510 ADDITIONS. 



Agathocles, the ruler of Sicily, and which is hence known as the 

 Eclipse of Agathocles. He determines it to have occurred b. c. 310. 



M. H. Martin, in Note xxxvii. to his Etudes sur le Timee, discusses 

 among other astronomical matters, the Eclipse of Thales. He does 

 not appear to render a very cordial belief to the historical fact of 

 Thales having delivered the prediction before the event. He says that 

 even if Thales did make such a prediction of an eclipse of the sun, as 

 he might do, by means of the Chaldean period of 18 years, or 223 

 lunations, he would have to take the chance of its being visible in 

 Greece, about which he could only guess : — that no author asserts that 

 Thales, or his successors Anaximander and Anaxagoras, ever tried their 

 luck in the same way again :■ — that " en revanche" we are told that 

 Anaximander predicted an earthquake, and Anaxagoras the fall of 

 aerolites, which are plainly fabulous stories, though as well attested as 

 the Eclipse of Thales. He adds that according to Aristotle, Thales 

 and Anaximenes were so far from having sound notions of cosmog- 

 raphy, that they did not even believe in the roundness of the earth. 



