GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSES. 7 



quitted Syracuse, and passing over into Africa, waged 

 for four years a successful war against the Carthaginian 

 forces. It is related by Diodorus Siculus that the voyage 

 to Africa occupied six days, and that on the second day 

 of the journey an eclipse occurred, during which the 

 darkness was so great that stars became visible in all 

 directions. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the 

 eclipse was a total one. But it has been found difficult 

 to reconcile this account with the calculated path of the 

 mtron's shadow during the only total eclipse which 

 corresponds with the historical and chronological 

 details of the event. Baily's calculation of the eclipse 

 threw the shadow about 200 miles from the most 

 southerly position which can possibly have been 

 attained by Agathocles on the second day of his journey 

 from Syracuse. The labours of Sir Or. Airy, founded on 

 improved tables of the lunar motions, have been more 

 successful ; and he has shown that the northern 

 limit of the zone of total shadow must have passed 

 some seventy or eighty miles south of Syracuse a 

 distance which might readily have been traversed by 

 Agathocles within the time named. 



It is related by Philostratus, in his Life of Apol- 

 lonius, that a singular phenomenon preceded and 

 announced the death of the Emperor Domitian. * A 

 certain crown, resembling the Iris, surrounded the 

 sun's disc and hid his light.' I cannot doubt that 

 reference is here made to a total eclipse of the sun, 

 and calculation shows that such an eclipse occurred in 

 the year ninety-five of the present era. 



