68 ADVANTAGES OF UNITING CLASSICAL WITH SCIENTIFIC 



signed as the true one; and whilehe proved thatw<?2 one of them 

 could have been central in any part of Asia Minor, three of 

 them, he found, (including that selected by M. Volney, in op- 

 position to all preceding chronologists,) were merely annular, 

 or presented the moon entirely upon the sun's disk, surround- 

 ed by its margin like a ring, in which case little diminution of 

 light ensues. He thus proved, from the most correct evidence 

 which the present state of astronomical science affords, that 

 not one of the eclipses mentioned by the authors alluded-to, 

 could possibly be that which is recorded in so singular a 

 manner by Herodotus. 



Mr. Baily however, being resolved not to leave the subject 

 in the same degree of doubt in which he found it, took the 

 pains to calculate all the solar eclipses that were likely to 

 have been visible in Asia Minor, from the year 650 B. c., to 

 580 B. c. ; but in this period of seventy years, he found only one 

 eclipse that was central in, or near, any part of that Peninsula. 

 This happened on September 30th, 610 B.C. It was central and 

 total to part of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Media : and the 

 path of the moon's umbra lay in the very track in which the 

 two hostile armies probably met. For it passed over the 

 very mouth of the Halys, just at the point at which Crcesus, 

 the immediate successor of Alyattes, crossed that river in 

 order to attack the Median Empire. 



This decision of the Astronomer, therefore, established for 

 the Historian, the date of 610 B.C. for the termination of the 

 war between Alyattes and Cyaxares. The application of the 

 entire subject to that which I have recited it to illustrate, is 

 obvious. The chronology of Herodotus required an astrono- 

 mical investigation for its establishment; and when that inves- 

 tigation was instituted by a man of science accurately versed in 

 the branch of astronomy concerned, a satisfactory result was 

 immediately obtained; while the failure of previous attempts, 

 shows that nothing but complete and solid scientific knowledge 

 can be effectual in such inquiries*. 



* Having given so full an account of the investigations recorded or con- 

 tained in Mr. Daily's paper, I must not omit to quote the last paragraph in it, 

 in which he mentions the effect upon his researches of the alteration in the 

 Lunar Tables, which the account given by Diodorus, of the eclipse in .310 B.C., 

 had led him to suggest, and which was subsequently introduced by the 

 French Astronomers, as mentioned in a former page of this memoir. It 

 will be perceived that the only ultimate effect of this alteration, with regard 

 to the eclipse of 610 B c., would be to indicate that the supposed site of the 

 battle must be changed. " Such an alteration," Mr. Baily observes, " as 

 is here suggested, would somewhat vary the position of the route of the 

 moon's umbra, in all the eclipses which have been the subject of this paper ; 

 but in none of them would it alter the conclusions which have been drawn 

 from them, except perhaps in the one (September 30th, 610 B.C.) which I 



