils 

 September 30 

 October 4 ... 

 March 5 

 September 20 

 October 3 ... 

 September 26 

 March 22 ... 

 November 12 

 June 19 



Spica setting 

 a Arietis rising 

 / )3 Lupi setting 



L ■>■> _ »> 

 Antares rising 



/8 Geminorum setting 



7 Pegasi rising 



a Arietis rising 



)3 Geminorum rising 



fl Tauri setting 



a Arietis rising 



Spica setting 



a Arietis rising 

 Spica setting 

 a Arietis rising 

 a Arietis setting 



»> >j 



7 Pegasi rising 

 Spica rising 

 a Arietis setting 

 Spica rising 

 Spica setting 

 Antares rising 

 )3 Geminorum rising 



For the sake of comparing the above with dates that 

 are archaeologically probable, and confining the inquiry 

 to the Greek colonies, we may observe : 



The Doric capital at Taranto is of an extremely 

 ponderous type, and may well be assigned to the seventh 

 century. A Lacedemonian colony under Phalanthus is 

 reported to have taken possession of Tarentum about 

 700 B.C. 



At Metapontum, at the temple near San Sansoni, 

 nothing but foundations remain ; the architectural 

 character of the other is quite in accordance with the 

 orientation date. The city was one of the most ancient 

 in South Italy. One column only remains of the temple 

 on Cape Colonna near Cotrone, and its character is that 

 of the fifth century. In the case of this celebrated temple 

 we clearly have the case of a rebuilding on the old lines. 



The foundations of the older temple of the Locrians 

 near Gerace were discovered under the substructions of 

 the later temple. Its orientation date, 610, is quite con- 

 sistent both with the early Ionic architecture which was 

 found, and that of the Hellenic colonisation, 683 B.C. 

 That of the later temple is also m accordance with the 

 architecture of the fifth century. Girgenti was occupied 

 by a Greek colony B.C. 582, but a city with so command- 

 ing a site had, no doubt, an earlier foundation ; and we 

 may feel confident that the temple of Juno Lacinia, 

 though the present structure is Hellenic, was founded by 

 the earlier inhabitants. The remains of the other temples 



NO. 1468, VOL. 57] 



city the orientation dates are quite consistent both with 

 the architecture and with Hellenic citizenship. Syracuse 

 was colonised in 734 B.C. The orientation date of the 

 "Duomo" temple is eighty years too early for agreement 

 with that epoch. The architecture is indeed very rude, 

 but perhaps some small variation in the elements of the 

 calculation should be made, which would bring it within 

 the Hellenic period. The dates of the other two temples 

 at Syracuse are extremely probable. The date, 535 B.C., 

 assigned to the Temple of Neptune at Poestum, appears 

 to be thoroughly suitable to its massive but advanced 

 style, and is confirmed by a passage in Herodotus, in 

 which, although he does not make any allusion to the 

 temple, yet speaks of a Posidonian architect of great 

 celebrity at that very date. The temple of Isis at Pompeii 

 is remarkable from there being evidence of a large window 

 having been formed in the temenos wall centrally placed 

 with regard to the eastern axis of the temple, doubtless 

 for the admission of the rising sun and its warning star. 

 The window had been filled up with brickwork at some 

 subsequent date. The last point touched upon in the paper 

 has reference to a group of ten temples of late founda- 

 tion, of most of which the dates are accurately known. 

 At first these temples seemed to be exceptions to the rules 

 which connect the orientation with heliacal stars, but by 

 allowing a few more degrees of solar depression than 

 what is absolutely necessary for distinct vision, they are 

 found to conform in all other respects. The explanation 



