GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSES. 5 



twenty-five feet thick and 100 feet high ; its circum- 

 ference two parasangs ; it was built of burnt brick, on 

 a foundation of stone twenty feet high. When the 

 Persians conquered the Medes, the Persian king 

 besieged this city, but was unable to capture it till a 

 cloud hid the sun wholly from view, when the inha- 

 bitants withdrew in great fear, and the city was 

 captured.' Xenophon mentions that the Greeks, after 

 passing Larissa, reached another deserted city called 

 Mespila. Layard has identified Larissa with the 

 modern Nimroud, where there still exist the very ruins 

 described by Xenophon ; Mespila he identifies with 

 the modern Mosul. Of course it is impossible to doubt 

 that a total eclipse of the sun, and not the mere con- 

 cealment of the sun under a cloud, was the cause of 

 the city's capture. Sir G. Airy has shown that this 

 interesting event occurred on May 19, 556 B.C. 



Another eclipse has been examined by Sir G. Airy 

 which had given great trouble to historians. This is 

 the eclipse which took place when Xerxes was advanc- 

 ing with his army from Sardis to Abydos. Herodotus 

 relates that just as the army was setting forth the sun 

 suddenly disappeared from its place in the heavens, 

 though there were no clouds, and the sky was perfectly 

 clear ; ' thus,' says he, * the day was turned into night.' 

 Sir George Airy, however, refers this description to the 

 total eclipse of the moon, which took place on March 13, 

 478 B.C. No total eclipse of the sun appears to be 

 reconcilable with the account of Herodotus, and there- 

 fore it seems reasonable to infer that there is an error 



