170 KOMAN HISTORY: 



curious evidence from astronomy to show the time and place 

 of his disembarkation in Britain evidence which may well 

 excite the wonder of those who know not how physical 

 science triumphs in its proofs, even upon the most obscure 

 historical questions ; and how deeply chronology is indebted 

 to eclipses and the recorded places of stars for some of its 

 happiest discoveries. Our scientific readers are well aware 

 of the method which Halley applied to this particular calcula- 

 tion ; indicating the beach at Walmer or Deal as the place 

 of landing of the Koman legions, and not Hythe, as others 

 from an expression of Dion Cassius had supposed.* From 

 his castle at Walmer the illustrious Warden of the Cinque 

 Ports looked down upon the spot where Caesar probably 

 first trod the soil of England : himself equal to Ca3sar in 

 military fame and success ; superior to the Roman, as to all 

 other commanders, in those loftier virtues of a citizen which 

 have secured to him the lasting gratitude of his country. 



We must, however, hurry forward to those remaining 

 events in the life of Julius Caesar, occupying only a few 

 years ; but years of marvellous activity and success ; which 

 brought him to the very steps of the throne he was not 



* The single statement of a full moon occurring on the fourth night after 

 Caesar's arrival off the cliffs of Dover gives basis to the calculation. His 

 passage across the Channel was made early in the morning of the 26th of 

 August. That retrospective reckoning, which is one of the prime powers and 

 wonders of astronomy, enabled Halley to determine that there were two full 

 moons in August, 58 B.C. ; and the narrative shows the last of these, at midnight 

 on the 30th, to be the one recorded. The course of proof then turns to the tides. 

 On the 26th the tide must have begun to flow at Dover at 2 P.M., running north- 

 ward round the South Foreland. The fleet left its moorings off Dover on this 

 tide, and the length of course Caesar describes would very exactly suffice, under 

 ordinary circumstances, to bring them to the flat beach of Walmer or Deal. 

 M. Saulcy, in a work just published (1862), also contends for Deal as the land- 

 ing place. But on the other hand the present Astronomer-Eoyal a high 

 authority in all ways considers that the coast about Pevensey answers better 

 to the indications which the narrative affords us (Archseologia, vol. xxxiv.); 

 while Mr. Lewin, in a recent work, argues with ability that the place of dis- 

 embarkation must have been in the vicinity of Romney. 



